CHAPTER 10: STRANGE ENCOUNTER

CHAPTER 10

~GABRIELLA'S POV~

The silence in the air was unbearable. I could hear my own breathing, and with every step, I took crushed dried leaves under my paws, making sounds that echoed through the forest as if informing the other wolves of my location.

I moved steadily, my eyes focused on the prey before me—a large, dark brown deer. As I got in close range, I leaped toward it, but before I could reach it, it jumped out of the way and took off. I landed head-first on a rock and yelled in pain.

“Hunting is so hard; how am I supposed to survive this?" I thought to myself, using my paw to gently rub my head.

“The other girls are gone; there's no way of finding them now, and the bell is going to ring anytime soon. What to do, what to do..."I said this as I sat there with a worried look. It had already been the first hour; I had never gone hunting before in my life, and my wolf wasn't fast or strong enough to run from other wolves.

I let out a sigh,got up from where I sat, and walked through the bushes in my continued search for a simpler prey, something that wouldn't easily jump out of the way. Christine said the forest was bustling with wild life this time of the year, but all I could see for miles were just bushes and trees. Maybe I was in the wrong part of the forest.

As I fell deeper and deeper into my thoughts, I noticed a large rabbit across a small bush a little distance from me.

“Rabbits, they're really fast, but maybe I could..." I said silently as I crounched down, readying all four of my feet to pounce on the rabbit. I waited a few seconds for the right moment, and when it finally came, I pushed myself off the ground, and in an instant, the rabbit's upper body was between my jaws.

I bit harder into its torso, holding it to the ground to make sure it didn't have the chance to run away, and after a few minutes, it stopped moving.

I let go of the rabbit and sat by it, waiting to see if it would move, but it was dead.

“I did it; it's only a rabbit, but I finally caught something. I won't have to go back empty-handed,” I said, letting out slow breaths as I was heavily tired from moving around so much.

As I leaned forward to pick up the rabbit, I felt a heavy blow on my side. I was sent flying into a large tree that stood a short distance from me, and after hitting it, I fell to the ground with a subtle thud.

The pain I felt as I slowly rose from the ground was unbearable. I opened my eyes and turned to see a larger wolf walking toward me. I couldn't tell who among the maids this was, but I knew things were about to get ugly.

She slowly closed in on me, growling loudly, every one of her fangs exposed to incite fear. I stepped back. There was nothing I could do at this point; she was larger and stronger than I was.

All my senses went stiff as they recognized she was about to attack, and my legs petrified with fear as my fur bristled.

She launched at me, spreading her large mouth with killing intent. Suddenly, another large wolf leaped out of nowhere and pushed her in another direction.

She got up from the ground and was about to attack the intruder, but she noticed something strange about him. I couldn't tell what it was, but I could see her eyes slowly fill with fear. After crouching down before him in a submissive manner, she took a few steps backwards and ran off.

The male wolf stared in the direction she ran off in for a few seconds, then turned to me. I stepped back in fear as our eyes met.

I thought this was going to be the end for me, but to my greatest surprise, he gently picked up the dead rabbit and dropped it in front of me.

I shifted back into my human form and nervously placed my left palm on his snout. As I steered into his eyes, a memory flashed by in my mind—one where I and Steven were locked in the storage room, staring at each other silently as our hearts beat in synchronicity.

Suddenly the bushes rustled, and a little girl came out. She had a large hat on like a witch and wore really dark clothing.

“Hey, is she alright?” the little girl asked before turning to me.

“Oh, hi Gabriella... I see you've met my friend, not that you haven't already met before," she said with a giggle.

She walked toward the large wolf, placed her palms on his back, and gently climbed onto him.

“It's a good thing you were able to sense she was in danger. Things would have gone really badly, but we have to leave now before someone from the mansion sees us; these hunting grounds are for the alpha alone," the little girl said.

The large wolf, as if obeying her, turned around and began walking away from me.

“Hey!” I yelled, and he suddenly stopped.

“Who are you? And... how do you know my name?” I asked.

The little girl turned around and said, “Does it really matter? We saved your life; you should be thankful. By the way, you should head that way; there are more wolves coming, and there's already a deer killed in that direction; if you hurry, you might make it before the bell rings,” she replied, pointing to her right.

I was dumbfounded by her words. How did she know all this? How did she know about the hunt and about the bell?

I was about to yell again when she continued, “You're an important piece of this puzzle, Gabriella. Don't get killed before the story even starts.

The ground suddenly started to rumble. I could hear and smell multiple wolves coming in my direction. I looked left and right in panic, and when I turned back to where the wolf and the little girl stood, they were gone.

I immediately shifted into my wolf and ran in the direction the little girl pointed. After I had run for a few minutes, I found the deer I was previously going to catch lying on the ground.

“Did they... do this?” I thought to myself, staring at the dead animal on the ground. I quickly grabbed the deer's leg and pulled it all the way back to the door where we started. The moment I arrived, the bell rang, and to my surprise, no one else had arrived.

"That little girl; she showed me a short cut,” I said, letting out a sigh.