THE POISON

“Tonight, I’m leaving.”

The words left my lips like a prayer and a curse. The night swallowed them whole, carrying them into the cold wind that whipped across my face.

I sat on the cracked stone outside the basement door, knees drawn to my chest, staring at the pale moon. My breath came out in shaky clouds. For the first time in years, I wasn’t dreaming about escape. I was planning it.

Helena and I had to go.

Now.

I couldn’t spend another second breathing the same poisoned air Greg did.

Not when his poison my death  was already waiting.

I used to be loved once. My parents, Alpha Grayson and Luna Linda, ruled with honor and grace. The pack had been a home. Now it was a prison built on their graves, and I was the ghost haunting its walls starved, hated, forgotten.

If anyone saw me now  the once-celebrated Alpha’s daughter  they wouldn’t recognize me. My bones showed beneath my skin, my hair hung in tangled strands, and my eyes looked like something wild.

Maybe that’s what I’d become.

“I can’t wait here for death,” I whispered to the night. “If it’s coming for me, it’ll find me running.”

My stomach twisted painfully. I hadn’t eaten in two days. My hands trembled from hunger and exhaustion, but I needed strength. One last meal. Just enough to get me through the border.

Helena? I called through the faint link that tied me to my wolf. Can you hear me?

Her voice came weak, distant like an echo across an empty room. I’m here.

We’re leaving tonight, I told her. I don’t care what happens. We shift, and we run until we can’t anymore.

Aria… Her voice cracked. If we’re caught, you know what they’ll do. Greg will make sure we never breathe again. I’m not strong enough

Yes, you are, I cut her off. We both are. Dying while running is better than dying on our knees.

A silence fell between us, heavy and trembling. Then, softly, Helena growled. Then we run.

Hope flickered in my chest for the first time in months. Helena sounded alive again.

I slipped quietly through the back corridors of the pack house, heart pounding with every step. The kitchen was chaos  servants running, trays clattering, the scent of roasted meat and sweet wine hanging thick in the air. Everyone was busy preparing for the coronation.

His coronation.

Greg’s and Kaida’s.

My coronation. My birthright. My parents’ legacy handed to the woman who’d stolen my mate and destroyed my life.

Kaida’s laughter rang across the hall like bells dipped in venom. I froze, my chest burning as I watched her twirl in her golden gown. She looked perfect. I looked like something scraped from the gutter.

I turned to leave, but a voice stopped me.

“Aria.”

I stiffened. The sound was soft, familiar. I turned  and found Aaron standing there, his eyes filled with pity.

“Aaron…” I whispered.

He looked around before stepping closer. “Have you eaten?”

I shook my head. My lips were too cracked to speak.

He reached into his coat and pulled out a small nylon bag. Inside was bread, a piece of meat, and a flask of water. The smell alone made tears sting my eyes.

“Eat,” he said quietly. “You’ll need it.”

My hands shook as I took it. “Why are you helping me?”

His jaw tightened. “Because your father saved my life once. I won’t watch his daughter die like this.” He hesitated, glancing toward the ballroom. “You need to know… the poison’s ready. Greg had it mixed into a bottle of wine. He told me to bring it to him after the ceremony. He’s going to make you drink it in front of everyone.”

The world tilted beneath me.

“Aaron”

“I shouldn’t have told you,” he cut in, his eyes glistening. “But you deserve a chance to run.”

My throat closed. “Thank you. For everything.”

He gave me a small, broken smile. “Be careful. Don’t let him see your fear.”

Footsteps echoed down the corridor. We pulled apart. He slipped back into the crowd, and I ran back to the basement, clutching the bag like it was life itself.

The bread turned to dust in my mouth when I tried to eat it. I wasn’t hungry anymore I was terrified. Every creak of the old floorboards made me flinch. Every second that passed brought me closer to the moment Greg would raise that glass.

Then came the knock.

“Aria,” a guard’s voice boomed through the door. “The Alpha wants you in the ballroom.”

My heart sank.

This is it, I thought. He wants me to die in front of them all.

I followed in silence, my feet dragging across the polished floors. Laughter spilled from the grand hall. Candles burned high, gold reflecting off silk and jewels. Kaida stood beside Greg, glowing like a queen — my title stolen right off my skin.

No one looked my way. I was just a shadow, the rejected mate, the disgrace.

But I didn’t stay.

The moment Greg raised his goblet to speak, I slipped away  through the back door, down the servants’ hall, into the cold night air.

My heart pounded in my ears as I ran barefoot across the dirt. The wind bit at my skin, my lungs burned, but I didn’t stop. Not until I reached the edge of the woods the border of the territory that had become my cage.

I looked back once. The mansion glowed like firelight behind me full of laughter, deceit, and ghosts.

“I, Aria Kael,” I whispered, voice trembling, “daughter of Alpha Grayson and Luna Linda of the Eden Pack…”

I swallowed hard, feeling my heart split in two.

“…accept the rejection of Greg Lupus as my mate and chosen.”

The words tore through me like lightning.

Pain exploded in every vein, my knees hit the ground, my body convulsing as the bond snapped apart. I screamed until my throat burned raw.

Then came the silence. The emptiness.

And then… power.

Helena rose within me, a surge of raw energy and rage and freedom. Our bones shifted, skin ripping, fur bursting through in a wave of white. Her howl broke from my throat a sound of pain and defiance that echoed through the night.

The wind carried it. The forest answered.

And then we ran.

Through the darkness.

Through the pain.

Through the ruins of everything we’d lost.

Helena’s paws struck the earth like thunder, and I swore I felt my mother’s spirit in the wind urging me forward.

We didn’t stop.

We didn’t look back.

We ran until the pack’s lights disappeared, until the taste of poison faded from the air.

And for the first time in years, the night didn’t feel like a trap.

It flt like warmth, embracing me………