Page 45 of Into the Dawn

"Did you really think I wouldn't notice you snatch those keys, Vanessa? Nothing happens here that I don't see."

I tense, ready to bolt for the woods while calculating our chances, until the door to Vanessa's childhood home creaks open. The sound cuts through the tension like a knife as her mother steps out with a gun in her hands, her eyes blazing.

Years of submission visibly fall away as she stands tall, finally taking action.

"Let them pass," she commands, her voice cold.

"Or what?" Jed sneers, but he’s not quite as cocky when her aim shifts slightly, and she fires at the ground near his feet, making him flinch. The gunshot echoes across the compound, and every shifter stops moving, waiting to see what their matriarch will do next.

"Try me." She growls. "Let them go. You listened to me once. You better start again."

Jed snarls but steps aside, albeit reluctantly, his beast recognizing when he’s beaten. For now, anyway.

We make it to the car, but as I help Vanessa and John inside, I hear Jed's hissed threat.

"I'll kill you for this. I'll find you and fucking kill you."

Before I can even react, headlights blaze through the compound. Trucks screech to a halt, spraying gravel around us, when familiar faces: Jack, Henry, Evan, and others from town, all pile out, shifting as they go.

The cavalry has arrived.

Jed rushes his mother, grabbing for the gun, but she's clearly skilled with it when she clips him in the shoulder, sending him sprawling in the dirt where Henry quickly cuffs him then leaves him there, ranting and raving.

Relief floods me. We're not alone anymore. This ends now.

The clan's reign of terror over this mountain is finally coming to an end, and a new day is dawning.

I pull Vanessa closer, breathing in her scent, knowing that whatever comes next, we'll face it together.

24

VANESSA

The fight is a blur.

I'm still struggling to focus on anything other than the stench of blood and the bodies littering the ground as Evan, Ben, and a few other Sutton shifters I recognise but don't know, start to fight with the biggest supporters of my father.

The metallic tang of blood mingles with woodsmoke and sweat, creating a nauseating cocktail that makes my head spin. My insides burn, and my stomach aches as my beast stirs restlessly beneath my skin, equally traumatised by the night's events.

It quickly becomes evident that the clan is fighting a losing battle, and when the rest of them turn and flee instead of fighting by their sides, I look away.

Years of toxic leadership crumbles in minutes, the clan’s loyalty purely based on fear.

Ben rushes back to me, barely paying attention to what's going on. I'm lifted and carried to a truck, allowing myself to go limp in his arms. His familiar scent wraps around me,comforting, helping to ground me in reality and ease the sickly feeling rising inside me.

Wrapped in a blanket, I’m driven away from the compound at speed over the bumpy, neglected road. Finally, I feel my muscles relax, and my brain, previously frozen in terror, start to work again.

My mother stands on the porch as we leave, not waving goodbye or trying to come with me. She remains there, unsmiling, but with a steely, determined look on her face. She takes a deep inhale and tips her head back, hands out to the side, like it's the first time she's been able to breathe in years, before turning to go back in the house.

The weight of decades of submission seems to lift from her shoulders as she disappears inside.

I hope I'll be able to come back and talk to her, and that she'll come and see me, but god only knows how this is going to pan out. Maybe I'll never see this place again. That wouldn't be the worst thing after what’s happened tonight.

But as I stare at the tiny cabins along the road with twitching windows of residents who've been too afraid to speak up against my father for so long, I have to admit, there are good people here. However scared and misguided, they aren't all beyond redemption.

Maybe there's something somebody can do for them… It's just not going to be me.

"John," I say quietly, clinging to Ben. The mate bond pulses between us, stronger now that we're back together. "Is John okay?"

---