"Everyone ready?" James asks.
"Please..." Danni begs.
"If we don't make a run for it then they'll just kill us," Ian says, not even attempting to sugar-coat it.
She nods, fighting back tears.
Joey walks over to her and says, "We'll all be okay. I promise."
We all phase, and where twelve humans stood before, we're replaced by twelve large, menacing wolves.
I look around at everyone. This could be the last time I ever see any of these people again. They could all get killed, or I could get killed. But no matter what, we're keeping Danni safe from the Mystics.
I make one promise to myself, though.
No matter what, I am killing Allie. She put a curse on Danni. A horrible curse that can never be undone. It's going to ruin her life. Vampires everywhere will want to find Danni and use her for their own hybrid army. So I have to get revenge.
It's at least the one thing I'm going to do before I die.
With shaky steps, Danni walks over to Ian and Matt, brushing up against both their left and right sides, to cover them with her scent.
Now that I think about it, Danni's scent is very distinguishable among the rest of ours. It could be for the fact that she is a she-wolf, or because I imprinted on her. I'm hoping for the latter, because then it'll be harder for them to find her.
"So it's settled, then? Danni will go in the middle with Ian and Matt on the sides. When they attack, which they will, then we split up into our groups," Seth growls. We all nod.
"Nightfall is coming. It'll make it harder for them to distinguish who's white and who's blonde," Jake points out.
"We have about ten minutes before we leave," Matt says.
You can tell that Ian and Matt are nervous. They're specifically targets now, and they'll be the ones to get attacked first. We have to protect them, but Danni is our main priority.
If she's captured, then every last wolf worldwide will be killed too.
"Alright everyone, go!" James yells.
We all break out into a sprint, going as fast as we can. Danni said it'll take possibly two days to get there, but after looking it up, we narrowed it down to almost a day if we follow a specific path.
The trees shake and the ground trembles as we continue along our path. We're all going as fast as we can. The faster we're able to get to the cave, the better. I'm also hoping that since the cave is protected by a witch's curse, we'll find a witch there who can put that protective charm on a larger area for us, or even better, Danni.
It has been about an hour since we started out journey. An extreme thirst is forming in my throat, and my muscles are protesting with every move I make.
But I can't stop. The longer and more frequent we stop, the more Danni's scent lingers in the air. And the more her scent lingers, the easier it will be for the Mystics to find us.
After about fifteen minutes longer, Seth calls us to stop. No one dares phase back to human, just in case we are ambushed. But we've been running for an hour and fifteen minutes, so we should take a break, especially because we're most likely going to get attacked during the end, when we're tired.
"How's everyone doing?" Matt calls out. Everyone grunts in reply.
"Danni?" Joey asks, going over to her.
She looks up at him, her giant green eyes bristling with tears.
"I have a bad feeling," she says quietly. Everyone in the pack has gone silent.
"Come on, Dan. You were the Alpha! You're stronger then this!" he replies, brushing his nose along the side of her face.
She dips her head down, the universal sign of let-me-be, so Joey backs up, leaving giant paw prints along the way.
"Our prints," I say quietly.
"What?" Seth asks.
"We're leaving a trail. It'll be easy to track us," I say, swiping my paw over Joey's tracks.
"We'll have to travel over grass-"
"The grass leaves us out in the open, James!" Ian cuts him off.
"It doesn't matter. They can smell and hear us," Darian, a lower class Rocky Hills member, says.
"Darian is right. But still, it'll put them on our trail," Jake says.
"Water?" I ask. "We can all swim."
"We won't be able to swim for another twelve hours. Even if we could get a stream to carry us that far," Danni points out. Everyone nods in approval.
"It's not that hard to find you, you know."
The voice pierces our ears like knives. So innocent sounding, yet so sinister.
"Allie," I growl, looking up to meet her blue eyes, which our brightly shining in the dark.
"Hello there, Tyler," she grins, jumping down. Everyone growls at her, ready to attack. But it'll be no use, even if we kill her, she'll surely have her army surrounding us.
"What do you want?" Seth growls, stepping protectively in front of the rest of us.
"Take a guess," she says with a smirk.
"Go to hell," James says, going next to Seth.
"I'll be going there eventually," she laughs. I grit my teeth. It's taking everything in my being to not run and rip her head off right now.
I realize then that someone else had my same thoughts. An auburn wolf and a midnight black wolf go lunging at her, catching her off-guard and managing to knock her down.
"JAKE! DARIAN!" I scream, getting ready to jump and go help.
"WE GOTTA MOVE!" James screams, pushing me north.
I look over at Danni. She's rooted into the ground and shaky.
"COME ON!" I yell, but my voice is barely audible over the sound of Jake and Darian's growls and Allie's yelling.
"THEY'RE COMING!" Joey screams, pushing Danni, which seems to snap her out of her trance.
We all form a huddle around Danni and take off. The footsteps of the Mystics can be heard all around , striking fear into all of us.
The footsteps get closer. And closer. And closer. I can smell the blood in the air. Our pace quickens. The steps are getting closer. The smell is getting stronger. My body is aching. My breathing is becomming quicker.
The steps are so close now I feel as their right next to me. I look to my left. No one's there. Now to my right. Still no one but my pack. My whole pack. We're all together now. We all became one pack when we agreed to protect Danni with our lives.
The smell of blood is so strong right now I can taste. It tastes like rust, causing me to gag. My throat feels like it's closing now. My body feels like it's collapsing. I wish they'd just attack already. The suspense is literally killing me now.
"RIGHT SIDE!" Matt yells. I turn right, just as a vampire attacks Eli, a Rocky Hills Omega. I don't see what happens next, though, because we can't stop.
I hear a scream that pierces my ears. It sends a chill down my spine.
"KEEP GOING EAST!" is the last thing I hear Eli yell. He's trying to throw them off, but I doubt it will last long.
After what feels like hours, the smell of blood still doesn't go away. Then, we come to a block in the road.
Or, six vampires standing in our way.
"Stand back," I whisper to Danni.
She's too paralyzed with fear to do anything.
"Joey," I growl quietly. He blows air out of his nose to tell me he hears me. "Get her out of here. Take her to safety. We'll hold them off."
"She won't go-"
"Make her. We'll probably buy you a good fifteen minutes."
"Fine."
"Seth," I think, trying to focus and use that telepathy thing. "We need to attack. It'll buy Joey and Danni some time."
Seth scrapes his paw three times on the dirt, which is a signal for "On the count of three."
Slowly, one paw scrapes the ground.
"Joey, get ready to go," I growl so just he can hear.
"I'd just walk away if I was you," James says, breaking the silence, taking a step towards the vampires.
Another scrape on the semi-frozen dirt.
"Make sure you get her to safety," I say, taking a step in front of Joey and Danni.
The third scrape.
I run at full speed at the vampire in the middle. His ice cold hands wrap around my torso, trying to break my ribs. I roll on my back, crushing him under me. His hands release my body, and before I have a chance to bite, someone else does, and blue eyes meet mine.
"Thanks James," I say quickly, looking over to where Danni and Joey were.
They're gone, I think to myself. Good.
I am broken from my daze when teeth sink into my neck. I howl in pain, immediatly falling to the ground, my vision blurring.
The pressure is gone instantly, a blood-curdling scream now inflicting pain on me.
Through blurry eyes I see long blonde hair covering all black clothing. Red is dripping from her mouth. My blood.
She's panting, from what I can see. T
hen, she's gone, being torn apart by Seth and Ian.
"Tyler! Tyler get up!" Seth says, nudging me.
I can't find the strength to move. Everything in my body is shutting down. My muscles are stiffening, my breathing is getting louder, and a searing pain is in my neck.
Then a coolness rushes through my body. Everything seems to end. The pain is gone, my muscles loosen, my breathing becomes more normal...
"Ack!" Seth coughs. With my vision back, I see him gagging on something.
"Are you okay?" I ask weakly.
"That is the LAST time I suck venom from your body!" he says, continuing to cough.
I can't hold back a grin. "This reaches a whole new level of bromance," I say.
He uses his back paws to kick dirt up into my face. He laughs, but then nudges me.
"Get up, Sleeping Beauty. We have to keep going," he says seriously.
I nod, getitng up.
"Danni and Joey went ahead while we were distacting them," I say."
"We have to catch up with them," Matt says, beginning to walk.
"And everyone stay safe, please," Ian says. Jake was Ian's best friend, and now he's gone. The two have known each other for years, maybe even since second grade. It's like losing a family member-To all of us.
Seth nods, looking seriously at all of us. "We lost a quarter of our wolves, let's not lose anymore."