I run towards my door, almost tripping over the welcome mat that sits outside the carved oak entrance. The sudden jarring of my body tearing open the healing cuts I have all over my body. My ribs burning as I grab the brass front door handle and fling the door open with as much force as I can.

My mind is scrambled in my panic. What do I do? What do I take? How long do I have left? Obviously not long enough to pack up all my belongings and get the hell out of here. I run through my minimalist living room, heading straight for my bedroom at the back of the house. I can feel my right eye closing over, narrowing my vision, my jaw not yet healed from the break jolting with every impact my feet make with the ground.

I run towards my bed, collapsing onto it, trying to grab my suitcases and duffle bags with my one good arm. Not that the arm is pain free, no, thanks to the broken ribs it’s almost as painful as the other arm that I’ve yet to reset at the elbow. Well no time like the present. I grab the wrist of my broken arm and jam it back into place, holding in the scream that is trying to force its way through my gritted teeth.

I take a second to rest from all the physical exertion, I need all the strength I have to get these fucking bags out from underneath the bed. The dizziness I get lifting the bags is killer, making the room tilt and swirl like I’m on a bad fucking rollercoaster. I try to stuff as many clothes into the two bags and one duffle as possible, I don’t have the space to take everything, I’m only going to be able to take what I can grab in a few armfuls. I stumble over to the bathroom and snatch my jewellery bag and throw it into whatever bag is closest.

I run around the room as fast as I can go, grabbing my memento’s, the photos of my family, emergency cash, anything that is irreplaceable. When I finally have everything I need, I go to close the lid on the suitcases, when a photo of the pack stops me. It dawns on me that I’m abandoning my family, my pack. A few tears start leaking from my left eye, which burn as they roll down through the cuts on my face. I can’t look at it anymore right now, I close the lid and zip the bag with as much force as I can muster.

My car is thankfully right outside the door. I drag the bags to the back door and use every working muscle to lift them onto the seat. Silently closing the doors to the car, I walk back to my cabin and close the door without looking back, my heart aching with every step I take away from my home.

I drive for what feels like an eternity and all I can think about is what lead me to here.

I wake up gasping for air, why does my neck feel like it’s being crushed and burnt? I lift my heavy arm towards my neck and am met with a metal choker biting into my neck, the silver burning my hand the second I touch it. The silver choker tightening further as my breathing gets faster. Fuck, what the hell is going on.

I look around the room and realise that my Alpha is sitting calmly on a chair about ten feet away from me, shielded in the darkness of the basement I now realise I am in. I try pulling the chain, yelling for him to let me go.

He stands and walks towards me, utter terror seeping into my bones.

“What did you hear Ava” he asks with his controlled voice. When I don’t respond his eyes harden with hatred and before I can even see him move, he is suddenly less than three inches away from me. .

“WHAT DID YOU HEAR AVA?” he screams at me, spittle landing all over my face making me flinch.

“I didn’t hear or see anything Alpha, please let me go!” I know I could get caught lying, but I’m hoping that he is that desperate to hear the answer that he can’t tell, that his desperation will save my life.

“I don’t believe you.” he says back to the calm face façade I know that he wears in public. I’m given no warning as I’m thrown backwards with a punch to the side of my head. Over and over again I’m punched and kicked and beaten. I can feel every crunch of bone; every bruise being formed on my body. I know that I’m wailing at him to stop, he just keeps going, until I’m too broken to move, too broken for my wolf to come forward. The assault on my body stops suddenly but I’m too scared to look up to see if there is another blow coming. I feel the chain being unlocked and the burn of the silver taken away from my skin.

He bends down to my eye level, staring into the one eye that is swollen to the size of golf ball. I whimper when he moves in closer touching his lips to mine, I try to back away, but the pain makes my consciousness waiver.

“You need to run little Ava, run far. If I find out you’ve spoken to anyone of this, I will kill anyone and everyone you’ve ever loved. No-one is safe. Do you understand?” he whispers so softly that I almost miss it. I try to nod my head, and just the slightest movement of my head down is enough for him to recognise my acceptance.

“You have one hour. I suggest you move, Little Ava”

Pulling myself out of my memory is hard, the trauma that I can feel all over my body bellowing at me, reminding me. It dawns on me that I’m finally out of pack lands and I pull over to the side of the road, I have to do what I’ve been trying to avoid thinking about since I was told to run. I have to break my pack bonds. I close my one good eye, and find that ball of purple light at the heart of any shifter in a pack, with beautiful tendrils reaching out to every member of the pack. I concentrate on extinguishing each tendril, and with each dimming light, my heart breaks more and more. The final thread is being consumed by my black cloud, and as if a rubber band was breaking, I felt the snap of the last link to my pack break. The emotional and physical injuries too great, I feel my body slump forward, my head knocking into the steering wheel as my consciousness fades to black.