"MAT-"
2248 Words
They were here.
The auction wasn’t supposed to be until nightfall, so why… why now?
My heart dropped. My breath caught in my throat like a scream that refused to escape. I thought it was over the moment the door slammed open. I was sure Ryker would be standing there, with his cold, dead eyes, or maybe Damian, with his smug, cruel smirk. Or worse, the guards. Ready to drag me by the hair and take Ivy from my arms.
But it wasn’t any of them.
It was a maid.
Just a maid.
And yet, the hatred etched on her face was no less terrifying. No less violent.
She looked at me like I was filth she regretted stepping on.
Without a word, she tossed clothes at me. They smacked against my face, but it wasn’t the sting of fabric that hurt. It was her voice which was like poison seeping under my skin.
“Dress the wrenched mutt. Make her look presentable for the auction… before the Alpha decides to take her naked.”
I didn’t flinch from her slap of words, but I shattered inside. Quietly. Invisibly.
The door slammed shut again. I waited. One second. Two.
And then I exhaled the breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding. My fingers were trembling. My knees wanted to give out beneath me.
But I didn’t have time to break.
We didn’t have time.
Less than half an hour. That’s all I had. And hope was a dying flame, but I clung to it like a woman drowning.
“Ivy…” I whispered, my voice cracking as I turned to her. Her little eyes, too big for her small face which blinked up at me with nothing but trust.
Gods, I didn’t deserve it.
Still, I dressed her as fast as I could, ignoring the pain in my bones, the burn in my chest. My ribs screamed, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop.
We didn’t have another chance.
The ventilator was our only escape.
Ivy whimpered as I hoisted her up, and I kissed her forehead, praying she wouldn’t make a sound, praying her tiny heartbeat would be enough to keep mine going.
I didn’t know what waited on the other side.
Patrols. Rogues. Warriors.
Death.
But I’d still take that risk because outside, there was still a hope. There was still a maybe.
Maybe someone out there would see a frightened cub and take pity on her.
Maybe someone would help her, even if they let me die in the dirt like a dog.
“We’re leaving, Ivy…” I breathed, tightening my grip around her small body. “For your freedom…”
My voice broke. So did I.
Tears slid down my cheeks as I turned my gaze to the room one last time. These walls had been my prison. My hell.
And now… I was going to break it.
Even if it killed me.
I pushed Ivy through the vent, crawled after her. We hit the ground with a thud.
The air outside was cold and sharper than I remembered, and it sliced through my skin like knives. Ivy whimpered in my arms, but I clamped a hand over her mouth as we rolled into the thicket of dying bushes.
Stay quiet. Just stay quiet.
My lungs burned. My ribs screamed. But I didn’t dare make a sound, not with the pounding of boots just a few feet away.
Voices.
Footsteps.
Flashlights cut across the clearing like cruel stars.
Why were the patrols so active today? What was happening? Did they already know I escaped?
No not possible!
I pressed Ivy closer, felt her tiny heartbeat slamming against my chest, both of us trembling like leaves in a storm. I could see them; their shadows moving, snouts sniffing the air. They were too close. Way too close.
A guard’s boot crunched the leaves just a foot from our heads.
I held my breath. So did Ivy.
Please don’t look down. Please don’t look down.
“Did you hear that?”
A rustle.
I clutched Ivy tighter. The silence between my heartbeats felt like an explosion when suddenly there was a loud roar that stopped him dead in his track.
It was Ryker’s roar!
He found out!
“You i***t, get back here! Alpha is calling us! He assigned us to check North of the house immediately!!”
They turned.
Boots faded.
I didn't wait. I couldn't.
I scooped Ivy up, blood dripping from my palms. We ran.
Past the line of roses that I once dreamed about planting. Past the stones where they'd beaten me for speaking out of turn. Past the home that had never been one.
My legs were jelly. My vision blurred.
But the forest… the forest meant freedom.
Even if it also meant death.
I ducked behind a fallen tree and dropped to my knees, Ivy beside me. My voice was a whisper so low, it barely reached her ears.
“You need to shift, baby. I know it hurts, but you have to.”
Her little eyes widened with terror.
“Ivy, please,” I begged. “We won’t make it without speed. They’ll catch us. They’ll… they’ll kill us.”
She nodded. Brave. Braver than me.
I held her close as her tiny body began to convulse.
The first crack of her bones nearly made me vomit.
She bit down on her own wrist to silence the scream, tears pouring down her face, her body shivering, convulsing.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, stroking her sweat-matted hair. “You’re doing so good, baby, so good…”
Then it happened. A flash of light. Silver fur. Thin limbs. Too small. Too fragile.
But alive.
I pressed a kiss to her furry head and let the grief pour from my eyes.
An abomination, they’d called us; the bearers of silver wolf.
A miracle, I whispered back.
Then I turned to the woods.
“Kora,” I said inside myself, “I’m sorry. I need you. I’m leaving everything to you.”
A heartbeat passed.
And she rose.
My bones shattered, reformed, until I was no longer a girl but a ghost of one. Skin turned to fur, torn and dirty. Ribs visible through the pelt. A skeleton wrapped in willpower.
“Leave it to me!” Kora whispered back to me inside my head.
We ran.
Through branches and mud. Through thorns that ripped at our flesh. Through the howling wind and snapping twigs.
Each stomp of my paw was a prayer.
Moon Goddess, please…
Just this stretch. Just this piece of cursed land.
Let us live.
Let Ivy live.
My lungs were on fire. My vision spun. The world tipped sideways.
“Just a little more…”
We crossed a ridge. I could see the treeline; the one they said marked the end of pack lands.
We were almost there.
We were—
SNAP!
Agony.
Something tore through my snout, flipped me into the dirt. Ivy tumbled beside me, yelping.
Pain.
No, no, no, no—
My body shook. I tried to rise. I couldn’t.
A snare.
A f*****g rope snare buried in the mud.
Trapped.
Ivy whimpered, dragging herself beside me, her tail tucked. Her eyes were wide, already glazed with panic.
Then came the growls.
From every direction.
Deep. Angry. Hungry.
I lifted my head, slowly… too slowly.
They were here.
Patrols. Dozens. Surrounding us with glowing eyes and snarling jaws.
No escape.
Not this time.
I tucked Ivy beside me and rose up. My legs barely held me, trembling like twigs in a storm. My father once taught me a few defense moves, back when I still believed in birthdays and bedtime stories.
“Just in case,” he’d said with haunted eyes. Because women born as abomination like me didn’t get safety. We got hunted.
And now, here I was.
Outnumbered.
Half-dead.
I was never meant to fight.
But I didn’t want to give up either.
I didn’t want to give up when the thought of freedom just touched my soul, igniting the will to live – to see a life where this cruelty doesn’t exist and everyday is not a torture.
“I could never give up… not now!” I howled, voice tearing through my throat like broken glass as they lunged.
I backed down swiftly, teeth gritted, and hissed to Ivy, “Bite me.”
Her small wolf fangs dug into my flesh and I dragged her, rolling us across the dirt, dodging the sharp snap of jaws that missed us by inches. The ground sliced into my skin, but I couldn’t stop.
Before I could get back on my feet, they were on me again—so fast.
They were after all ‘Warriors’. They weren’t hungry or broken or half-dead like me.
They lunged.
I threw Ivy away and took the hit.
Fangs sank into my shoulder and white-hot pain exploded in my body. But I twisted, rolled, ripped myself free from their teeth with a scream caught in my throat. Flesh tore like wet paper, but I moved. I had to move.
The ground spun beneath my paws, blood soaked my fur, and still, they came. Again. Again.
They were trained killers.
And I was just a cursed, wretched thing.
A ghost of a wolf.
A howl tore from my throat as I dove for Ivy, grabbed her scruff with my teeth, and ran.
I didn’t think.
Didn’t feel.
Didn’t breathe.
I just ran.
My legs were barely holding on.
Each step felt like a betrayal; my bones splintering, muscles tearing, blood slick beneath my paws.
But something inside me, not Kora, something unknown yet familiar, something feral, something burning power clawed its way out of the pit of my soul to my veins.
Like the raw, starving howl of a dying star.
I pushed harder.
Faster.
Blinded by speed and pain and blood.
“Please…”
The word tore through my chest, silent and broken.
“Please... please... please...”
It wasn’t a prayer.
It wasn’t even hope.
It was the desperation of survival, clinging to the edge of a cliff with bleeding fingers.
My blood painted the earth behind me like a dying confession.
I could feel it leaving me; hot, thick, vital; spilling in rivers as I ran.
Piece by piece, I was disappearing.
And still… I ran.
I knew I wouldn’t make it far.
Not like this.
But that wasn’t the part that shattered me.
It was the truth; so sharp, so harsh, it made my heart scream inside my chest.
I didn’t want to die.
Not like this. Not now.
‘Not when I finally wanted to live.’
“I want to live,” I whispered inside, the words breaking, collapsing into a howl so guttural, it didn’t sound human. Didn’t sound wolf.
It sounded like grief itself.
A scream ripped from my soul, so high, so raw, it scraped the heavens.
‘Someone—’
‘Please—’
‘Save me… I want to live…’
But the universe was quiet.
The stars didn’t move.
No one came.
The edges of my vision flickered, black creeping in like smoke.
One dot.
Then two.
Then three.
Then everything.
My breath became shallow, tight, like my lungs had caved in. My grip on Ivy loosened. Her cries became warped, muffled, like she was underwater and I was slipping beneath the surface, sinking into silence.
I was slipping.
Fast.
I must have crossed the border.
Maybe she’d live now.
Maybe someone would find her.
Maybe she’d survive.
A cursed pup in a world that doesn’t love the broken.
Just like me.
But gods…
I wanted to see her grow.
I wanted to brush her hair, watch her laugh, see the day she smiled without fear.
I wanted to live long enough to hear her call me ‘Mama.’
But abominations like me…
We don’t get happy endings.
We don’t even get mercy.
We don’t get to wish.
We don’t get to dream.
But still, I did - at the end of my life.
Tears spilled from my eyes, blurring the world into a smear of agony and failure. My lungs collapsed inward like broken wings. The ache in my chest wasn’t just physical—it was grief. It was surrender.
‘Someone… please… I just want to…’
I didn’t even know what I was pleading for.
To be saved?
To be seen?
To not die like this?
My vision dimmed until only shadows remained. The silence in my ears began to ring.
And as I let go—
As I offered my last breath to the wind like a final prayer—
It hit me.
A scent.
Not just any scent—the scent. The most intoxicating, soul-binding scent I’d ever known—stronger and powerful than the first time I’d caught it. Like safety, like warmth, like everything I’d never had.
It was divine.
The kind of scent you breathe in once… and crave for eternity.
My lungs spasmed, greedy for one more inhale.
Then—
Crack.
My body crashed into something solid—unyielding, massive—
But it smelled like salvation.
For one suspended heartbeat, I felt… weightless. My pain was still there, but distant.
And just before the darkness dragged me under—
A growl.
Low. Deep. Lethal.
Yet to me… it was music.
A dying lullaby that whispered, “MA—”
And then—
Everything slipped away.
- Writer
