The Lycan's Unexpected Warrior Luna!
Six

I return to the room and re-examine everything; the only door I haven't tried must go to a corridorwithin the building; approaching the door, I lay my hand on the handle and attempt to open it. Irepress a chuckle when I discover the door is locked, but I didn’t really expect it to be unlocked, so Igroan in disgust and return to the balcony. I know I did a lot of fighting yesterday, and my musclesare quite sore as a result, but I'm not going to sit here and wait for Zachariah to determine whathe'll do to me.

Shifting to the side where the railing meets the side of the house... or whatever place I'm in. I leanover the edge, look down, and shudder; I've never been a big fan of heights, but I'm not going to letit get the best of me and prevent me from getting away from here. There aren't many places tohold, but that hasn't stopped me before, and it won't this time either. I take a big breath and climbover the railing, gently making my way down the side of the building, discovering the little holes as Igo.

My foot slips a number of times, and I have to grab it with my fingers as tightly as I can so I don'tfall, pausing to regain my balance on more before continuing. As soon as I'm near enough to theground, I leap the rest of the way, landing quietly in the bushes. I squat down, take a quick glancearound, and grin. I crawl through the bushes until I reach the edge, then pause, glance around, thenclimb to my feet and only run when I don’t see anyone.

I don't go very far before I have to evade someone approaching from the side; I duck and then rollacross the ground, returning to my feet in my combat position, facing them.

“Where do you think you're going?” he asks, surprising me.

"Anywhere but here!” I say, adjusting my position slightly.

“I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that... Hey! What happened to your collar, human?”

I shuffle my shoulders and turn to escape again, but I'm caught by a man that I hadn't seen and hadapproached from behind, so I utilize what Elder Miles taught me to surprise him and break free.Except, this time they don't hold back, and they both strike me at the same moment, but I'mprepared for it and can protect myself reasonably well. As I get one to the ground, another comes atme, and then another.

I slide out of the way as a beast attempts to grab me, and then I get back to my feet. I tense upwhen I realize I'm now encircled by at least twelve of these beasts. The sheer number of them, onthe other hand, doesn't bother me since Elder Miles used to have all the boys attack me at the sametime, forcing me to show to him that, he wasn't wasting his time training me like the others. Whatconcerns me is that they are not the same as the men in the village.

I engage them and quickly learn not to let them make contact with their strikes, and that my hitshardly make them flinch, so I protect myself as best I can and search for any and every opening Ican to get away from them; I do, however, manage to knock a couple of them down. We're all joltedto a halt as we hear a terrifying growl coming from above us, just as one of the beasts makescontact with my cheek.

Glancing up towards the balcony, I see Zachariah standing with his hands on the railing; gentlylifting my hand up and placing it over where he bit me, I shiver, which snaps me out of my shock; Ithen look around at the beasts encircling me, smiling and taking advantage of their attention. I thencarefully make my way out of the circle.

I glance back up at Zachariah as I make it out of the circle of beasts. I then turn and run into thetrees; it isn't long before I hear a loud howl followed by a lot of lower howls in return. This makesme run faster, but it doesn’t seem long before I hear a growl, first on one side of me and then fromthe other, I slide to a stop as I see a large wolf standing with another beast in front of me. The wolfgrowls and takes a step forward as I take a step back; I continue to step back until I come up flushagainst what I first thought was a tree. I then feel whatever I am up against vibrate as he says,

“Shall we show this human what we do to the ones that don’t do as they are told?”

"But the Alpha said not to touch her!"

"The Alpha is not here is he, so let's have some fun before we take her back!"

He laughs, then slides one arm around my waist and wraps his other hand around my throat. I smileas I may be human as he says, but I am not like all the other girls he is used to pushing around. Iwatch as the other beast in front of me takes a few steps closer and the wolves that seemed to bestanding guard disappear, but then three more guys come back, just as the one in front stops withina foot of me. Hiding my slight smile, then kick out my feet, using the guy's hold on me as leverage,knocking him to the ground.

Unfortunately, this only makes him tighten his hand around my throat slowly, making it harder andharder for me to breathe. I struggle to start with, but then I force myself to relax. It works. He thenrelaxes his hold just a little as he leans his head into my neck and takes a deep breath, but he thenfreezes and with the arm around my waist he pulls on my blouse, tearing it just a little. I don’t knowwhat he is doing or why, but I use this distraction to my advantage. Grabbing hold of his hand thatis around my neck, I manage to move it enough to sink my teeth into the side of his hand.

He growls as I struggle but doesn't let me go as I was hoping; it is then that there is another deepergrowl from behind the one holding me; he turns, taking me with him to face the one responsible forthe growl. As soon as he turns I stop struggling and glimpse two guys I recognize from the raid onthe village, but I am drawn to and lock eyes with Zachariah, who is standing with his hands on hiships.

He growls low, “Release her!”

"But Alpha...”

He growls again, breaking the connection with my eyes to shift his attention to the beast holdingme. The beast sighs and reluctantly releases me, pushing me towards Zachariah, who doesn't lookat me again as he then seems to pass me to one of the other guys with him.

“Don't let her go..." he growls.