A Wolf On The Run
1184 Words
The moon was high when I crossed the first border.
I didn’t stop running until my lungs burned and my vision blurred. My wolf was howling in my head, not from fear — but urgency. Survival. Protection.
The leaves sliced at my arms. My legs were numb. My entire body trembled with exhaustion, but I didn’t slow down.
Behind me, somewhere in the chaos of the woods, Kael and Darian had clashed.
Brothers turned enemies.
For me.
For the child I carried.
I stumbled into a narrow river and fell to my knees. The cold bite of the water didn’t shock me awake — it numbed me further. I bent forward, gasping, dry heaving, praying to the Moon Goddess for strength. For time. For distance.
Just until sunrise.
I was close to rogue territory now. Once I reached the Hollow, I could disappear. I knew someone there — a woman who owed my mother a favor. She ran an herbal shop, but everyone in that town knew it was a front for moving werewolves off the grid.
She’d help.
She had to.
---
By dawn, I could barely see straight.
I collapsed just outside the edge of the Hollow, my breath ragged, my limbs aching, stomach cramping. I clutched it instinctively, panic surging.
Not now. Not this early.
Please, Moon Goddess, not now.
“Someone help her!” a voice shouted.
I tried to lift my head, but everything went dark.
---
I woke up to the scent of herbs and old wood.
I blinked at the ceiling beams above me. Soft blankets. A fire crackled in the corner. My bag was resting on a nearby chair, untouched.
“She’s awake,” a voice said gently.
I turned my head and saw her.
Zera.
She looked older now, streaks of gray in her dark hair, but her sharp eyes hadn’t lost their edge. She looked at me like she was trying to read the parts of my soul that I didn’t want to show.
“You’re lucky my son found you at the border. You were nearly in shock.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but all that came out was, “How long?”
“Two days. You’ve been feverish. Dehydrated. But the baby is fine,” she added quickly, seeing the fear in my eyes.
Relief hit me so hard I almost sobbed.
Zera brought over a small mug and pressed it into my hands.
“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” she said. “Especially not now. You’re carrying the Alpha’s child, aren’t you?”
My hands stiffened around the cup.
“Who told you?”
“No one needed to. I can smell the bloodline.” She sat beside me, sighing. “Kael always smelled like his father. Like power and fire and ice. You carry it now too, mixed with something gentler. Softer.”
I didn’t answer.
Zera leaned forward. “Whatever you’re running from, child — it won’t stay behind you forever.”
“I don’t need forever,” I whispered. “I just need long enough to give birth. Then I’ll figure it out.”
She didn’t argue. Just nodded.
“I can offer you shelter. Food. Privacy. But nothing here stays hidden for long. Especially not with Kael’s reach.”
I tensed.
“Has he come here?”
“No. But he will. Eventually.”
I closed my eyes.
There was no safe place anymore.
---
That night, I lay in Zera’s spare room, watching the candlelight dance on the ceiling. My hand rested on my stomach, and I whispered to the life growing inside me.
“I don’t know what our future looks like. But I promise you — I will never let him take you from me.”
My words trembled, but my resolve didn’t.
If Kael came for me, I’d fight.
If Darian came… I didn’t know what I’d do.
Because a part of me still felt that kiss.
Still remembered his eyes.
His promise.
Would he still want me now that I was gone?
Would he hate me for leaving?
---
The next morning, Zera returned from the market with urgency in her steps.
“There’s a hunter in town,” she whispered. “Tall. Wears a long black coat. Doesn’t speak much. Smelled like Silverfang.”
My heart stopped.
“Kael?”
She shook her head. “No. The Beta.”
Darian.
My wolf surged in my chest. For the first time in days, she didn’t howl with fear — she reached out, as if trying to find him.
“He’s been asking questions,” Zera continued. “Not directly about you. Just… searching.”
I didn’t know whether to cry or scream.
He came.
He came for me.
Why?
Out of duty? Guilt?
Love?
I stood quickly, ignoring Zera’s protests, and walked to the window. Through the cracked glass, I saw a familiar figure leaning against a tree near the trading post.
He hadn’t seen me.
But I saw him.
And I felt something I hadn’t felt in weeks.
Hope.
---
I waited until nightfall to go to him.
I kept my hood low, my steps light. I didn’t know what I was doing — didn’t have a plan — but my heart was louder than my logic.
He was sitting alone outside the old barn near the edge of town, staring into the darkness.
I stepped into the moonlight.
He stood immediately.
“Elara.”
His voice was breathless.
We stared at each other across a few feet of broken silence.
He moved first.
Closed the distance. Slowly. Carefully. Like I might vanish if he blinked.
“You’re safe,” he said.
“You’re bleeding,” I whispered, noticing the scar on his collarbone. A wound from the fight?
He shrugged. “It’s nothing.”
I stared at him. “Why are you here?”
“You already know.”
“No, I don’t.”
He stepped closer. “Because I made a mistake. I let you leave. I thought protecting you meant letting you go, but—”
“You’re Kael’s brother.”
“I’m not him,” Darian snapped. “And I’m not going to be ruled by his mistakes. Or mine.”
My eyes burned.
“I’m not going back.”
“I’m not here to take you back.”
That stopped me.
“What?”
He reached out and took my hand gently.
“I’m here to ask if I can stay.”
I didn’t know what to say. My throat was tight. My heart thudded like a war drum.
“You’d give up your title? Your position? Everything?”
“I’d give up the world if it meant you didn’t have to face it alone.”
Tears slipped down my cheeks.
He reached out, brushed them away.
Just like he did the night I lost everything.
“I’m scared,” I whispered.
“So am I.”
We stood there under the stars — two broken wolves trying to rewrite fate.
And for the first time since the rejection…
I wasn’t alone.
- Writer
