Falling for your Fate

Chapter 9

He poised himself in his fighting pose and instinctively my hands came up to defend my face anticipating the blow. I don't remember when I dropped the branch I hit him with but it would have been useless to me now anyway.

I waited for the hit, for the blood and the pain but instead I heard an angry growl before the clashing of bodies.

My eyes snapped up to find another grey-brown wolf wrestling with my would be murderer. In an instant the small brown wolf was up and helping the new wolf as it struggled to outmatch the far bigger grey one.

They struggled for several seconds until finally the grey wolf fell still under the attack of the two wolves. The grey-brown one barked loudly at the brown one egging him to move on but instead he remained still and slowly his eyes moved to settle on me. The grey-brown wolf ignored the small ones protests and nudged him to get him moving, nipping at his tail angrily. I watched as they disappeared into the woods, the brown wolf's eyes finding me one last time before they were out of sight, an unspoken apology.

I started when I heard a sudden shift from beside me and I looked over to see that the grey wolf was moving. They hadn't killed him, only knocked him unconscious.

I needed to move. My tired body was reluctant to begin running again but I didn't have time to rest or contemplate how close Colby might be to me now, all I could do was wipe my mind and focus on running. It didn't matter where I ran to as long as it was as far away from here as possible.

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I glanced over my shoulder for what felt like the hundredth time but still I couldn't see Colby and it frightened my more than if he was bearing down on me, threatening to catch me.

He couldn't have given up and I could never dream of outrunning him, so he had to be near. With those thoughts running through my mind I looked over my shoulder again but still the forest was empty.

I couldn't even make a guess at how long I had been running but the forest was growing darker and I knew I only had an hour or two, at best, then the world would be completely black and it would be impossible for me to keep going. I wanted to shift, I wanted to run with four legs instead of two but Michael's warning rang loudly in my mind so I remained in my weaker human form.

My speed had almost slowed to a walk now but I didn't stop pushing because even if I couldn't see him I knew he wouldn't stop.

I froze suddenly when I heard a sound, but instead of it coming from behind me it came from somewhere up ahead. I squinted in the growing darkness and saw movement as I heard the sound of what I thought was footsteps against the forest floor. There were people ahead of me. I almost rejoiced at the thought. If there were people, did that mean I had finally reached the border of his territory?

I felt renewed energy surge through my veins and I used it to run with all I had in their direction. My breathing was ragged and my eyes almost blurred as I pushed myself to the point just past exhaustion but even then I couldn't stop. I needed to reach them.

When I was almost upon them I heard a troubling thought make itself known in my head. It sent all the blood rushing from my body, taking my hope with it. What if they didn't help me? What if they hurt me too? I stopped dead as the thought circulated my mind but it was too late because they had already heard me and there were seven pairs of eyes staring at me and they were anything but welcoming.

'Who are you?' One of them shouted but I couldn't make out who said it. They were all men, all shirtless and all obviously werewolves. After where I had just been they couldn't be any worse but they might not be much better either. I may have just walked myself into another trap and there was nothing I could do to get out of it. If I ran back there was pain and if I walked forward there was the unknown. I could only imagine the pain and suffering that could be waiting for me if I crossed the distance to the men all watching me with calculating eyes.