Fated is overrated
Chapter 36

Lola POV

After running for hours and hours on end, I feel like I have finally placed a decent enough amount of distance between me and the pack in order to take a small break.

I pull out water and food from my bag as I sit down on a fallen tree. It is still dark out, but morning is approaching fast and I need to get my plan together soon on where I am going to go and how I am going to provide for myself. Should I stay in the woods for a while, or should I head into human territory and make a life there? Being the think it through type of person I am, I weigh pro's and con's and decide I need to put a few weeks of distance between me and the pack to be sure nobody knows who I am and where I am from, and then head into human territory there.

I have never been out on my own in the woods for that long and honestly I don't even know yet how I am going to pull it off, but I have to.

All neighboring packs will have gotten the word by now, so I can in no way stumble upon any of their lands. Rogues in general aren't treated nicely already, but I am on the run for defying and attacking my future Alpha.

I definitely need to stay in this unclaimed no man's land. The possibility of running into rogues will be less dangerous than facing the punishment I get when I would be captured by another pack.

Rogues are often loners too, so I would prefer a 1:1 battle with a rogue. Pick your battles carefully, mom always said to me.

After having eaten and drank, I get up from the tree I was sitting on to push forward. Dawn is approaching slowly, and I can see the beauty of this no man's land begin to unfold. To avoid an incomplete reading experience, visit Jobn'i'b.com. As a werewolf, I can see perfectly fine in the dark, but the vision of the night doesn't do justice to the beauty of the landscape here.

Through the past few hours, the terrain has varied from plain meadows with all kinds of beautiful flowers, to thick forests and everything in between.

I prefer walking in the forest as it gives me shelter from anything or anyone, so I tend to stick to the forest side as much as possible. But the flower meadows are just plain gorgeous to look at though. I could get so lost in the beauty of it I would almost forget that this could also be a very dangerous place.

After walking for a few more hours with some drinking stops in between, the forest starts to open up more and the terrain becomes more rocky.

Up ahead, I see a stream of water which I then decide will be perfect to replenish my water bottles. Running over to the water I can very faintly smell a wolf's presence, a rogue to be exact.

Rogues usually have a very distinct smell and the more feral they become, the worse their smell becomes. This wolf does not smell too feral yet and judging by how faint the smell is, it must have been hours since the wolf was even here. Although still a good reminder that I need to be careful of my surroundings, I relax a little knowing the rogue is long gone. I fill up my water bottles quickly to proceed to the rocky terrain.

At first, the rocks are not too steep and it is easy to plow through. But the further I get, the more I notice the terrain becoming steeper and steeper.

Lucky for me, I am pretty trained and athletic, because I am pretty positive most she wolves from my old pack would not be able to push through here. In fact, I think even some males would struggle. The boulders become bigger and bigger as to where I actually have to jump to be able to grab the next boulder.

After quite the workout, I finally reach a small sort of plateau for me to catch my breath without balancing myself in the air. It also seems that I have almost reached the top luckily, as I have to admit this drained my energy a lot.

I plop down on the ground from exhaustion, not being as attentive to my surroundings as I normally am and should be. After a few minutes of catching my breath, I notice I am actually sitting right next to a cave-like entrance. Right before the entrance I can see the remnants of a fire and a variety of animal bones scattered across the ground. I can feel Liberty stirring up in my mind at the sight and with that I am up to my feet and on full alert. I look around searching for any clues if this is a human's doing or a wolf's, when my eyes land on the cave entry. I can hear muffled sounds coming from the cave, but it is too dark for me to see from here. Creeping closer and closer, I am finally able to look into the cave and spot a mixed brown and black wolf sleeping. This is definitely the rogue I smelled earlier over by the water.

Having no interest in waiting for the wolf to wake up, I silently walk back from the cave and start making my way back to the top again. All the while being extremely careful to not make a noise so as to not wake up the wolf.