Ch.2- Gwen

The screams were loud, we ran into the woods without any light but the high moon above. Mom holding my hand and dragging me to keep us with her pace. Roars sounded all around us, but we didn’t stop. I had no idea where we were even though these woods were my backyard and we played in them all my life. It was dark and I was terrified. My legs burned and my lungs were on fire. After a while of running the yells and cry’s were sounding smaller and distant. Were we ok now, did we get away. Suddenly the screaming stopped we slowed down still moving forward but no longer running. Mom stopped and stood still straining her ears to listen. I looked around panicked struggling to hear what she was hearing. But nothing sounded from any distance where we were. Mom looked at me and quietly motioned for me to follow. Because my wolf wasn’t fully with me yet her faint feeling inside me was scared. I could feel her afraid for our safety. We got to a small stream and mom bent down to fill a water bottle from her bag. We took turns drinking and she whispered to me that we would keep moving. Mom seemed to know where we were going so I didn’t worry about it.

“We should keep moving through out the night. Resting isn’t going to keep us safe”. Mom said while putting the full water bottle in her bag again and moving back into the trees. Suddenly howls sounded close by and the look of fear in my mom’s face turn my stomach we would be caught. Mom took a bottle from her bag and then handed me the bag. She shoved me to the ground and gathered the mud and dirt and rubbed it all over me. “This will mask your scent. Stay hidden and keep quiet”. I reach for mom but she pulled away. “I love you my daughter, you are strong”. She said as she stepped back and shifter to her wolf. She was brown and grey. Wasn’t big like our Alpha, Beta and my Gamma dad. So for her to fight was no match for the wolves hunting us but she wasn’t going to give up. The bottle she had now on the floor as she nudged me to get moving she broke the bottle with her paw and a smell filled her and the surrounding air. It was a perfume bottle. Her and the perfume scent would confuse the wolves and distract them so I could get away. I ran as fast as my feet would carry me. Panic filled me with adrenaline and I moved through the trees I could hear movement along side of me and for a brief moment I thought it was mom coming back for me that she wouldn’t leave me. How wrong I was. A large form came at me and knocked me down. I fell scraping my entire left side and skidding into a large tree trunk. The wolf growled low and near my face. I was caught I was dead. Just as the wolfs massive paw set on my back ready for the kill a smaller brown wolf jumped and lunged for the wolf at my back. It was mom, she fought him off me as I crawled out of the path, deciding to run again, but my feet stayed glued as I watched the massive wolf tear my mom apart. My eyes filled with tears and after my mom lay still and her form shifted back to human I ran to her and hovered over her. “ mom, no mom”. “Please get up don’t die”. I begged the moon goddess to save her but she was already gone. The wolfs massive paw shifted and a man appeared at my back grabbing me by my arm and dragging me away. Not saying a word I pleaded with him to let me go. Still nothing from the man. The man was big, with dark hair to his shoulders and dark brown skin. His eyes glowing to help him see in the dark. Clean shaven and muscles everywhere. He continued to drag me throughout the trees until we made it back to the village. What once was my village peaceful, happy and friendly. Stood now burning ash of homes and people. Bodies lay in the cobblestone roads, blood everywhere. There was a small group of people huddled up in chains, some I recognized as my classmates and others as neighbors. When they glanced at me they put their heads down as if we both knew we failed to flea. Another large warrior step up to me and the man that caught me. He looked at me in disgust. “Where did you find this one”? He asked my captor. “Running in the woods, looks like her mother was trying to escape with her”. My captor pulled me along side him, as if to say finders keepers to the man in front. “Huh, you still have to present her, judging by her smell you’ll probably get to keep this one”. The man says while grabbing my arms and attaching shackles to my wrist. After they clicked together he hands the chain to my captor and walks away from us. I am now leashed and my captor pulls me to follow him behind. Looking around while being dragged along I finally take in my surroundings there are tents being pulled up and around our community gathering. The pack house where our Alpha and his family lived still up in flames and screams are no longer heard but whimpering and crying from the prisoners, because let’s face it that’s what we are now. Most of us are corralled in the middle of the gathering and guarded by different warriors. My captor stands at the edge of the bull pen we are all in now and even though we are being guarded he still stands to the side. My chains are tied to a post. “ Psss, Gwen “ I hear from a distance. I lift my head up and see Carly huddled in the middle. Tear streaks mark her beautiful face and her clothes are ripped from struggle. My friend, I smile but remember I’m being watched and frown. She starts to walk to me but I shake my head to let her know to not show them we know each other. She stiffens and looks down again and hugs herself. I look over my shoulder and my captor is watching me very closely. My legs shake and I’m now feeling every bone in my body shooting pain everywhere. I lean against the post I’m tied to. When a man appears from the main tent in front of us. He’s protected around what I can see is his beta and gamma and few other warriors. He’s tall and lean not as defined as my captor looks but just as deadly. He has hair cut short that sticks up and sides even shorter. He’s olive skin and stubble along his jaw with piercing blue eyes. He smiles, but it’s not friendly it’s menacing. This is the Alpha, this is my nightmare I just know it.