The Homeless Mate

Getting Away

I sit on my bed, rocking back and forth, fear and hunger clouding my mind. Two weeks. I have two weeks before I turn 18. Before I'm forced to mate with whoever Alpha decides I should. I look around my small cell and shiver. As a precaution, all pack members are locked in cells from the month before their 18th till after they are mated. The rest of the pack have to share with three other people, but being the Beta's daughter buys me a cell to myself and two meals a week, not one. The few extra luxuries I get prevent me making friends in the pack. The Alpha is a good Alpha, but he is very strict. No family is allowed more than three meals a week, everyone starts working from age five, and anyone caught breaking the many rules is beaten badly. I jump as the hatch in the door slides open and a bowl of stew is pushed through.

I leap up and grab the stew, scooping it into my mouth with my fingers. I gulp it down, barely chewing. At the bottom is a note, covered in the thin gravy. I wipe it clean on my jeans and read it. Hiya Annabelle, it's Sev, be ready at seven thirty tonight. I'm getting you out of here. Tears of relief slip down my face. Sev is my only friend, and he always said he would protect me, even to the point of taking the blame for some of my mistakes. Sev was forced to mate two months ago with a girl named Leslie, who was already pregnant. It was always the same though. The Alpha needed a lot of people to be born because a lot died from hunger and exhaustion. He calls it "survival of the fittest",  but Sev calls it abuse. I always get scared when he talks like that, if he was found out, he'd be killed.

I checked my watch, a gift from my father when I was three, and see its six o'clock. I lay down to get a nap before I leave, but I can't go to sleep. I think of my mother, of how upset she's gonna be, of my father and how disappointed he's going to be. I curl up in a ball and sob, guilt already consuming me. I stay that way for over an hour, until the scraping sound of a key in a lock makes me stand up. Sev rushes forward and embraces me, and I hug him back. We both know the risks we are taking in running away from the pack.
"Are you ready?" Sev asks, gripping my hand tightly. I nod and we creep out the door. Sev closes and locks the door behind us and douses me in cheap perfume. I cough slightly, and look at him, confused.

"It's to mask your scent, I nicked it from the store room." He says, pulling me down the narrow corridor, to the old coal hatch hidden in the wall. He prys it open and grabs my hips, boosting me up and into the cramped space. He pushes me up as far as he can reach, and then climbs in after me, roughly pulling the hatch shut. Somehow, we make it up the steep shaft, me scrambling with my hands and him pushing me from below. The cool night air chills me to the bone as we move into the pitch Black Forest.

"Ok, I checked the guard patrols. We should have a clear path straight through to the fence, ok?"
"Ok" I whisper, quiet as I can. We both take of running, me following the path Sev sets out as we weave between the trees. In the distance I hear howls of the Warriors as they check in with each other.

I jump out of my skin as a new howl pierces the air. They've noticed I've gone. How? There were no patrols planned around my cell for three hours yet. Unless the Alpha was coming to tell me who I was mated to... My stomach heaves and the stew I ate a while ago empties out of my stomach.

"You ok, ? Belle?" Sev asks me, tilting my chin to look at him. I nod and try to stagger off, howls moving in on us. Sev grabs me and throws me over his shoulder, taking off sprinting. He always could run faster than me. I'm so lucky to have him... I would never survive outside the pack if he wasn't coming with me. He sets me to my feet and I look up at the high chain link fence.
"How are we gonna-" Sev boosts me up and I grab the top of the fence, pulling myself up and tumbling down the other side. I land awkwardly on my hip, but force myself to stand up.
"Sev, hurry up and climb over!" I hiss, but Sev just shakes his head and smiles.

"Annabelle. I can't. I can't leave Leslie and my child here, please try to understand. Run as far and as fast as you can, don't look back ok? Just run, and be happy for both of us, ok?" He says, tears running down his face.
"Sev, please..." Sev squeezed my hand through the links, then turns and runs off, howls ripping through the air.

I turn and run away, sprinting through the trees, hurdling fallen branches, stumbling and getting back up, never stopping, never faltering, fear energising my tired limbs.

I have no idea where I'm going, what to do or how to survive, but one thing I do know was that going back is not an option...

Hiya Guys! Emily here, with the first update of The Homeless Mate!

So, what do you think so far? Is it good? Bad? Terrible?

Any thoughts for improvement?

What do you think will happen to Sev for helping Annabelle escape?

Any questions just comment them here, Love you guys, see ya soon!