The narrow escape.

I haven't thought about it for long before my nose picked up a scent and I immediately closed my nose to prevent me from inhaling more pungent odors that accompanied the scent.

I immediately stepped back and wanted to move towards a direction I knew nothing about when a man emerged from nowhere.

I stumbled back to where I was coming from, my eyes getting more and more used to the red marks that were heavily marked into the trees that surrounded me.

How had I not seen it before?

How had I not smelled the dangers that lurked and now moved towards me in this forest?

I was a long way away from the ice stone pack, I was in the stolen lands.

Lands owned by a ruthless being, one that was never seen only heard and felt.

The same being that had my parents killed.

Every ounce of me rejected this place but I didn't have much of a choice since I was still the same person within the area.

I turned, wanting to pass another route to escape the man as he staggered towards me and I saw not one but two men well spread on every exit my mind could take.

"Don't be a Stranger!" His voice bellowed in a cheap way of being friendly and from where I was, I could smell the cheap whiskey on him.

"She's even more beautiful than that heat smell" he shouted and I froze in shock.

Heat smell?

What did he mean by...

"I need me some of that" another man ventured forward and before I knew it I had been cornered like a rat.

I shook in fear as I realized that my heart was still pulsing and that I had my juices run down my thighs earlier in the night and I had run a good distance, mixing those juices with sweat.

"You look lost anyway. How about we show you the way" one of the men said and stretched a hand toward my face.

Panic rises and I hit his hand away, disgust filling me up to the brink.

The men looked shocked at the fact that I knew exactly what they meant by circling me like vultures and trying to act nice at the same time, I knew what was up.

Like speed, the man that had his hand stretched towards me earlier frowned and made to grab me.

My reflexes were stronger and I moved quicker in my toes, evading his attack.

The other two took it as a sign to attack me at the same time that they jumped on me at the same time.

My reflexes were only fast enough to evade one man at a time but two?

I managed to escape their clothes but as I turned my back, willing my legs to carry me as far as I could muster, one of the men flung themselves at me and held me by the legs.

I kicked ferociously, letting out screams of violence but I only managed to catch one of the men in the face with my knees while I struggled out of his grip, the other two held me down pinning me immediately.

I saw the look of satisfaction and of pure evil that radiates off of each of them equally.

"You bitch!" The man whom I had kicked with my knee to his face and eye, held his left eye as it pulsed even from the tight groans he was letting out.

He moved towards me and the same hand that held his eye in place stretched out high above my head and brought it down to my face.

I groaned in pain as my face stung and the man chuckled in delight.

"You're so going to pay for that," the man said and his breath stank even worse as he placed his face against mine.

Anger welled up inside me but not as high as the instinct to survive.

"Look, I have money. I could get you more money" I said desperately as I struggled in the hands of the other two men who held me down.

I didn't come with any riches and I currently had no riches but the fact that I mentioned money was supposed to bring a reaction but the men all looked at themselves and gave a laugh.

This was the nth time that I was getting laughed at, my face contorted in pain and misery engulfed me.

"Please" I begged 

But the men only snickered.

From where I lay, struggling to get free. I caught a glimpse of a shadow in the bushes, his growl was low but there.

Somehow I feared his presence but I welcomed it.

"Help!" I screamed, my scream directed at him.

"Lay a single finger on her head and you die tonight," the man in the shadows said calmly.

The men looked at one another and burst into laughter.

That was the last thing I heard before blood splattered across my face.