As she hears the sound of my footsteps near her, she growls and shifts back to her wolf, but even that doesn’t help as she struggles to get the chain undone before I approach her.
She turns on me, baring her teeth and snapping them at me. As scary as she thinks she looks, I can feel the stench of her desperation and fear as if she has bathed in it for years.
“Stop, I won’t hurt you,” I promise, but that just makes her growl louder as she steps back. Her fur hackles up, and I bend down, keeping my eyes trained on her, just in case she risks it and goes for my throat. I drop the long chain, step back and put my hands up.
“Why is she chained?” Donnie asks me worriedly as he peers back at this wolf, which appears to be ours, though I can’t understand how that is possible.
“I don’t know,” I answer. I don’t really want to think of why they have her chained. Just want to get it off her. First and foremost, I need to release her, and then I can try to figure out this impossible mess.
“I will unchain you. Just don’t bite me,” I warn her as I kneel down and reach for the chain. My movements are slow, just to ensure I won’t startle or scare her.
She keeps growling, her eyes not leaving me as I wrap my hand around the thick chain. I try to break it, but it is far too thick even for me to snap. Finally, I get up, moving too quickly, and she lunges at me, her teeth sinking into my arm.
That’s on me. It is my mistake to move faster than I should, but I act on instinct, and I shove her off harder than I intend. She hits the tree before scrambling back to her feet. I scramble backward on my hands and feet as the chain forces her back, yanking her backward when she lunges at my face.
I growl at her, getting to my feet, and walk over to the dead rogue by the campfire and rummaging through his pockets. There is no key on him, which means one of the other two must have it.
I look around until I find an old, worn ax stuck into a fallen tree where they are sitting. I pull it from the log and slowly turn back to the she-wolf.
Her blue eyes widen in shock and fear. I don’t get to explain my intention as she starts jerking on the chain with all her might, desperate to break it and get away from me.
“Wait, you are only hurting yourself. Stop it!” I snap at her.
My words clearly mean nothing to her, and neither does the warning I’m trying to give her. As I get closer, she continues to yank on it with more strength.
She growls at me and tries to bite me again, so I grab the scruff of her neck and shove her head down on the dirt. Carefully, not to hurt her, I step over her and squeeze her body between my legs to keep her calm.
She thrashes, and I lift the ax. I focus on the spot I need to break and bring down the ax on the chain. She yelps and my ears ring from clinking the ax. It is so blunt it takes three hits on the chain before it snaps.
Like the wind, she takes off as soon as she gets a chance, nearly knocking me over as she pulls backward between my legs and darts for the trees. I watch her disappear and scoff at how loud she’s being.
“Oh, little wolf, you don’t want to make me chase you,” I growl before shifting, gladly giving Donnie his moment to shine.
Andrei
As soon as Donnie takes full control of my body, we follow in her footsteps, letting her intoxicating scent lead us closer to our frightened little wolf.
Donnie focuses on our surroundings, looking for any sign of the she-wolf. She might be light on her feet and quick, but that isn’t enough to get away from us. We’re pros at hunting.
After all, she witnessed us gutting a rogue right in front of her. That should be enough to understand that we don’t mess around.
I’m positive she would have been hard to find, except for the clink of the chain that is still attached to her neck, hitting the ground as she runs from us.
We make our way around the mountain, passing every tree, giving it a sniff to ensure we don’t lose her scent around here. She is heading in the direction of home, but when we finally reach the river, all noise she makes is drowned out by the damn waterfall.
Smart. No, she is brilliant. She knows her scent won’t be hard to follow, yet now that we have reached such a noisy place, I can’t hear the chain anymore. She’s using the advantages the forest and water can give her.
“Maybe she stopped,” Donnie whines, sniffing the ground and following the river. His heart desperately pounds against his ribcage as he refuses to give up. If she is what I think she might be, I can’t let her go that easily. And Donnie wouldn’t forgive me if I tried.
My eyes scan the surroundings again. What would I do if I were in her place? Where would I go, and where would I hide to get away from someone who clearly could overpower and outrun me?
“She might have jumped in to be washed downstream,” I suggest to my wolf.
“Get the pack out here,” Donnie suggests, still sniffing the ground and trying to find any trace she might have left behind.
I agree with his idea, the search will go more successfully if we have more eyes on the task.