Chapter 4 – The Escape Plan and Damien’s Spiral
1087 Words
I don’t wait for my body to fully stop aching before I decide.
I’m leaving Crescent Crest.
Not tonight—my head still pounds and my legs wobble if I stand too fast—but soon. The pack could survive without an omega girl who barely exists to them. Damien made that clear. The rejection made it clearer.
I don’t belong here anymore.
Mila left an hour ago to get food from the pack kitchens, and I take the opportunity to pull myself out of the infirmary bed. My bare feet hit the cold tile floor, a sharp bite of reality.
I steady myself on the wall, breathing through the dizziness.
My wolf stirs tiredly. Are we really doing this?
“Yes,” I whisper. “We have to.”
I move quietly—half afraid the walls themselves will alert the pack.
My plan is simple, because it has to be:
1. Slip out of the infirmary.
2. Grab my backpack from the small packhouse room I’ve slept in for years.
3. Leave before nightfall.
I don’t know where I’ll go. I don’t know how far I’ll make it. But staying here—staying under the same roof as the boy who tore my heart in half—isn’t something I can survive twice.
I make it down the corridor without running into anyone. The hallways are still dim, morning light seeping through the windows like pale gold smoke.
I’m almost at the exit when a low voice stops me cold.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I freeze.
Damien.
He steps out of the shadowed corner ahead of me, arms crossed over his chest, shoulders tense, jaw sharp. There’s something wild in his eyes again, something fraying and furious and anything but indifferent.
I swallow hard. “Going home.”
He looks at me like the words physically hit him.
“You are home.”
The ache in my chest flares. “No. I’m not.”
He takes one step forward.
I take one back.
His nostrils flare—wolf instincts reacting instantly to my retreat.
“Lila.” His voice drops, deep, unsteady. “You need rest.”
“I need distance.” My throat tightens, but I force the words out. “From you. From all of this.”
His eyes flash gold.
Pure, primal wolf.
“My rejection doesn’t give you permission to leave the territory.”
My breath stutters.
There it is.
The Alpha command creeping in.
“You don’t get to control me,” I whisper.
His jaw works. “I’m not trying to control you. I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“From what? You?”
He flinches, a visible tremor in his shoulders.
“Don’t.” His voice cracks. “Don’t say it like that.”
“Then how should I say it?” I step closer before I can stop myself. “That you rejected me but still want me close enough to breathe your air? That you don’t want me but won’t let me go?”
His throat bobs.
The air thicks between us—charged, hurt, tense.
“I never said I didn’t want you.” His voice is soft and broken and dangerous.
My pulse stops.
My lungs freeze.
Damien looks away sharply, like he regrets letting the truth slip out. His hand runs through his hair in a violent motion, frustration bleeding out of him.
“This is exactly why you need to stay,” he mutters. “You’re not strong enough to be on your own.”
The words punch me in the stomach.
Not strong enough.
Omega.
Weak.
Packless.
The insults he never once threw at me, he just did now.
“Fine,” I whisper. “I’ll show you how wrong you are.”
His head snaps up, eyes blazing.
“Lila—”
But I’m already walking past him.
I brush his shoulder lightly as I go, and the contact is like a spark along my skin—hot, electric, instant. Damien sucks in a breath like he’s been struck.
“Don’t leave.” His voice is barely more than a rasp.
I falter.
Just for a second.
Then I force myself to keep moving, every step slicing through the bond’s ghost like a knife.
“You already did,” I say without turning back.
⸻
I make it to my small packhouse room in minutes.
I shove clothes, a water flask, and a worn blanket into my backpack. My fingers tremble as I zip it shut. This is it. Once I step out of Crescent Crest territory, I’m rejecting every memory I ever held close.
A knock hits the door the moment I reach for the handle.
My stomach drops.
Please not him. Not now. Not when my resolve is this fragile.
The door creaks open anyway.
Betas Bram and Sylas stand there.
Not Damien.
But the sight of them isn’t comforting—they’re two of Damien’s most loyal enforcers. Tall, broad, expressionless.
“Alpha Damien sent us,” Bram says, voice formal.
My heart stutters.
“To escort you back to the infirmary,” Sylas adds. “You’re still injured.”
My wolf snarls inside me.
“He doesn’t get to order me around anymore,” I say quietly.
Bram eyes the backpack on my shoulder. His expression betrays nothing, but Sylas’s gaze sharpens.
“You’re leaving?”
“I’m not his problem anymore.”
Sylas exchanges a look with Bram—an uneasy one.
Then Bram sighs.
“You should know… the Alpha hasn’t slept.”
My breath catches.
“He stayed outside the infirmary all night,” Sylas mutters. “Pacing. Snarling at anyone who came near.”
My chest tightens painfully.
No.
That doesn’t matter.
It can’t matter.
I push past them, ignoring the ache in my legs.
“Lila,” Bram calls quietly behind me. “If you go… something in him will break.”
I stop.
Just for a second.
Just long enough for my heart to twist.
Then I say the only thing that will keep me from turning back:
“It already did.”
⸻
The moment my feet cross the invisible border of Crescent Crest territory, a sharp burn sears across my chest—the leftover mate bond screaming in protest.
My knees buckle.
The forest blurs.
Pain floods every vein.
But I keep walking.
One step.
Then another.
Because if I stay…
Damien Blackthorne will pull me back in.
And I’ll never escape him alive.
- Writer
