Chapter 4: The Walk Out of Forever

AUREN'S POV

I stood alone on the steps, blood drying on my arm, tears freezing against my cheeks in the cold night air.

The guard walked me to my chambers. “You have little time to pack up”.

My trembling hands pushed the door open, a tear slipped down and landed on the knob before I stepped inside.

The door clicked shut behind me, and my legs gave out.

I slid down against the wood until I hit the floor, my dress pooling around me, my whole body shaking with sobs I couldn't hold back anymore.

The guard's shadow shifted under the door. He didn't knock, he didn't speak. He just waited, like I was already nothing more than a task to be finished.

My hands pressed against my mouth to muffle the sound coming out of me, but it didn't work. The cries tore out anyway, ugly and loud, filling the empty chamber that used to be mine.

I remembered the waterfall.

"No matter how long it takes," Melvin had said, his hand wrapped around mine, water misting our faces, "we would face it together. I am not going anywhere, Auren."

"Promise me." I had laughed back then, young and foolish, believing promises were forever.

"I promise." He had kissed my knuckles, one by one. "On my title, on my pack, on my life. You will stay here with me, Forever."

I came back to the present gasping like I had been underwater.

His pack, his title, his life.

He had kept all three. He just hadn't kept me.

I pulled myself off the floor and packed what little I was allowed to take. A few dresses. My mother's old necklace, the only thing I had left of a family I never knew. I didn't bother folding anything properly. My hands wouldn't stop trembling long enough to care.

When I opened the door, the guard didn't look at me. "They are waiting"

The walk to the pack's entrance felt longer than it had ever felt before, longer than the day I first arrived as a bride.

The elders were already there when I reached the gates. Half the pack had gathered too, drawn by whispers, standing in clusters with their arms crossed, watching me like I was something they needed to witness disappear.

Elder Vayric stepped forward, his voice carrying over the crowd like he had rehearsed it.

"Auren Valecrest came into this pack with nothing." His eyes swept over me. "And she leaves with nothing, having given this pack nothing but curse and regret."

A few people murmured in agreement. I searched their faces for anyone who looked uncertain, anyone who remembered me as their Luna instead of their burden.

No one did.

"Let it be known," Elder Vayric continued, "Thornridge releases her, fully and completely, from this day forward."

I didn't say anything back, just lowered my head. There was nothing left worth saying to people who had already decided my destiny. 

I turned and walked toward the boundary line, my feet moving on their own, my chest hollow in a way I didn't have words for.

Then I stopped.

I turned back one last time.

The pack gates rose tall above me, the same gates I had walked through two years ago in a white dress with my hands trembling, except that day they were trembling from joy.

I remembered the night I arrived.

The entire pack had lined the path, torches lit, the scent of fresh flowers thick in the air.

"Smile, you look more beautiful that way." Melvin had whispered beside me, his fingers laced through mine. "They are not used to someone like you."

"Someone like me?" I had asked, my voice shaky under those curious stares.

"Someone who makes me want to be a better Alpha." He had looked at me like I was the only person standing there. "They will love you, they have no choice, I already love you."

I remembered the feast that followed, how he had pulled me away from the crowd halfway through, just to dance with me under the stars where no one else could see.

"You don't have to perform for them tonight." His hand had rested on my waist. "Just be you. That's who I fell for."

"And if I'm never enough for them?" I had asked quietly.

"Then they can leave." He had pressed his forehead to mine. "You're enough for me. That's the only thing that matters."

I remembered the morning after, waking up in his arms, watching the sunrise paint the room gold, thinking I had finally found the place I belonged.

I came back to myself standing at the boundary line, the memory dissolving like smoke.

None of it mattered now, none of it was real anymore, not the way it used to be.

I looked at the gates one final time, half expecting them to open, half expecting him to come running after me, telling me this was all a terrible mistake.

They didn't open and he didn't come.

I turned my back on Thornridge and walked.

The further I walked, the quieter the pack sounds became behind me, until there was nothing but my own footsteps and the wind moving through the trees.

The sun was beginning to set, painting the sky in colors that didn't match how I felt at all.

I didn't know where I was going. I didn't know what waited for me beyond the territory line. I only knew I couldn't stay in a place that had already buried me alive.

My feet ached. My eyes burned from crying. My chest felt hollow.

Then I heard it.

A rustle in the trees ahead of me, it was too heavy to be just the wind.

I froze, dragging my bag close to my chest.