Chapter 3

Ayesha 🐺

Hours after everyone left and I was left with my mother's ashes, I sat in the cabin. It smelled like smoke even after the fire ended; it clung to everything: the curtains, the walls, even my skin. No matter how many windows I opened, the scent remained buried deep inside the wood like grief itself refused to leave. I sat curled up on the floor beside my mother's chair, knees pulled tightly against my chest, feeling empty; that was the only way to describe it. 

Everything around me was empty: the cabin, my heart, my future, it was all gone. I look 

The old yellow blanket she used during winter still hung over the back of the chair, and every few seconds, my eyes drifted toward it because some foolish part of me kept expecting her to walk back through the door. Humming under her breath with a soft smile on her lips, she would ask why I brought dirt into the house again, but the only thing I got was the silence stretched longer. 

The fire had taken everything too quickly; it was too clean. My fingers tightened around the edge of my sleeve as that strange, bitter scent from earlier lingered in the back of my mind, no matter how hard I tried to ignore it. It was sweet with a rotten, unnatural scent underneath. I closed my eyes tightly to force myself to stop thinking, not tonight, everything was hurting. 

The floorboards creaked suddenly outside the cabin, and my head lifted instantly. There were heavy male footsteps; they were moving fast and not trying to hide. A second later, the cabin door slammed open so hard it struck the wall. I jumped to my feet instinctively, just as Beta Ronan Hayes stormed inside with three patrol guards behind him.

His face looked furious, furious wasn't the word, but triumphant. My stomach dropped instantly because having him here with the patrol guards is never a good thing, especially after I lost my mother. 

"What happened now?" I asked quietly.

Ronan looked around the cabin once before his gaze landed on me."There she is."

The way he said it made my wolf rise uneasily beneath my skin."What's going on? Why are you looking for me?" 

He stepped forward aggressively and started accusing me ."You killed him." 

My brows pulled together in confusion. "Killed who?"

"The Alpha heir." He says.

The room tilted for a second. I genuinely thought I misheard him. "What? W-what are you talking about?"

Ronan's lip curled."Don't play stupid."

I stared at him in complete disbelief."The heir is dead?"

"He was found in the lower hunting grounds less than an hour ago," he said, explaining the reason he was in my cabin looking for me. Ice spread slowly through my chest.

No, no, no, this isn't happening. "I didn't kill anyone." I quickly said when the realization dawned on me as to why he was here. 

"You expect us to believe that?" one patrol wolf spat.

Of course not. After years of being labeled the omega, of course, I don't expect them to take my words at face value, but I do expect them to conduct a proper investigation. 

Ronan reached into his coat and threw something onto the table beside me.

I caught it before it fell on the floor, and it was my scarf, the dark green one I lost two days ago gathering herbs near the river. My pulse stuttered violently. It was too easy. 

"They found this beside the body," Ronan says with a smile on his face. 

I stared at it for a second, then at him, then back at the scarf. Someone must have placed it there; everything looked too clean. Something cold settled deep in my stomach."You're framing me."

Ronan barked out a harsh laugh."You should've run before we found the evidence."

Evidence, I looked at him carefully now, and I saw nothing but satisfaction hiding behind his anger. Everything clicked too fast, my mother died, and they burned the body immediately. Hours later, the heir conveniently turns up dead beside my missing scarf.

There was no investigation, no questioning, just straight-up blame, a blame that was already prepared. "You already decided I'm guilty," I realized quietly.

Ronan stepped closer."You're an unstable omega whose mother just died."His eyes darkened cruelly."Seems reasonable to me."

My wolf snarled beneath my skin, " Danger, threat, kill now!"

I shoved it down violently, not here, not now. "I didn't kill him," I repeated carefully, but even as I said it, something bothered me.

The heir, I barely knew him personally, but he was never cruel to me. Unlike most males in the pack, he never joined the whispers or insults. Once, years ago, he even carried water buckets for my mother when she was too sick to stand properly.

It was the quiet, small kindnesses that made his death feel wrong before I could say another word, Ronan grabbed my arm suddenly."You'll answer to the council."

His grip tightened painfully; my wolf surged instantly, and the lights in the cabin flickered. One of the patrol wolves stepped back nervously.

Ronan noticed, his eyes narrowed slightly."What was that?"

I forced my breathing steady."Let go of me."

"Or what?" he asked mockingly. 

Wrong thing to say because my control slipped for half a second, green flashed briefly across my vision. The room shook violently. I  could hear Ronan's heartbeat, the patrol guards breathing fast, and more footsteps approaching the cabin. A scent of fear hit the air suddenly, it wasn't mine but theirs 

Ronan jerked backward slightly when he saw it. It wasn't much, but it was enough to startle him. My wolf clawed harder beneath my skin. Run, my wolf urged me, and my instinct hit so violently that my body reacted before I could think. This was never about justice, but a clean-up, my mother staring with my mother leaving me alone, and then boom, the Heir someone was making sure they were removing problems, and somehow I was next. 

Ronan reached for me again, but I moved first, and the chair beside me crashed into him hard enough to send him stumbling backward into the table. The patrol guards shouted instantly before they could do anything. I bolted straight through the back door and into the dark forest beyond the cabin.

"Ayesha!" Ronan roared behind me.

Branches tore against my skin as I ran deeper into the woods, faster my lungs burned, my pulse thundered, and behind me, wolves howled into the night, and the hunt had started.