A few hours later, I had managed to barrel through half of the meals left behind for the festival. My stomach was drum tight, and I Had torn up some of the tablecloths so I could tie up some food to take along with me. As an Omega slave, it wasn't as though I really had anything to my name. I had ruined whatever standing I had managed to build for myself in my search for saving, so there was no need to dawdle.
A nagging thought in the back of my mind told me that I was letting go of too much and should beg the Alpha for my place in the pack back. But I ignored it. I was all too aware of what the outside world held in store for me, and I preferred all the roughness and chaos to the pack where I was ostracized. I would not have a warm bed to sleep in at night, sure. But at least I would also not be called 17 different variations of useless, and that made me happy.
Looking back at everything I would be leaving behind once more, I heaved a deep sigh and continued my walk ahead. There was nothing left for me there, and I needed to find a place where I would not be treated like a mistake - or called one. The moon was almost full, and its light brightened the path up so beautifully that I took my time walking. There were so many dangers on my way, and I did not take them for granted as I plowed my way through the forest.
I knew that we were the only pack around for miles and miles on end, and as a result, it would take me quite some time to find a place to rest my head, but I would not give up or relegate myself to the same kind of treatment I had been subjected to from my pack.
As I walked the forest floor, I remained deep in thought, choosing not to pay too much attention to my reality. As though the goddess meant to snap me out, I tripped in my feet and ripped apart the soles of my shoes. My brain flashed back to the day I was given the shoes by my former master.
“Here you go, slave,” he had said, tossing the shoes at me. Catching them clumsily, one foot in each hand, I looked back up at him, confused. “To polish, sir?”
“No, they are for your feet. Shoes are a luxury for a slave like you.” Without so much as another word, he had turned away from her and continued about his day, and she had kept the shoes dear to her, cleaning them every day.That had been years ago, and now they had fallen apart. When I took them off, I was truly marveled at how much worse the rocks hurt my feet. They had hurt through the shoes, but I had been able to shut my eyes and weather the storm. Now that I was completely without the luxury of shoes. Funny how even when I had lived with my master, I had known that shoes were a privilege. I had just forgotten how great of privileges they were.
The woods were dark and the shadows seemed to take shapes of their own, and I felt fear begin to crawl into my shoulders. I had never been this far away from the rest of my pack before, and once again I felt the voice in my head asking me to turn back around and plead for my place in society back.
Yet again, I knew I had to find a place to tuck in for the night. It was dark, and as an Omega, I did not know how to transform or keep myself safe. I had never needed to learn any survival skills, so everything was a lot more difficult for me. I knew I would make things work, that much was certain, but the novelty was rattling and left me doubting what I believed.
A few minutes later, I found myself a tree with a wide trunk. It seemed to have grown tall and lifted its own roots, so there was a cavern under it where I could sleep. In front of it was a small fireplace which looked like someone had lit it and moved on, and I said a little prayer of thanks to the goddess before crawling into the open space.
Whoever it was had laid a bed of leaves and even made a pallet with some of the grass tendrils, so I had a lot of comfort. It hit me then, how much more comfortable I was in that hollow tree than I was while I was a slave. Finally safe, my body crumpled to the ground and I started to cry, the reality of the last few hours sinking into my brain finally.
I had finally met my mate, gotten the opportunity to have my life changed, my situation altered, and somehow I had tanked it and made things worse than they had previously been. I looked around the hollow tree with the moonlight as a guide, and asked myself if this was what I wanted for my life.
I immediately knew that I wanted more and this was not all that there was for me, so I began to make a plan. I had not spoken the entire day, and I wanted to be sure that I still had the gift of speech.
“What a day,” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. I had let it grow out for the last few years, but now I was tired. Grabbing the knife I had tied up with my food, I hacked off my hair haphazardly, hoping it didn't look completely terrible in the morning light.Free of that weight, I fluffed up the pallet that was serving as my pillow and laid my head against it, falling right asleep. I could not go back to the pack anymore, so the only way forward for me was to find somewhere else I belonged. The food I had stolen from the pack might not last me too long, so I undid the table cloth and tried to take account of what I had packed.
I had half of a chicken and some fruits and vegetables, and I knew that the chicken would rot in a few hours. There was nothing I could do about it so I decided to go to bed, hoping the morning would bring better things for me.
In the morning, I stretched out my hands as I usually did before a long day of work and instead met the roof of the hollow tree. Startled, I jumped up, and bumped my head against the tree trunk, the reality of the last day hitting me fast. I was itchy and wondered if I had not made such a grand mistake leaving my pack and coming into the woods where I had no water, no food, no safety, and knew no one.A bird chirped in the distance, and I wondered how early the day was. The moon had faded into the distance, but the sun was not yet out, a weird interloping of the two of them leaving the outside world blanketed in darkness.My body clock usually woke me up before it was even 5am, so I decided it must still be around that time and crawled out of the tree trunk. Grabbing on to my makeshift knapsack, I began to walk in the direction of what I hoped was a stream so I could wash up. I had not gone this long without the splash of ester on my skin - even as a slave - and I was starting to see
A few moments later, the sun was peeking out from behind a cloud, and I was on the journey with Lee and the rest of the outcasts. We had been making conversation, getting to know each other more, and in all honesty, it had been fun, but there were some things he reminded me of about my former pack, and it made me feel a certain sense of nostalgia for a life I had not even lived. He was an orphan, just like me, albeit a more recent one. He was a Beta, which was where our experiences differed, but he had lived almost all of his life in his pack with his mother. Apparently, his mother was an outcast wolf, so he was not treated with as great regard by the other members of his pack. Kimora and Wally were adopted siblings, and had been sent out of their packs because they were both too strong. I thought that was a good thing, and I told them as much. They smiled just then, the first one I had ever seen them give me.Lee liked to sing under his breath, so every few minutes, I would catch h
I was starting to find that I was glad that I had stumbled upon the outcasts. For one, the first thing that had gone wrong had been solved immediately, and I was left speechless at how quickly they had managed to avert the crisis I had preempted. Luke, the deaf guy had been leading us ahead, and he seemed to have missed the sight of a stray twig that was lying on the ground. I thanked the gods that he could not hear how absurdly loud the noise he had managed to make because everyone’s heads swiveled around in shock. We had been passing through an uncomfortable patch of trees that we suspected belonged to a pack of wolves that were not the most welcoming, and it was such a considerable amount of space that skirting around it would have taken too long. I had not been the one to notice that we were in another pack’s territory – that had been Lee – but I had taken the lead on skirting through and staying out of sight. As someone who had worked as a maid in a home that I was not wanted in
Night was beginning to fall, and my arm ached where the tree branches had slapped me during my run. We needed to find a place to settle down soon, and I had already even started to tire, the burst of energy that had propelled me forward quickly dying out. Lee was back in front, and I was walking behind with Luke again. The night air was breezy, something I had come to appreciate, thanks to the heat I could feel in my fingertips. I was getting tired, and was already considering walking ahead to ask Lee to stop for the night, when he called out. “I think it’s about time we stopped for the day. We haven’t had anything to eat all day. Kimora, go with Luke, see if you can find us something for dinner. David, find some twigs to use to start the fire. Layla and I will prepare the campsite for tonight while everyone does that. Is that okay?”A chorus of yeses echoed all around the other outcasts, and we all went to our designated stations. To Lee, I asked, “How exactly are we supposed to pre
Later that night, everyone was lying down close to each other, snuggled close for warmth. We would have to take shifts watching over each other for safety, and I had volunteered myself up for the very first one. I felt a pang of guilt I could not explain for bringing in three more mouths that we had to feed, and I wanted to work off the guilt somehow. I suspected that Lee knew what was on my mind when I had volunteered myself, but he had said nothing very graciously, allowing me the time I needed to process what I had to. I was more than pleased that Erin, Eric, and Remy had gotten to eat something. I wondered how long they had been in the bushes without anyone but little Eric to care for them.I had never had an elder sibling, or anyone to look out for me and take care of me, so I knew firsthand how hard it was, and I wanted so badly to take care of them. That aside, I had quite a lot to think about, like where the strength I had used earlier had come from. I wish I could credit i
Returning back to the pack, I made my way to where Lee had woken up from and laid my head on the pallet. Almost immediately, I fell asleep, only rousing a few times in the night when someone moved. It was nothing like the previous night in the hollow tree, but I was a lot of friends richer, and I had learned something about myself that I hadn’t known before.When I woke up in the morning, I could smell the sweet scent of oranges, and I woke up abruptly. Like I hadn’t pummeled him the night before, Lee casually held out an orange to me, and gratefully, I accepted it and got to my feet. Making use of the makeshift water collector they had made the night before, I splashed some water over my face and rinsed the orange before peeling the skin off and biting into it. Within seconds, I had finished it, and gratefully, I accepted the orange that Kimora offered to me. I was embarrassed, but I was far too hungry to care for too long, so I bit into that too. Looking up, I realized that everyone
A few hours later, I believed that I had found the place I wanted all of us to settle in. We had had breakfast back at the clearing, some venison that Luke had done out to get, and it had been a hearty meal, with enough leftovers for us to drag along with us as we went on our way now. It had taken us some time too – I had almost asked to stop a few times but since the littles were walking on without any problems, I pushed myself to do what they were doing. I suspected it was because I was not used to this kind of work since my entire walking experience in the pack I was from was walking to the stream. Once at the spot, we had immediately made some new friends. We had been smelling the scent of nearby wolves for a few minutes, and everybody was on edge, until I had enoihhband fishef out the two wolves who had bee skanking behind us on our way to the clearing. “What do you want?” I'd asked, unblinking. I had sensed no threats from them, and everyone else in the pack seemed to be jus
Snapping back to reality, I stepped aside and went to rest my back against a piece of bark so I could watch my pack members go at it. I wondered how I had made the transition on a few days. I already thought of them as my pack, even though I had made a resolution not too long ago not to belong to one. The irony was not lost on me. Just then, I got a vision of the pack having a lot more members, thinking of how fast word spread and how many more people were being thrown out of their packs every day. I felt a little bit giddy at the thought. Sure, it was a terrible thing to be thrown out of your pack and the family you thought you had, but look at me, the same thing had happened to me, and my chosen family was leagues better than the set I had been packed with initially. We made our way back to our settling grounds that night, and everyone set up camp, making plans for our futures. There were a lot of trees beside us, and with the river, we could construct huts. From nearby towns, we