...12 years later.
I watched from the trees as the boys got their fighting lessons.
Backhand, hook, kick, use the momentum from the kick to spin around, backhand, spin the other way, backhand. Repeat.
The rough bark of the tree bit into my skin, leaving it red with tiny cuts crisscrossing the knuckles and backs of my hands. I let my anger at the tracking device on my ankle drive my hits. Backhand, hook, kick, use the momentum from the kick to spin around, backhand, spin the other way, backhand. Repeat.
My muscles started to burn with the exercises and I decided it was time to do push-ups. One, two, three... twenty. I dropped to the ground and rolled over onto my back for sit-ups. One, two, three...fifty. I stood up and got into a running position.
'Ready, set, go!' I though before taking off, curving my path around the HMH so that whoever was watching my tracking beacon would know I wasn't running away.
I dogged the trees with ease, and jumped over the bushes without breaking stride. The wind whipped against my face and blew through my short red hair. A familiar happy feeling bubbled up inside me, and laughter started to spill from my mouth. This was freedom! Being able to run with abandon was freedom!
Suddenly, I heard the soft pants of a wolf and quiet footfalls running beside me. That was all it took to bring me back to reality. I wasn't free. I was a prisoner, wearing an ankle-bracelet and under constant surveillance.
"Go away!" I yelled over at the brown wolf I could just see weaving in and out of the trees to the side of me.
When he didn't, I stopped and started to walk in circles to avoid the cramps that I knew would come if I didn't keep moving for a second.
After a minute of this, I saw Jack walking out of the trees in nothing but a pair of basketball shorts, "No can do, Rosie. Grace told me I need to stay on you for today. We can't have you running away a week before the ball. It took us an entire month to find you last time."
At mention of the ball I shuddered a little. I needed to get out of here before that. I couldn't let them throw me into a ball gown and parade me around for all male werewolves to see. One of them might think I'm their match. In fact, the probability that one of them won't decide that I was their property was next to nothing.The purpose of this kind of event was to make sure werewolves would find their matches.
The ball was a three day event that all werewolves in the Americas were required to attend. If a wolf could make it over from somewhere else, they did. The first day was just for already mated couples to dance and have fun. The second and third were for all unmarked people to look for their mates. Everyone in a HMH above the age of 17 was required to go. Last year I was just barely under the age limit. This year, I wasn't so lucky.
"Come on, Rosie, let's go back to the house. You're missing some of your classes and you're making me miss mine."
"I don't have classes anymore. I graduated," I said before pretending to give in and follow him back to the house.
When Jack turned his back on me I picked up a thick branch and hit him over the head with it as hard as I could. He dropped like a sack of potatoes. I liked Jack as a person, but he was standing between me and my last chance at true freedom.
I started to look around for something I could cut my ankle-bracelet off with.
There was nothing but rocks.
I grabbed one of them and started to try to smash the little box that was transmitting my location. When it looked sufficiently damaged I took off running again. Only, this time I didn't curve my path around the HMH, and I didn't stop when I heard howls in the distance.
Eventually I got to the river and when I did I dove in and started to try and float on my back. The river would throw them off my scent. Occasionally I would be pulled under the water or I would hit a rock but for the most part I could stay floating and out of harms way. I'd had a lot of practice at this kind of thing.
After I could feel that the river had slowed down a little I flipped over and swam toward the shore.
When I was out of the river I started to spread mud over my skin in an attempt to keep my scent masked before I began to run again.
I ran, and ran and even when I didn't feel like I could do anymore, I kept running. I knew that this would be my last chance to get away.
Eventually not even my will power could keep my legs moving and I collapsed in a heap and fell asleep.
I could feel the panic start to fill me as soon as I woke up. I had to run. I had to get away from the HMH.
A shadow blocked out the light that was filtering through the trees.
No, no, no, I couldn't go back. I tried to stand up.
"Wait, wait," said a child's voice.
Why would they send children after me?
"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you," the little girl's head turned, "Mommy!"
I tried to stand again but my legs refused.
'She's calling for her mom. If her mom gets here she will take me back to the HMH.' I thought to myself before trying to stand up again.
"You're going to hurt yourself. Lay back down," the little girl said before turning around and calling her mom.
"What is it honey?" asked an unfamiliar voice.
I could tell when the woman caught sight of me. She started swearing and calling for her husband.
When he got there he also swore. "Pack up camp. We need to get her to a hospital," he called back to his family. "What's your name?" he asked as he scooped me up.
"Rose," I answered before relaxing into his arms. He said hospital. Not the infirmary. If he'd been a wolf he would have said infirmary.
He set me in the back of a Sudan and started the car.
"Rosie," I heard my name being called through the trees, "Rosie, where are you?"
I could feel the panic start to rise in me.
"I don't need a hospital," I told the man, "I just got lost in the woods but now that it's light I can tell which way my camp is. You can just let me go back to camp."
He looked doubtful and in the second it took for him to make up his mind Jack's older brother, Alex, stumbled out of the trees.
Alex looked around the camp, sniffing just enough that I could tell.
"Have you seen my girlfriend?" he asked the woman and her daughter, "We got in a fight last night and she left. I thought she would come back but she never did. I think she got lost."
"What does she look like?" the woman asked, skeptically.
I could feel my chances of being saved float out the window. She was going to tell them.
"She has a red pixie cut and the most beautiful green eyes," Alex said in an almost dreamy voice, while still looking around the camp for me. "Oh," he said looking directly at me, "There you are." He rushed over and pulled me into a hug, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel like I wasn't there for you. Please don't scare me like that again. Come on, let's get you back to camp so we can pack up and go home."
"I don't want to go home," I said glaring at him.
"I said I was sorry," he said squeezing my wrist just enough that it didn't break.
My eyes started to water and I choked back the yelp that was trying to make it's way past my lips.
"No," I said trying to keep the pain out of my voice.
He let go and leaned in to give me a hug. "If you don't come without a struggle I will just take you and I might just take the little girl with me too," he whispered in my ear.
To the outside world it probably looked like he was whispering apologies.
"You don't want her to go through the same thing you did, do you?" he continued still whispering into my ear as if he were simply telling me just how wrong he was.
"You wouldn't. If she smelled like she belonged at the HMH you would have taken her years ago."
"It's faint. She could be mated to a really low ranking werewolf. I've heard of humans who didn't have the smell at all being mated to low ranks before...."
I gave up. I couldn't let the same thing happen to that sweet little girl.
I buried my face in his neck and tried to compose my face. When I felt that I had a convincing smile on my face I pulled my head away, "You're right. I was just being stupid and I over reacted. Will you forgive me?" I asked sweetly.
Alex smiled, "Of course."
He backed up and held out his hand to me with that same smile on his face.
I took his hand willingly and tried to stand up so that I could follow him. My legs refused to support me. As soon as I put any weight on them they collapsed and I fell; yanking my hand out of Alex's and scraping my knee on a rock as I hit the ground. I winced in pain and started to try and stand up again.
Alex offered his hand but I just glared at him until he removed it. I didn't want his help. He was going to drag me back to the place I hate most in this world, and I was going to go with him willingly because he was a monster. I didn't want his help.
I wasn't looking but I'm sure the family was looking at me in concern because Alex started to mumble something about 'feminists not letting him help them even when they need the help'.
Finally I managed to force my legs to work and I stood up with my head held high, trying to hide the fear in my eyes as I walked back toward the terror that was the HMH.
Alex slipped his hand in mine again and forced me to walk toward the trees.
"Thank you for watching over her," he called to the family over his shoulder.
My plan was to hit him over the head with a tree branch as soon as we were hidden from sight, but before I got the chance a group of five werewolves surround us. They had been hidden just inside the trees waiting for us.
Alex pulled me to a stop and let go of my hand before walking behind a particularly tall tree.
He came out as a wolf and laid down in front of me. Clearly making it known that I was to climb on his back. They were impatient to get me back to the HMH.
"No," I said before walking past him and continuing in the direction I knew the HMH was in.
He walked around me while another wolf pushed me from behind. I fell on his back and he started to walk with me hanging off him like a sack of potatoes.
"Fine. Let me get on the right way. I'm going to fall if you leave me like this."
Alex stopped and let me slide down. I made sure to land on his foot before swinging one leg over his back and pulling on his neck fur as hard as I could. He looked back at me and glared before taking off running.
To be honest, it was a relief that I wouldn't need to run all the way back. I don't think I would have been able to make it. At very least, it would have taken a few days.
Last night I didn't realize just how far I'd run; but today as the wolves ran back toward the HMH I realized just how far I'd gotten.
It took a total of 4 hours for the wolves to get back to the house. A dead sprint for a werewolf was about seventy miles per hour if they were in peek physical condition. That was about twelve miles per hour faster than a real wolf's sprint. Their 'lazy' run was about thirty miles per hour. Carrying a person on their backs they tried not to run faster than about twenty miles per hour.
A lot of that distance would have been the river carrying me, but still... eighty miles in one night. That had to be some kind of record.
When Alex finally came to a stop in front of the house I was shocked to feel my hands being yanked behind my back and cold, metal handcuffs getting cinched around my wrists.
Crap.
"Come on Rosie," I heard Taylor say sadly, "We need to get you checked out."
Everything about Taylor was golden. He had big, brilliant gold eyes that always wanted to assume the best of people and a mess of blond curls that almost matched his golden heart. His face was composed of soft curves that left the impression of innocence despite his massive frame. He stood at 6'6" but somehow managed to make people feel like they were on the same level as him. Nobody was ever uncomfortable in his presence because he just had this air about him that put people at peace.
Whoever decided that he was going to be my guard really knew what they were doing. I didn't have it in me to hurt the softhearted man. Taylor didn't belong in a place like this. He didn't deserve to be forced to assist with the kidnapping of children.
"I can't walk," I told him with my chin held high, "If my estimations were correct I went about eighty miles last night. My legs won't support my weight anymore."
Taylor looked at me with sorrow in his golden eyes before pulling me into his arms and walking toward the infirmary.
He never said where I was going after visiting the infirmary but I had a feeling I wouldn't like it. Taylor kept looking at me like he wished he wouldn't need to do whatever he was instructed to and that usually meant trouble.
Seconds after he set me on a bed and took the handcuffs off a doctor came over to me and started to check out my wounds. She bandaged a few cuts and made sure all my vitals were normal. The whole time I sat there Taylor just watched with regret.
After the doctor was done making sure I was okay physically she nodded to Taylor, who pulled my arms behind my back slowly and put the handcuffs back on before picking me up again and carrying me away.
The gentle sway of Taylor's walk started to make me feel really sleepy or maybe it was just the painkillers the doctor gave me but the end result was the same. I fell asleep as the big guy carried me. I knew I shouldn't have; but I couldn't help the peaceful feeling that engulfed me and dragged me under.
Another failed escape attempt lands me in the arms of a werewolf. Why did this have to happen every time?