remix of daphne gottlieb's "15 ways to stay alive". (content warning for peter hale references, loss of agency, and violence)

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1. Only offer what you're willing to lose. No more. No less. The side of your flank, your beautiful, brilliant mind. The muscle and grit of your bloody, broken heart.

2. Remember it's your choice that matters.

3. Prepare for disappointment.

4. Pretend it doesn't hurt.

5. Offer the wolves to the alphas. Offer the alphas to the hunters.

6. Any edge will do, just make sure it's a clean cut. Make sure it goes all the way through.

7. Don't cry.

8. Realize that you aren't broken, that you never were, that people aren't things that need to be fixed. People live.

9. Use rowan, use aconite, use anything and everything you can get a hold of.

10. Practice the knotting in your bedroom. Make it strong enough to hold his weight. Make it perfect.

11. Press your lips against the cool mirror, warm it with your breath. Trace the map of veins and scars on your flesh with your fingers. Remember you're not beautiful because he says so. You're beautiful because you are.

12. Don't kiss the boys who make your cry. Don't love the girl who won't make time. They're not worth it.

13. Pretend to fall in love with yourself again. Pretend you believe it.

14. Pretend you don't remember his claws, his mouth, his teeth, or how his words wrapped around your body with an intimacy you didn't grant. Pretend you didn't stay up at night counting stars, counting sheep, reciting pi to the octillionth—anything to keep him out of your mind. His mind. Pretend there are no echoes: your body is holy; your mind is sacrosanct.

15. Become untouchable.