The Shadow of White is Black

Chapter 8: Day Away From Freedom

The night fell dark quickly.

When I was sure mother and fathers were asleep, Reyes took over.
Bones and limbs morphed and reconstructed itself into white wolf form as painlessly as a simple stretch.

As always I hopped out of the window with a bag of clothes in my mouth, to change into, which I placed in the usual corner street before darted into the woods.

Faster. Through trees and snow. Stopping and crouching at every sound of life, sensing and avoiding
The werebeasts that prowled the wood.
I kept running until I sensed a particularly still werewolf a distance behind me. I moved with caution but the wolf seemed not to be closing the distance between us but following me at a steady pace.

A gut feeling told me to move faster so I did. I ran deeper into the forest. The deeper I went, the faster the wolf behind me began to move to close the distance between us. Soon a big black wolf came up beside me, as I guessed, Marcus.

He nudged his head into my side, holding back the full extent of his strength, I could tell, as he tried to redirect me into another direction. But I continued on my path into the depth of the woods.

And again the further I went in my path the more the aggression and growls emanated off Marcus.

'He's clearly agitated' Reyes stated.
'Yes,' I agreed, 'Is it time to run yet?'
'What did I tell you? That's fear talking,' Reyes snapped, 'Use him as your compass, the closer we get to the edge, the more agitated he'd become!'
'If you say so...'

I turned a right and Marcus suddenly went quiet, the growling had suddenly subsided.

I realized Reyes was right, 'I'm going the wrong way!'

I paused for a second, long enough to confuse Marcus, but quick enough to stop him from realizing what I was going to do before I did it. Then I dodged past him, sprinting left, as fast as I could, knowing the angry alpha black wolf would catch up soon!

I suddenly halted at the sight of a clearing straight ahead that I had never seen before.
I saw four big Blackwolves prowling left and right, in a straight line; Jaws slightly hanging, and heads turning sharply from either side. There were no more trees or bushes. This was the edge of the woods.

'The edge of Blackwolf territory. '

Satisfaction and relief flowed through me in waves.

Finally.

It smelt like freedom. No-
That was the smell of rushing water a little distance away, what could it be? A pond? A stream? A-

CRASH

A great force collided into me, the impact had me soaring in the air for a split second then I came crashing down into the dirt.

After my body had stopped skidding across the soil, my eyes flew open again to the sight of Marcus looking cautiously at the patrolling black wolves who had hauled for a second at the sound of me hitting the floor but I had landed behind bushes, too hidden for them to notice.

But when Marcus' eyes turned back to me, they were savage and vicious, enough to paralyze me for a second until a growl erupted from the back of his throat; Not like the others, this was with the full force of an Alpha and, despite me not being in his pack, it was enough to make me cower.

'Now it's time to run!'

With fear pumped adrenaline coursing through my veins, I ran. I had found my means of escape but now the question was whether i'd actually gets to live to escape.

I could hear his pounding feet chasing after me, and ever few times, he appeared in front of me scaring me into running the other way.

After a while it became strange; As a black wolf, he would have easily been able to catch up to me and attack me ages ago but instead, when I made a random turn, he only sometimes appeared infront of me, forcing me to have to run in the opposite direction almost as if he was purposely guiding me to a certain direction.

But by the time I could piece together my thoughts, I found myself on the edge, outside of the woods...

I turned to Marcus' wolf form who gave me one last lingering look that I couldn't read then he turned around stalked back into the woods.

'what was that?' I asked Reyes
'I guess he just wanted us out of his wood, I think it was something like a-'
'warning' I finished 'but it doesn't matter because tomorrow I would no longer be trapped in Black wolf territory. Tomorrow will be my escape!'

Satisfaction bubbled in me because there was no longer a reason to fear, I was a day away from freedom.

I turned the corner to the street I usually left my bag of clothes to change.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

As I came out of the corner, back out of the street, having regained human form and ready to go home for the last time, I felt unstoppable, fearless, free and no one could get in my way of freedom-

That's when suddenly, my feet stopped moving, my body stilled, as though paralysed and the air became thin...

And my mind was soon to realize why.

As steel silver eyes stared down at me in a way that said it all; that I'd been caught red handed...