Alpha King & his Trophy

04. Outnumbered

HANNAH

Oh my Goddess… There were more than 30 of them and less than 10 of us. The patroller guys all shifted and fought with their lives. Most of the girls ran away and I couldn’t find Christine anywhere.

“Chris?!” I used our mind-link, but the channel was closed. Oh no.

Parker was biting one of the rouges into his leg when suddenly three other rouges jumped on him, tearing his back into pieces. I shifted to Cleo’s form and ran to help him, dodging one of the rouges with my strong tail and scratching his snout with my sharp claws. The rogue shook his head and stretched his paws, preparing for a jump. And I knew what to do. I let him jump high above me, rolled on my back and pierced his belly with all my claws. First, his insides fell off his belly to the ground and then the unconscious body followed, not moving anymore. I took someone’s life. This wasn’t that kind of “first” I planned for tonight. I scanned the surroundings to find Parker again. But it was too late for him. Another rouge appeared by his side and ripped his throat, the blood splashing all around the forest and making him bleed out in less than a minute. My boyfriend was dead. I watched the slaughtering that was in front of me, only three patrollers remaining alive.

And almost all the rouges turned their feral gazes on me. S.hit!

“Cleo?” Maybe she had some good idea what to do.

“There are too many of them. We have no chance to fight them all. We must run.” She was very agitated, and I knew we had to be fast because if they caught us… I didn’t want to even think about it.

Cleo turned around and ran at full speed. But those rouges were fast too. I counted pawsteps behind us. Two rouges, four rouges, seven rouges, eleven rouges… No, no, no, no. I mustn’t panic, I mustn’t panic. I kept repeating it to myself and fully trusted Cleo and her running skills. She was very good at maneuvering, swiftly sliding from one side to another and using her paws very effectively. Although she managed to create quite a distance between us and rogues, they were still behind us, and it didn’t seem like they would give up that easily. Their minds were feral and reprogrammed to kill or rape. And I knew which option awaited me if I let them catch me.

We came across a river and Cleo jumped into it, in an attempt to swim through it. But the stream was too strong and pulled her under the water, rolling her body several meters away. She lost an orientation and I suddenly had no clue where we were. But there was no time to just stand by.

Cleo got out of the river and ran straight forward. Soon we reached a landscape with thick bushes and Cleo decided to crawl under it. Bushes had sharp thorns which cut Cleo's fur and we both had to clench our teeth not to cry. But rogues could smell our blood so we couldn't stop. My wolf managed to slip through the bush labyrinth and scanned the surroundings. I didn’t know this territory. It seemed very unfamiliar. But I assumed we must still have been in the Northwest Crescent pack, so I didn’t object. I didn’t know for how long we were on the run, but I still sensed some rogues behind us.

The leafy ground was turning into a thick snow blanket, and it was getting harder to run through it. The snow was almost frozen, and Cleo’s paws got stuck in it. Damnit. It was slowing us down significantly.

“I need to rest.” She said and I could feel her exhaustion. She was running for many hours and the weather conditions were not ideal. “Shift back.” I told her and she nodded in approval. We could take turns at running. I didn’t mind.

But boy, was it cold! I somehow didn’t think through that I was very much naked, it was dark and freezing and just miles and miles of snow everywhere. But I couldn’t stop. I summoned all my strength and ran with determination. This was a run for survival. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not make it far. My legs became numb very soon, and I fell down to the white ground, my body shivering and the thick steam of my breath escaping my mouth. Hell of a freeze!

“I can’t move. Cleo, can you take over?” I wept as the cold was that intense that it burned me through skin and muscles right to the bones.

“I’m afraid I can’t. You are too weak. Hannah, you mustn’t give up! Are you listening to me? If you stop now, you’ll die!” My wolf was barking at me desperately, but my eyelids were so heavy, and I couldn’t feel my legs at all. I just wanted to sleep. And I closed my eyes for just a split of a second when the feral growling slapped me across my face and a new wave of adrenalin kicked in. Rouges. They found me. No, no, no, no.

I gathered all the remaining parts of my shattered strength and forced myself to shift to Cleo’s form. The rest helped her a little bit, and she was now fast like a flash of light. And I saw another forest ahead of us. That was our chance to hide. We only had to run a little bit more and surely there would be some safe spot where the rogues wouldn’t find us. The faith was our power, it was the engine that was driving us to our survival. To fulfill our escape plan. Yes! Just a few more miles. We got this.

But Cleo stretched her paws and stopped, leaving me puzzled in the back of her mind.

“What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly. Her breathing became heavier and her body trembled.

“Look. We are trapped. It’s over.” She whimpered and tears formed in her eyes.

Dark shadows were standing right in front of us. Too many of them. Maybe fifty, maybe more. I could recognize the silhouettes of wolves' bodies. I didn’t know that so many rogues lived in the woods. And it truly shocked me. The biggest wolf of them all stepped out and howled. And the wolves moved in sync, as if they were perfectly organized. But that did not make sense at all. Rouges didn’t have a hierarchy. They were feral and couldn’t use rational thinking, neither could they come up with any tactics. This was strange. This was a whole new level of horror. They were smart rogues! I was doomed.

“I’m sorry, Cleo. I shouldn’t have dragged you to that party. I should have listened to my dad and just stayed at home.” Dad. Mom. Steph. Jackson. Even that moron Hugo. I would never see them again. I started to cry out of despair. I would never get another chance to apologize for my rebellious and stupid behavior. I would never hug any of my family members again. And more importantly, they didn’t even know where I was. They would never find me as my body was supposed to be torn by feral beasts. What a sad ending to my very short life.

“I’m sorry, too. It was an honor to be your wolf. I love you, my human.” Cleo said and we hugged virtually in our shared minds.

“I love you, too.” And with those words I closed my eyes and just waited for death to come. It was approaching us, I could hear hundreds of paws crushing the frozen snow with sharp claws. Death was already too close and there was no way of escaping it.