The chase has pushed me to the edge of my physical limits, and in the moment of sheer misfortune, my fall has ended with my leg caught in a merciless vice, wedged between an unyielding rock and the fallen remains of a once-majestic tree.

The rock must have fallen with me and pinned me. This fallen tree had one redeeming quality, it is sheltering me from one direction.

I need to get free but the damn bell.

I am genuinely stuck between a rock and a hard place. If I want to get free, I will need to let go of the bell, that will give me away, if I stay here, I could end up being stuck here until I die from something else.

A small breeze blows my hair in front of my shoulders and with it came the ribbon that the bell was attached to.

The ribbon must have snapped but the only reason it's right by my neck is because my body refused to move my arm in case the bell rang. I lower my hand and then the cramp began, my arm had been held in that position for so long the pain was only relieved if I put it back where it was.

Then I heard it. Footsteps, crunching leaves and loud voices.

"Where’ve you gone? Come on, we haven't got all day!" A man yells.

"Let's go already! We should have been back hours ago!" he shouts again.

Hours? Had it really been hours of me running?

"Let's finish already little one!" The man kept shouting, I don’t move, I hold my breathing steady and quiet and wait till the voice disappeared along with the footsteps and crunching leaves.

I started to slowly lower my arm as the cramp started fading from my elbow, the blood started rushing back to my wrist and I then had pins and needles running rampantly in my arm and fingers. Then I looked at the main problem.

How am I going to get out of this one? Just as I started to touch the rock to push it off my leg, bell still tightly in-between my thumb and pointer finger of my right hand, there were more footsteps. This time no shouting.

I freeze in place, listening to where this person is going, they were circling the tree I was trapped against, lucky for me the leaves had been ruffled around by my fall that it was like I have a natural camouflage around me, the tree being fallen helped too because it meant I am completely hidden from one side.

Then I hear no more footsteps and feel a presence behind me, I stay still but they move in front of me. A wolf, I have been found and it’s over.

I was never going to win. I'm an idiot for thinking I could.

I drop my head back, look at the sky, seeing that the clouds have turned a stunning shade of light pink with tints of orange, my neck waiting for the inevitable outcome. The one who found me must have been enjoying their win by just watching me submit to them before enjoying the 'best' part of the Offering.

The bite never came though, so I try to lift my head back up to face the victor, but my body has other plans. I pass out before I could even fully see who had caught me, all I knew was it was a large, dark auburn furred wolf.

Did I really lose to those bastards?

Well at least death is not as bad as I thought, I felt no pain and clearly there is something after death like the Elders used to say.

Being alone with my thoughts for the rest of time will be nice, no sleep which means no nightmares. No over my shoulder glances. No more standing to attention.

No more lessons or Door to Hell lurking and threatening to swallow me for weeks on end again.

I could cry with joy.

I’m free.

Thinking about it I am glad I was found and caught; maybe if I had been hidden better a slow death would have been more torturous than the lessons.

Losing my train of thought, I begin seeing images of a familiar face telling me it’s not my time to leave.

“Go back sweet Lilah, they need you down there…” That was all that was said, clear enough for me to understand. Then I feel an electric jolt though my whole being, flashes of lights seep into my vision from the pure darkness and slowly faint sounds of rushed voices, metal clinking together and beeping noises surround me.

My senses overwhelmed but still not feeling a thing, I can’t even feel myself breathing, something I am normally highly aware of. What on Selene’s green Earth is going on here?

The noises slow to an almost dead silence but there is still a faint beeping noise and very muffled voices. I strain to hear and understand but nothing comes of it and after what feels like hours, I finally manage to hear something coherent.

“She should wake up within an hour, the sedative needs time to wear off and then we can work on finding out what happened while she is still in a calm state.” A silky woman’s voice said with empathy.

I survived. Really? But now I’m in another pack so that isn’t much of a win for me. Not that I had a plan if I got away in the first place.

Time feels like it has slowed down and the hour could have gone on for longer if I wasn’t so occupied by listening to everything around me. Then I feel like I have been hit by a freight train that is hauling the material to build a skyscraper. My head is spinning, and my instant reaction was to jolt up and stop myself from throwing up at the throbbing I am feeling throughout my entire body. And that’s when it truly hit me that I did survive, I was looking at three people standing in a room around me in what seems to be an infirmary.

Ringing in my ears from the jolt of pain I had previously felt slowly simmered down and now I could hear what was being said by the woman who I now know to be the doctor from the glance I managed to get at her clothes. I keep my eyes trained to the bed covers to stay out of trouble.

“Hi there, are you feeling alright?” She says as she places a clipboard down at the bottom of the bed, she then moves to sit at the end of the bed, and I move back as far as the bed allows me. The pillow behind my back being squished so that my spine can feel the plastic backboard.

“I’m Thea, you feeling alright? You gave us a scare there.” I just stare at the sheets, my head still pounding and feeling like I could sleep for days.

“You said you found her on our borders edge near Dawn Break, correct?” She said not looking away from me but clearly addressing one of the men. One of them nodded but moving my eyes in their direction made my head spin again so I just put my eyes back to the covers of the bed near the doctor.

“We’ve had reports from the other packs that border them that they hunt young wolves they no longer want, only one of those unfortunate ones made it into another border but they were still caught and killed before anyone could get to them to bring them to safety.” Her voice was dripping with empathy at the last few words, and she seemed to trail off slightly.

After hearing that one of us almost made it but was caught at the last second I lurched forward from feeling sick to my stomach, in doing so I almost fell from the bed but one of the men was fast enough to catch me and the moment he made skin contact with my arm and shoulder to stabilize me I made direct eye contact, my eyes boring holes in his bright blue eyes that have grey swirls in them. Just as quickly as I feel everything wash away in that moment, the pain, exhaustion, and anxiety floods back in waves.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

First the anxiety, I pull away viciously and lower my head making myself as small as I possibly can. Then the pain rolled in, and my lungs are on fire as if I was running again and my leg is pulsing under the bandage. Another wave of both anxiety and pain hit me and then the exhaustion, I can feel my eyes faltering from their position on the bed sheet as my eyelids are battling to stay open.

A wave of all three hit and I fall into a dreamless sleep.

Waking up I find myself alone in the room, so I look around while I am shaking off the groggy feeling. Most of the surfaces in the room are stainless steel, there is a door to my right and in front of me is all the cabinets and a sink. To the left is two chairs and in one of them the auburn-haired man is sleeping. He looks peaceful and I can see a little stubble from where I am so he must have been here since the time I fell asleep.

I decided to sit up, so I didn’t fall asleep again, I am still extremely tired, but I feel like I have just slept for a week with no breaks so sleeping can wait. The bed made a creak as I pushed myself up with my left arm and then a voice.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty.” His voice could melt butter with how smooth and silky it is, I fix my eyes to the sheets and bring my knees to my chest to feel smaller.

“You know we need to have you answer questions so we can take care of you better, right?” I wracked my brain for an answer to how I would have been told to deal with this situation but nothing. Minutes of silence go by and then I flinch as the man stands up and lifts his arm to scratch the back of his neck.

My peripheral vision is slightly blurred from being sleepy and my brain is still in a slight fog, so I lower my eyes further to look at my knees.

“My names Zane, could you tell me yours?” I feel the weight of him sit on the bed slowly and I move back again until I feel plastic on my spine.

“Lilah Simmons, sir.” My voice is hoarse, and my throat feels scratchy as I say my name in a whisper.

“Thank you, Lilah. Please call me Zane.” I keep still and quiet.

We are not to use first names with elders or higher ranks. I will not make that mistake again.

The door opens abruptly making me nearly jump out of the bed but again the man called Zane moved to steady me. This time I keep my eyes low and avoid anything above knee level. The doctor has walked in, her name was Thea, I think.

“Hello, sweetie, Zane tells me you’ve told him your name?” she asks with her silky-smooth voice again, this time with more sweet tones.

“Yes, Ma’am” my voice barely a whisper.

“Could you answer some questions for me? It’s so we can help you.” Thea says softly so I nod.

“Could you tell me the last time you ate and slept before you came here?” She was shuffling the papers on the clipboard from the bottom of the bed, my throat is starting to feel like sand was in it, but I know if I don’t answer I would end up worse.

“I slept at around five in the afternoon for forty-five minutes a day and a half before the Offering and ate at around seven in the afternoon the night before, Ma’am.” My voice keeps breaking as I am speaking, and I feel more tired than when I woke up.

I could hear the faint scratching of a pen and then a loud noise reverberated around the room making me jump and scramble as far back against the plastic headboard as I can get. Forgetting that the man called Zane is still by my side he is frozen in place halfway through reaching for what had made the noise.

“Just knocked something off the table, sorry to have scared you Lilah.” He said and I cringed at my name, and I don’t know what comes over me, but I snap.

“It’s Simmons, Sir” He looks at me with curiosity and then Thea chimes in.

“Zane, this is that pack I was investigating with the Elite.” She clearly wanted to say something more but stops herself and then Zane responds in a way I don’t understand.

His whole aura changes, it went from caring to pure rage as he places the dropped cup down aggressively and walks out like a bull seeing red. I half expected a slammed door, but he left it open he’s going that fast.

I feel a nagging pain at the back of my head and reach to sooth it but stop after remembering that Thea is still here.

“Can I ask some personal questions, or would you like to rest more?” She said moving to sit on the bed as far from me as she could manage. I don’t think I can talk even if I wanted to at this point.

“Water, Ma’am” I force out with all my might through the pain and dryness of my throat.

“Water and rest it is, we can avoid these questions as they aren’t medical.” I could hear her smile and feel her motherly warmth. She gets up and is moving around doing small tasks while I slowly move to let my spine take a break from being harshly pressed against the plastic.

After a few minutes she placed a glass of water on the side table to my left and put the clipboard back at the bottom of the bed.

“I will be just outside at my desk, just ask if you need anything that isn’t here.” Her voice was calm and soothes me a little as I can be alone with my thoughts to process what is happening. She quietly leaves and instead of closing the door fully she leaves it cracked open.

I grab the glass of water and sip a few times hoping it will help my throat, it soothed it a little, but it was still feeling rough. I get comfortable and hear faint voices outside, can’t understand a word but soon enough I have fallen asleep again. More dreamless sleep and when I wake up, I am greeted with an empty room thankfully. I sip on the water for a few minutes, my throat slowly feeling better after reaching the halfway point of the cup. I place the cup back and then lay there for a while with my eyes fixated on the ceiling.

I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I know I am waking up in the middle of the room off the bed, I feel shorter than normal and slightly healthier. Then the mess of the room comes into my view, the bed is skewed, blankets draped and half on the floor, glass of water smashed and spilled, and a few other things strewn about.

“What in the world is going…” Thea walked in and stopped as she saw me, I look down at the ground.

Wait. Paws? I shifted in my sleep. Wait. I haven’t shifted in six years; I thought my wolf had left me?

Freaking out at the paws I start to move around to find a corner to hide but in doing so I make more of a mess, causing more panic. I am not getting out of trouble now.

“Simmons, you’re fine, calm down, you can sit in the corner, and I will tidy up.” Thea says and more panic hits me. Omegas clean their own mess and others. Thea stops abruptly as she is about to pick up the mess, then I notice why, I have been unknowingly growling at her.

“Okay, I will let you tidy up but how can you if you’re shifted?” she asks with an eyebrow cocked. I lower my head and look at the floor again, I don’t know how to shift anymore, how did I end up like this and how am I going to fix it so I can clean my mess?

Selene, please help me fix this, I am so tired, and I just want to sleep!