Eden POV
The omega quarters smelled like sweat and fear and something else. Something she'd never noticed before but now recognized as the smell of caged things.
Eden's small room was on the third floor. No window. No view of the forest. Just four walls and a bed and a tiny closet where she kept the few possessions that belonged to her. The pack provided everything else. Clothes. Food. Shelter. Her life was rent-free because she didn't actually own her life.
That ended tonight.
She moved fast but careful. The kind of movement that wouldn't make noise. That wouldn't alert anyone that something was wrong. Through the thin walls, she could hear other omegas sleeping. Girls like her. Girls who didn't know yet that they were just resources waiting to be used.
She'd keep it that way. She wouldn't tell them. Wouldn't warn them. Because the moment one person knew, the pack would know. Word traveled through omega circles like fire through dry grass and she couldn't risk it. They'd stop her. Or they'd report her. Or worse, they'd try to come with her and then everyone would be caught.
She was on her own.
Eden pulled up the loose floorboard under her bed. The one place no one looked because omegas weren't supposed to have hidden things. Omegas weren't supposed to have secrets. But Eden had been saving money for four years. Every coin dropped in the mess hall. Every tip from rare occasions when she worked the pack gathering. Every penny she could scrape together without raising suspicion.
Two thousand dollars in cash lay in a plastic bag taped to the underside of the floorboard.
She counted it in the dark. Didn't need light. She knew every bill. Had memorized the weight of it. The way it felt to know she had something the pack didn't own.
She stuffed it in her jacket pocket.
Next was the fake ID. Chloe had made it two years ago as a joke. A laugh about what it would be like to be human. To have a fake name and a made-up life. Chloe had no idea that joke would save Eden's life tonight.
The ID said Eden Wright. Age twenty-four. Human. No pack mark. No family history. Just a girl who didn't belong to anyone.
She tucked it in her sock.
Clothes next. She owned exactly three changes. Two were pack-issued. One was her own. She threw the one that was hers into a small backpack. Added the one pair of shoes that wasn't falling apart. Added nothing else because anything more would slow her down.
Everything Eden had was already accounted for. A life that fit in one backpack.
She stood in the center of her tiny room and looked around at the walls that had kept her safe for four years. The bed she'd slept in. The shelf where she kept a few books. The mirror where she'd looked at herself every morning and seen an invisible girl.
That girl was leaving.
The clock on her wall said 2:47 AM. The pack house was quiet now. Even the night guards were drowsy. The alpha was probably still awake in his territory office but Cole Brennan wouldn't be paying attention to omega quarters. Why would he? The omegas were locked in. They were owned. They weren't going anywhere.
Eden grabbed her backpack and opened her door.
The hallway was dark. Empty. She could hear breathing from the other rooms. Other girls who were sleeping without knowing their futures were already decided. Without knowing that in a few months they might be next on a list for the same thing the council had planned for her.
She made it to the stairs without seeing anyone.
Her heart was doing something violent in her chest. Each step down felt like running across ice. One wrong move and she'd fall. One wrong sound and someone would wake up. One mistake and this was over.
The pack house was massive. Three stories. Fifty rooms. It had been built over a hundred years and expanded every time the pack got stronger. It was supposed to feel like home but it had always felt like a prison to Eden. Just one that was gilded enough that you could pretend the bars weren't there.
She reached the ground floor.
The kitchen was dark. Empty. The place where her life had exploded just hours ago. The broken coffee pot was still on the floor. No one had cleaned it up because they were too busy dealing with her. Too busy figuring out how to keep her contained.
There was a side door that led to the storage area and from there to the outer grounds.
Eden's hands were shaking so badly she could barely turn the handle.
The cold night air hit her face and she almost cried from the relief of it. Outside. She was outside. The forest was right there. Dark and deep and full of danger but it was better than staying inside these walls waiting to be owned.
She walked across the outer grounds trying to look like she belonged there. Like she had every right to be out at three in the morning. Like she wasn't stealing her own life back.
No one stopped her.
No one called out.
No one even noticed.
Because omegas didn't run. That's what they'd taught her. That's what they believed. Omegas stayed. Omegas served. Omegas accepted what was given to them and didn't question it.
Eden hit the tree line.
The forest felt different at night. Alive in a way it didn't during the day. She could smell the rain coming. Could hear animals moving in the undergrowth. Could feel the pulse of the wild like it was welcoming her.
She walked deeper into the trees and didn't look back.
Her feet found the old path that led away from pack territory. The one the hunters used when they needed to go far from the main trails. She'd discovered it last year during one of the rare times she was allowed outside the pack house. She'd memorized the route. Didn't know why at the time. Some part of her had always known she'd need this.
The backpack felt heavy but not unbearable. Two thousand dollars felt lighter than it should. Her fake ID felt like the most precious thing she owned.
She was really doing this. Actually leaving. Walking away from everything she'd ever known because the alternative was staying and becoming a living incubator for the pack's breeding program.
The forest was thick around her now. No lights from the pack house anymore. No sounds from human life. Just her and the darkness and the possibility that maybe she could actually disappear.
She'd made it maybe a mile when she heard the sound.
A branch snapping behind her.
Eden froze.
It wasn't close enough to be a threat yet. But it was close enough to be a warning. Something was moving in the forest behind her. Something large. Something that moved like it knew how to hunt.
She should run.
But running would give away her position. Would make noise. Would turn a maybe into a definitely.
She pressed herself against a tree and waited.
The footsteps got closer. Slower. Like whatever was coming wasn't hunting by speed. It was hunting by scent. By knowing exactly where the prey was going before it got there.
That's when she realized.
They knew.
They'd already figured it out. They'd already sent someone. Or maybe Cole had ordered the perimeter watched. Maybe he'd known she would run the moment he saw her face in the kitchen. Maybe he'd been waiting for it.
The footsteps stopped.
Right behind her. Close enough that she could hear breathing. Close enough that she could smell him on the wind. Woodsmoke and pine and something wild and dangerous.
A voice cut through the darkness.
"Hello, little omega. Did you really think you could run from us?"
It wasn't Cole.
It was worse.
It was Viktor. The pack's enforcer. The one who broke things that needed breaking. The one who didn't ask questions when the alpha wanted someone brought back.
And he was smiling. She could hear it in his voice.
"Cole said you might try this," Viktor said, stepping out from behind the trees so she could see his massive frame blocking the path ahead. "He said if you did, I should make sure you understand that running just makes it worse for you."
Eden's hand found the knife in her jacket pocket. The one she'd taken from the kitchen before leaving. It was small. Useless against a wolf. But it was something.
Viktor laughed.
And that's when Eden realized the truth that would change everything.
The hunt had already started.
And she was already caught.