Finding Happily Ever After

Chapter 12

"No, Ashton. You can't come with me. The whole point of me leaving is to keep you safe, and if you come with me you'll probably die."

"Olivia, I care about you so much. Since you've come here, you have turned my world upside down. I want to be with you, but I also know that you're right and I can't ask you to stay. If you did stay, it wouldn't actually be you that I'd be with. The passionate, strong willed, free spirited Olivia that I'm talking to would disappear. So, instead, I'm coming with you. Now that I know you, I don't think that I could survive here without you. I can't even do my job anymore as it is. The other girls have been covering for me because when I'm in their rooms, all I can think about is how I'd rather be with you-"

I put my hand on his chest to stop him mid-sentence. Even though I didn't blame Ashton for having to do his job, and I knew that he was choosing me over them, it still cut deep to hear him talk about the "other girls."

"Please Ashton, I don't want to hear about them," I pleaded.

He nodded understandingly. "What I'm trying to say is that at this point, I can't stay here any more than you can. I'm hoping that you'll choose to take me with you. I've been here for longer, so I know the grounds and the guard shifts far better than you do. And I was at the top of my class, so you know that I can protect you. But, you should also know that even if you don't choose to let me help you, I will follow you. I would follow you to the ends of the Earth. So, please, let me help you. By yourself, this will be a suicide mission. With me we stand a chance."

I stared into his eyes the whole time he spoke and saw nothing but sincerity. I had accepted the fact that my escape was nothing but a death sentence. If it meant keeping Ashton safe, though, how could that be a bad thing?

But if he was telling the truth and actually planned on coming after me, then I might as well accept his help, right?

The feeling that engulfed me terrified me. It was hope. Hope for survival. Hope for happiness. Hope for a future with this beautifully vulnerable man gazing into my eyes.

I needed to shut down my rogue emotions. Success in this escape mission was still highly unlikely. We would probably both die. I hated that Ashton was putting his life in so much danger because of me. I would so much rather leave knowing that he would live a safe, long life here But, he wouldn't be happy here anymore. I had planted a seed in his mind which grew into discontent. If I left him here, it would turn into the all consuming rage, guilt, and unhappiness that I felt all the time. Plus, I couldn't control his actions, and like he said before, he was just going to follow me. At least we would die resisting this cruel pack. And we would be together.

"Please, Olivia."

The desperation in Ashton's eyes crumpled any last bit of resistance in me.

"Alright, we'll go together. We had better start planning."

The next two weeks went by quickly. Every few days, one of the girls would disappear. I assumed that this meant that they had gotten pregnant and were moved to the maternity house. One day, Allie didn't come to lunch. I noticed Marcus sitting straighter that day with a huge smile that never left his face. I had never noticed, or bothered to ask, but I suspected that they were breeding partners. Males seemed to swell with pride whenever they created offspring.

A handful of new girls arrived over the weeks as well. The youngest ones I assumed had just turned 16 and been assigned to this sector, but the rest were likely returning from giving birth, ready to make another child. I couldn't fathom how these women looked so cheerful. Did they not realize that they would never again see the children that they had just birthed?

Ashton and I fell into a comfortable routine. At every meal, we would sit together and play our parts, socializing with Ashton's friends like nothing had changed. He always stole strawberries off my plate, which aggravated me to no end, and I nearly bit a finger off a few times. Sharing was not my forte.

After each meal, we would each sneak some food back to our rooms to stash for our escape. At first, it was only packaged food like granola bars and bottles of water. A few days before the date we picked to leave, we started adding apples, oranges, and bananas to our collection.

Ashton continued to do his best to teach me hand to hand combat during free times. I wasn't hopeless, just weak and inexperienced. Unfortunately, there wasn't much that he could do to teach me about fighting in wolf form, which was most likely what I would need for our break out mission. I practiced with everything I had during Ashton's lessons, loving the moments when I would perfect a skill and he would look so proud. At times it was hard for me to turn down my lust while we were being so physical, but I knew that I had to learn as much as I could in a really short amount of time. There was no time to mess around.

During the times when all breeders were expected to exercise, I pushed myself to my limits, focusing on strength training. My desire to be able to defend myself fueled my workouts. I wouldn't be a burden, a hazard, to Ashton.

We continued Ashton's reading lessons a couple of times too. These weren't immediately important, but he enjoyed them, so whenever we had a free moment, I would teach him as best as I could, or just read to him.

A few days before we were set to leave, he watched me while I read to him in the library for almost an hour.

"I love the sound of your voice, Olivia. I could listen to you for days. One day, I promise you that I'll read to you until you fall asleep. I may not be your mate, but I'll give you one of those happy endings like in the books you read to me."

I started crying then and Ashton held me close. That day I brought a book to my room so that we could take it with us when we left.

Little moments like those got me through the all of the fear. I was afraid of getting caught and dying, terrified of losing Ashton, and curious yet fearful of the unknown that awaited us if we were successful.

Every night, Ashton would come to my room for one short hour. The beginning of our time was spent with a hot make-out session and some heavy petting.

Then we would talk about what we hoped for the future. We planned what we could and dreamt about what we couldn't.

Every month, during the full moon, the BlackFangs pack allowed its members to run in wolf form. For most members, shifting into wolf form in day to day life is unnecessary and illegal. However, if a werewolf goes to long without letting their wolf out, their wolf side will go insane. When this happens, the shifter loses control of their wolf, who surfaces and typically cause a lot of death and destruction. For this reason, members are allowed to give their wolves rein during the full moon, when the wolf's urge to surface is the strongest.

Security is increased during these runs, but since the BlackFangs pack is so large and expansive, it is impossible for the number of guards to be sufficiently increased at every compound for every sector across the pack for a single day. Because breeders are generally seen as peaceful and content pack members, less reinforcements were sent to breeding compounds than others on the day of the run.

This was our best chance. With Ashton's knowledge of patrol routes and shift changes, combined with the understaffed guard, we might actually succeed.

For now, all I could do was pray that this would work. I had a surprising amount of confidence that Ashton and I might actually find our way out of this hell.

Sorry that it's taking me so long to update. School has been crazy.

Thank you so much to all of y'all who bothered to read my silly story. And it means the world to me when you comment <3

Sorry that this chapter is kind of crappy. I'll try to do better. I'm just trying to write some chapters really quickly while the plot is in my head and then I'll go back to add more dialogue, cut down some of the long ranting paragraphs, and try to make it more interesting.

If you see any mistakes or have any suggestions please let me know!!

Again, thanks for being awesome!!