Chapter 47: 47: Escape
"I’ll do it," I said.
There was no point in staying anyway. Even if Violet planned to have me killed, at least I would be out there in the woods. There was a low chance of escape, but at least there was a chance at all. Here, I had nowhere to run to. Every inch of land was controlled by the triplet Alphas, and they had men everywhere ready to capture me.
It was just a matter of their word.
Violet’s lips curled into a satisfied smile, which only made me narrow my eyes warily. It felt like I was signing my life away to the devil.
"Wonderful," she said. "I knew you would come around."
Somehow, that only made me more uncomfortable. Even if she kept true to her word, it wouldn’t be an easy journey. I had to be vigilant.
"When can I leave?" I asked.
I needed to make sure I was ready. If I had enough time, perhaps I could even fashion some sort of weapon to help me. After all, without my wolf, I barely had a way to defend myself unless I could find a silver weapon of sorts.
"Tonight," Violet answered.
"Tonight?!" My eyes widened into the size of saucers. "So soon?"
"Or you would perhaps like to stay a little longer?" Violet asked, raising an eyebrow. "Should I let Alpha Cassian know of your pregnancy as well? I am sure he would love to meet the baby."
I pursed my lips and said nothing. Violet smiled at my silence.
"Come to the north watch tower tonight at ten," Violet said. "Don’t be late."
***
Surprisingly, Violet did not immediately sabotage me.
I had managed to sneak my way to the north watch tower with fair ease. There were barely any guards patrolling the corridors — far less than usual — and even the minimal ones that I did spot didn’t seem to look my way.
If anything, this was almost too easy. I adjusted my small bag, feeling the curve of the silver knife inside.
In no time, I made it to the watch tower with some time to spare. No one was there yet, other than a single man who stood with his back leaning against the wall. He lifted his head when he heard me approaching, and before I could dive behind the trees to hide, he beckoned me forward.
"This way," he said.
I pinched my lips together. I didn’t know why I expected Violet to show up personally, but now that I thought about it, it made more sense for her to be preoccupying the Alphas at the moment so that I had the chance to escape.
I made my way forward, stopping right behind the man. He kicked off the wall and began to walk forward, hiding in the watch tower’s blind spots with ease.
As we got to the borders, I couldn’t help but turn back and look. From this distance, the pack house was barely a small speck of light.
For years, it had been where I stayed. And even more years before, it had once been my home. The Beta’s family lived with the Alpha’s, and even though I couldn’t remember it, I assumed I once had happier memories there.
Now, those memories were nothing but ash.
I placed a hand over my chest where my heart was. There was a dull throb of pain in my chest as I thought about leaving. Even though I didn’t have a wolf, it almost felt as though it had come alive just momentarily to grieve.
"Are you coming or not?" the man asked gruffly. "We don’t have all night."
I tore my eyes away and turned.
Rowan, Soren, and Cassian would only be upset that they didn’t get the luxury of killing me. However, they wouldn’t miss me. Not in the way I wanted my fated mates to.
If they refused to accept my rejection, then all four of us would just be miserably tethered to each other for the rest of our lives. That was what they wanted, and I was spiteful enough to grant them this.
I just hoped that Jessie wouldn’t be the one to bear the consequences of my departure.
We crossed the border, traveling further into the forest into neutral territory. Rather than neutral, perhaps the better term was ’rogue territory’.
A howl pierced through the night, and I clutched onto my satchel a little tighter than before. Rogues littered these lands, and traveling alone through these woods was often advised against, especially for weaker fighters.
I wasn’t too confident about the guide that Violet had found. However, even if he was a proficient fighter, I highly doubted he would risk his own life to save mine.
I didn’t recognize this man. He didn’t seem like a warrior from Shadowclaw. Even if I didn’t know his name, I would’ve still remembered his face otherwise. That led me to believe that he was most likely a hired mercenary.
That made him even less trustworthy.
"Where are we headed?" I asked.
In my haste to leave, I had completely forgotten to ask. I wasn’t sure what the plan even was― was Violet going to drop me off in the woods and leave me to fend for myself, or was she planning to actually send me to a different pack to hide out for the rest of my life?
I realized it had been foolish of me to blindly follow Violet’s instructions without questioning her, but I wanted to leave so badly that I had forgotten there were things I needed to clarify first.
Now, it might be too late.
Hearing my question, the man suddenly stopped in his tracks. The wind howled around us, and I clenched my teeth tightly together, trying to keep myself from shivering. Slowly, he turned around. His eyes glinted menacingly in the moonlight, and my heart dropped.
"Wherever you want to go, love," the man said. He grinned brightly, but there was nothing heartwarming about that smile of his.
He placed two fingers into his lips and blew, a sharp whistle tearing through the night sky. When he lifted his arm, his sleeve drew back a little, revealing a tattoo of a jagged crescent moon.
My heart plummeted immediately. That was the symbol of the rogues― every wolf who had been cast out of their pack would be branded with one so that other packs would know this was a traitor to their old pack.
There came a shuffling of leaves, and from the bushes beyond, several dark figures seemed to approach us.
"But first," the man said, taking a step closer towards me, "why not we have some fun?"
