The Shadows of Erisdar (ON HOLD)

Chapter 8

Alex ran hard, her thoughts chasing her as relentlessly as her feet beneath her. She hadn't slept well in nights, haunted by what she had learned at the inn. The Gasham wolves were coming. Soon.

Alpha Markus and Beta Albert had left to meet up with the visiting members of the Gasham pack the previous evening. The journey there and back would take two days with the carriages, and by then, Alex would be long gone.

What she had discovered at the inn still gnawed at her. She was powerless to stop it.. She was powerless to do anything. Unable to expose them without Anja's help, and Anja would not return for a year. But as the Gasham had stated. She was the key. Without her, they would not get control of the pack. The only way to thwart them was to remove herself from the equation.

She would leave for the one place she could not be found. The one place no one would look: Erisdar.

It was dark when she returned to the manor. She was exhausted from a lack of sleep the previous few nights. As she made her way to the stairs, she was unexpectedly yanked back by her arm. She looked up into the face of the beta.

"Where have you been?" Albert asked angrily, holding tightly onto her arm.

Alex was at a loss for words as she stared at Albert, shocked. "You-you're back? So soon?" she stuttered in disbelief.

"Yes, the Gasham are weary from travel, and the inn can't accommodate them all, so we rode back today, while the rest are being escorted with the wagons." He said curtly. "Now, where have you been?"

"I was out riding." She said, wincing slightly as Albert tightened his hold. This wasn't the Albert she knew. The man who once taught her how to aim a bow properly now held her arm like she was prey. Something was wrong - deeply wrong.

He looked down at her, wrinkling his nose. "Go make yourself presentable. You stink of livestock muck." He said before letting her go.

Alex nodded, "I'll go draw a bath."

Albert seemed satisfied as he returned to the back porch. She could hear a conversation coming from there. "Seems our future bride was caught off guard and needs to make herself presentable first. She'll be down in a while." She heard Albert say mockingly, followed by laughter.

The Gasham had manipulated all the high-ranking adults, and none of them were their usual selves. The real Albert would have never treated her like that. It angered Alex greatly. Their early arrival meant that she could not leave on the morrow but had to leave now. Sleep would have to wait.

Charging into her room, she quickly dressed in some buckskin and threw some last-minute additions into her bag. She had packed only the essentials—tools, weapons, and a few sentimental keepsakes. Food, she could hunt and forage.

She had shared with Jason what she had discovered, but not what she planned on doing. He didn't know of her experience with the forest and would try to stop her. She scribbled a note for him, sharing where she had stashed the documents.

She left the note in one of her books. He would surely find it there. Donning her cloak, she grabbed her bow and quiver before quietly slipping out of the manor's washroom into the moonlit night and jogging towards the trees.

About half an hour later, she had just left the territory when a howl pierced the air. "Shit!" she cussed to herself. They had realised she was gone earlier than she had hoped. She started sprinting, but she heard more howls join the first, and they were coming closer. They had discovered her tracks and were now in pursuit.

She would not make it to Erisdar in time. Her heart pounded louder than the thunder of paws behind her. Branches whipped past her face as she veered off the main path toward her secret haven, hoping the traps she had set would slow them down.