Chapter 003
1132 Words
Mira’s POV
I don’t know how long I lay there.
It could be minutes or hours. For some reason time stopped behaving like time. I was just a body folded into dirt, shaking as pain chewed through me like something with teeth.
The mate bond was dying.
And it was dragging me with it.
“Child.”
A hand gripped my shoulder.
“We need to move. Now.”
I looked up through blurred vision and saw a familiar face. Nurse Magdalene knelt beside me, face lined deep with worry. She’d been old when I left nine years ago. Now she looked carved from time itself, gray hair pulled tight, healer’s bag clenched like a weapon.
“Can you stand?”
I tried.
My legs gave out instantly.
The cemetery was empty. Everyone had vanished the second Asher disappeared. Like proximity to me was contagious. Like rejecting an Alpha was some kind of deadly disease.
I didn’t blame them, fear ruled this place.
“Alright,” Magdalene said briskly. “Lean on me.”
She hauled me upright, taking most of my weight. “Your mother’s cottage is close. You just have to make it that far.”
I nodded and did exactly as she said.
We staggered through the gates, past the pack hall where music was already drifting into the air. I heard laughter and excitement. The Moonlight Festival didn’t pause for my grief or rebellion.
Life went on, but mine didn’t.
Every step ripped pain through my chest. The bond thrashed, wild and furious, refusing to die quietly. My wolf had gone silent, not calm, just broken.
What did we do? she’d whispered earlier.
“We survived,” I wanted to tell her.
It didn’t feel like it.
The cottage came into view, it was small, sagging, and unchanged. Exactly how my mother left it.
Magdalene kicked the door open and half-dragged me inside.
The smell hit me immediately. The cottage reeked of lavender, old paper, loneliness and my mother.
“Go to the bedroom,” Magdalene ordered, and I obeyed.
Immediately I got there I collapsed onto the bed. My mother's bed. The sheets still smelled like her, and that broke something I hadn’t realized was holding.
Pain spiked.
I curled in on myself, gasping.
“Rejection sickness,” Magdalene said, already digging through her bag. “It’s starting.”
“Lucky me,” I muttered.
“It’ll get worse before it gets better,” she said bluntly. “If it gets better.”
Another wave hit like it was ripping through my stomach. I hurriedly got up from the bed
“I need to use the bathroom!” I croaked.
I barely made it there before I threw up everything; food, water, then nothing. Sweat soaked through my clothes. My hands shook so badly I couldn’t hold the sink.
Magdalene wiped my face, calm and efficient. “Your wolf is fighting the rejection. Instinct versus will. It’s tearing you apart.”
“Yeah,” I rasped. “I noticed.”
She got me back to bed and shoved a vial into my hands. “Drink.”
I did and it tasted like dirt and bad decisions.
“The fever comes next,” she said, tucking blankets around me even though I was already burning. “Or it could be hallucinations, or maybe both.”
“Fantastic. Exactly what I need right now,’’ I said, holding on to the blankets around me.
She sat down, watching me carefully. “You need to get away from.”
“That’s the plan.”
Her gaze sharpened. “Is it? You rejected Alpha Creed publicly. You didn’t just refuse the bond, you humiliated him.”
“Good, that is the least of what he deserves.”
“No,” she said quietly. “Not good. No Alpha tolerates that. None has ever let it slide.”
The room tilted.
“But he walked away,” I said.
“For now.” Her voice dropped. “But he will come for you. It might be tonight or maybe much later. But he won’t let this stand.”
I closed my eyes. “Then I’ll be gone before he does.”
She didn’t answer.
That scared me more than the pain.
The fever took me then, my body burned and froze as it dragged me through broken memories. My father’s head on a silver platter. My mother's screaming. Asher’s young face, pale and smug. And then the older Asher's hand on my jaw, telling me “You’ll regret this.”
And maybe I already because this feels like hell.
Time fractured as Magdalene forced water and medicine down my throat. Changed sheets and yelled at me for being too stubborn.
Eventually, the worst passed.
I lay there hollowed out, shaking, my wolf silent but alive. The bond still there, but faintly, aching, like a limb I no longer had.
This was survivable.
“You’re tougher than you look,” Magdalene said as dawn light crept in. “Most wouldn’t have lived.”
“The hate in me is very strong,” I whispered.
She set water beside me. “Pack your things. The festival ends tonight, you need to be gone long before that.”
She was right.
I dressed fast, putting on my jeans and sweater. My city clothes/armor. I stuffed what little I had into my duffel. They were clothes, photos, and my mother’s letter.
Traveling light makes it easier to move fast.
I could disappear again.
At the door, Magdalene hesitated. “Before you leave I wanted you to know that your father was innocent. Some of us knew. We never forgot.”
My chest tightened.
“Why didn’t anyone speak?”
“Fear,” she said. “And cowardice that's why we kept our mouths shut.”
With that she left.
I zipped my bag and picked up my mother’s lavender sweater when I heard engines outside. Multiple engines.
My blood turned to ice.
I peered through the curtain.
Three black SUVs rolled up, dust exploding around them. Doors opened.
Cain stepped out and I knew he was Asher’s Beta.
The Alpha enforcers followed him, they were big, lethal, and built for obedience.
They weren’t here to talk.
Cain looked straight at the window and smiled.
“Miss Kenwood,” he called casually. “The Alpha requests your presence. Immediately.”
Requests?
My hands shook. The bag slipped from my fingers.
He won’t let you go, Magdalene had said.
She was right.
Footsteps hit the porch.
“Don’t make this difficult,” Cain warned. “The Alpha has been very patient.”
The handle rattled.
I had seconds, to choose; either go willingly, or be dragged forcefully.
Either way, I am screwed
And just then, the door burst open.
- Writer
