lost and found

Just let go

Juniper didn't waste any time. She got herself up off of the pile of blankets she used as a bed. She winced at the sharp pain that still lingered in her ribs from the door of the fridge, but would not let it slow her down. She was so tired, but more so, she was ready to run. She was not at all worried about making any noises, all of the ranked members that lived in the packhouse were used to her scurrying about at all hours of the day and night. What little noises she made while cleaning up after them or preparing food for their meals, let them know that she was overworked. They all enjoyed knowing that they were the reasons for her suffering. To them, it was a lullaby. So as Juniper made her way through the house to collect things she would need to take with her, the rest of the house stayed quiet and still. Sleeping soundly.

Juniper made her way to the laundry room, taking a pair of gray sweatpants and a sweatshirt that was seldom used by the omegas for training. She took a pair that was on the smaller side, made for bigger kids, as she knew that she was too small to fit into even the smallest adult sizes. After changing into the sweatsuit, she hurried to the kitchen and filled a cloth bag with a few apples, an orange, two bananas, and three bottles of water. The bag had room for more, but she knew that the more she took with her, the heavier the bag would be. As tired and weak as she was already, she didn't want to risk being slowed down by a heavy bag. She made her way to the front hallway where she took a small pair of shoes off of the shoe rack next to the door. She knew that the sneakers belonged to Stacy, even though they matched the other sneakers on the rack, they were a few sizes smaller. The twin's feet were on the larger size for she-wolves. The sneakers were still a bit too big for Juniper's feet, but after pulling the laces and tying them as tight as her small hands could, they would just have to be good enough.

Juniper knew that leaving out of the front door was not the best idea, as there was always a guard stationed out there. So she made her way towards the side door that was used to load the groceries and other supplies into the packhouse, as it was the closest door to the kitchen. She knew that a guard would be on patrol there as well, but at this time of night, whenever she brought out the trash, she often found him fast asleep. Juniper grabbed the almost full bag of garbage out of the can in the kitchen, to have a cover in case the guard was awake and caught her leaving the house. She took a deep breath before opening the door and stepping out into the cool fresh morning air.

The horizon had a soft glow, and soon the sun would make its way into the sky, but at the moment Juniper had a bit of darkness left to give her enough cover to make her way into the woods that surrounded the packhouse. As she had suspected, the guard on duty, an older, heavy-set wolf, was lightly snoring. Her heart raced as she slipped past the sleeping guard and as soon as she felt far enough away to have a head start, she quietly put the garbage bag down on the ground, clutching the cloth bag close to her body, she took off running as fast as her small legs would carry her.

As Juniper got deeper into the woods, the thickness of the leaves overhead made it almost impossible for her to see. Fear of being caught made her continue on at a fast pace, but not as fast as she wished she could go. She was stumbling and fighting to stay on her feet when the voice of her wolf spoke to her again. "Put the clothes that you are wearing and your shoes into your bag and let me take over." Juniper kept going as she questioned the voice in her mind. "trust me!" her wolf pleaded."I can see better in the dark than you can, and I can run faster on four legs than you can on two!" Juniper decided that she would give in to what her wolf was saying and stopped running. she quickly removed her clothes and shoved them into the cloth bag with the fruits and water. "This is going to hurt a bit" her wolf warned her. Juniper knew that the first shift was the hardest to go through. She had watched other wolves make their first shift, she had seen the struggle as well. That didn't prepare her for what she was about to go through herself though.

"Okay, how do we do this?" She asked her wolf. "Clear your mind of everything but me. Focus on bringing me forward, but don't fight when the pain starts. The more you fight, the harder it will be and the longer it will take. Just let go!" Juniper did as her wolf said. She cleared her mind and thought about her wolf. Suddenly, her skin started to tingle and the itching feeling made her want to shred through her skin with her nails. She pushed past the annoying feeling, trying with all of her might to ignore it. She let a quiet whimper slip out of her as she felt the first of her bones snapping and reforming. She wanted to scream but was afraid she wasn't far enough away from the packhouse to let out a noise that loud. Especially because wolves' hearing is almost as good as their sense of smell. And so she held in her screams of pain and again pushed herself past it. The next thing she knew, she had fallen onto her knees and closed her eyes as she felt her spine elongate and her skin stretch to make room for her wolf. After what felt like forever, but was only actually a few minutes, her wolf let her know it was almost over. That's when she felt her face change. Her nose grew in size, becoming longer and sprouting fur, as her teeth retracted into her gums and her canines surfaced. It was a feeling she was sure that she would never get used to, no matter how many times she would shift into her wolf form after that.

When the pain and itching subsided, Juniper's wolf opened her eyes. Juniper could see through her wolf's eyes, but it felt as though she was a backseat passenger in a body that was new to her. She could see through the darkness more clearly now. Everything looked more crisp and detailed. She could also smell things she didn't know even had a scent. The smell of the dirt and grass all around her calmed her, making her just want to roll around in it, but she knew that enjoying such things would have to wait. She couldn't forget that she was on the run now, and it was only a matter of time before the Alpha and Luna realized she was missing and sent his army after her. As wolf packs go, the Darkmoon didn't have a very strong army. Most of the wolves were lazy and poorly trained. But Juniper and her wolf both knew that alone, no matter how weak the army was, they didn't stand a chance.

"What is your name?" She asked her wolf, suddenly realizing that they didn't even get a chance to properly get to know each other. "My name is Lani," her wolf replied. Standing herself up on all four legs, she took just a moment to steady herself before she picked up the cloth bag in her mouth, and took off deeper into the woods. "I call myself Juniper, though I am not sure what my real name is." She let her wolf know. "I know. I know your whole story, well what you can remember of it. The moon goddess gifts us wolves with all of your memories so that we know how to be the best wolf for you when we awaken. For now, rest while I'm in control. I will wake you when we are somewhere safe. "

Juniper felt safe inside of her wolf. It was a strange feeling. It was the first time in a long time that she had felt safe. It was a nice feeling. Juniper let herself relax, she closed her mind off and drifted into a slumber, a slumber longer than she had ever been able to have, since as young as she could remember. While Juniper finally rested. Lani ran as fast as her white paws would go. She ran as the sun made its way high into the sky. She didn't stop running for anything. She knew what her human had gone through. She knew she had to save her from suffering anymore. And so she ran!

Back at the Darkmoon packhouse. Luna Holly had woken up from her restful night's sleep in a strangely quiet house. As usual, besides Juniper, she was the first one in the house to wake up, but something seemed off this morning. The usual clatter of breakfast being made wasn't there. The heavy scents of bacon, sausage, coffee, and pastries were not filling the air as they did every other morning. Holly pulled herself out of bed and put on her slippers and robe before making her way downstairs to find out what was going on. As she walked into the kitchen, the only lights she saw were coming from the sunshine through the kitchen windows. The kitchen itself was cleaned spotless as no breakfast was being made. Luna Holly felt both excited and annoyed at the same time. Annoyed that she would have to wait longer to eat her breakfast and enjoy her coffee, but excited that poor pathetic Juniper had once again given her a reason to punish and beat her!

Luna Holly made her way down the hall to the storage closet. She ripped the door open ready to attack the small girl. But she let out a scream of frustration when she found that Juniper was not where she expected to find her. The Alpha and the rest of the ranked members of the pack, as well as Stacy and the twins, woke up to the sounds of Holly screeching and slamming things, as she was throwing a very dramatic temper tantrum. They all made their way down the stairs to see what the commotion was about. Luna Holly filled them all in on the missing "slave girl", as she called her. As she finished her rant, she watched as her husband's face contorted in anger and knew that once Juniper turned up, she would get a beating like never before.

Alpha Freddrick sent out mind links to all of his guards to be on the lookout for Juniper, letting them all know that when they found her, she was to be brought to him alive. He also added that he didn't care what condition the girl was in otherwise. This excited some of the pack members. Although she was small and looked sickly from lack of sleep and not enough food, some of the males in the pack had wanted a taste of the pretty little she-wolf and felt that this was their chance to get it. A search party was set up as a few hundred wolves set out on a mission to be the first to get to Juniper, beat her and use her as they saw fit, before bringing her back to the Alpha.

Luckily for Juniper, most of the wolves were now a bit older and out of shape. Only a few younger male wolves were on the hunt for her. But since Juniper got a good head start, and because the poorly trained wolves didn't yet know the scent of her wolf, the hunting party lost her trail easily. One by one, the pack returned empty-handed. Alpha Freddrick and Luna Holly slowly realized that they had lost not only their slave but also the only chance they had at making an heir to become the pack's next Alpha. They were outraged!