Chapter 214

Ava

I paced my cell, my bare feet cold against the stone floor. My mind raced, trying to make sense of it all. Surely, Winston wouldn’t actually sentence us to death. It seemed impossible that a modern-day Alpha, no matter how old-fashioned, would resort to such extreme measures.

But the cold fury in his eyes when he had given the order... I shuddered, wrapping my arms around myself.

“He won’t do it,” I said to Chris, who I could hear pacing his cell on the other side of the hallway. “He won’t go that far.”

Chris snorted in response. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Ava.”

I shook my head. “He won’t,” I repeated. “He won’t.”

But as the hours ticked by, what little hope I had began to fade. Winston never came to negotiate, never came to go back on his word or even try to hear my side of the story. Goddess, I was a fool.

“I’m sorry, Chris,” I choked out. “This is all my fault.”

There was a brief silence before he replied, “It’s not. You didn’t know. He’s irrational, that’s all.”

Irrational, I thought to myself. But he’s just a man. A man who lost his wife and owns a human invention. Surely…

As the evening turned into night, my thoughts turned to Chris. If this truly was to be our last night, I wished more than anything that we could spend it together. I closed my eyes, leaning against the cold wall, and let myself imagine the future we had dreamed of for those few moments in the corridor.

I could almost see it if I closed my eyes—a house filled with laughter, little girls with Chris’s green eyes and my curly hair running through the cottage. Chris chasing after them, their tiny giggles as he caught them and whirled them through the air. Family dinners, bedtime stories, first days of school... all the moments we might never get to experience.

Despite the dire circumstances, a small smile crept onto my face as I drifted off to sleep, clinging to that beautiful dream.

I was jolted awake by someone shaking my shoulder. My eyes flew open, my heart racing, to find the maid from earlier standing over me. Her face was pale, her eyes darting nervously to the cell door, which stood open behind her.

“Quickly,” she whispered. “We don’t have much time.”

I sat up, blinking in confusion. “What’s going on?”

The maid wrung her hands, her voice hardly more than a whisper. “I’m so sorry for everything. Winston... he’s not acting like himself lately. But I can help you escape.”

Hope surged through me, but caution held me back. “Why are you helping us?”

She sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Because this isn’t right. You weren’t doing anything wrong.” She paused, glancing over her shoulder, then lowered her face even further. “Listen… If you return home, Winston likely won’t come after you. He hasn’t left this mountaintop in years.”

I swallowed hard, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. “I wasn’t going to kidnap her. I wasn’t.”

The maid’s eyes softened. “I know. I tried explaining that to Alpha Winston, but he’s not listening to reason. He’s acting... irrationally.”

She glanced over her shoulder again before continuing. “There’s a hidden passageway out of the castle. I can get you there, but we have to hurry.”

My heart pounded as I followed her out of the cell. I didn’t know where Chris was, but I had hope that he would meet up with us soon. We crept through the dimly lit corridors, every shadow making me jump. Finally, we reached a section of wall that looked no different from any other. The maid pressed a specific stone, and a section of the wall swung inward, revealing a dark tunnel.

“This way,” she whispered, grabbing a torch from the wall.

As we entered the tunnel, I saw a tall, familiar figure waiting for us. My heart leapt as I recognized Chris. Without a word, we fell into each other’s arms, holding on tightly.

“I thought I’d lost you,” I murmured into his chest.

He pulled back, cupping my face in his hands. “Never.”

The maid cleared her throat softly. “We need to keep moving.”

We hurried down the tunnel, the flickering torchlight casting eerie shadows on the rough stone walls. The air grew colder as we descended, and I shivered in my thin dress. I had been in such a hurry that I hadn’t even put my shoes back on, and I wasn’t sure how my bare feet would handle the frigid cold that surely waited for us outside.

Finally, we reached a heavy wooden door. The maid pushed it open, revealing the night sky beyond. A blast of frigid, snowy air hit us, making me gasp. It was just as I expected—below freezing at this hour of the night.

“This is as far as I can take you,” the maid said. “Hurry. I’ll try to hold off Winston and the guards as long as I can.”

“Thank you,” I said, grasping her hand. “For everything.”

She nodded, and there was a sad smile on her face. “Go. And good luck.”

Chris and I stepped out into the night. The cold was brutal, seeping through my thin clothing in seconds. Chris looked at me, his expression grim.

“We need to shift,” he said. “We’ll move faster and stay warmer in our wolf forms.”

He moved forward to begin the transformation. But I hesitated, fear gripping me too tightly to do much of anything. “Chris, I... I don’t know if I can.”

His eyes softened. “You can do this, Ava. I know you can. Just focus.”

Nodding, I closed my eyes and tried desperately to connect with my wolf. I could feel her there, at the edges of my consciousness, always there but weaker than when I was younger. If I could only draw her out, borrow her strength…

But before I could even begin to feel the shift, a piercing alarm cut through the night air. Shouts and howls echoed from the castle. Our absence had been discovered.

“They’ve discovered we’re gone,” Chris said, grabbing my hand. “We have to run. Now.”

We took off into the woods, my bare feet scraping against the cold, rough ground. Branches whipped at our faces as we ran, the sounds of pursuit growing closer, and a terrified whimper escaped my lips. In the distance, I could hear the barking and howling of wolves, the sounds of their footfalls thundering through the silent terrain.

“Ava, you have to shift!” Chris yelled as we ran. “We can’t outrun them like this!”

I tried to focus, to will my body to change. But fear and panic clouded my mind, making it impossible to concentrate. The howls were getting closer. I could hear heavy paws pounding the earth behind us, closer and closer by the moment. We weren’t going to make it.

“Ava, please!” Chris’s voice was desperate. “I know you can do this. Remember who you are. You’re strong. You’re a Luna—the True Luna. You can do this!”

His words cut through my panic. I closed my eyes, still running, and reached deep inside myself. I felt for that primal part of me, the wolf that had always been there, waiting.

And suddenly, I felt it. A surge of energy, of wild freedom. My body began to change, bones shifting, muscles stretching. For a moment, there was pain—and then release.

I opened my eyes to a world that had been transformed. Everything was sharper, clearer. Intense scents filled my nose, the cold earth stinging my nostrils. I looked down to see paws where my hands had been, midnight blue fur rippling in the moonlight.

Beside me, Chris’s white wolf form gleamed. His eyes met mine, and he gave me the smallest nod.

Without a moment’s hesitation, we turned and ran deeper into the forest, our four legs carrying us swiftly away from danger.