Chapter Four

Ellie

I couldn’t tell how long I was out. One moment I was hanging by a rope, the next, I was gasping as icy water hit my back. I knew I was still alive because of the shivering and the pain. Not from new lashes, but from the cuts on my back.

My first thought wasn’t about me. It was about Sammy.

I fell to the ground when someone cut the ropes. The smell of blood was strong as I hit the dirt.

Water mixed with blood and dirt. I didn’t know if it was mine or Sammy’s.

I didn’t move. I just lay there, listening to the pack leave. I didn’t know if they were there because they wanted to be or if Zagan made them watch. Right now, I didn’t care.

I clenched my fists, trying to block out the pain.

“Should I take them down?”

That was Dante’s voice. Hopefully, that meant Sammy was still alive.

“No,” Zagan laughed without humor, “Leave them there as a warning, get them at dawn...if the vultures haven’t feasted on them.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. It was still morning. We had the rest of the day to recover as much as we could, then tonight we would try to crawl away.

Cross into another pack's territory, break the links, and find somewhere to hide until our wolves returned.

I opened my eyes and looked around.

Sammy was lying across from me. I winced seeing his back. I figured mine must look the same. Thankfully, I could see his chest rising and falling; he didn’t seem conscious though.

Hopefully, he was strong enough to get out of here before dawn. I didn’t have much hope for us if we couldn’t escape Zagan’s clutches.

I closed my eyes; I needed to rest. My plan had worked, even if it was a crappy one. I just hoped Sammy could forgive me.

I must have fallen asleep at some point. I woke up to someone gently touching my hand.

“Ellie...Ellie...please be okay.”

I opened my eyes to see Sammy’s worried face.

“I’m okay,” I mumbled, “I’m sorry, you weren’t supposed to get hurt.”

I looked around; the sun was low in the sky. Had I been out all day?

“What do we do now?” Sammy whispered.

I swallowed hard. The thought of actually getting out of here made my heart pound in my chest.

“We leave; he told Dante to leave us out here until dawn.”

I looked around again; he hadn’t even left a guard. I looked towards the pack house; there were lights in the windows, they were probably eating.

I pushed myself up to my knees and hissed.

I saw the discarded shirts that had been ripped off our backs. I crawled over and grabbed them.

“What are you doing?” Sammy whispered.

I handed Sammy his torn shirt.

“Once we cross out of his territory, we can try and bandage each other up a bit.”

Sammy nodded.

I looked around, trying to decide which direction to go. We needed to head to the nearest boundary, but I had no idea.

Sammy looked at me and pointed towards the setting sun.

“This way, the next pack territory is closest this way,” he concluded.

I frowned, “how do you know?”

He managed to push himself to his feet, using the post we had been tied to as support. He held out his hand.

“We learned about packs and boundaries. They won’t follow us if we make it over the western border.”

I took Sammy’s hand, and he helped me to stand.

“We need to make it to the river. That’s the boundary line. Cross the river and we’ll be safe...well, kind of. It’s about a mile.”

I nodded, and we gingerly started to walk.

Each step was painful for both of us, but we didn’t really have a choice. I just hoped that no one came out of the pack-house before morning. The more of a head start we got, the better.

I stuck close to Sammy. He was already a member of the pack, so he wouldn’t be picked up by the patrols. I still had Dante’s and Zagan’s scent on me from the morning.

I hoped that would be enough to hide my own scent. The higher the rank of the wolf, the stronger the scent.

The fact that our wolves were not around meant that the patrols wouldn’t pick up my Alpha wolf’s scent.

A couple of times we had to stop when we saw a patrol in the distance. The ones we saw were in human form, so their ability to pick up our scent would be slightly diminished anyway.

We both needed to rest, but we knew we had to keep going. We were making slow progress, but we couldn’t move any faster. We were both exhausted and in pain.

I began to worry that we weren’t going to make it. That Zagan would find that we were gone. The sky was beginning to lighten. I saw the edge of the sun, beginning to peek above the horizon behind us.

I was about to tell Sammy that I didn’t think we were going to make it, but he spoke before me, excitement in his voice.

“I can hear water.”

He stumbled forward, pulling me along.

I took another look behind me.

“We need to hurry, Sammy, it’s almost dawn.”

He nodded.

As we cleared the treeline, I saw it. The river. It was so close.

I froze as I heard a howl from behind us. Zagan, it had to be, or Dante.

Sammy looked at me, panic on his face.

He gritted his teeth.

“Come on... we're nearly there. We can't stop now.”

I nodded and gritted my own teeth.

We picked up the pace, despite the pain we were both in.

As we reached the shore of the river, Sammy looked at me and smiled. We started to wade in.

Then I heard it—the sound of feet and a growl behind us.

I glanced back, my heart pounding.

I’d never laid eyes on a wolf in its true form. Not when I was with Gabriel, and certainly not during my time in the dungeon.

A scream tore from my throat as I pushed forward. The pain that had been consuming me was forgotten, replaced by adrenaline coursing through my veins.

The wolf was massive. Its fur was a deep, inky black from head to tail, and its eyes glowed a fiery amber. I sent up a silent prayer to any deity that might be listening, hoping we had crossed the boundary.

Hearing my scream, Sammy whipped his head around. He didn’t scream. He just pushed on, matching my pace.

We were halfway across the river now. Luck was on our side in more ways than one.

First, we’d stumbled upon a shallow crossing point, more by chance than anything else. Second, Zagan’s wolf just stood there at the river’s edge, as if he dared not cross.

He’d shown no regard for boundaries when he’d taken me. It was unsettling that he seemed hesitant to cross this one. I prayed we weren’t jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Once we reached the other side, Sammy released my hand. He stood there, staring across the river at Zagan’s wolf.

“I, Samuel of the Blood Fang Pack, reject the pack and accept rogue status,” he shouted.

Then he dropped to his knees, his body wracked with sobs.

I wrapped my arm around him, careful not to touch his wounds, and turned my gaze to Zagan.

“I, Ellie of the Crescent Moon Pack, reject the pack and accept rogue status,” I yelled.

The moment the words left my mouth, I whimpered and fell to my knees. A tightness gripped my chest, the same feeling I’d experienced when I was torn away from my dying parents.

Grief washed over me, leaving a hollow emptiness in its wake. Tears streamed down my face.

Was this what it felt like to be a rogue?

“You won’t last five minutes, you worthless mutts,” Zagan growled.

I looked up to see he had shifted back.

“Death is preferable to being anywhere near you. You fucking bastard!” I screamed.

Now it was Sammy’s turn to comfort me.

“Come on,” he whispered, “let's see if we can find some shelter.”

I turned away and walked deeper into the unknown territory, leaving Zagan behind on the opposite shore.

“Where are we, anyway?” I asked Sammy.

Sammy frowned, “I’m not sure. In school, on the maps, this territory was just marked as unknown pack.”

I stared at him, “Why unknown?”

Sammy took a deep breath.

“Because... no one knows. The wolves here won't align with the council or accept their laws.”

I frowned, “Why?”

Sammy shrugged, “The teachers wouldn’t say.”

I looked at Sammy; he didn’t seem that bothered that we were in some sort of no man’s land. But Zagan’s words haunted me. Why did he think we wouldn’t last five minutes?

Was it because we were now rogues, or was it something to do with the territory we had entered? Whatever it was, I had a bad feeling about this.