Chapter 2: I Owed Him My Life

Brenna

The huge white wolf must have said something to them in their Pack Mind, because the three wolves nodded once. Then he headed over to the she-wolf. His body shimmered, morphing and changing until he was in his human form.

“Marcia?” he cooed, kneeling beside her.

The woman looked up at him in her wolf form, lying in a puddle of her own blood, as her eyes met his. Then her body morphed and changed, shimmering until she was in her human form, a beautiful woman with long, snow-white hair covered in blood. She raised her hand and placed it on his cheek as the battle raged around us. She said nothing, but her hand fell from his face as she took her last breath.

“No!” the man with white hair screamed, throwing his head back, nearly a howl. Then he lifted her lifeless body carefully into his arms and started to carry her away. Then he froze, obviously remembering me. “You!” he growled, narrowing his eyes at me. “You will pay for this! I will make sure you receive the ultimate humiliation... Princess!”

I bit at my attackers, but they kept me back... and there was nothing I could do but watch as his Pack slaughtered my people.

In desperation, I leaped over one of the wolves, jumping off his back, propelling me forward. I dashed to the landing where my sword lay on the landing. When I was close, I let the red haze with red edges invade my vision and leaped into the air, landing in my human form. Then I ran up the stairs, and my sword was within reach. I leaned in... reaching... almost there… when a human foot stomped on the blade, stopping me. I looked up, and it was the man with white hair, the white wolf. I bit his ankle, but he never released the sword, even though blood trickled down his foot.

Then he pulled me by my arms and grabbed my throat as he stared into my eyes, his face mere inches from mine. “I should rip out your throat for what you did! You just killed my Mate!”

“She attacked me first!” I screamed, staring him down. “Who are you, and why did you attack my Pack?”

He laughed without humor. “Ask your father,” he growled, turning my head slightly, clearly inspecting the merchandise. “No, you’ll fetch a high price at the Black-Market Auction... among the humans!”

“No!” It was the ultimate insult for a wolf to be handed over to the humans. “I’ll kill you first!” Quicker than lightning, I reached up and raked my fingernails across his face, leaving three deep scratches as he howled in pain.

He loosened his grip on me for just a moment... but that was all I needed. I ran toward the huge plate glass windows and jumped through it in my human form, balling myself up to protect myself. Naked, I landed on my hands and knees as searing pain ripped through my body.

 “Father!” I yelled as I headed toward the stairs, but I was no longer in my wolf form and couldn’t hear him if he was calling to me. “Father! Zed! Where are you?” I ran toward the stairwell to the left, but strong arms grabbed me from behind.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he growled in my ear. He lifted me off my feet, kicking and screaming as he dragged me outside the gates, past the bodies of my Pack littering the ground.

“Why did you do this?” Tears ran down my cheeks as he carried me to the trunk of a white car. “Why?”

“Your father knows.” Then he slapped a silver bracelet around my left wrist that immediately embedded itself into my skin.

“What did you do?” I yelled, beating my fists against his back. 

Someone opened the trunk of a car, and he threw me inside. “That’s to keep you from morphing until I give you to the humans!”

“No!” I screamed as he slammed the trunk lid closed, leaving me to wonder what had just happened... and what was to come.

When I stopped screaming and calmed down, I started listening. People were walking around the car, but they were dress, wearing shoes. Pebbles crunched under their feet.

Then the car started, and we backed out. I looked along the trunk, looking for a way to escape, but there wasn’t anywhere to go.

Then I thought of something. I tore away the back of the trunk near where the taillights would be and pulled as hard as I could. Soon, the red taillight lens was exposed. I punched it out and then stuck my fingers out to see if I could get anyone’s attention. If someone saw fingers moving where the taillight should be, surely they would call the police.

The car didn’t slow, and I didn’t hear sirens yet, so I felt around the trunk to see if there was anything I could throw out. Through the small hole, I could see that it was starting to get dark out. So, I didn’t have much time. I found a plastic bag, which wouldn’t do me much good. I looked through the taillight hole, and there was a man in a pickup truck behind us.

Good.

I groped around the trunk the best I could in the confined space… and I lucked out. There were old newspapers and a plastic bottle of motor oil. I tore the pieces of paper and started pushing them through the hole.

Nothing. 

Then I uncapped the motor oil and started pouring it out the taillight hole, hoping someone would see it. When I took the bottle away, the man in the truck was on his cell phone, straining to see what was going on in our car.

Good. He saw me.

Soon, sirens started blaring in the distance, but the man in the pickup truck stayed right behind us. The sirens grew closer, and I breathed a sigh of relief. What would this crazed Alpha do against the humans? Against the human police force? I just hoped the man in the pickup truck didn’t get hurt.

The sirens grew closer, blaring as the sun began to set in the distance. Finally, blue lights flashed behind us, and the man in the pickup truck pulled over to let them go ahead. I wiggled my fingers out the taillight hole, hoping he saw it.

I owed him my life.