Chapter Four

The first few days of my Exile, I spent it outside the borders of the pack. Waiting and hoping that they would take me back, that they realized they made a mistake.

I waited three days. In the rain, in the sun. Three days of waiting. Nights and days of not believing, night and days of slowly, slowly, realizing that it was all over.

I had no pack, no where I belonged. Nicolas had rejected me before our mating really began. I was not his, he was not mine. I was all alone.

I ventured into the forest with a gnawing stomach. I wanted food. Whatever it and where ever I could find it.

I needed food.

My first rabbit kill was purely out of desperation. I killed and devoured it raw without thinking about the taste. I just wanted something in my stomach, something to stop this terrible gnawing on the inside.

I picked berries and drank water from where ever I could find it but the rabbit became my major source of food.

I was on the move daily, always on the look out for food and other rogues. If hunger didn't kill me, then the other rogues will. 

We had rogues who wouldn't be able to deal with their separation from the pack and they would just turn feral. They were the most dangerous sort of wolves. They lived by no rules, no morals, no codes. It was them I had to be on the look out for.

I slept underneath a huge oak tree to the accompaniment of music by the forest insects and the trunk of the tree has my pillow and I woke up the next morning to the voices of people.

I snapped my eyes open.

The voices were getting closer.

“Hey there, Kitty Kat!” One of the two men that had appeared yelled.

I immiediately knew who they were. They were the notorious Lerman brothers. They had been beaten and exiled from their pack for trying to rape their pack Luna, an ex of one of the 

brothers.

Because of rhe injuries gotten from their beatings, it was thought that they would not survive but everyone had been surprised when they showed up to the gathering of the packs, taunting the Alphas present. It was said that they now made the forest their abode.

“Waiting for Prince Charming?!” another one called out.

Before the word could make it fully out of his mouth however, I had bounded up and swerved just in time to avoid the arrow that had now impeded itself into the tree.

“Whoopee! Run, Kitty Kat, run!”

“I do love me a good chase!”

I didn't look back. Nor did I pause. I knew what would happen if they caught up with me and I wasn't about to let that happen.

“We could be your Prince Charming!” One of them called out.

“Or one of us!” said the other

“Oh, now, come on! Wouldn't you like to share?”

“I wouldn't mind. Just imagine her warm supple body.” He let out a low whistle.

How were they running and having a conversation at the same time, I wondered.

“Wait, baby doll! Wait! I got a pretty nice cock. And it's been itching a lot lately. Wouldn't you like to help me scratch? It would be all yours, baby. All yours!”

I could hear one of them laugh. “Look at her run! Think we can't catch you?!”

I dodged and swerved tree branches, and pushed my wolf to go as fast as it could. Falling into the hands of these men would mean a whole new nightmare for me. One I didn't want to experience.

“Watch out, baby doll! There's a gorge just ahead of you! Now which one would you prefer? Two great big cocks to your disposal or a swim with the crocodiles down in the river below?!”

A swim with the crocodiles, please, I said silently in my head. I would rather have their sharp teeth than have one of you touch me.

In a moment of self-preservation however, I skidded to a stop at the end of the path and felt the pain as one of the brothers tore at my side with an arrow. I didn't hesitate again.

I jumped, transforming back into a human as I met the water with a plop.

The water was icy and sharp against my skin and I struggled against its heavy and fast current. For a few minutes, I began to struggle with the water as I panicked. 

What if I couldn't get out? Would I just die here, forgotten and unknown?

At that thought, I began to thread the water, kicking at it with all my strength but I didn't try to get out. I let it carry me as far as it could away from the brothers before I swam towards shore.

I laid on the sand, panting. Then suddenly, I grinned at the sky. I was alive. Days after my Exile, I was alive. I wasn't dead. I had beaten starvation, the elements and the Lerman brothers.

I was alive. I couldn't help it. I grinned again.

Who knows maybe I'll survive afterall. Maybe I could make a life out here alone. The Lerman Brothers had done it, who says I couldn't too?

It wouldn't be so bad. I had had enough of other people. People who judged you for what they thought was a crime. A crime that they decided my mother had committed. They had cast her aside as well, because she wouldn't have a wicked man as her mate, because she had followed her heart and defied their rules, because she had dared to live on her own terms.

“I'm out all alone here, Mother.” I whispered softly to the sky. 

“Help me, please.”

I sighed softly as I thought about what had happened. Loreta must have poisoned the drink because she was jealous of Brie. Everyone in the pack knew that Loreta had had a tiny crush on Gabriel while growing up but we all thought it had faded away as maturity hit. It seemed we had all been wrong. She still loved him to the extent of being able to commit the crime of killing. And I had been so stupid to fall right I to her trap.

I winced as my body began to heal the pain of the arrow the Lerman brothers had tore my skin with. I could heal, yes, but I knew the bigger pain in my heart would not so easily healed.

My mate had rejected me. Nicolas had said he didn't want to be associated with a killer, so he had rejected me and had ruined my one shot at what would have been a good life.

That one mate had been a stretch. I doubted if I would get a second chance mate. It was fine by me. I just wanted to live my life in peace. Away from people if need be. I was tired of living by their rules anyways.