Into the snow
1145 Words
*Chapter 2: Into the Snow* The snow swallowed my feet as I stumbled out of the pack house gates. No one stopped me. No one said goodbye.
Rogues didn’t get goodbyes.
The two guards at the gate looked away when I passed. Cowards. Last month they bowed when I walked by. Luna, they called me. Now I was nothing. Less than nothing.
“Lyra,” I whispered inside my head. “Are you there?”
Silence. My wolf had gone quiet the day the healer confirmed it – I was pregnant, but my wolf was fading. A wolfless Luna was a myth. A bad omen. Darius believed I’d been cursed.
I didn’t. I believed I was being punished for loving him.
The forest border was half a mile from the pack house. Half a mile of open ground where any pack wolf could attack a rogue without consequence. My heart hammered. I was barefoot, in a thin white dress, with only the snow for cover.
And a baby.
I pressed my hand to my stomach again. Two months. I was two months pregnant. Too early to feel a kick, but I felt her. I knew she was a girl. Lyra had told me, before she went silent. _A daughter. Strong. Like you used to be._
A twig snapped behind me.
I froze. Slowly, I turned.
Beta Thomas stood at the edge of the tree line. Darius’s second, his most loyal soldier. His face was hidden in shadow, but I knew that build. He’d trained me to fight when I first became Luna.
“Beta Thomas,” I said, my voice shaking from cold and fear. “Did he send you to finish it?”
He didn’t answer. He stepped closer. The moonlight hit his face.
He was crying.
“Run, Luna,” he choked out. “Please. Just run. Don’t stop until you cross the river. The Neutral Lands are on the other side. The packs there don’t follow Darius.”
“Why are you helping me?” I whispered. “You’ll be killed for this.”
He shook his head and shoved a small leather bag into my hands. It was heavy. “Your mother. She made me swear. There’s money, dried meat, and a knife. The knife was your father’s.”
My throat closed. I hadn’t seen my mother in weeks. Darius locked her away when I got pregnant.
“Is she...”
“She’s alive,” Thomas cut me off. “But if you stay, she dies. He told me that himself. Leave, Aria. Live. For all of us.”
Howls erupted from the pack house behind us. The young warriors. They were coming. A rogue’s first night was sport to them.
Thomas grabbed my shoulders, his grip bruising. “GO!”
I ran.
The snow was deep, cruel. It cut my feet, soaked my dress. The wind screamed in my ears, hiding the sounds of pursuit. Or maybe they weren’t chasing me yet. Maybe Darius wanted me to think I could escape, just to feel the hope die.
I didn’t care. I ran for her. For my daughter.
I don’t know how long I ran. Time disappeared. The cold became my entire world. My lungs burned. My vision blurred. The leather bag banged against my hip, reminding me I wasn’t completely empty-handed.
The river. I had to reach the river.
When I finally saw it, I nearly sobbed. The Black River – wide, fast, and half frozen. The Neutral Lands were on the other side. If I crossed, Darius couldn’t follow without starting a war.
But the ice. The ice was thin.
Another howl, closer this time. I whipped around. Three shapes moved between the trees. Young, fast warriors. I recognized one – Caleb. He was only 19. He used to bring me flowers from the garden.
Now his eyes glowed yellow in the dark. He wanted my blood.
I had no choice.
Clutching the bag to my chest, I stepped onto the ice. It groaned under my weight. One step. Two. The water underneath was black and hungry.
“Stop!” Caleb yelled. “Alpha’s orders are to bring you back alive! He changed his mind!”
Liar.
I took another step. The ice cracked. A spiderweb of lines shot out from my foot.
Behind me, Caleb reached the bank. “Aria, please! You’ll die!”
Maybe. But I’d die free.
I ran. The ice broke with every step, but I didn’t fall. I didn’t know how. Adrenaline, fear, or maybe my daughter was protecting me.
I reached the middle when the howl came. Not Caleb. Not a warrior.
Darius.
I dared to look back. He stood on the bank, in his human form, his crown still on his head. Even from here, I saw his rage.
“ARIA!” His voice broke across the river. “COME BACK NOW AND I’LL LET YOU LIVE!”
Let me live? As what? His prisoner? His shame?
I gave him the same cruel smile he gave me in the hall. Then I turned and jumped.
The far bank was three feet away. The ice gave out. I plunged into the freezing water.
It was like knives. A thousand knives in my skin, my lungs, my head. The current grabbed me. The leather bag dragged me down. I kicked, clawing at the water, trying to keep my head up.
_For her. For her. For her._
My hand hit solid ice. I dug my father’s knife from the bag and stabbed it into the ice, using it to drag myself up. My arms had no strength. My dress was a dead weight.
With a scream that tore my throat, I hauled myself onto the bank.
I collapsed in the snow, vomiting river water. Every part of me shook. I couldn’t feel my feet. Or my hands.
But I was across.
I was in the Neutral Lands.
I was alive.
On the other side of the river, Darius hadn’t moved. He watched me. Even from here, I felt the mate bond – dead, but still aching. It would ache for years, they said. Until one of us died.
He lifted his hand. For a second, I thought he would wave. Or salute. Or anything.
Instead, he turned his back on me. Again.
And walked away.
I lay in the snow until the sun came up. I should have died of hypothermia. Maybe I wanted to.
But when the first light hit my face, I felt it. A flutter. Deep in my stomach. Too early for a normal baby.
But my daughter wasn’t normal. She was an Alpha King’s child.
She kicked. One tiny, defiant kick.
_I’m here, Mama,_ it said. _Get up._
So I did.
I had no shoes. No home. No wolf.
But I had her.
And Darius would never take her from me.
- Writer
