The Stolen Wolf Princess

Chapter 5 - Run

Chapter 5 - Run

Dalla was slow to get up, clearly still disoriented from whatever injury caused her to pass out in the first place. I yanked on her arm, pulling her out of the cart, but it was difficult to move with the rest of the captives jumping up to run. I was glad everyone was taking the opportunity to escape, but I feared for Dalla and myself.

Somehow I managed to get Dalla out of the cart, but the hunters were already on us. Several showed up and started grabbing people, trying to drag them back into the carts, but there were more of them than us.

“Run!” I shouted to my people, hoping as many of us would escape as possible. I wanted to help everyone, but I didn’t think it was possible. There were still two locked cages of captives, of my people, but I was helpless to help them right now. I knew I had to escape and live to see another day so I could go back for the ones I had to leave behind now.

Dalla had been telling me ever since we were young that I had to help myself to help the people. I never truly understood what she meant before. As a princess, I thought that I had to put my people before myself. The collective was more important than the individual. However, right here, right now, it made perfect sense. I couldn’t save my people from the horrors that potentially awaited us all if I just got recaptured. I had to make sure I was okay to come back for the others later.

As we were bumped around in the crowd of people, Dalla was jostled awake, and a new urgency filled her body. She held onto my hand tighter and tried to pull me away from the crowd to the forest.

“Wait!” I said, pulling her in the opposite direction, towards the cage I had originally been held in.

“What are you doing?” Dalla shouted. I could hear her fear for my decision, but this was one thing I couldn’t go back on.

I heard the crying and knew I had to keep my promise. Chaos was all around us as more hunters continued to show up, but I only had one focus. I heard Liliana crying, and I needed to make sure she escaped. We made it to her, but the woman I entrusted Liliana to was nowhere to be seen. I quickly grabbed the child’s hand and kept running.

“Don’t let go,” I told the girl.

Liliana squeezed my hand for dear life, and I knew I was her lifeline. She would have no chance if a hunter caught her. I wasn’t even sure if I had a chance without a weapon and in my current state. Running was the best chance for survival.

Dalla started leading the way once she realized what I was doing exactly. She let go of my hand, running into the forest to join the rest of the panicked werewolves. I saw flashes of my people, weaving in and out of the trees. None of us knew the terrain, but I hoped if we got far enough away, the hunters would give up, and we would somehow find our way home.

There was a fallen tree in our way as we continued running forward. Dalla easily jumped over the obstacle, but I didn’t have that luxury. I didn’t let go of Liliana’s hands as I climbed over the log. I then turned back and picked the girl up, helping her over.

“She’s slowing us down,” Dalla said in a harsh tone. “We’ll get caught at this pace.”

I continued running, holding Liliana in my arms. I knew the child was slowing me down, but I would never forgive myself if I abandoned a child. 

“I’m not leaving her,” I said firmly. I could feel the difference in my speed with Liliana’s weight added to my own, but I was still faster than most, even with the impairment.

Dalla slowed down a little to make sure she stayed by my side. I knew Dalla would have a better chance on her own, but I didn’t even bother to tell her to leave my side. She was my best friend, and even though she wasn’t afraid to sass my mother, she was dutiful and took her job as my handmaiden much too seriously. She would never leave the princess behind to fend for herself.

We continued running, and my body was screaming for me to stop. I was in pain from before, and running was the last thing I should be doing. My lungs were drowning in the thick warm air, but I couldn’t stop. A little pain was nothing if death was the other option. I wouldn’t stop running or fighting until my last breath. 

I made a promise to Liliana that I would get her safe, and I fully intended to keep that promise. Princesses didn’t break their promises. They weren’t weak rulers who were meant to look pretty. A true princess was someone willing to put her life on the line to make sure her people were safe.

Screams started echoing throughout the forest, and my stomach sank with fear. I didn’t want to think about what those screams meant exactly, but I already knew what was happening. I kept my eyes forward, focusing on Dalla and the ground below me, but flashes appeared in my peripheral vision. More screams stirred my soul as my people were recaptured by the hunters.

I didn’t know how many hunters were chasing us, but they caught up faster than I had expected. They were picking off people one by one. The crowd was thinning the farther we got, but Dalla kept running forward. She weaved in and out of trees, making deliberate moves that would keep us safe for just a moment longer.

I heard footsteps crunching against the forest floor behind me, and I feared the worst. I didn’t dare look back at whoever was following me. A second wasted looking back could be the difference between escaping or being recaptured. I pushed my legs faster, trying to put some distance between whoever was following me, but it didn’t do much good. The footsteps continued getting louder, and my body was growing too tired to run much faster.

Dalla took a sharp turn around a tree, and I followed as best as I could, but something hit my foot. I lost my balance and hit the ground hard, dropping Liliana and rolling a few times before stopping on my back. Liliana screamed, and I was instantly crawling to my feet, desperate to get to the child.

I looked up and saw a large man holding Liliana by the back of the shirt in the air. The child was screaming for me to save her, but I stood there frozen, not knowing what to do. I couldn’t leave her, but I knew I didn’t have a chance against this man as is. 

“Kai!” Dalla screamed, drawing my attention. “Run!”

I looked at her hovering near, begging me with her eyes to run after her, but something in me stopped myself from running. Maybe I didn’t have any sense of self-preservation, or maybe it was because Liliana’s cries for help broke my heart, but I planted my feet ready to fight.

I started shifting into my wolf form, knowing it was the only way to take on this hunter. My bones shifted and stretched as my body transformed into my wolf form. My eyes grew more vivid as my full wolf senses activated.

An amused smile crossed the man’s lips as I transformed. He held Liliana up as a taunt.

“I’m surprised you’re willing to fight me over this child. I’ll tell you what. If you agree to come with me, I’ll let the girl go,” the man said, raising his eyebrows in amusement.

“Help me!” Liliana cried, panic filling her lungs.

I snarled at the man, not trusting a word he was saying. Even if I agreed to give myself up, I knew he would never let Liliana go. Men like him didn’t negotiate. They tried to manipulate their targets so they never had to do the work of actually capturing the target. I saw the man’s free hand hover at his side in response to my growl.

I lunged forward before the man could grab his weapon, but his response time was incredible. He moved the child in my line of attack, using her as a shield. At the last second, I was able to change my trajectory, completely missing the hunter and Liliana. I lunged again at the man, but he did the same thing. He was taking the defensive stance, playing dirty with a child.

Rage boiled inside of me as he used an innocent girl like that. It showed me these men truly had no morals to abide by. I lunged at the man once again, but this time I anticipated his moves and changed my path at the last moment. My teeth sunk into his arm, and he yelped in pain and let the child go.

Liliana fell to the ground with a thud, crying out in pain. I quickly rushed to her side, ready to get her out of there, but before I could reach her, I felt a sharp pain in my leg. I looked down and saw an arrow sticking out of my thigh. I lost my balance and fell to the ground. I started transforming back to my human form, knowing I needed to get the arrow out of my leg so my body could start healing.

My tattered clothes barely hung on my body after the transformation to my wolf form so suddenly, but that was the least of my worries. I tried to stand, but my leg was in too much pain, and I fell over again. Dalla was by my side in an instant, pulling me to my feet. She wrapped her arm around me and started leading me away from the men.

“We can’t leave Liliana,” I said, trying to look back at the girl.

“There are too many of them. We don’t have a choice,” Dalla said, not stopping.

We were barely moving with the state of my leg. At this rate, I knew we wouldn’t be able to escape, but Dalla wasn’t giving up. 

I heard another arrow whiz through the air, this time just barely missing us. Footsteps echoed through the forest, and I knew we were running out of time. Dalla stopped behind a tree, leaning me against it.

“Hide the moment you have a chance,” Dalla said.

My eyes widened with realization. “No.”

She kept eye contact with me. “I’m going to distract them so you can get away.”

“No,” I repeated. I wasn’t going to let this happen.

Dalla grabbed my hand and smiled. “It’s okay. You are the one who needs to get away. Not me.”

My heart raced, knowing exactly what this meant. “I’ll come back for you.”

Dalla nodded, but I could feel the air of doubt. “Just do me a favor and survive.”