Elise feels like she’s been hit by a heavy boulder; her labored breathing turns calm the moment she begins to regain consciousness.
Gone were the stone walls and iron doors she was kept in to hold her; now she was looking at the sky and stars above.
Her body feels itchy on the dewy grass she is lying on. It takes a moment for her to push herself up from the floor; every movement makes the grass crunch under her body. She groaned from the pain and her sore arms.
Her head still felt a bit foggy. She steadied herself with the bark of a tree she saw, leaning over it, confused and panicked. She tried to navigate where she was. “What in the moon?” she called, still groggy from the sleeping smoke."where the hell am I?"
She freezes as the memory returns to her mind. She recalls what happened back before she fell unconscious and how Kaide and Alvira once again used their dirty tricks to get her, and this time she’s taken to the middle of nowhere.
She feels the cold shift in the air as she wraps a hand around her body and begins to walk. Her bare legs brushed against the cold, dewy grass, her eyes searching for refuge or a way out.
Her throat feels as dry as the Sahara as she builds up her strength, tracking the ground for water that leads her to a creek. A breath of relief leaves her body as she walks towards it.
Tired, dirty, and thirsty, a sigh of relief leaves her lips when she comes to the creek. She dips her hands into the clean terrain, drinking her fill, till her body is sated and her once parched throat is now moist.
She dipped her hands into the freezing water, washing down the dirt from her arms. She could still smell the blood from the fight, and her body ached from the small movement. She can still smell the scent of Rygan on her clothes; it wasn’t a dream after all.
But now she wondered if she could get back to pack. No, for all she knew, Kaide and Alvira had set a trap and so many lies against her that she would be killed on sight for sure.
A bitter tear falls down her face as she recalls their betrayal. People who she thought were her friends pulsed through her skin, and she’d pay them a pack for what they caused her.
And now that Elise felt her thoughts were in order, she knew she needed a place to sleep for the night. She was hoping Rygan would find her before morning, but as she bent to take a last sip from the stream, she felt something immediately off in the air.
She freezes in turn to the sound of nothing around her; it was weird that there wasn’t even one chirp or sound of critters running around, yet she felt like she was being heavily watched. She shifts her human hearing to wolf and finally hears the crunching of feet.
With a click of a weapon that she immediately recognizes, she bends down the moment she hears the trigger brown off as a gun shoots a hole into the bark of the tree beside her. Elise's eyes were blown wide in shock; the humans were here!
Memories of the humans who tried to harm her came flashing through; she wondered if these were from Alvira's lackeys too. But no, this situation felt even deadlier. She needed to hide!
“I missed the darn bitch,” one of the males says as he fills his gun with another bullet. He aims again at the creek, only to see there is no one there.
“What the...” he mutters, A call from his hand-held transceiver from another person comes in.
“What’s wrong? Did you get the she-wolf? You shouldn’t have gone over on your own since you’re just a probationary hunt-guild member dumbass!” One of the males snickered.
"No, dammit, I can’t find the little shit; she looks like the girl wanted from the bounty poster. I will kill her and prove to you all that I can join the human hunt guild,” he mutters. He isn’t aware that Elise has stealthily made her way to his location.
She freezes for a moment when she hears the hunt guild; nothing good she’s experienced has come from that name, and right now she is very angry. She spears out her claws, and before he can turn, she lines her claws to his throat and slashes it clean.
Blood splayed on her palms and her dress. “There she is!” She hears someone shout. Elise is immediately surrounded by blazing flashing lights from unfamiliar carriages she has never seen.
She recalls a text from one of Kaide's books in which one noted carriages that humans built so that they could be fast enough to gain on wolves; ‘cars’ is what they called them. All she knew was that they were dangerous as she snarled at them.
Three huge jeeps surrounded her, with the dangerous male stepping out of it. Their deadly aura was nothing she'd ever felt from a human; the males that had taken her were child's play compared to this.
“Leave me alone,” she says to them.
“Oh, the animal speaks." They all chuckled and snickered, and their leader, who had a nasty clawed scar on his cheek, moved forward.
“No can do, not when you kill one of our own,” he says, pointing to the bloodied-up body. “What else can we expect from demons? We will kill you, and your life ends here," he calls out a whistle.
A sniper located in the trees lands a shot that pierces her shoulder. Elise lets out a scream. The bullet was made from silver, and she had to escape, especially since there were more than twenty males.
Her knees meet the ground, and the human narrows in, ready to catch and kill her. She waits till the last second as she reaches for her power, shifting into a mighty white wolf.
“What the fuck!” One male called before he was furthered by her mighty paws, and another male was killed by her canine as his bones crunched from impact.four men down.
“Shoot! Shoot her! God dammit!” The leaders rage as they all point their guns. Elise jumps out of the circled trucks and races into the trees.
She pushes her wound to heal, but it’s slower because of the silver effect. Their engines roar to life as the jeeps begin in pursuit, climbing through earthy forest wheels fast behind her as the men shoot.
“You can’t get away from us, pretty wolf!” He rages with wicked laughter. Elise thinks she is about to make it away from them, but she steps into a bear trap that immediately clamps on her front hind leg.
A howl of pain echoed into the air. She heard the victory of the men gaining closer to her, and she felt a call from the south, telling her to make it. To run faster to a safe space.
“No! No!” The human calls, “Do not allow her to get to the southlands; she is too rare to let go of; kill the bitch now!” He shouts.
Elise continues to race forward; the adrenaline in her body is far more intense than her pain. She sees an opening, but her heart drops when she sees what is in front of her.
A large space that is more than a 200-foot drop, but the land above is a 12-foot leap. She hadn’t jumped that far before; a minute later, there was nothing there, but then something was calling for her from those woods that opened up.
“From her wounds, she isn’t supposed to take it; let be hasty boys!” He mutters with a wicked chuckle. But his face turns grim with anger when she doesn’t see the wolf stop.
She is going to make the jump. One mistake, and it is a death drop 200 feet down. Elise stills her nerves, races to the end of the cliff, and jumps with a huge leap in the air.
Jump Elise jump!
The sound of gunshots and bullets followed her but missed her, and just by the last moment, Elise made it off the cliff and to the other side. Rolling in dirt and blood.
“Dammit! Where is she? Why can’t I see her?” The male curses from the other end, their cars around unable to make it there, and they are prohibited from that place, more like terrified of the monster that dwells in that cursed island that human eyes couldn’t see.
Elise has bled so much that she can barely stay in wolf form; she shifts back to human, hiding behind one of the trees till their round of the hunter's bullets is finished.
With no sign of humans anymore, Elise looks to her right leg, which has been clamped with a bear trap. She bites her lips as she gets a stronghold in the trap's mouth. She gives a silent prayer to the moon before pulling behind her.
“Augh-ahh-ugh!” She groans, pulling the silver piece clammed in her legs apart. She is losing a lot of blood as she goes up to walk, her naked body shivering from the cold and blood loss.
She hears the loud howl of a wolf as she looks at the sky. She feels a painful tug in her stomach, but nothing could prepare her for the warm trickling sensation she feels down her legs.
In the darkness, she reached down to touch it and saw that it was blood from between her legs. Overwhelmed by blood loss and anxiety,
Elise's vision blurred at the edges, and the world tilted. A cold sweat broke out as her knees buckled, and the floor rushed up to meet her with a jarring thud. Her eyes turned backward as Elise fell to the dry grass.
She hears the steps of feet gaining closer to her, and from her blurry lines of vision, she sees the orange-hushed eyes of a wolf trailing close to her. She can barely speak as her eyelids turn heavy.
And the world turns black.