Chapter 9

HAZEL

I ran—I ran as fast and as far as I could without shifting and letting Trixy take over. I was still faster than a human but slower than an Alpha and by my counting I only had three minutes of running before they were unleashed and sent after us.

All of the girls scattered, running in different directions and exploring various edges of the forest. I tried to see what was in front of me or hear anything that would take me to the nearest road but I couldn’t—I couldn’t even hear the other girls so I just ran. My bare feet were cut on rocks and sticks poked into my heel but the worst was the thorns from the veining branches that stabbed into the soles of my feet and wrapped around my ankles; I hissed as part of my skin was cut off and left behind. Branches on trees and wild grown bushes slapped me in the face when I ran through them.

The moon was my only source of light but covered by the red shadow it did little to help show me a path through the forest. With eve