Sarah POV
The pain doesn't stop.
Sarah walks deeper into the forest and the mate bond keeps severing. It's like something inside her body is tearing apart slowly. Like her soul is being ripped in half. Like every part of her that was connected to Mason is dying and she has to feel all of it.
She walks until the pack house disappears behind the trees. She walks until she can't hear the sounds of the territory anymore. She walks until she's completely alone in the darkness. Her white dress is torn and covered in dirt. Her feet are bleeding. Her mind is broken.
The sun is setting and Sarah realizes she's not going to make it through the night like this.
A lone wolf doesn't survive in the forest. Everyone knows this. Pack wolves are trained to hunt together. Pack wolves have backup. Pack wolves have a den and food stores and other wolves to protect them. A lone wolf has nothing. A lone wolf is just prey. A lone wolf gets hunted and killed.
Sarah stops walking and looks around at the dark trees. She thinks about just sitting down and waiting for death to find her. She thinks about how easy it would be to just let go. To stop fighting. To accept that her life is over.
But something inside her refuses to give up.
Sarah takes off the torn remains of her white dress. She kicks off her shoes. She closes her eyes and lets her body change. The shift from human to wolf is painful but it's also grounding. It's the one thing she can still control. The one thing that makes sense.
Her bones reshape. Her body stretches. Her senses explode outward. Suddenly she can smell everything. She can hear everything. She can feel the forest around her in ways her human mind could never understand.
She runs.
Her wolf legs carry her through the forest faster than her human body ever could. She runs away from the pack territory. She runs away from Mason. She runs away from everything that just destroyed her life. The forest blurs around her and the only thing that matters is putting distance between herself and the pain behind her.
But the mate bond is still there. Even as a wolf, she can feel it trying to hold on to her. She can feel Mason on the other end of it. She can feel him rejecting her over and over again. The bond doesn't want to break. It's fighting to stay connected. But his will is stronger. His rejection is absolute. So the connection dies slowly and painfully.
Sarah runs until her legs give out.
She collapses in a clearing surrounded by darkness. Her wolf body is heaving and exhausted. Blood is dripping from her paws where the rocks cut her. Sweat covers her matted fur. She can't run anymore. She can't fight anymore. She can't do anything except lie on the ground and wait for whatever comes next.
Death comes for lone wolves. That's the law. That's what happens to wolves who don't have a pack. They get hunted. They get killed. They disappear from the world like they never existed.
Sarah closes her eyes and waits for the hunters.
But the voices that come aren't from her old pack.
The scent that hits her nose is different. Unfamiliar. Sarah's eyes snap open and she sees shadows moving through the trees. There are at least five of them. They're in wolf form. They're looking at her. Their eyes are glowing in the darkness.
Sarah tries to stand but her legs won't cooperate. She can't run. She can't fight. She can barely breathe. These wolves could kill her right now and she wouldn't be able to stop them.
One of the wolves shifts back into human form. It's a woman. She's tall and muscular with dark hair and calm eyes. She kneels down beside Sarah's collapsed body like Sarah isn't a threat. Like Sarah isn't a dying lone wolf that nobody cares about.
The woman's voice is steady and strong. She tells Sarah that she's safe now. She says the word safe like it means something. Like it's a real thing that can exist.
Sarah tries to growl a warning but the sound comes out weak and broken.
The woman ignores the threat and studies Sarah carefully. She tells her pack members to shift back to human form. She tells them that this wolf isn't dangerous. She tells them that this wolf is hurt and broken and needs help not death.
One of the pack members asks Alpha Victoria if they should bring the wounded wolf back to their territory. He sounds like he thinks that's a bad idea. He sounds like he's questioning his Alpha's decision.
Victoria stands up and looks at her pack member like she's already made up her mind. She tells him that they're bringing the wolf back. She tells him that any wolf found alone in the forest deserves help. She tells him that's what separates them from the wild animals. That's what makes them pack.
The pack member doesn't argue but Sarah can see the doubt on his face.
Victoria kneels back down beside Sarah and tells her that her name is Victoria. She tells her that she's the Alpha of Crimson Ridge pack. She tells her that Sarah is going to be okay. She tells her to trust her.
Sarah wants to ask why. Why would a rival pack save her. Why would they risk bringing a stranger into their territory. Why would they care about a lone wolf who means nothing to them.
But before Sarah can think of the words, Victoria is lifting her into strong arms. Victoria carries her toward the rest of the pack. The other wolves shift into human form and some of them start creating a stretcher out of vines and cloth. Victoria places Sarah gently on the makeshift stretcher.
Sarah's vision starts going blurry. Her body is shutting down from shock and exhaustion and pain. She tries to stay conscious but her eyelids are getting heavy. The mate bond is still tearing at her insides. The rejection is still burning through her like poison.
Victoria tells her people to move fast. She tells them to get back to the territory and get Sarah to the healer. She tells them that this wolf has been through something terrible and they need to move now.
The pack starts moving and Sarah bounces slightly on the stretcher. The movement hurts but she's beyond pain now. She's beyond everything. She's just a broken thing being carried through the darkness by strangers who have no reason to help her.
One of the pack members asks Victoria why she cares about a strange wolf. He asks if she knows where this wolf came from. He asks if they're bringing danger into their territory.
Victoria doesn't answer at first. She keeps moving through the forest like she's done this before. Like she saves dying wolves all the time. Finally she tells her pack member that sometimes you can see what a person is going to become by looking at them broken. Sometimes you can see strength underneath the destruction.
The pack member still looks doubtful but he doesn't argue with his Alpha.
The forest around them starts to blur. Sarah's consciousness is fading. She can feel the cool night air and the steady movement of the stretcher. She can hear the pack talking in low voices around her. She can smell their scent which is different from her old pack's scent. Everything is different now.
Everything is wrong.
Sarah tries one more time to speak. She tries to ask Victoria why she's doing this. She tries to understand if she's being saved or if she's becoming a prisoner. She tries to ask what Victoria wants from her.
But the words never come.
Sarah's eyes close and the darkness swallows her whole.
The last thing she hears before unconsciousness takes her is Victoria's voice telling her pack that this wolf is going to survive. That this wolf is going to become something strong. That Victoria sees something in her that the others don't see yet.
What Victoria doesn't say out loud is that sometimes broken wolves become the most dangerous ones.
Sometimes the ones with nothing left to lose are the ones who change everything.