Javier and Huan Li were trudging in the deep snow drifts behind the incredibly powerful woman who was their reluctant guide.

  Yrsa, wearing snow shoes, powered through the forest of her home with startling speed and a certain grace. He legs pumped continuously and she seemed tireless. The snow was still falling but it wasn’t the blizzard that the woman had saved the two Shape shifters from only a few days before. Yrsa didn’t stop once, she set on her determined path, making various turns and changes in her direction. She placed her hand on a nearby tree and changed direction once more.

  Javier was a pretty in-shape guy. He was big and always enjoyed his strength, but next to Yrsa, he might as well have been that same scrawny twelve year old, walking into the hedge maze made of ply wood, so long ago. He had no idea where he was and as soon as the woman’s house had been lost in the distance through the woods, he knew he could never find it again without help. He trudged along as best he could in the difficult and alien feeling snow shoes. He felt more like they were weights on his legs, dragging him down. If it felt like this with snow shoes on, he wondered how deep he would sink in the drifts without them.

  Huan Li strode along at a deliberate pace. He couldn’t keep up with either of the other two. The snow shoes helped to keep him on top of the snow, but his age was definitely being felt. He was sure that he hadn’t fully recovered from the ordeal of only a few days ago, but they couldn’t risk not acting. There was no way to know if Javier’s pack had found shelter. The sooner they got to them, the better their chances of survival would be. And he planned on giving the young pack every possible chance of survival.

  *   *   *   *

  Soter drifted through the blackness of sleep. He didn’t want to wake up; he didn’t want to pay attention to that tug of pain that meant waking up. Of course, after what they had been through waking up was something he hadn’t really counted on doing.

  He opened his golden wolf born eyes and inhaled the air around him. He was somewhere underground. That was good. It was dark and he could only smell the rich musky scent of earth and roots. So, he was in a hole of some kind, that could be good, or they were in a burrow or den, and that might be bad. Depending on who owned it and when they returned.

  He tried to move but the pain that exploded up his legs as he tried to stand up was too much to bare and he slumped forward onto his stomach, whining softly. He tried to flex his hind legs at the very least and found that even that small amount of movement was agony. He couldn’t move his legs. His legs might be broken. He snorted in disgust. If his legs were broken, he wouldn’t be able to do anything without Hysminai, their pack Healer.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  If he couldn’t move he could at least find out more about the hole he was in. It was dry and didn’t smell of rot. There were some smells of herbs and some chemicals that he couldn’t really identify. He was certain they were mostly harmless though, whatever they were. Humans and their ichors that they chose to work with. All he had ever needed was his legs, his jaws, and his claws. His eyes directed him, his nose told him where his prey was, and his body moved faster than any human. Not now of course, he silently cursed that his legs were broken. He growled low in his throat and dragged himself forward against the pain that exploded through his hind legs.

  His golden eyes had adjusted to the dark which was near perfect, so he couldn’t see much regardless. What he could see though, was the rough outline of the place he now found himself in. It was a very rough circular shape. He couldn’t make out any possible exit or entrance. It was too dark to see any kind of door or what the human’s called a ladder. Ladders could be removed though, so he couldn’t make any guess as to how deep underground he might be. More distressing than not really being able to see where he was or how to get out was that he couldn’t smell anyone else. There wasn’t the slightest hint of Keva, his Alpha, or his other pack mates.

  His stomach rumbled and he slumped to the floor. He was hungry and he couldn’t move. Not that there was any real hint of food in this place. He rolled a bit and stretched himself out on the dirt floor. He tried to ease the pain of his hind legs by lessoning the tension on them as much as possible. It helped a little but he was still in pain, and he was hungry. Sleep could be death for him. But in his current state he couldn’t really defend himself much anyway. With nothing else left to do he relaxed his body and closed his eyes, letting himself slip into the calming, painless oblivion of sleep.

  *   *   *   *

  Keva moved slowly out of sleep. There was a dull sense of pain all around her. She felt like she had been in a fight. Groaning softly, she reluctantly opened her eyes. She was in a hole of some kind. There was a fire in a fireplace on the far side of the hole, but the walls were made of dirt with roots plunging through the surface in various places.

  She tried to rub her shoulder, which felt like she had been hit with a sledge hammer, only to find that her hands were bound in some kind of shackles, connected to a large chain which was bolted to the ground. She pulled against the chain and found she had only a few inches of movement from how she was situated.

  This sent a shrill of panic through her. She gritted her teeth and yanked against the chain but it was thick and unnaturally heavy. It took real effort for her to even lift the chain. She had to get out of here.

  She relaxed her mind and shifted.