Escape Plans
1370 Words
They remained hidden behind the trees long after the bell faded into the distance, the school noise becoming a distant hum, like a world that no longer fully included them.
Lori sat down on the grass first, pulling Iva with her until they were both seated under the shade, the bark of the old tree rough against their backs. For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Iva broke the silence.
“I wanted to tell my parents,” she said quietly, staring at her hands. “I wanted to tell the pack. I really did.”
Lori turned to her slowly. “But?”
“But after everything that happened yesterday… after what my father did, after how everyone looked at me like I was something rotten, Alpha’s decision to mate me in the northern packs…” Iva’s voice wavered, but she kept going. “I know they wouldn’t believe me. They would say I’m lying. Or worse, that I’m trying to manipulate them.”
Lori frowned deeply. “There has to be some way to prove it, right? Some test, some ritual, something ancient?”
Iva lifted her shoulders in a helpless shrug. “I have no idea. Honestly. Everything is so new, I got no chance to speak yet to my wolf. These are wolven secrets. Things that only elders or historians talk about, and even then… I doubt they’d tell someone like me.”
She let out a bitter breath. “And now… considering everything… I’m not even sure I want to risk it.”
Lori’s eyebrows knitted together. “Risk what?”
“Staying,” Iva replied softly. “Staying in this pack.”
The words settled heavily between them.
“The way they treated me,” Iva continued, her voice low but steady. “A pack is supposed to protect its own. To accept all its members. Not just the strong, not just the impressive, not just the ones who bring power, the Elites.”
Her jaw tightened. “But aside from you… and your parents… everyone else avoids me like I carry some kind of disease.”
Lori exhaled slowly, pain flickering across her face. “Oh, Iva…”
She rubbed her hands together, searching for the right words. “That’s not how it should be. And you don’t deserve this. Not even a little.”
They sat in silence again, the leaves rustling above them.
Then Lori tilted her head, studying her friend carefully. “If you already felt this way… why did you tell Nick?”
Iva closed her eyes briefly.
“Because,” she said after a moment, “I needed to know.”
Lori waited.
“I needed to know if there was anything left worth saving,” Iva continued. “If there was even the smallest chance that the boy I once knew was still there. That maybe he would feel it too. The bond. The truth.”
Her voice cracked slightly. “It was my last chance. My last try. Before giving up completely.”
Lori nodded slowly, understanding settling in her eyes.
“And now?” she asked gently.
Iva opened her eyes.
“There’s no doubt left in me,” she said firmly. “I’ve made my decision.”
Her gaze hardened, not with anger, but with clarity.
“I am done trying to earn love from people who only value power. I am done shrinking myself to fit a place that never wanted me. Years of trying, Lori, and yet my own father never fully accepted me.”
Lori smiled sadly. “Whatever you decide,” she said, “you won’t face it alone.”
Iva looked at her best friend, warmth spreading through the cracks of her broken heart.
For the first time in days, the fear loosened its grip.
Because even if she lost a pack…
She hadn’t lost herself.
--
Lori stayed silent for a long moment after Iva finished speaking.
Then she asked the question she had clearly been holding back.
“How are you planning to escape?” Lori said carefully. “And where will you even go, Iva?”
Her voice softened, but the fear beneath it was clear. “The Alpha already plans to mate you off in less than two weeks. And now you’re grounded. They’re watching you.”
Iva looked at her best friend, her expression calm in a way that surprised even herself.
“I would like to tell you,” she said quietly. “More than anything. But if I leave the pack… the Alpha will come to you.”
Lori frowned. “To me?”
Iva nodded. “They’ll question you. Pressure you. And knowing them… they might even enforce an Alpha command to make you speak.”
Lori paled.
“So the less you know,” Iva continued gently, “the safer you are.”
“Oh, Iva…” Lori whispered.
Her eyes filled with tears as she pulled Iva into a tight embrace, holding her like she might disappear if she let go. “I hate this. I hate that you have to do this alone.”
Iva hugged her back just as tightly. “I won’t be alone,” she murmured. “Not really. I have Avalon.”
Shortly after, they returned to their classes.
The rest of the day blurred into a haze.
Iva blocked everything out—the whispers, the looks, the cruelty that clung to the hallways. When lunch break arrived, she slipped away from the canteen without a second thought and headed straight for the library.
The quiet there felt sacred.
She sat at one of the computers, her fingers trembling slightly as she logged in and opened her email. She took a long breath.
“Okay, Iva,” she whispered to herself. “Time to plan your escape.”
Her inbox loaded.
Empty.
She stared at the screen for a moment, disappointment pressing against her ribs. “Just a little longer,” she murmured. “Be patient.”
She leaned back in the chair, memories surfacing.
After her father had rejected her intention to study so completely, she had listened to Lori’s advice and given herself options. That was how she had applied—quietly, secretly—to the Lycan Academy.
She knew it was a long shot.
But if, by some miracle, she was accepted, everything would change.
Three years of accommodation.
Three years of meals, uniforms, protection.
A full scholarship.
A place where no one would think about looking for her, because no one would ever imagine her being admitted along the Elites and Lycans.
She clasped her hands together under the desk. “Moon Goddess,” she whispered, almost shyly, “please.”
Her heart beat faster.
“By the end of this week, I’ll know,” she told herself. “They have already started sending acceptance and rejection letters.”
And if she wasn’t accepted…
She swallowed.
“Then I’ll go anywhere,” she whispered. “Anywhere at all. No matter the risk.”
Anything was better than being mated into a barbaric pack where women were possessions instead of people.
She moved to the next step.
Money.
She opened her notes and counted her savings carefully, line by line. If she stretched it—if she was careful—she could survive for two months in human territory. All this was money gathered from every gift, anniversary. She was not a big spender and now it helped.
Two months.
After that, she would need a job. Any job. Cleaning, waitressing, stocking shelves—anything that would keep her fed and hidden until the Academy courses began after summer.
She exhaled slowly.
It’s possible.
Hard.
Terrifying.
But possible.
Finally, she closed her eyes and turned inward.
“Avalon,” she whispered.
“I’m here,” her wolf replied immediately.
“Now,” Iva said, her voice steady despite the fear coiling in her stomach, “it’s time to plan the most sensitive step and I would need all your help.”
She swallowed hard.
“Our escape from the pack.”
The word escape echoed between them—dangerous, final, irreversible.
And for the first time…
It sounded like hope.
- Writer
