Chapter 4: Captured

         Runa successfully passed through another pack without being discovered. Her paws felt like they were going to fall off. She was not sure of where she was but she did notice snow on the ground, she must be closer to her destination by now. Six hours of non-stop running, she decided to rest for a minute. She found a half frozen stream and saturated her burning throat.

         She needed to figure out where she was. She stuck her nose to the wind trying to find the closest human town and then a map. Turning her head she scented something East. Shifting her feet in the light snowfall, she began to run. She caught some small game before she arrived in another small town. 

         Quickly, she shifted and dressed herself. The sun was beginning to cast shadows everywhere as it fell behind the tree tops. Pulling her hoodie over her head and stuffing her hands in her pockets, she slowly made her way through the town in search of a motel. She really did not want to sleep on the ground again.

         Runa found the small motel and booked a room. After thanking the young girl who was working at the receptionist desk, she walked out of the office and looked towards the long building with about thirty doors with golden numbers on each one. She began her search for room number eighteen. How ironic, she thought. 

         Finding her room with ease, she locked the door as soon as she entered the room, then threw herself across the neatly made bed. Heaving the biggest sigh of temporary relief she thought she ever had, she rolled over to stare at the ceiling. She still was not able to find a map so she was still more than a little lost. Hopefully she could remain lost to the supernatural world. 

         She decided to take a hot shower to loosen her tense muscles. She brought her bag into the bathroom with her and started the water. She undressed and stepped under the hot mist of the shower. She let the water soak through her long hair, she had to use both sample bottles of shampoo to wash her whole head. As she sudded up her body, she heard someone walk past her room door and immediately froze.

         "Have you heard of that rogue hybrid on a rampage down south?" A female said in a hushed tone.

         "Yeah, I heard she devoured three town's and is heading north." Another female whispered back.

         Runa listened to them speak as they continued walking towards the higher numbered rooms. With each step they took away from her room, her muscles released a little more tension. She finally let out the breath she had been holding when their voices faded with their footsteps. 

         "I don't think I will ever get used to this feeling." She thought as she continued to scrub her body. She could not believe how fast word spread and the longer the truth stretched. Finishing up she turned the water off and grabbed a towel. 

         She quickly got dressed and checked to make sure the door was locked, then turned towards the curtains. She peeked outside, satisfied her view was vacant and she pulled the drapes shut tightly. Walking to the bed she grabbed the remote from the small table and turned on the bulky TV that looked ancient. She flipped through the channels a few times before she settled for Homeward Bound and curled up on the top of the comforter.

         As Chance, Shadow, and Sassy completed their journey home Runa's eyes would not close. She decided to check the locks and the window again. 

         Locks were still securely tight, but when she glanced through the thick fabric of the drapes she saw a dark figure standing in the center of the parking lot. The figure was male, largely built. His hands were fisted at his side. Runa quickly shut the curtain. Her breathing quickened, becoming out of control. Her heartbeat became erratic. She slowly looked again and the man was gone. Parting the fabric further she scanned the horizon this way and that, he had disappeared. 

         Her nerves on end, she began pacing the floor. After an hour of burning a hole in the carpet, she had made up her mind. She could not stay here. Quickly wrapping her fingers around the straps of her bag, she turned the TV off and exited the room. She returned the key to the front desk and started walking again. 

         She stayed on the sidewalk and came to a small park after passing a grocery store, a library and slipping between two vacant buildings. She looked behind her when she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. No one was in sight but she still felt like she was being watched, hunted. She entered the thick tree line and with every step she took, she proceeded to shed her body of clothing. Under the cover of the darkness of the trees, she shifted and ran.

         Pushing her paws as hard and as far as she could, she urged her paws to move faster than ever trying to get away from the feeling of being hunted in this small town. Breathing became harder as she started up the mountain that the town rested beneath. The trees no longer sheltered her as she continued upward. They were replaced with larger boulders and loose rocks mixed in with the dirt. She nearly lost her footing and slipped a few times.

         Suddenly she was tackled by a massive wolf, several inches taller than herself. He was solid white. His fur was much thicker than her own silky coat. His teeth were bared fully as a thunderous roar erupted from his chest and echoed out his throat. Runa was terrified but she was determined to survive, she released a growl of her own as she stood her ground standing tall.

         He did not try to speak to her, but he did strike first. She never saw him move before he was on top of her trying to claw at her stomach. She kicked him off and propelled herself forward, lunging for his throat. He dodged her and she stumbled to a stop in front of a thick boulder. Three more wolves surrounded her, blocking her exits. The white wolf stepped forward, growling louder with each step closer he got to her. Face to face with her, he pulled his lips away from his fangs and another thunderous roar came out, hurting Runa's sensitive hearing.

         "Shift. You are now the rogue prisoner of Alpha Ciaran of the Blood Moon pack." His voice was deep and the weight of the alpha command was burdensome, but Runa stood taller refusing to submit.

         "You can shift and come willingly or I will have to hurt you badly, female." He said, laying his ears back against his head as he lowered his head studying her.

         She felt the tears threatening to overflow her eyes, she was hoping she would have survived longer without getting caught. She decided to try and run for it. Leaping over the two wolves to her right, she slipped between a pair of boulders and tried running back down the mountain for tree coverage. She would try to find another way around the large land mass. Just before she pierce the edge of foliage she was rammed in the side then thrown into a large stone. As soon as she hit the back of her head on the rock darkness invaded her sight.

         "Get her to the pack prison. Lock her up in cell B19. Let me know when she wakes." Alpha Ciaran ordered the three wolves as they slowed to a stop upon arriving at the scene.

         They picked up her now human form and quickly obeyed their alpha. 

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         Ciaran did not show his surprise at the sight of another hybrid as his men carried her away. He was, however, curious to know her story. He had heard of a southern pack hunting a hybrid that had been hidden for eighteen years and is running north. If she was a threat to him, or his pack, he would kill her but he needed answers first.

         When his men were out of sight, he pushed his paws through the snow heading further north to the edge of his pack's territory. Reaching the highest point in his territory, he turned and looked down upon his land. Sighing heavily he thought about his life in the past five years. This was not how he had wanted his life to turn out. Maybe this female had a similar story. If she does, he will accept her into his pack and protect her along with every other member he took care of. 

         Ciaran, being satisfied nothing was amiss from the sight of things, he returned home for the night. He stretched out across his massive bed and stared up at the same ceiling he had been staring at for the past five years. His thoughts turned towards the female. From the looks of her face, she had to have had a rough upbringing. He would bring her to the interrogation room in the morning and get her talking, one way or another.

         He gave himself over to the darkness as exhaustion weighed down his muscles. Sleep, a most wonderful thing, captured him and pulled him under its dark waves. The last thing he thought of before he was dead to the world was the red female hybrid.

         When his eyes opened the following morning, he quickly dressed for the day and sauntered into his kitchen. He grabbed two granola bars and a bottle of water then proceeded to his office, all thoughts of his prisoner nearly forgotten. As he sat down in front of his computer screen he noticed some new paperwork neatly stacked in the center of the beautifully polished cherry wood.

         He slid the papers away and pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. After a minute he grabbed the papers and began reading over the black and white. Female hybrid, about 126 pounds, eighteen or nineteen, rogue. Found at 11:38pm. He took a deep breath again and slowly released it as he stood.

         "Jake, anything new on the female rogue?" He mind linked with his beta.

         "No, sir. She is still unconscious." Jake replies.

         "Let me know when she begins to wake." Ciaran ordered then closed the link before Jake could respond.

         He walked back around his desk to stand at the mini fridge and bar. Grabbing a glass and a bottle of Grey Goose he poured himself a drink and added three cubes of ice. Raising the cold rim to his lips and taking a long draw of that liquid fire, he looked at his reflection through the mirrored wall. His eyes had dark circles under them and his usual tan seemed faded. Heaving again he reached into the mini fridge. Punching the code into the back, a hidden compartment opened up to reveal his blood bag stash. He quickly grabbed a bag draining it of its contents, he closed the door and disposed of the evidence of his other half.

         "Alpha, the female is walking up." His beta's voice brought him back from his bloodlust.

         "I'll be there in ten." He replied, grabbing her almost blank file from his desk.

         He left his office and grabbed his keys. The drive to the prison was short but that did not stop the questions rolling through his head. He parked his truck and walked inside. Holding the file in his hand he stepped closer to the golden bars of her cell. She was sitting in the left corner furthest away from him curled in a ball, rocking back and forth as if insane.

         "What's your name, female?" He kept his voice calm so as not to frighten her further.

         "Are you going to kill me?" Her voice shook with fear and shed tears.

         "Tell me your name." He spoke a little louder but still soft.

         "Why do you need to know my name?" She yelled at him.

         He was beginning to get angry. He let out a loud growl and she tried to shrink more into the darkness of the corner. Raising the file in his hand, he took a breath to calm himself.

         "I need to fill out my paperwork. Alpha business." He said.

         "Runa." She stammered, her shaking visibly slowed.

         "What pack are you from?" He asked, writing her name on the paper.

         "I have no pack." She whispered.

         "Perhaps not now, but you were in a pack. Which one was it?" He asked again with a slight growl slipping out.

         "The Black River pack." She cowered away from him, turning her head into the corner.

         "You are a hybrid, how were you able to hide amongst your pack?" His voice, slightly calmer.

         "I didn't know I was a hybrid until two days ago. My mother didn't tell anyone about me, not even me until she killed herself." Runa spoke, her voice a little stronger.

         "How was she able to keep you a secret?" 

         "I don't know! She didn't exactly spend much time with me, and when she did it wasn't motherly bonding that was on her mind." She yelled with venom in each word.

         "So the pack female took care of you?"

         "What does it matter who raised me?" She stood and quickly came closer to the bars.

         "It doesn't!" His tone surprised her but he could smell fear seeping from her pores, smelling of burnt plastic.

         "Then why don't you kill me and get it over with! Hybrids are a species condemned to death anyway for being an abomination." She stared into his black eyes for a moment, they reminded her of an onyx.

         "I need your side of the story, the truth! If I decide that you have been wrongly accused, I will allow you to join my pack and be under my protection from others who would have you dead." When he finished, she took a sharp intake of breath as if she could not believe his words.

         "Really? You would allow a hybrid into your pack? Stop yanking my tail." She turned away from him and walked back to her corner and sat down folding her arms across her chest and crossing her legs at her ankles.

         "Fine. Rot in this cell." He spat at her and walked away.

         "Yeah, I'm going to die anyway might as well make me suffer because I didn't ask to be born." She muttered before he left the room completely.

         He stopped as he reached for the door. Turning around, he stood before her cell again and just stared at her for a minute in silence. Her gray eyes held his dark gaze. He sighed again, and pinched the bridge of his nose as he thought about what to do with her. She thought she was dead already.

         "Were you abused in your pack?" He spoke in a low voice.

         "Does it look like I was?" She said turning her face towards him, letting the light bathe her features.

         "Looks like you got cut with something golden." 

         "How do you know it was golden?" She questioned, standing again and strolled to the bars.

         She tried to rest her hands against them only to hear sizzling as her palms began to burn. Jumping away from the cell door she hissed and looked at her hands, watching the seared flesh heal to a bright pink scar. Like the one across her face.

         "Gold burns hybrids. They can't fully heal the wound." He said pointedly.

         "Not your first time dealing with a hybrid, huh?" She commented, glaring daggers at him.

         "Something like that." He whispered and left her to the stone walls of her cell.