Chapter 15
Chapter fifteen
Lyra
Irun straight towards my freedom, my sluggish feet carrying me to safety.
To Eden.
To my sisters.
I’m coming, Zelda, Ava…
Lightning flashes in the sky above, and I yelp, covering my head, yet I don’t stop; I just keep going.
I can outrun the storm. Outrun Pack Storm as I skirt around tree roots. This time, I will not be defeated by the forest. I will outsmart its vicious branches with its cruel, grasping fingers, and then I’ll outwit every winding river I stumble across.
The trees may bear fangs and sharp claws once more, but I’m wiser now, dodging out of their way.
I duck just as one branch stretches towards me. The tree sinks its nasty claws into my right arm, cutting the skin.
I cry out, dropping into a roll when I fall to the ground, but I make sure I land on my feet.
I must keep running. Must get away because I refuse to be a prisoner to my own heart and my traitorous Omega again.
She caved. No, I caved...
For a moment, she allowed herself to get complacent. She let that kind Alpha into her heart, the one who rescues injured birds and adopts wild foxes.
Wren. He really was too good to be true.
Yet, he was real.
As well as his kindness.
My eyes squeeze shut, tears breaking free and whipping away with the wind.
Then there’s Malakai. As cruel as he may have been, he still showed some softness. Softness contradicted by roughness, sure, but it was there, yet faint.
And Gage. Big, intense, smoldering-eyed Gage. He was suspicious from the start. But he captured me in his arms when I fell out of the window.
And his arms were gentle.
He had every reason to want to wring my neck, a strange Omega who showed up on his doorstep, but instead he showed me hospitality.
Twigs snap in the distance, and I slow my pace. Someone is following me, and in my moment of weakness, I think it’s them coming to find me.
To explain and make amends with me.
Just perhaps they will not toss me away and turn me over to the king.
A part of me wonders if I should turn back around and go back to the cabin, but I can’t. I am destined for a life on the run.
So long as I make it to the other side of the desert, I’ll be safe. Then I can reunite with my sisters and never have to worry about Alphas ever again.
A perfect Omega paradise.
If such a place exists.
My pursuers are gaining on me fast. And like the foolish Omega I am, I slow down my pace, hoping and praying that it may be them.
Unfortunately, I’m too busy tuning my ears toward the sounds behind me that I fail to see a tree root.
I go flying down a hill, covering my face with my arms, protecting my eyes from rocks, twigs, and thorns.
I finally reach the bottom, landing flat on my stomach, but before I even have a chance to get back on my feet, I come face to face with the pointed end of an arrow.
I barely spy the veiled face of the guard behind it.
“Don’t move, Omega.”
Now, I’m staring death right in its cold, black eyes. I guess my days truly are numbered.
It’s just too bad that my Omega has decided to go into heat in that crucial moment. My body spasms, and then my perfume clouds the air.
Hopefully, the guard will end my life quickly.
Because some fates truly are worse than death.