Running Back

Lilith's POV

Adjusting to life with Kieran was proving harder than I expected. Actually, I did expect it to be exactly how it was.

He was an exiled Alpha, had zero communication skills and all I could say that he cared about, was himself.

After walking in the woods for what seemed to be days, we finally walked up to a small cabin in the middle of the forest.

Weird, right?

That was my exact thought.

From the outward appearance, it looked like an abandoned cabin that had been sitting in the forest unoccupied for years.

"How far are we?" I finally managed to ask, looking around and thinking about how I was going to share that cabin with him.

"From your pack?" He asked arrogantly as he cleared some wood from the entrance.

"Mmh," I responded.

He was quiet. And for as second, I thought that he wasn't going to tell me. I mean, he was keeping me around him. There was no way he was just going to point me towards my pack.

In a weird twist, he stopped what he was doing and looked at me, not bothering to wipe the menacing look on his face.

He walked up to where I was and stopped. His breath fanned against my body as he stood over me.

I could feel my mouth watering, with him so close to me. I could also feel my heart race at the thought of the huge monster of a man standing in front of me.

Instead of showing him that I feared him, I looked up and our eyes met. Locked in a staring competition, it felt like everything around me had disappeared.

My feet had blisters all over and cuts all over my body from walking like an animal in the forest. But as Kieran and I locked eyes, all of that seemed to evaporate.

I felt no pain or any discomfort.

I could no longer smell my stinking body odour from the fact that I hadn't taken a bath in days. But all of that was short-lived.

Kieran broke the eye contact and looked over my shoulder. Stretching his hand, he pointed over to some hills in the distance.

"Follow your way to those hills. From there, you should be able to see your pack," he said so nonchalantly.

It was as if he has shown me how to take a picture. Something so simple.

But it wasn't something simple. He just told me how I could make my way back to my pack without any problem.

I didn't even have to convince him. He told me exactly what I needed to know, without missing a beat.

"What if you're lying?" I questioned, the thought coming to mind.

Because there was no way that he would show me the direction to go back home. Especially, not when he had visited the pack, twice, to get me.

He tilted his head to the side slightly, studying me. I could see disgust on his face from the moment I asked him the question.

"That's for you to decide. You want to go home, fine by me. I showed you the way," he answered as he turned and went for the door of the cabin.

Opening it, he walked inside and didn't even bother to turn and see if I was following him. He left me outside the cabin, with instructions on how I could make my way back to the pack, and unsupervised.

This was all I ever asked for, and he had given it to me.

No matter how much my wolf was telling me to follow him inside the cabin, for some reason, staying with him out there in the open with no pack to protect me, didn't sit right with me.

So, no matter what problems I had with the pack, I was not going to sit down and stay with a rogue who might turn on me anytime.

And given that I had basically followed him out in the woods, it would all come back to me whether I liked it or not.

And for some reason, I wanted to see whether he was actually telling me the truth or lying to me. All I needed to do was gather enough courage and run.

I could hear him walking around the cabin and giving zero shits about me. That was the best moment that I was ever going to get.

"Don't do it!" My wolf warned me as I was just about to make the decision.

I really wanted to believe that Kieran had good intentions. But his track record didn't paint a good picture of him. Instead, it painted a grim picture of a dangerous and destructive wolf and man who brought death and destruction wherever he went.

And not to mention, the suffering that he had caused the last pack that he ruled over.

For a few seconds, going back home didn't seem that bad. I would still say no to marrying Ryder and just tell them to do whatever they fucking wanted to do.

If it was sending me to the dungeons, it didn't sound as bad as it did the first time. Obviously I'd be locked up and Ryder would have to pick someone new to be his Luna.

After spending a couple of weeks, or in the worst case scenario being months, down there, there was the possibility that they would eventually get tired and just let me go.

And besides, after Ryder becomes Alpha, I knew that he would want to gloat to me and rub it in my face.

There's little you can do to someone who is already locked up. So, given his enormously huge ego, I figured he'd have to release me to be able to rub it in my face.

All of that didn't seem so bad for once. I mean, of course I would hate it for the first few days but within a couple of days I would be used to it.

Besides, staying with Kieran felt like I was already in a cage of my own.

I had to watch my every word as the man kept on growling at anything that moved. It was almost as if he had a grudge with everything that was surrounding him.

It would only be a matter of time before he turns on me.

So, as I looked at the woods ahead of me and looked back, and heard Kieran moving a few things in the cabin, I made my decision.

I was not going to stay under the care of a man I barely knew. And despite my wolf insisting on how he was my mate, that wasn't enough grounds for me to risk my life just because I decided to follow my 'heart'.

I had to find my way back to the pack. And Kieran had already helped me enough by pointing me towards the right direction, or so I hoped.

I took in a deep breath, assumed every aching muscle in my body and made a run for the forest. I was certain that Kieran heard me sprinting, as I didn't bother tiptoeing out of there.

I literally took off at full speed and headed straight towards the direction of the mountains that Kieran had pointed to me.

As I navigated through the woods with grace and at top speed, I was already mentally prepared to hear huge footsteps thudding behind me as they approached.

I was psychologically ready to be in for a chase for my life.

I knew that there was no way Kieran was going to allow me to just run away like that.

However, much to my surprise, I didn't hear anything. The only sounds that I could hear was that of animals as they scattered to make way for me.

I already started to picture myself back home and in a quarrel with alpha Zander already on why Kieran took me, twice.

But atleast I would have made it back.

However, I must've jinxed it by counting my eggs before they hatch.

Before I even made it far from the cabin, something happened that I couldn't explain for a while.

I took a step forward, and heard a clinking sound next to my feet. Before I could even react, I heard the sound of a few pulleys in action.

And in a flash, the ground around me, came to life.

The leaves and branches on the forest floor were disturbed, thrown into the air around me. Before I knew it, I was fighting to get out of a cage that snared me and trapped me inside it.

When the sides met, I heard another clicking sound and knew that it wasn't good news.

That was the door of the trap locking me inside.

My first instinct was to try hitting the sides of the trap with my shoulders to force it to open. No matter how many times and how hard I tried, the cage didn't budge.

I was now trapped in a cage like an animal.

And my hope, was the same man I was running away from.