Chapter 17: Run, Dahlia, Run
1149 Words
Dahlia’s POV
I didn’t plan the escape.
If I was honest, I don’t think I planned anything at all.
One moment, I was lying on the narrow bed they had thrown me onto, staring at a ceiling that wasn’t mine, breathing through a pain that refused to fully fade. The next, my feet were on cold earth, my lungs burning, my heart pounding like it was desperate to outrun the memory of his voice.
I reject her.
The words chased me.
They always would.
The forest swallowed me the moment I crossed the boundary.
Branches clawed at my skin, stones bruised my bare feet, but I barely felt any of it. Compared to what was inside my chest, the pain was nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
I ran because stopping meant thinking.
Stopping meant remembering the way the bond had screamed as it tore apart.
The way my body had betrayed me, collapsing in front of everyone.
The way Asher hadn’t flinched.
So I ran.
My breaths came out ragged, uneven, every inhale burning as though my lungs were punishing me for still trying. My body was exhausted, shattered from the rejection, but something stubborn kept me moving. Something raw and furious and terrified.
I didn’t know where I was going.
I only knew I couldn’t stay.
Each step felt heavier than the last. My legs trembled, threatening to give out, but I forced them forward anyway. If I stopped, I was afraid I would curl up on the forest floor and never get back up again.
You are weak.
I clenched my jaw.
“No,” I whispered into the dark. My voice sounded broken. “I’m still here.”
The bond was gone.
That absence hurt almost more than its destruction.
There was no warmth anymore. No pull. No whisper at the edge of my thoughts reminding me that somewhere, someone was tied to me.
All that was left was silence. Cold and vast and terrifying.
It made me feel… hollow.
Like a part of me had been carved out and left behind in that courtyard.
My vision blurred as tears finally spilled over. I didn’t bother wiping them away. There was no one here to see me fall apart. No one to mock me. No one to look away.
The forest didn’t care.
Maybe that was why I had come.
My chest tightened, and I stumbled, catching myself against a tree. The bark scraped my palm, grounding me just enough to keep me upright.
“I didn’t ask for this,” I breathed, my forehead resting against the rough trunk. “I didn’t ask for him.”
The night offered no answer.
I pushed off the tree and forced myself onward.
Every sound made me flinch. The rustle of leaves. The snap of a twig. My nerves were raw, stretched thin after everything. Without the bond, without a wolf, I felt exposed in a way I never had before.
Small.
Defenseless.
I hated it.
I hated how true his words felt now.
The border between Blue Moon and Moon Stone territory loomed somewhere ahead. I didn’t know exactly where I was anymore, only that I was deep enough into the forest that the pack’s lights were gone. The moon above was my only guide, pale and distant.
I wondered briefly if it had watched everything.
If it had seen me beg without words.
If it had cared.
My legs finally gave out.
I collapsed against another tree, sliding down until I was sitting in the dirt, hugging myself as my body shook. My breaths came out in sharp gasps, pain flaring in my chest with each one.
“I can’t do this,” I whispered. “I can’t.”
The words felt pathetic the moment they left my mouth.
I pressed my fingers into my arms, grounding myself in the ache. I had survived worse than this. I had survived years of cruelty, neglect, being treated like something less than a person.
I could survive him too.
Even if it didn’t feel like it right now.
I pushed myself back to my feet, swaying. My vision blurred, but I blinked until the darkness receded. I had to keep moving. I didn’t know what I was running from anymore, him, the pack, the memories, but stopping still felt like surrender.
I took a few more unsteady steps.
Then I heard it.
A low growl.
My heart slammed violently against my ribs.
I froze.
The sound wasn’t close enough to touch, but it wasn’t distant either. It vibrated through the air, deep and warning, sending a jolt of fear straight down my spine.
I knew that sound.
It wasn’t Asher’s.
That realization hit me harder than the growl itself.
My pulse spiked. Every instinct screamed at me to move, to run, but my body refused to obey. My limbs felt heavy, slow, like they didn’t belong to me anymore.
Another growl echoed, closer this time.
Panic clawed its way up my throat.
I turned slowly, dread pooling in my stomach as my eyes searched the darkness between the trees. Shadows shifted. The forest seemed to hold its breath.
I felt very, very alone.
“Please,” I whispered, the word slipping out before I could stop it. I didn’t even know who I was begging anymore. The moon. The forest. Fate itself.
Anything.
My hands trembled as I clenched them into fists.
“I won’t die like this,” I told myself fiercely. Not here. Not now.
The growl came again, unmistakably closer.
My heart pounded so hard it hurt. I could feel it in my ears, drowning out every other sound. My breath came shallow and fast, terror stealing the air from my lungs.
I took a step back.
Then another.
My heel caught on a root, and I stumbled, barely managing to stay upright. Tears burned my eyes, not just from fear, but from exhaustion, from the cruel unfairness of it all.
I had just survived the worst pain of my life.
And now this?
“Enough,” I sobbed softly. “Haven’t I lost enough?”
The forest didn’t answer.
Something moved in the shadows.
My breath hitched.
I turned fully then, dread crashing into me as my eyes widened, straining to see what waited just beyond the moonlight. My heart felt like it might burst out of my chest.
For a split second, everything seemed to slow.
The trees.
The moon.
My own breathing.
And then…
Pain exploded at the back of my head.
It was sudden.
Violent.
Blinding.
I cried out as the world tilted sharply, the forest spinning around me. My strength draining from my body in an instant.
I barely had time to register the sensation of falling before darkness rushed in.
The last thing I felt was the cold ground beneath me, and how tired I was.
And then…
Everything went black.
- Writer
