Chapter 35 The Choice to Flee

Chapter 35 The Choice to Flee
Elara's POV

I stared at her, the weight of her words settling over me. "What are you saying, Selena?"

She released a long breath, as if she'd been holding it for days. "I'm saying you need to leave Shadow Creek. Soon. Perhaps even tomorrow."

"Leave?" The word felt hollow in my mouth. Despite everything, this place had become a kind of home. "Where would I go?"

Selena stood, pacing the small confines of my bedroom, her movements tense like a caged animal. "That's what I've been thinking about these past weeks, and especially tonight. We can't stay here - Victor's suspicions, your sleepwalking, and the spy's watching... it's all becoming too dangerous."

"We could go to another pack," I suggested, drawing her shawl tighter around my shoulders, still chilled from my midnight wandering. "Start over again."

"No." Selena's response was immediate. "We can't keep running from pack to pack. Word spreads among wolves. Questions follow. And your... episodes are getting worse."

My thoughts turned to my parents, still enslaved in Pine Hollow. My father forced into hard labor, my mother serving as a slave to our conquerors. The thought of them still there while I ran further away twisted like a knife in my heart.

"My parents are still here," I whispered. "I can't just abandon them. My father—"

"You can't save your father, think about how Maya died. And your mother believes you're dead, Elara," Selena said gently. "And if you return, you will be. They've moved on as best they can. Going back would only endanger them and yourself."

"So I just leave them there? Forever?" My voice cracked.

"For now," Selena said firmly. "Until we find a way to truly help them. Right now, you can't even help yourself."

I watched her pace, feeling helpless. "Then where? You said yourself we can't hide among wolves anymore."

"Not among wolves at all." She sat beside me on the bed, her expression softening. "Elara, maybe it's time to accept what you now are. You're not a werewolf anymore—you're in a witch's body. You're human."

I stared at her, the words striking me like a physical blow. Though I'd known it intellectually, I'd never fully accepted the transformation of my fundamental nature.

"Humans and werewolves live in separate worlds," Selena continued. "They might share the same towns sometimes, but they operate under different laws, different social systems. Victor has no authority in human communities."

"You want me to just... live as a human?" The idea seemed both absurdly simple and utterly foreign.

"I want you to embrace what you already are," she said gently. "But to do it properly, you need a place in human society. And the most secure position for a woman alone is..." She hesitated.

"What?"

"Marriage," Selena said firmly. "A human marriage."

I stared at her, certain I'd misheard. "A what?"

"A marriage to a human would give you legal protection, a new identity, a complete separation from your past," Selena explained, her words rushing out as if she'd rehearsed them.

"Werewolves don't interfere with human marriages or family matters—it's part of the treaty between our kinds. You'd be safer among them than you could ever be among wolves."

I jerked away from her, shock turning quickly to anger. "You want me to marry a stranger? A human man I don't know?"

"It's the safest option—"

"It's betrayal!" The words burst out before I could stop them. "To Ethan's memory, to everything I am! And what about Maya? I'm in her body - how could I give it to someone else?"

Selena's face hardened. "Maya is gone, Elara. And Ethan is gone too. I'm trying to keep you alive."

"By selling me to some human?"

"By giving you protection!" Selena snapped, then immediately softened her tone. "Tonight you walked to the exact spot where Ethan died. What happens when someone sees you there? What happens when you call out his name in your sleep? Or worse, when you start speaking as yourself instead of Maya?"

I stared down at my still-dirty feet, evidence of my unconscious journey. She was right. My control was slipping.

"These nightmares, this sleepwalking - they're signs you're breaking down," Selena continued gently. "And I can't watch it happen. Not when I promised to protect you."

The truth of her words hit me like physical pain. I'd been fighting so hard to maintain Maya's identity, but in sleep, my defenses crumbled.

"I don't understand how marriage helps," I said quietly.

Selena ran a hand through her hair. "I know a family - hunters, actually. The Hunts. They understand enough about the supernatural world to be cautious, but they're completely removed from wolf politics."

"Hunters?" My blood ran cold. "You want me to marry someone who kills our kind?"

"They don't hunt wolves specifically," Selena clarified. "They protect human communities from supernatural threats. They're respected, influential in their community, and they owe me a favor."

"What kind of favor involves arranging marriages?"

"The kind where I saved Connor from a wendigo five years ago." Selena's eyes held mine steadily. "He needs a wife to help maintain his household and status in the community. It could be a marriage of convenience - an arrangement that benefits you both."

I wrapped my arms around myself, feeling sick. "And this human wouldn't notice I'm not... normal?"

"Hunters have limited understanding of werewolf nature. They know the basics - the shift, enhanced strength, pack structure - but nuances like scent differences between those born as wolves and those turned? Those are beyond them."

I stood, needing distance, needing air. The memory of the town square's cold stones beneath my feet was still too fresh. "This is insane."

"What's insane is watching you destroy yourself trying to be someone you're not," Selena countered. "What's insane is waiting for Victor to connect the dots and realize who you really are."

"And if I refuse?"

Selena's expression became haunted. "Then you keep running until they catch you. Until your nightmares consume you completely. Until you become exactly what you fear."

Her words hit me like ice water. The nightmare version of myself - cold, calculating, willing to sacrifice anything for revenge - flashed in my mind. Was that truly what awaited me if I stayed this course?

"I can't do this," I whispered.

"You can." Selena's voice softened. "And if it doesn't work, if after a year you still can't adjust, you can leave. Find me again. We'll figure something else out."

I turned to the window, watching the first hints of dawn begin to break over Pine Hollow. This place where I'd grown up, where I'd found my mate, where I'd lost everything. My home, now under the control of our enemies, was both familiar and foreign to me.

"When would we leave?" My voice sounded distant, even to my own ears.

I need to write to the Connors first," Selena said. "Once I receive their reply confirming they'll help us, we'll make our move. It could be a week, maybe two."

"And if they refuse?"

"They won't," she said with quiet confidence. "Hunters especially value their benefactors."

I thought of the town square, of waking disoriented and terrified. Of Victor's suspicious glances. Of the weight crushing my chest every time I answered to Maya's name.

"Okay," I finally said, the word barely audible. "Write your letter."

Selena nodded, relief visible in the slight slump of her shoulders. "I'll do it today. When the time comes, we'll leave before dawn, when the pack is still sleeping."

She squeezed my hand before standing. "Try to rest. I'll keep watch to make sure you stay in bed this time."

As she left to begin preparations, I sank back onto the bed, the full weight of what I'd agreed to settling over me. I was trading one pretense for another, one mask for a different one. But perhaps this mask would be easier to wear among strangers who had no memory of Maya to compare me to.

Perhaps, among humans, I might find some fragment of myself again.