𝐓 𝐎 𝐑 𝐓 𝐔 𝐑 𝐄 𝐃. / ww ff.

𝖻𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗍𝗁 𝗈𝖿 𝗅𝗂𝖿𝖾. / edited.

— 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐞.

I woke, but not just physically, something in my mind has awoken from that searing attack, showing me how wrong it was to just lie dormant in Tobias' awful care this entire time and let him tear me to pieces, just as that rogue did.

Finally, I needed him to know what he's done to me.

I cracked open my eyes and noticed that I was in the mostly unfamiliar pack medical room, connected to all sorts of machines by wires and needles.

Lifting the thin white blankets, I'm taken aback by the thick bandages wrapped around my arms, legs and stomach. To show obvious shock would tear at some bandages that are wrapped around my throat and creeping onto my face, so I stayed neutral.

How did I survive? I'm incredulous. A human surviving as savage injuries as these?

Although just as quickly as I thought that, my brain came to the conclusion that Tobias must have something to do with it again, with his 'wolf DNA'. The fleeting feeling of gratefulness ran through me, but I smacked it away, suppressing my forgiving nature violently.

I cannot forgive anymore.

Sitting up, I was pleasantly surprised the bed didn't creak under my weight, as to not alert Tobias or any other wolf of me having woke. However, any element of surprise or peace and quiet is ruined as just as I righted myself, Tobias and the pack doctor opened the door and stepped inside.

Tobias caught sight of me awake and dropped all engagement with the doctor.

"Jane, my little one," he breathed, striding over to me, to touch me, to see if his Jane was really awake and here.

A hand of Tobias' outstretched towards me to cradle me, a hand that had punched me, slapped me, smacked me, assaulted me and tortured me in my past, and I recoiled sharply.

A seething glare twisted my usual blank and submissive features into something ferocious, and I bit out, "Don't touch me."

Tobias dropped his hand, confused and devastated at my defiance, murmuring, "Dear one—?"

I began to get up, pulling different wires out of me to allow movement, ripping the blanket off of me as the machines went wild without me attached to them. The pack doctor cursed under his breath and rushed towards them to shut them down with numerous complaints.

"Don't you ever touch me again," I growl like the wolf that attacked me, finalising any other affection that he thought he could give to me.

Tobias peered into my pain stricken eyes, at a loss as to what to do, what to say, when Luke, Tobias' brother, came in.

I gave him a fleeting glance as I watched his eyes work, assessing just what had occurred between Tobias and I.

He could see how frustrated and helpless Tobias was, and to defuse him acting rash, such as taking me prisoner again for defying him, Luke put a hand on Tobias' shoulder; a tight, menacing grip, a presence to almost say, 'You will not do anything to her, I won't let you do anything to her.'

Tobias breathed lightly and cooled his features, laying blue eyes onto my anguished brown ones, "Then, what do you want, Jane?" His usual charismatic and confident voice sounded dead, lost of everything, realising that now he was truly losing his mate, the only thing that could ever love him, and there was nothing he could do to stop her.

I released a long breath, closing my eyes and re-opening them, "I want you to take me to my mother's grave, and I never want to return here."

I could see Tobias trembling microscopically, in anger or fear, I don't know, but he nodded almost feverishly, to let me know he'd do anything, anything to have a chance of me taking him back. My mate stepped forward but I lifted my hand, stopping him.

"Not you," It did stop him, almost as if he'd been struck in the face, staring at me, knowing this is where I ended everything, "I don't want to see you again."

The words were final, from mate to mate, the words that made it all end, between Tobias and I. He looked paralysed, not able to process what had been done, and I side-stepped him, never looking at him again as Luke led me out of the torturous pack house to the outdoors with all the cars, an area I had never been in all of my captivity.

The drive to the grave was short, Luke keeping his eyes on the road, only explaining to me that he'd paid for an apartment for me to stay in, which had clothes and money and a supply of nourishment to accommodate me for the rest of my life. I didn't ask where he'd gotten all this from.

Finally, the car stopped, and I opened the door, setting feet onto wet ground, still in my off-white hospital gown. Luke quickly wrapped his coat around my small shoulders and apart from that, he stayed by the car, not daring to intrude on my personal moment.

I took a few more wobbly steps to the crude grave, recognising it for her name, Mary Doe, and fell to my knees on the ground in front of it. All it was, was a dirty, shin-high cross in the middle of nowhere.

I could hear Luke take a step towards me, to assist me, but I lifted a hand without looking back, to stop him.

My head bent towards the earth, letting out shaky breaths, my matted hair concealing my eyes.

I leant forward, one hand on the grave to bring me closer until my forehead was resting against it, to bring me closer to my mother.

Suddenly, I caught sight of something just by the base of the grave. A sprout, barely big enough to be noticed, not yet bloomed, but I could recognise it for what it was. A sunflower sprout.

My lips cracked a gentle smile, and I allowed the tears to slip down my jaw freely, letting out the quiet, trembling, liberated words,

"I'm free, now, I'm free."

𝐟𝐢𝐧.

#

Beauty x

Edited 2022 — Mia x