Adrian's POV
"He must be one of them! One of those cursed SilverFangs whose blood has been tainted. The ones who soil the strength of our kind, the shame plaguing our world."
The voices echoed behind me as I walked briskly down the trail, down the path that cut into the thick forest ahead, the only place that promised me freedom.
Freedom from everything I was weary of. Freedom from the incessant demands, from the suffocating expectations, from a life I was forced to live with decisions that were never mine.
While others had their own lives, shaping them however they pleased, mine was a prison disguised as duty. I held the life, yes, but the choices? The choices were never mine.
"We need to kill him. We need to kill every one of his kind that exists. We need to end this abomination before it grows and disrupts the nature of our world. Why should a wolf bear the soft features of a woman? Where is the ruggedness that should mark a man? No! we must rip the root out before it spreads!"
The words struck me and before I could think, my legs found the strength I had been hoarding all this while. Strength I had carefully saved in case my father's warriors came after me, dragging me back to the pack to chain me to tomorrow's fate as his heir. But those words tore through every last shred of hesitation. I didn't waste a moment before I ran.
Panting, stumbling, sprinting harder with every breath, I remembered how I had only just slipped from Crimson Moon, my father's pack, without the warriors noticing in time to give chase. The thought that they could catch me still burned at the back of my mind, but the fear of those other voices and with the hatred dripping from them, pushed me faster.
"Catch him! Don't let him go! Omega men like him must be uprooted before their poisonous nature spreads across our lands!" another voice snarled, tearing through the night air.
I ran harder. I panted, my lungs on fire, as the memories of my life chased me more than their footsteps ever could.
Two decades and a year, that was how long I had lived in hiding, though I had never physically run from my father until tonight. No, my running had always been different. I had spent years fleeing in every way that did not require my feet. Running emotionally. Running mentally. Running from every truth that clawed at me in the silence of my soul.
I never had the courage to confront it, never had the will to demand answers. Why was I bound to this fate? Why was I destined to keep living a life where I was never free to be? Why was I forced to bury the very skin I lived in because of what my kind were called, what my kind were considered?
I had never understood. Perhaps I had never wanted to.
All that ever mattered was hiding it away. Concealing it, masking and burying it so deep it almost ceased to exist.
And yet, here I was running. For the first time not just in my heart, not just in my mind, but in the flesh.
Running for freedom.
Running for myself.
Running because if I didn't, I would never stop being their shame.
The news that raved about the Carter heir being secretly gay didn't help either. Gays were scorned. They were seen as those who chose to deviate from nature's path, as those who defied the will of the Moon Goddess.
I had never come out as one, nor was I truly closeted, because all my life I had kept to myself, away from both men and women.
Away from women because I couldn't afford scandals. Because I had to maintain the image of the perfect son, the flawless heir of my father. A son fit for the alpha position. A son ruthless enough to take it by all means necessary. But those were the opposites of who I truly was, opposites of what I was hiding.
"Isn't he Adrian Carter? We shouldn't kill him. Imagine how much we would make from his father if we returned him. An Alpha's son being an omega? An Alpha's son destined for the path of the SilverFangs? No—this is too valuable. We must make something out of this deal."
At those words, I forced my body faster despite the pain tearing through me, despite the thorns clawing at my skin, despite the hollow ache burning in my chest.
I was only just managing to outrun them because I had been ahead before they noticed me. I knew the truth if even one of them shifted into his wolf, it would take a heartbeat for them to close the gap and drag me down.
I wanted to shift too, but I knew I couldn't. I had hidden him away for too long. Buried him so deeply within me that calling him out now would be useless. My wolf had been caged for so many years that I doubted he would even answer me. And I couldn't risk letting them catch me either. I couldn't bear the thought of being dragged back to my father, the very man I was running from. I couldn't stomach the thought of them laying bare the secret I had guarded for decades.
Regret crept into me as the shadows loomed closer, their footsteps closing in. Had I made a mistake? Should I have stayed back and obeyed my father as I always had? Should I not have rebelled, not have slipped away from the pack in the dead of night?
Maybe if I had stayed, I would still be the obedient son. Maybe my secrets would still be safe. Maybe I wouldn't be here, running with the weight of scandal already dragging my name through the mud.
Panic clawed up my chest as their breaths grew louder behind me. This would cause a scandal worse than the one before. The humiliation of my father still lingered from the last time when rumors claimed I was secretly gay. Ravenshore was merciless. Homophobia ran deep and even those who secretly strayed into such relationships were quick to spit venom in public, condemning others to preserve their masks.
But I wasn't gay. Neither was I a philanderer like most heirs were. I was just Adrian, alonehiding my truth in silence.
Yet when the scandal broke, my father, the man who knew I had stayed away from women only because I feared staining our family's reputation was the first to react. And not as a loving parent would. No, he arranged an engagement with a girl I didn't know, sealing my fate, silencing the rumors and forcing the world to believe his illusion.
My foot slipped. I stumbled, crashing to the ground with a sickening thud. Pain flared, but I couldn't dwell on it. The laughter of my pursuers rose, mocking, cutting deeper than the fall. I scrambled up, ready to run again only to crash into a looming figure that stood in my path.
For a heartbeat, terror seized me. I thought they had me. Thought it was over. But when I raised my head and my gaze locked onto those piercing silver eyes glowing in the darkness, my breath caught.
It was him. The man I had been running from all along.
My eyes jolted open at the sound of my alarm blaring beside me. I shot upright in bed, breathless, drenched in sweat, my body trembling as if I had truly been running.
For a moment, the dream clung to me, suffocating and too real to dismiss. I rubbed a hand over my damp forehead, then dragged it through my hair as my gaze shifted to the clothes and shoes arranged neatly on the rack before me.
Weird dreams or not, tonight was the night.