Without stopping, he simply tilted his head toward one of the warriors, silently ordering him to drag Ashley's mother outside and follow.
Ashley herself was barely able to remain standing.
The pain coursing through her body felt as if her bones and muscles had been beaten and crushed. Every step felt unbearable.
But Nathan showed no intention of helping her.
Instead, she felt he roughly grabbed her by the arm and dragged her outside.
Moments later, Ashley was shoved harshly into the back of Nathan's car, her unconscious mother thrown in beside her.
The pain was so overwhelming that Ashley couldn't even cry out.
Cold sweat soaked her body, her vision blurred and doubled, and darkness began creeping in at the edges of her sight.
She was on the verge of losing consciousness.
The last thing she remembered was Nathan sitting in the driver's seat, his face wearing a cold, unreadable expression.
That look alone made her heart feel colder than the bottom of a frozen lake.
When she finally opened her eyes again, she found herself in a place that felt both unfamiliar and strangely familiar.
How could it be both?
The decorations of the room, the arrangement of the furniture, even the faint scent lingering in the air, all of it was familiar to her. Yet the atmosphere felt different… colder, emptier, as if she had been placed there without the slightest care.
Slowly, realization dawned on her.
She was inside one of the rooms in Nathan's packhouse.
Or rather—
This was her room.
Nathan himself had prepared it for her long ago so that whenever she visited his pack, she would always have a place of her own. No one else was allowed to use it. This room had always been reserved for her and her alone.
In the past, the space would often be filled with Nathan's woody scent. He would frequently come here to stay with her, and his presence would linger long after he left.
But now…
Aside from her own scent, the room carried nothing of him.
Not even the faintest trace of that familiar woody fragrance.
It was as if Nathan hadn't stepped into this room for a very long time.
And that realization made her understand something else as well—
She must have been unconscious for quite a while.
Ashley slowly propped herself up on the soft bed and looked around the room.
A sharp throb pulsed through her head, and the rest of her body felt weak and sore, as though every muscle had been drained of strength. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious.
Her thoughts were still hazy, her mind drifting as she tried to recall the last thing she saw before everything went dark.
And when the memory surfaced, her heart grew colder.
She remembered Nathan.
He had been on a call at the time. Although she couldn't hear what he was saying, his expression had been gentle, almost soft, as he spoke to whoever was on the other end.
But the moment his gaze shifted to her…
The warmth in his face vanished.
His eyes had been filled with a coldness she had never seen before.
Part of her wanted to believe that everything had only been a nightmare.
Her family banishing her.
Being thrown out of the pack.
All of it.
She desperately wished it had only been a cruel dream she had yet to wake from.
But the dull pain lingering in her body told her otherwise.
And even more than that—
The absence of the pack bond confirmed it.
She could no longer feel any connection to the Black Mountain Pack.
The link that had always been there since birth, the quiet sense of belonging that tied her to her family and her pack… was gone.
She had truly been banished by her own family.
The very people she had grown up with, loved, and trusted for eighteen years hadn't even given her a chance to understand what was happening. No time to process it.
They had simply cast her out like she was nothing more than a rag to be thrown away.
And yet… a foolish part of her heart still tried to defend them.
'Maybe they were hurting too.'
'Maybe they had their reasons.'
'Maybe—'
The conflicting thoughts twisted inside her, pulling her emotions in opposite directions until she felt herself spiraling deeper into confusion and pain.
Creak…
Her spiraling thoughts were abruptly interrupted when the door creaked open. An omega stepped inside, only to freeze in place upon seeing that she was already awake.
"Ah… um… you're awake?" the omega said awkwardly.
Ashley immediately noticed that the omega was avoiding her gaze.
That small action alone told her everything she needed to know. Whatever had happened during the coming-of-age ceremony, and the revelation that she was a fake Alpha's daughter had already spread for everyone to hear.
She was no longer the beloved girl everyone adored.
The realization made her heart constrict painfully.
In the past, the omegas would always greet her with bright smiles and barely contained excitement whenever she visited. They treated her with respect, sometimes even a bit of awe.
But now…
There was no giddiness. No warmth.
Not even basic courtesy.
The difference in treatment was like night and day.
Ashley couldn't stop the ache spreading through her chest. She had only just turned eighteen. Until recently, she had been cherished and protected by everyone around her. Being suddenly cast aside like this was something she wasn't prepared for.
She couldn't control the pain in her heart.
The only thing she could control now was how she reacted.
So she forced a faint smile and gave a small nod to the omega.
The omega seemed to have only come to bring a change of clothes and tidy up the room. She moved about quietly, cleaning here and there without even acknowledging Ashley's presence, as though she were invisible.
No matter how gentle Ashley's temperament was, she still couldn't stop the humiliation from creeping into her chest.
Even an omega could ignore her now. And that realization hurt far more than she expected.
'Right… I'm no better than them. I was originally an omega too…' Ashley let out a bitter, silent laugh at herself.
For a moment, she had almost forgotten.
She had only been an omega who had been placed into a life of luxury for eighteen years, only to be returned to where she supposedly belonged.
No wonder the omegas around her no longer showed her any respect.
After all, in their eyes, she was nothing more than a cuckoo that had occupied someone else's nest all this time.
A thief.
Someone who had stolen a life that had never been meant for her.
And now… she was no different from them.
No, perhaps she was even worse.
At least they still had a pack to belong to. A place that would shelter them and work that allowed them to survive.
But her?
She had been banished.
She had nothing.