Chapter 3

A gush of wind makes me shudder and it reminds me that I must get back to it. Never have I been alone. Always someone by my side, especially my brothers. Love them both to bits but I just couldn’t keep lying to myself and everyone else. As we grew up, my parents have always tried to make us feel normal. We just had the added training about our abilities. We often been told not to use them and not to scare people, how much good and even bad we could start if we were to use them at the wrong time.

“Fear of the unknown” was a phrase that was often used. Following the River, it’s perfect to hide any pawprints and even scents. For hours I been running now and slowly I am getting used to being on my own. This is it - I am a free wolf now.

By my calculation I will be out of Alliance territory in the next day if I keep to myself and carry on at this pace. Starting to feel the strain on my body as I haven’t slept, and I don’t plan on stopping either. Everything hurts, it’s the moment you realise, you should have trained harder with your Brother when you had the chance. I am sure he would be just as exhausted as I am though.

My thoughts start to trail off again to Zain. I wonder what is happening at home, I hope neither him nor Aaron gotten in trouble for letting me go. Oh my gosh, Mom and Dad. It now dawns on me that I might have done what is best for me but without fault of their own I have hurt literally every other person around me. My Parents, my Grandparents, my Brothers the most. Everything starts spinning around me and I need to stop. My body is hurting, and I start coughing to the point I am almost being sick. “Keep breathing. Keep running.” I hear a voice whisper. Startled I am looking around me. A chill running down my spine, causing me to shiver.

What the … what was that? Is there anyone here? I can’t feel anyone’s presence and really, I am quite good with my senses. Slowly scanning the area around me just in case my powers are betraying me but no nothing.

Unsure on how to react I grab my bag and carry on my journey. Fixated on the path ahead, a big mountain, either I go over it or around it, either way what lays behind it will be the end of the Alliance territory. Once I have this bit behind me, I can start to breathe.

Torn which will be the better option, if I climb over this mountain, it will be harder, but it will save me hours. Safer is to go around it, not as hard but it will add about a day to take this route. Staring up the mountain I declare myself as crazy and decide I will go the hard way. Surely if anyone were following me, they would think I take the safe route instead.

I shake off this feeling that I am being watched as I start my climb up the smaller hills as I get to the Mountain. My Paws starting to bleed from all the small pieces of smashed rocks around, probably from falling all the way down, smashing against the other rocks. These are very sharp, and I must be careful not to risk any injury. Carefully I try to find my way up and now it’s getting lighter it’s not quite as bad. Maybe if I change back and try climb this without my wolf it might make things a little easier. Said and done, I quickly grab some clothes from my bag and the pair of trainers I took with me. It certainly might hurt less with shoes on instead of paws being cut open. After hours climbing the mountain, I can see the top, just one small bit to get up to, which I can reach with my hands. Grabbing the edge trying to pull myself up, I notice my hands slipping and sheer panic builds up in me. C’mon, not now. My arms are hurting and slowly I am losing my grip, I fall back down. Okay, okay, short break. I fall with my back against the rocks taking a moment to rest. Can’t give up now, almost there, just up here and then back down on the brighter side.  

The moment of rest, turned into hours of sleep as I pass out involuntarily, exhausted clinging on to my backpack. As I wake up the sun is at its highest, midday already? Gathering myself, I notice a small package wrapped up laying in front of me. This was not here when I sat down, I am sure of it. How did it get here, who put it there? Should I open it or just leave it or take the risk opening it? I won’t find out if I don’t at least look what it is.

Looking around I can’t see any sign, that anyone even has been close at all, maybe I dropped it out of my bag? Surely not as it’s firmly closed. The need to know what is in it wins over being cautious. Shuffling closer I reach out and take a sniff, I smells good. It is a freshly made Sandwich just like the one I ate at the River, the one Zain made for me when I left. There is a drink of apple juice with it. Curious and curiouser, Apple juice is my favourite of drinks. Without hesitating, I take a bite out of it. Smells too good to be poisoned, bit then I don’t even know what poison smells like. So how on earth am I on a mountain no one to be seen near or far, no scent left nothing, yet here is food and drink left for me while I slept.

Did Zain follow me, because right now I have no other explanation, but it can’t be as I can’t feel his presence anywhere near me. Could it be that I am simply confused or are my abilities not as strong without him?

So many questions and no answers.

Now that I am feeling rested the small hang is not a big task to get up on. A quick grab and pull, I am on top of the mountain. Here ends the Alliance Territory beyond comes another Pack with claim on the land and after that is a so called “No man’s land”. Well as far as I know at least, this is where I am heading for now. Leaving the Alliance now makes me vulnerable to the pack that reigns here. Free game. Heaven forbid they get me god knows what they might do to me. I need to be even more vigilant now than I have been to this point. I shake the fear off as I get myself ready to descent on the other side of this Mountain, one wrong step and I could be falling like all those rocks and just smash into pieces.

Excruciating pain in my legs as I try to take a step at a time. The aching is so bad it makes me feel nauseous, with sweaty palms as I try to grip on tree branches to help stop sliding down faster than how I would like it to be. Everything is overwhelming as I am trying at the same time to be conscious about my surroundings knowing I could be seen at any given moment. What makes it worse is the dryness of the ground every time I slip a big dusty cloud emerges around me and at this time, I am not sure who might catch up on the dusty clouds or how far they can be seen from.

Every creaking from trees has me stop and listen for more.

There and then a shadow jumps out in front of the trees, grabbing me and pulling me down faster than my legs can carry me. I fall more times than I can count but This person just carries on dragging me. He is holding on to my wrist, it is red raw from the strong grip. I don’t fight. If I want to try and escape, I will have to pick my chance and fighting as human, isn’t it! At the bottom of the Mountain, he slows down. First time I get a chance to look at the person that has surprised me almost out of nowhere. A slim figure but over 6ft tall, he isn’t looking overly strong but it’s misleading as his grip is strong and holding me tight. He throws me forwards and with a thud I land on my knees. Another dusty cloud slowly settling around me. It’s making me cough slightly, as I look up, I landed in front of two more men who are looking down at me. One is taking a small step forward towards me, He is not quite as tall as the first one but still around 6ft and looks stronger. He stops and squints his eyes as he scans me all over. Bending down he roughly grabs my chin in his right hand. Just for a moment I look in his Eyes, his eyes are a fawn brown colour, I quickly look back down.

“Did she talk?” He asks the tall slim guy who pulled me down the Mountain.

“Not a single word, Rowan.” He answers promptly.

“Did she try to fight?” He asks as he stands back tall.

“No, she didn’t, she doesn’t look trained at all, maybe she is just a lost Human after all.” The tall Guy replies as he put his hand on his chin in ponder.

“Not up to us. He will decide what happens to her.” Rowan answers as he turns around walking off. 

I gasp at those words and Rowan stops looking over his shoulder before nodding to his two companions.  

Once more I am grabbed by my wrist which by now is bleeding from the rough pulling, a rope replaces the hand, and a blindfold is placed over my eyes.

Defeat. I have been captured and all my abilities have failed me. Now I just feel numb. So much to being special and I still couldn’t escape. I know they are mind linking as not a single word is spoken while I am being dragged from the left to the right. We have been walking quite a while in the heat of the day and I feel so lost, disappointed, and scared. All the feelings washing over me when I am usually the one trying to keep a cool head.

We are slowing down, and I hear some creaking noise from a wooden door of some sort. Next thing I know is the rope is taken off and I am thrown onto the ground, the door slams shut with a click. A shiver running down my spine. My imprisoners leave and I am all alone. I can’t hear anything else around me, so I slowly take the blindfold of. A Dark cell cold with a small window as only Lightsource. There is a black metal bed with an old, stained mattress on and some rags, on the other side is a small bucket with some water. I try to look out the window by standing on the metal frame of the bed but it’s not much help, I am still a little too short to see anything. I don’t even know who leads the Pack around here as I never thought I would get this far ever in my life. I didn’t spend much attention when we had Pack geography in school. Bites me in the Ass now, doesn’t it? Wish I had spent a little more time studying these things now or trained a little harder with Zain.

Oh Zain, how have I ended up here? How Naïve was I? Thinking it couldn’t have been worse at home, now I am locked up in a cell all alone and no way to get out. Cowering in the corner, accepting that maybe I should have stayed where I was. Doubting myself, doubting my abilities maybe I was only gifted because of Zain? A tear starts rolling down my face and it is the first time in a long time that I let my own feelings take over.