Broken Bonds
The chase.

Rey couldn’t help but feel betrayed. Shebdidn’t turn her back to these people when they needed her. Even though she had every right to do just that. And what she gained in return?

A new nickname, it seemed.

Yes. She was still in love with him. She doubted there would come a day her feelings towards him would disappear completely. But she was raised properly. She would never make a move on a married man. Her consciousness would never let her forget that.

Damn it!

Half of these people were there when she was growing up. Most of them even had their share in shaping her into a woman she was now. And yet, they still had enough nerve to call her a slut.

Rey fumed as she tossed another piece of her clothes inside her bag. She didn’t want to wait for Brynn to come back home and forbid them from leaving because Rey’s condition wasn’t right yet.

No more of that!

Rey was taking things into her own hands and that meant she wasn’t going to stay in this place a minute longer.

She had enough! Enough of the villagers pointing fingers at her and whispering behind her back. Enough of her parent’s attempts to get her to forgive them. Enough of Elaine and the baby growing inside her stomach. And most of all, enough of him and his tortured eyes.

Her heart couldn’t take it anymore. Her pride as well.

She did everything as good as she could, and it still wasn’t enough.

She closed the bag after she put in clothes that were enough for her to last a couple of days. Hopefully, her family would reunite with her in the meantime.

She grabbed a couple more necessities like Brynn’s healing potions, food and some money, and she dug out a piece of paper and ink from somewhere. She scribbled a letter for Brynn with instructions on what to do next if they still wanted to follow her. And then she shut the door behind her.

No one tried to stop her.

Rey feared someone would sniff out her intentions and he would try to sabotage them, but as she walked out of the house, no one waited for her there. She didn’t meet a single soul even as she ran inside the woods, but it was still too soon for her to feel relieved.

It was obvious that she wasn’t in complete control of her emotions when she made the decision to leave. Not what she was running for quite some time, the rational part of her brain was slowly gaining back the control, and Rey started seeing the flaws in her plan.

The biggest one, she had no idea how far the nearest village was. Her father never allowed Rey to accompany her on his travels because she was apparently too young for that. So Rey only knew the village behind the fallen tree.

But people no longer lived there.

The weather wasn’t in her favour too because even though Rey didn’t feel like it, they spend a huge chunk of their afternoon observing the exchange day and sun was slowly but surely starting to set.

There was a big chance that she would have to spend her night inside the woods. But she was so mad that even this felt better than spending another day inside that village.

She was going to be fine.

Everything was going to be fine unless she would stumble upon humans. That would bring a lot of trouble for her.

She was comforted by a thought that even if that worst-case scenario came alive, not many of the humans could know how she looked like. And she was already more of a human than a wolf, anyway. Maybe she would make it out alive.

She ran for such a long time that the idea of someone from her pack following her didn’t even cross her mind anymore. Not until a loud howl came from behind her.

Rey’s heartbeat spiked up.

Brynn would never allow S to follow her into the darkness, and Lia was still in the blissful stages of her first love. Maybe she didn’t even know yet that Rey was missing. None of them seemed like suspects.

But who was it then?

Who would risk his life to go and drag her back?

Her parents?

Well, she would rather die than be dragged back by them.

She started pumping her legs even faster. Not even the twigs slapping her in the face were enough to convince her to slow down.

She just needed to run to the nearest village, and everything would be fine.

But as another howl sounded, Rey’s conviction fell apart like a stack of cards. That wasn’t a howl coming from the ordinary member of the pack.

That was a howl of an alpha.

A very angry alpha because someone from his pack ran away from him. But Rey wasn’t a part of his pack, and she would never be. Why the hell was he following her?

The howl came from way closer than before. Way closer than what made Rey feel comfortable. She might have a fighting chance to outrun a regular werewolf, but did she have a chance to outrun an alpha?

No, she didn’t.

Something rustled on her left side and before Rey had a chance to react, her body was tossed to the ground. She felt the impact of her body colliding with the dirt, but she felt the weight of the wolf that caged her between its paws even more.

It growled into her face and Rey involuntarily shivered from fear. She never even saw her father this angry, and she thought she saw the worst of Talon when they met for the first time in three years. But this, this was worse.

It looked like a feral wolf. One needed to be put down before it would hurt anyone. Rey whimpered and hoped it would do at least something to calm it down.

Maybe if Talon let his guard down, she would have another shot to start running. Now that he caught up to her, it would be no use to try and get away, but maybe she could climb up the tree and wait for him to calm down.

His anger didn’t subdue, but his wolf did. Rey watched as the fur from his body slowly disappeared and the body of the beast turned to an equally as angry body of a man.

He pierced her with his stare before he snarled: “You are not leaving me!”

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