CHAPTER 65: 65-THE BETRAYAL OF MY BESTFRIEND

Clementine:

Three Years Ago:

"What did you say? Is it again to your father?" Glinda asked me, trying to tear her eyes away from my father. They were sitting peacefully at a dinner table with so much food in front of them that it broke my heart to think how much of it would go to waste.

My stepsister sat to the side, holding a fruit bowl in her hand. She would hardly ever eat anything, because I guess she was afraid of gaining a few ponds. That was pretty scary, but I wouldn’t even mention it. I was not allowed to show concern.

"I want to leave the pack," I said, straightening my back. I was not allowed to sit and eat with them, so I had only come to have a conversation with my father. And for that, I even had to ask my stepmother for permission.

"Did you hear her, William?" my stepmother asked my father, because he was too busy munching on the steak, holding it with both hands instead of using a fork and knife. My father only made a noise from his mouth. He probably did not even hear me.

"Did you not listen to your daughter?" She held his hand to shake him, and all the sauce spread across his mouth. He lifted his head, and then she let go of him.

"I told you, you are in charge of her life. You get to make decisions for her," my father said, reminding me how easy it was for him to toss my responsibility into the hands of the woman he knew was misusing her power against him.

"Well, since you are insisting," she smiled, because she had just gotten my father to say what she wanted me to hear.

"No, Clementine. You just turned fifteen. You are not leaving the pack. There is no such thing as a rogue. Do you not know that?" she asked me, using her eyes to support her words. She would move around so much, dance with her shoulders, use hand gestures or roll her eyes. I hated the sight of her.

"But why not? Not everybody has to go to the North," I mentioned, and my father stopped eating. He raised his head and passed me a deadly glare.

"Honey, you see what happens when I make a decision for her?" She turned to my father again, who grabbed the steak full of sauce and suddenly hit me with it. The bone part remained in his hand, and the steak started sliding off my face. Some of the sauce even went into my eye, so I started rubbing my eyes clean while hissing in pain.

"Now, in case you didn’t understand what your father meant, he means fuck off," Glinda said, smirking. Leysa raised her head and smiled, clearly taunting me. That’s when I realized there was no escaping the packs anymore. The officials and royals had grown so corrupt that they were taking teenagers from their homes to turn them into crusaders. Most would end up dying, especially the omegas. They were never trained, and I couldn’t understand what anyone was thinking, sending them to the North.

Defeated, I returned to my room and wiped my face with a wet cloth. Sitting on my mattress, I checked my phone and saw a message from my best friend.

Troy: I need you to come meet me behind the cinema.

During this miserable time in my life, Troy was the only person I truly relied on. We’d been friends so long, I’d never made space for anyone else. I didn’t need to, he was enough.

Me: Sure, thank you so much. I was just dying at home.

I sent the text, got up from the bed, and pulled on my oversized hoodie. I adjusted the hat over my head and slipped out the window. I could run fast. but climbing was always my weakness. Every time I went up somewhere, the moment I realized how high I was, panic would kick in.

It was sweet of Troy to always travel from his pack to mine just to meet me, and I admired him deeply for it. Even though we went to the same school near the border of our pack, we would still make time to meet later in the day. Sometimes, Troy would even stay at a hotel or crash at a friend’s place just so we could see each other again.

But something felt different that night. Normally, when he asked me to meet him somewhere, he would stay on a video call with me until I arrived at the location. But that night, he wasn’t responding. He wasn’t answering my calls. Every time I messaged him or tried to talk, all he would say was, "Am I there yet?"

I arrived at the old gas station behind the cinema. It was destroyed and abandoned, but we had covered the walls in graffiti and little messages to make it feel like ours. We used to meet here all the time. It had always been our place. But like I said, it wasn’t the same that night.

When I pulled up, I noticed a few other cars already there. Since other friend groups came by sometimes, I didn’t think much of it. I walked toward Troy’s car, which I could recognize from a distance, and watched him step out. The way he did it felt off. No smile, no greeting, no hug, just his hands stuffed in his pockets and his eyes locked straight on mine.

"What is it?" I asked, thrown off by how cold he seemed.

"Don’t you have something to explain to me?" he said.

I nodded instantly. I was relieved that he had asked for time before, and now that he was finally ready, so was I.

"Oh yeah, you know what happened—" I started, but he cut me off before I could finish.

That’s when the cars began to move, slowly forming a circle around us. Doors opened. People stepped out with flashlights pointed straight at my face, blinding me from seeing anything clearly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the fucking Clementine Stark," Troy hissed, and my entire body went numb.