Chapter 3

Hurt, and out of time, I closed my eyes and willed my wolf to the surface. I grit my teeth to stop myself from crying out in pain. It was a painful process, made even more painful in the fact I was in a hurry. Brown fur sprouted along my arms and chest as I undressed. My fingers changed, making it more difficult to shove my clothes in my backpack. If I survived this, no way was I walking home in my birthday suit!

The whimper of pain turned into a growl as I finished my shift. I heard and smelled the hunters now. It was some comfort that there weren’t only four of them and judging by how their voices carried, still some ways off. I didn’t have much time, but I could still escape before they reached the hole. 

With my backpack in my massive jaws, I dropped low to the ground and tensed my muscles to prepare for jumping.

‘You can do this,’ I told myself before I pushed off from the bottom of the hole into a leap for the top. Claws out, I reached the top and grab onto the ground. A thrill of victory flashed through just as I slipped. The ground, wet from the rains yesterday with typical Tennessee humidity, was too soft to hold my weight.

Using my back legs, I tried to take some of the weight off my front paws and allow myself to get a better hold. Now out of the hole, I heard the hunters better, and they were closer than I thought. My heart pounded and, despite what Mom had told me, I panicked. Without having a good anchor with my hind paws, I released my grip on the ground with my front right paw and tried to sink my claws farther forward.

As soon as I lifted my paw… it was just like that tragic scene from Lion King. I fell back, paws flailing in the air with no doubt my wolfish maw gaping at the horror I felt as I dropped all the way back to the bottom of the hole. 

I hit the ground hard and my vision went white for a second as all the air rushed out of my lungs. When I could breathe again, a pained whine escaped me. I got up on all fours and shook out my fur. I prepared to jump again, but as I looked up, I saw four human faces sneering down at me.

Figures. My time was up. Just my luck. 

“See, I told you it would work,” one of them said, backhanding another on the shoulder.

The other scowled back. “Yeah, on the stupid ones.”

The first speaker, a heavyset man perhaps in his mid-thirties, scowled back at the other. But the third, the youngest of all of them, spoke. “It looks small… did we catch a kid?”

“You mean a pup? They’re not kids. Kids are human,” the heavyset one said with an obvious look of disgust.

“Actually,” the second said to the others. “Baby goats are called kids.” 

The heavy set one turned his glare on him. “What the fuck does that have to do with anything? Are you making fun of me, you little shit? Think you’re better than me?”

“Enough,” the fourth one snapped. It was a cold, hard voice, and I shivered at the sound of it. “Focus, you idiots. Get the beast out of there and neutralize it, then argue about whatever stupid ideas are in those little heads of yours.”

The heavy set one’s thin lips twisted in an odious scowl. He hated the fourth guy even more than he did me, but the anger in his eyes mixed with fear. This guy scared him more than me. “Yes, Sir,” he said and a moment later three of the hunters lowered a ramp down into the hole. 

“Come on, wolfie,” one of them said in a condescending tone. “Come up out of that hole now.” He then whistled at me like I was a dog. 

Seriously?

I rolled my eyes and didn’t move an inch towards that ramp. At this present moment, I was sure it was better for me to stay right where I was. 

The fourth scowled at the whistler, glaring at him with as much hate as he could muster, then turned that hateful glare to me. “You won’t be any safer staying down there, beast,” he yelled down to me. “All it’s going to do is make your death slower and much, much more painful, and there will be no chance to fight back.”

A growl ripped from me as I glared right back at him. I knew he didn’t care about how I died and he wouldn’t allow me a fair chance to fight back, but he was right…

Down here, I didn’t have a chance for anything but pain and death. 

With another growl, I stared at the ramp, then up at the four men waiting. Maybe if I time it just right, I’d be able to run past them. Gritting my teeth, I climbed up the ramp and out of the hole. As I neared the top, I readied myself and as soon as they were about arm’s length, I sprinted past them. 

The sweetness of victory soured as they jerked me backwards off my feet, a burning sensation around my neck. The cruel, mocking hoots and hollering from the hunters filled my ears. With a growl of anger, desperation, and pain, I struggled to get free of what had to be a silver cable.

The hunters laughed and one of them said to the others. “It’s not much of a beast, is it? Hell, my dogs have pulled me around harder than this.”

“Yeah,” another agreed. “Not very fun now, is it?”

Really? Now only was I going to die, but they were going to shame me while doing it? I growled, turned, and snapped at one of them, but he got his leg out of the way before I could do anything more than catch a bit of his pant leg. 

“Enough,” the fourth one demanded. “This isn’t supposed to be fun. We’re here to get rid of monsters!” He shook his head and looked down at me as he took out a small firearm.

No, no, no!

It couldn’t end like this! I wouldn’t die like this! I struggled against the cable holding me. The fourth man pointed the gun at me and I tried to charge him, but the others held me back. This wasn’t be happening. A white haze of panic filled me and I jerked and whipped my body, but all I did was exhaust myself. 

I collapsed on my belly, breath panting. What was the jerk waiting for? I looked up at him, into his smug look as he continued to aim the gun at me.

“Now that you’re finished,” he said with a hint of a smirk on his lips. He had said this wasn’t supposed to be fun, but I knew he was enjoying himself.

He put his finger on the trigger when another person suddenly appeared behind him. A little smaller than the gunman, the newcomer was an inch or two shorter than him. He wrapped his slender, pale fingers around the man’s neck before the gun man even knew what was happening.

“I’m afraid the only one finished here is you,” he said in a cool, smooth tone. I didn’t need to see his fangs sinking into the hunter’s neck to know this was a vampire. The fact he just appeared without me hearing, seeing or smelling him told me as much.

The vampire ripped out the throat of the gunman then almost too fast for even me to follow, he moved to the next hunter here and used his now elongated nails to cut his throat, the third, he punched into his chest and removed the heart. As he licked his bloodied fingers, the vampire taunted the last hunter. 

The hunter didn’t run like I thought he would, but fell to his knees, eyes wide, allowing the vampire to bite into his neck. Like the hunter, I found myself mesmerized and unable to move as the vampire drained him. Once the hunter was dead, the vampire let him fall to the side. He let out what sounded like a satisfied sigh. 

“Quite unsatisfactory,” he said, looking down at them. “But one must make do with one has when famished.”

There was no remorse or any sign of humanity on his chiseled face, and that terrified me more than the hunters ever could. I tried to inch towards the trees, hoping he wouldn’t notice me. Of course, luck hated me. 

His dark eyes shot to me. “Ah, the little wolf.” A hint of a smile appeared on his bloodied lips as he took a step towards me.