Running With Wolves

Mia was silent though her eyes were wide, her gazing flickering quickly amongst the men.

“We have to get to Mankato.” Jasmine hissed lowly. “They’re still several feet away, we have a head start.”

“No,” I shook my head quietly, something about them made me sure of my answer. “we won’t make it. They’re going to catch us.”

A whine slipped through Jasmine’s lips and Rune moved back and forth on her feet antsy.

There was a reason why female Weres became a Mated pair so young. Being in Heat wasn’t like having you’re period…it was animalistic and merciless. You’re body gives off pheromones that basically gave off a billboard sized signal of ‘I’m ready come and get me big boys…’ we drove unmated males crazy and it wasn’t like we did it on purpose. Many females are paired off into other packs in allegiance bonds because without an extremely strong Alpha in place the pack could virtually tear itself apart in their quest for a female in Heat. For the Western pack it was always relatively easy—My father took the male’s away for a hunting trip or the mated and married females left for those terrifying four days with their mates.

But my father was dead and we were in no mans land. Even if we made it to our territory Mankato didn’t have true Alpha control of our pack; animalistically he didn’t pull much rank over our pack, not really—not nearly enough to keep us safe now.

Protect, protect, protect

I couldn’t make myself look at Mia—she’d left her own home for this very reason and I’d brought her back to the nightmare she feared worst of all.

“You’re both in Heat and neither one of you felt the need to tell me?” I hissed. As the daughter of an Alpha, until this moment, I never knew the fear that came with being in Heat.

“Yeah cause I planned on being hunted by a couple of males. Why the hell do you think I haven’t come around your house?” Jasmine retorted. “Not exactly the reunion I wanted with Conan.”

“Sage I can make it,” Rune’s voice was filled with determination, her fingers twitching at her side in anticipation. “let me run I can do it.”

“Mankato-“

“Not Mankato, Lukas.” Rune corrected. “Lukas is strong enough. You know he is. Plus he’s your Soulmate, Jaz and I being in Heat doesn’t affect him. Let me run.” She pleaded.

“You need her permission?” Mia questioned curiously.

“Here, girlies,” One of them called. It made my skin crawl and my Were’s hackles rose.

Protect, protect, protect

“I don’t know where your allegiance lies,” Rune stated cuttingly as we collectively backed away from the approaching males. “but mine lies with Sage.” Her eyes turned to me pleading “Let me run Sage.”

I wanted to say ‘I’m not your Alpha’ but the words died on my lips. I knew better now.

“Run Rune.” I murmured. “run as fast and as far as you can.”

In a flash Rune was on all fours and in a blur of white she was gone, the males turned to her and I saw the decision in one of their eyes to follow her and that was when I made my decision to stop him.

“What are you doing?!” Jasmine demanded with a frantic yell. “You can’t send her out into the woods alone!”

Protect, protect, protect

They were closing in on us but I couldn’t Turn, I couldn’t.

“Jaz,”

Her head snapped to me and she bent down with lightning speed and tossed me a dagger that had been concealed in her jeans before she took off after the male that targeted Rune. We only had seconds before he Turned himself but Jasmine launched herself at him and Turned midair; her strong jaws found purchased against soft flesh.

I had no idea what was happening, none of us had ever seen these Weres before and the words ‘nomadic’ and ‘drifters’ instantly came to mind. Part of me didn’t know what they wanted from us but the other part of me knew with all certainty that they were here for us as they had been for Cheyenne.

“Sage!” Mia cried. My head turned to her and I hadn’t noticed one of the males creeping toward her, with every step of the Male’s was a step back for Mia—in only a few steps she’d be pinned to a tree trapped.

“Mia run!” I yelled but there was no authority in my voice, it wasn’t an order.

“Sage,” She whined desperate. “I don’t like…”

“I know,” And I did, in many ways Mia and I were different and perhaps in even fewer ways we were more alike but this was one thing I understood. “but you have to run.” Our eyes locked and my Were vibrated beneath my skin.

Allie. Protect. Allie. Protect. Mia.

“Mia please, just run as fast and as far as you can. Follow Rune and Jasmine’s scent they’ll lead you to safety.”

“Yes,” mocked the Were stalking her. “Run far away from the others, run until you’re alone and it’s just me and you babe.”

A wolfish whine slipped through Mia’s lips and she clutched her head anxiously. Her back was now pressed against the dead oak tree and the Were was closing in on her.

I dove at the man, Jasmine’s dagger gripped tight in my hand; the blade found purchase in his shoulder. The man howled in pain and stumbled backward grappling for the weapon as ruby red blood soaked his t-shirt.

“You fucking bitch!” He screamed. “You’re going to pay for that!”

If we stayed human so would our pursuers—they couldn’t force us to Turn and they had to stay in whichever form we were in for them to harm us the worst.

I reached for Mia’s hand with a vise grip and yanked her away from the tree, pulling her a long as we took off into the woods. My heart was hammering so hard I thought it would give out, my lungs screamed for a reprieve, and the adrenaline shot through me fiercely, leaving me trembling from head to toe like a live wire.

I heard a startled scream and Mia’s hand was yanked from mine. I dug my heels into the earth instantly and reached for a tree trunk to help stop my momentum. I turned back for her but Mia was pinned to the cold earth screaming and fighting as two medium built men stood over her with ice in their eyes and a sneer on their lips. An alarm went off in my mind and the recognition that these men were not from anywhere in Blackwood nor from any of our allies. They were heavily tattooed with tribal ink and one of them had a shaved head and a gold ring through his ear.

I don’t know how but in one instant I was ten feet away watching the scene unfold and in the next I was on top of the bald man, my arm snaking around his neck and fighting to cut off his windpipe. His nails dug into my forearm painfully and he dropped to the ground on his back crushing me against the leaves and twigs. With the breath knocked out of me my arms slacked enough for him to get free. He turned to me with hungry black anger filled eyes as he gnashed his teeth together.

“Stupid fucking move bitch.” He snarled. I crawled backwards, unable to get on my feet without ending up inches from my attacker. My fingers slammed painfully against a sharp rock and on instinct I grabbed it, holding it like a life line. If I was going to get out of this it was up to me and only me to see it through.

“No,” I countered. “The stupid fucking move was messing with me and mine.”

Surprise at my boldness flashed across his face before I launched the rock at his face at he collapsed to the earth dead, the rock embedded in his temple.

“Daddy didn’t raise a damsel.”

I turned back to see Mia struggling on the ground with the other man’s two hundred plus weight on her. I wasn’t a damsel but Mia was.

My hands balled into fists and muscles tensed in my body but before I could go after her attacker, a white blur darted by and latched itself to the man. Mia’s attacker screamed in pain and tossed it off, spinning around to face his own attacker. My heart clenched; a white wolf with perfect blue eyes was crouched and ready to spring, her teeth were exposed and she snarled furiously—Rune.

I ran for Mia while her attacker wasn’t looking and got her to her feet. With a quick scan of my eyes I could only see one bite mark on her bicep that was bleeding rather badly.

“Rune get out of here!” I yelled my voice cracking at the order. Rune couldn’t save us, as brave and deadly as she could be this was one instance where Rune could do nothing but get herself hurt if she stayed.

“Sa-“ Mia gripped my arm as I turned to see what she was looking at. The man I’d stabbed was coming toward us, bleeding but unphased. His eyes were locked on me and I had no question he had every intention of killing me for what I’d failed to do.

I pushed Mia away from me, it was me he wanted. “You like to play hard to get huh?”

Rune’s teeth sunk into Mia’s attacker’s side and he howled in pain as she buried her teeth deep. He withered on the ground with his hand buried deep in her fur, attempting and failing at pulling her from his side…that was when he reached for a rock and similarly to what I’d done only moments ago he struck her with it and tiny little Rune went flying backwards with cry. I opened my mouth to yell but the sound of her yelp closed my throat. Her beautiful perfect white fur was suddenly blemished with a deadly red.

I dodged away from my attacker as my eyes went back to Rune; I had to be sure she was safe. She lay motionless for a moment before she shook her head, sending blood splatters in every direction. She rose on shaky legs, the fiery determination gone from her. She stumbled backwards, her left eye squinting closed in pain as blood blurred her vision.

“Rune get the hell out of here I mean it!” I yelled desperately hoping she would listen. I could deal with whatever they had in store for me but if they hurt Rune, they’d be hurting my sister; just another sister I couldn’t protect. “That is an order—Go!”I couldn’t save myself let alone anyone else with Rune throwing herself in danger. My need to protect Rune ran as deep as my need to protect any one of my family members.

Rune flinched, not in pain but at my request before she shot off into the woods without looking back.

I dodged my attacker once more and rage filled his eyes; he was growing tired of the game and I was running out of time. “Mia!” my head snapped in the other direction to glance at her. “Turn and run! I mean it—GO!”

Mia’s eyes were pleading and fearful but then she Turned for the first time in years and suddenly she was the prettiest shade of red brown.

“Run!”

and she shot off into the woods after Rune.
They were gone and I was alone.
Mia’s attacker swore and moved to go after her but I dodged around my own attacker and went after Mia’s. I couldn’t bring myself to realize the severity of the situation I was currently in because all that mattered was that they were safe. The people I cared for and loved were safe.

“You want me?” I questioned coyly backing away from the hungry pairs of eyes.

“You shouldn’t have done that bitch, we’ll catch them anyway.”

“In the mean time we’ll have a little fun with you first.”

“You’re going to get fucked so hard you’re never gonna see another face.”

I swallowed hard and bit down on my tongue, finding clarity in the pain. Daringly I took a step forward.

“We are going to take you and then we are going to take your pretty little wolf friends.” commented the man I’d stabbed earlier.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered gesturing to the knife wound. The weapon was absent in his shoulder now, somehow he’d gotten the weapon free and I was free to use it again—if I could find it. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

My eyes caught sight of the blade that made the wound several feet away. In the same instant his wounded friend rushed me and I dove for the weapon as his two hundred and twenty pound frame slammed me to the ground. My hand gripping the blade was pinned to my stomach as the man lay on my back. He grabbed a fist full of my shirt with his fingers like claws he grabbed the fabric and my bra strap, tearing through both materials.

“Otto get that knife! This bitch’ll cut our dicks off.”

“If only I had the pleasure.” I spat. I was finding it hard to breathe and panic was beginning to set in.

His dirty beefy hands wound into my hair forcing my head back to see Otto, the man who I’d stabbed earlier. He bent down to my level and reached for the blade beneath me, pulling it free of my aching hand and ran its sharp blade along my cheek. I could feel the skin give way easily beneath the blade, a bloody line forming down my pale cheek—Jasmine always took great care in the sharpness of her blades.

“I get her first,” Otto stated.

“No fucking way!”

“It’s not my goddamn problem your bitch got away!” He barked angrily. “She is mine.”

“I’m not yours.” I growled furiously.

Lukas, Lukas, Lukas

“Come again, Pretty?” The knife was pressed painfully to my throat. I knew angering him further with just a simple tremor of his hand would kill me.

I said nothing and he smirked smugly before his eyes turned to his partner dangerously. “Get the fuck off her, Hawk.”

Reluctantly the man climbed off me and I instinctively rolled over to protect my back and allow my lungs to expand with air. Otto crouched over me, his breath smelling like rotting flesh that blew across my face. “Now you know you’re not going to move are you, Pretty? Because you know what I’ll do if you do move—“ he cocked his head to the side predatorily. “Well, I’d have to make you less pretty.”

I held my breath, fear striking me. These men found us because Jasmine and Mia were in Heat but the Heat was only ever a bonus for them. They were on a mission from the beginning to take us reguardless of who was or was not in Heat.

“I can’t hear you Pretty.” He snared, the knife blade dragging painfully down my arm. I locked my jaw pointedly and he slapped me hard causing blood to well in my mouth. I spat at him, blood spraying across his face. He screamed in anger and drove the blade angrily into my shoulder. White hot pain burst through me and I screamed as he pulled the knife free—my attacker and I now barring identical wounds “Do you understand?!”

“Yes,” I chocked out panting hard. “I—I understan-d.”

He buried his hand in my hair and pulled it back painfully in an awkward angle, sunlight streamed through the trees blinding me.

“Hawk doesn’t she remind you of that other bitch we got?”

The olive skinned man stood beside Otto, his head cocked to the side as though he were admiring a painting in a museum. “She’s a red head Ot, she don’t look a thing like the other.”

“Do you have a friend Pretty? Pale as snow with sky blue eyes and hair like gold?” He chuckled under his breath. “You know, she had the cutest little mark on her hip. A birthmark or somethin’, looked just like a little birdie.

Chey.

I screamed wildly, my fingers like claws lashed out at Otto while he barked at his partner to pin my arms behind my head.

“Ah so you do know her?” I struggled against the one restraining me. I was going to tear Otto’s throat and I was going to enjoy every moment of it.

“Otto I dunno about this one. She’s not got a submissive bone in her body…” Hawk voiced uneasily. “She’s no good.”

“Ah but she is right this second.” His hands reached for the waist of my jeans, his nails dragging down my exposed skin where my shirt rode up. He yanked my jeans down and I kicked and screamed but he backhanded me so hard I saw stars and the world began to spin.

“Stop,” I begged weakly.

My jeans brushed down my knees and my hearing went out as the fabric slid over my feet and then…I saw nothing as my world went black.