Chapter 54
Faith’s Pov
The cool night air bit at my exposed skin as I followed Elias. We moved like shadows through the
dense woods, the only sounds our soft footfalls and the rustling leaves. Each step away from the
Pack territory felt like a physical severing, a piece of my old life flaking off into the darkness behind me. My heart still hammered, a frantic drumbeat against my ribs, but now it was fueled by
anticipation, not just fear.
Elias was fast, lean and focused. He kept his eyes ahead, scanning the place, listening for any sign
of trouble. He didn’t bother to look back often, trusting that I, a Luna, would keep up. That trust,
however misplaced, was my greatest advantage. He thought I was running with him. He didn’t
know I was running from him, too.
The air shifted, subtle but undeniable. A different scent, a change in the subtle hum of the forest.
We had crossed the border. We were no longer on Astor’s land. This was it. This was the moment.
Elias slowed slightly, his shoulders relaxing just a fraction. He turned his head, scanning the shadows. “Almost there,” he muttered, his voice a low rasp. He thought the most dangerous part
was over.
Now.
I didn’t think. I just acted. My backpack, heavy with changes of clothes and Astor’s money, became a tool. I swung it forward, not at Elias, but towards a thick, overgrown bush to his left, letting it hit
the branches with a muffled thwack.
Elias flinched, his head snapping towards the sound, his senses on high alert. That split second of distraction, that flicker of confusion in his eyes, was all I needed. I ran hard right, away from the direction we were meant to go. I sprinted. Harder than I ever had in my life, ignoring the burning in my lungs, the ache in my legs.
“Luna” Elias’s voice, sharp and surprised, cut through the night. He had realized and he was now he
was giving chase.
I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. Every ounce of my focus was on putting distance between us. I plunged deeper into the woods, knowing I couldn’t outrun a Beta in a straightforward chase. He was trained for this. I wasn’t. But I was desperate. I twisted, turned, dove under low branches, using every obstacle the forest offered. I heard him crashing behind me, closer than I wanted, but not close enough.
Then, a faint, distant sound broke through the trees – the rumble of a road. Civilization. My
1/3
Chapter 54
escape.
+25 Points
I pushed harder, bursting through the last line of trees and stumbling onto the paved shoulder of a small, dark highway. No streetlights, no houses, just the ribbon of asphalt stretching into the darkness. I could still hear Elias, his frustrated snarls fading slightly. He wouldn’t follow me onto the road in wolf form, not with the risk of being seen. He wouldn’t risk exposing himself.
I ran along the shoulder, my boots pounding on the gravel, until I saw the distant glow of lights. A gas station, maybe a diner. Hope, raw and bright, surged through me.
It took me another twenty minutes of running, my body screaming with protest, to reach a small,
rundown truck stop.
I headed straight for the women’s bathroom, locking the door behind me. I splashed cold water on my face, scrubbing at the dirt and sweat. My reflection stared back, wide–eyed and wild.
I quickly changed into the clean, simple clothes from my backpack jeans, a plain t–shirt, a dark hoodie. I tied my hair back, securing it tightly. I pulled out the wad of cash, my heart clenching with a fresh wave of guilt, but I pushed it down. Payment. This was my freedom.
I found a phone booth outside – a relic, but functional. I needed to get far, far away. The farthest place I could think of. A place where a wolf from a quiet, forested pack would never be found. I bought a prepaid phone inside the truck stop, then looked up flights.
A flight to New York City. The idea was absurd, terrifying, and perfect. A concrete jungle, millions of people, a place where a single wolf would be utterly lost in the crowd. A place as far from Astor and our pack’s dense forests as possible. I bought a ticket for the next available flight, which surprisingly, was in just a few hours from a regional airport not too far away.
A taxi ride later, I was at a small, sleepy airport. It felt strange, like another world.
The plane itself was small, packed with humans. I looked out the window as we ascended. The world below shrank, houses becoming dots, roads thin lines. I felt a strange lightness, a sense of detachment. With every mile, every cloud we passed, the distance between me and my old life grew. Astor, the Pack House, the expectations, the pain – it all became smaller, more distant.
When we landed in New York, the sudden rush of noise and lights was overwhelming. Taxis honked, people shouted, buildings scraped the sky. It was nothing like I had ever imagined. It was chaos, and it was beautiful. Here, I was nobody. Just another face in a sea of millions.
I found a cheap motel near the airport for the night, the kind with thin walls and a buzzing neon
sign. I ate a stale sandwich and watched the anonymous human faces stream by outside my
window. No one knew who I was. No one cared.
2/3
< Chapter 54
+25 Points
The next morning, I stepped out into the bustling city. The air hummed with energy. I bought a second–hand coat, hid my hair under a baseball cap, and started walking. I found a small coffee shop and sat for a long time, just watching. People walked by, lost in their own lives, none of them sensing the wolf hiding inside me. None of them looking for a missing Luna.
I was free. The guilt of leaving Astor, of still gnawed at me, a dull ache beneath the surface. But it was overshadowed by a fierce, soaring relief. I was in a place where no one would ever expect to find me. I was just Faith, a human girl, lost in the big city. And for the first time in three years.
I left the man that I love more than anything anybody in the world but I felt like I could breathe. I could finally begin to find out who Faith really was, away from the shadow of any Alpha, any pack, any expectations. This was my new life, anonymous and terrifyingly, wonderfully, mine.
cphakathi28
