CHAPTER EIGHT: FEAR
1054 Words
Lila POV
My wolf pulls free of the current eventually, and we break out of the top of the river, gasping for air around the backpack. We end up being pulled farther and farther down the river, not able to get out of the current to either side. My legs ache, and tiredness takes over with every brush of water against us. The only good thing is that Rizor is unlikely to find me now. The dreadful thing is that rivers like this can only end in two ways—one could be a pretty lake, and the other a deadly waterfall.
With my luck, it is definitely going to be a waterfall.
No sooner do I think that than the rushing sound of a waterfall in the distance reaches my ears, and pure panic makes me struggle in the water. I want to shift back, but I know it’s not a good idea. My wolf is stronger than I am. She goes back underwater with the current, and we try swimming harder when we come back up, but it doesn’t get us anywhere. I glance around as quickly as possible, looking for anything to help us get out of this damn river.
That’s when I see it—a big rock ledge on the left side, right next to the edge of the waterfall cliff. If I could just land on that, I can climb out and be on the right side of the city.
I swim as hard as I can towards it, pushing my wolf to her limits, begging our body not to give in to the tiredness.
We really need to work on our cardio and swimming skills if we survive this.
We slam into the ledge, my lungs gasping from the impact, and I nearly drop the backpack from my mouth. Pulling myself up onto it, I drag my weak legs across to the side of the rocky pathway and find a hidden space between a few roots of a stray tree that will hide me for a bit.
Fucking hell, I think to myself, letting out a small, frustrated whine.
I shift back, needing to be human for a moment, and take a deep breath before breaking down in sobs as the pain of everything that has happened catches up with me. Wrapping my arms around my knees, I don’t know how long I cry for. Knowing that my mum’s gone, knowing my dad is most likely gone too, and I’m the alpha’s intended mate.
And he rejected me.
Being rejected by someone you’re meant to mate with is unheard of in the pack world. At least, I’ve never heard of it. But then it’s also unheard of for the Stormfire alpha to take a mate. I know he has one son whose mother he murdered, but she was never his mate—just his breeder.
How he ever thought I could be his mate is insane to think about. I’m no alpha female, and I never want to take a mate. I don’t want to love someone because magic forces me to. Too many times, I saw my mum resist her mating bond because her mate was an asshole.
Sorry, Dad, but you were one. RIP. Hopefully.
I grit my teeth, and my wolf lets out a growl that echoes in my chest when I think of Rizor calling me weak. I am not weak. Taking a deep breath, I try to control my emotions, pushing down the urge to shift back—to run and run until we get out of this world, to somewhere safe from him. But I know we need to be smarter than that right now.
I don’t have anywhere to go back to. The alpha of Caeli won’t fight the Stormfire Pack for me, which he would have to do if he protected me. Rizor will never stop until he kills me… even I don’t understand what he wants with my death. I can’t go straight to my brother because that’s exactly where he’d think I’d go. Watching my brother is going to be his first move, no doubt.
I search my brain for an answer for a long time before I come up with the perfect—ish—idea.
I look up at the falling embers drifting down around me, matching the same colour as my hair. I think of my brother’s best friend who lives here in Stormfire. The boy who always smelt of burning leaves and bad decisions.
Caleb Hardling.
I met him a few times as a young teenager, and I fixated on him because he was Stormfire—new, interesting, and most importantly, gorgeous. His parents let him spend two years training in Caeli Academy as part of a student exchange programme to help with peace between the four packs. Caleb is a good guy, and I can trust him. My brother said he trusted Caleb with his life, and I really have no one else to turn to here.
I doubt Caleb is even going to remember me. I haven’t seen him since I was thirteen and blurted out that I had a big crush on his handsome eighteen-year-old ass.
I was a dork who had just discovered wine. A bad combo.
I have to ask him to hide me until I can come up with a plan. He’s a bounty hunter—or at least I heard he was in the bounty hunter trials last year. My brother never said if Caleb passed them like he did, but I doubt Caleb failed. When he sets his mind on something, he always gets it in the end. He told me that himself when I was a drunk little dork.
Now I have a plan—albeit not a great one—I open the backpack and find several sets of clothes inside, along with a letter. My hands shake as I open the yellow envelope and pull the parchment out. I run my fingers over my name, written in my mum’s beautiful, classy handwriting.
A small bracelet falls out of the envelope onto my lap, and I lift it to see it’s made of silver with a red stone in the middle. I set the bracelet down and open the letter to read it.
- Writer
