"Goodbye, Asher."

The words come through the darkness, spoken by a familiar voice-- the only voice capable of making my knees weak and my willpower worthless. Amber's voice.

But she's telling me goodbye. Why? Where is she going?

I can see nothing in but the vast, empty darkness. I can't move my limbs, as if my body is nonexistent. I can only hear her parting words, and feel her presence becoming increasingly weaker. Farther away. Leaving.

Panic consumes me.

She can't leave! I can't let her!

But never in my life have I felt so helpless. The darkness continues to drag me away from her, wherever she may be in it, as the rest of my consciousness slowly fades away.

I'm left alone with so much space, Amber so far away, and yet the distance is suffocating.

.

.

.

My eyes snap open with a start, being met with the dark grey pattern of the cobblestone beneath me, my cheek laying against it. The chamber floor is cold against my bare side, the lack of a shirt apparent.

"Goodbye, Asher."

Remembering Amber's parting words, my body immediately jerks awake, bolting up and lunging forward.

I have to find her. Whether it was real or not, I have to find her.

Instantly, I'm yanked back with the rattling of chains; large, reinforced manacles adorning both my wrists and ankles. Pulling pointlessly against the restraints, a frustrated snarl rips from my throat.

"Easy, Asher."

My head snaps in the direction of the voice, eyes landing on none other than a solemn faced Beta. He's standing, arms crossed, on the other side of the thick, silver bars.

"Where's Amber?! WHERE IS SHE?!" My voice is turned into a roar by the small vicinity of the chamber, the echoes bouncing off the walls.

Silence befalls us, all except for the metal-on-metal sound of the chains being pulled against.

Daniel hesitates before answering, regret filling his currently dull green eyes.

"She left. I thought she would come back, but she never. I underestimated her."

At those words, something inside of me breaks. A shattering of discipline. The snapping of reasoning as blind instincts take over every aspect of my mind. A startlingly familiar feeling racks my chest, crawling up from whatever depths of hell I had tried to shove it into.

My body turns rigid, muscles tensing with unexplored strength. Claws extend from my fingers, digging into the palms of clenched fists and allowing scarlet drops to hit the floor. My jaw clenches with bone-breaking force, canines grinding against canines.

The same feeling of helplessness that overtook me in Amber's hospital room is back. The same feeling of control I'd worked so hard to get back now slipping away again.

A prisoner in my own mind. That's what I was and what I'm becoming again.

Protective instincts devour me, beating out the last shred of restraint left in me and leaving me with a single objective.

Protect her no matter the cost. Find her and destroy anything that stands between us.

My sense of hearing fades outs. Daniel's mouth is moving, but only deaf ears can hear him.

In one enraged, swift movement, the chains that have bound me during every full moon-- the chains a wolf unleashed could never escape from-- break.

.

.     To Amber's POV

.

My paws pound heavily on the ground, a constant thudding that still isn't loud enough to drown out my thoughts. Hours have been spent running on end, adding to the distance between him and I. But the constant burning in my heaving lungs is a poor distraction of the pain everywhere else; the anguish in my very essence.

My body aches, every muscle screaming for mercy and begging to stop. But stopping would mean turning around. So my legs push themselves harder.

A constant tightening in my stomach nags at me, like all of my organs being crushed by a force that there's no way of stopping.

A pair of golden eyes flashes in my mind for the hundredth time, haunting me. Guilting me. Reminding me of what I left behind and what I'm going farther away from every second.

"Only you, Ambie," his voice whispers in my head, a pang of regret shooting through my stomach to burn me like a hot iron.

"They're not taking you away from me," the painful memories continue on their own accord, twisting my guts even further, "No matter what it takes."

The desperate need to be in his arms is agonizing. The forlorn longing to feel his touch again excruciating. To see him through my eyes rather than self-destructive recollections.

This is for the best, I tell myself, He's safe now. They won't find him if I'm not with him.

But no matter what I tell myself, no matter what lies I sear into my head to seem true, it doesn't make the pain go away. It doesn't make the suffocating feeling in my chest subside or the phantom hand around my heart stop squeezing.

And it won't make Asher forgive me.

Another sorrowful howl is swallowed and pushed down my throat, preventing it from leaving my canine jaws. Until it resurfaces again. And each time it does, it becomes harder to contain. Until eventually, it can't be anymore. Eventually, it'll come out, ear piercing and terrifying to anyone who hears, and a screaming indication that whatever creature it came from isn't human.

A distant murmuring draws me from my thoughts, the buzzing of many voices bantering and laughing all at once. My pace slows, wary of the new surroundings. The artificial smells of human society flood my senses, nearly choking me with the transition from earthy forest air to recoiling gas fumes.

A spot of white catches my eye through the trees, growing larger the closer my feet take me to it. The outline of a building comes into sight, followed the silhouette of an entire town nestled against the treeline ahead. Rolling black smoke rises from somewhere among the community, dispersing into the blue sky overhead.

The smell is repulsive and gagging, forcing an uncontrollable coughing fit to come over me. I shake my head rapidly, trying futilely to get the stench of pollution out of my nose. My throat is instantly raw from breathing it in, blackening my lungs with soot.

Once my composure is regained and my breath caught once again, my ears perk at a certain sound. My body stills, listening intently for that faint slither of hope buried beneath the noise of civilization.

Please don't be my imagination...

And then it comes again, the subtle lapping of water on the shore, the gentle roar of a weak wave.

The ocean. My escape route.

Hurriedly, I take to the treeline behind the houses, searching frantically for an entry point before my thoughts can turn on me. An open window stands out like a bloodstain in the snow, all but screaming for me to go to it.

Standing at the bottom of the house, a minute of listening brings nothing but silence on the other side of the wall-- a golden invitation for my entrance.

Without wasting a second, I will my body to shift, triggering the appalling cracking of bones and tearing of tendons that come with a wolf taking on the form of a human.

Naked now and without the covering of my fur, I shiver at the vulnerable feeling of the scars on my back open for anyone's eyes to see. Hastily, with fear scratching at me from within, my claws dig into the side of the house like icepicks. A trail of jagged holes is left as a result of my ascent, following me up until my departure into the window.

Coming into a dimly lit bedroom, my raid through the dressers to find something to clothe me begins.

Except a variety isn't something that offered to me.

Dresses... Dresses... More fucking dresses.

Reluctant at first to wear one of the constricting torture devices, the deep bellow of a boat's horn at the nearby dock gives me no choice. With an angry yank, a blue one is taken from the drawer. No time is wasted in pulling it on and attempting vainly to resist the urge to shred the dreaded fabric that's squeezing my ribs together.

Moving more stiffly now, I take my leave through the front of the house this time, making sure to remain unseen.

Across the dirt pathway of a marketplace, the sight of a coal boat docked at the harbor sends a slither of hope through me.

.

.

.

Boarded at the back of the deck, hidden among stacked boxes whose contents doesn't interest me, my gaze is locked on the swirling water beneath. Without an objective to focus on, my mind is left to wonder. And it goes, without a second thought, to the subject I only wish I could forget.

I left Asher. I betrayed him. Abandoned him.

The howl catches in my throat again, my eyes shutting tightly as it's pushed down.

He's hundreds of miles away now, so many forests and rivers -- so much ground between us. Yet I still think of him. I can still hear his voice and see his face; those golden eyes only he could possess.

Distance won't make me forget.

///
A/N:
I know, I know, I'm a slacker. I'm so sorry for taking ages to post this, but no excuses. I've just been extremely lazy lately. Plus this chapter gave me so much trouble in writing it that I've grown to resent it XD.

I feel like everything is just off and I SUCK at portraying emotions (like heartache and all that gooey junk)

Tell me your thoughts, suggestions, etc.
Thanks so much for reading. A lot of you are silent but I love you anyway 💚