“You’re pregnant?” I nodded and shook my head slightly, begging her not to tell the other women. Female wolves, especially Lunas, were overprotective of children and pregnant women. If this came down to a fight, they would be too preoccupied trying to save my child and me that they would happily lose their own lives. At any other time, I would take advantage of that protection for my child, but without a strong Alpha and Luna for each pack, we would lose the war.
It would be pointless to try and protect a child who wouldn’t live to be born. I knew Rush would scold me, yell at me, for thinking this way, but it was the right choice. I would do everything I could to protect my child, but protecting my species was equally important.
Hazel scurried up to the door, cautiously maneuvering around the wolves. There was a small keypad and scanner attached to the door. Hazel tried a series of combinations, but nothing seemed to open the door.
I glanced down at the guards on the floor. I grabbed the guard’s hand, pulling her up off the ground, and pressed her thumb to the scanner. The machine beeped for a moment before lighting up green. The door unlocked and slid open while emitting a loud, squawking sound.
We anxiously filed through the door, turning and looking around us for the other humans. The prison was unstaffed and had less surveillance than we thought. The humans figured that with the silver on the bars, the only way we could escape was for someone to let us out; Hazel’s alliance had been unforeseen.
“The guards are that way.” Hazel pointed around my head. “We’ll have to go through the forest over here. Humans are guarding some of the main roads to the towns and everything.”
“Where are we?” a smaller woman asked.
“Honestly, miles away from anything,” Hazel sighed, running her hand through her bangs.
“Well, then how will we know where to go?” she barked.
“Hey,” I snapped, glaring at the woman. “Calm the hell down. She was nice enough to get us out of the cells, she can’t do everything for us.”
The woman bit her lip and slumped to the side.
We wandered into the forest to get cover from the human guards in case they entered through the front doors. It would only be a matter of minutes before they saw the dead guards and empty cells and would come looking for us.
“Head straight into the forest,” I said loudly. “They’ll be less likely to follow us through them, and even if they do, we’ll be able to fight them off.”
The women listened to me and started walking off into the forest. Two of the Lunas that shifted went ahead of us to make sure it was a safe path, and two other Luna’s stayed at the back of the group to provide protection.
“Sloane, please answer me.”
I jumped at the sudden intrusion in my head. My mind-link was working now that we were out of the room filled with silver.
“Rush?”
“Sloane!” His voice was louder and more excited. “Where are you?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “They were keeping us in some cells, but we escaped. We’re in the woods.”
“Show me,” he demanded. I allowed him to see what I was seeing through the mind-link for a moment until she grunted. “It doesn’t look familiar. Try to get to another Alpha’s territory. We have all the Warriors and Guards in all of our packs out looking for you. You’ll be home soon, sweetheart.”
“I know,” I sighed, kicking a piece of stray wood away from my feet. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too. So much. Are you all alright? You aren’t hurt, are you?”
I debated telling him about the baby, but I knew that it was something I should tell him in person. It would only anger him and make him more anxious to know that I was with our child.
“No,” I told him. “I’m fine.”
“Please, be safe. We’re going to find you. I love you so much.”
“I love you more,” I said sadly, cutting off our mind-link.
“Is that Rush?” Hazel asked softly. I nodded, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the way of a bush she would trip on. “He’s worried?”
“Yeah,” I breathed, slightly annoyed at the situation.
She stayed quiet, noticing my restless, angry mood. After hours of walking through the woods, we came to a small clearing. There was no telling if it was wolf land or human land, but there was no other way to move other than going back into the forest.
“Hazel, do you remember anything?” I turned and grabbed her shoulders. “How long it took you to get here, what direction, anything?”
She whimpered and looked around. “It took about two hours, maybe. I fell asleep for most of it. I don’t know what direction.”
“Okay,” I nodded, thinking about how much farther we would have to go. “Two hours. Two hours. Tow hours from our pack. Two hours north is Alpha Resnick’s pack, two hours west is a human city, the closest pack is four hours that way.”
“Well then, let’s hope we’re not west,” Cherry mulled, cracking her fingers.
“East is Alpha Green and south is Alpha Spektor.” I closed my eyes and pictured a map of our area. “As long as we aren’t west, we should be on pack territory in about an hour or two.”
“And if we are west?” Danica questioned.
“We aren’t,” I denied.
“But what if we are?” she asked again.
“We can’t be!” I shouted, hands shaking.
“Why not?”
“Because we won’t make it to the pack that way, Danica,” I growled. My eyes were wide, pleading for someone to make sense of my ramblings.
“Okay,” Cherry said, looking at the other Luna’s expectantly. “We aren’t west.” The other Lunas mumbled similar responses, and we continued walking.
Another ninety minutes in an unknown direction, and we were aching for water and rest. One of the Lunas found a small pond,
