Marked As His

The "Stakes" Are High

I felt the muscles in my legs grow weaker and weaker within every step I took.

The barn wasn't much farther now and the horses were tamed so I would have absolutely no trouble taking the fastest horse out.

But there still remained two problems. I didn't know which one was the fastest horse and I've never even ridden a horse before.

These horses were here for the werewolves to feed on, or sometimes for the men to ride and hunt for other animals, women were never allowed on a horse.

I shook off the thoughts that were rummaging through my head as I had finally approached the barn.

The fact that the only source of light was the moon didn't help my situation, I pushed open the door and entered the barn. My hands glided against the walls as I desperately searched for a light switch.

After what seemed to be forever, I had finally found a click and to my surprise, the entire barn was streamed with the a powerful beam of light when I had switched it on.

'Horses horses...' I had thought to myself. My eyes scrambled across the entire area of the barn and I couldn't spot a single horse.

When suddenly, in the deepest corner of the barn, I had seen a large wandering shadow pace back and forth.

"Wh-who's there?" I called out, "show yourself."

The figure didn't move.

I managed to wander towards it, getting at least 10 feet closer to it than I was before, but as my eyes had adjusted to the darkness I realized that the figure was nothing more than a horse... the only horse.

"Ha!" I laughed, feeling foolish that I let a simple horse give me a scare.

The horse stepped out of the shadows as I neared it even more, I could see that the horse stood to be 63 inches tall, being a tad bit taller than the average horse should be.

It's coat of hair shimmered a hazel like color and on his back was a saddle.

"Perfect," I said aloud.

I still wasn't sure how to approach this horse, or how to even get on it so I bit my bottom lip and hoped for the best.

As I reached an arms-length distance away from the horse I notice that he wasn't bothered by my presence, he was rather comfortable with me standing so close to him.

I extended my arm and patted his head, causing him to nuzzle his nose up into my hand, "well this is a good start I guess." I mumbled to myself.

My eyes landed on the girth tightened around his massive body and I used it to hoist myself up onto his back. My legs had uncomfortably placed themselves around the saddle and I took a hold of the reins in front of me.

The horse took a few steps and I stumbled to find my balancing point for a few moments.

"Take me out of the barn," I had commanded to the horse. He didn't move, "take me out of the barn." I said again, but the horse didn't go anywhere.

How do I make him go? I questioned myself, I felt ashamed that I didn't even know how to make a horse run, I felt even more ashamed that I let my pack down... I let Dale down.

"Ugh," I shrugged while kicking my leg down.

The horse suddenly trotted forwards.

Surprised, I kicked him again, only harder this time. He sprang forward into a prance, so I kicked him one last time, as hard as my weak legs possibly could and he dashed out of the barn and into the cold, murky forest.

My grip on his reins had tightened, he was indeed fast... almost as fast as an Alpha.

When my pack house was finally in view, I jumped off the horse and shivered in the damp coldness of the winter air.

There wasn't a single being in sight, feeling doubtful, I opened the back door to the pack house and entered into the darkness of the place I called my "home."

Still, not a single soul was in sight. 'Had everyone been captured? Were they waiting for me? Was I walking into a trap?' My thoughts had swirled aimlessly inside my brain.

My first instinct was to find Dale, but without my wolf I couldn't sense him, I couldn't even find his scent. I wasn't even sure if he was still alive or not since my mate pull had also gone with my wolf.

I held my hands out in front of me to guide me through the darkness, when finally, I had seen a faint glow of flickering light coming from a familiar hallway on the second floor. The light seemed to have been a fire of some sort.

I sighed in relief and ran towards it, noticing that the fire was coming from old torches hung up on the walls, I reach up and grabbed one as I made my way down the strangely lit hall.

The torch was about the size of my arm and it was extremely heated, so holding it had definitely been a challenge.

When the end of the hall finally came, I turned the corner and horrid images had came into view. My eyes had weld up into deep, heavy tears... I nearly dropped my torch, but instead clutched onto it tighter, aware of the consequences that would occur if I had dropped it. My hand went up to my heart and I felt my chest heave up and down in slow heavy motions.

"Why.." I whispered- "WHY?!" I said this time screaming. "Why would you do this?! Come out! Face me, you coward!" I cried out to my father, in hopes he was nearby to hear my words.

My eyes forced themselves to stop staring at the wicked scene in front of me, up to at least 8 members from my pack had been slaughtered, their heads cut off and perched up onto stakes that rose up to be at least 10 feet tall, sticking up out of the ground in the hall that I had just walked into.

Their fresh blood dripping down and making deep red puddles on the ground, making every single part of me cringe.

I wanted to die.