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“Thanks,” I whispered.
Alex had only been with Blood Moon for three months but was already accustomed to how things were done. Unlike me, she’d been found in our territory after fleeing one of the Omega boarding homes. The Council had set up the boarding houses to contain the Omegas until they were of breeding age, and the horror stories I’d heard over the years made me shudder. At only fifteen, Alex was still a few years from approaching her heat cycle, so she stayed out of sight in the kitchen.
“Don’t thank me yet,” she replied.
She guided me to the back of the kitchen, where a massive pile of dirty dishes filled two industrial-sized sinks.
I sighed, getting the message.
Well, it’s better to deal with a pile of dishes than a pile of assholes.
Pushing up my sleeves, I grabbed a sponge and got to work.
As I scrubbed, my abdomen clenched. The pain was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. It sliced at my insides, digging into my middle and leaving me hollow. My body hummed and tightened, and an innate part of me knew only one thing would ease the ache.
The onset of my heat was approaching.
The dishes crashed around me, and the woman to my left cursed. A hand smacked my forehead with shocking gentleness.
Wide, frightened eyes met mine. “You don’t have much time,” Ida, the kitchen manager, said.
She was the closest thing to a mother I had.
The Blood Moon pack had taken my real mother from me when I was six. I couldn’t remember what she looked like anymore. My only memories—the sweet lilt of her voice and the comfort I felt in her arms—were faint.
“What?” I asked, even though I knew.
“Your scent will change soon.” Her strong hands, hardened from years of serving the Blood Moon pack, dragged me through the kitchen and into the storage rooms. “The Alpha will know. He’ll keep you locked up in that room until . . .” Her words trailed off, and a look I had never seen entered her eyes.
We all knew what would happen the moment I became ready to breed. Alpha Kane had threatened it enough to make my fate clear.
They were going to put me through a rut—an archaic shifter practice in which the most virile males bred a female until she was confirmed to be pregnant.
Cold terror sunk its claws into me.
She quickly dug a backpack out of an old potato sack.
Maria walked in, holding a trash bag. She shut the door behind her and pulled out clothes and outerwear. “Put these on.”
“What are you doing?”
“Quicky, we don’t have much time,” Ida urged, even as she took control and hauled the sweater over my head.
Heat skittered up my spine as their hands worked, moving and bending me like a toddler until I was wrapped in layers of clothing.
“It’s time for you to go, Myla,” Maria said, eyes rimmed with tears.
My vision blurred as Ida strapped the backpack onto me. “It’s not much, but we took everything we could.”
“But where will I go? I’ve never been beyond Blood Moon territory before.”
“East,” Ida instructed. “Keep going east until you hit sanctioned pack territory. Even if they follow you, they won’t make the mistake of entering pack land.”
I wasn’t so sure, but I knew the sanctioned packs were my only hope of escape.
Maria squeezed me close before holding me at arm’s length. The kitchen door creaked behind us, and a biting wind blew through my hair.
With a firm nod and a look that conveyed more than words ever could, Maria said, “Run. Don’t turn back, no matter what you hear.”
