3. The Breaking Point

The Silver Crest pack library was housed in the oldest part of the compound, a stone building that smelled of aged paper and secrets. At three in the morning, it was deserted, exactly what I needed.

I’d spent the last two weeks gathering information carefully, asking questions that seemed innocent, researching pack law with the excuse that I was helping the pack administrator update records. What I’d learned had turned my blood to ice.

Unmated omegas who left the pack needed Alpha approval. Pregnant omegas needed approval from both the Alphas and the pack elders. And omegas carrying disputed Alpha children could be held indefinitely pending paternity confirmation and investigation.

I was trapped.

The realization sent me into a spiral of panic I’d barely managed to contain. I couldn’t raise three Alpha children alone in Silver Crest not with the fathers denying their existence. The pack would mark them as illegitimate before they’d even drawn their first breath. And me? I’d be the omega who’d tried to trap Alphas with false pregnancy claims, forever labeled desperate and delusional.

But there had to be a way out. There always was. You just had to know where to look.

I was deep in a dusty volume of pack migration law when I heard footsteps.

My heart lurched as I looked up, expecting a guard or worse, one of the Alphas.

Instead, I found Marcus Webb, the pack’s head archivist and one of my father’s oldest friends.

“Sage.”

His weathered face was kind but concerned. “It’s late for research.”

“Couldn’t sleep.” I tried to smile and failed. “You know how it is.”

“I do.” He moved closer, his eyes dropping to the book in front of me. “I also know pack migration law when I see it. That’s not light reading for insomnia.”

My throat tightened.

Marcus had been there when my father died, had helped me navigate the aftermath when half the pack wanted me exiled for my father’s supposed crimes. I trusted him as much as I trusted anyone in this pack.

“I need to leave,” I whispered. “I need to leave Silver Crest and I need to do it without Alpha approval.”

His expression didn’t change, but something flickered in his eyes.

“That’s a dangerous thing to say, child. And nearly impossible to do.”

“There has to be an exception. A loophole.” I heard the desperation in my voice and hated it. “Marcus, please. I can’t stay here.”

He was quiet for a long moment, studying my face with eyes that had seen too much. Then he sighed and pulled out a chair, sitting across from me.

“How far along are you?”

I nearly dropped the book.

“How did you…”

“I’ve been alive a long time, Sage. I recognize the signs.” His voice was gentle. “And I heard the rumors about the Blood Moon Festival. About you and the Alphas.”

Tears burned behind my eyes.

“Ten weeks. Triplets. And they’re denying everything.”

Marcus’s expression hardened in a way I’d never seen before.

“Of course they are.”

Something in his tone made me look up sharply.

“What do you mean?”

He seemed to struggle with something, then shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is getting you somewhere safe.”

He stood and moved to a locked cabinet in the corner, retrieving a leather-bound book that looked older than the building itself.

“There is one exception to the migration laws. It was designed for emergency situations for pack members fleeing immediate danger to their life or well-being.”

“But I’m not in physical danger…”

“Psychological danger qualifies.” He opened the book, pointing to a specific passage. “Specifically, if remaining in the pack would cause severe mental or emotional harm that threatens the member’s life or the life of their unborn children.”

His eyes met mine.

“Are you in psychological danger, Sage?”

I thought about the panic attacks that woke me at night, the way my hands shook every time I saw the Alphas from a distance, the nightmares of being trapped in Silver Crest forever while my children were taken from me or marked as illegitimate.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“Then I’ll file the emergency migration request tonight. You’ll have seventy-two hours once it’s approved.” He closed the book carefully. “After that, the pack will have legal grounds to retrieve you if they choose. You need to be far away and well-hidden by then.”

“I don’t know where to go.” The admission made me feel sick. “I don’t have family outside the pack. No connections.”

“There are rumors,” Marcus said quietly, “of a place for wolves who fall through the cracks of pack law. A sanctuary run by someone who understands what it’s like to be cast aside by the system. I don’t know where it is but I know someone who might.”

He pulled out a pen and paper, writing quickly.

“Contact this person. Tell them Marcus Webb sent you. They’ll help you disappear.”

I stared at the name and phone number, my hands trembling.

“Why are you helping me?”

“Because your father would have.” His expression softened. “And because what’s being done to you…what was done to you…is unconscionable. You and those babies deserve better than this, Sage. Better than them.”

Three days later, the emergency migration was approved with surprising speed.

Marcus told me he’d called in every favor he had, argued my case before the pack elders with a passion that had shocked them into agreement.

I had seventy-two hours.

I used every minute.

The contact Marcus gave me led to a woman named Elena who asked only two questions: Are you in danger? and Can you be ready in forty-eight hours? When I said yes to both, she gave me instructions that seemed impossible, destroy my phone, burn anything with my scent, sever all connections to my previous life, meet a car at a specific location at midnight on the third day.

I packed only what I could carry. Sold everything else for cash that couldn’t be traced. I wrote letters to the few people who’d been kind to me, thanking them without explaining where I was going or why.

At 11:45 p.m. on my last night in Silver Crest, I walked out of the pack house with a single backpack and my father’s pocket watch, the only thing of value I’d kept.

No one tried to stop me. Why would they? I was just the delusional omega who’d finally accepted reality and was leaving quietly.

The car Elena promised was waiting at the territorial border, a nondescript sedan with tinted windows. The driver didn’t speak, didn’t ask questions. They simply drove.

I watched Silver Crest disappear in the rearview mirror, one hand pressed to my stomach where three impossible children grew.

I didn’t let myself look back. Didn’t let myself wonder if any of them would notice I was gone.

I had no idea where I was going. No plan beyond survival.

But I was free.

And freedom, I was learning, was worth any price.