Wild and Free

Chapter 34: Disappearing Act

(Auden's POV)

We know who you are.

Watch your back.

The words on that little piece of paper kept me from falling asleep. Well that, and the fact that there was a big gash through my mattress that was uncomfortable to lay on.

Those words had paralysed me when I first saw them. I'd brushed off the random paper on the floor as just another thing in the apartment that had been discarded on the floor. It wasn't until I was actually forced to confront the mess that I had even considered that there was something written on it, let alone a threat.

I wanted to believe with everything I had, that Mason was right. That whoever those grey wolves were, were the ones that trash my apartment. But with everything that had happened to me, I just couldn't bring myself to put my trust in that.

How had I let this all happen?

So long I'd gone, relying on my act and the web of lies I'd knitted to protect myself. Two years I'd been on my own, but all of them before had been almost the same but with a pack.

I'd always been on my own. I had to figure out how to survive, even when I didn't always want to. I'd made a life out of nothing and developed an impenetrable skin. Or so I thought.

So why was it so easy for me to weaken for these people?

In some ways I was telling my conscious that I probably would've spiraled into oblivion long ago had I not found Cassie and Holden. But, not having met them, would I have been safer? Not having met me, would they have been safer?

Looking back, up until a few months ago when the Royals came to town, my friends were fine. Maybe it would've stayed that way and maybe it wouldn't but something would've changed whether the new pack cam or not.

Eventually the Donnelly pack, the pack that the Royals combined with, they would find out that there was a 'rogue' living near them. Of course they'd sniff around for me and even a peek at my school file would send a huge red flag, in the form of my name. When I came to White Chapel I thought I had found my safe haven so I didn't bother to change my name on my files. Shortly after, I had realized my mistake but it was too late to change it. I hadn't sweat it a bit until after I found out about the Royals.

In the case that they found me I don't think that it would be much different than if the Royals found me now except for that possibility that I might be able to lie my way out of it.

As far as I knew, the Donnelly's temporary Alpha was born into a Beta family so he didn't have an of the bloodline abilities that a true born Alpha has. In part I'm sure that was what would've caused their pack to decline had they not combined but that's not the point. If their pack had found me out before the Royals came, and tried to interrogate answers out of my, I might have had a chance of lying my way out of it. Whereas now, with Mason's father and his godforsaken mind reading ability, he would see right through my lies.

Regardless of the ifs and buts, my safe haven wouldn't have stayed safe forever. Packs would get curious. I would get careless. And either myself or my friends would get hurt. It was unavoidable.

I mean, look at what happened when I got too close. The night of the run in with the grey wolves the twins were almost killed, Riley and Greyson were almost killed, Cassiewas almost killed. And it had all been because of me, because of some guys who somehow had caught my scent or something.

That was another thing I hadn't really thought about in a while, how did they catch my scent?

The leader of the grey pack had talked to Mason about some scent. It was something that I guessed he had been getting since they got here but could never follow. Of course the thought had crossed my mind that it could've been mine but the fact that they hadn't been led to me yet meant that my necklace still worked. If it had been my scent that he and the grey wolves had caught, they'd have me locked up by now.