That night I lay in my bed staring up at my ceiling Gale's words playing over and over in my head. I kept trying to make sense of it all, but I couldn't.  I kept trying to sleep too, but I couldn't do that either.

I had managed to get to my room without encountering any of my sisters, who would have undoubtedly scolded me for seeing Gale again. Or worse, snitched on us.

What confused me the most was: What is so awfully wrong with Gale and I spending time together?

I may be younger than him but only by two years and I may be an omega too but our pack never seemed big on hierarchy. So why did everybody seem to have an opinion about it?

Another hour of staring at the ceiling later, I heard a noise come from my window. I slowly stood up, still cautious from this evenings events.

"H..hello?" I stammered as the noise continued. 

Seconds later, the window slid open and in climbed a silhouette. It tripped slightly on the furniture below the window and rolled clumsily in knocking over the trashcan in the process. For a moment my heart left my body but I soon recognised the strong scent and relaxed.

"Gale what on earth are you doing?! Have you never heard of a door?" I whined reaching for my bedside lamp and trying to calm my racing heartbeat. "You scared me out of my skin."

He brought his finger to his lips as a gesture to keep my voice down.

"I'm sorry but I'm here to take you up on your offer," he announced in a whisper as his face was illuminated by the yellow bulb.

"What offer?" I asked perplexed in an equally quiet tone.

"I want to run as far away from here as we possibly can," he said confidentially. "With you."

"But what about your Alphaship, the elder, getting hunted down like deer?" I asked.

"What do we have to lose?" Gale asked repeating my words.

"When I suggested it I didn't think you'd really think about it," I said biting my nails. "You seemed so sure that it was a horrible idea."

"We are already inwardly outcasts of this pack, why not make it official?" Gale asked placing a small rucksack on my bed.

I looked at my best friend. For the first time since his seventeenth birthday, he looked hopeful- like he could see a desirable future.

It only took a few more seconds looking into those jade-green eyes before I nodded my head.

"What do we have to lose?" I said and a smile cracked onto both of our faces.

I grabbed a bag out of my closet and spent the next half hour retrieving necessary items such as clothes, toothbrush, food and water.

Gale and I knew how to survive in the wilderness. That wasn't the thing scaring me half to death. It was the fact that we were about to leave the pack and pack territory- something I had never down in my fifteen years of life.

"Are you ready?" Gale said opening the window as he held out his hand. 

I had written my sisters a little note and left it on my bed along with a tiny painting no bigger than my hand that I once did of us all. It showed Summer, April, Willow and I all sat under a blossom tree holding hands. Mom and Dad were there too but sat higher up in the branches amongst the sweet, heavenly flowers. It was an image of my imagination and I called it the Blossom family tree. They hadn't brought me a whole lot of joy over the years, but they were family and I had to at least find some way of saying goodbye.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I said quietly before taking his hand as he helped me climb out the window and onto the tiny external ledge. His arm wrapped tightly around me as he used the other to hold onto the house. I didn't think I'd fall and this wasn't the first time I'd climbed out the window but I was happy to have the extra security of a strong arm.

A little scramble in the darkness later, my feet were amongst the fallen autumn leaves. 

"Come on then Alpha," I said taking a breath of the crisp air and looking into the pitch black forest. "Let's run like the wind."