CHAPTER 3: ON THE RUN

MAYA'S POV

I raced out of the room in mortification and disgrace. I was still pregnant and had given my whole to a man who didn't want me; my virginity was lost for real. I could hear Elena running after me as I left. I ran outside, gasping for breath.

"Maya!" She whispered, but I didn't hear her clearly. "Hey, Maya, what's wrong?" Elena asked.

"Caleb, Caleb chose Layla as his mate and Luna," I answered her.

"Are you that shocked, sister? Well, I guess I am too, but why would you be this shaken over that? Layla is our friend, and that means one thing: we'd enjoy her luxury as Luna. She chimed excitedly, obviously clueless as to what I was going through.

"Caleb is my mate, Elena, and..." I broke down into a hysterical sob to finish my sentence.

"No, Maya, Caleb is Layla's mate," she replied, confused as to whatever it was I meant. "And please don't cry," she added, patting my back.

"No, Elena, Caleb is my mate, and he's been for 2 months now; in fact, it's deeper-we made a baby," I said, touching my stomach as I cried harder, then found my way to sit on a stairway at the entrance.

"But I don't understand; he told me he was going to announce me as his Luna today and mark me as his, and now he marked Layla. It means I've been rejected'" I rushed my words amidst sobs.

"No... what?" Elena asked, surprised.

"But why am I just hearing of this? How did you guys meet? When did all of this happen?" She had a lot of questions, and I knew it was wrong for me to have kept them from her; she was my sister, and she never kept anything from me.

"Caleb, he told me to keep it a secret," I said, realizing I had been stupid, and began to break down and cry even more.

"I hate to say this to you now in your darkest moment, but Maya, how could you be so stupid? How would you expect Alpha Caleb to love you when he'd rejected his mate, who was an omega, once?" She asked; she was concerned, but I knew even though Elena was concerned, she'd always say the truth and hit the nail on the head, but what she was saying I had no idea.

"He rejected an omega?" I asked, facing her as I wiped my eyes. "What could she have done?" I probed.

"You really don't know?" Elena asked. myself in, the more confused I was.

"She's here," Elena muttered, tugging at my gown, succeeding in getting my attention. I stood from the stairway I sat on, dusting my gown, trying to look presentable as Layla approached. She was now my Luna, and no matter how I felt, I was to serve her.

"Maya dear," Layla said in a very disgusting tone, "you must have thought Caleb was going to name you as his," she said as she began to toy with her fingers and then burst into hysterical laughter.

"But you see, you dream so high and try to reach things that can never be yours. I mean, look at you, trying to become the alpha's Luna; a mere omega dares to dream," she mockingly said.

Layla had changed from the loving beta friend who stood by me to a bitch who dared to steal a man she knew was mine. "I don't. Would you explain to me already?" I demanded, and then she sighed and began.

"Before you, Caleb had once been mated to another, only he never marked her; his excuse for rejecting her was that she was a weak omega who he couldn't trust to rule alongside him."

I couldn't seem to be able to comprehend the rest of whatever Elena was saying, as the only thing that kept ringing in my head was.

Alpha Caleb had rejected me because I was an omega, but then, why had he been intimate with me? Was I just a plaything in his eyes?

"Maya, Layla is walking towards us," Elena snapped, waving her right hand in front of my face.

But I paid her no attention; the more I thought about the situation, I found it was mated to me.

"But I'm not surprised he rejected you; if I were you, I'd reject me too."

she said with a wicked grin on her face.

"Don't you dare talk to my sister like that, you bitch," Elena growled at Layla, but I pulled her back. Layla was now above us, and getting on her bad side meant punishment.

"Let's go; I want to leave this place'" I said to Elena, who tried to protest, but looking at me, seeing the frustration on my face, she closed her mouth, held my hand, and dragged me further away from Layla.

"I need some water; could you get me some?" I asked Elena. We were in the warehouse of the hotel and had sat in silence for over 25 minutes since we got here after fleeing Layla. Elena didn't say a word; she just sat there for me.

"Sure, let me fetch you some water." She said and made her way out of the warehouse, but soon after, she came rushing back in, panicking.

"Maya, you have to run, right now," Elena said, roughly tugging at me.

"What's wrong?" I asked, confused and not understanding what she meant.

Elena moved closer to me and then, in a low tone and with a sense of urgency, repeated, "You have to leave Nightshade right now."

"Why?" I asked in a more serious tone.

"I can't explain much now, but Layla is dead-no, she's murdered-and Caleb seems to believe it's your doing, and now, the whole pack is on the hunt for you," Sheila said, pacing around in front of me as she rushed her words, but they were clear enough.

A lot of thoughts rushed through my mind, a lot of questions I knew better not to ask because Elena wouldn't have answers to them.

Why was I to be hunted? Why was I suspected? Why should I run? And more importantly, where was I supposed to run to?

MAYA'S POV

The morning slight rain brushed my feet as I ran with no particular direction in mind. Morning was approaching already, and I was still running. I had been chased like a criminal all through the night, and my body was weary already, but I knew better than to stop.

I couldn't stop; I kept running in the woods, lost all sense of direction, as different men chased after me. Men who were once my protectors, neighbors, and friends now seemed to want nothing but to catch me for a murder I didn't commit.

I gasped in fear! With the way I'm seeing things, surrendering wasn't the best option; I'd be killed before they heard I had nothing to do with it. I ran as fast as my wolf could carry me.

I lost count of the number of pack territories I had passed, but one thing was sure: I was still in the borders of packs friendly to Ravenclaw, and that was why they could openly chase me even though we were in other territories.

One reasonable thought that kept reeling in my head was to find our rival territory, the Mooresville Pack. That was to be my safe space; I wouldn't be killed in a rival's territory, but I also would only be a slave, but I guess that was better than dying.

After a few minutes, I stopped running and tried to remember the direction to the Packs. We were warned to never wander.

"Was it north? Or south?" I impatiently growled in frustration; I never really paid attention in class, and now my fate depended on a silly class I had missed.

"There she is," a man said, and another howled, signaling to the others I had been sighted.

"Shoot," a voice uttered.

"Eh! How are they so fast?" I was already getting weary, pregnant with a child, hungry, and tired from all the running, but I knew I had to keep on going; I had to save myself, save my child.

I was jolted. I started running faster than I could; my body began to give up. Then, I stepped on something sharp, a sharp metal that pierced through my feet. The pain was out of this world. With both feet stuck in a trap, I could not move. I was bleeding profusely, and my eyes began to shut, but no one was catching up. As my eyes closed, I could see the men chasing me standing still, then turning their backs and beginning to walk back. They were retreating.

I calmly smiled through my teeth, knowing what their retreat meant, then allowed the darkness to envelop me.

"I think she's waking up," I heard a female voice say as my eyes fluttered open. I blinked once, twice, or maybe thrice; I wasn't so sure. It was in reaction to the brightness of the room.

"Who are you, and why did you cross our borders?" a young, handsome man gruffly asked me. Beside him stood a lady who was about my age, smiling at me. With no one else in the room but the two of them, I figured she must have been the owner of the female voice I had earlier heard.

"Let her be, Ryder; the poor girl just woke up after 13 days," the lady said as she chastised the handsome man, and then what she said sank into my brain.

"What!" I couldn't control myself. "Wait, what did you just say? 13 days? I had been asleep for 13 days?" I immediately tried to get up but was drawn back by some force; I was in bondage.

"I told you this would come in handy; I knew she was going to try to run immediately she woke," the man called Ryder said, smiling to himself, but the woman gave him a look that said, "Not now!"

"Please assist in getting her out of these," the woman said.

"But why, Amelia?" the man groaned; he was acting almost like a whiny baby.

Now, the woman whose name I now learned was Amelia gave him a serious look, and without a word, he swiftly got into undoing the chains that bound me to the bed.

I wiggled my wrist as I got relieved of the chains.

"Do you remember how you got here?" Amelia asked.

"Uhn...uhn! I let out a quick cough and cleared my throat. "N...o," my voice croaked as I tried to talk. Well, no surprise there; I hadn't talked in 13 days.

"I'd like to inform you that you stepped on one of my dear brother's 'protections'; it hurt your feet pretty bad, and you passed out. We thought you were not going to make it when we found you lying lifeless in the bush around noon, but you and your baby made it just fine," she said, giggling and smiling at me.

I didn't feel any pain around my feet, but as she mentioned it, I remembered. I looked down and saw I had completely healed; my baby was fine too, and all I had to do now was get up and leave this place.

Amelia handed a bowl of water to me, urging me to drink. I drank it, and I felt so much better and refreshed.

"Thank you, miss," I said more in a mutter, but she heard me, and she smiled back.

"I think it's time you tell us something to hold on to." She spoke softly, "So why did you cross our borders? Your dress speaks of your origin; it clearly shows you're from the rival lands," Amelia said, maintaining the gentle tone. Her brother just watched as we conversed.

"Yes, I am of Nightshade, but I am an orphan and now, an outlaw. I've been pursued out of my land," I said sadly, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill.

"It's alright!" Amelia patted my back, rocking me up and down like a baby.

"And what are you called?" She asked.

"Maya, my name is Maya," I replied to her.

"Well, if you don't have any place to go or stay, you are always welcome here,'" she gently said as she continued to caress my back, but I think her brother might disagree.

"And on whose order is that? Now the alpha doesn't mean much here, does he?" Ryder grunted out, scoffed, and rolled his eyes.

The symbol on his shoulder and wrist shows he's the Alpha; he was the alpha of wherever it was I found myself in, only he didn't look like one.

"Of course she can stay," His next words soothed my mind for a few seconds until he spoke again. "But if she wants to stay here, she'll have to pay. We already saved her life, and now we're offering her shelter? How does she intend to pay us back? He rolled out the words as though payback was all that mattered.

But I wasn't ready to back down; I wasn't ready for defeat. I'd gone through too much to lose it all and be chased out of here, so I boldly asked, "How do you want to be paid back?"

Amelia wanted to say something, but before she could, her brother beat her to it: "It's simple, marry me." He said it, or had I heard wrong?

RYDER'S POV

My eyes couldn't be lifted from the beauty before me as she and Amelia, my younger sister, interacted; she wasn't spilling much, but I knew some secret she wished to bury and not talk about lay buried behind those eyes of hers.

I was so hooked up by her that when she asked how I wanted her to pay back, I blurted out, "Marry me." I had uttered the word out loud before I realized what had happened.

"Ryder!" Amelia's eyes changed a bit. "Come on, Ryder, you don't want to take advantage of someone in this kind of situation," Amelia said, trying to talk sense into me.

"Take advantage? Why will I? You know as much as I do that I am asexual. I don't want anything to do with any she-wolf out there; none appeals to me sexually," I said. I was asexual; I have been for as long as I could remember. I just never felt any form of pull towards any gender romantically, but looking at Maya now, I can admit I wasn't so sure anymore.

"I wonder why you want to marry her in the first place?" Amelia argued back.

"Her child!"

"What does this have to do with her child?" Amelia asked me,

"If I eventually marry her, her child will be mine automatically; that way I will secure my line without the councils of elders being on my neck every damn time," I explained, but deep within me, I knew there was more to wanting her child to be mine; I wanted her to be mine.

Amelia looked half convinced, but I knew the Miss Goody Two-shoes that was my sister was definitely still against making Maya adhere to that.

"Moreover, it will only be for 10 months; when the child is born, she can leave it here if she wishes, or she could stay here in the pack and raise it with me, as its mother, but we'd be separated after that year," I explained, trying to convince Amelia and ultimately Maya.

My wolf wanted her beside me; I didn't know why, but that was what I wanted.

"I'm so sorry, but I can't. Is there another way I could repay you?" Maya finally spoke up; it was almost as though she hated me without even completely knowing me, or was it that she hated all men in general? I would never know, since she wasn't saying much.

"Of course, you don't have to," Amelia said to her in the soft tone. "Here in the Mooresville pack, you always have to pay back what you get, but you can pay back in any other way, not necessarily what my brother proposes-marrying him," she said, eyeing me as she spoke to Maya.

"I can do anything, but I can't get married to anyone," Maya said in a final tone. Whatever it was that had happened to her, I wanted to know.

"It's fine; you can rest now and work as a slave here for the next year, then you'll be free of whatever you owe and may choose to leave afterwards," Amelia said reassuringly.

I scoffed when she acted like this; it almost seemed as though she was the alpha here and not me.

********

I stood by the window of my room, watching as different members of the pack used and maltreated Maya. It was the law; she was not one of us, and as long as she survived in our land, she could be used in any way. I wondered how long she'd survive in this place. They were more respectful to her than I'd thought they'd be. I wonder what they'll do when they find out she was from the Nightshade pack, our number one.

enemy's territory.

"Hmm! You keep watching her, why?" Amelia said from behind me. startling me. I said from behind me, startling me, and I jumped.

"Nothing, I wasn't looking at her, just worried she might be in danger around here," I said quickly.

"I know, behind all of those hard

Wolfie, features of yours lay out a generous and good man. I knew you wanted to protect her, and that's why you asked her to marry you, but why?" Amelia noted.

window just glanced back at the time to see Maya make her way into my place. In a matter of minutes, she entered the room I and Carla were in.

The room went silent for a while, no one saying anything, then Maya spoke up.

"I've accepted to do it," she announced.

"You'll do what?" I asked; Amelia looked more confused.

"Oh no, you don't have to do anything you don't want to," Amelia said to her, realizing what she had meant.

"No, I want to do it. I am tired of being stepped upon everywhere I go, I am tired of being weak, and if marrying you for a year will make everyone else fall below me, then I am ready! Plus, you guys saved my life, so if I can make your lives comfortable in any way, I'm willing to help," she explained. She sounded so angry and determined.

"One more thing, I will have to mark you." I spoke up. Amelia looked at me as though she was going to rip off my head if I didn't shut my mouth, but I ignored her and continued. "Have you ever been marked?" I asked her.

"No," she simply replied. She's pregnant; she must have been marked for the baby to come around.

"When and how did the baby come about?" I nonchalantly asked, did she just sleep with men even though they weren't mated to her? I thought, and somehow the thought of that made my heart skip.

"RYDER!!" Amelia screamed my name, calling me to order; she seems to be getting worn out with my wound-opening questions.

"Okay, maybe that wasn't the right time and right question to ask," I concluded in my thoughts.

"It's fine," Maya shrugged at Amelia, then turned to me.

"I never got marked; its father never marked me. We only had fun once, and it landed in this," she replied, pointing to her stomach. Her eyes had a glint of sadness in them as she spoke, but she still managed to keep a straight face.

Then, beginning to roll up the sleeves of her clothes, she stretched out her hand to me. "Here, mark me," she said with so much conviction.

I gave her a strange look, asking with my eyes if she was sure she

nodded and then stretched out her hand more as though she was impatient to get it over with.

I gently called upon my inner wolf, my fangs began to grow out, I breathed in hard, and then, slowly, I marked her by her arm.