The One 9
Chapter 9: Food and Water
Sophie
“What are you talking about? I didn’t start anything,” I say to Penny.
“You may not have meant to, but you did. Word of you running, of your father standing up to the
Alphas and refusing to track you down, spread like wildfire. Our mothers and sisters began to
realize that we didn’t have to a**e by thews that we don’t agree with, that we have a choice.
Granted, it’s not a great choice, being on the run, but it’s better than being forced into something
that you can’t live with.
She reaches out, taking my hands. “Some of the Alphas are on our side. Some of them agree that
we need to stop this process.”
“But not all of them,” I tell her, remembering the girl in the woods. “Some Alphas are still out hunting,
otherwise we wouldn’t have to run.”
“You’re right, and some Alphas have put so many restrictions on their ranked females that they’re
not even allowed to leave the packhouses. Ranked she-wolves have started taking extreme
measures, some of them taking their own lives to get away from this process.
“What? Why? Why would they kill themselves?” I ask shocked. “They would rather die than live with
the embarrassment of
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having been imed publicly. For some, it’s not worth it.”
I scrub my hands over my face. This is why there are so many she-wolves on the run now. When I
first ran, there weren’t any. It was just me, and it was easy to hide. Now it seems I’m going to have
to be much smarter about hiding.
“Where are you going? I ask Penny.
“There are rumors of a ce, a pack that is leaving food and water for those of us on the run. I
never learned to hunt in my wolf form, and it’s been a really long time since I’ve eaten. So, I’m
heading there in the hopes of getting food.”
“It could be a trap, you know,” I say to her.
“I know. But I’ve heard it from more than one source, and no one stays. They take the food and
water that have been offered and they keep going. That’s what I intend to do as well.
“But don’t you think that the Alphas that are hunting the ranked she-wolves will hear about it and
they’ll start staking the ce out. If I were an Alpha hunting a ranked she-wolf, that’s what I would
do,” I tell her.
“Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know, but like I said, I’m hungry and I have to do something.”
I turn and go to my bag, grabbing some gran bars that I stuffed into it when I left. “Here, eat
these,” I say, tossing them to her. “It’s not a hamburger. But it will take the edge off.”
She devours them quickly, and I pull out myst two bottles of water, giving her one. “Make itst. I
only have two left, one for me and one for you,” I say.
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Chapter 9 Food and Water
“Thank you so much. I don’t remember thest time I ate.”
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“You’re wee. You said my father stood up to the Alphas. What does that mean?”
“I don’t know everything. But what I heard was that the Alphas threatened war against your father
unless he came after you.”
“What?” I ask, terrified that my family had to go to war to protect
me.
“Some other Alpha sided with your dad threatening to fight alongside him if a war broke out.
Apparently, that was enough to keep the Alphas from going to war.
“Do you know anything about my sister, Amelia? It was her birthday the night that I ran. She found
her mate that night, Alpha Calvin. Do you know anything about them? Anything about her? Is she
okay?” I ask.
“Alpha Calvin is one of the Alphas that stood beside your father, I believe. I don’t know much about
your sister, but in cases like this, no news is good news, right? It means she hasn’t tried to kill
herself and hasn’t done anything drastic.”
I feel terrible, having had no idea that I was causing this many problems for my family.
“Maybe I should return home,” I mumble to myself.
“NO! You can’t! If you do, all of this will have been for nothing. You are the reason that it’s working.
You were the reason that there’s a possibility that things might change. Please don’t go back.”
“But my family…”
“They’ve survived this long, right? Even if you didn’t realize what was going on, they’ve managed to
get by this long. You going back would change everything. Please, you have to continue.”
“What about you? Where are you going? Where does this end? Where do we find a safe ce to
live our lives?” I ask her.
“I don’t know. I only know that I’m not being held prisoner in my pack, waiting until the day I turn 18,
so that some man who calls himself my mate can im me in front of my pack. How could I even
face them every day after that? How could I look them in the eye? How could I be their ranked
member after they had seen me in that position?”
I understand exactly what she means. That’s why I ran. As a Ga**a, she has the potential to be a
Ga**a, Beta, or a Luna. But for me as an Alpha female, I know that an Alpha will want me. The
thought of having to lead a pack who had seen me in such a personal state still makes me sick to
my y stomach.
“So where is this ce? This ce where they provide free food and water to the wolves on the
run?” I ask.
She gives me a general sense of where the ce is and I realize it isn’t far from where my father’s
pack is. That makes me wonder if it isn’t him and my mother leaving this food and water out. Even if
it’s not for me, they are still able to help those who are like me.
“Maybe I’ll go and check this ce out too,” I tell Penny.
She looks at me a moment. “Please don’t take this the wrong way. I’m thrilled to be spending time
with you and to have finally
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met you. But if the two of us stay together for too long, the possibility of both of us getting captured
is higher, do you know what I mean? I think it’s better if we split up soon.”
“I understand. But we don’t have to split up yet, right? I mean, there’s protection in numbers too,
and we could at least get there to see if it’s safe, before we split up. If they only provide food once a
day, you could take the first batch and go, and I could wait for the second day.
“You would do that?” she asks, surprised.
“I’ve been on the run a lot longer than you have. I found ways to survive, and I’ve eaten more
recently than you have. So yes, I would do that.”-
“Honestly, I would love thepany for a while. If I wasn’t afraid of being captured, I would ask if
we could stay together. But as it is…”
“I understand, truly I do. None of us want to be captured. While we’re on this train, I think one of us
should stay awake and make sure we stay safe. If you’re tired, I’m happy to take the first shift,” I tell
her.
“Actually, I found a safe ce and was able to sleepst night. So, I’m good if you need to rest.”
“Thank you. I only got a couple hours of sleep. If anything
scares you or worries you at all, wake me up. If we start to slow down, wake me up.”
“I will.”
I use my bag as a pillow and find a spot away from the open
Chapter 9. Food and Water
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door. Iy staring up the ceiling of the train car, listening to the sound of the metal wheels on the
rails as the car rocks back and forth.
It’s been two years since I’ve seen my family, two years since I’ve spoken to them. Even if this isn’t
them leaving food and water, I’ll still be close enough that maybe I can sneak onto their packnds.
Or maybe I can somehow let them know that I’m. alive and well, and that I love them. If I’m really
lucky, maybe I can spend the night, safe, in a warm bed in my old packhouse.
The thought of being tucked into my old bed, safe on the Alpha floor, my parents down the hall, is
thest thought I have before I drift off to sleep.Content from N?velDr(a)ma.Org.