The Female Alpha

Chapter II. Found

They had found me.

Often had my mother warned me, do not wander the woods at night. Though it had hardly been by choice that I had found myself here, I would have done well to attempt to get away while I had the chance. Now, it was too late.

My legs were still weak and even on a good day with healthy legs, the second I had heard them growl I would have been too late.

There roams more in these woods than animals alone, we have all heard the stories. Whether they are beasts covered in fur that stand on all fours or those with fangs and a craving for your flesh, there are many types you would do well to avoid.

And by the sound of it, whatever is closing in on me, it is hardly friendly.

The sounds come from different directions, there are multiple sources of branches cracking, leaves ruffling and by now I can even hear their breath panting. My senses are in overload by all the sounds and the way my eyes attempt to make out figures in the dark. At times I think I can suddenly see in the dark before it all slips away into darkness once more.

In such a moment I see it. It was barely a second that my eyes were able to make out a silhouette in the dark. They were partly hidden behind a tree, standing as tall as a human. But it was not, it was not human at all. No human stood on four feet.

I spook and shuffle around in the leaves, my hands now both on the ground as the moonlight suddenly shines brightly to reveal what I had seen just a moment before.

There it stood, its breath visible in the cold sky, its shape enormous and covered by dark fur, but what stood out most of all, their yellow eyes piercing through the dark as if they held lights within them.

I lay frozen in place on a cold bed of crimson leaves as the beast stalked up to me. Behind it appeared another wolf, slightly smaller and with a brown coat, unlike the dark grey coat of the one that trod forward. Behind me I could hear more beasts closing in on me.

Fight, flight, freeze. What would it be? Never before had I faced a situation like this before.

It seemed like the wolves took their sweet time as they stalked their way forward though in reality, just seconds had passed. What was I to do? Was there anything that I could do at all? My head was already ringing, my vision blurry and my ears impaled by a piercing ringing.

How did I end up here? My mother had always told me to stay out of the woods, they were dangerous if one were to tread too far. And under no circumstances were we to even go near them under the dark of the night. Mother warned us so, but never did she tell us what to do if we did find ourselves facing the horrors that lay in those dreaded woods.

My eyes rested on what remained of my sister. I no longer had any attachments to anything in the world as she was the last one of my loved ones. What would I live for now that she had passed away? As if it had any purpose now that my whole family had passed away. Tears fell down my face as I closed my eyes and accepted my fate. I should lay here and let the beasts end me. Let it be over quickly so perhaps I too could find peace in the hereafter.

God. My sister would kill me if she heard me think like this. As quickly as the moment of acceptance had come, it disappeared afterwards. My eyes popped over as one of the beasts stood just a body's length away from me. Within a fraction of a second, I was up on my hands and knees.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" I shouted, surprising myself with the strength of my voice and my sudden fight.

The beasts froze. From all the stories I heard about their cruelty, their murderous instincts and their ability to snap your head off in a millisecond. But the way the beasts stopped in their tracks locked eyes with each other revealed a new fact to me.

They understood me.

But they did not listen. Behind me another attempted to sneak up to me once more, I turned around to them, not allowing them the element of surprise. "Go away!" I shouted once more attempting to make them listen. The smaller brown wolf walked from behind the larger grey one and up to my right to make sure I was now completely surrounded by wolves, the only way out would be to climb over the car wreck, which in my current state was impossible.

Panic rose within me even more than it already had. I wasn't getting out of this, but I had to try. Even if I had nothing to lose, I could not face my sister in the hereafter if I did not try.

A tug at my leg turned into a piercing pain as the wolf behind me got the better of me and tugged at my leg, effectively dropping me to the floor. I screamed in agony as my instincts kicked in by stomping the wolf in the face with my unaffected foot.

From there it all happened so fast, I was barely able to comprehend what was happening. I threw a rock at the smaller wolf and quickly attempted to stand, which surprisingly succeeded, even if I could barely hold my weight. I flailed my arms around every time the wolves attempted to nip at me, shouting things that were even incomprehensible to me.

The wolves closed in on me within the blink of a second as if a signal was given. Within that moment, time seemed to stand still before turning back to its super speed. Within that small timeframe, my hearing turned to normal, better than normal, suddenly I heard every breath and heartbeat around me. My vision sharpened and focused, the dark no longer bothered me, I was fairly sure my eyes were burning brightly as my vision turned into a heightened version of before the crash. My pain was muted and I could now stand.

Time turned back to its super speed and a wolf charged at me, this time I did not stand helplessly. Before I knew what had happened, I had dodged the wolf and had even pushed it away from me. It rolled along the forest floor before it crawled up and I swear I could suspect an element of surprise in it. The other wolves had also stopped charging at me, their eyes filled with the same surprise as their pack member.

There was little time to attempt to comprehend what was happening, as just as before, they took me by surprise and knocked me to the ground as my consciousness slipped away from me once more.

The last thing I could vaguely remember was the silhouette of a man walking up to me before the darkness took over me completely.