I knocked on the door with shaking hands. The cold wind bit into my skin, stinging every bruise on my body. My lips trembled from the icy air wrapping around me like a cruel blanket. My whole body ached.
The rejection still burned in my chest. But I wanted to believe they would let me in. I wanted to believe my parents would see me, broken and helpless, and still open the door.
But they didn't.
The door stayed closed.
Then I heard my mother's sharp voice from the other side.
"Leave, Aria. You have shamed us enough. Don't come back."
I knocked again, harder this time.
"Please, it's cold. I have nowhere else to go. Please, let me in."
My father's voice followed. His words stabbed me deeper than the cold.
"Aria, we've had enough of your nonsense. You don't belong here anymore."
Hot tears rolled down my cheeks as the door stayed shut. I stood there for a long time, waiting and hoping, but nothing changed. They had locked me out of their hearts, just like they locked the door in my face.
The sky grew darker, as the air grew colder. I sat on the ground, curling into myself, hugging my knees, trying to stay warm. But the cold slipped into my bones, biting at my bruises. I shivered so hard that every breath hurt like needles in my throat.
My whole pack had turned against me. They believed the lies. They laughed at me, mocked me, called me names. They said I had thrown myself at Alpha Jaxon. They said I begged for his touch, that I was desperate to be his Luna.
But they didn't see how he used me.
How he rejected me in front of everyone.
His cold eyes. His cruel voice.
They didn't see that part.
I sat there until my body went numb. I wanted to scream, but my throat was dry. I wanted to run, but my legs wouldn't move.
I had no home now, no family and no mates. Nothing.
When the sun rose the next morning, I forced myself to stand but my legs were weak, as I struggled to walk away, and I didn't look back.
I couldn't cry anymore, because there were no more tears left to shed. Just emptiness and brokenness .
I've left everything behind as I walked toward the dark forest Rosa once told me about. A place where people entered and never came back.
But I didn't care. I had nothing left to lose. If the forest wanted to swallow me, it could. It should start now already cause I'm hopeless and finished.
The trees stood tall, their thick branches blocking the sunlight. The deeper I went, the colder it got. The ground was wet and soft, with strange sounds filling the air around me.
I was starving, but there was no food. And when the night came and I tried to sleep, nightmares chased me. I saw my parents turning their backs on me. I saw my father beating me. I saw Jaxon's cruel smirk. I saw the pack laughing at me, calling me those ugly names.
I woke up screaming. My body was covered in sweat while my heart began racing in fear.
That afternoon, I tried to search the forest around me, if there was anything I could find. Maybe a house or something, but instead, I found a fallen tree.
Not knowing what to do with it. A thought came to my head to build a small shelter with it which I did. So I broke the tree branches to build a small shelter. It wasn't much because by evening, when the weather was calmer,the wind still found me. Blowing it chilling cold inside my small hut.
After a week living in the hut, it rained.
The shelter I had built couldn't save me from the chilly rain water that poured down on me.
The tree branches were useless because it gave way for the rain to soak me wet.
Days passed. Then weeks.
I noticed how my legs started growing thin. My skin turned pale, and my body became weaker.
I survived on eating rotten berries. I picked the ones that didn't look too spoiled and hoped they wouldn't kill me. I drank from muddy streams. Sometimes the dirty water made me sick with diarrhea all day, but I had no choice. It was all I had to stay alive.
At night, I heard voices whispering in my ears, telling me I was worthless. Telling me to end it all. Telling me I would never escape.
I heard footsteps following me anytime I go to pick berries. When I turned, no one was there. Most times, I saw shadows moving at the corner of my eyes, but when I looked, the forest was still.
The spirits of the forest came to me at night. I didn't see them at first, but I heard their soft whispers. They told me to give up. To lie down and let the cold take me. But I didn't listen.
I knew this forest liked to trick people as I've heard rumors about it back at my pack. I knew it wanted me to end it all. But I wasn't going to be that person. My heart had turned to stone after what happened to me. After Jaxon's rejection. After the way my family and my pack treated me.
Deep inside, I knew I would survive this. It wouldn't be easy. But I will survive.
I wrapped my arms around myself and pressed my back to a tree, as I kept myself breathing, even when my body begged me to stop. My feet bled from walking the forest sharp grounds. My stomach growled in hunger, just as my bones ached in constant muscle pains every day. But I didn't care anymore. I was too numb emotionally to feel anything or let the pain get to my head because that was what the forest spirits wanted.
The spirits tricked me sometimes. They made me see things that weren't real. I would hear my mother's voice calling me, and I would run toward it, but there was nothing.
Or is it the one where I would see a safe path, believing that I've found a way out from here but would suddenly disappear as soon as I stepped on them, leaving me trapped between tree branches.
I learned to fight them and to close my eyes and trust my gut.
But one night, I saw tall, twisted figures with glowing eyes and sharp claws. They circled me, their cruel smiles making my heart pound in my chest.
They crept closer. Whispering things I couldn't understand.
One reached for me. Its clawed hand was inches from my face.
I wanted to run and scream. But then, something inside me burst.
Heat exploded in my chest and spread through my whole body. My skin glowed, faint at first, then brighter, and the air around me changed. It became heavy, wild and powerful.
The spirits hissed, then they backed away and vanished into the night.
I fell to my knees, with shaky breath.
I didn't know what had happened. But after that night, they didn't come back.
I tried to fix my shelter, but it was too broken.
So I went deeper into the forest.
There, I found a small cave hidden under thick tree branches. I gathered more branches and built a better shelter inside. It wasn't perfect, but it kept me dry and safe.
I made a fire with stones, while rubbing sticks together until my hands bled.
But after a month and a few days of living alone, I got sick.
One morning, my stomach twisted painfully as I hurriedly crawled outside and threw up until my throat burned.
I thought it was the dirty water or the spoiled berries I had been eating.
But the sickness didn't stop. It came every morning, making me poke every content I try to put in my mouth and won't let anything stay in my stomach, leaving me too weak and shaking.
I forced myself to eat and to drink. But nothing helped. It became worse.
My body started to feel a little strange. Like I was beginning to get heavy and looking different.
One night, as I sat by the fire, I realized something as I thought back to the last night I was with Jaxon. The night he took my virginity.
Could it be that I'm pregnant? No, It couldn't be.
But all the signs were there.
The sickness. The ache in my body. The strange pull in my heart.
I pressed my hand to my stomach with trembling fingers. Tears filled my eyes, but I didn't stop them. I let myself cry.
It was the first time I had allowed myself to cry since I left the pack.
But I wasn't crying because of the rejection or the pain on my body.
It's just so unfortunate and cruel that Jaxon had not only left me with the pain of rejection, but he also left his seed which has grown into a life inside me.