5

Olivia didn’t know what pain to face. The pain of being rejected and disgraced or the pain of having to leave her best friend. She didn’t want to leave; Lucy wasn’t strong enough to stay here on her own. Who was going to take care of her when she was gone?

“Liv, I’m not a kid. Why do you always do this? Think of yourself for once. You need to go before he changes his mind. Go be happy for the both of us.”

Olivia was already shaking her head before she even finished talking. 

“What are you saying, Lucy? We don’t know these people. We don’t know how things are done here but I know these people are animals. Haven’t you seen the way they’ve treated us? Don’t forget that they know you’re human. The fact that they haven’t done anything to you yet doesn’t mean they won’t. How do you expect me to return home without you? What will your parents think? How would they understand that?”

Lucy watched as her friends worried about things that didn’t even bother her. Olivia treated her like an egg, like she was too fragile. Olivia would give her life to protect her and she knew it but sometimes, she wanted to be the strong one. She wanted to help her friend. 

“Liv, I’m not bothered about all these things. I will survive, I survived the bullies, remember?”

Olivia smiled at the thought. They were in the final year of high school and Olivia couldn’t wait to be out of this hell;. She was going back into class when she heard a commotion in the toilet. Her best friend lay on the floor bleeding out profusely from between her legs and by the time Olivia called for help and Lucy got rushed to the hospital, she had already died. Her heart had stopped, the doctors said. Too much blood loss. 

Olivia felt her world slip away in that moment until the nurse came running out and her heart had started beating again. Lucy was stabilized but things never remained the same. She had lost her womb due to the rape and the culprits had never been caught. Mainly because Lucy had never said who they were. According to her, they were untouchable.

Olivia never understood what she meant by that and Lucy never explained. She asked that the matter be dropped because she wasn’t pressing charges. Since that day, Olivia took it upon herself to protect her and be with her at all times. 

“’I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” She’ll always feel responsible for what happened. 

“If I survived that, I’ll survive this. I died, remember? I’m stronger than you give me credit for. Go home, Olivia. Tell my parents that I love them.”

Tears poured out from Olivia’s eyes as she took everything in. She had never been put in such a dilemma before. 

Someone barged into the room. It was Jacob. 

“The Alpha wants to know if you’ve left. I would advise you did before he changed his mind.” And he left. 

She didn’t need to be told twice. She got up and hugged Lucy tightly. She knew she would be fine. 

“I’ll come back for you, I promise. I’ll come back and buy you. I’ll get you out of here. I’ll miss you so much.” 

“No! You heard what he said. If you come back here, he’ll never let you go. Don’t you understand that? You can never come back here, Olivia.” 

She nodded her head but deep down, she knew she would return. There was no way she was going to leave Lucy here at the mercy of these animals. 

Lucy saw her out of the house, she was not allowed out of the house so she stood at the threshold and waved goodbye to Olivia as she approached the gate. Something drew Olivia’s attention to the second floor and she saw Stacie and Xander staring down at her. 

Stacie had a victorious smile on her face. She had finally won, she thought. If Xander could reject his own mate then he was definitely going to marry her. Xander locked eyes with the young girl below him. There was something in her stare. A yearning for him. She was calling out to him but he couldn’t go to her. He had built up a wall in front of himself so no one could get to him.

Something deep down in him wanted to call out to her, to tell her not to go because he had a change of heart. He couldn’t do it, though. So, he walked away from the window and Olivia turned away as well and began her journey. 

Olivia finally made it to the border. It wasn’t easy walking through the thick forest all alone, she didn’t even know her way back. Night time came and she felt safe with the Moon. It felt like the Moon was guiding her, leading her closer and closer to home. 

She was tired and hungry. She had completely forgotten that she hadn’t eaten in almost two days. Did Lucy have enough to eat tonight, she thought. She fell asleep under the moonlight, in a field clearing close to a river. 

By the time she woke up, it was almost sunrise and she knew she had to start moving. Was anyone still searching for them? 

She thought about her parents and how worried they would be. Her mother especially, she loved the woman to the moon and back. This ordeal was going to take a great deal on both her parents and she couldn’t wait to be. Lucy’s parents were the next worry on her mind because she didn’t know how she was going to tell them that she had left their daughter with the enemy. 

She was going to explain how she got free without Lucy and she had sworn to keep Xander a secret. Her body shook as her legs couldn’t take it anymore and she collapsed to the ground. 

Just before she slipped into the darkness, she heard a voice. 

“It’s Olivia!”