I shifted and let Mara take control of my form as soon as we’re in the vastness of the White Woods.

She’s going faster day by day. That’s what my father and sister don’t know. They keep saying I am weak and slow, they don’t know that Mara has talents of her own.

With Mara running, we continued to channel all my anger and hatred and disdain by turning them into the strength we spent running through the snowy forest. It was a labyrinth of frost-covered foliage and frozen trees, but Mara’s icy breath didn’t stop her.

Now that I’m away from my so-called family, now that I’m as far from the Moonflame Pack as possible...I feel a little bit of a sense of relief. Not a little bit, but an absolute sense of relief. It was as if a large thorn that had been embedded in my side for years had finally been removed.

Mara ran and ran, letting the morning winter breeze caress our moon-white fur. It was also our companion as we traversed the white forest.

After hours of running, we heard the sound of flowing water. I do not know how it happened, that there are still parts of our country that remain as is, like the trees with their leaves intact and this running river, even with the Alpha King’s eternal frozen season. We looked beyond the trees and there, a river with its tempting fresh cool water made us halt. However, in the distance, some parts of the river are mildly frozen. We didn’t heed it.

“Let’s rest for a bit.”

Mara rested and shifted into me, our human form. I feel the softness of the winter wind and listen to the rustling of the frosty trees. “It’s peaceful here,” Mara claimed.

Alone and free. Finally, after eighteen years, I’m alone and free.

I bent down and scooped a handful of water on my open palms. The water tastes so fresh and cool. I also washed my face with it to continue the rest of the day not looking like one step closer to the grave. I don’t know where I’m going now. The moment I realize I’m alone and free, I also realize that I have no mate and no pack. I have no life being a wandering she-wolf.

Or maybe my father’s anger will eventually pass and will bid me to return...

I don’t care if he labels me as a pack outcast and stations me at the farthest edge of the packgrounds—

“It won’t happen,” said Mara.

Right. Maybe I’m not ready to be alone and totally free after all.

“Or maybe we’ll meet someone that fate has bestowed on us.” Mara’s right. Perhaps we’ll meet my second-chance mate along the way. There’s no harm in hoping. Besides, I’m an Alpha’s daughter—an Alpha’s blood runs in my veins. Surely the Moon Goddess won’t just abandon me that easily.

Half an hour later, I gave a simple prayer of gratitude to the Moon Goddess as I finally completed my rest and breakfast. One of the servants, an Omega, who packed my things made sure I had food enough to allow me to survive in the harshness of the White Woods.

I was about to shift again and run north when an arrow flew past me. It was too quick for my wolf sight to notice. Thankfully, the arrow only passed through my left shoulder. The sleeve there is the reason my skin remained unscathed.

“Tresspasser over here! Tresspasser over here!”

Out of nowhere, guards sprang out of the snowy bushes, the frozen trees, the tall icy grasses. I didn’t notice them earlier nor picked up their scent. It seems they blended with the snow-white fur cloaks that they wore. I was probably too preoccupied by the river to check my surroundings.

“Please. I didn’t do anything!” I explained, lifting my hands open to the air.

“You did!” The one in front of me growled. He’s wearing an armor with a black-and-gold insignia. I know that symbol. I’ve seen that before. “You’ve trespassed the Blackwind Pack territory, Rogue.”

“I am not a Rogue. I am an Alpha’s daughter. Alpha Marcus of the Moonflame Pack is my father!”

Mara started to snarl inside me. The mere sight of Blackwind Pack guards already sent us trembling. Indeed, the Blackwind Pack is the home of a cruel Alpha who even refuses to bow down before the Alpha King, my father once said.

And if they capture me and take me to their dungeons...I’m doomed. I can’t afford to be an enemy under the eyes of the Alpha King. No one lives when an enemy comes face-to-face with the Alpha King.

They all looked at each other, communicating silently through their minds.

“Alpha Marcus has only one daughter, and her name is Elodie with blonde hair and blue eyes. You have black hair.”

I can’t believe it. Did my bitch of a sister tip off these guards?

“It’s possible,” Mara hissed.

“The Alpha of the Moonflame Pack has two daughters! I’m the younger one. My name is Evadne.” I pulled up my right sleeve. Every wolf has a tattoo of their pack’s insignia on their right arm. Those who don’t are the ones excommunicated and banished, the ones who became Rogues.

When their eyes landed on my right arm, their brows raised.

“I told you,” I smirked.

“Yeah you did,” said the one on my right.

I glanced at my right arm, and my eyes widened too. The tattoo was no longer there.

My father did really banish his younger daughter this time for their own good.

***

The dungeons here in the Blackwind Pack are more damp, a rotten scent mingling in the air as if someone died here and the guards just let their bodies decompose. The mixture of the winter air and mountain snow and decomposing flesh is extremely awful. I vomited after a minute they locked me up here.

I was forced to go with them. Blindfolded. As a trespassing ‘Rogue’ in the Alpha King’s enemy pack, either I die on the spot or they lock me up in the dungeons awaiting the judgment of their Alpha.

But at least the room where I am has cooler surroundings and not the ones which have a harshness to the cold that you’ll become like an ice statue the next day you wake up on the floor. And they provide food and water as soon as they lock me up too so that’s a bonus.

The only problem? I’m chained to the wall and can’t even reach the said food and water. It was a greater torture, I realized. To have something you need in front of you but you can never have it. You're only meant to stare and smell and lick your lips as if you can feel the cold water entering your mouth and down your throat.

And I guess I just escaped the torment of the Moonflame Pack, only to dive deeper into the tortures of the Blackwind Pack.

I am alone now. But I am certainly not free.