Untie my heart

Seriously, what is with my luck these days? River

As soon as the warriors leave Hope and I alone I grab her arm and pull her towards the bedroom door.

Hope pulls back, looking at me confused, "what are you doing River?" she asks, "we should stay here it's not safe outside".

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to decide how much I tell by innocent baby sister about the current very real, very dangerous situation. I open my eyes and look at her sadly, "Hope" I say, "I know you really like it here but it's not safe for us".

Hope looks beyond confused, she tilts her head slightly to the side and asks, "why?"

"Uhh" I hesitate, "we are not exactly here of our own free will", I say slightly flinching waiting for her reply.

Hopes eyes go wide before she opens her mouth to start asking what I can only assume is 5000 questions.

I interrupt before she can start her interrogation, "Hope" I say, "I promise I will explain more but right now we need to go, quick". She weakly nods and allows me to pull her out of the room and down the hallway without an additional fight.

Everybody is so distracted with the fighting that slipping into the woods was easy, I shift into my wolf, giving Hope my clothes to hold while she climbs on my back and holds on tight. I take off like a bullet running as quickly as I can to neutral territory. We cross over the royal pack border without any issue and I can't help but feel immense relief. Now that we are in neutral territory I slow down slightly so I can pay more attention to my surroundings.

Neutral territory can be extremely dangerous because rogues run rampant, lawless and wild. We make it about 30 miles outside of the royal pack territory and I am losing steam quickly. I have only been running just over an hour but I have not had a good night sleep in forever plus Hopes extra weight is causing me to lose steam quick.

I find a small pond and bend down so Hope can jump down, she does and hands me my clothes. I take my clothes in my mouth and find a tree to hide behind while I shift and get dressed. Once dressed I walk over to Hope, she is sitting quietly by the lake, deep in thought with a sad look on her face.

I walk over to her and sit down next to her. I reach over and put my arm around her shoulders. I take a deep breath and exhale slowly, "listen Hope, I know you really liked them but please trust me when I tell you it was not safe", I say, silently praying she is not too heart broken over leaving.

Hope remains quiet for a moment and then looks at me with a small smile, "it's okay big bro, as long as we are together I am happy", she says.

I close my eyes and pull her into a tight hug. "I love you bug, I promise I will always try to do what's best for you, okay", I say.

Hope giggles and squeezes me tightly, "I know River, you have always protected me, I am not sad about not being a princess, I am sad that you don't get a good mate" she says with tears forming in her eyes.

I don't know why but when Hope says Becca is not a good mate it hurts my heart, my logical mind agrees with her but my heart already cares for Becca and wants to defend her. I shake my head slowly and smile at her, "you never know Hope, maybe one day Becca and I will work it out, but for now, we need to be safe just you and I okay?", I ask.

Hope eagerly agrees and I take a moment to just enjoy the quiet of the forest. I lay down for just moment looking at the stars when I suddenly smell a wolf.

I shoot up quickly, wide eyed looking around the dark woods for a visual on the new wolf. Hope is frozen in fear, she knows something is going on and she stays perfectly still while I quickly search for any sight of the wolf.

Suddenly the smell of multiple wolves come across and I know we need to move. I look to Hope and put my finger to my lips, telling her to be quiet as I slowly stand, pulling Hope up with me. I hear footsteps rapidly approaching and I quickly turn around, instantly seeing 15 rogues looking directly at us, with amused looks on their faces.

"Well, well, well what do we have here boys", the wolf I am assuming is the leader says. "What odd clothes you have on considering you smell like rogues and are in the middle of the woods", he continues. "You would not happen to be from that fancy royal party now would you?" he asks.

I step forward, pulling Hope behind me before I start to speak, "uh we don't mean any harm we just uh, got turned around and stopped for a moment to rest", I explain.

The leader let's out a very sinister laugh, while the rest just stare daggers at us. "Okay, so let's say I buy it" the rogue leader continues, "what are you doing in that fancy dress little one?", he says pointing towards Hope.

I freeze, fear starts clouding my mind, I am kicking myself for running away from Becca right into a group of very dangerous rogues.

I let out a breath, "okay you got us" I explain, "we were in the royal territory but not willingly so when the attack happened we ran".

The man smirks, and looks me up and down several times. My stomach drops, the look in his eyes tells me this is not going to end well for us. I take a step back without even thinking, my bodies natural reaction to the obvious threat in front of us.

The rogue smiles brightly before he continues speaking, "you see fancy boy, my friends and I have been told to keep an eye out for a boy about your age, who happens to be mated to the future queen.... that's not you by chance is it?" He asks.

I am sure that I answered the question with the look on my face as I watch his smile go wide without a word from me.

"Uh well" I start trying to cover up the now obvious fact that I am the boy they are looking for, "you see, I uh.. " I can't think of anything to say, I look at Hope, giving her the signal with my eyes to run to her left on my mark. Hope nods slightly showing me that she understands and I lunge right shifting into my wolf while Hope runs left.

I run quickly away but slowly enough for them to keep up with me, the goal is not to escape its to give Hope a chance to get away. I run at a moderate pace until I confirm that all 15 wolves are following me, once I know that none of them are after Hope I pick up my pace hopefully putting enough distance between Hope and I that they don't go back to find her.

I am losing energy quickly and the rogues are gaining on me, I am dodging trees and rocks shooting through the forest at an incredible speed. I am so focused on leading these men away from Hope that I am not paying any attention to what is in front of me. I look back for one moment and when I turn back to look straight I realize that I am running directly into a very mean looking group of rogues.

I try to stop on short notice but I fail miserably and tumble multiple times before I land on my side about 10 feet from the new group of rogues. I try to stand but I am so exhausted that no matter how hard I try to will myself to stand I just can't get my body to cooperate. I flop down on the ground with a thud, making peace with my inevitable death, my last thought before I succumb to the darkness is please goddess, keep Hope safe.