On the run

Trust

I placed my hand over my pounding heart. "What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed
at the piercing, mismatched eyes gazing through my window.

"Just let me in please, I need your help."

"For fuck sake," I groaned and reached over to open the passenger door. He stepped in as I crawled into the drivers seat.

"Drive," he said in a dead tone.

I rolled my eyes and started the car, "Where to master?"

"Sorry," he turned towards me, "I saw you drive through earlier and I couldn't contact the guys in my branch. Just keep following the road."

We drove in silence glancing at each other from the corners of our eyes occasionally. Blake turned his whole body towards me, "So werewolf huh? What's you're name, is it Moon Moon, oooo no, maybe Fang?" A wide grin spread over his face; he seemed very proud of himself.

I clicked my tongue, "Very funny, it's Dakota."

"Pretty name," he nodded.

"What do you want anyway, where are we going?"

"Just turn left." I did as he said and a small clearing with multiple cabins came into view.

The car came to a halt. "Look, you're the first lupine we've come across, it's kind of hard to find you because you're all in hiding but we need your help, well more like your leader's or alpha whatever you call them. Just come inside and I'll explain, there's food and tv, you can have a shower if you want."
I drummed my fingers against the steering wheel in thought.
"Why should I trust you?"

"You trusted me enough to drive me with no explanation."

"Ok we're gonna get something straight here Blake. You're not human, kind of seemed like I should help you out but I don't know you and I've done you a favour. This isn't some teen fiction where I find out you're a vampire and instantly trust you with my life so get out of my car, find some other lupine and beat it Dracula."

Blake opened the door and stepped out. He then turned back towards me leaning on the car and ducking his head in, "Can we just talk?"
I narrowed my eyes, I could hear the low rumbling of cars coming, him I trusted not to kill me but others not so much.

"Sure I can come in for some food I guess." I plastered a fake smile on my face really trying to sell it. He nodded and closed the door waiting for me to get out. I put the car in reverse and slammed my foot down on the pedal speeding away.

I had no idea what kind of "help" Blake wanted but I was not chancing it, clearly the rest of his branch were in those cars in the distance. Maybe he was in some vampire army or something, sounds like the type of thing you have a branch in. Yuk, I was not too keen on the idea of joining the legion of the undead.
"He's part lupine remember, we should help him." My wolf is an idiot.
"Clearly this is a vampire related problem and he doesn't even know he's a hybrid, for all you know they could be planning on drinking our blood." I shuddered at the thought. Really I wouldn't be surprised if it was some weird kink to drink from this new supernatural species nobody had heard of.

To think we used to be so inconspicuous even other supernatural creatures didn't know we existed. Now look at us being taken away to god knows where for humans to experiment on us. Well it's only a rumour but it makes sense. My thoughts and theories subsided to a quiet hum in the back of my mind as I heard a car trailing behind me. A black Range Rover turned a corner and came into view so I sped up. It matched my pace but never came closer, I could hear another coming from up ahead. Seeing a matching black Range Rover coming towards me was not comforting, I was trapped between the two of them.

The one behind sped up. It was a narrow road, no space to turn. "Fuck it." I slammed my foot down and accelerated towards the oncoming car. "Dakota! This is not the time to play chicken!" I ignored her and carried on straight, tightly gripping the wheel until my knuckles turned white. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," I chanted furiously. Looks like they weren't backing down, well neither was I. Except I'm not an idiot. Quickly I grabbed my bag and a hefty load of paper work from the glove compartment. Dumping the paper work on the pedal I swung open the door, throwing myself out into the neighbouring trees.

I tuck and rolled trying not to shatter any bones. Scrabbling to my feet I turned to see a car slammed into the back of mine. The other had tried to swerve but must have been clipped by mine as it was now toppled over on its side. I swiftly turned to run deep into the woods.

My heart was racing, more cars were coming. What did they want with me so bad? Why did they need our leader? There is no leader, no pack answers to another, we're not all ruled by one. My blood ran cold as the continuous cracking of twigs followed my trail. I flew across the leaf covered ground, pushing and straining my body to its limits, now with the roar of a motorbike in my ears I knew it wouldn't be enough. My breath came in short gasps. There was no way I could outlast a motorbike, not at this pace.

Fear spiked through me as gorge came into view up-ahead. The sound of rushing water crashed through my head like waves. They were all behind me. I had to jump. It will be too far. It will be deep. The current is too strong.

"We have to shift, we won't make it! Now!" My wolf wouldn't stop screaming through my head. "We can't! What if we fall?" She kept pushing back. I could feel my muscles straining. The constant shifting of bones. Back and forth. Back and forth. We can't shift. We'll have no control. "You have to trust me!"

The world stayed still. My head was silent. All I could hear was my sharp, ragged breaths as my feet left the ground and I leaped across the gorge. Flying over the ravine I saw how strong the current was as harsh waves crashed over the sharp rocks below. My hands were forever reaching for the scratchy, rocky cliff opposite me.

My lifted heart fell with crushing fear crippling me. I felt my self falling, all I needed to go was a little further. "Claws!" I screeched. My hands pounded into the rock as I scrabbled to get a grip. Just a few inches. All parts of me shifted as we struggled to keep the claws. The word chanted through my head. "Concentrate!"  I reached up an arm with outstretched claws to latch onto the ledge. My foot shifted into a paw. My breath burst out of my lungs.

And the rock crumbled beneath me.

My arms flailed as I kept reaching for what was so close and I was enveloped by the cold, harsh water. I thrashed against the waves and gulped down a mixture of air and water as I resurfaced only to be dragged back under over and over. I slammed into rocks scratching and scraping me every which way until I didn't know which way was up or down. In a frenzied panic I tried to spring against the force of the river. I yelped as a sharp pang spread through the back of my head and I started to choke on the water. My vision went blurry as I felt my body freeze and float in whatever direction the waves took me.

It's not the desperation of getting to the surface before losing your breath that kills you, it's letting go and fading into the darkness.