Present moment

Marissa POV

It is full daylight and I don't stop running. Even though I know I'm far from the River Howl.

The memories of the past two weeks keeps me strongly motivated to keep going.

When I think of how Caden stayed away and let his father handle my family... how he left me waiting for him, for an explanation, for reassurance that I was his mate and not legal property...

He would never come and he would never say the things I'd hoped so much to hear from him. That realization keeps me running.

Until my legs start to shake and every breath starts to burn. Every...