Are We Safe?

The icy water of the river dragged me down stream as I fought to keep my face above the water, gulping air into my lungs every chance I got. When I managed to break the surface facing the direction I had jumped from, I could see wolfs running along the riverbank trying to keep pace with me as I was tumbling through the water.

“Don’t fight the water, Evangeline! You will just wear yourself out faster. Lay back and let the water pull you down stream, once you get a few good breaths in, turn our head towards the opposite riverbank and kick your legs. Between the river pulling you down stream and the motion from your legs aiming us, we’ll get there.” Sapphire was exhausted and barely staying with me at this point.

It felt like it took forever but soon I was close to the opposite riverbank, so far down stream that the bank I jumped in from was out of sight. I could see the wolfs though, all five pacing back and forth on the opposite embankment, they looked tiny now from the distance they were away. When my feet touched the bottom I pulled my exhausted body towards shore, soon the water was at my shins and I fell forward on my hands and knees, crawling the rest of the way to shore. As soon as I was out of the water, I threw myself on my back and gulped in air.

My chest burned, my lungs gasping for air and coughing up water little by little. For the first time since I left my dark little world, I missed it. Things had been easy there. I heard howls in the distance, the wolfs I had run from were howling, though what they wanted I had no idea. Not that matter, I wasn’t sticking around to find out. I pushed myself up to a sitting potion and forced myself to my feet. My hair had fallen out of its knot during my fight with the river and my arms were too tired to attempt to twist it up again, so as I stumbled up the rivers bank and towards the forest line, I just let it fall around me. Occasionally it got caught on a branch, but I just tugged it off and continued on my way.

Sapphire hadn’t contacted me since she told me what to do in the river, and I knew it was because she was too exhausted to even attempt it. I wanted to sleep now. I wanted to curl up in my safe little ball on a nice patch of soft grass and fall asleep as I was comforted by its sweet smell. But we had to put more distance between us and the wolfs who knew our general location.

I walked and stumbled through the forest all night. By time I heard Sapphire stir in my mind the moon had disappeared and the sun was sitting just below the horizon, the sky was breath taking, so many colors painted in the cloud. I was sitting on a hill, my back resting against a tree, the soft skin on my back protected from the rough bark by my hair, which was now almost dry. I sat there just listening to the birds sing and watching the sunrise.

“Evangeline.” Came Sapphires soft voice, she sounded groggy like she was still very tired. “Do you know how far we have gone?”

“I walked all night, though I didn’t walk very fast, I was too tired, and my feet hurt.” My thoughts were faint, more than likely due to how exhausted I was.

“Why do your feet hurt?” Sapphire asked, worry lacing her voice.

I pulled my feet up the best I could with my muscles being so drained and sore. The soles of my feet were ripped open and bleeding, there was grass, dirt and leaves stuck to the blood and wounds.

“Oh Evangeline, I am so sorry.” Sapphire cried, the sight upset her, and I had a need to assure her I was fine.

“It’s really not so bad. I just stopped to let them get a little break. I barely feel them anymore.” My inner voice was even weaker than before.

“Liar. I can feel the pain, and I don’t see how you continued moving on those. You are strong Evangeline, stronger than you know.” I felt Sapphire looking through my eyes, judging the area we were for safety. “You need to rest; I think this place is fine for a few hours. Though we need to get you hidden, from predators and the sun, your skin is too pale to be in the sun. Over there, that grouping of bushes, see it?”

“Your eyes are my eyes, so yes, I see it.” I muttered. I forced myself to my feet, grimacing as each step sent pain through my feet and up my legs; but I made it to the group of bushes. I crawled in slowly keeping an eye out for creatures Sapphire called snakes, but there were no creatures inside. Just some nice, soft grass. I laid on the ground and curled my body up, knees to chest and hands under my head. When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.

“Evangeline!” Sapphire’s voice shouted through my mind, pulling me out of my dreamless sleep with a start. My eyes snapped open, and I jerked to a half sitting position, rubbing my eyes against how bright the daylight streaming through the leaves was.

“Evangeline! Thank the goddess you are finally awake.” Sapphires words were full of fear.

“What’s wrong Sapphire?” I asked as I sat up slowly, making sure to not touch the small branches covering me, so they wouldn’t move.

“There are people surrounding us. I’m so sorry Evangeline. I fell asleep and we overslept. They tracked us and found us.” Sapphire sounded like she was on the verge of tears, which was an odd thing to imagine for a spirit in your head.

“Alpha Jackson?” If it was him, then I understood why she was scared. He’d clearly had ill intent when he’d attempted to have his men apprehend me.

“No, thank the goddess for that. But I don’t know who they are. I just know they are there, and there are more then we can fight.” I bet she was still trying to figure a plan out of this though.

“We know you’re there!” Shouted a man I couldn’t see. I knew it was a man though by the deep timber of his voice. I heard footsteps as others walked around, surrounding the small group of bushes I was hiding in, blocking off all avenues of escape. “We’ll give you to the count of ten, then we make you come out.” He paused before adding darkly “Dead or alive.”

“One!” He shouted.

“What do I do Sapphire?” I asked, trying to stay calm.

“Two!”

“There’s no way-out Evangeline. We’ll have to show our selves and hope they take pity on us, or we risk them killing us without having the chance to explain.” Sapphire answered sounding dejected. We had both hoped for more once we escaped.

“Three!”

“Whatever happens Sapphire, thank you.” I meant it, just this little bit of time out of my hatch had been worth it, I had seen so much beauty.

“Four!”

“You’re welcome, Evangeline.”

“Five!”

I took a deep breath and made to crawl out when I heard Sapphire stir again. “Wait! Let’s shift first! Just in case they attack, we can defend our selves!” Smart. My wolf deserved a better human then the weak one she got. “Don’t talk like that! You are not weak! I would choose you again!”

“Six!”

I allowed Sapphire to take control and shift us to her form. Our size in wolf form did not fit in the bushes since it was so much larger than my human form, but we managed to crawl out of the brush and stand proud before the men surrounding us. I had to squint my eyes against the sun, but soon they had adjusted, and I looked around us warily. Trying to guess our chances of escape.

Sapphire filled in the blanks in my mind as I looked the men around us over, telling me names for things like a hat, and a shirt, and explain what some of the colors were. Directly in front of us stood a tall man with salt and pepper hair that hung to his shoulders in thick waves, he had a hat pulled low over his forehead and sharp, piercing black eyes that watched me intently. He wore a red and black long sleeve plaid shirt, the sleeves rolled up and pushed up past his elbows, the shirt was tucked into what Sapphire called blue Jeans and the ends of the blue jeans disappeared into what she added were brown boots. In his large, deeply tanned hands, was a long wood and metal object, and he was pointing it straight at me.

“A gun.” Sapphire said softly. “If he uses it, it will kill us. Or at least badly injure us, making escape impossible.”

As I stood there looking around, I realized that no one had said anything, no one had moved. They all just stared. Even the man with the gun just stood there staring at me, the guns barrel trained on our chest.

“Joshua, I think I have heat stroke.” Muttered one man to my left to another beside him.

“Nah man, I see it to Micha.” Replied Joshua just as softly.

“Alpha!” The voice was so loud that I cringed away from it, backing to the left and swinging my head quickly to the sound. It was a man with shortly clipped golden hair, he was looking at me in awe, a hand raised up as if he was showing me he had nothing in his hands to hurt me. “Alpha.” The man said softer, his eyes keeping contact with mine. “The gun.”

I pulled my eyes from his, back to the Alpha, my gaze going to the gun in his hands in fear as I backed away from him.

“Shit.” Muttered the Alpha as he clicked a button on the side of the weapon and lowered it to the ground, kicking it further behind him.

I eyed him carefully, the gun no longer being pointed at us made Sapphire feel much more at ease. But she was still watching the men warily, just as I was.

“Hello.” Said the Alpha with a smile. “My name is Henry, Alpha Henry of the Dark Forest pack.” He paused seeming to wait for an answer, so I nodded my head. “Are you a rogue?” He asked next.

“Am I a rogue Sapphire?”

“I don’t feel like a rogue, but without a pack I guess we technically are.”

I nodded my head yes to Alpha Henry. The men around us started talking amongst themselves, whispering. I only caught bits and pieces with so much chatter going on at once.

“I’ve never seen a rogue so big.”

“Never seen a female so big!”

“How old do you think she is?”

“How is a white wolf a rogue?”

“Have you ever seen eyes like that?”

“I wonder what she looks like in human form.”

My head scanned everyone as they whispered about me, unsure what to do. Movement behind the Alpha caught my attention and I zeroed in on it, ready to defend myself if necessary. But it was a woman, with long black and silver hair, pulled back into a long ponytail and grey eyes that watched me with a mixture of curiosity, amazement, and sadness. She wore an outfit similar to the outfit the Alpha had on, but her shirt was blue and black and her clothes were a little tighter, hugging her curves. In her arms was a long piece of dark blue cloth. She stopped beside the Alpha, placing a hand on his arm and one over her mouth.

“Oh my goddess Henry.” She gasped, her eyes looking over me in amazement. “I’ve never seen a wolf like her. Ever.”

What? Sapphire had already confirmed they were wolves. What did they mean like me?

“Me either, Davene. Can you help me calm her down, possibly get her to shift?” Alpha Henry addressed the woman beside him, but his eyes were still on me.

“I can try.” She said softly, patting his arm before taking a step towards me. “Hello there, my name is Davene, I’m Henry’s mate. If I put this blanket over you, do you mind shifting?” I stared at her then the cloth in her hands and back. “I can also ask the men to turn their backs, if that would make you more comfortable dear?”

“Sapphire. I think she’s good. I think they are good.” I looked around again, at all the men watching me closely, and the women in front of me with a smile of encouragement.

“I think they are as well. I trust them. For now. As we can’t run forever, at least they can offer us protection.” Sapphire agreed.

With us in agreement I immediately shifted, pushing up to my hind legs before becoming fully human so that I was standing before them when I was done. I looked around the semi-circle at the men surrounding me and was confused when over half of them immediately ducked their heads and turned their backs on me, the ones who didn’t stood there staring at me with shocked expressions until the Alpha growled, shaking them from their surprise. Everyone, except the woman, soon had their backs to me.

Davene flashed me a friendly smile and stepped forward with the blanket spread. I took a step back, unsure what she was going to do. Her happy expression turned into a look of shock then extreme saddens. “Oh my dear, what happened to you? Who hurt you?”

“She just wants to put the blanket around you so that your body is shielded from the views of the males. You should let her, it’s safe.” Sapphire encouraged.

Looking back at the woman I attempted a smile and turned my back to her letting her out the blanket around my shoulders. When I turned back around, she took the edges of the blanket and pulled them around me, completely covering me from neck to ankle.

“There you go dear.” She whispered as she lifted her hand and pushed my hair behind my ear.

“Evangeline.” I said softly.

Davene’s eyes blinked quickly and looked into mine as her eyebrows pulled together in confusions. “What was that dear?”

“My name,” I said, taking my time to form the words correctly, “is Evangeline.” Davene’s eyes misted as she nodded her head. “Not dear.”

The Alphas bark of laughter at my last words made me jump and my gaze snapped to his.

“Come now Evangeline, we’ll take you to our home and you can get some clothes and have a bath and a nice meal.” Her arm went around my shoulders and squeezed gently as she started leading me away from the men and towards a large black box.

“It’s an SUV, it’s a vehicle, they get you places much faster than walking.” Sapphire said, always teaching me. I could hear the men muttering again though as I walked with Davene.

“Did you see her eyes?” One man sighed.

“To hell with eyes, did you see her tits?” Laughed another.

“You’re a dip-shit Neil.” Growled another.

“Oh fuck you Galden.” Chucked Neil.

“Did y’all see her size? She’s at least an inch shorter than Luna Davene and yet her wolf rivals the Alphas in size! I didn’t even know that was possible.”

“Alright you bunch of ass wipes. Get back to the training grounds.” Shouted Alpha Henry, picking his gun off the ground and tossing it to one of the men. “Put this back in the armory Galden.”

Alpha Henry walked around to the front of the SUV and got inside, Luna Davene stopped beside it as one of the men ran over and opened the door for us. “Go ahead de- I mean, Evangeline. You can get in first.” She said with an encouraging smile.

But when I looked inside it was small and dark, my chest began to ache, and my lungs wouldn’t breath. I shook my head no and stumbled back, away from the SUV. Davene watched me in surprise and Alpha Henry’s voice came from inside the SUV. “What’s wrong honey? Y’all getting in?”

“I think she’s having a panic attack Henry!” Davene exclaimed as she came near me and tried to touch my arm. I shook my head again and back up more. I didn’t want to. It looked like my hole. I was not getting in there, in the darkness.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry, you don’t have to get in!” Said Davene softly, holding up her hands in front of her.

Slowly my breathing went back to normal, and I stood there staring at them, wondering what we were doing now.

“Well we can’t walk back.” Said Alpha Henry as he climbed out of the vehicle and walked back around to stand next to his mate.

“What if she rides a wolf?” Offered Davene softly.

I noticed every one of the warriors looked over at us, I imagined if they were in wolf form their ears would be standing at attention.

“I suppose.” Muttered Alpha Henry as he glanced around at the men with him, as if trying to decide who.

“What do you think Evangeline? Would you mind maybe riding on the back of one of the warriors in wolf form?” Davene asked me, keeping her voice soft and a sweet smile on her face.

“Sapphire?”

“If you are uncomfortable getting in the SUV, then yes, you should ride. We need to save my energy and your feet are hurting and aren’t fully healed, it’s only been a few hours and the damage was extensive.”

Smiling at Davene I nodded my head. Reliefs washed across her face and she turned to her mate. “Should we ask for a volunteer?” She asked him, and at least six of the ten men answered immediately: “I will!”

The Alpha rolled his eyes while Davene giggled. “I think it should be Galen.” She whispered to her mate, and he nodded his head agreeing. “He didn’t volunteer but he’s the next Beta and, more importantly, I trust him whole heartedly to look after her comfort and safety.” The Alpha nodded again in agreement.

“Galden!” Hollered the Alpha and the man who had asked the Alpha to put his gun down earlier, came jogging over, handing the weapon off to another warrior.

“Yes Alpha.” Galden said as he stopped in front of the three of us. I eyed him curiously, lingering on his eyes, they were the color of grass, and seeing as how grass was officially one of my favorite things, I instantly liked him.

“Will you take Evangeline to the pack house?” While the Alpha spoke to him, Galden’s green eyes flicked to mine, he seemed surprised to see me staring at him, so I smiled at him, hoping it was friendly. His green eyes blinked rapidly, and his tanned cheeks turned a soft shade of pink as he looked away, back at the Alpha.

“Of course Alpha. I’ll shift and be back.” With a last curious glance at me he jogged towards a large tree and slipped behind it, a short time later a golden colored wolf came jogging out from behind the same tree, when he got close, I saw clothes tied to his ankle and giggled. Clever.

The wolf walked right up to me and laid down on the ground so I could climb on his back. I dropped the blanket and carefully climbed on his back, wrapping my arms as far around his neck as they would go and holding on to fistfuls of his fur just as Sapphire was instructing me. He stood up slowly, checking to see if I had a tight enough hold on him. He turned towards Alpha Henry and dipped his head slightly.

“Take your time Galden, you’re carrying precious cargo.” Davene said with a smile as she picked up the blue blanket and threw it around me. “Sit on the bottom Evangeline and hold the corners in your hands.”

I did as she told me and smiled when she nodded in approval.

“I’ll be sending Lex and Donnell with you to keep an eye out.” Added Alpha Henry, “We’ll be right behind you.”

With that we were off, running through the trees, the wind in my face and hair making me laugh. I had found safety, now it was time to live.