Numbers That Follows

chapter 10

 It was amazing seeing the sky and not being confined to a small round room running in circles or running for my life. This was a different run; this was like nothing before. I felt free. I saw Caster stop so I caught up next to him.

"This is where I first saw you." He looked at me.

"Yes, where I had beaten up members of your pack. Great first impression." laughed.

"Normally if I see my men attacking I jump in and try and save them, but I saw you and froze. I knew you could almost sense me because you stopped for just a second and then you know." he said.

"I was so mad at myself for that. If it had happened before when I was still there I would have been punished, I have never frozen before." I looked at him.

He took a couple steps closer and stood in front of me.

"You went through so much and lost so much." Caster looked at me.

"How can you know how much you lost if you never knew. From my point of view I gained more than I ever could imagine. I never had anything to lose till I lost." I corrected him.

"Didn't think of it that way," he said.

He pulled me over to a fallen tree and we sat down. I looked around the area and it was beautiful. Much better than a stone wall I guess. from where we sat I could hear the river was rolling fast.

We sat like that for a few minutes when I noticed Caster start to shift in his seat. He turned to look at me.

"I.... Um... What happened to you?" He asked. "I talked to Armin but he told me if I wanted to know ask you and if you told me it was your decision"

"well ..." I paused for a moment. "Like you protect your pack I protected mine. In total there were 22 of us with 22 being the youngest at 5. Me being the oldest, I used to pick fights if one of them did something wrong because it would turn the focus on to me. I knew He would never kill me. If a guard went too far in punishment he would kill the guard. I spent my whole life keeping them safe. Until one day we were called for a meeting we were corralled into a room. Each of us sat in a chair. He said he wanted purebreds. When he finished talking a group of men entered the room and stood behind some of us and in a single motion they drew knives and slit their throats."

I took a deep shaky breath, I could still see the way that their bodies slumped and fell off the chairs.

"It was at that moment I decided to leave. And as bad as it seems I wish I never left, because those that are left are all alone and I can't protect them out here." I finished.

"I am so sorry" Caster put his hand on my back to comfort me.

"I abandoned them." I said looking at the ground.

"Sometimes we need to save ourselves before we can save others." Caster replied.

"He has an army of incredible strength. Witches, wolves, vampires, and dragons, He has control like no other. He takes them when they are young, so they are less rebellious. He learned that with me." I explained.

"With so many children taken, how has no one noticed?" Caster questioned

"I don't know," I said, " But he did."

"At the next alpha summit, It's in two days, I am going to bring this matter to all the Alphas in the area and see if they can help. Because it sounds like this man is a threat. Not just to wolves but to everyone he kidnaped. This man needs to be stopped." Caster turned to me. "We are going to save your friends who are left."