The Messenger( Iva) novel Chapter 377

Waking Up

Waking Up

+25 Points

The night air was cool and crisp against Iva’s skin as she crept along the familiar path behind the small house. Her footsteps were light, deliberate, each one carefully placed to avoid snapping a twig or rustling the underbrush. The pack members who had sheltered them were mostly indoors now, their windows glowing with warm lamplight, their voices a distant murmur of comfort and routine..

They were temporary guests here. They had no ties to this pack, no obligations to explain themselves to the Alpha. The arrangement had been transactional-a safe haven in exchange for discretion and money. And now, she was leaving it behind.

She paused at the edge of the treeline, her heart pounding so loudly she was certain someone would hear it. The pack’s border was just ahead, marked by an ancient stone wall half-hidden by moss and ivy. Beyond it lay the unknown.

She looked back once, her eyes tracing the outline of the small house where she had spent the past weeks. She could almost see Nick’s face, his eyes dark with frustration and desire. She could almost hear her father’s voice, cold and commanding.

Despite their love, they had wanted to control her. To shape her. To make her into the woman they needed

her to be,

But she was done being shaped, as since her rescue she was like a doll… Iva go there…do that… you need to… you must obey..

She turned forward, her gaze fixed ahead.

And then, another crazy idea came to her.

Technically, now… she was not a werewolf. Not anymore. The healers had been clear-her wolf had withdrawn so deeply that it was as if she had lost it entirely. The torture, the abuse, the trauma-they had severed the connection that had once defined her.

She had no wolf. She would never be able to shift ever again.

Which meant that no one could sense her. No one could track her. No one would know that she was a shifter, a wolf, a creature of the supernatural world.

What if she walked into the human world?

What if she became a normal human?

The thought was dizzying, terrifying, and exhilarating all at once. She had spent her entire life navigating the complex politics of pack life, the hierarchies, the expectations, the constant threat of violence.

The human world was different-simpler, perhaps, but also more dangerous in its own way. She would be alone, vulnerable, without the protection of a pack.

But she would be free.

Just then, her pup kicked.

She pressed her hand to her belly, feeling the small flutter of movement. A reminder that she was not

<Waking Up

alone A reininder that she had a reason to keep going.

+25 Points

She knew that later, this would be a problem. A child without a pack, without a wolf, without a place in either world. But that was a problem for another day.

At this moment, she needed to move… It broke her heart that she had to leave her fated mate… but maybe this was better for both of them, as being together would bring difficulties for both of them. She would not be strong enough to stand next to Nick, and as he was an Alpha blood she would be a liability. Plus that he was on the run because of her… And even If he accepted her like this… she would constantly face what she lost… and she knew that others would look down on her. In the werewolf world, being wolfless was a death sentence.

She gathered her courage and stepped over the wall, her feet landing on the other side.

The highway stretched before her in the distance, a ribbon of darkness dotted with the occasional glow of headlights. Cars hummed past, their drivers oblivious to the woman who had just crossed the threshold between worlds.

Iva took a deep breath and began to walk.

The pack was behind her now. Nick and her father were behind her. The Lycans, the healers, the endless cycle of running and hiding-all of it was behind her.

Ahead lay the unknown.

Ahead lay her future.

She walked toward the highway, her steps steady, her heart full of a fragile, desperate hope.

She didn’t know where she was going.

But since she got rescued, she was choosing her own path.

The incessant ringing of his mobile phone dragged Nick from the depths of unconsciousness like a hook pulling a fish from dark water.

His head throbbed.

His neck ached from being twisted at an unnatural angle. He groaned, his hand reaching blindly for the source of the noise, his fingers fumbling across the wooden table until they closed around the device.

He blinked, his vision blurred and unfocused. The room swam around him, the familiar shapes of the small kitchen slowly coming into focus. He was still at the table. He had fallen asleep at the table?

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