Chapter Thirty One
1048 Words
The two days passed in a blur with Ivy moving mechanically through the days. She attended to pups, are her meals, responded when spoken to. All of it automatically, and in the surface. Underneath, she was counting, measuring,preparing.
Awaiting the D-day and it finally arrived. She became more withdrawn from Tessa, limiting their conversation, not because she didn't trust Tessa. She did. But Tessa knew too much about her, knew her expressions to the latter and would definitely find out if something was wrong with her. So she stayed away fearing she would reveal too much if she spent more time with her. Because if Darius had an eye on the pack which he definitely did, a whispered conversation was sure to reach his ears.
The night before the meeting she barely slept. Not from fear exactly — she had examined the fear carefully and found it manageable, smaller than she expected now that the decision was fully made. It was more the particular restlessness that comes when the mind has committed to something and the body is simply waiting for the hours to pass.
She lay in the dark listening to the pack breathe through the bond — the steady, collective hum of sleeping wolves, the particular quietness that falls over a large pack in the deep hours of the night. She could hear the pups through it, their breathing smoother now than it had been weeks ago, the rattling wheeze of the Howling rot gone completely. She listened to Kena's small steady breath and Betty's deeper one and felt something settle in her chest.
“No matter what happened, I did this. They are mine. It is real,” She muttered to herself, convincing herself once again of the reason she was doing this.
She reminded herself that this wasn't about winning, or about proving anything, it was about knowing the truth and presenting it to Zeke and surprisingly, that seemed to calm her down.
She had barely slept - not from fear exactly, mostly from the kind of restless alertness that comes from the head making a decision and you're just waiting for the mind to catch up finally.
When she finally climbed down from her bed, she wasn't in a haste. She took her time to freshen up and she dressed up in dark, fitted clothes. Clothes that would be hard to miss, wouldn't catch the light or the branches in the woods.
Her eyes flickered over to a note lying open on her table and a pen. The thought of leaving a note for Tessa crossed her mind but she pushed it down the same way she had pushed down the thoughts of informing anybody. A risk she didn't want to take.
She pushed the note signed by P into her back pocket. Closer to her, even though she had memorized the note. The scrap of note bearing the letter A fell from her book and she picked it up, ran her fingers over it and decided to leave it behind.
Maybe, just maybe if things went wrong, it would prove a way of tracking her to the destination she didn't know of. A starting point, a map. And given how intelligent Zeke was… she shoved the thoughts away. Nothing was going to happen. When she was ready, she pulled her hair into a high ponytail and tied her boots into double knots. She could still remember Zeke's steady and calm voice when he had taught her that and told her that single knots went loose faster making one trip on the laces. She stood up straight and stepped out.
Misty was uncharacteristically still inside her and she nudged at her. “You're nervous.”
“Even you, Ivy. I can feel your nervousness affecting me.” Misty countered and Ivy's erratic breathing and the loud thumping of her heart gave her away.
“I know what I'm doing.” She replied simply.
“I know you do and that's the reason why I'm embarking on this adventure with you without informing Leer.” Misty purred.
“You’ve getting even more closer to him.” Ivy smirked.
“He can't seem to get enough of me.” Misty muttered in that warm voice she reserved for leer alone and fell into silence. That was all.
Ivy slipped from her apartment building into the night. Walking stealthily but sneakily over the path. The corridor was still, the pack house was still asleep with only the sound of her footsteps echoing softly.
When she walked out of the range of buildings and into the open arena, her eyes caught sight of the guards rotating, keeping a watch on the gate. She had seen them do this many times before, known their routine.
Zeke had taught her without meaning to. Those days when she watched through the clinic window, some days during late night training with Zeke.
She moved through a side door into an old storage room and waited there, watching through the wooden and partially broken window. Waiting for her chance. The door opened through the eastern edge of the pack territory and only three guards stood at the eastern gates.
She waited patiently until she saw a chance, a slim chance but still a chance and she dove right in. She slipped past the gates and disappeared into the woods, her dark clothes blending with the night.
She paused at the tree lines and looked back at the pack outline, as if memorizing if she didn't have the opportunity to come back.
“No negative thoughts.” Misty shunned and she nodded, shaking the thoughts away.
“I know.” Her head turned towards the alpha chambers. Zeke's windows were dark which meant one thing, he was asleep. She wondered when his fever would finally be public to the pack, wondered how he would take the news of her disappearance even though she hoped to return before anyone would notice she was gone. The meeting was at dawn so she had calculated that she would be back before the pups started asking for her.
But she was also fully aware that intention and outcomes are two different things.
She shook her head, turned and crossed the borders. The plan was finally in motion.
- Writer
