Epilogue

The wind swept past me as I ran, my paws putting the distance between me and the ones behind me. I felt like I couldn’t run fast enough, far enough, to escape from them.

Running . It’s what I was best at. I started running ten years ago, and I’d never intended to stop. Keep Moving was my motto. Why had I stopped? For her ?

When I kept moving, I could keep it all at bay. Keep the shadows in the dark. The mistakes could be forgotten if you didn’t stop and dwell.

But I had felt a pull. An urge. A compulsion to go to a small tourist town at the foot of a mountain and look for answers to questions I’d never asked.

And I’d found her . Willow Harper .

She was different from other humans I’d met. Living amongst them for ten years had made me more familiar with them than my kind usually was. But she was unusual. She should never have caught my attention. She was completely unremarkable .

Slight. Frail. Fragile.

But I was the one who was breakable when I was near her. She found holes in my carefully built walls. She made me remember. She made me feel things that I thought I’d buried deep enough that no one would ever find them.

Not even me.

I’d spent ten years by myself. I’d perfected the art of being alone, shutting out everyone, not letting anyone in and not letting myself out . But with Willow…those walls had lowered.

And it terrified me.

And now? After today, how could I look at her again? I’d scented her fear. It was thick and cloying, suffocating me as she looked at me with wide-eyed terror when my claws had come out.

I was the monster she feared.

The others were just as bad. Forcing me to be there, to listen to that bullshit. Luna didn’t give a fuck about me. She hadn’t ten years ago, and she sure as shit didn’t now.

Cannon, once someone I may have called friend, had given me one last chance, and he had told me to go, and I had run .

As I flew across the mountain, I angled north, knowing where I was going and accepting my destination. This was my path. It had always been my path, and I was taking it without looking back.

I’d had a moment of weakness. Hope? What the hell did I know about hope ? A falsehood. A dream. Nothing more than an illusion of weakness. I didn’t deserve the chance to be anything other than the fragment of my broken past that I was.

The mountain blurred around me as I raced down it. The night air was cool, the emptiness welcoming. The void inside me opened wider, embracing me.

It was better this way. For both of us. She didn’t ask for any of this, and she didn’t deserve to be saddled with me. I was nothing.

Worthless.

All I did was bring pain, and she’d had enough pain in her life.

The shaman had said she smelled of fresh air. She did. She smelled of clean air after a light summer rain. Willow was pure . Untarnished. She didn’t deserve to be dragged into my darkness.

We were linked, and part of me knew that leaving her was unfair, but it was the only way I knew to protect her. I may never be able to escape her, and maybe they were right, maybe she was part of me now, and I her, but I could damn well try.

Memories of her and my past mingled together, crashing around me as I escaped, and I fought them as I ran.

I didn’t need to see anymore.

I didn’t need to remember.

Because I could never forget .

I didn’t need to face the truth. I knew what I was deep down. I’d always known. I ran for hours, and hours turned into days.

At the base of the mountain, I held myself back. Blackridge Peak lay behind me, along with the last glimmer of light in my life. What choice did I have? My paws took that step onto the soil as emotion surrounded me, and I hesitated, my head hanging low to the ground .

Weak. Pathetic .

Murderer .

Voices of the dead whispered around me. My demons had me in their grip now, pulling me deeper down. Panting, I fought to hold on, and then I had a moment of clarity.

Why was I fighting?

Lifting my head, I faced the blackness of the mountain I knew so well. Through the darkness, I climbed upwards, my footing sure on ground that I’d walked many times before.

I felt their touch as I ascended the steep climb. The ghosts reached out, gathering me back into the shade. I could almost feel the cold fingers running through my fur as I moved closer to the place I still called home. Each step was heavier than the last, as part of me still clung to what I’d left behind, that promise of something more.

Willow’s face flashed in my mind, pale but vivid, full of life, a contrast to the world I chose to return to. I saw the way her eyes softened when she looked at me, the way that one frown line creased her forehead when she was biting back her numerous questions. The way she sometimes checked me out when she thought I didn’t see.

But my ghosts knew there wasn’t anything left in me to save. They whispered in my ear, reminding me of the lives lost, the things I’d destroyed.

They knew the darkness was where I was meant to stay.

A light breeze swirled around my feet, and I could feel her touch as sure as if she were there, soft fingers tugging me back, urging me to turn around.

I shook my head, willing myself to be free of all the invisible touches as I walked on .

This was what I wanted. This was who I was.

Packless.

Alone.

Rogue .

Ready for Book 2?

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