The forest hums with life all around me. I twirl about, gazing up at the canopy, searching for the birds that sing sweetly. The sun breaks through the cracks, lighting up the dirt path ahead of me, decorated with outgrown roots, wildflowers and fallen leaves that crunch beneath my bare feet. I trudge on, taking in the fragrance of minty grass and the damp earth. Each breath is like water, fresh and cleansing, flowing freely into my lungs.

My right arm trembled in fear until I reached across and gripped it. Muttering a prayer to the Goddess-which I knew went unheeded-I rolled to my side.

Even at this hour, the faraway whoosh of the wind through the trees, or the pounding of blood in the veins. I listened to it like a lullaby. Perhaps I could have fallen asleep again if my heart wasn't racing. Just leftover emotion. It would fade eventually. I brushed the mud off my bare skin, shook the leaves and twigs from my dark tousled hair.

The trees were familiar under my hands as I passed. Bark scraped my palms, stinging, but ignorable. No one came here anymore. Perhaps once it had been part of a great forest, stretching as far as the eye could see. But the Dark Moon Pack destroyed it. Blood, claw marks, torn clothes littered the area. I was the only one who saw it for what it was. It was my sanctuary. But it was merely a copse compared to the woods I had known as a child.

 My clothes and skin were damp from dew, and clung together steadfastly. On the horizon the sun was just rising, reflecting its light behind the trees. It was supposed to look peaceful, but it just reflect the blood stain on the bark of the trees.

 A lung full of the scent of chlorine, oak, bird droppings, the smell of an owl and its kill, and something else trickled through my nose, down the back of my throat. I was still deciphering the anomaly when the crack of a twig grabbed my attention.

From the shadows comes a wolf, yet he's no ordinary predator. He moves to block any escape routes staring with almost human eyes. The only sound in the forest was his breathing, his flaring nostrils as he takes in my scent. He curls up his gums to reveal teeth and then lets out a low rumbling growl. I already knew my fate. I was a rogue. I had no family. This wolf held power, but I knew it wasn't the Alpha or Beta, maybe the Delta?

His fur, a light brown, with a few dark spots. He growl every time, I moved an inch.

I raised my arms in surrender. I knew I had stepped into the Dark Moon territory. The park symbol was on the shoulder of the wolf. They were larger than any other wolves and moved with the purpose and intelligence of an elder ; albeit a human of such vileness and malice. Their blood-lust was legendary and in a crowd they killed with as little mercy. Only when their numbers dwindled did they deliver the non-lethal bites to convert more humans to their werewolf pack, not that they needed it. They were the largest pack, they might as well be the royal family of wolves. When in human form they moved among us like thieves and spies. Like ghosts they could be there one minute and gone the next. Their footfalls were silent  and if you crossed one they'd be sure to return for you at the full moon.

Two more wolves joined the first, each one bigger than the last. One of them must have been the Beta, and the other the Delta, then. None had the power like an Alpha. They stepped from the woods like phantoms, each pace calm and assured. 

I lowered my eyes. "Please... I'm sorry. I have lost everything." 

The dark brown wolf turned into the trees before coming out in just shorts. He stood adorned only in scars, cruel mouth turned up in a sneer. "You do realize what territory you are on."

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize."

The wolf regarded me, unimpressed. "Call for Nikolai." He spoke to the two men that had changed when I didn't noticed. "We'll take her to the lower cells, and let him decide what to do." He swept the forest with narrowed, suspicious eyes. "She's alone." 

Part of me what to yell that I'm right here, but I probably should have started running minutes ago, but I was frozen. The power that radiated from them was somewhat comforting to me. I couldn't understand why. I knew I should have been terrified and but the looks that they were giving me, they were confused, but yet I could see curiosity in the first one that had shifted. 

They turned back to whispering to each other, I knew I could understand what they were saying, but part of me didn't want to know. 

"I promise, I mean no harm. I have lost everyone in my pack. The Hunters. They found us." I whispered, lowering my eyes once more.

Two bare feet come into my vision. "Look at me."

Everything in me, quickly glanced up. How was he this powerful since he wasn't the Alpha. "You will come with us, but Alpha will command what happens next."

Both of my arms were grabbed, before I feel a pain that I have never felt before. Pain sears through my abdomen better than a branding iron, my mind conceding to the torment, unable to bring a thought to completion. Without meaning to my body curls into something fetal, something primeval and all the while the pain burns and radiates. The pain is increasing in waves, small lulls giving false hope of an end. Each peak robs my ability to speak, sends me crashing to the ground. It's as though my blood has become acid, intent of destroying me from the inside out. All I can do is writhe, the occasional whimper escaping to echo off the trees.

With what little strength I had left, I looked up to see the Beta with a needle. 

My eyesight blurred, but not because tears were welling up. Everything became fuzzy; then I saw nothing at all. My consciousness was floating through an empty space filled with a thick static. Throughout the inky space my heartbeats pounded loudly, echoing in my ears, alongside fading pleas for help.
Feeling in my body drained away until finally all was black.