Chapter Three – The Escape
1453 Words
Chapter Three – The Escape
The night was silent, heavy with the weight of the packhouse pressing down on her chest. Aria lay on her cot, staring at the cracked ceiling, her body aching from another day of punishment. Her arms still burned where the stew had scalded her, her cheek throbbed from the cook’s slap, but it was her soul that hurt the most.
The bond was gone.
Her wolf was fading.
And she couldn’t take another day in this cage.
Her heart whispered the truth she had been afraid to admit: if she stayed, the Blackfang Pack would kill her slowly—not with claws, but with cruelty.
Aria sat up, her hands trembling as she pulled the thin blanket from her shoulders. The servants’ quarters were quiet, the others lost in uneasy sleep. She moved silently, every creak of the floor threatening to expose her.
Her bare feet carried her to the back door. Beyond it lay the forest—wild, dark, untamed. The stories said rogues prowled there, that monsters waited in the shadows. But to Aria, even death in the woods was better than life here.
She pressed her hand to the wooden door, her breath shaky.
Moon Goddess, if you can hear me… please. Don’t let me die like this.
The night air hit her like a kiss of freedom as the door creaked open. Cold, sharp, real. She slipped outside, the blanket clutched around her shoulders, her body trembling but her legs moving faster than they ever had before.
She ran.
The forest swallowed her whole, branches whipping her arms, rocks slicing her feet. Her lungs burned, but she didn’t stop. Every step took her further from the chains, further from the cruel laughter, further from the rejection that haunted her.
Behind her, the packhouse loomed like a nightmare. In front of her, only shadows and moonlight.
Her wolf stirred faintly inside her chest. Not strong—just a whimper. But it was enough. Enough to tell her she was doing the right thing.
She pushed harder, her body screaming with exhaustion. Hours blurred as she stumbled deeper into the woods, guided by nothing but desperation and the strange, warm pull that had begun days ago.
The pull grew stronger now, thrumming in her chest like a second heartbeat.
She didn’t know where she was going. She only knew something—someone—was waiting.
But freedom never came easy.
The snap of a twig froze her mid-step. Her heart stopped, her breath caught. A low growl rippled through the night, sharp and savage.
Her blood ran cold.
Rogues.
A pair of glowing red eyes appeared between the trees, then another, then another. Dark shapes slunk into the clearing, teeth bared, hunger dripping from their snarls.
Aria’s knees buckled, terror clawing through her chest. She stumbled backward, hitting the trunk of a tree. Her wolf whimpered, too weak to fight, too broken to save her.
“Please…” she whispered, tears stinging her eyes. “Not like this.”
The first rogue lunged.
And then the forest shook.
A snarl tore through the night, deeper, darker, more powerful than anything she had ever heard. The air itself vibrated with it. The rogues froze, their eyes widening as shadows shifted between the trees.
Three figures emerged.
Tall. Broad. Radiating power so strong it stole her breath. Their eyes glowed—not red, but silver, gold, and obsidian, burning with primal hunger.
The rogues whimpered. And in a flash, they were nothing but blood and silence, torn apart by strength Aria’s eyes couldn’t follow.
Her chest heaved, her back pressed to the tree, her body trembling. The clearing reeked of death, but the three figures didn’t look at the corpses. They looked at her.
Her breath hitched.
Not rogues. Not wolves.
Lycans.
The legends whispered to pups to scare them. The monsters no pack dared to cross. And yet, the bond thrummed in her chest, her wolf stirring with a whimper she hadn’t heard in weeks.
Mate.
Her knees gave out, her palms sinking into the dirt as tears blurred her vision. She should’ve been terrified. She should’ve begged for mercy. But when their voices rumbled through the night, spoken in unison like thunder, her heart nearly stopped.
“Ours.”
Crew. Ryker. Zane.
Her fate.
The Monsters in the Moonlight
The clearing was deathly still. The rogues lay torn and silent, the scent of blood thick in the night air.
Aria’s breath came in sharp, ragged bursts as she pressed her back against the tree. Her body screamed at her to run, but her legs refused to move.
Three pairs of glowing eyes fixed on her—silver, gold, and obsidian. The power rolling off them was suffocating, wild and untamed, unlike anything she had ever felt.
Lycans.
Her heart slammed against her ribs. Every story she had ever heard about them clawed into her mind—monsters that destroyed packs, beasts who bowed to no one. They were killers. Untouchable. Unstoppable.
And yet… her wolf stirred inside her chest, trembling but alive, for the first time since Damon’s rejection. A faint whimper, a desperate cry.
Mate.
The word echoed in her bones, but Aria shook her head violently, her breath breaking. “No… no, no, no.”
The tallest of the three stepped forward, his silver eyes glowing like moonlight. His presence was steady, heavy, commanding without a word. She felt it sink into her skin, a force that demanded obedience—but his gaze wasn’t cruel. It was… searching.
Another figure moved next, golden eyes glinting with something sharp and hungry. His lips curved, almost into a smirk, as if he enjoyed the way her pulse thundered. But there was no mockery—only heat, raw and unashamed.
The last lingered in the shadows, darker than the others. His obsidian eyes burned like coals, his aura thick with danger. He didn’t move closer, but his silence was a snarl of its own, promising violence to anyone who dared touch her.
Aria shook, clutching the thin blanket tighter around her shoulders. “S-stay back.” Her voice cracked, weak against the weight of their power.
The golden-eyed one tilted his head, his smile faint but sharp. “She speaks.” His voice was low, rough, a vibration that slid down her spine.
The silver-eyed one shot him a warning glance, then softened his gaze on her. “You’re hurt,” he said. Calm. Controlled. Yet the way his jaw clenched betrayed the storm beneath.
“I don’t—” Aria’s words broke as her knees buckled. She caught herself against the tree, breath shallow. “I don’t need—”
But her body betrayed her. Blood still seeped from cuts on her feet, her arms trembled from exhaustion, and the bruises Damon had left on her still burned.
The one in the shadows finally moved. Slow. Lethal. He didn’t speak at first, but when he did, his voice was a growl that made her skin prickle.
“Who marked you with these bruises?”
Her chest constricted. She shook her head, tears spilling before she could stop them. “Please… don’t hurt me.”
Something flickered in their eyes. Fury. Not at her—but for her.
The golden-eyed one snarled low, pacing like a caged predator. “She thinks we’d harm her. After what was done to her.” His voice broke into a harsh laugh, but it wasn’t amusement—it was rage, sharp and deadly.
The silver-eyed one stepped closer, just enough for the bond to snap tighter in her chest. Her wolf whimpered, trying to push forward, but Aria shoved it down.
“No!” she cried, staggering back. “Don’t… don’t come closer. I don’t want this.”
The words cut her throat as she said them. They weren’t true—her wolf screamed against them—but her heart was too broken, too raw, too afraid to be claimed again.
The shadows deepened as the obsidian-eyed one finally crouched, his gaze never leaving her. “It doesn’t matter if you want it, little wolf,” he murmured, his voice dark as night. “The bond is already written. You are ours.”
Her pulse shattered.
And even as she shook her head, tears streaming down her face, her wolf howled inside her chest—loud, desperate, alive.
Mate. Ours.
Aria’s world tilted, spinning between terror and fate. Three Lycans. Three mates. Her body trembled as the forest seemed to close in, her breath lost in the weight of their claim.
She wanted to deny it. To run. To vanish.
But destiny had found her.
And there would be no escape.
- Writer
