Chapter 28

Zara

I ran, breath burning in my chest with every breath. I didn't dare look back. Every guard in assigned to the Alpha house was after me. It sounded like every guard in the whole pack, but I knew better. Lucian would never pull guards off perimeter duty just to chase me.

I needed a plan. I needed someplace to hide. I couldn't run forever, and I didn't have much of a head start on Lucian. He'd chase me down himself.

I'd always felt isolated as the only pack member who couldn't shift to wolf. Still, I'd never really longed to be able to take my wolf's physical form as much as I did right at that moment. If I had four legs I could run much, much faster. As I was I knew I stood no real chance of escape.

I decided to try to hide. I jumped into a shallow creek, doubled back upstream, and jumped out on the same side. I ran a little down stream, and repeated the process. Hopefully that would break my scent trail for a minute.

I could not outrun a pack of werewolves. I knew that. But I could confuse them. I just needed time.

I took to the trees. Wolves didn't look up when they hunted. So long as I was still and quiet, they might miss me. That was my only hope.

A pair of guards ran by under my branch. I held my breath. They were in wolf form, and they sniffed along the edge of the creek. One whined and the other huffed and shook his head. They splashed across the creek and took off into the underbrush, howling all the way.

My trick worked, but I hadn't bought much time. I took the risk to jump across the trail to another branch, and then another, before dropping back to the forest floor. The more I obscured my path the longer I'd last.

I had a goal in mind. If I reached my little cabin, I could hide for a while. It had been abandoned since Lucian and Kieran took over. Hopefully no one would think to look there, and if they caught my scent there they'd think it was a remnant from when I lived there. And it was at the edge of our territory, so once the pack gave up, I could slip away and make my way to the human territories.

I used the creek and the trees to break my trail, but eventually I had to break away into the deeper forest. I climbed a rocky trail, at one point pressing myself against a rock face while a guard searched only a few feet away. I was sure he'd catch me, but something snapped a twig in the distance and he ran to investigate. I scrambled up the rock and pressed myself against the moss growing on top. I'd leave a clear scent impression if anyone bothered to check, but hopefully I'd be gone by the time they did.

I needed to stop, to breathe, to rest. I was not as fragile as Kieran and Lucian thought, but I was out of condition from over a week of enforced bed rest and minimal training.

I didn't dare take a break. I could hear more and more wolves howling as they joined the search. If they thought to hunt silently, I would never have been able to evade them. But I'd been training for years, playing “hunt and catch” and racing with the guards. I knew how they worked, how they thought. It gave me just enough of an edge.

Hiding, climbing, ducking and weaving, doubling back and zig-zagging through the woods, I finally reached my tiny cabin. It was overgrown and dark. No one had been by to refill the little power generator or tend the tiny vegetable garden. It was the picture of neglect.

It was beautiful.

I ignored the locked front door, and slipped through the kitchen window. The latch never quite caught right, so it was the work of seconds to pry it open. I slid onto the dusty counter and ducked, so that I wouldn't be visible from outside.

Finally, I let myself breathe. It would be hours, maybe days, before anyone thought to search the cabin. Most of the pack didn't even know the place existed. They didn't care where I went after Adrian's rejection and my attempt to leave the pack.

I sat on the cool tile of my kitchen floor and sagged back against the cabinet. What was I going to do? I had to prove my innocence, but I had no idea how.

And while Lucian had been lenient about the poison the first time he saw it, no way would he let it go now that he thought I'd actually tried to use it. My earlier punishments at the Alphas' hands would be nothing compared to what he'd come up with after this.

My only chance was to lay low and wait until the searchers gave up. Then, I'd make a mad dash for the border. I was still part of the pack, but my father's order not to leave had faded with his death and Kieran and Lucian hadn't renewed it. I could, possibly, get away. In the human lands the draw of the pack on my wolf would weaken. I hoped.

I waited until darkness fell, and then began to comb through the various cabinets and closets of my little house. I hadn't been given the chance to pack anything, the new Alphas just moved me into the Alpha House with no concern for the fact that I might have things I'd want to keep in my own home. And even when they relaxed their rules, they still never let me go back.

I found a backpack under my bed, and stuffed what essentials I could find into it by touch. I didn't dare try to turn on the lights. They probably wouldn't turn on, but if they did it'd be a beacon leading right to me. I did find a flashlight which I shoved into the bag without bothering to test it. I added some canned food that shouldn't be expired yet, and my first aid kit.

I added some of my clothes, and my favorite book. I went back to the kitchen and rifled the junk drawer for the tiny bundle of human money I'd managed to earn over the years and stashed away just in case.

The door creaked open behind me. I turned, to see Lucian silhouetted against the faint moonlight outside.

“Going somewhere, little killer?” he drawled, leaning against the door.

I backed away. There was only one door and the only open window was small. It would take me too many precious seconds to squeeze through it.

“Don't think about jumping through another window,” Lucian said. “The guards have surrounded this place. You will not escape again.”

I glanced out my bedroom window, and caught the gleam of wolf eyes. He was telling the truth. My shoulders slumped.

“I didn't do it,” I said. I knew he wouldn't believe me, but the truth was all I had left.

“Then why did you run?” he asked.

I could not answer that. My reasons for running would get me in just as much trouble as what I was accused of. Maybe more. Hiding that I was their fated mate was probably worse than trying to kill them in his eyes.

“Please,” I whispered, “Just let me go. Banish me, and you'll never have to see me again.”

“Hm.” Lucian hummed like he was actually considering it. Then he dashed my hopes by shaking his head. “No. I think I'd rather find out what you're really up to. And I will find out.”

He stalked across the room and used one finger to tilt my chin up. “We have so much to discuss, you and I.”