Chapter 4 Escape root

"Clara, stop this madness. You won't make it far." "I'd rather die trying than live another day beneath your roof!" My voice cracked as I tore through the forest, my lungs heaving with every desperate breath. Branches lashed against my arms and face, but I didn't slow. Behind me, the haunting howls of the pack echoed through the night air, gaining on me with terrifying speed. I didn't have time to think. I didn't have time to cry. All I could do was run, run for the life inside me, run from the monster who claimed to love me, run from the death that wore the face of Alpha Lucas.

"You're already dead if you keep going!" one of the guards shouted, but his voice faded as I sprinted harder into the darkness. "They'll catch you," another growled from a distance. "You can't outrun the bond." "I don't want the bond," I whispered through gritted teeth. "I want to live free." The wind clawed at my hair as the dense trees thinned and opened into a moonlit clearing. My heart slammed against my chest as I stumbled forward. The forest floor sloped suddenly, and I tripped, tumbling into gravel and cold earth. I pushed myself up with scraped palms and froze. A cliff. Directly ahead, a jagged drop yawned beneath the pale light of the full moon. Below it, dark ocean waves crashed against stone with deafening force. The icy wind whipped my soaked clothes against my body as I teetered on the edge, chest heaving. The cliff was unfamiliar, this wasn't part of the route I planned. Had I taken a wrong turn? Was this how fate decided it would end? "No... No, no, no," I murmured, backing away from the edge, trying to think, to breathe. Leaves rustled behind me. Growls rose in chorus. I turned around slowly and found myself face-to-face with five enormous wolves, their teeth bared, eyes glowing with predatory hunger. The blood drained from my face as I realized I was surrounded. My escape had led me straight into their trap. Their muscular bodies blocked every possible way back into the forest. Behind me was the cliff. Ahead, death. "Step aside," I said, my voice trembling. "Please. I don't want to fight." One of the wolves snarled, inching forward, its eyes never leaving mine. "Clara," a cold, familiar voice called from behind the pack, cutting through the night. My blood turned to ice. He stepped out from the shadows, tall, elegant, and composed as ever. His silver eyes gleamed beneath the moonlight, unreadable, unshaken. Alpha Lucas. The very devil I ran from. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his coat unruffled by the chaos he brought in his wake. "Why do you keep doing this?" he asked softly, as though we were merely continuing a conversation at the dinner table. I swallowed hard, my back to the cliff's edge. "You know why." "Remind me." "I'm pregnant," I hissed. "With your child. And I will not let you kill it." He said nothing. His eyes remained locked on mine, lips pressed into a thin line, unreadable. "You promised," I continued. "You said if I ever got pregnant, you'd make me give birth just so you could rip the baby away. You said you'd kill it in front of me." "I keep my promises," he said without emotion. A sob escaped me before I could stop it. "You're a monster, Lucas. A sadist. You don't deserve to be called a man." "I'm your Alpha." "Not anymore," I shouted, tears spilling over my cheeks. "I never accepted you. I never wanted you. You forced me into this, and now you want to destroy the only good thing that's ever come out of my pain?" He stepped closer, and the wolves shifted with him, as though tethered by one invisible command. I took another step back, and gravel slipped beneath my heels. "There's no place you can go that I won't find you, Clara," he said calmly. "Not even death will hide you from me." "Why?" I demanded. "Why do you want me so badly just to ruin me?" His jaw clenched slightly, a flicker of emotion breaking through his porcelain mask. "Because you're mine." "I don't belong to you!" I cried. "You took my life, my freedom, my body, now you want my soul, too?" "If you jump," he said, "you won't survive." "Then I'll die free." "Clara." "I mean it!" I shrieked. "I'd rather feel the cold of that ocean than your hands again. I'd rather be broken by the rocks than by your promises." He stepped forward again. "Come back with me." "No." "I'll punish you again if you run." "You've punished me every day since you met me." "Don't do this." "Why not?" I asked. "What's left for me there? The chains? The cold stares? The threats? The nights of silence followed by the mornings of cruelty? You think that's love? You think I'll let my child be born into that?" Lucas said nothing for a long moment. The wolves waited, ears perked, bodies coiled like springs ready to pounce. "I should've killed you the first time you disobeyed," he said finally. "But you didn't," I replied, breath catching. "And now it's too late." He stared at me, unmoving. "I reject you," I said, the words slicing my throat as they came out. "I reject you as my mate, as my Alpha, as anything." His face shifted slightly, and for the first time, I saw it, pain. Not much. Not enough. But it was there, behind his perfectly controlled mask. "Don't," he said. "Don't say those words." "Why not?" I asked. "Because they have power?" "Because you don't know what you're doing." I raised my chin, tears pouring freely now. "I know exactly what I'm doing." He took one last step forward. "Clara. Please." It was the first time he had ever said that word to me, please. But it was too late. "I'm leaving you behind, Lucas." I stepped back. One foot found empty air. Then the other. I let go. The wind rushed past me, screaming in my ears as I plunged downward. I closed my eyes, bracing for the water. Bracing for the end. But somewhere deep in my chest, a strange peace bloomed. I had chosen this. I had chosen freedom over fear. I had chosen life, even if it meant death. The water hit me like concrete. Every bone screamed. Cold swallowed me whole. Pain burst through my body. Then silence. I sank deeper and deeper, eyes open, limbs limp. Above me, the moon glowed faintly through the waves, growing smaller and dimmer. My body floated, my mind faded, and for the first time in years, I felt light. Lucas had no power here. He couldn't touch me. And if this was death, then so be it. But just before the darkness took me, a warm pulse flickered through my belly. The baby. Still alive. Still fighting.