Chapter 9

It was almost like my feet were glued to the road because I couldn't move my body out of fear. The four rugged-looking men were walking slowly towards me with malice drawn in their faces. "Easy, Rod. You might scare her," said the shortest of them, a man who looked like he was in his thirties. His unkempt hair and dirty clothes made look like a savage. "It's still best if we can just convince her to just come with us. Damaged goods don’t sell well." "C-Come with you? Why would I come with you? I don't know who you are!" I yelled at them. "I am not alone! My p-parents are there!" I added, pointing at the small gate beside the road. "They'll come back any minute now! I'm warning you!" The long-haired guy who looked like their leader laughed at what I said. "No need to bluff, honey," he said to me with a smile that made the end of my hair on my nape stand up. "We saw you get out of the truck alone. You have no one with you. But I like how quick-witted you are trying to scare us." "Just let me go," I told them. I noticed how all of them stood in front of me in such a way that they cornered every possible direction I could go, in case I tried to run. One of them had a baseball bat with him, and that alone made my feet tremble in fear. "Please. Let me go. Y-You can't sell me anyway..." "And why is that, honey?" The man talking went so close to me that his face was just inches from my face. He was sniffing at me as if that would tell him what my secret was. "Tell me a good story. Who knows? I might change my mind." "Stop playing around, Rod," the small guy scolded the man called Rod. "Let's just take her. Someone might come here." Another one of them chimed in. "Oh come on, let Rod have his fun, Sid. You know that he likes to play with his food before he eats it." That remark made them erupt into laughter again, while I had become pale from fear of what these rogues might do to me. "Please, I beg you! Spare me! I am not v-valuable. No one will buy me once they find out that I am a half-breed!" I finally said. My hope was for them to get discouraged but that didn't happen. "You're half-breed? Well, that's even better!" said Rod, who cackled like a maniac. "What are you? Half vampire? Half witch?" I didn't reply and that's when Rod suddenly became violent and grabbed me by the arm. One of them also went to my back to hold me there. "Rod’s asking you a question, missy. Answer or we will break your arms." But just as he said that, we heard the loud honking of horns and then flashing lights from a huge vehicle that momentarily blinded us all. The shocked men cussed because it seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. This caused them to loosen their grip on me, which was a chance to escape that I took. I kicked the man in front of me called Rod, and he yelled in pain since I kicked him in his crotch, and then I also pushed the man behind me with all my might. He fell to the road, which gave me an opening to run. I ran away from them as fast as I could. As the ten-wheeler truck passed by the highway it created a blind spot for all of us. Since werewolves' vision adjusts to the dark ten times better than an ordinary human, we are sensitive to sudden outbursts of very bright lights. It hurts our eyes, that's why the rogues were unable to chase me immediately as soon as I escaped from their clutches. But I was aware that they could chase me down as soon as the ten-wheeler truck passed by, so I ran for my life, trying all my best to shift into my wolf form. I headed to the tall, wooden fence's direction. When I reached the small gate, it was locked. My heart was pounding on my chest because I could hear Rod calling me, warning me loudly that I better not let him get to me. And when they were about to reach me I finally was able to shift into my wolf form, thanks to the full moon. "What the---?" "Her eyes!" said another one of the rogues, who were acting like they were struck by lightning upon seeing me in my wolf form. Rod's mouth was gaping open, and his eyes were bulging from shock as he stared at me. I have no idea why they reacted that way, but I took the chance again to leap over the tall fence to escape from them. When I landed on the grass on the other side of the fence, all I could see was a vast, open space in the dark. This might be a grazing area for cattle, and looking around I saw some dim lights glowing not very far away from where I was. Thinking that those lights were from a nearby town, I ran towards them. "Honey! Wait for us!" I could still hear Rod calling behind me, so I was right that they would follow me over here. It might be just my imagination but I feel like they were more interested in me now, as I could also hear another one of them telling his peers to make sure that they capture me. Maybe this was related to what they saw in me when I shapeshifted into my wolf form? Luckily for me, I was a quick runner even when I was younger so I managed to get away from them fast. But as I ran, something hit me out of the blue. Something hard hit me on my right leg, which made me crash into the grass. It was painful but I was more horrified that Rod might actually catch up to me, but they never did. I couldn't hear them taunting me anymore, which made me wonder. But then I felt footsteps coming near me, and as I shifted back into my human form, two hooded figures were standing in front of me, looking down on me as I became human. "This is a woman, Alpha Marcus," said one of them. I couldn't see their faces properly because they were wearing cloaks with hoods that covered half their faces. All I could see was that they were both men. "I think we made a mistake by firing at her," said the other one. "She looks like she's not one of them." "Yeah. Maybe they were chasing her? What should we do now, Alpha Marcus? This woman is bleeding." "Let's bring her back to the pack," said the man who was called Alpha Marcus. I wanted to talk to them badly. I wanted to beg them to help me because those rogue werewolves might still be lurking somewhere, but I was starting to get dizzy. My vision suddenly became blurry and I couldn't even get up from the grass. "Are you sure, Alpha Marcus? What if this is a trap?" "Let's worry about that later. Besides, I could sense something interesting in this woman," said the man before everything went dark.