The Falcon Ridge Series Book 2 Not Just A Girl
Chapter 33

(Chapter song ‘My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark’ by Fall Out Boy)

SARAH

"Ok. Next group. Come on. Quiet. Guys, hurry."

The moon hung high and black clouds drift over head as we hold the fence down under the trees of the Northwest corner. Shane keeps watch as Hayden monitors the program directing the security loop.

I look through the trunks and see a group of dark shadows running toward us. “Come on.” I wave my hand and usher them over the fence quickly.

Kids high jump the fence one after another and run for the cave for their packs. Some let out quiet, excited growls as they leap over the wire and run.

Everyone is itching for this and I’m so glad for that. I wouldn’t have pegged myself for a military leader, but it actually feels pretty good.

Sean and a few others lead the groups of twenty-five at a time across the field to the rigged fence.

"Follow Sam. He'll get your packs. Hurry." I order as we steal into the night. The ultimate sneak out. This is beautiful.

We're going to save Black Lake. We will even save the Alliance. Bringing the fight to the rogues was our best plan. Jayson's best plan. The Unit doesn’t understand, so I'm making it my business to show them just how bad they fucked up.

As the last group disappears over the fence and into the trees, Sean joins us. "That’s it."

"Everyone?" I ask.

He chuckles and rubs his neck. "Yep. The buildings empty."

I laugh under my breath. "Riker's going to be pissed."

Shane laughs. "Let's go."

We all jump the fence. Shane tightens the wire back up and removes the cables he used to redirect the electricity. Hayden destroys the loop on his laptop and unhooks it from the security panel he broke into. He closes it back up and the fence is now secured again like we never touched it.

We jog to catch up to the group.

As we reach the cave, a hundred anxious kids are staring at us.

I stand in front of them all. "Thank you, guys. Really. This was Jayson's plan. We promised him we would fight and damn it, we are. We're not letting these animals threaten our homes. We're taking care of this our way and no one is going to stop us."

Hushed cheers came from the crowd.

I look them over. "Does everyone have a pack?"

I see heads bob in confirmation. "Good. We'll shift and run. We have to run fast just like Jayson taught us. Everything Jayson taught us comes into play. We can do this.”

“Yeah, we can." Someone shouts quietly and I grin.

“Move out.”

We all shift to our wolves and pick up our packs in our teeth.

I bark three times, signaling to the trackers to give us a direction.

Five minutes later, the five trackers bark and take off running.

I bark a growl and take off, too. The rest of the pack is hot on my tail.

A hundred wolf paws pound the ground as we all tear through the trees into the unknown. The pack shakes the ground with growls and muffled barks.

A hundred wolves with only one thing on the brain…

Murder all Rogues.

****

It's well into morning when I stop the pack in a small clearing for a break.

Sam walks through the bodies that fall to their buts with exhaustion. "Ten minutes! Get food and water and be ready to run!"

"Sarah we've been running all night. We need sleep." Shane whines as he flops down beside me.

"Every minute we waste, the rogue packs get closer together." I side eye him before tasking a bite of my sandwich.

Sam sits on the other side of me. "We'll be no good if we can't fight due to exhaustion. "

I sigh in frustration. "Ok, fine. Next break we sleep for two hours. That's it." I point to them then drink from a water bottle. I throw it in my bag, zip it up and stand. "EVERYONE SHIFT!"

"That wasn't ten minutes." Sam gets to his feet and he whines now.

I squint at him. "If you want to sleep, we leave now."

I shift, pick up my pack and my wolf eyes the boys.

"Ugh." Shane stands. "Fine. Freaking slave driver."

I growl.

"I'm kidding!” He shifts and picks up his pack.

I bark to the trackers to give us a direction.

Once they have it, we move. The forest trees boil as we rush through them, looking for blood.

****

The moon is on full display by the time Shane stops and howls.

He shifts and yells at me. "Far enough!"

The pack halts and I shift.

My chest is heavy panting and my legs are burning which means everyone else's is too. "Ok. Two hours." I order and replace a spot to sit down.

The kids all groan as they get comfortable around the break in the trees. They start eating, drinking and some have already passed out, some don’t even shift. Sleeping outside as wolves sometimes feels natural, but we have to be careful. When our wolves have too much freedom, bad things happen.

I can barely sleep. I dreamt of the fight. I dreamt of Jayson. I felt the fear of me dying. I felt the horrifying sadness of him dying and never seeing each other again.

I feel like I barely closed my eyes when my phone alarm goes off along with a hundred others.

We all slowly rise to consciousness and turn off the alarms, but it didn’t take long to get back in the game with a newly energized enthusiasm. Kids stand, stretch, get cleaned up and prepare to leave.

As we wait for everyone, Shane, Sam and I, all huddle up.

"How far do you think?" Shane asks as he crosses his arms.

"Trackers think a day maybe two. The scent's getting stronger." I kick at a rock and I glance at the trackers talking amongst themselves.

Sam arches a brow. "You think we can still do this?"

I look over the pack. They seem refreshed and that fighting itch is back as I watch them pump each other up. "Definitely. We can't turn back now."

Shane claps my arm. "Let's go."

Sam turns. "ALRIGHT, GUYS! EVERYONE UP AND SHIFT!"

Once everyone shifts, we get our bearings and run.

We run because other people depend on us. The Alliance depends on us whether they realize it or not. The future of Black Lake depends on us.

We run because our lives depend on us and if there is a cosmic being out there, they'll make sure we win.

We will win big because it's not our bravery or strength that's driving us, it's our hearts. I, now, understand what Jayson meant. Our hearts are our driving force. It's what makes us do the impossible. Win the improbable. It's makes us put everything aside and fight for things bigger than ourselves.

That's why we run.

****

By mid-afternoon, we had to stop. At the edge of a ravine, the trackers slowed, directing their noses to the ground and sniffing around. They raise their heads to me and start to whine.

They lost it.

My wolf drops her pack, trots over to them and I call the wind.

A silver wolf shifts in front of me. It's a girl named Alicia.

"What's up?" I ask her.

She turns to the ravine then back to me. "We lost it."

I put my hand on my hip. "We'll they couldn't have flown away." I stare out to the cliff and the lower treetops.

I walk to the edge and analyze the terrain. I peer over the edge and see that it's about a fifty-foot, straight drop to the bottom. I look around for a path down. There’s small pathways big enough for us, but would be technically dangerous for a rogue to use. I study the bottom. That doesn’t mean that a rogue wouldn’t be crazy enough to jump it. What the hell.

I turn to Alicia and point to the bottom. "What about down there?"

Alicia turns and whistles. A tracker in wolf form strides over.

"Scent!" She orders as she points to the bottom of the ravine.

The wolf trots to the edge, sniffs then looks for a way down. We watch over the edge as he carefully maneuvers across the small paths I saw.

Once on the forest floor, he sniffs around. His tail starts to wag as he follows his nose into the trees. He comes back, looks up and barks.

I smile. "Sweet."

Alicia points to the ravine as she calls the other trackers. "SCENT!"

The wolves make their way down the wall. I shift, bark to the pack to follow and we make our way down.

Once on the bottom, we follow the trackers through the dense trees. The farther we get from Caledon, the thicker and more unkempt the woods get. All our terrain crossing skills are coming into play now. We can’t let anything get in our way.

We cross a rather difficult river and follow into the trunks on the other side.

These rogues are incredible, but we're better. We're getting closer. Even I can pick up the faint, familiar scent of death now.

I push everyone on for another mile or two before we stop under the cover of darkness to sleep.

As everyone settles in, I sit beside Shane. "What do you think mom and dad are doing right now?"

He throws a blade of grass as he leans his arm on a pulled up knee. "Don't know. Hopefully they got home. Most likely they're dying of worry."

I huff a little laugh and nod. "Mom's probably going out of her mind. Do you think they know?"

"Oh, I'm sure of it. A hundred kids can't go missing without someone noticing and they'd have to tell the parents." Shane glances at me.

I press my lips together. "I'm in deep trouble."

Shane laughs quietly. "Oh yeah. We'll both be grounded for a year."

"I can do a year standing on my head." I smirk.

We're interrupted by a ping on my phone. I raise a brow to Shane. "We get service out here?"

He shrugs. "Guess so."

I pull my phone out of my bag, swipe it open and narrow my eyes.

It's a text from Jayson. I can feel his anger in every letter.

JAY: I SWEAR TO GOD, WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I’M KILLING YOU MYSELF. ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?!!

YOU: I LEAVE YOU HUNDREDS OF MESSAGES AND THIS IS WHAT YOU SAY TO ME?!

JAY: When you're on a fucking suicide mission, YES!!!!!!!!

YOU: Goodbye Jayson.

JAY: Sarah, turn around, right fucking now!

YOU: NO!

JAY: Sarah, I swear…

YOU: You can't stop us, Jayson. We're saving our home whether you like it or not.

JAY: Sarah!!

YOU: I'm shutting my phone down.

JAY: Don't you dare, Sarah!

I swipe my settings and turn off my message boxes.

I toss my phone back into my pack and try to not feel a little bit betrayed. He wanted me to grow up and I’m leading an army. Yet, he still treats me like a dumb kid.

Shane points to my bag and glances at me. "He sounds pissed."

"He'll get over it." I settle down and close my eyes.

I didn't realize how exhausted I was because Shane was shaking me. "Sarah! Sarah! Get up!" He yells under his breath as I come back to reality.

I blink my eyes to get them to focus on his face. "What? What is it?"

He looks into my eyes. His are filled with fear. "They're here." He whispers with concern.

Getting what he means, I jump to my feet. "Help me!" I push him to start waking everyone up.

As we do, Sam sends out some scouts. We get everyone to shift and wait for their return.

Soon four wolves run into the clearing. A kid named Travis, shifts and approaches.

He thumbs over his shoulder to the trees. "Twenty or thirty. We can't be sure. Half a click that way."

I rub my bottom lip then turn. "Shane, take your group that way. Sam, circle your group around that way and Sean your group is with me. We'll hit these guys on all sides."

The boys nod and leave to get organized. We gather our groups and take off in wolf form to our respective sides.

Once the area is surrounded, I can smell them. I don’t know how I didn’t catch it earlier. The wind must have changed direction. Either way, my stomach feels sick and my wolf is pissed.

We approach inward, cautiously. We move with stealth, skulking through the trees and closing the circle with each step.

Eyes glow and wolves softly growl while licking their lips. All of us are salivating for this fight.

Thorough the trees, we can see the rogues resting. They must have shown up while we were sleeping.

I scan the trees and see Sam and Shane were in their positions.

I nod to both and we move in a bit closer.

Someone snaps a twig which causes one rogue to lift his head. I freeze as he narrows his eyes, gets up and approaches the tree line.

When he was close enough, he caught my eyes. I don’t wait a second. I growl deep and my wolf lunges at him with her jaws wide open.

I crash with the surprised rogue and we both bite at each other furiously. The others wake and spring into action as the other three groups launch out of the woods at the same time.

We’re grabbing rogues and tearing at flesh.

The hundred wolves pour into the clearing like a flood of teeth and fury. The fight moves into the forest and the trees sway violently as bodies are bounced and thrashed through them.

The rogues struggle to get up as we pummel them into the blood soaked dirt.

I grab one, hold him down and tear his neck out.

I spit out his dirty flesh and look for Shane.

He’s fighting a male who’s at least two times bigger than his wolf. I growl with a snap of my canines, run and jump on the rogues back.

Sinking my teeth into his shoulder, he reels back and howls. Shane replaces his jugular and tears at it like a rabid dog.

Georgia, Hayden and Ash pin down a wolf who seemed to be the leader of this group.

With Hayden’s paw on top of his head, he snarls his lip as I walk into his field of vision with my head low.

His red eyes follow me and even now, I see murder in them.

My wolfs eyes glow blue and shoot the same look back as my wolf licks her lips. Her teeth drool as Hayden’s wolf lowers his head to the rogue and snarls a growl.

The last thing the dirty dog sees is my large jaws open and clamp down on his neck. Hayden grabs the other side of hi head and together we rip it off.

As we help kill the last remaining members, all the rogues were dead in a matter of forty minutes.

We shift and celebrate, howling into the night air.

I wipe the blood and dirt off my face as I walk through everybody and make sure everyone was alright. There were a few minor injuries, but everyone was accounted for.

Gathering them around me, we stood in the sea of blood and dead wolves.

"We did it!" I threw my fist in the air along with everyone else as they let out a cheer. "This was awesome, but there's four more packs. We just shrunk their army by twenty and gave Black Lake a fighting chance.”

I place my hands behind my back and pace around the circle, stepping over the bodies as I do. “As much as I would love to celebrate, we need to replace a safe spot to rest then hunt the others. I'm so proud of all of you. You did great. Do lose your fight. I know I won’t be. Move out!"

We shift and run into the trees to sleep for the night.

Tomorrow, we hit pack number 2. I feel really good about this. Nothing is stopping us. The monster is unleashed and we're bringing our own brand of hell.

***

The early morning was covered in light fog. The forest filled with the sounds of morning birds, but they quickly flew away when the tremendous sound of four hundred paws hit the ground at rapid pace. Panting, growling and biting filled the air as the forest floor shook under our weight.

It was a little cooler as the sun crested off the horizon. White clouds of hot breath wafted over the pack. Our bodies steamed from heat as we cross and open field.

As we ran parallel to the tree line, something caught my eye.

A rogue breaches the trees and targets the side of the pack. He snaps and bites at the pack as we run faster. Those around him, bite back and shove their bodies into him. He’s a scout. We need the pack. We need him to call the others.

He barks several times as he runs and I look back. Ten more rogues run up on our rear and split off surrounding us like a hunting pack surrounds prey.

We've been running for hours and are exhausted, but now we're being called out. We're aren’t ready for this, but we'll show them the deadly mistake they just made.

The packs paws kick up soil and grass as we continue to run. There must be more somewhere.

Five more wolves run from the trees at our front and bee line for our stampede. They get in close and snap at me from the right side.

Hayden and Shane shove them off and they fall off getting left behind. They get up and join the back.

They flank us left and right, snapping at the heels of those on the outside lines.

I stop and turn. The pack parts like a flock of birds as I stand tall and snarl. As the end approaches, I lower my head and pull back my ears.

The rogues stop all mirroring my stance.

My wolf growls as my pack stops and turns back. My tick her head and gives a wolf smirk.

The rogues up front raise their heads and start to step backwards. Their eyes widen as the tables turn and they practically trip over themselves and run the other way.

Not moving a muscle, my fur is blown by my pack leaping and running past me with a frenzied hunger.

They swarm the rogues and after a few minutes, none are left alive.

The rogues held on until the last breath, but we were better even in our exhausted state.

My wolf stood proud as her pack took their pound of flesh. She licks her lips and I feel the leader in her grow even more. I feel the power she’s gaining from every win.

I feel…

Shane interrupts my thoughts by barking at me to ger going.

Once we got our bearings we ran again. It wasn’t long before we found a spot to hold us all and rest, eat and tend to wounds.

I found the guys and sat down.

"I need a shower." Shane says leaning on a log.

Sam leans back. "Yes, a long hot shower."

I smile. "When our missions done, that first shower is going to feel great."

"How much food do we have?" Hayden asks, drawing in the dirt with a stick.

"The packs should have another three days worth. After that, we'll have to rely on our wolves." Sam informs.

Sean looks down and shakes his head. "Ugh. My wolf sucks at hunting."

I smirk. "I'll catch you something."

He laughs and bumps my arm. "Thanks."

"We should get some sleep." Shane says.

We settle down and my mind wanders to Jayson. I wonder what he's doing right now. Is he still worried? Is he looking for me? I'm tempted to text him, but he'll just yell at me. I'm riding the buzz of winning this war and I don't need to kill it with Jayson's lectures.

Tomorrow, we should reach the second pack then the tables will really be turned.

Sleep replaces me and I smile as I dream of Jayson hugging me and telling me how proud he is of me for saving everyone.