Lone Wolf (The Wulf Pack Book 1)

Three days.

It had been three days since the she-wolf had returned to the human bar.

Rage had asked around but, the giggling waitresses, who nearly threw themselves at him, hadn’t heard from her. The bar tender was particularly irritated when he asked her, and he knew it was because she had been stuck staying late to do her work.

Sitting at the bar silently, he heard the door open, a man came through, dressed in a dress shirt and dark wash jeans. Rage watched as the man approached the bar, speaking to the bar tender two, shamelessly, pointed his way.

He watched the man nod and head his way, Rage took him in. He was definitely human, from his wide figure was out of shape, no doubt from an unhealthy diet to the way he walked, leaning too much on his heals, screamed HUMAN. The dark hair that was left after what appeared to be years of thinning, was greased back, his dull brown eyes set on Rage.

The man slid onto the stool next to him, the leather creaking a bit as it absorbed to weight.

“I hear you have been bothering my girls,” said the man’s scratchy voice, his breath reeked of cigarettes, causing Rage to hold his breath.

“I don’t mean to bother,” Rage said, his deep voice and words seem to strike the human dumb for a moment, “I just wish to make sure that the girl is alright,”

“Who? Willow?” The man asked, Willow, the name whispered through his mind. A tree of strength and sorrow, he felt it suited her.

“Don’t worry about her, she is a strong girl,” it surprised Rage a bit that the man didn’t ask why he didn’t ask why he was asking for her, “I think she is in some kind of abusive relationship,” the man said, as if answering Rage’s unvoiced question.

The shock that ran through him was nothing short of a surprise to him. He had had a feeling it was something like that. He had had a feeling she had been through much more than she showed.

“She will disappear for a few days, and return with bruises and cuts,” the man continued, only pausing to motion for the bar tender, “she never says anything, always has a smile on her face,” nodding to the bartender as she set a drink in front of each of them, before he turned to Rage, “I never ask, if the girls wish to tell me, they know they can, but I never push,”

Rage just nodded to the man, gripping the fresh drink tightly in his hand.

“But don’t think about trying to be her ‘knight and shinning armor’,” the man said with a smirk, “I have seen too many men loose that battle over the years,” he paused to gulp down his drink, “if the girl doesn’t want to be saved, you can’t save her,” he said, cupping Rage’s shoulder before standing.

Rage watched silently as the man left the bar, the silence in his wake seemed to eat at him. Taking a deep breath, he stood, dropping more then enough cash onto the bar, he exited the building.

He could feel the anger bubbling inside him, his blood nearly boiling at the thought of the she-wolf being beaten, most likely by her Alpha. She was so pure, so innocent, he wondered how anyone could be so cruel.

Even as he wondered, he knew, he had punished many people that had been that cruel, had been twisted and filled with hate and evil.

Breathing deeply he started the count to ten, hoping to calm himself before he did something rash, like run into the forest and searching out a pack he had no idea the location of.

It wasn’t his job anymore to punish people, even if Alphas in particular had been his favorite. He was a lone wolf now.

All Willow could see was the concrete ceiling of her cell, if that’s even what you would call the small cage inside of a room full of dangerous things. She had come to know many of them very well over the years, having scars to prove it.

Her mind kept going back to the night she was brought here. The night she had woken up in the bed of a Wulf.

She had run as fast as she could, her lungs had burned, her legs cramped but she ran, ignoring the pop in her ears, and the pain in her body.

But... she was too late. They had been waiting for her. Three pack members had been standing outside of her cottage, not caring about anything but the fact that she wasn’t there.

The look William had warn was one of anger and twisted pleasure. He enjoyed giving me punishments, and his father had no problem letting him.

She didn’t fight as they took her, she knew better, having been through this too many times before. If she fought, it would only make everything worse.

The pain in her body had long ago numbed, not that she let it bother her, she wasn’t as weak as they thought she was.

“Willow... Willow... Willow...” a voice drew out her name with each step they took into the room, drawing a shiver from her as it brought memories of pain.

The sound stopping at the cage, she could hear the deep chuckle “Little Weepy Willow...” a noise of metal against metal, rang throughout the room as the man slid something along the bars of the cage.

“Why don’t you cry anymore?” the voice asked, but she ignored it, ignored him, William had always tormented her, even before her mother died. He tisked as he reached the lock, her ears perking up as a key was slid into the lock.

“Why does my father care that you are still alive, the first thing I will do as Alpha, will give you the choice; become a Rouge or Die,” he stepped into the cage, stooping slightly as he gripped onto her arm. Anger rolled over her like waves on the beach, at his words, he was going to kill her, he wanted her dead. She wasn’t going to let him kill her, she decided in a split second.

She was done letting his beat and abuse her, she was done with the scares he loved to give her, done seeing his face twist with evil pleasure as he whipped, and sliced and beat her.

She let him lift her, letting her body slack so he believed that she was feeling the torture he had already inflicted on her.

In one swift move, she gripped his wrist, slipping her claw into the soft spot of his wrist. His hand loosened just enough for her to pull away. Swinging her now freed arm, she sliced her nails over his face.

“You bitch!” he growled out, his once unblemished face now bleeding, baring a mark across it that Willow hoped with scar and remind him every day of what he had done to deserve such a mark.

She was out of the cell before William had time to comprehend that she had slipped past him. Running, that was the only thing on her mind as she exited that cold, basement and up the rickety wooden stairs, pushing the cellar door open, ignoring the protest of her arms.

She ran, into the woods, getting as much distance between her and the pack house as possible. She was gone, even if she has to become a rouge, she couldn’t deal with it anymore.

The familiar popping of her ears was like the gift of freedom as she left the pack land and returned to the human town.

She had no idea where to go from here, but she knew she was never going back.

“Willow?” a deep voice called, causing her to tense and turn slowly to the voice she did not recognize.

Standing down the road, was a large male figure, one that she had seen before, with eyes as blue as the sky on a warm, sunny afternoon.

She stumbled towards him, feeling that maybe, since he saved her before, that he might help her this time.