Chapter 2: The Lone Escape
691 Words
The trees blurred around her as Aria stumbled after the rogue, barely keeping up with his pace. His grip on her wrist was firm but not painful — steadying. Reassuring.
They ducked beneath a low branch, then paused in a hollow surrounded by mossy rocks. Moonlight filtered through the leaves, painting silver streaks on his bare skin.
“Who are you?” Aria asked again, this time breathless, not from fear — but from everything. The run. The confusion. The pain. The night.
He finally let go of her wrist.
“Call me Kade,” he said simply, crouching beside a tree root. “And you are?”
She hesitated. Her name felt foreign in her mouth now. Like it didn’t belong to her anymore. “Aria.”
“Rejected?”
Her eyes flinched. “You saw?”
“I heard.”
Kade didn’t look at her with pity. That was the strangest part. He looked at her like she was… whole. Like her brokenness wasn’t something to apologize for.
“I’m not going back,” she said, folding her arms. “Not to them. Not to him.”
Kade nodded like he already knew.
“Then you’d better keep moving. Once a Luna-to-be runs, they’ll track you. Especially if your mate’s the next Alpha.”
The word Luna made her flinch again. That was supposed to be her future. A title she’d dreamed of since she was a child. She’d imagined leading the pack, protecting her people, standing proudly beside her mate.
Now?
She was just… nothing.
A cold breeze swept through the trees. Aria shivered, suddenly aware of how thin her ceremonial dress was.
Without a word, Kade shrugged off his leather jacket and held it out.
She hesitated.
He arched a brow. “It’s not poisoned.”
She took it. Slid her arms in. It was too big and smelled like pine, smoke, and something darker — wild.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“Don’t thank me yet.”
Kade stood, scanning the trees like he could hear something she couldn’t.
“What is it?” Aria asked.
“They’re closer than I thought,” he said. “Your pack.”
She felt her throat close up.
“I don’t want them to find me,” she whispered. “I can’t face them. Not after…”
Her voice broke.
Kade turned to her, eyes calm but serious.
“Then stay with me,” he said. “Just for tonight.”
Aria blinked.
Stay with a rogue?
The pack would call her crazy. Suicidal.
But looking at Kade — his unreadable eyes, the strength in his stance, the quiet way he offered safety without demanding anything — she felt safer than she ever had in her entire life.
“Okay,” she said softly.
Meanwhile… back at the pack grounds.
Jaxon paced outside the Alpha Hall, fists clenched.
“She just ran?” he snapped. “No trace?”
Elara leaned against a pillar, arms crossed. “You embarrassed her in front of everyone, Jaxon. What did you expect?”
“She’s still my mate,” he muttered.
“You rejected her.”
He stopped, eyes flashing gold. “I didn’t mean to. Not really.”
Elara rolled her eyes. “You made your choice. You chose power. You chose me.”
He didn’t answer.
But deep inside, something growled.
Something regretful.
Back in the forest.
Aria sat beside the small fire Kade had started in a hollowed-out den.
Neither spoke.
She didn’t know why she trusted him. Only that her wolf didn’t protest.
The silence between them was heavy, but not uncomfortable.
Finally, she whispered, “Have you ever been rejected?”
He didn’t look at her.
“Yes.”
A pause.
“What did you do?”
His jaw clenched. “I survived.”
Aria looked down at her hands.
Maybe that’s what she needed to do now.
Not cry. Not beg.
Survive.
As Aria drifts into uneasy sleep, a whisper echoes in the trees — a familiar scent on the wind. Her former mate is closer than she thinks… and someone is watching them both.
- Writer
