Chapter 6 Breaking Point
Elara limped through the thick undergrowth, every step sending a sharp, burning jolt up her fractured leg. She bit back a cry and kept moving anyway. The forest carried on around her, leaves rustling softly, distant birds calling, far too calm for the chaos twisting in her chest.
When she reached the stream at the edge of Northwood territory, her legs nearly gave out. Kneeling hurts, but the thirst hurts more. She dipped her hands into the cold water, fingers shaking, and drank greedily. The surface rippled, catching her reflection for a brief second. Bruises. Swelling. Old scars layered over new ones. She stared, her throat tightening, barely recognizing the girl looking back at her.
She turned away quickly, as if the water itself had judged her.
Hidden beyond the treeline, Kael remained perfectly still. His blue eyes followed her every movement, sharp and alert, even as his chest tightened at the sight of her pain. Ronan’s order echoed in his mind. Watch her. Protect her. Do not let her know you are there. So he stayed in the shadows, silent and controlled, giving her that small, fragile moment she did not even know she was being allowed.
Elara lifted her head, water dripping from her lips. Her chest still ached from the wolfsbane, but her mind wandered, as it always did. Ronan… She shivered. His golden eyes… so cold, yet… A faint warmth had brushed through her when she’d locked gaze with him in the study. She’d thought maybe, just maybe, she could beg him for help. Just maybe, he could be the one to see her for who she really was.
Her fingers tightened around the water as hope and fear twisted together. “But he won’t save me… he wouldn’t even hesitate if someone had been hurting me all these years. Would he? I’m just a stranger anyway.” Her breath hitched. The thought alone made her feel exposed and vulnerable. Yet, she couldn’t stop the flicker of longing.
Shoving the trembling leg forward, she pressed deeper into the forest. “I should fetch the herbs as quickly as possible,” she muttered, half to herself. The faint scent of pine turned sour, metallic and wrong, but she forced herself to ignore it.
Kael’s eyes tracked her silently, careful, and patient. Then it happened. As soon as she walked behind a tree, the forest around him twisted, thickened, and warped. Shadows stretched unnaturally, the air pulsed, the soft gurgle of the stream became a hiss in his ears.
He staggered back, claws digging into the soil. An illusion had wrapped around him like smoke and then, he saw her, Elara, but not her. Pale, screaming silently, reaching toward him with eyes that weren’t hers. His wolf raged inside him, claws scraping at his ribs.
“Impossible…” Kael muttered, mindlink straining, instincts screaming.
Then, just as suddenly, it snapped away. The forest returned to its natural calm, the stream gurgled quietly, the sun speckled through leaves, and she was gone.
Meanwhile,
“Turns out they always hated me…” The words cracked. “Even after everything Father did to protect us…”
Her voice echoed faintly before fading until another voice whispered, soft and cruel, “Why not run away…”
Elara stiffened. “I’m hearing things I shouldn’t,” she murmured, pressing her palms to her ears. “Even if I run, where do I go?”
She dragged her injured leg and pushed deeper into the forest.
Then suddenly footsteps rang behind her. She froze. Another step. Crack. Crack.
Movement. Heavy. Surrounding.
Her pulse roared in her ears. “Who’s there?”
Four figures emerged from the shadows. Bare, filthy, and snarling eyes glowing with the feral madness of rogues. The leader sniffed the air, nostrils flaring. His expression twisted. “That scent…” His lip curled. “Northwood.”
The others growled, hate flashing in their eyes.
“Draven’s pack,” one spat. “Thought we wiped out all your patrolling leeches.”
“She reeks of that bastard’s house,” another snarled. “Your Alpha drove us out, took our lands, our mates, our cubs. Burned our homes and called us traitors.” His voice dripped venom. “And now one of his pets dares walk free in our woods?”
One of them froze mid-step, nostrils flaring as the scent hit him fully. His eyes widened, and a shiver ran down his spine. “Wait… she’s… a half-breed,” he whispered, voice cracking.
The leader’s head snapped toward him, nostrils flaring. “A half-breed?” he spat, recoiling for a fraction of a second. “The bastard Alpha’s… abomination?”
Unease rippled through the group. One rogue shifted backward instinctively, his growl uncertain, teeth bared but trembling. “She smells… different. Unnatural… should we…?”
The leader slammed his hand against a tree, forcing himself to mask the hesitation with cruelty. His grin sharpened into a predator’s snarl. “Unnatural or not… she’s ours. Ugly little freak. You shouldn’t exist.” His eyes glittered with a dangerous hunger. “Let’s see if mutant pups bleed like wolves.”
Elara’s breath caught. “I…I’m not…”
The leader’s snarl deepened. “Shut up!”
His hand struck her across the face, hard enough to send her sprawling into the dirt. Pain flared through her skull. She tried to push back, but her leg buckled beneath her. “Please…” Her voice cracked. “Stay away…”
That only made them laugh louder.
“Look at her beg,” one jeered. “Pathetic little freak.”
Rough hands grabbed her arms. The leader’s breath hit her cheek, hot, foul, hungry. “Maybe she’s good for one thing,” he whispered.
She tried to fight, but a kick slammed into her ribs. Her scream tore through the trees. Another blow followed. Someone grabbed her hair and dragged her through the dirt.
“Please! Stop!”
They didn’t. They ripped at her dress until it shredded, exposing her trembling, scarred skin. A hand struck her face again; another stomped on her broken leg. Pain exploded white.
“Smell that?” one of them laughed. “She’s bleeding.”
“Think you can sneak out of your pack’s leash?” another spat. “Northwood filth.”
The leader crouched, his smile cruel. “You shouldn’t exist.” He spat on her and took out a weapon.
A blade flashed.
Fire tore through her side as steel sank just beneath her ribs. She screamed. “Stop! Please!” When she screamed, he laughed harder, pressing his weight against her. And the world shattered.
“Blame your Alpha for your condition,” the leader sneered. He yanked the blade free and licked her blood from it. “You’ll die as what you are. Nothing.”
Something inside her began to crumble.
Her chest heaved with shallow breaths. Her vision swam. All the memories slammed into her at once, her father’s death.
Draven’s face.
His friends’ laughter.
Cierce’s sneer.
Rylan’s silence.
Her own voice, begging back then too.
Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she couldn’t even cry right anymore. Her voice came out broken.
“Why… why does it always have to be me?”
Something cracked, not in the forest, not in her bones but in her mind.
Her breath came fast, uneven. The world blurred at the edges.
“Why…” she said again, louder, her fingers curling into the dirt. “Why me?!” Her body convulsed with sobs that no longer sounded human.
“Why do you hate me? Why do you all hate me?!”
Her voice climbed higher, cracked, and broke. Her tears turned to shaking breaths.
Then something inside her snapped “WHY?!”
The word exploded like a thunderclap. The air rippled. The ground trembled.
The leader’s smirk froze. Elara’s hand shot up to his neck and then snapped it sideways with a wet, brutal crack.
He fell dead. The others reeled back, eyes wide. “What the hell?!”
“Kill her!”
They charged.
Elara moved before she thought. She caught one’s wrist mid-swing and twisted until bone burst through the skin. His scream tore the air apart. She shoved the jagged limb into his chest. Another lunged. She drove her elbow into his throat, then crushed his skull against a tree. The impact echoed. The last one tried to run. She caught him by the hair, yanked him back, and slammed her fist through his chest.
Silence.
Four bodies on the ground. Blood everywhere. Elara stood shaking, her breath jagged, her arms drenched in red. Her fingers twitched. Her heart wouldn’t slow down. Then she looked at her hands. Her breath hitched and then broke.
“No…” she whispered. Her knees hit the ground. “No, I didn’t… I didn’t kill them…”
The forest was too quiet. The air too still. She began to shake violently, whispering it over and over. “I didn’t kill them. I didn’t kill them. I didn’t…” Her chest heaved. Tears mixed with blood on her face. The smell of death made her gag.
“I’m not like them… I’m not…”
Her sobs twisted into raw, ragged screams, echoing through the forest like they belonged to someone else. Fear, guilt, and exhaustion rolled over her in heavy waves, shaking her to the core.
Her body trembled uncontrollably as panic swallowed her whole. She tried to run, but the world tilted, spinning. The forest was still quiet, save for her sobs. Until it wasn’t. A deep, low snarl sounded right behind her. Something crashed onto her back, knocking her to the ground. She gasped, pain lancing through her spine as fangs bit deep into her neck. Fire shot through her veins, and her scream ripped itself out of her throat.
Pain. Burning. Screams.
With her last strength, she grabbed the creature’s head, fingers digging deep—
Crunch.
The head burst.
Her eyes rolled back as the darkness rushed in.
And for the first time in a long time, she stopped feeling anything at all.