Never Yours, Mate

Chapter 18 - Long Live The Queen

Pain. Pain. Throbbing. A pounding in my head. The lights blinding me. Groans as I turned onto my side. I opened my eyes. My hand reached up to my neck. A bandage. I peeled it back. The skin was healing. The mark gone. I stood despite the ache in my bones and the protests in my muscles. 

Lucy was gone. So was the doctor. Panic started to set in. My breathing raced my eyes started to widen. My heart pounded. Lucy. She wanted Lucy not me. At least my mark was gone. Zachary would think I was dead. Relief washed over me but couldn't outmatch the dread I felt. Lucy, she had grown on me. I loved her like a sister. I had no clue what  the woman would do to her. My palms became sweaty as questions ran through my mind. 

What if she just wanted a child? 

What if she was giving her to the werewolves?

What if she was her aunt and recognized her?

What if she was already dead?

The questions paralyzed me. I couldn't move. My hands stayed frozen by my side, my feet planted in the ground. My eyes glazed over as the scene flashed before my eyes.

Lucy screaming and crying. Trying to wake me up but failing. The woman picking her up and taking her. Kicking and struggling over her shoulder. Screams and shrieks as she's butchered. As if she's nothing.  Who knew if it was real or not.

A howl startled me. In the distance I could hear it again.  A chain of howls growing louder and louder but somehow through the noise one stood out. Zachary's. It wasn't sorrow. It was anger, pure hard anger. I could almost see him snarling and growling at anyone who came near. His eyes would be bloodshot with anger. I ran. 

I didn't have a choice. 

Who knew where Lucy was but I didn't have a choice. 

I didn't have a choice. 

I didn't have a choice.

But I did. 

I did and I knew it.

I chose wrong.

I chose to abandon her as I had been abandoned.

I chose wrong.

I would never see her again.

But I didn't know if she was even alive.  She could be dead in a ditch and I would never know. Or she could be alive. Living through terrors I could never imagine. I wanted to scream. Scream so loud the could hear me in Canada. Scream so loud every werewolf in the northern hemisphere could hear me. But I couldn't. Screaming means back to Zachary. Screaming means back to Hell. Screaming means back to my sisters.

I ran. I ran because that was my choice. I ran because I wanted to. I ran for everyone I had lost. I ran for the lessons I needed to gain. I ran. I ran so that I could live in hope. I ran so that I could see a new world. One where I wasn't just an object for someone to own. For someone to play with till their hearts content.  

I ran.