Elowen's POV
The first kick hits my stomach.
I scream, curling into a ball on the cold ground behind the pack house. But there's nowhere to hide. Kira and her friends circle me like wolves around prey.
"Please!" I sob, my arms wrapped around my belly. "The baby—"
"That's the point, you stupid omega." Kira's boot connects with my ribs. Pain explodes through my chest. "We're solving Cassian's little problem for him."
Another kick. This one to my lower back. I taste blood.
"You really thought you could steal our Luna's mate?" The second beta—a redhead named Vera—slams her fist into my face. My head snaps back, stars bursting across my vision. "Seraphine is everything you'll never be. Strong. Beautiful. Worthy."
"I didn't steal anything," I gasp. "The mate bond—"
"There is no mate bond!" Kira grabs my hair, yanking my head up to look at her. "You're delusional. A pathetic omega who got obsessed with the Alpha. That's all anyone will believe."
She slams my head against the ground. The world goes fuzzy.
Through the haze of pain, I feel hands on my stomach. Pressing. Punching. Deliberately targeting where my baby grows.
"No!" I scream, trying to fight back. But I'm too weak. Too small. Three beta warriors against one omega? It's not even a fight.
"This is what happens when you forget your place," Vera hisses in my ear. "Omegas serve. They don't dream. They don't reach above their station. And they definitely don't try to take what belongs to betters."
Another kick. Another punch. My body is screaming, but I curl tighter around my stomach, trying to protect the life inside me.
Please, I beg the Moon Goddess. Please let my baby survive this.
"Enough," Kira finally says. "We don't want to kill her. Just teach her a lesson."
They step back, breathing hard from the effort of beating me.
I lie on the ground, tasting blood and dirt, my body a mass of agony. Every breath hurts. Every heartbeat sends fresh waves of pain through my battered ribs.
"If you tell anyone about this," Kira says, crouching beside me, "we'll finish the job. Understand? And if you ever go near Cassian again..." She presses her hand against my stomach, hard enough to make me whimper. "We'll make sure you lose everything."
They leave me there, their laughter echoing in the darkness.
I don't know how long I lie there. Minutes? Hours? Time becomes meaningless when you're drowning in pain.
Finally, I hear voices. The night-shift omegas finishing their duties.
"Oh goddess!" someone gasps. "Is that Elowen?"
Footsteps rush closer. I try to tell them to go away, that helping me will only bring trouble. But no words come out—just blood and broken sounds.
"Get her father," someone orders. "Quick!"
More footsteps. More voices. But no one touches me. They're too afraid. Helping a beaten omega might draw the same punishment.
Then Papa's voice cuts through the fog: "ELLIE!"
Strong, gentle hands lift me. Papa's face swims into focus above me, his expression destroyed with grief and rage.
"Who did this?" he demands, his voice shaking. "Who hurt my daughter?"
"Papa," I manage to whisper. "Don't... can't fight them..."
"Tell me who!"
But I just shake my head. What good would it do? We're omegas. We have no power. No protection. No justice.
Papa carries me to our room, and I've never felt smaller or more broken. Like a child again, helpless and hurt.
He lays me on my bed with trembling hands and starts cleaning my wounds. His fingers are gentle, but even gentle touch feels like fire on my battered skin.
"Your ribs are broken," he says, his voice thick with tears. "And your face... Ellie, what happened? Why would someone do this?"
I can't tell him about Cassian. About the pregnancy. About the three-day ultimatum.
"Wrong place, wrong time," I lie. "Just bad luck."
"This wasn't bad luck. This was targeted. Deliberate." He presses a cool cloth to my swollen eye. "Who, Ellie? I deserve to know."
"It doesn't matter, Papa." I grab his hand weakly. "We can't fight them. You know that. Fighting back just makes it worse."
His face crumples. "This is my fault. I raised you to survive instead of fight. To accept instead of resist. I made you weak—"
"You kept me alive," I interrupt. "That's more than most omega fathers manage."
We sit in silence while he bandages my wounds. My body is screaming, but worse is the fear.
Is my baby okay? The kicks to my stomach—did they hurt the life growing inside me?
I press my hand to my belly, searching for some sign. Some flutter. Some proof my child survived.
But I feel nothing. Just pain and fear.
"Rest now," Papa whispers, kissing my forehead. "I'll stay with you. Keep you safe."
But we both know he can't. In this pack, omegas are never safe.
I don't sleep. Can't sleep. My body hurts too much, and my mind won't stop racing.
Three days to decide, Cassian said.
But the decision just got made for me.
I can't stay here. Can't let Seraphine's friends finish what they started. Can't watch Cassian marry her while I hide in the shadows, beaten and broken.
And I definitely can't terminate the pregnancy now—not after fighting so hard to protect my baby.
There's only one choice left.
Run.
At dawn, while Papa sleeps in the chair beside my bed and the pack house is quiet, I force my broken body to move.
Every movement is agony. My ribs scream. My face throbs. But I pack a small bag with shaking hands—just some clothes, a little food I've saved, and the envelope of money Cassian threw at me.
Blood money. But money that might keep me alive wherever I end up.
I write a note for Papa with trembling fingers:
I'm sorry. I love you. Don't look for me. -E
It's not enough. Could never be enough. But it's all I can give him.
I slip out of our room, moving through the silent pack house like a ghost. Each step sends pain shooting through my body, but I don't stop.
Can't stop.
At the edge of pack territory, I pause. Ahead lies the forbidden forest—the dangerous, wild lands between Shadowpine Pack and the Lycan King's territory.
They say weak wolves go there to die.
They say rogues hunt there.
They say even the trees are dangerous, twisted by dark magic and old violence.
But staying here means watching Cassian marry Seraphine. Means more beatings. Means eventually losing my baby one way or another.
The forbidden forest might kill me.
But staying here definitely will.
I take a deep breath and step across the border into the wild darkness.
The forest swallows me immediately—thick trees blocking out the rising sun, strange sounds echoing from shadows. My wolf whimpers inside me, terrified.
I'm terrified too.
But I keep walking, one agonizing step at a time, deeper into the forbidden lands.
Behind me, Shadowpine Pack territory disappears from view. My whole life—everything I've ever known—gone.
Ahead, only darkness and the unknown.
I press my hand to my stomach. "It's just you and me now, little one," I whisper. "We'll figure this out. Somehow."
A branch snaps to my left.
I freeze, my heart pounding.
Something's watching me from the shadows. Something big.
Eyes flash in the darkness—not wolf eyes. Something else. Something ancient and dangerous.
I should run. Should scream. Should do something.
But my broken body won't move.
The eyes come closer.
Closer.
And I realize with terrible clarity: I escaped Cassian's cruelty just to die in these woods after all.
The Moon Goddess must really hate me.