Chapter Twenty-Seven: Leaving the Cage

Sapphire Nightborne

Ten more metres till I escape this labyrinth of doors and hallways.

Nine. I could almost taste my freedom.

Eight. Tears welled in my eyes, I had been trapped here for 2 months and now I was about to be free.

Seven. My heart pounded with excitement, my freedom was in my grasp.

Six. Damien would probably put out a search for me and from what he boasted about, he has many packs under his rule. Seeking asylum with a a pack I am not close to would be extremely dangerous. My mind was racing, trying to think up a place where I could rest for awhile. My mind immediately went to my cousin's territory, I knew there was no way should would betray me, but I could not risk her and her people falling in danger because of my presence... she had already been through so much, she deserved the peace she had now. The only option I had left was to lay low with the humans for a while, it was not ideal at all, but I had no choice. The humans had no way of identifying who or what I am, and I doubt that they were in an alliance with Damien.

Five.

Four.

Three. I could see the door and I felt like I could almost reach for the handle if I just stretched out my hand a little further. Just a little bit more till I was free, the pounding in my heart increased as I pushed harder. Who cares if I had to live amongst the humans? At least I would be free. I would feel grass beneath my feet instead on concrete, fresh air would fill my lungs instead of the stale stench of blood. I was almost there when someone grabbed me and pulled me into a small closet sized room before locking the door. Their actions shocked me, I thought I had this planned out.

Did I do something wrong? Every time I try to escape or do anything at all, something always finds its way to stop me. I tried to escape with Antony, Damien captures me. I tried to die, the Moon Goddess interferes. I tried to kill Damien, the silver one interferes once again. I huffed as I grabbed the throat of my assailant before slamming them to the door of the room, the wood creaking under the strain, one quick snap should do it. I had no time for theatrics anyway, at least we were in the closet so the body could be left here for some time before being found. Damien would probably be up and searching for me now, I needed to get out of this place fast to build the distance between us. I turned to look into the eyes of my kidnapper before my own widened in shock.

“Chloe?”

Her green eyes shone with tears as they looked at me. I lowered my hand from her throat before placing my hand against the door handle. I was not afraid as I turn my back to her as I found through my months of living in this accursed place that she was the only decent human being living here. I began to turn the door handle when she gripped my arm, her nails digging into my skin. I let out a soft growl, I had no time to play into her fairytale.

“Chloe, I have told you a thousand times, I will not stay and try to love your brother, I--”

“Take me with you!”

I thought that there would be nothing that could possibly shock me anymore. What with the past lives, the soul switch, the puppeteering, but yet here, it was, one of the biggest bombshells that had been dropped on me during my lovely stay here. She was the one who wanted me to stay and change her brother, now, she wanted to join me and escape him.

“Let me make sure that I heard you correctly. You, want me to ‘kidnap’ you and take you away from here. Knowing that if I take you, Damien, who is already going to try and chase me to the ends of the Earth to reclaim, in his words his ‘property’, will hunt us down twice as hard as you are, in case you forgot, his sister.”

I spoke slowly to emphasise the gravity of the situation I was already in, just in case she did not grasp it. I took a clear good look at her for the first time in quite awhile and sighed, this was really not going to work out. Yes she was a slim little thing, but there was a difference between being slim and being fit, her body did not have excess fat, but it did not have the muscles that came with years of training. She would not survive the distance I was going to go and the pace I was going to take to reach there as fast as possible. She was going to slow me down, she was not going to be totured if she stayed here, I was. I was about to deny her request when she covered my mouth with her hand.

“I know that you are in a hurry, but please Sapphire, this could be my only chance to leave this place and live my life without having Damien control every aspect of it.”

Her eyes sparkled with tears as she clung to my arm, her nails digging in with desperation as though she would not let me go unless I bring her along with me. I could not help but sigh as I saw the utter desperation in her eyes, she was practically begging me to take me with her but I could not let my guard down so easily. I had been played one too many times to trust the claims spouted by any person.

“This better not be some kind of ploy that you cooked up with your brother. If I bring you with me only to find out that you have been sending my location to Damien I promise you that death would be the easy way out.”

She clung onto my arm even harder as her body wracked with sobs as she frantically shook her head from up and down like a spring toy. I heard footsteps outside the door of the room we were in causing me to clamp my hand over Chloe’s mouth, her lips still trembled under it causing my hand to shake with it. I glared at her with enough intensity that she immediately sobered up with the occasional hiccup here and there. The footsteps outside our door thankfully stopped but unfortunately, they stopped right in front of the door. My whole body stilled as I heard voices, my ear pressed against the crack of the door.

“Where do you think she could have gone?”

“Probably not far enough to cross our borders yet.”

He was right, I have not even gone far enough to cross the threshold. If they just turned and opened the door, they would find their prey.

“We had better find her fast or Alpha Damien will have our heads. He is in no mood to accept any failure.”

Poor things.

They proceeded to sniff the air in hopes of catching my scent and I thank the stars for all the clothes hanging in this little room, they masked my scent and from the smell of them, they could mask a whole pack’s scent. Their voices began to trail further and further till they were barely audible. I turned to Chloe and placed a finger to my lips before using it to tap the hand that was covering her mouth, she nodded her head and I hoped that meant she got my message to keep quiet. Cautiously, I lowered my hand and thankfully she stayed quiet with the exception of a sniff as she rubbed her red eyes. Repeating my gesture of the finger against my lips I turned the door handle to open it by a small crack before checking the surroundings, the coast was clear.

I turned back to Chloe.

“You had better be sure of this decision right now because once I start running I am not going to stop until I go pass your pack’s borders, and remember, once you cross those borders you will be labelled as packless like me meaning that you are no longer protected under the same laws that your pack members are. I am will tell you the plan after we pass the borders, you need to keep your head down and do as I say no matter what.”

She nodded her head before gesturing to the door.

We bolted right out of the room and ran towards the door as if the hounds of Hell were chasing us, we had just managed to clear the front doors when the shouting of multiple people caught our ears. Will I ever get a break?

Pretty soon we were chased by at least half of Damien’s pack, some were chasing us as humans while some chased as wolves, either way, they still could not catch us, Chloe was surprisingly fast for someone that had not undergone military training.

We dodged branch after branch and jumped root over root till the howls were only a soft sound in the wind. We stopped near a humongous Oaktree as Chloe collapsed against it to catch her breath, her ragged breathing the only sound against the eerie silence of the forest.

“Don’t get too comfortable, we have to start running again soon.”

A small whine left her mouth as she began to slowly regain her ability to speak again.

“Run now? We are almost at the Northern Border, can’t we take a short break.”

I snorted at her statement.

“Exactly. We are almost at the Northern Border not passed it, we are not truly safe till we cross that border. For as long as we remain on your brother’s land the chances of us getting caught is astronomically high. The only thing that could really slow him down is if we cross the border as he cannot risk going into another Alpha’s territory without starting a war. Besides, it is written that Alpha’s have to give any packless wolves asylum till they are proven guilty of whatever crime they had supposedly ‘committed’, a law that your brother forgot. We might not be seeking asylum from them, but Damien will be thinking we are and that will lead him down a wild goose chase. He will start searching the packs under his authority, which would give us ample time to escape to a far away human settlement.”

My jaw clenched as I heard a howl in the distance, they were gaining on us. Chloe quirked an eyebrow as I stripped myself of my shirt before tearing it into strips, I ignored her question of my reason for doing so before tying a strip to a low-hanging branch before hooking another strip on a young tree. This was how we were trained to throw off our pursuers, it bought me a little time when Damien first sent out a search party looking for Antony and I.

“This might not distract them for long, but any delay now is good enough for us to take a decent lead.”

I gestured at her to follow before picking up speed and running again.