3. Attack

Even though my sense of hearing isn't that great, I stand still in the middle of the woods, listening with my head tilted to one side... but all I hear is silence! I become worried then since I know there's nothing like a silent night in these woods that I've been walking to and from the pack house for the past two years.

It is simply not right. The night air is supposed to be dominated by the sounds of crickets and frogs. The sounds of owls that hoot every so often in the distance. The sounds of the wind that relieves the humid heat and rustle the trees, and also the occasional high-pitched howls made by amorous foxes.

I feel cold chilling sensations and goosebumps all over my body as I resume walking– hurriedly this time.

The only sound I can hear right now is the sound of my footsteps crunching over twigs and dead leaves and it's creeping me out. I stop walking yet again when it feels as if I'm being watched, turning around to see if there is somebody behind me but no one.

'I must be mistaken then' I say to myself but deep down, I'm not convinced about that notion. To assure myself everything is okay, I started talking to myself under my breath...

"Don't be scared Flame. I don't know why you're suddenly feeling weird since everything seems normal. You've never been afraid of walking in the woods before and it's not going to start now. Remember this pack has competent Gammas that protect the pack land all hours round the clock...

Gammas!.." I repeated to myself with a sinking feeling in my heart when realization hit me. I was disrespectful to the Gamma chief yesterday morning in the dining room. For the first time in two years, I feel vulnerable walking alone in the woods. I look around with fear as I quicken my steps towards home. I wish I could run but how can I when I find breathing difficult because of the intense pain I'm feeling around my ribs?

All of a sudden the woods came to life around me and the silence fades away. I might be a half-baked shifter but my sensory organs are still much better than any average human. I hear paws pound through undergrowth and trees rustling as bodies crash into them from afar. Before I know what is happening, four pairs of yellow eyes glow golden at me.

"Rogues!" I murmured to myself and stand still out of fear. My heart pounding to the extent it seems it would burst out of my chest.

No... Gammas don't have yellow eyes, they have cold, steel-blue eyes. Right then, I don't know if I should feel relieved that the Gamma chief isn't lying in wait for me or be more afraid than before.

Pain ripped through my body as something big and furry suddenly crashed into me from behind. My painful scream rends the night air when I'm knocked down and my injured ribs hit the ground hard. Almost immediately, the wolf that jumped me shift to his human form.

"Make another sound and I'll snap your neck so fast you won't know what hits you!" He growled, breathing down my neck. I couldn't make any sound even if I wanted to. Just the wheezing sound coming from me because of my difficulty in breathing. His entire weight is pressing me down, almost crushing the life out of me.

I can clearly smell my assailants and I realized I was mistaken again. They're not rogues! There's this pungent, fecal, and rotten odor that usually pollutes the air whenever rogues are around and these werewolves don't smell like that. In fact, something about them smells familiar but I can't place it. Maybe because I'm delirious with pain and couldn't think straight as a result of that.

'Who are they and what do they want from me?' I wonder and gasp painfully when he forcefully yanks my head up with my hair. Not all the way up that I'll be able to see their faces but up enough for me to get the idea of what I'm in for. What I see makes me sick to the pit of my stomach

They are all naked. Werewolves don't go all naked even if they just shift back to their human form. They usually have some patches of fur covering their private areas. So why are these ones naked!? What do they want from me? I asked myself even when their erect dicks that are pointing threateningly toward me said it all.

My eyes widen with fear and I try to struggle but he's way stronger.

"Rope and gag!" He commanded towards his friends, shoving my head back into the dirt.

A rope and kitchen towel was thrown on the ground right in front of my face. He roughly turned me on my back, straddle me, and tightly tie my hands above my head before passing the other end of the rope to one of his partners in crime who then tie it around the nearest tree

"What do you think you're doing? What do you want from me!? Let me go right now!" I finally find my voice, trying to be bold and not show the fact that being raped by five werewolves scares me to death

They all laugh at me. My questions might have sounded stupid to them...

"What do we want from you?..." He smirked before turning to his friends "Can you believe this dumb bitch!?" He asks, and they laugh again.

He turns back to me

"Isn't what we want obvious enough? Now instead of asking stupid questions, shouldn't you be begging me to spare your virginity?" He mocked with a raised brow.

The next thing I know, he swiftly pulls my leggings down, taking my panties along with it. I scream then, struggling to free my hands from the thin but thick cord that binds them together. Not minding the pain on my side, I twist and buck to get him off me...

"Get off me, you son of a bitch!... I'm going to kill you...I'm going to fucking kill..."

I didn't get to finish my words when he slapped me hard across the face, shutting the rest of my words up in my mouth.

"No, you're not going to kill me, you stupid bitch! Do you know why?... Because you don't have what it takes! A freak like you? Really?" He speaks like he finds my statement a joke.

"You're the freak nobody wanted. Your parents don't want you. The pack doesn't want you. Even if we decide to kill you after having our ways with you, you wouldn't be missed. Absolutely nobody would care"

He's right. Even if they decide to kill me, nobody would care. Well, Martha would, but what can she do? She's just an old human after all.

I clamp my thigh shut and he uses his knee to forcefully pry them apart

"Guys I'm going in first..." He tells his friends and they all laugh. I heard another one of them say... "Me next after you..." as if I'm some kind of game they're taking turns to play

"Noooo... Get away from me..." I scream and he grabs the kitchen towel that was still lying beside my head on the ground and shoves it in my mouth.

Immediately, my body stiffened and I feel my eyes roll to the back of my head. Then I start convulsing violently. When the spasm racking my body finally stops, I start to tingle all over.

I open my eyes then and see my attackers looking down at me strangely. Why did they stop? I thought to myself, breathing and growling like a huge carnivore.

I began to feel pain. Indescribable pain from the crown of my head to the sole of my feet, like nothing I've felt before in my life. My eyes burn in their sockets. I feel and can hear the sounds of my bones as they snap and my skin stretches too tightly.

Nothing and no one prepared me for what it feels like to shift and take the form of your wolf. My family that was supposed to inform me and get me prepared never cared. I thought I was used to pain, but this pain is on another level and I wish for death to come.

I wonder if my heart will finally give up from the pain of my skin stretching and shredding in some places to accommodate the new growing shape of my bones before it was finally replaced with a new, tightened layer of hairy skin.

Finally, the pain become less intense and I manage to sit up when I feel better. The rope used to bind my wrist had long since been shredded into pieces and my attackers are nowhere to be seen. I look down at my hands and I'm shocked...

"Oh no, no, no... not again! Save me Moon goddess, I'm a monster!"