The Mother of Wolves

Chapter Four

"It was a nice day of picking. 19 bodies good for fertilization. I can't wait to see what the Bottom Feeders bring in next." A man's voice laughed as he and a companion passed the barn door.

The girl and I stayed still hoping they wouldn't insect the barn but of course they did.

"Hey!! Round up the boys and the dogs. Looks like we have a few runaways." The man gave the command and my stomach dropped.

When they walked away I turned to the girl. She shook her head and finally showed some emotion by dropping to her knees and sobbing.

I sighed and looked around for an escape route. Across the fields was a forest. If I could get there we might be able to escape. I heard dogs off in the distance. Soon they would catch our scent. We wouldn't make it to the forest in time.

Not on human legs. Zora said softly and I felt my insides twist and in a second I was a wolf. Again.

I looked over at the girl and gestured for her to climb my back. I was pretty large if I do say so myself.

Without hesitation, she climbed onto my back and I darted towards the woods. The wind felt great running through my fur. The forest had seemed so far but now we were already there.

When I hit the tree line I didn't stop running. In fact, my speed seemed to increase. When the sounds of dogs seemed to increase I decided to face them head on. I stopped and shook a little so the girl could continue to run. I smelled a stream up ahead where she could wash off her scent and throw off the dogs. She climbed off me and began to run. When I turned back towards the farm I was faced with at least 10 dogs. Hounds....

Something told me I could take them. In front of them stood the largest. He was black with long floppy ears and black orbs that seemed to penetrate me.

The Alpha... Zora whispered.

My body became taught and a snarl ripped through my throat like a sharp knife to cut each one of the dogs. All except for the Alpha backed away. He looked at me and growled himself. It was his way of saying he wouldn't back down either.

Before I could pounce on him a few men showed up from behind the dogs.

"Really! They stopped the chase to chastise some wolf! Juliv is going to be angry." One of the men exclaimed.

I realized then that no one could tell I was a shapeshifter. These men wouldn't harm me. In the Shukua clan wolves were good omens and to kill one was cursing you family for generations.

"We aren't going to be able to find them girls and boss is going to flip." Another man said.

I growled at them hoping I could get them to turn back.

"We'll just say the wolf saved them and we couldn't get passed it because it was protecting them. Now that I think of it. The Bottom Feeder in the barn doesn't look like girls killed him. Maybe there wasn't any girls escaping at all. Maybe it was just a wolf." He smirked and called off the dogs while throwing me a piece of dried meat. It hit my feet and I didn't even flinch. He shrugged his shoulder and all the men walked back the way they came.