Chapter 17

"You are willing?" Inez took a double take. She didn t honestly believe that Scarlet would take this risk for her. No matter how good their relationship was, if she helped her run away, things could become messy for her.

Scarlet was a passionate shifter who had her own codes on which she functioned. She also lived a quirky yet quiet life and Inez didn t want to mess it up for her.

Her sister rolled her eyes at her and threw the cotton ball that was now a glaring shade of red. "Of course, I am willing, and yes, I know the risks of helping you," she added when she saw Inez open her mouth to say something, most probably to warn her of the things that could happen after she helped her escape.

But Scarlet was willing to take that chance because Inez living a life like that of a punching bag was not acceptable to her. Since she was a child, she had been out of tune with the rest of the female shifters. She didn t do frilly dresses and hooking up with high-ranking shifter males, which often made her mother wonder if she had carried the wrong child back.

It was Inez who gave her the confidence and told her that she could do whatever she wanted because it was her own life. And not once had Inez subtly delivered a backhanded comment to her with the attitude of Oh, I am doing it for your own good.

"You know better than anyone that living here will only break you even further. Those men, I don t know what s wrong with them but they will not stop Nessie. I told you this three years ago and I will tell this again to you, I would rather have you live somewhere far from here than see you broken and dead in a casket."

Scarlet stared at her with anger and concern vibrating from her. She stated, "I know the risks and I don t give a flying fuck about them because you matter more. If getting whipped one or two times gives me the fucking relief that my sister is out of there, somewhere, and is freaking alive and living her own life then I will take it."

Her words brought a relief that Inez didn t even know she could feel. She closed her eyes and leaned against Scarlet, who didn t even need her to say anything. She embraced Inez and said to her, "You have done more than enough for me, Nessie. If not for you and Cian, I might not be even here. So, let me protect you this time around."

Inez didn t argue with that. Even her wolf conceded with Scarlet. They needed to get out of this pack because that was what they needed desperately. Staying here, watching Dominic hug and kiss Eve, was something that neither Inez nor her wolf could forgive or accept.

And working for Eve and letting her take credit for their hard work was even more impossible. noveldrama

The two sisters planned for the entire night before they finally came up with a plan. Scarlet was in charge of driving Inez s truck to her friend s garage in the name of leaving it for service after the stunt that Luca pulled on it, while Inez was responsible for going on with her day as usual.

She would go to the meeting and then hand in the minutes of the meeting to Eve while submitting her resignation to Dominic. As for whether or not he would approve of it, Inez didn t care because she was ready to run away in the night.

With Scarlet calling a few of her friends to take them to the party, Inez was going to head over to the club and then slip away in the middle of the night. Though it was dangerous, Inez felt her wolf s delight and relief at getting away from this pack.

Even if there was a danger of turning rogue, her wolf would rather accept that than stay in the pack. She needed distance and peace to work with her pain.

If only Inez knew what was coming for her, she would not have waited another day to escape.

The next morning, Inez got up from the bed like usual and headed to the bathing room, where she dressed up for the meeting while ignoring the many injuries. She didn t even bother to hide them at this point because there were simply too many of them.

"Make sure you do a good job," She heard her mother say.

"I always do a good job and you know that," Inez deadpanned as she walked over to the dining table and picked up some avocado toasts with poached eggs and a smoothie.

Taking a seat next to Scarlet, she started on her toast when she heard Ricky say, "I heard Luca say that you haven t renewed the contract yet."

He was eyeing her carefully as if trying to see what was going on in her mind. Too bad for him that she was wearing sunglasses to hide her swollen eyes.

Unless he could read her mind, Ricky would never know what she and Scarlet had planned.

"I haven t," Inez replied as she brought the toast to her mouth and took a bite.

"Then when are you going to do it?" Ricky asked persistently.

"Come on, Rick," Scarlet rolled her eyes as she pulled the bacon and mashed potatoes towards her. She gorged the bacon down and stated, "You have been doing an excellent job in avoiding your sisters and acting like we simply don t exist. So don t ruin it by poking that overly large, hooked nose of yours in our business."

"Scar, you "

"Scarlet, be nice to your brother," Maria snapped at her second daughter with an eyeroll. She then turned to look at Inez and stated, "Ricky is just worried that if Inez doesn t renew the contract, then our family will be in trouble like in the past. But I know Inez will not do anything to let us down, isn t that right, sweetie?"