ROGUE REPUBLIC
1412 Words
MIA
I wrap my arms around myself as I take one step forward. That’s all I need. Step by step, and I might finally walk into my oblivion—I will never be seen, heard of, or remembered again.
Just like my husband. I do not know if he’s dead or alive.
“Lily, can you…?” I’m not sure I should ask her this.
“Can you feel West’s wolf? Do you know…do you know if he’s still alive? It’s the not knowing of it all that’s killing me. Xander says to have hope, but I can’t…”
“You know I wish I could, Mia.”
Oh God.
I wipe my tear-streaked face with the back of my palms and suck out a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked that.”
She doesn’t respond.
Lily came to me when I turned sixteen, the same year the haze first took its toll on me. As an omega, she is quite weak and cannot do many things other stronger wolves can do.
It’s been a sore spot for us for years, but it doesn’t matter to me.
She’s a great companion… when she wants to be.
Darkness greets me soon enough. The road is now covered by a thick blanket of trees.
I’ve wandered faraway from the livable quarters of Blackwater, and I’m only realizing it now.
The air here feels different.
Thicker, harder to breathe in or exhale out.
The scent of the Haze hasn’t faded with the daylight. If anything, it’s sharper, beastlier.
It is no news to anyone in Blackwater that night exposes the rawest and darkest parts of the haze.
Hence the curfew.
Dread curls into me.
I SHOULDN’T BE OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW!
I left the house without my phone. I didn’t take West’s car. I don’t even know where I am.
“Lily?” I reach for my wolf internally.
“Come on, you seriously still aren’t mad about the question I asked. I need you.”
She stirs, restless and anxious inside me.
She can feel it too, the shift in the air and the danger crawling closer.
“This isn’t right. This place isn’t safe.” She sneers at something, but it’s not at me.
“Quick, find where to hide. Xander should be looking for you. You can hide somewhere until morning.”
Even if he’s truly looking for me, he’ll be a fool to wander this far from the main town.
“Lily,” I push down the hard pebble of saliva sitting in my throat. The cold wind that blows past me leaves goosebumps, like ants, on the surface of my skin.
“We’re not in rogue republic, are we?”
She. Doesn’t. Answer.
“Lily…”
I want to say something when I hear the rustling of leaves, very quickly. I feel the body rush past me.
I whip my head backwards, narrowing my eyes as though it’ll give me a better view of the night. It’s another thing Lily doesn’t do very well.
“There’s someone here.” I whisper.
It happens again, and again, and again. Three different people.
I gather a fistful of the sides of my dress.
Goddess, please.
The hair at the back of my neck stands erect, the low growls from behind cause my heart to leap from my chest.
Slowly, I glance over my shoulder and my heart drops into my stomach.
Four wolves are behind me, eyes as red as blood, shimmering with maddening lust.
Their mouths hang open, strings of saliva stretching between their fangs like cobwebs.
Of all the ways I could die, I have never imagined it’ll be being taken by force by four big wolves.
My knees wobble as I stagger backwards.
A flush of warmth spreads from my stomach to the rest of my body, invisible needles prick my skin, my heartbeat quickens.
This can’t be happening.
Not right now!
The haze doesn’t care that these wolves are a potential threat to my life.
It floods my veins anyway, turning my fear into heat, and heat into a desire that makes me want to s***h my own throat.
“Lily, we need to run.”
The only way I can get out of this is by borrowing her speed.
I can’t get far enough on my human legs.
“Please,” a lone tear rushes down my right cheek.
“We won’t survive if you don’t run.”
I feel her push, strain, claw at the edges of our shared body. But the shift doesn’t come.
It never does when I need it. Being an omega means Lily is too weak to force the transformation.
Well—I suck in a deep breath and tighten the muscles of my stomach— I guess my legs will just have to be enough.
Without another thought, I break into a run.
“Get off the main road!” Lily screams at me. “There’s more of them ahead, get into the woods!”
I steer off the main road and plunge into the woods.
Branches scratch my arms and face, roots claw at my feet, but the woods are better than the open road.
On the road, they’ll catch me in seconds. Here, the trees might slow them down.
“Keep running, Mia!” Lily screams inside me. “Don’t stop!”
I brush my sweat off my eyes with my hands.
I run until my lungs are on fire.
I just have to make it through the night. I can make it out of Blackwater if I run fast enough, then I’ll be safe… I think.
I should really have followed Xander back home. If only I—
“Ah!”
My right foot slams into something, cracking my big toe with brute force.
My scream echoes in the air as I fall backwards, straight into the ground.
My head collides with a hard rock behind me.
Pain explodes up my right leg, into my brain. I know the moment my head starts to bleed, I can feel the warm liquid gush out of the back of my wound.
“Get up!” Lily wails. “Mia, get up!”
I can’t.
The wolves come to a halt around me.
They don’t need to run anymore. Their prey has fallen.
I hear one of them growl, low and guttural, close enough that I feel the vibration in my chest.
The scent of the heat crazed wolf fills my nostrils.
Hot breath hits the back of my neck.
Lily.
She whimpers inside me, curling into herself. She can’t help. She knows it. I know it.
I close my eyes.
I’m sorry, West. I’m sorry you had to die because of me.
The wolf comes even closer, he mounts my body, sniffing my core with his nostrils.
If I bleed out here and die fast enough, I won’t get to feel the pain, or face the horror of these beasts tearing me apart.
I close my eyes.
Please, moon goddess, just take me now, before I—
BANG.
The sound of gunshot forces my eyes open.
Something wet and warm splatters across my face, my chest, my stomach.
It’s blood.
My eyes widen as I stare at the wolf above me. His lifeless body falls onto mine.
A second gunshot tears through the air, and the others hurry away, leaving their dead partner bleeding out on my body.
The edges of my vision are dissolving, pitch black creeping into my head like ink poured into water.
“Lily?” I murmur, weak and trembling.
No answer. She’s retreated somewhere deep inside me, somewhere I can’t reach.
The sound of footsteps stop right beside me. I feel someone drop to their knees. The dead wolf is pulled away from my body.
I force my eyes open one last time.
The face above me is blurred by my vision, yet, it seems oddly familiar.
Brown eyes stare down at me with shock and fear. Wide, terrified, desperate.
I know…I know those eyes.
I try to raise my right hand, try to reach for his face.
He takes my hand quickly and presses it against his cheek.
My skin recognizes him immediately.
Even if my eyes deceive me, my body wouldn’t.
It’s him. It’s really him.
I chuckle at the painful irony of it all.
Who would have thought that the last face I see before I die will be Jakob’s?
- Writer
