Chapter 5: Escaping the Shadowfang Pack
830 Words
Lena’s POV
The night was thick with silence, the kind that didn’t bring peace but whispered of danger.
The cold air wrapped around me, biting through the thin fabric of my cloak as I stood at the edge of the Shadowfang Pack’s border.
My heart pounded so fiercely against my ribs that I swore it would give me away.
I clenched my trembling fingers into fists, forcing myself to breathe, to steady the storm raging inside me.
This was it.
One step beyond this border, and I was no longer Lena Calloway of the Shadowfang Pack.
No longer the rejected mate of Killian Blackwood.
No longer the Ex-Beta’s daughter.
I would be nothing.
Or maybe, just maybe, I would finally be something more.
Beside me, Raven shifted, adjusting the strap of the small pack slung over her shoulder.
“You sure about this?” she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper.
I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t. If I did, she’d see the raw, frayed edges of my resolve, the part of me that still ached for something I had lost.
Instead, I stared at the dark expanse of the forest ahead, where freedom lay waiting.
I nodded. There was no turning back.
The Shadowfang Pack had been my home, but only in name.
After Killian’s rejection, it had become a prison.
The pack—the people I had once called my family—had done nothing as their Alpha shattered me in front of them all.
They had looked on, indifferent, as I had been stripped of my dignity, of my future.
They wouldn’t look at me at all when I was gone.
The thought should have hurt. Maybe once, it would have. Now, all I felt was cold determination.
I exhaled sharply, steadying my breath. “We have to move fast. They’ll notice I’m gone by dawn.”
Raven smirked, her golden eyes flashing like embers in the moonlight.
“Then let’s make sure we’re long gone before then.”
We moved like shadows, slipping past patrols and through hidden pathways that only years of growing up here had allowed me to memorize.
Every crunch of a leaf underfoot, every shift in the wind, sent my pulse racing. My wolf stirred beneath my skin, on edge, sensing the danger in every step we took.
Halfway through the forest, the sound I had feared most pierced the night.
A howl.
Not just any howl—Killian’s.
A cold shiver ran down my spine, freezing me in place.
His voice carried through the trees, raw and powerful, the sound vibrating deep in my bones.
It wasn’t just an ordinary call to his wolves. It was a command.
He knew.
He had sensed something was wrong.
Raven’s hand clamped around my wrist, yanking me from my frozen panic. “Move.”
We ran.
Branches tore at my cloak, scratching my skin as I pushed forward.
My breath came in sharp gasps, my legs burning with every desperate step. I didn’t look back.
I didn’t dare. I could hear the distant rustle of movement—patrols shifting, orders being given.
The Shadowfang warriors were waking. The hunt was beginning.
But I would not be caught.
I pushed myself harder, forcing my legs to move faster, ignoring the pain in my muscles, the sharp ache in my ribs.
Raven stayed beside me, agile and fearless, moving like she had been born for this life.
The pack’s border was just ahead—a line invisible to most but one that I could feel like a tangible force pressing against my skin.
My lungs burned, my heart slamming against my chest as I reached it.
And then, I crossed.
A sharp jolt rippled through me, something breaking deep inside. A tether was severed. A tie undone.
I gasped, stumbling to a halt just beyond the boundary, my hand flying to my chest.
I had expected to feel nothing, to have already been numb to this place.
But the severing of my connection to the pack was like a blade slicing through my soul.
The weight I had carried for years lifted in an instant—only to leave behind something jagged, something hollow.
Raven grabbed my arm, steadying me. “You good?”
I swallowed hard, nodding. “Yeah.” My voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper.
The forest around us was still. Too still.
Then, in the distance, I heard another howl.
It wasn’t just a call for the pack this time.
It was a warning.
A declaration.
Killian was coming.
I pressed a hand to my stomach, feeling the faintest stir of warmth beneath my palm.
My secret. My child. The last piece of Killian I would ever allow myself to hold.
I closed my eyes, inhaling the cold, wild scent of the rogue lands beyond the border.
“I won’t let them find us,” I whispered.
And with that, I turned and ran, disappearing into the night.
- Writer
