Escape

Arabella’s POV
I had to get out of here. I had to escape at all costs. I thought about what Alpha Luciano did to me yesterday and I squeezed my eyes shut in mortification, shame, and disgust.
Weeks ago I was a virgin, respected. I had a future to look forward to. But now, it felt like my life had come to a standstill. A pause. A full stop.
Like I was living in a hellscape where I was running around in circles like a headless chicken.
I had to leave this place or die trying rather than stay here and die a little more every day losing sight of who I was.
“Are you good?’ I turned in my bed at the sound of Margaret’s voice.
“You knew.” She avoided my gaze and put her hand on my forehead to check my temperature.
I slapped her hand away.
“You could have warned me. You are a woman yourself. How can you do that to another woman?”
Tears fell down my cheeks.
“Arabella–”
“Leave me. Now. I would like to be alone.”
I turned my back on her to face the other side of the bed. After a few seconds, I heard her footsteps leaving my bedside.
I tried to sleep but each time I closed my eyes all I saw was myself on a table with those people watching. Watching as Alpha Luciano took me.
I sat up and got off the bed. I would shower. Again. Maybe scrubbing my body a lot would make me feel less dirty. Not that it had worked before but maybe three was a charm.
In the harem, everyone had their rooms but a communal bath and toilet. Both facilities were large, had running water hot and cold, and were diligently cleaned every other hour or so.
As I rounded the corner to the baths, I tripped and fell skinning my knee. Rather I was tripped. Four harem women stood, glaring at me unrepentantly, I couldn’t tell who had done it. I didn’t even know their names. What could I have possibly done to warrant that?
On another day I would have looked the other way but not today. I approached them.
“What’s your deal?” I asked. None of them spoke. They just glared at me like they wanted me to spontaneously combust or something.
“Can’t a girl catch a break around here? I don’t even know you guys but that isn’t stopping you from being mean to me. We aren’t in freaking preschool, I don’t want to be here in your pack or your harem yet here I am. I just want five minutes of peace. Is that too much to ask for?”
“Yes.” A quiet but authoritative voice spoke up. I turned around to see Emery gliding towards us in a short deep green silk nightgown with a dark robe on it. Her hair was in a French twist over a shoulder, and without any makeup she was stunning.
Yes?
“You may leave,” Emery said to the other ladies and they bowed before leaving just the two of us.
“You wish for peace, Arabella Bianchi? How will that be possible when you have given us no peace?”
“I don’t understand what you mean. I have–”
“Caused dissent here. Have you wondered why an Alpha has a harem? Because he doesn’t plan on ever mating with anyone or falling in love. So we were volunteered here by our families for the sake of the pack’s continuity. For an heir. All twelve of us gave up on having our individual mates, our own families, sacrificed ourselves for our pack.”
I was at a loss for words.
“If none of you likes him then why do you let him…” I trailed off helplessly confused.
“I’ve been with Luciano for 8 years since his 19th birthday. I have seen all his sides. Although I have failed to give him an heir, I love him. I care about him and this pack. He is a good Alpha, a good protector, and a good man. What else could I possibly desire? All the women here feel similarly.”
“He has been good to us. We gave ourselves freely to him and he didn’t touch us a moment before we were ready. He’s considerate like that. But you,” She paused regarding me like I was the filth beneath her shoes.
This Luciano she was describing seemed like a different person from the one I knew.
“Ever since you came here, he’s been different. He no longer spends time with any of us. We would have been delighted if he chose someone who at least understands our pack so that we could groom her to be our Luna. But it’s you of all people. A Bianchi.”
“Like you said you aren’t interested in this pack or harem. You take your duties with the Alpha as though it is a chore. Seeing you every day gets on everyone’s nerves. So no you will not be getting any peace here, Arabella.”

With that, she took a U-turn and went off to her room not even waiting for a reply for me.
Great.
There was so much to unpack in all she had told me but all I wanted to do was to get a phone, anything and escape from here. After all, even the harem would rest easy when I left.
I took a shower contemplating how I could escape. I needed to get out of the pack house. Thankfully if this morning had shown me anything, it was the entrance. The main entrance. I needed something a bit more clandestine to escape.
Then I would need to find my way to the borders which would require an experienced driver or a cell phone for mapping and a hike.
A lightbulb went off in my head.
Margaret. She would have a phone and because she was always on the move, she wouldn’t even notice the phone was missing until much later. Maybe I could even inquire about the exits casually and she would let it slip.
*********
“Arabella?”  Margaret looked surprised to see me in her room.
Truth be told she had a right to be. I’d never been here before.
“I… I wanted to ask you something. I don’t want to go to Alpha Luciano’s bed for at least a week. I..” My voice broke. “I just don’t want to see, to allow him…” I began to cry.
Margaret placed her hands around me and escorted me to her bed.
“Hush little one.” She wiped at my tears and told me everything would be alright.
“I don’t think he will agree to let you be for a whole week but I will talk to him.”
“You will?” I asked with my eyes wide and innocent.
“I will.”
“Thank you. Thank you very much.” I sniffed.
“Have you had anything to eat?”
“No, I’ve not had the appetite.”
“That’s not good. We must keep your strength up. Stay here, I’ll get you something from the kitchen.”
With that said, she walked away briskly to the kitchen. The moment she was gone, I looked out the door to ensure she was gone.
I had at most ten minutes before she came back. I began to look for her phone.
I checked her bed, the top of her dresser, the bathroom, and under her bed.
Fuck. Did she carry it on her body?
No, she had been preparing for bed when I came in. No one went to bed with their phones in their pocket, so where was it?
Where would I keep my phone at night? On my bed or dresser of course or… wherever I was charging it. Of course. I soon located the phone. It was indeed plugged in.
It was around 37%. It would have to do. I heard footsteps and quickly arranged myself on the bed in the position I had been before she left.
Margaret walked in with a plate of toast and orange juice. I thanked her and ate the food quickly praying she wouldn’t need something from her phone anytime soon.
“Give me the plate, I’ll take it to the kitchen for you.”
“No, I couldn’t inconvenience you. You’re already helping me out.” More than you know.
“Just tell me where the kitchen is and I’ll drop it off.”
Margaret looked half asleep on her feet already so she directed me to the kitchen.
I had thought of something while eating. Kitchens almost always had waste. I doubted that they carried that out through the main entrance. So there must be a side entrance. Something small and unobtrusive that they could use to quickly take out the trash.
The kitchen was still working at this hour so all I had to do was watch from the window and wait for someone, anyone to take out the trash. It took almost half an hour for it to happen.
The head cook yelled at someone to ‘take out the fucking trash,’ and I saw the person take it towards the end of a kitchen and open a service door and close it shut. The person appeared minutes later sans trash bag.
My heart raced. Freedom was just a few steps away. I wanted to race through that door but I think they would have noticed if Arabella Bianchi just ran out the service door.
I looked at the outfits the cooks wore. They had hair nets on, and aprons. No, they would see my face.
The help, who’d disposed of the dirt however, had been wearing a nose mask, thick gloves and a hairnet. They’d never even notice me if I wore that.
I looked around that area until I found the storage closet for the staff uniforms. I heard the stomping of feet and entered the room quickly before the guards patrolling passed by where I had stood mere seconds ago.
I inhaled sharply. I had to get out of here before they caught me. I changed out of my loose night clothes and pulled on the standard helper’s uniform.
I came out of the room and entered the kitchen.
I walked confidently towards the service exit. “Hey girl!” I froze. “You deaf or something? Come and pick up this trash.” I exhaled slowly and turned to where the voice came from.
There was an overflowing trash can next to the speaker. I picked it up and turned back towards the service exit.
In seconds I was out. The moon shone down on me, feeling me with strength and calm. I could do this. I turned on Google Maps on Margaret’s phone.
I took off the service net, nose mask and gloves and tossed them in the waste disposal. Then I ran. I could have shifted but I still had to use the GPS on Margaret’s phone so human form it was.
I ran and ran. Tears streamed down my face as I ran for my life. I would never see Alpha Luciano again or his crazy women. And I would never be humiliated like that ever again.
I must have run for hours, the terrain changed around me and I realized I was reaching the edge of Luciano’s territory. I would soon be entering the neutral territory, then I’d get a lift and–
I saw a dark shadow. Somebody was coming. It was a male, he was tall and when he lifted his head, he had silvery blue eyes.
Goddess, no.
I turned around to run but I was surrounded by his men that seemed to have appeared from thin air.
“Arabella.” Alpha Luciano crooned.
“Surely you didn’t think you would escape me so easily.” He quirked an eyebrow.
My blood ran cold with fear and I shivered. I couldn’t go back. I couldn’t.
He came even closer to me. “Did you think Margaret would be as stupid as to leave her phone in the room with you unsupervised? Or that the kitchen staff that has worked together for years wouldn’t notice a new person’s scent?”
Alpha Luciano was close enough now that we could have kissed. His eyes sparkled with cruelty.
“I let you escape, run around so that I could do this.” He grabbed my hair, yanking my head backwards so that I whimpered in pain. Then he whispered in my ear.
“So that I could take your hopes and crush them.” He inhaled my scent deeply. “Your hopelessness smells exquisite. I wish I could bottle it up like perfume. You will never escape me, Arabella.”
No, I wasn’t going back.
I squirmed against him as though I wanted to get out of the grip he had on my hair. Then I grabbed it.
His gun. I pressed it against his stomach.
“Back the fuck up.” I barely recognized my voice. I knew he could ask his men to shoot me down but I wasn’t going down without a fight.
I redirected the gun to his dick. At least I could take care of his family planning for him permanently if he tried anything stupid.
Alpha Luciano looked stunned as he stepped away from me.
“Tell your men to drop their guns.”
“Arabella…”
“I said tell your men to freaking drop their guns!”
“You heard the lady. Drop your weapons.”
I heard the sound of metals hitting the ground and I tightened my grip on the gun. I clicked off the safety.
“Move away from me.” Although he’d backed up, he was still too close to me for comfort.
He raised his hands in surrender. “Arabella, you can’t escape. Even with a gun. How many rounds do you think I’ve got loaded? You can’t take down all my men.”
“But I don’t want to kill them. Just you.”
My wolf protested but I blocked her out. This was all her fault and the moon goddess too.
“You don’t mean that.”
“Just shut up and back up.”
Then he moved. Not backwards but forward. In the little exchange we had, he’d moved forward imperceptibly and now we grappled for the gun.
I squeezed the trigger and we were suspended at that moment, his eyes widening in shock. My lips curved in a smile.