CHAPTER 3: THE ESCAPE FROM SHADOW FANG
1172 Words
~ Nora POV ~
"Wake up, garbage," a guard yelled, kicking the iron bars of my cage.
I didn't answer. I lay perfectly still on the freezing dirt floor, my body shaking from the intense pain radiating from my chest. Rejecting a fated mate bond felt like an actual knife twisting into my heart over and over again, draining my strength. Every breath felt tight, and my hands trembled against the cold ground.
But I didn't care about the pain. My mind was locked on a single goal. Survival and escape.
As I lay there, a strange warmth began to grow beneath the agony in my veins. My eyes were wide open, staring at the guard's back as he stood outside the door. I could see something new, a faint blue glow radiating off his body. It was his energy aura.
I reached out with my mind, testing the new power that had woken up in my blood during the ceremony. The moment I focused, the blue light began to drift toward me, flowing through the iron bars and right into my chest.
I gasped quietly. The pain from the broken bond started to fade as I absorbed his strength. The guard didn't notice a thing, but he suddenly leaned against the wall, shaking his head as if he felt tired.
The door at the end of the hall rattled open.
Tyler walked down the steps alone, his sneer clear even in the dim light of the prison. He stopped right in front of my cage, looking down at me with pure hatred.
"Enjoying your new home, omega?" Tyler asked, his voice full of malice. "Marcus thinks he can just keep you locked up down here forever to satisfy his guilt. But I know better."
I didn't move. I kept my scent masked, using my new power to pull my presence deep inside myself. To Tyler, I probably smelled like a dying wolf.
"What do you want, Tyler?" I asked, making my voice sound weak and broken.
"I came to tell you that your time is running out," Tyler said, leaning closer to the iron bars. "The moment the council finishes the formal paperwork, I am going to make sure you are eliminated permanently. Marcus won't stop me. He will be glad to have his little mistake wiped away."
I allowed my eyes to flutter shut, letting my head drop sideways onto the dirt. I wanted him to think I was slipping into unconsciousness from the shock of the rejection.
"Look at you," Tyler laughed fooled by my act. "You can barely keep your eyes open. You won't even last until morning anyway."
He turned on his heel and walked away relaxed. He didn't even bother telling the guard to watch me more closely. His arrogance was exactly what I needed.
The moment the door slammed shut behind him, I opened my eyes. My weakness vanished instantly. I stood up from the floor, my movements silent as I stepped toward the front of the cage.
There was a protective energy barrier running through the bars, designed to keep powerful wolves from breaking the locks. I reached out and placed both of my bleeding hands directly onto the iron.
The barrier flared bright blue, trying to shock me, but my Eclipse Sovereign power didn't let it. Instead, I opened the void inside my chest and began to drain the energy. The blue glow flickered rapidly, then turned dark as I sucked the power away.
With a soft click, the lock on the cage door snapped open.
The guard outside didn't even have time to turn around. I lunged forward, grabbing his shoulder and pulling his energy out in one massive wave. He collapsed into my arms, unconscious before he could let out a single shout.
I dragged him into the cage and locked the door behind him.
Now came the hardest part. I had to get out of the building. I moved into the dark back corridors, my bare feet making no sound against the cold floor. Whenever I heard the rhythmic thud of guard patrols approaching, I stopped.
I closed my eyes and focused on the energy signatures of the wolves nearby. Using my power, I altered my own aura, mimicking their exact pack frequency. To their sensory radar, I became invisible, blending right into the shadows like a ghost.
Two guards walked right past the corner where I was standing. They didn't even turn their heads.
I kept moving, following the narrow utility tunnels until I saw a faint light ahead. The exit door was unguarded, leading out to the very back of the compound. I pushed it open and slipped out into the cool night air.
I ran. I didn't look back at the lights of the pack house. I headed straight for the outer border of the territory, where the trees grew thick and dark.
After ten minutes of sprinting, I reached the boundary. Right past the line lay the silver-briar woods, a dangerous area filled with wild beasts and thick bushes covered in massive, curved thorns. No one ever went in there because the plants were known to tear a wolf's flesh to pieces.
This was the perfect spot.
I stopped at the edge of the thicket. I grabbed the sleeve of my shirt and tore a large piece of it off, leaving it hanging on a massive thorn. Then, I forced myself to walk straight into the sharp bushes.
The thorns sliced into my arms and legs, drawing hot, dark blood. I rubbed my bleeding arms against the ground, trampling the grass and breaking the branches to make it look like a violent struggle.
I dropped my old family necklace into the middle of the blood pool. To any tracking party, it would look like an omega had run blindly into the woods, got caught by a predator, and was torn apart.
I stepped backward out of the briars, using my power to erase my footprints and mask my tracks. The void in my chest opened up, swallowing every trace of my blood scent from that point forward.
I turned toward the dark mountains in the distance, the lawless rogue underworld where the pack's authority couldn't reach me. I was free.
Suddenly, a sound echoed from the direction of the pack house, breaking the silence of the night.
It was a distant, agonizing howl.
It was Marcus's wolf. The tracking alarms must have gone off, and his bond was reacting to the fake scent of my death. The sound was full of pure horror, guilt, and absolute misery, shaking the very leaves on the trees.
I paused, listening to my former mate cry for the woman he had rejected. A cold smile touched my lips as I looked back one last time.
"Cry all you want, Marcus," I whispered into the dark. "You wanted me gone. Now I am dead."
I turned away from the howling and ran into the shadows, leaving my past life behind forever.
- Writer
