EPISODE 2: SURVIVAL
964 Words
They Didn’t Chase Me to Kill Me. They Wanted to Break Me.
Running stopped about distance after the first mile.
It became about instinct.
My lungs burned as the city blurred past me. Neon signs. Closed shops. The smell of oil and rain clinging to the streets. The coyotes were still behind me. I could hear them now, their footfalls light, controlled. They weren’t rushing.
They knew they’d catch me.
My wolf surged under my skin, heat spreading through my veins. She didn’t beg me to shift. She didn’t scream.
She calculated.
Slow, she warned. They want you tired.
I veered into an alley, vaulting a dumpster and rolling hard across broken glass. Pain flared across my palms and knees, sharp enough to ground me. I kept moving, forcing my legs to obey even as my vision swam.
A howl echoed behind me.
Closer.
I burst onto a dead-end street.
Brick wall. Fire escape. No exits.
My heart slammed violently against my ribs.
I turned just as the first coyote landed in front of me.
He was younger. Lean. Smiling like this was entertainment. Two more flanked him, cutting off every escape route.
“End of the road,” one of them said.
I lifted my chin, refusing to shrink. “You’re trespassing.”
Laughter rippled through them.
“Packless wolves don’t get to claim territory,” the first replied. “You’re not a wolf anymore.”
Something inside me snapped.
My wolf pushed forward, not violently, but completely. The world sharpened. Sounds became clearer. I could hear heartbeats now. Smell adrenaline.
“I am a wolf,” I said. “You’re just too afraid to admit it.”
The coyote lunged.
I moved without thinking.
I ducked under his swing, drove my elbow into his ribs, felt the bone give. He cried out, more surprised than hurt. The others froze for half a second.
That was all they needed.
They came at me together.
I fought like someone who had already lost everything. Claws tore through my jacket. A fist connected with my jaw, stars exploding behind my eyes. I tasted blood and laughed, wild and breathless.
Then something slammed into the back of my head.
The ground rushed up.
Darkness swallowed me whole.
I woke up chained.
Cold metal bit into my wrists and ankles, silver threaded through the restraints. My wolf recoiled instantly, furious but contained. The room smelled like damp concrete and old blood.
Basement.
Candlelight flickered along stone walls etched with symbols I didn’t recognize. The air hummed faintly, like power was stitched into the space itself.
“Well,” a voice drawled. “You lasted longer than I thought.”
I lifted my head.
The coyote leader stood across from me, arms crossed, eyes bright with curiosity. Up close, he was older than I’d thought. Scarred. Controlled.
“Where am I?” I asked.
“Safe,” he replied. “For now.”
I tested the chains. They didn’t budge.
“You don’t kill exiles,” I said. “That’s not coyote law.”
His mouth twitched. “No. We recruit them.”
I laughed, sharp and bitter. “You picked the wrong girl.”
“Did we?” He stepped closer, studying me like a puzzle. “Your pack abandoned you the moment you showed strength. You broke an alpha’s mental hold without trying.”
My pulse stuttered.
“You felt it,” he continued. “Didn’t you? Something different. Something old.”
I stayed silent.
“Wolves fear what they don’t control,” he said softly. “Coyotes don’t.”
“Then why chain me?” I demanded.
“Because power like yours doesn’t come without consequences.”
The lights flickered.
Every instinct in my body screamed.
Not alone, my wolf whispered. Someone’s near.
The coyote leader straightened, head snapping toward the far wall.
Too late.
The door exploded inward.
Concrete cracked as a massive wolf burst into the room, silver-gray fur bristling, eyes glowing like moonlight. He moved with lethal precision, tearing through the nearest guard before anyone could react.
Chaos erupted.
The Coyotes shifted mid-scrum. Claws met teeth. Blood splattered the stone floor.
The wolf shifted back into human form in one fluid motion, grabbing a fallen blade.
Rowan.
He cut through my chains with a single strike.
“Can you run?” he asked, already turning back toward the fight.
I didn’t answer
I stood
Power surged through me, raw and electric. My wolf rose fully this time, no longer hesitant. I raised my bound hands—
—and the silver snapped.
Rowan froze, staring at the broken restraints.
“So it’s true,” he muttered.
I met his eyes. “You should’ve left me.”
He smiled grimly. “Yeah. Probably.”
We ran together.
Alarms howled behind us as we burst into the night, leaving fences, disappearing into the maze of streets. We didn’t slow until the city thinned and the air smelled like pine and wet earth.
Rowan stopped first.
He turned to face me, eyes sharp, unreadable.
“You don’t belong to your pack anymore,” he said. “And now the coyotes will hunt you.”
I wiped blood from my lip. “I was hunted the moment I was born different.”
Silence stretched between us.
“Come with me,” he said finally. “My pack won’t bow to yours. And they won’t cage you either.”
“And the cost?” I asked.
His gaze dropped briefly. “Trust.”
I laughed quietly.
“That’s the one thing I don’t have.”
He studied me for a long moment.
“Good,” Rowan said. “Then you won’t give it away easily.”
The forest shifted around us.
And somewhere deep inside, my wolf smiled.
- Writer
