Chapter 2

“I see something,” Daniel says as he looks beyond the metal fencing. We all look at him, waiting for him to elaborate. “It’s an elephant.” He adds as he smirks.

“You’re lying,” Isaac says, hope lacing his words. I can tell that he’s very happy that we have found such a big animal, considering that we have just started our hunt.

“I’m not...it’s right there,” Daniel says while pointing ahead but we don’t see anything. His vision is better than ours so I guess it makes sense why we can’t see the animal.

“Search around..see whether there’s anyone,” I give the order, and Daniel does what I say. We shouldn’t be here, this is beyond risky.

“Umm...I see no one.” He responds after searching around, and I smile.

“Search again,” I inform him, and he sighs. I have to make sure a human ain’t lying in wait for us.

“Okay..okay.” He says under his breath as he does another visual search. “No one...the coast of clear.” He says when he is done.

“Okay, let’s get going then,” I announce, and my team and I climb the fence expertly, with little to no sound.

When we jump down the fence, the noise from our feet is masked by the damp soil on the ground. Daniel walks in front, leading us towards the elephant. He is also looking around for any hint of trouble.

When we finally reach the elephant, my instincts go wild and I can feel the rising urge for my large fangs to spring out, but I withhold it. 

As soon as I take another step closer to the animal, the ground lifts and it feels like my team and I are being lifted up by eagles. But the thing is, it’s not an eagle, it’s a net.

Shoot! It’s a trap!

A net has trapped us and now we are dangling in a high strong oak tree. Escaping this would be easy, but what makes me nervous is the group of men that are walking toward us.

“I told you to check.” I snap at Daniel, and he replies, “I did, I swear I did.”

“Look what we got here.” I hear one of the humans say. He looks important, maybe he’s a leader. I know it’s not General Ross, he is rarely on these parts of their land. It’s the commoners that roam here.

“We can take them,” I hear Daniel whisper, and I shake my head to say no.

“We are not going to do a thing. We are in human territory, might I remind you.” I reply to him and he gulps.

“I really don’t want to get skinned.” Issac mumbles and guilt fills me up.

“No one’s getting skinned, just follow my lead,” I say bravely.

The leader of this small group of humans studies us with his eyes. “What were you guys doing so close to the border?” He asks, and I look to Jackson. He looks and talks the most like a human. We can use him as our speaker, they don’t know we are werewolves.

Jackson gets the hint and begins to speak. “Umm..we were out hunting.” He says and the humans laugh.

“I bet they were just trying to see the werewolves by looking through the fencing.” A thin-body one says to his leader.

“You know that werewolves are on the other side, right?” The leader asks loudly.

“Yes, we know,” Jackson answers smoothly. My palms are sweating and I am incredibly nervous right now. 

The leader calls one of his men and says to him, “Bring them down.”

The guy attends to his leader’s request and in a few seconds, we are lowered down. When we finally hit the ground, the net opens and sets us free, but we stand still, for weapons are being pointed at us.

“I want you to speak.” The leader says as he points toward me. His eyes are daring.

“What do you want to know?” I don’t hesitate to speak, causing the leader to smile.

“What were you guys actually doing here?” He asks me, and I smile also. Trying to act as calmly as possible.

“Truthfully, we came here to see whether we could see any werewolves through the metal fencing. So many people talked about them and we wanted to see them for ourselves.” I lie smoothly.

“I told you so.” One of the humans says.

“Shut up, Tommy.” His leader hushes him.

“These are dangerous parts, boys. This is not a zoo or a tourist site.” The leader walks close to me as he speaks loudly and authoritatively. I can smell his dried sweat and hear his shallow breathing. “I don’t want to see you, boys, around here again.” He says as he locks eyes with me.

“Get out of here.” He adds, and his guys lower their weapons.

I nod at the leader and he watches us as we walk even deeper into the human territory. We are already this far, there’s no turning back. 

“We could have killed those men, and taken the elephant home,” Issac says when we are at a distance from the small group of men. “They were easy opponents.” 

“No,” I say clearly as we keep walking. Now there are more people around, and I can tell that my team members are as on edge as I am.

“That would have just started another war,” I explain to Isaac, and he avoids my gaze.

He doesn’t speak anymore, none of them does. We all look around intriguingly as we walk through the forest.

I see more animals, but also many human hunters. We even see teenagers hunting deer as we walk by.

“They look so different...and so weak.” I hear Asher say. He’s talking about the humans.

Asher is the last member of my hunting team. He is very quiet, yet deadly. He fights perfectly in his human form, and he is known for his quickness when he shifts.

“I can hear their fragile hearts beating.” He adds, and I can tell that it’s more of his wolf speaking than him.

“Asher..” I say his name in order to get his attention. It works, and he looks at me.

“Your instincts are kicking in, get it together,” I warn him, and he nods.

As we get deeper, I feel liquid drop onto my face, and I realize that it’s about to rain. The daylight has run away and now it’s dark.

I look up to the sky and I can see faint white dark clouds, along with something that causes me to sigh in frustration.

“Is there a problem?” Daniel asks me and I point towards the night sky.

“Crap,” Asher cusses.

“Yeah, crap,” I say under my breath.

It’s the full moon, shining and giving off its brilliance. There has been a curse on the packs in Werewolf Territory from the beginning of time. 

We get to choose when to shift whenever we please, except on nights when the full moon is in the sky. When the moon is full, we shift involuntarily and our instincts are much harder to control. 

It really sucks, at least from what I have been told.

At first, I thought the curse was just a tale people told because I never personally experienced it. But then I got to know that that was only because I am an Alpha. Alpha werewolves don’t experience the cruelty of this curse. 

“We can’t stay here, we have to return at once,” I say authoritatively, and my team members look at me.

“But we haven’t even caught anything yet..” Isaac complains. Fur has already started growing on his face as he speaks. He’s already shifting and he does not even know.

“Isaac.. now is not the time to be stubborn,” I say, but when Isaac tries to speak, a small animal-like growl escapes his lips. 

“Let’s go,” I say as we all turn back and begin to head back towards the metal fencing. It’s a little distance from where we are, but we need to get out of here, and real fast.

They need to get out of here. 

If they shift fully, they won’t be able to control their instincts properly, and they could attack a human; which would inevitably lead to war. 

Gosh, this is all my fault. I shouldn’t have led them this far.

“Hey!” An old guy stops us. He is standing in our way. I can see the metal fencing from here.

“Old man, get out of our way,” I order him, and he frowns.

He then looks at my team members and a look of fear crosses his face instantly. “Werewolves,” He says under his breath. “Werewolves!” He shouts as he begins to run as far away from us as he possibly can.

My team and I begin our run towards the fence, but we are soon stopped by a small crowd.

The crowd continues to grow, for it is the first time since the truce, that a werewolf has set foot in Human Territory.

“You broke the truce!” I hear someone yell.

“We will skin you all!” Is the last thing I hear before something hard hits the back of my neck and I fall unconscious.