ROYALS OF RIDGEWOOD

          STORM

I am running so fast the trees are blurring and my sharp focus is ahead, taking turns and leaping through the tree trumps and fallen trees. I hear a howl not so far behind me and then the obvious sounds of someone not so far behind me, catching up on me.

“Got you!” a voice says from behind me and I feel hands brush on my shoulders but I duck, and swerve past the person laughing.

“No, you don’t! Try to keep up!”

And that’s when I hear the obvious ripping of muscles as he shifts and then I know the chase has just gotten so much better. He is playing dirty, but I can still prove to him I am not an easy catch or prey.

With his now heightened senses and speed, I double up my speed, my inner wolf stretching ready to be let out but not just yet, so she helps me in my human form and I smile as I run wind in my hair, a carefree laugh echoing through the woods and an enormous grey wolf behind me, chasing me.

I trip, and I see the ground coming in fast, so sure that with the speed I was going with I will not be able to block the hit, and just then a flash of fur comes in front of me and below me, cushioning me from the impact. I fall on it and we roll down the valley, but it’s not so steep, the soft thick grass cushioning us.

I lay on my back, my heart beating so fast, and out of breath, looking at the starry night, and the moon above the clear sky.

Then I let out a laugh, that is followed up by another.

“You have to work on your breaking storm,” my dad says when he shifts back to human.

“I was still fast, wasn’t I dad?” I ask, a smile in my voice.

“Yes, you were. You were incredible. With a few more rounds of training, you will be unstoppable,” he is proud, I can feel it in his voice. My wolf snuggles and I stretch, feeling the lightness of the night and the freeness of it deep in my core.

This is a beautiful night.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, we hear rustling, and I immediately get up, and see my dad is up as well, his laser-sharp eyes focused around the woods surrounding us.

I look around and notice that we have gone so far away from our usual training area, I was running blindly, but we are still in our territory.

Then, figures emerge from the trees, wolves, around twelve all surrounding us and caging us in.

Unfamiliar wolves. Then the howls begin.

And just like that, the night is not so beautiful anymore.

…. “No! Dad!”

I am thrown off on the ground, torn apart from my dad’s side and he is forced on his knees in front of the huge wolf in the middle of the clearing. My dad tries to stand up, an alpha himself, not allowing himself to be degraded like that, and the wolf paws him so hard, that half of his face is scratched and blood spews. I see red all over and a shrill scream echoes all around. It’s me screaming.

I fight against the strong hands holding me away from my dad, I want to help him and fight off the big bad wolf but I can’t. I am helpless.

I bite down on the right-hand holding me down and the man jerks his hand away in a huff and Image run to my dad only for the big wolf to bite on my leg, thrashing my body away and I hit a tree with a thump, my eyes going bury from the impact. I fall limp on the ground.

I hear my dad’s voice pleading for them to leave me alone, and take him instead but I raise my hand to tell him no but they only laugh.

I crawl with my hands, and limp legs to get closer to my dad but a foot kicks me on the gut and I double over, groaning, my barely 10 years body not able to handle the pain. I can feel myself getting unconscious, my wolf thrashing for me not to black out and I try my best. My eyes fall on four pups, the same age as I, still in wolf form, beside the big bad wolf looking at my dad, who is now kneeling his head bowed down.

“Spare my dad,” a barely there whisper comes from my mouth.

And then, in a slow-motion watch, the big bad wolf bares its teeth and bites down on my dad’s neck, blood spewing from its jaws, my throat clamping, unable to look away as my dad is murdered in front of me.

I feel a shift inside me, which makes me lunge, a rock in my hand as I throw it with all my force and it instead catches on one of the pups when the one I was aiming for ducks. Then the laughter rings through, all around me as they celebrate and laugh over my dad’s defeat. I look around, not seeing anything but blurry images, and faces, and then see the pups looking at me. In horror, I see my dad’s lifeless body lying on the ground, and I fall helplessly on my knees, then a wail tore through my throat .they will all pay for it. At this moment, they will all pay for it in ways they will never imagine.

I will infiltrate, destroy and kill them all, with their loved ones, I will spare no one.

The burning in my chest spreads all over my body and I feel like I am about to combust followed by pain. I don’t scream, the pain so blinding I can barely make a sound, my eyes stuck on my dad, as he was helping me prepare for my first shift, that was supposed to be happening with him and now instead, it was in front of all these people, who had just killed him.

The last thought elicits a blinding sharp pain from my spine to my skull….

Then darkness.