Slave to Destiny

The forest wasn’t being very kind to me. I had walked for days looking for the supposed safe house buried somewhere in the thick brush. I’d long sense become dehydrated, and was forced to steal a pair of clothes off a clothing line from a cottage. It made me feel rather sick to the stomach to think of myself becoming a petty thief. I took the worst pair. They were practically rags hanging on my body.

Maybe it was the lack of food. Maybe it was the lack of water. Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Or maybe it was my troubled mind. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter because I didn’t hear the footsteps of beings approaching until it was far to late. I barely had time to crouch in a defensive pose when I was surrounded by four healthy full grown vampires. How did they know I had come this way? How did they know I was werewolf princess? It irked me and horrified me at the same time. With me dead was their any hope for my kingdom at all? Who was next in line?

“Well, hello there little red riding hood. What are you doing so far from home? Aren’t you afraid of the big bad wolf?” one of the vampires said to me. His voice was condescending and belittling. It made me want to smack him. If they were going to kill me they may as well just do it.

All four of them burst out laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world. Upon further inspection I realized my mistake. They weren’t here to kill me, they were here to capture me. They all looked rather rough around the edges and burly. Positively not men who were accustomed to living in even remotely decent housing. They probably spent most of their time in wilderness because they were in fact slave traders. I was going to become a slave.

“Snap a collar on her, and put her in the cage with rest of the them,” the leader barked. They closed in on me. My heartbeat was thumping so loud, it was the only thing I could hear. I jumped between two of the weaker looking men, and made a run for it. I knew it was a lost cause before I even started running, but I didn’t realize how weak I was. Moments after my hands landed on the moist forest floor, and I started to make the change, I felt one of the men grab ahold of my long golden brown hair and jerk me back.

“Not so fast sweetheart, wouldn’t want the big bad wolf to get you?” a rough voice whispered in my ear, before I was tossed over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. One of the other men roughly snapped a collar around my neck. It was cold and slick and outright sickening to have on. I really was going to be a slave because there was no way I could get that collar off without my wolf form strength, and the collar is what prevent me from transforming in the first place.

I wasn’t sure how long they hiked with me hanging limply over one of the men’s shoulder. I suppose it really didn’t matter, because it gave me time to start renovating a new plan. My mind was calculating all the way up until they tossed me in the back of a cage. The metal was cold, and it felt outright humiliating being in a lion style cage. I wasn’t a fucking animal. I growled at them, it was the first hint communication I’d show them sense I’d been caught. One of the men laughed, before picking up the cage with ease and tossing it on the back of a wagon.

Maybe my plan was going to be to much of a long shot. I just need to appeal to the right vampire.

“Princess!” a voice gasped from behind. I turned my head and stared in horror. The sight before me was so unimaginable I thought I was going to puke. The head of my guard, Roland, had been reduced to a bloody mess wearing rags. His hands were grasping the bars, and his face was pressed up against the cage. A deep cut lined the right side of his face making his silver eyes even more intense. Gently I reached out from my cage, and traced the cut. A single tear drop slid down my face at the sight.

“Gabby,” he whispered quieter, “I thought you were dead.”

I was surprised. I’d thought everybody would notice that it had been Maddie in my dress. My stomach dropped at the thought of Maddie. She had been so loyal, and I loved her so much. “No Roland. I knew something wasn’t right so I had Maddie pretend to be me,” I explained.

Surprise was evident on his face as he told me, “No one knows your alive. All the vampires think you were Maddie. This is good, but how the hell did you get caught? Why aren’t you at the safe house?”

“I got lost,” I mumbled smiling sheepishly. Roland was not pleased, but he couldn’t stay angry at me for long. He was far to pleased to see me alive. “Roland I think I have a plan,” I told him on a more serious note. His face perked up as I began to explain how we were going to get out of this hot mess. The plan was a little rough, and in no way complete, but it was the best we were capable of considering the present circumstances. “First step is easy. We need to go to the same house. Second step is harder. We need to make sure that we get bought by someone wealthy and important. Someone close to the Stewards. That’s how we are going to get them. That’s how we’re going to get our Kingdom back from those bloodsuckers.”