June 10th
2017
Brickston Mississippi

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POV

Soren

Here we were, finally Stone and I were getting married. I would have been fine with performing the mating ritual, but Stone grew up outside of pack territory, he grew up with humans for six years, and some human customs stuck with him. Marriage included, and I won't lie and say I didn't like planning the wedding. It brought out the Omega in me.

Stone and I have an amazing relationship, we were friends from the moment we met, I was seven and he was six going on seven. We knew we were going to be mates. We made sure of it. See as kids we liked each other, and our bond was so strong Stone and I felt it even as pups. He dreamed we'd be married, but fate had other plans. I lost my wolf, it was killed. When a werewolf turns seven they go through what's called a wolf-finding.

During that period your body basically becomes a portal, your mind travels to the other world, to Adornia where a werewolf's wolf resides. My wolf was killed by a legendary wolf, the wolf of eine ( hell ) The Alpha Miro. His mate an Omega called Mya stopped him from devouring my astral form. Thinking quickly I chose Mya as my wolf... practically kidnapped her.

When I came back to reality my body was a portal into this world for Mya, I felt disconnected from everyone for the first few days, but my relationship with Stone suffered the most. I didn't feel the same way about him, not as strongly, and we knew we weren't mates anymore. My wolf, his wolf's mate, was dead, so Stone and I would be condemned to a horrible half-existence.

But Stone is a gifted intellectual, he had the idea to do what we did, some weeks before it was his time to find his wolf, he and I snuck into the greenhouse and used a pinch of forbidden aconite, to jump-start his wolf-finding rite. In the vast woods of the other world, he found Miro, he's never told me or Mya what they talked about, but Stone chose Miro as his wolf, relinquishing his true wolf. He did what he promised me he'd do, he made us mates.

We had so much fun growing up, hell I don't think I was really living until I met Stone. I had no friends, maybe Caleb was a friend, back before his father died and his mother went away. Maybe Zeke was my friend, back before he entered the young Gamma training battalion, and we all realized how extensively significant pack ranks were. Outside of those two, I was an Omega and no matter how unimportant my dad said that was, I saw it, hell every Omega feels it.

I was left out, ignored, or ordered around, bullied. Until that summer that I met Stone. He changed my life and I would always be grateful. So why was I running from my own wedding? Why was I leaving Stone at the altar? Why was I running away from home and all I'd ever known? To answer that question we have to go back three nights. Stone and I were trying to remain celibate. It wasn't easy, our wolves had waited for thirteen years for us to be together.

In vulgar terms, they wanted to fuck and breed. But we wanted to marry first, the way we always talked about. Those three days were full of jokes from not just the younger pack members, but some of the older members as well. The worst was a she-wolf, she wasn't born into the pack her family joined when I was ten, and she'd been obsessed with Stone from the start.

Billie, that's her name, and I won't take anything away from her. She is beautiful with long golden hair and the brownest eyes ever created, many of the guys in the pack want her as their mate, but she wants mine. Well, at first I brushed people's jokes off, everyone knew my wolf was mature, Mya hadn't grown up in the Earthern world, so she was long-lived, she was also barren, which meant I was barren.

The jokes were taken as they were meant to be taken, but I can't say I didn't hear the truth behind some of them. Without an heir, the Brickston pack ran the risk of the pack changing hands. And centuries of pride would be washed down the drain because of me. I couldn't do that to Stone, I wouldn't do that to Stone, I loved him too much. For two days I wrestled with those thoughts, trying to find a solution.

I considered adoption, but the pack wouldn't respond to a rogue heir, I considered hiring someone to carry the pup, but Stone would never do that, Miro wouldn't allow it. And I knew the pack would be disgusted by me, they'd call me weak. So, telling no one, I devised my escape, I withdrew money from my father's Beta account under the guise of needing something for the wedding. Fifteen thousand dollars, as money was no object. I hid it inside a satchel with an outfit inside the woods of the north border, in the hole of my favorite tree, one of Stone and I's favorite trees.

I wasn't sure if I was going to run away, but I just kept replaying Billie's whispered words to her best friend and some other Omega's. "This place is going to go to shit when someone else takes over. I mean this pack has been around for at least two hundred years, right?" She said, and it was the truth.

So, there I was with the satchel, I left Stone a note in our bedroom, explaining to him why I needed to leave, telling him that I wanted him to find a new mate, one capable of giving him everything he deserved. I didn't look back as I heard the wedding march playing. I shifted down into Mya's pure white form, grabbed the satchel in my muzzle, and took off.

Mya screamed and pleaded with me, but I had her tamed, she couldn't take control of me, couldn't force me to turn around. She screamed of my selfishness, trying to link her mind with the pack, trying to reach Stone. I was some miles away before I even thought to slow down, I didn't shift back until I reached the train station, I shifted in the woods and used the outfit to dress. I took some of the money and I got a ticket to California.

Stone wasn't marked and neither was I, but I swear when I boarded that train I felt him, trying, struggling to use the pack link to reach me, his mental strength was great but we were matched. I kept him out of my head until I was far enough away that he couldn't reach me. I needed to run away, give Stone a second chance at getting a good mate, Luna would find Miro another mate, it could happen, and even if it didn't he'd find an artificial one, after a few years maybe.

# # #

Nine thousand dollars couldn't last me forever, and I was three weeks gone. I found my way to a little town in Nevada, between Reno and Carson City, bordering the Eldorado national forest, sat a little town called Rabbitfoot, the weirdest fucking name I ever heard, but the town was nice. A small city in itself, Rabbitfoot was like something out of a house and garden magazine.

All plush homes and lawns, a dozen playgrounds, even an old fashioned movie theater, ice cream parlor, and diner. I wasn't planning on staying, I could still feel Stone's emotions or at least Miro's. He was pissed, and he wasn't going to stop looking for me. I didn't plan on staying long, the first two days I stayed at the quaint little bed and breakfast. It was owned by a sweet old couple, Helga, whose name is exactly how she looked, round and happy and her husband Francisco, they just adored me.

The third day I left my room, said hello to Helga who seemed to always be at the front desk. Then I left the three-floor building and walked across and down the street to the diner. It was like something out of the sixties, malts, and all. I waved to the pretty girl behind the counter, and she told me she'd be over to my table. The place was emptier than usual, only one person was inside besides me, the cooks and the young waitress.

I sat down two seats away from the guy, it was the sadness in his eyes that drew me to him. He seemed to be about my age, he had very dark chocolate skin. His lips were full and thick, and I liked his hair it was cut low and really wavy.

He seemed to be in a world of his, staring outside. He had a cup of coffee and he was stirring it, I took my eyes off of him as the waitress came to my table to ask my order. "I'll have a cheeseburger and fries, and a malt... Thank you." I said, and she smiled saying it be right up. I turned back to staring at the stranger, to find that he was no longer stirring his cup. Tears were shimmering in his eyes, and outside the weather seemed to match his emotion.

Dense fat gray storm clouds gathered, but my eyes were on the cup, on the spoon that was still stirring with no help from the stranger. A tear fell from his eyes and thunder boomed, I gasped loudly in fear of the noise. The spoon clanked against the cup; the stranger finally took notice of me. He quickly wiped his eyes and left his booth heading for the door. I didn't know what that was, but I knew he did it, my curiosity wouldn't let him just leave.

I yelled for the waitress to wrap my food up and when she did, I paid and left, following the smell of peppermint, it was fading from the rain, but I pursued it, letting it take me. It took me to a little enclosed bus stop, and there he was. He sat there staring at his hands, looking up when I walked into the bus stop. "Hello," I said, he looked at me, his eyes seeming to look through me.

"What do you want, Soren?" He asked and I gasped for the second time, "How do you know my name?" I asked. "Same way I kept the spoon stirring, the same way I accidentally changed the weather, I'm psychic." He said. "Really, like full-on psychic?" I asked. "Yes really, my question to you is, with a life that's as good as yours, why would you run away?" He asked, "A psychic would know the reason." I responded.

"We don't see everything, some only have visions, but I see a lot of things and I can do a lot of things, I still don't know everything. I do know the person you're running from is close to finding you... S-S-Stone right?" He asked. "Where is he?" I asked. "Don't worry, he's in Mississippi, but in six days he and his... Wolf... Holy shit you're a werewolf?!" He shouted jumping up and down, suddenly full of excitement.

"I've never met a super in real life. Can you really turn into a wolf?" He asked. "Yes, but what about Stone?" I asked. "Yes, he will arrive in six days, there are two paths you can choose from, one, stay and return home, or leave, keep moving that's what I'm doing." He said, and I sighed, where could I go that Stone couldn't find me. "Could I come with you?" I asked, "Why? You don't know me, we aren't friends." He said, looking suspicious.

"You're the first person I met, who I feel like I can really trust. Plus it won't hurt to have an actual psychic looking out for me." I said. He gave me a hard, cold, and calculating look. Then a small smile appeared on his face, "What the hell... It might be good to have a werewolf on my team... I'm Cole by the way." He said standing, and I extended my hand, saying it was a pleasure to make his acquaintance.

"Sorry, psychometry, one-touch, and I'll end up knowing at least ten of your most embarrassing secrets." He said, and I quickly put my hand down. "Where are you staying?" I asked, "I-ah just got in town, I figured I'd convince somebody to let me stay with them." He said. "Well, if you don't mind sharing a room, I've got a place," I said.

"I don't mind, we should leave in a few days, any idea of where you wanna go?" Cole asked, "No idea, I'm a pack kid, never been outside of Mississippi, Stone and I were supp... It doesn't matter." I said. "Maybe you'll be together again," Cole said. "Will Stone move on from me, find a new mate?" I asked, and Cole looked off in thought his eyes going vacant. "Hard to say about the future, but for as far into it as I can see... No, never, it's you or no one." He said, and I felt my heart break a little more.

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