Chapter Seventy-Seven - Willow

I listened to Patch’s footsteps near the door to the room I was currently hiding in. I blinked away the dizziness in my head and pressed my eyes closed.

I had no idea how I would escape this. This room was full of chairs and looked like a storage room.

The doorknob twisted and I felt around the floor for something to defend myself with. My hand touched the closest door and I quietly opened it and felt my way blindly into the corner. It took several seconds for my eyes to adjust to the dark because of the dizziness in my head.

The closest was almost vacant. What looked like an ironing board sat in one corner. A cardboard box and a fold-out table were in the other.

“Willow,” Patch said. “There is no reason to run. We’ll catch you eventually. Come on out of that closet and I won’t have to hurt you.”

I closed my eyes, my fingers curling into fists against the floor. He was going to hurt me either way, I might as well defend myself to the death.

Where is Chase? My wolf asked. Can he feel us this far away?

I had no idea. I wiped a stray tear from my cheek and then reality smacked me in the face. I was a warrior at heart. I had powers. I could read this man’s mind. I had to use that to my advantage.

Looking over at the fold-out table, I put my foot against the table, grabbed the fold-out leg, and pulled until it snapped in my hand.

Still on my knees, Patch stepped over to the closet door, and I aimed the jagged edge of the table leg upward.

Stupid she-wolf. I would get the one that wants to fight.

I listened to him talking crap about me in his mind and I tightened my fingers around the girth of the pole. Patch slid the door open carefully and I waited. He eased it open further and I pushed the pole up as quickly as I could and hit him in the cheek.

He roared loudly, like a pissed-off lion, and stumbled back.

I smelled the blood leaving his body while I scurried off the floor and out of the closet. Patch hissed under his breath and grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back against him.

I fought against the panic attempting to swarm me and elbowed Patch in his ribs. He held me tighter against his chest, his blood began to soak my T-shirt.

“You’re not leaving Willow. You might as well give it up.”

My wolf howled in anger and attempted to shift, but I knew I needed my human size to escape. Closing my eyes, I remembered all those days with Derrick in the woods. The training in my room and the field.

I ground my teeth together, and in a swift motion, I tossed him over my shoulder. Patch’s breath left his body and I jumped over him, stumbled into the door jamb, and down the hallway.

There were guards everywhere. I assumed that they wouldn’t help me if I needed it and everyone in this place was against me.

Nonetheless, I ran down the hallway seeing a guard step out from the end of the hallway. Instead of backing down when he raised a gun at me, with silver bullets most likely, I charged him.

The bullet flew past my head, and I ducked to the left, sliding my leg out to the side, I swept him off his feet.

He hit the floor like a giant sack of potatoes.

I ran through the lobby, hearing the thundering sound of guards behind me as I swung the door open.

Sunlight belted into my eyes as I ran down the steps and toward the nearest forest.

Guns went off behind me as I zigzagged across the field. I felt the bullets flying all around me, and one grazed my leg. Pain erupted in my body and I screamed, attempting to run the pain off. I made it to the tree line and flew through the trees.

The side of my thigh was burning, the pain growing up to my hip and making it hard to run. Tears pulled in my eyes but I blinked them away. I’d had worse when Ian kicked me in the ribs, which was just now healing.

I dared a glance behind me and didn’t notice anyone following. A small hill sat to my right, so I ran around the ledge and hid behind it.

I rolled to my side and looked at the bullet wound. I thought it had grazed me, but I could see the bullet deep into my muscle.

I had to get it out.

Listening to my surroundings, I ripped a piece of my T-shirt from my sleeve and rolled it into my mouth.

You can do this, my wolf said. Come on. Dig it out.

Biting down on the cloth, I dug my finger into my leg and screamed at the pain.

I pulled the bullet out swiftly and tossed it to the ground. Resting my head against the hill, I took two deep breaths, pulled the cloth from my mouth, and tied it above my thigh.

It would heal now that the bullet was out.

My wolf was growing stronger after my first fight, but I still felt weak. Climbing to my feet, I listened for any sign of the guards or Patch.

I didn’t and it scared me.

Standing to my feet, I backtracked from the courts and moved in the opposite direction. The trees grew dense and thick the further I walked from the courts. I struggled to get through the brush without my legs being torn to pieces.

“Where are we?” I mumbled to myself.

There was no end in sight. I pushed further through the brush when I heard a distant howl. At first, I thought it was a warning, but it felt heated. One single howl that felt more animalistic than a werewolf.

This didn’t feel like a regular wolf.

I couldn’t explain it.

My wolf growled and whimpered at the noise. At the unknown.

Something was coming for me. I turned and ran through the brush as hard as I could. My adrenaline spiked and I ignored the pain shooting through my body.

“Chase,” I whispered. “Where are you? Can you feel me? Please help me.”

I shoved hard through the brush, seeing a giant tree in the distance with a thick canopy. I climbed it swiftly until I was at the top, hidden beneath the leaves.

I wiped my hair from my face and searched the forest for what was following me. The minutes ticked by when I heard the footsteps closing in.

However, whatever it was had two feet, not four. I could hear the difference in the footsteps against the leaves. I stayed hidden the best I could, waiting to see what they unleashed on me.

Seconds turned to minutes when I saw it.

My breath caught in my lungs. My wolf shivered at the sight of it.

It looked like a monster. Something dug from the depths of Hell. A science project? Something conjured up in a lab.

He stood on his back legs like a human, with a wolf-ish face, full of fur with long arms outstretched. His stench rolled through my stomach. Where did they keep him? A sewer under the courts?

I bit my tongue, watching him follow my scent and stop at the base of my tree. He bounced slightly with each breath he took. Drool dropped from his teeth.

Had they sent him to kill me or to bring me back?

I wasn’t sure which one was worse at this point.

I needed a plan. A good one.

I could shift but I wasn’t sure how my wolf would compare to him. I couldn’t take him in my human form.

The monster’s eyes shifted upward and I met them for the first time. Red orbs stared back at me as he put one hand on the trunk and began to climb.