She looked nineteen.
Terrified.
Exhausted.
Brokenhearted.
Alive.
Henry tried to speak.
“I’m…”
His voice cracked.
Samantha shook her head.
“Don’t.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
“I couldn’t…”
“I know.”
He stared at her.
“You know?”
Samantha nodded.
Then she whispered the first full, coherent sentence anyone had heard from her since her escape.
“We’re safe now.”
Henry’s fingers tightened around hers.
“The pack is no more.”
Martha heard those words from the hallway.
She covered her mouth and began crying.
Inside the room, Henry shut his eyes.
His shoulders shook.
Samantha rested her forehead against his hand.
For weeks, Garrett Stone had taught them that names were meaningless.
Family was meaningless.
Civilization was weakness.
Love was leverage.
But there in that hospital room, Samantha reclaimed the first truth Stone had tried to destroy.
Henry was her father.
She was his daughter.
And neither belonged to Garrett Stone anymore.
