"My dad sold me to a pack of werewolves to settle his gambling debt."
❀
"I'm going to count to three," Logan growls. He doesn't have to say the rest. If I haven't come to him by then, he'll come to me... and I'll regret it.
I know this game, and I...
Is Saf going to hide in the dungeon, or fight her way out of the pack house?
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Saffron
I slip past the metal door and listen to it close behind me with a soft click. A part of me still wants to go out there—to fight my way out—but I know that the smarter thing to do is to hide. All I have to do is wait until it's dark out, and then I can just walk out the front door.
The problem is that I'm actually more scared of the dungeon than I am of facing POW and the other wolves. Behind the metal door, I'm engulfed in darkness, and I have no idea what lies below. My heart start to race and I stay perfectly still, not even daring to breathe, as I wait to adjust. Luckily, being a wolf has its perks, and a few seconds later I can see the staircase outlined below.
As if hearing my thoughts, my wolf wiggles in excitement, and I smile. Then, I think of how I discovered her, which makes me think of Logan, and I feel the urge to cry.
Focus, Saffron. Crying right now would be like begging to get caught. I can think about Logan later. Right now I need to focus on hiding.
The narrow staircase below seems to continue for an eternity, and I start to move when I hear something. It's faint at first, then clearer and clearer: footsteps. They don't come from behind me—from the other side of the door—but from in front of me, advancing up the stairs and getting louder with each step. Probably POW's guard—a real one this time, tasked with guarding the dungeon below—not a Rogue masquerading as one.
I move into a crouch and take slow, deep breaths, like an animals stalking her prey. Then, suddenly, my wolf joins me. She's right there with me, listening to the guard advance, heightening my senses until I can heard the guard's every breath. The sensation's so foreign that for a split second, I lose focus. I've never been able to hear, or see, so much. Never felt this strong, this ready to fight.
I can do this. I'm at the top of the stairs, so I have a clear advantage. If I can just catch the guard off guard—I almost laugh aloud at how that sounds—they don't stand a chance!
When the guard is almost within sight, I push off the top step and race down the stairs. All it should take is a quick shove, but when I'm mere feet away, I see her and freeze.
"Saffron?" she cries. "W-what are you doing here?"
"Kaitlyn?" I ask in surprise. "I was... exploring."
"Really?" Kaitlyn asks, glancing nervously back down the stairs. I wonder if she realizes that I was going to push her. Maybe I even managed to scare the usual perky, whiny cheerleader right out of her.
"I should go now," I tell her. I turn around and start back up the stairs, hoping that by the time she realizes something is up and raises the alarm, I'll be long gone. That is, until I hear footsteps coming down the hall. There aren't any other doors—no other place for those footsteps to be headed—except toward the metal door.
