Run Away With Me

Chapter 49: My Reasons (Part III)

I use Nao as my center point, utilizing the link between us to gravitate in his general direction. If I didn't have this ability, I would've stood no chance in Mair Kolli. My steps are slow and cautious, my eyes seeing very little in this dark forest.

I'm moving as fast as I can, but caution is quick to halt my movements every few seconds, making sure that the steps I'm making are safe. The link grows warmer as I continue walking, the distance between me and him growing smaller.

A shuffle is heard to my right, I snap my head, focusing on the darkness. A shuffle does not mean an animal, nothing lives here – what no scientist is able to explain – so what made that shuffle is in this forest through a conscious effort.

The wind parts and it takes a second to realize that something is thrown my way. I duck. A muffled scream. Thump. Wump. Duk. Sliding noises. I look behind me, but because of the darkness I can only see a silhouette of a person lying on the ground.

But knowing that a person couldn't just fly in the air and fall, I turn around, ready to meet with the person who has thrown them. A looming aura approaches, its ends spiraling through the area, touching and grasping me, holding me captive.

Alpha voodoo. I've met with it too much times for me not to recognize it.

I break free, stumbling backwards and stopping at a safe distance. The thrown body is on one side in front of me and the approaching one at the other side. Nao's direction is somewhere behind me, so that's good, the escape would be at least a little easier.

The person stops in their tracks, far enough that I can't make out their features, but close enough that I can recognize a silhouette. I remain still for a second, holding out. But when I hear a groan from my right, I take three steps back.

"Stop," the man says, taking a few steps towards me. I don't stop, able to break free once more from the alpha voodoo and stepping back. I'm glad I'm no longer at the mercy of their ability. "You have something of mine. Give it."

The darkness parts and an impossibly intimidating man stands in front of me. Hard features, a closed off expression, arms at his side, ready to throttle if need be and with a fire in his eyes, as if ready to shoot lasers out of them.

In his presence I feel weak and I realize how weak I am.

I haven't gotten far.

I look back and there I am, that chubby little one-second-year-old wailing in the pack doctor's arms. Limbs blue and purple, mouth empty excluding the tiny pink muscle, eyes scrunched tight and soul confused.

I haven't gotten far, not by a stretch.

I am still a child. The same child that grew up in that cage of a home, that same child that ran away with tears in their eyes, the same child that wandered lost through the world for the longest time, the same child that now stares at the head of the Wolf Bureau, the very menace to all peaceful rogues.

I thought that the most difficult part of the whole plan was getting the Cho.

But now as I stand before this man, I am direly aware of my own fragility. Standing before him, I know where I lack, where I have yet to filled, how much more I could grow. At the same time, with impending doom, I realize that if I don't escape this very second, I may end up huddled on the ground crying.

This is my end.

Where did I begin?

"What you have in your backpack, I would like it back." His words are breaching politeness, but that's the last thing he wants to convey. He reaches forward, arm outstretched as if I'm actually going to give it to him.