Broken Dreams

Trade Off

I woke again in a daze. Still in the same spot i'd passed out in.

The werebear hovered over me, an amused smile dancing across his lips. "Yer not a very bold wolf are yer?" The words that danced from the lips behind his beard were muffled but I could tell just by the look in his eyes that he was amused. That he found this entire situation amusing.

"Last time I checked your kind weren't real." I couldn't help but bite back. I didn't mean to but the current situation seemed to call for it.

He scoffed loudly, "youngin when yer live as long as I have yer learn that even the darkest, the most inconceivable creatures are real." An apprehensiveness soon passed through his amber like eyes as a cloud of memories gathered in the stormy depths of his mind. It looked like he was remembering something from eons ago.

"What is that suppose to mean?" My curiosity suddenly got the better of me as I pressed him for answers but all he did was purse his lips together and frown.

"Unfortunately you will find out sooner rather than later." With his cryptic message a knock sounded against the flimsy metal sounding door outside.

"Daddy!" Called a female voice I recognised as the young girl that had been around with her brother. " I can hear them coming." She yelled rather shrilly.

"Who's coming?" I couldn't help but yell at the man. What was going on?

"Yer must understand," he began rather grimly. "Around these here parts someone such as yerself aren't too common."

The more he spoke the more unsettled and disturbed I became.

"This here fella that's coming to see me is after looking for a young she wolf for a wife." With every little word he spoke I felt a little part of me die inside. "There hasn't been one born for many generations. The money he will give me is enough to s'port m'family you see?"

I had gone from living a cherished, sheltered life in Hillington to being used as nothing more than cattle to trade. "How could you? What kind of man are you that you would do this to a teenaged girl?!" I couldn't help but be enraged by his carelessness at my situation.

"Well now missy." He started again. "Yer ain't exactly been forthcoming with yer situation now have you?"

He had me there. I didn't want anyone to know who I was or where I'd come from. I didn't know what had killed my family or if it was coming after me. I didn't know if I had any allies or if everyone that knew who I was would turn against me. Or worse.

"What do you want to know? I'm a runaway. Stole a car and crashed into that tree." I lied through my teeth but as far as I could tell I sounded like I was being completely truthful.

How would he know? The only problem with lying was that you had to commit to the lie no matter what happened. While I was sitting there and while he was staring at me, searching me for answers with his curious gaze he shrugged.

"It's not the truth," he concluded with a lot of confidence.

"Yes it is." I demanded insistently. I was sure I had gotten a handle on my nerves so there was no way for him to know I was lying.

"It's not the whole truth then. Anyways," he said walking to me quickly with a sense of finality. "This man and his wolves that is coming for yer he's a decent feller. He'll be taking good care of you," I was being given to another wolf pack?

I found myself wishing I'd stayed in my parents home and died with them. Being given to another pack would mean I meant nothing. Though pure born female werewolves were rare they could still be classed as Omega. I wasn't and Omega! Now that my brothers were dead I was Alpha!

The gruff, grumpy man pulled me up roughly off of the floor. All my joints stiff and numb from being in the same position for so long. Not only that I had been in a car accident and it looked like I had suffered a few injuries. Though many of them had healed there was a deep gash on my arm that looked like it was becoming infected.

The man kicked the door open and almost sent it flying off of its hinges. "Subtle," I couldn't help but mumble as he dragged me out the door after him. Part of me wanted to try and grab on to anything I could to prevent myself being taken but when I saw the faces that emerge from the undergrowth I changed my mind instantly.

"Brown, what is this you have?" The leader of the pack stepped forward as I suddenly found an ant on the ground very fascinating.

Fixing my gaze to the moving dot I turned my ears to listen to the conversation but did not think it wise to stare the man in the eye. I didn't know what these wolves were like, I didn't know if they would kill me or beat me or treat me like a queen. I didn't want to antagonise anyone.

"What yer think boy?" The bear replied. "She wouldn't be there if it weren't what yer were here for." His words instantly confused me as my brow furrowed and knitted in confusion. Eventually itdawned on me but it took a lot of thought.

Silence fell between everyone as I felt his eyes on me as he circled like a predator around its prey. I was helpless and at their mercy.

"She's injured!" The wolf finally growled angrily as the others with him followed suit. "She smells like bear. One of you have lay with her!" He accused them as I felt his gaze leave my body.

"There be no such thing!" The man lied immediately.

"Well take the girl. Kill the rest." His words were ice cold as he began tugging me.

My heart raced and pounded against my rib cage, "stop!" The demanded echoed in my ears before I realised what I'd said.

In an instant the man stopped pulling me. I stood with my head down and he hooked a finger under my chin and brought it up so I could look him in the eye.

He had caramel coloured skin and dark brown eyes, unlike the bear the man that stood before me didn't have flecks in his eyes and to me they almost looked soulless.

"Why should I not kill them for touching you?" He questioned quickly as he unbound my hands. "They've kept you locked up and restrained. Like an animal."

Tilting my chin slightly higher on defiance he didn't look malicious but he did look like a no nonsense man.

"None of them lay with me," I admitted as a flash of a memory fluttered into my head. "The reason I smell of them is because o crashed my car. I couldn't walk and became feverish in my state." Motioning toward an old scar on my leg I didn't know what compelled me to lie to my own kind but I didn't want anyone else to die the man did save me from being raped by his son. "The wound has healed but it is my understanding that I was savage and wild. They lay on me and wrestled me till they could restrain me. That is all."

The wolf before me searched my eyes for the truth but stepped back soon enough, "does she speak the truth?" His words were directed at the man he called Brown.

"Yes ser. We wasn't too sure if she'd be back to normal so them bonds stayed on."

Glancing back at the man he gave a very slight nod of his head. The light dancing in his eyes almost made it look as if he were about to cry but as quickly as it appeared it was dispersed in the blink of an eye.

"Very well. Let us be gone," and with that I had been given to a pack of wolves. Though I was now with my kind I still didn't feel safe as we disappeared into the undergrowth.