Chapter 4 Planning to escape

The clock was striking to midnight and an hour had passed by since the horrific moment, yet I couldn't get any sleep. I was alone in the house, my mother was probably still doing the chores.

My body trembled beneath the cold sheets, each tick of the second hand sounding louder than the last, like a cruel reminder that time was moving while I remained stuck in that same place of pain and disbelief.

I wasn't going to.

Sleep felt like a betrayal. A surrender.

I felt pain.

It wasn't just physical. It was deeper, tangled within every nerve and thought. The ache in my chest throbbed with every breath, my lungs burning from holding back sobs I refused to release.

My body felt lifeless as I lay sprawled across the pillow top mattress. The plush comfort of it mocked my suffering. Darkness surrounded me, thick and still, pressing against my skin like a second layer.

I looked up at the moon. Its crooked smile seemed to be taunting me. My eyebrows knitted in anger, resentment boiling beneath the surface.

I was in pain, both physically and mentally.

A relentless, gnawing kind of pain. It wasn’t just bruises or cuts. It was betrayal, humiliation, and something even darker something I didn’t have a name for.

Throughout my years of living, what Alpha ordered was the most horrific thing I had ever faced. Yes, I have been getting punishments and my body heals faster, but this time I felt betrayed. And it was so paining.

I had endured lashings before, starvation, mockery but nothing like this. This wasn’t just about pain it was about being broken in a way that couldn’t heal overnight.

He rejected me but still planned to keep me as his breeder.

I would rather be a rogue, alone and hunted, than be caged and used as someone’s punishing instrument. I would rather taste cold wind on my face, hunger and fear in my veins, than the slow death of having my body assigned a purpose it had not chosen.

The punishment left my back raw and my body trembling but I forced myself up from the bed to go on with my plan.

I didn’t know where I was going, only that I had to put distance between me and the Crescent pack. The trees swallowed me. Branches tore the fabric of my tunic; brambles stole a handful of my hair. My feet were raw, and my lungs burned with a fire that felt like life being fed back into me. I ran until my legs folded and I could go no further.

When I finally stumbled into a clearing, the world split open in a way that made me dizzy: no roofs, no stone walls, only stars like watchful eyes. I dropped to my knees and pressed my palms to the earth. The thought of being a rogue alone, hunted, but freedom sparked warmth through my bones. I spat on the ground and swore I would never be made into something I was not.

Just as I was in my thoughts, out of the blue, the sound of a

The Alpha’s command had shattered something in me.

Throughout my years in the Crescent Pack, I had endured everything they threw at me. The lashings. The hunger. The humiliation. I healed fast, they said, because I was “strong.” But this wasn’t strength—it was survival. And tonight, survival had come at a price I could never forget.

He rejected me—publicly, cruelly—and yet declared he would keep me as his breeder.

A body, not a being.

A vessel for his bloodline.

I would rather die.

I would rather rot in the wilderness, hunted by beasts and starved by the elements, than let him cage me and use me like an animal.

With that vow burning through my chest, I forced myself to move. My back screamed with every twitch of muscle, the fresh wounds weeping beneath the thin fabric of my tunic. But I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

I gathered what little I could—nothing more than a cloak, a flask of water, and the will to live—and slipped out into the night.

The forest waited for me, vast and endless. The cold air bit into my skin as I stumbled through the trees, each step a prayer and a curse. Branches lashed at me, tearing the fabric of my tunic. Brambles caught my hair and stole handfuls of it as if the forest itself wanted a piece of me. My feet burned, my lungs clawed for air, but I didn’t stop running until my legs gave out beneath me.

I collapsed into a clearing. The sky above stretched wide and wild, filled with stars that blinked down like unfeeling eyes. For the first time in years, I saw no walls, no guards, no chains—only freedom. It made me dizzy.

I pressed my palms into the damp earth, feeling its pulse, its raw life. “I will never be yours,” I whispered, my voice hoarse and trembling. “Not his. Not anyone’s.”

And then, as if the world wanted to remind me that freedom was an illusion, the sound came.

A low growl.

Then another.

My body went rigid.

From the shadows, figures emerged—tall, broad, their eyes glowing like molten gold. Wolves. Not Crescent Pack wolves. Their scent was different—stronger, foreign, dangerous.

I stumbled backward, raising my hands instinctively. “I—I’m not here to fight,” I stammered, voice breaking. “Please. I’m just passing through.”

The largest of them stepped forward, his gaze cold and assessing. “A rogue,” he said, his voice low, rumbling like distant thunder. “Trespassing on our land.”

“I didn’t mean to,” I tried again, desperation clawing at my throat. “I’m running—from the Crescent Pack. Please, I’m not here to cause trouble. I’ll leave right now—”

A second wolf snarled, cutting me off. “You expect us to believe that?” he hissed. “A rogue crossing into our territory at night?”

I shook my head, tears blurring my vision. “Please. I swear, I mean no harm. I just needed—”

“Silence.” The Alpha guard’s voice cracked through the air like a whip. He stepped closer until his scent filled my lungs—earth, pine, and blood. “We should kill her now before she brings Crescent spies behind her.”

My heart slammed against my ribs. “No! Please, I—I’m not—”

Another voice, deeper and colder, spoke from behind them. “Or take her to the Alpha,” it said. “He’ll decide if she dies.”

The others exchanged glances.

The leader growled, his fangs glinting in the moonlight. “You’re lucky,” he said. “The Alpha likes to make his own judgments.”

They grabbed me roughly, yanking my arms behind my back. My body screamed in protest, pain bursting along my spine, but I didn’t fight. I couldn’t afford to.

As they dragged me through the forest, the cold wind biting my face, I realized how cruel fate could be.

From punishment to capture. From one prison to another.

I had escaped one Alpha only to be delivered to the feet of another.

I felt cursed—cursed by the Moon herself.

But I had no choice. Between dying in the forest and facing an unknown Alpha, I chose the latter.

Because at least if I met him, I might still have a chance to speak.

A chance to plead.

A chance to survive.

I lifted my chin, forcing back the tremor in my voice as they led me into the dark. “Fine,” I said softly. “Take me to him.”

The guards exchanged uneasy looks, but none spoke.

And as the night swallowed us whole, I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever awaited me in that shadowed fortress would be far worse than anything I had already endured.