She frowned and glanced at my stomach. I could see the doubt in her eyes.
“Tell the truth. You don’t like that leader of yours. And I don’t blame you. He’s a serious creep —”
“Shut up!” she shouted, loud enough to alert the entire den. It made me flinch. One-on-one I had a fighting case but if the whole pack came this way to check out the commotion then I was royally screwed.
“Look, you can come with me. Our pack is small right now —”
“I’m not going anywhere and neither are you.” She started forward.
“You don’t want to do this.”
“Don’t tell me what I want,” she growled. “He does enough of that.”
“Then leave!” I exclaimed. “If you don’t like him then leave. Trust me, I know how easy it can be to let yourself be trapped by a shitty relationship. You start convincing yourself that you’ll never find someone else. You start belittling yourself. But you’re worth more than you think.”
She stopped. “You’re just trying to trick me into letting you go.”
“No, I’m trying to save you from that monster.” It was a risk but I took her hand. “And I’m trying to prevent you from making the same mistakes that I made not so long ago.”
She didn’t pull away but I took that to be a good sign.
In the distance, I could hear the sound of running. The other members were coming our way and if we didn’t hurry, I was as good as dead. “Please.” I squeezed her hand, praying that I would get through to her.
“Come on, the exit is this way.” While still holding my hand, she towed me towards the left. From there, it was an endless volley of twists and turns. It was difficult for me to keep up but with my life on the line, I just had to suck up the pain and keep going.
After what felt like an eternity, we approached what looked like the entrance. The moonlight was making its way inside, giving me hope that maybe, just maybe, I’d make it out of this kidnapping in one piece.
“There will be two guards posted at the entrance — one to the left and to the right. We have to sneak up on them and take them out before they can sound the alarm. If they get to that alarm then it’s game over for the both of us. Do you understand.”
I nodded.
“Can I count on you?”
“Yes,” I answered. “Always.”
She nodded her understanding and tiptoed forward. I mirrored her every move because I knew that coordination was critical to our survival. My head was starting to get light and a little bit foggy but I didn’t dare to breathe.
“And 1… 2… 3…” she mouthed before we made our attack. I barely remember it happening. One second, I was lurking behind a stone wall and the next, I was jumping onto someone’s back with my arm pressed against his windpipe. He did everything he could to knock me off but I held on for dear life. “Well… that’s one way to do it, I suppose,” she said, as the second guard finally passed out. “But you’ll have to work on that technique of yours.”
“You sound like my mates.”
She grinned. “Well, let’s hope that I get to meet them.”
“You will and I’m sure that you’ll like them too.”
“You better pray that I do because I’m sacrificing a whole lot by doing this. If this all goes south, then I’m left with nothing.”
“You won’t regret it,” I promised. “They are the best.”
“I’ll make that judgment call myself.”
“Fine by me.” Knowing that it would be foolish to stay standing at the entrance of their den, I hurried towards the forest, knowing that it would provide the coverage we needed to slip away. “But first… we have got to find them.”
“What if they are in the thick of it?”
“What do you mean?”
“This is going to be an all-out war.”