Bullets tore through the forest around me as I ran. My paws ripped through the dry leaves and dirt as I tried to escape the hunters closing in. I was holding my little brother by the scruff of his neck in my mouth.
My parents were gone, the pack was gone, the hunters had seen to that.
I came across a river, but instead of running through it I made paw prints to the edge of the water, then backtracked to a fallen tree on the riverbank. I squeezed Jason and myself into a hole concealed by the roots of the giant tree.
The hunters pulled up on their ATVs, each one loaded down with an arsenal of weapons. There were seven hunters in all, two women and five men. The women were complete opposites, one was short with blonde hair and the other was tall with bright red hair cut into a pixie style.
"Looks like she crossed the river," one man said as he bent down and examined my tracks.
"You never know with these mutts, they are very crafty." An older man stated. He was examining a giant sword that was sheathed on the side of his ATV.
"Chris, why don't we stop for the night. We can pick up the trail from here in the morning. I mean, how far could she have gotten, she had a cub with her." The blonde woman said to the man examining my tracks.
The red-haired woman stepped forward and put her hand on Chris's shoulder and said "Chris, you, I and Allison have to leave early in the morning with the moving trucks to make sure everything gets to the house. Let's leave Kate in charge, they can keep us posted on the search."
"We planned this operation for months. We had the other pack eating out of our hands. They knew everything about the union. We cannot let the female or the cub live Victoria." Chris said turning to the red-haired woman.
"Kate is just as capable of handling the creatures, you know that. The union was not complete and the rest of the two packs are dead. She has nothing to go back to and nowhere to run. Kate and the boys will catch them tomorrow." Victoria exclaimed.
Chris sighed, "you're right. I will still have a few things to pack before the movers get here tomorrow." Chris said as he turned making one more sweep of the riverbank.
The beam crossed over the roots where Jason and I were hiding. I froze and Jason curled up into a little ball, trying to make himself as small as possible. Chris walked over to his ATV and started it up, the others followed suit. Victoria got on behind him straddling his back. They drove away as quickly as they had come into the inky black night.
I listened carefully making sure they were all gone. When the coast was clear, I grabbed Jason and we crossed the river.
I didn't stop running until we reached out back porch. We had to leave tonight, the hunters would just pick up our trail in the morning and find us tomorrow.
I put Jason down and we shifted back into our human forms. As we walked up the back steps, Jason grabbed my hand and said, "Your eyes, they are red now." I stopped and looked down at him. "It's because, I'm the Alpha now." I said solemnly.
I unlocked the backdoor and we stepped into the kitchen. The full moon illuminated the photos and drawings on the refrigerator.
"Jason, we have to leave tonight, so I need you to start packing your suitcase. Only pack what you absolutely need. I will be in to help you in a minute." I said quietly. Jason nodded and walked to his room.
This is something no child his age should have to go through. Losing his parents, he's only 4 years old, barely even old enough to go to school. I said to myself as I walked to my room. How are we going to survive without them? The union was a failure and now we are just as weak as before.
I grabbed my blue suitcase off the shelf in my closet and started stuffing my clothes in it. Nothing seemed to matter, not my soccer trophies, my old sketchbooks, my old yearbooks. I walked over to my bedside table and picked up the picture of my parents, Jason, and me. We had wanted to go to Disneyland and make fun of the tourists, but it had started to rain and we ended up at an old timey ice cream parlor. The old woman who ran it had come by and had taken our picture. I smiled remembering how she had scolded us for having our eyes shut in the photo. I place the photo in my messenger bag along with my laptop, iPod, earphones, phone, and phone charger. I zipped my two bags and walked to Jason's room. He was sitting on the floor holding his stuffed wolf Kevin, crying. I picked him up and sat on the bed rubbing his back as he sobbed, just like mom used to do.
"Where will we go?" he said sobbing.
"Dad has a safe house in Beacon Hills. It's in the middle of nowhere and it's secluded. We will be safe there. Mom and Dad used to have friends that were like us that lived there. Dad made sure that if something happened to them we would be okay." I said to him trying not to cry.
"I know that this seems bad, Jason but we still have each other. We are still a pack and mom and dad would want us to be strong. Can you do that?" I asked looking at him.
He nodded and I stood him up on the floor. I started packing his suitcase. When I was done, I took his suitcase and mine to the garage.
I walked back to my parent's room. When I opened the door the smell of my mother's perfume spilled out mixed with the scent of my father's musk. It was almost like they weren't gone. I imagined that they would come through the front door laughing or barge into the room carrying Jason. I sighed and walked over to the closet, and pulled out my dad's leather duffel bag. He had made sure that I knew to get this bag if anything happened to them. I opened the bag and looked through it. It contained: all the paperwork for the new house in Beacon Hills, the numbers of all our off-shore bank accounts that my father put all our money into, $5,000 dollars in cash, a gun and extra ammo, some knives, a journal of his research on werewolves, our new I. Ds complete with passports, an emergency medical kit, and finally a letter.
I looked at the I. Ds, from now on Jason and I were Jessica and Jason Shane. I slowly packed everything into the duffel bag leaving the letter for last.
I don't want to read this this now, it's too soon. I said to myself as I placed it in the duffel bag. As I was zipping up the bag a loose-leaf piece of paper fell out. I picked it up and looked at it. It was a picture of a deer lying in a grass field with a spiral carved into its side. I turned the paper over. My father had written on the other side of the paper: Revenge? For what? The Hale's?
Who were the Hale's? Why did that name sound so familiar? Why did my dad have this picture?
I folded the picture and placed it back in the duffel. I carried the duffel to the garage and started loading the bags into the back of our beat-up truck. I started up the car and drove out of the garage. I pulled the trailer to the back of the truck and hooked it up. I walked my motorcycle onto the trailer and secured it. As soon as I was done, I took several trips into the house stuffing every blanket and pillow into the backseat of the truck. I wanted to make sure that we wouldn't have to stop at a hotel before we reached Beacon Hills. I didn't want to leave a paper trail that the hunters could pick up and follow. I walked into the kitchen and filled a bag with non-perishable food and water. I turned the gas on the stove on and lit a candle on the counter. I helped Jason climb into the backseat of the truck, he was still holding his stuffed wolf. Mom had bought it for him after his first turn. She had made sure that the stuffed wolf had matched his when he changed. We had all been so proud of him when he shifted for the first time. We were not sure if he would change at all because my dad had been bitten.
I got into the car, started the engine and pulled out into the street. I paused, this was the house that I had said my first words in, the house that Jason had been born in, and the house that we had shifted in for the first time. I started to drive down the street, the house exploded behind us shaking the car. We drove down the street the only light coming from our burning house behind us and we didn't look back.