Chapter 30

Chapter 30

“After all, if you run far enough, no one can catch you.”

VE Schwab

Here’s the thing about running.

Adrenaline only gets you so far.

For the first five minutes, I didn’t feel anything except the pounding of my boots against ground and my heartbeat pulsing in my ears.

*Get to the treeline.*

*Get to the treeline, and you won’t be out in the open anymore.* That mantra played on a loop in my head as I crossed the open, grassy field as fast as possible.

Scarlett bounded ahead of me, an instant reminder that no matter how much I pushed my body, my stubby human legs would always pale in comparison to werewolf stamina.

*But at least I’ve got a head start.*

Liam and an unfamiliar voice began shouting at us, their voices too far away for my human ears to accurately decipher what they were saying. I prayed that they wouldn’t pursue us. If Liam or the other wolf chased me, despite this not being *their* territory, I was probably a goner.

Scarlett might be fast enough to outrun them, but I didn’t stand a chance.

*Just a little bit further.*

The shouting got a little louder, a little more frantic, but…

I crashed through the treeline and into the coverage of the large pine forest. I wasn’t safe, I knew that, but that didn’t stop me from practically keeling over with my hands on my knees. The adrenaline was clearing up now, and I was in desperate need for air.

And water – but that would have to wait until we managed to get somewhere with supplies.

A few feet away from me, Scarlett leaned against a tree, not looking nearly as out of breath as I was. She glanced back at the open field. “We made it,” she said quietly, “And I don’t hear them shouting anymore.” Some of the nervous energy had disappeared from her. She looked hopeful since the first time we’d been captured by Alpha Enzo’s men.

I strained to listen, and she was right – no more shouting.

“We didn’t make it yet,” I managed to wheeze out between breaths, “If they’re not shouting anymore, it’s probably because they went to tell Enzo that we ran…which means we need to keep running.”

🔖🔖🔖

If there was one thing all of this – waking up in a cheesy werewolf novel, finding out I had a mate, and running away – had proven to me, it’s that I needed to work out.

After three hours in the forest, my legs felt like jelly and if I stopped walking, I was worried I might never start again.

However, despite my exhaustion, there was good news. One: we’d been trekking through the forest for hours, and there was still no sign of Alpha Enzo or any of his men. I wasn’t dumb enough to think he’d just given up and let me go, but I was holding out hope that I’d be long gone by the time he located me.

And two: we’d managed to make it onto a main road.

It was a long, single-lane back road with a faded yellow line that you had to squint to see.

“Clearly, this road doesn’t see a lot of traffic,” I told her quietly. In the past twenty minutes we’d been walking along it, there wasn’t even the rumbling of a car in the distance.

“It makes sense,” she explained, “Werewolves live as far from human civilization as they can. Less people to hide ourselves from.” I thought back to the human town Scarlett and I had *tried* reaching…before Alpha Enzo’s men had captured us.

“Well…roads are good,” I said, “Roads mean people, and people means we’re less likely to end up in some other pack’s dungeon.”

*Because I doubt we’ll get the grace that we got last time.*

Scarlett suddenly gasped.

“What is it?” I asked, and my entire body tensed. I glanced around for signs of danger – or werewolves – but I couldn’t see anything. “Do you see or hear someone?”

“Not someone, but *something*,” she said, and pointed north. “Look!” The excitement in her tone

I squinted, covering my eyes from the harsh afternoon sun. “I don’t see anything.” But, just as the words were out of my mouth, I spotted it.

My breath caught, and for just a moment, I wondered if it was real or just some sort of mirage brought on by dehydration and exhaustion.

It must’ve been at least a half-a-mile away and tucked between a shroud of pine trees, but the more I stared, the more clear it became.

“Holy shit, it’s a gas station,” I breathed.

The sign was more than faded, but in big, block letters, it read: E-Z GAS.

A fresh shot of adrenaline burst through my veins, and for a moment, I forgot just how exhausted I was. It’s possible that it might be closed or abandoned, but it was the first sign of life we’d seen in hours.

A sign of hope.

Fortunately, it didn’t take us long to cross the distance, and before I knew it, the gravel parking lot was coming into view.

It was smaller than it looked. Two dusty gas pumps outside and a window that looked as if it hadn’t been cleaned in at least a decade.

However, the lit up OPEN sign on the attached convenience store as the few cars decorating the lot made me sag with relief. There were people here. Humans.

“Do you think any of them will help us?” Scarlett asked as the gravel crunched under our shoes. We strode past an old pickup truck adorned with mud splatters in the front spot as well as a dented Oldsmobile at one of the pumps. “We are strangers.”

As we reached the double doors of the convenience store, I turned to her and said, “I didn’t just escape some delusional Alpha and walk three hours through the woods for it to mean nothing. We’ll get help – one way or another.”