CHAPTER 3: ESCAPE

LOUISA

“I can't believe you slept with Travis!” Tammy whisper screams as we hurry away from the club. It is at least an hour away from dawn and I need to get back home before anyone realizes I am missing. “Like fucking Travis Raid. Our future Alpha. And you slept with him.”

“I know, Tammy!” I snap at her. “I was there.”

And yes, I can't believe it either.

Like what the hell was I thinking?

I know I didn't drink enough to take leave of my senses… I was completely aware of myself when I gave him permission to kiss me.

And then…

Then, I didn't want it to stop 

He felt so good, so safe… so perfect.

Everything was perfect and I had zero regret about it.

How does that make sense that I am happy with losing my virginity to a man I barely know within an hour of meeting him?

How does that make sense?!

I slept with Travis Raid.

I have officially gone insane.

Still, I am grateful that I woke up on time to leave before he did.

I can't even begin to imagine how that conversation would have gone down.

“Do you regret it?”

“What?” I ask as I startle out of my thoughts to look at Tammy who is staring at me in concern.

“Do you regret sleeping with him?”

“I don't know what I regret right now, Tam. What I am sure of is that if I don't get to bed within thirty minutes, I might as well be a dead woman walking.”

“Oh, stop whining. Your pack is just a few minutes away,” she mutters.

We soon reach the borders of my pack and I wave her goodbye with a promise that I would tell her about everything when next we meet.

Thankfully, everywhere is still pretty quiet as I make my way through the woods surrounding the pack houses and I already have the patrol movements memorized enough for me to evade being detected.

Soon enough, I am making my way through my window and stripping out of my clothes before I fall back on my bed with only one thought in mind.

I slept with fucking Travis Raid 

                                 ********

“Harold! Stop!”

CRASH!!

I jolt out of my bed in shock as the noise crashes into my ears.

“Please!”

CRASH!

“STUPID WOMAN!”

“Oh you have got to be kidding me,” I mutter as I let my head fall forward in annoyance. “It's too early for this shit!”

I glance at my alarm clock and see that it is barely past seven. 

What could have happened so early that would have him throwing such a nasty fit like this?

“AHHH!”

“That's it!” I snap as I throw off the bed covers and pull on my jammies before making my way downstairs to calm my father down.

I have just rounded the corner when I see him rush at my mother and land a blow on her head, sending her to the floor in a heap 

I can't explain what happens next.

It is like a switch just goes off in my head and the next thing I know I am rushing at him in full rage.

“DONT TOUCH MY MOTHER YOU ASSHOLE!”

The next thing I hear is a crash and by the time I am calm enough, I see my father outside the house on the floor surrounded by broken shards of glass.

I have just thrown my father out through the window.

“Shit.”

                                 ******

“She is a disgrace to the pack!”

“An affront to the values that we uphold!”

“She needs to be punished!’

“Make her learn her place!”

On and on, that is most of what I hear as I am literally dragged towards the dungeons

“Why aren't we taking her to the Alpha?” My father demands as he too recognizes where we are going.

“The Alpha is indisposed at the moment,” one of the wolves respond. “We have instructions to keep her locked up until he is ready for her.”

The two men holding my arms drag me into the prison cells and all but fling me into it while my father walks up to me with a cold look on his face.

“This is for your own good, Louisa,” he says in that same tone. “We can't have you disobeying those above you.”

“You were hitting mother! You talk about values, what about the fact that wolves are supposed to protect their mates?!”

He shakes his head at me.

“You are still talking back to me. But don't worry, you will learn. If not now then when you find a mate of your own. You will learn to respect the men in the packs.”

And that ladies and gentlemen is why I resent the idea of mates.

In my pack, for the women, having a mate is synonymous with slavery 

And the idea that I would have to one day be mated to one of these men makes me shudder in disgust.

“I didn't mean to push you out the window,” I tell him. “I just wanted you to stop hitting her.”

“It doesn't matter what you want to do. All that matters is what you did,” he says before he turns and leaves the prison cells.

I don't know how long I stayed there, alone and cold.

All I know is that it was silent and then I hear the footsteps.

Firm and purposeful.

And heading my way.

For a horrible second, I believe it is the alpha that has come to see me.

But it is worse.

It is Gaines.

His son.

Oh, this can't be good.

“Louisa,” he calls as she comes to stand in front of my cell.

I keep my head down, wary of meeting his gaze. 

Everytime I look at him, all I remember is how he had killed his own mate.

It was his birthday and he had wanted to go to a party with his mate.

But she was ill and said she couldn't make it.

I don't know why that had pissed him off.

Maybe it was the regular itself, or maybe it was the fact that she said it in public.

But everyone could tell that she was ill.

Ot to be more exact… She was healing.

From beatings.

I can still see the bruises on her neck and upper arms.

Anyway, after her refusal, he lost his temper and threw her against the wall, instantly killing her.

I don't think he ever showed remorse for it but everybody knows that he needs a mate to carry on his line.

And for some bloody reason, he has set his sights on me.

“Look at me when I call your name.”

With a resigned sigh, I raise my head to look at him and he gives a nod 

“I am going to be quick,” he begins. “The only reason why you have not been tried yet, is because I am stalling it.”

Oh?

“I am giving you a choice, be my mate and future Luna or take the embarrassment of a public beating.”

I stare at him for a long second but he doesn't even flinch.

The absolute bastard.

“I am sorry, Gaines. But the rule in the pack is that I should take my punishment when I disobey my father.”

Yeah, you heard me.

I would rather be flogged publicly than sentence my life to you.

He lets out a snarl at that as he slams the bars of the cell, making me flinch back.

“I have been very patient with you, Louisa!” He snarls. “It is not like you are not aware of my desires. But no more. You will be my mate, Whether you like it or not. I suggest you get used to that fact,” he growls out before walking away.

How?

How did this day get so much worse when it started on such a good note?

Almost an hour later, I hear another set of footsteps hurrying my way, this time fast and frantic and then I see the Luna, Riley, who is also a friend of my mother hurrying over to me with a small duffel bag.

“Luna-”

“We don't have time, Riley,” she rushed out as he opens the cell and pulls me out while handing me the bag. “You have to leave, now!”

“What?!”

“I have talked with your mother, she knows I am helping you.”

“What- why?”

“I know what my son wants,” she says as we take another exit out of the dungeon. “I can't let you be his mate. You are like a daughter to me. I have watched grow up and I can't in good conscience let you subject yourself to my son's cruelty. You have to leave the pack.”

“But I need-”

“You don't have time, Louisa!” She snaps as we break through the woods and hurry towards the boundary. “I heard him talking with his father. Rather than a trial tonight, it will be a mating ritual. You have to go,

now!”

She pushed me past the border and stops, heating for me to run.

“Go! I have put all the necessities you might need. Go now! Don't look back!”

And like a side being controlled by something else…

 I obey.