Day 3
989 Words
(Isla)
Day 3. The last day of freedom I had before Zayden turns me into a breeder. The last day of having any shed of dignity in the pack. I wouldn’t succumb, couldn’t so I did the next best thing. I woke up before the sun.
Mira was beside me with her arm on my shoulder. She had done that every night since the square. Like if she was close enough she could keep me safe.
I didn’t wake her as I left the bed.
The cottage was cold. My bag was already under the bed. It was small but filled with food, coins, the dagger she gave me weeks ago and one change of clothes.
That was everything I owned that mattered.
Today was the day. The day the bond was going to be severed in front of the very people who had mocked me for years about being too fat, too much.
"Three days to decide," Zayden had said. “Agree, or I snap it in the square."
I had made my decision on Day 1. I walked to the wall and put one last s***h in charcoal.
Day 3 and under it: My choice.
Mira stirred. "What are you doing up?" Her voice was rough with sleep.
"Couldn’t sleep," I lied. "Go back to bed."
She watched me for a second. Too sharp and it was like she knew. “You’re not doing anything stupid, are you?"
"Just getting air," I said. I forced a smile. "I’ll be back before breakfast. Promise."
She nodded slowly and rolled over. "Don’t be long."
I grabbed my bag and slipped out the back door. It was now or never……like they said, I was big and I was too big to be reduced to a breeder, just spreading my legs and churning out heirs for the pack while my mate rules beside the very woman who had mocked me for years. I wasn’t having it……………never.
The territory was silent. It was pre-dawn gray and smoke from the early fires hadn’t started yet. My heart was pounding so loud I was sure someone would hear it.
I didn’t go to the east gate because that's where they would expect me to flee through.
I went to the south, through the old deer path. The one kids used when they wanted to sneak out to swim. The guards never watched it.
The bond pulled the second I crossed the tree line. It was sharp like a hook in my chest and I was sure Zayden felt it, even as he lay beside Serena but he was too much of a coward to acknowledge the pull.
I kept running past the stream where Caleb claimed Mira yesterday……where I realized that my best friend had found love whereas I was used and dumped after one night. I wasn’t just used to satisfy desires of the bond and the flesh.
Past the training yard where Jaren told me to "just agree for the pack."
Past the market where the wives asked if I’d been eating. The same people who had always said I ate too much which is why I was “big”, “fat”, “too round”.
Past all of it.
I didn’t look back and I wasn’t going to. I was done with the pack.
By the time the sun was up, I was miles away.
By noon, I was in the next territory on neutral land with no pack claims.
I didn’t stop until my legs gave out.
I found a hollow under some fallen trees and crawled in.
My hands were shaking, but not from fear but from relief.
It was done. I was gone and no one knew where.
****************
Back in the pack, the sun rose and Mira woke up to an empty bed.
She called my name, checked the kitchen, and the outhouse but nothing.
She went to the wall. Day 3.
My choice.
Her face went white and she ran to Caleb’s.
"She's gone," she said. "She’s gone."
Caleb cursed. "Where?"
"I don’t know," Mira said and for the first time in her life, she was telling the truth. "She didn’t tell me. She didn’t tell anyone."
Caleb sent out runners to every gate and to every path.
No one had seen her and by midday, Zayden knew.
The bond had gone quiet but it wasn't snapped or broken.
Just... distant. Like she was too far for it to reach properly.
He tore through the cottage and found the bag gone. He found the s***h on the wall.
Found My choice.
He didn’t yell. He didn’t break anything. He just stood there staring at the wall and for the first time since the square, the Alpha looked lost.
"Find her," he said quietly. "Find her now."
The whole pack turned out to search.
They checked the roads, the rivers. The neighboring packs and nothing because I wasn’t on any road.
I wasn’t at any pack.
I was in the woods alone.
**********************
Night fell.
I ate half a piece of bread and drank from a stream.
The dagger was under where I laid my head. The bond was a dull ache now, like a bruise.
I thought about Mira and whether she was scared and about whether Zayden was angry.
Then I thought about Rowan.
Soft. Plump. A problem. That body of yours.
About Serena. Not built for it.
About all the advice. Duty. Pups. Pack. Vessel.
And I realized something.
For the first time in my life, no one was telling me what I was for.
No one was deciding what my body was worth.
No one was counting down to what I had to do.
It was just me.
I pulled my sweater tighter and closed my eyes.
Day 3 was over.
I hadn’t agreed and I hadn’t let him break me.
I disappeared and no one knew where.
- Writer
