Chapter 4

My fingers trembled violently. I bent down to reach for the pills that hadn't touched the dirt yet.

But a stiletto heel stomped down first, crushing the pills into powder.

The yellow dust mixed with the dirt, completely useless now.

"Pick them up! Why did you stop?" Ivy laughed hysterically. "Is it too dirty? How about you lick it off the floor, and I’ll buy you ten new bottles. Deal?"

I snapped my head up to look at her, my eyes bloodshot.

Derek’s face was dark as thunder. He threw a heavy punch, knocking down the warrior guarding Ivy.

The other Pack warriors jumped in, pinning Ivy’s minions to the ground.

Derek rushed over to me. He took off his suit jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders, blocking me from the prying eyes of the crowd. He spoke in a whisper, terrified of triggering my panic:

"Miss Whitmore, it’s okay. I will get the exact same medicine from the Silver Moon Clinic immediately. Don't be scared. I'm here."

I leaned against his arm, shivering. My tears soaked into his jacket, leaving damp circles.

I thought this nightmare was finally over.

But Ivy, seeing her people pinned down, didn’t look scared at all. Instead, she laughed even wilder. The pure malice in her eyes made my blood run cold.

"You're quite a fighter, aren't you, Derek?"

"You think you can protect her? Let me tell you, even if God Himself came down today, he would still beg me on his knees!"

Derek’s voice turned murderous: "Ivy Linwood, you are begging for death. Alpha Victor will destroy you!"

"Destroy me?" Ivy laughed. She swiped her screen and thrust the phone right in front of my face. "Let’s see who destroys whom!"

I looked at her screen.

In an instant, my blood turned to ice.

The screen showed an abandoned warehouse with damp concrete floors and no windows.

My grandma was lying on a rusted cot in the middle of the room. An IV needle was taped to her thin, frail hand. The IV bag hung from a rusty pole, swaying in the wind. I could see the blood backflowing into the tube.

Two burly men with full-sleeve tattoos stood nearby, smoking and playing mobile games.

The camera zoomed in on Grandma’s face.

She seemed to hear something. She opened her cloudy eyes, struggling to turn her head. She opened her dry mouth, her voice raspy:

"Sage... Sage, where are you? I’m so cold..."

My brain went completely blank.

She was my only family in this world.

I had no parents. My grandma had raised me by collecting recyclables.

After her stroke last year, I worked myself to the bone to put her in the best care facility in the city. I spent most of my salary on a one-on-one nurse just to make sure she was comfortable and could stay with me a few years longer.

And Ivy had dragged her out of that warm facility and thrown her into a freezing dump.

"Look at her, so pathetic," Ivy’s voice crawled over me like a venomous snake.

"I paid off the facility's night nurse. Nobody knows where your grandmother is. Only I do."

"Now, get down on your knees and beg me. Give me ten hard head-bows on the floor, then take this box cutter and slash your own face. Only then will I consider releasing her."

"Otherwise, I’ll call my men right now and tell them to pull her plug. If she dies, don't blame me."

I shook like a leaf, my heart aching as if it were being torn out and crushed.

Tears poured down my face, drowned out by Ivy's triumphant laughter.