The moonlight reflecting off the wet paving stones was the only light she could see as she ran down the secluded alleyway. The crisp spring air was the only relief as she gasped trying to take in as much air as possible while jumping over abandoned boxes and trash strewn down her path.

Unable to slow her pace, she slammed into the wall at the end of the alley. Panicked, she looked around wildly for the fire escape she knew had to be there. Looking up, she found the retractable ladder still lodged in its place. Without a moment to think, she easily jumped the four feet to grab the ladder making it slide down a little before locking in place again.

“Shit!” she gasped as she struggled but managed to pull herself up one handle at a time until she climbed up to the first landing of the fire escape.

She took a moment to catch her breath before noticing the approaching shadows coming down the alleyway. Grabbing the railing, she ran as fast as she could up the fire escape as she heard a wolf’s howl get closer. And in that moment, she knew that they had caught her scent.

So she ran and ran.

Jumping across the desolate city rooftops as fast as her legs would let her.

She knew that her destination was a long way away, but maybe she could slow them down at the old printing press. So she grabbed the edge of the roof she was on and slid down the drain pipe attached to the building. When she was halfway down the building, she tightened her grip on the pipe slowing down her descent before stepping hard on the old brick wall, jumping off and crashing through one of the large industrial windows of the old printing press.

Thankfully, the window opened into an old office and not the large machine room. The fall would have been a lot worse if she had been unlucky. Old desks and chairs broke her fall, bruising her ribs at her back and knocking the air out of her lungs. She didn’t have time to recover, so she scrambled to her feet and ran out of the office and down the corridor.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw one of the rogues who had been chasing her crash through one of the old office doors in front of her. Without thinking, she jumped through one of the broken windows landing on an old steel walkway overlooking the large machine floor. She then slid under the railing and held onto the floor of the walkway reducing the distance she would have to drop onto the floor of the machine room.

She dropped to the ground, thankfully without breaking or spraining anything. Looking up, she noticed that the three rogues were now on the steel walkway looking at her.

She ran.

She knew that if you are alone, you don’t fight rogues, you run.

She ran to the end of the long rows of machines where the large roller shutter doors were usually slightly ajar. She gasped in horror and slammed her hand against the doors when she noticed that they were shut this time. Turning around, she saw the three rogues were now walking towards her playfully.

The chase was over and they knew it. They had won the right to claim their prey.

“Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…..” one of the rogues taunted as their eyes glowed in the darkness.

Trying to catch her breath, she walked slowly towards the rogues while she reached for her lower back and pulled out a silver-coated hunting knife underneath her leather jacket which seemed to catch what little moonlight was seeping into the space.

Seeing the knife, the rogues paused for a moment then began to laugh.

“That won’t help you little kitty”, another of the rogues said amused by her foolishness. After all, who in their right mind would think to fight three full-grown rogues all alone.

“I know," she said, taking a glance at her blade. “But this might!”

She then lunged to her right, slashing her blade at a rope that was anchored to the ground next to the large printing press machine. The rope broke with a loud snap as the machine began to rumble. The machine was draped with a large tarp that hid several large spools of printing paper which had been stacked one on top of another. And now they were all tumbling down as the only thing holding them in place was now gone.

The rogues turned and ran the other way as the large spools of paper tumbled towards them. She didn’t wait to see if her plan worked. She turned while quickly sliding her blade back into its sheath on her back as she ran straight for the door next to the roller shutters and used her shoulder to ram it open, dislocating her shoulder in the process.

Groaning, she held onto her shoulder and continued running for the train station. If she was lucky, that distraction would have killed at least one of them and slowed down the other rogues.

She wasn’t that lucky.

She was in the train station car park when she heard the familiar howl of the rogues. She hurried into the station and quickly scanned the departures board looking for the train she needed. Knowing that the rogues were not far behind, she scurried to the platforms trying to avoid station officials as she jumped over the barriers and onto the departing train as the doors began to close.

When she was on the train, she hid behind the stack of luggage next to the doors and slowly peeked through the window at the door. The rogues were there on the platform but they didn’t see which train she got on so they spun around looking for her and then ran towards another train.

She tucked herself back behind the stack of luggage and finally took deep breaths trying to steady her heart beat which was still racing. Her back and shoulder hurt with every breath she took, making her contort her face in pain. She pulled herself towards one of the walls holding the luggage and readied herself before slamming her shoulder into it, resetting the joint.

She then slowly made her way down the train looking for a less crowded carriage. When she found one, she took off her backpack and placed it on her lap as she sat in one of the empty two-seater rows and tucked herself in behind the window.

The exhaustion was starting to catch up with her now. She had been running and evading rogues every time she entered a new city. She had foolishly thought that she would be able to live a simple life away from these creatures, but for some reason, they always seemed to find her.

As her body started to shut down, she noticed a mother comforting her sleeping child on the opposite seating aisle. Seeing the mother with her child made her wonder about the last time she had a home-cooked meal. She remembered the wonderful smell of pancakes and hot chocolate and the smile of the woman who placed the plate before her.

“Eat up, peanut”, she said resting an elbow on the kitchen counter and cupping her face with her palm.

The woman suddenly stood up straight and screamed a high-pitched scream which made her jolt awake. The train horn blared as it rolled towards another stop.

That was when she realized that she had fallen asleep almost the moment she sat on the train. Panicked, she looked around her and at her watch. She had slept for two hours, more than she had managed to sleep in one go during the last two months.

She carefully looked out of the window trying to gauge where she was and if she was clear to move again as the train pulled into another station. The sun was still rising and the air was a bit misty so she might have a little cover when she hit the road again. What she saw next jolted her back into her seat and away from the window.

The rogues were on the station platform.

“How?!” she screamed in her head.

There were only two of them this time so she assumed that one of them might have died or been injured by her little stunt at the printing press. That would explain why they were still after her. She guessed that they might have gotten on the train and gotten onto the platform at each station hoping to catch her as she got off the train.

She watched them as they looked around the platform, scanning the crowd of people looking for her. Then they ran forward and got back onto the train in the car ahead of the one she was sitting in as the train started to leave the station. She slowly shuffled onto the seat on the aisle and slowly looked down the aisle and saw that the rogues were making their way down the train towards her. She stood up, pulled her backpack on and slowly started walking towards the back of the train taking care not to run so as not to draw attention to herself.

She carefully looked back down the aisle, watching the rogues as they entered the train car she was sitting in. She slowly walked through another set of doors into the next carriage trying to put some more space between her and the rogues.

The two rogues immediately perked up and scanned the carriage when they got closer to where she had been sitting. They had caught her scent. They kept moving down the aisle and stared at her empty seat before moving on down the carriage still looking for her.

She was running out of time.

As she walked down the train aisle, she looked at the little screen that announced the next stop. Thankfully, the next train station wasn’t far now. She was almost halfway down the train when she heard the automatic carriage doors open behind her. Turning around, she saw the two rogues spot her and immediately freeze in their place.

They were being cautious.

She had rattled them with her stunt at the old printing press. And now she had a full carriage of people between her and them. She froze in her place too, staring down the rogues.

All three knew that if they caused a disturbance and caused the death of innocent civilians, the Council would send all manner of warriors and hunters to make an example of them.

The werewolf community wasn’t deliberately trying to hide themselves, they just had a deal with the human government to keep a low profile and police their citizens to prevent unnecessary panic and bloodshed. Most people knew they existed, but chose to ignore their existence thanks to the Council’s efforts to maintain the peace. Not to mention, most wolf packs owned large influential corporations that also helped to run the human communities. So to the average person, wolves were regarded as beings of a higher existence that most people would not come in contact with their whole lives.

So all three waited. Not wanting to be strung up as examples by the Council.

They waited.

The train’s horn blared as it slowed down and rolled into the next train station.

She took a sideways glance at the platform as it came into view, with the rogues mirroring her and taking a look as well. She then reached for the straps of her backpack and pulled them, tightening it onto her shoulders as she took a deep breath. She was getting ready to run again.

The two rogues noticed her movements and flexed their hands and necks, both of them were determined to catch her this time.

It felt like an age for the train to stop at the station and several more seconds for the doors to start beeping to signal that they could now be opened.

She immediately spun around and rushed for the door, dodging a standing passenger. The rogues also rushed towards her but were slowed down by several passengers standing to get off the train. Noticing the distraction, she ran for the barriers and hopped over them as members of the train station security screamed for her to stop.

When she got out of the station, she scanned her surroundings looking for anything that could help her escape. She spotted a man getting on a cruiser motorcycle and inserting the key into the ignition. Without hesitating, she ran towards the man and kicked him off his bike. He cursed as he landed on the ground. She ignored him and jumped on, starting the bike as she flicked the kickstand and sped off out of the station car park. Taking a quick look back at the train station entrance, she noticed the two wolves running out and spotting her as she rode off.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to get very far on the motorcycle before the rogues caught up to her. Her only chance was to get to the pack lands that were scattered around the area. She hoped that the rogues would be discouraged to continue chasing her when they noticed that they were on pack land.

For the second time in less than six hours, she was not that lucky.

She heard the familiar sound of howling behind her as she rode down the back road. She looked in her side mirror and noticed two big black wolves chasing her. They had shifted. She was as good as dead now. They were faster in their shifted form. She put the motorbike into a higher gear and pushed the engine as hard as she could to pick up speed.

It didn’t help, the wolves got closer. Close enough to touch her. One of the rogues swiped at the bike and hit the back tire, making her lose control and slide off the road and into a ditch covered in bushes.

The bushes broke her fall but she still sustained some road rash down her right leg and scratches all over, with a cut above her right temple bleeding into her eye. She quickly wiped away the blood and reached into the pocket of her cargo pants as she saw the two wolves come into view above the ditch. She raised her hand revealing a revolver and aimed it at one of the wolves. She pulled the trigger and shot the wolf in the shoulder. It whimpered and fell backward, with the other wolf rushing to his companion confused as to why a bullet could hurt him in his wolf form.

She turned around and ran as fast as she could while trying to ignore the pain radiating down the right side of her body. There was growling and whimpering behind her that seemed to get farther away as she ran, but she didn’t stop. She hoped and prayed that she had made it closer to at least one of the smaller pack lands in the region. At least the wolves in the pack would be more concerned with the rogues than an injured human.

So she carried on limping through the forest knowing that she had no way to escape this time if the rogues resumed their chase.

She stopped in her tracks when she heard a commotion coming from her left and not her back where she had left the rogue wolves. The noises stopped for a moment then seemed to change directions and head behind her. She let out a deep sigh realizing that her hunch was correct and continued walking through the forest. When she got to a small clearing, she took off her backpack and leaned against a tree while rummaging through her bag looking for her first aid kit.

The sound of a twig snapping made her jolt upright and she looked in the direction of the sound. She leaned her head to the side, trying to focus her hearing to see if she could figure out who was coming her way. The footsteps were heavy and fast. And whoever it was, they were big.

She nervously looked all around. There was no escape for her anymore.

Resigning herself to her fate, she then reached into her cargo pant pocket and retrieved the revolver and aimed it at the wolf praying that it didn’t call her bluff.

It was closer now. She guessed it was close enough to hear her speak.

“It’s silver," she said pointing the gun at the approaching wolf.

In a cloud of dust, the wolf came to an abrupt stop just a few feet in front of her. She blinked a couple of times trying to avoid the dust before she took a good look at the wolf before her. It was a massive dark grey wolf that was double the size of the rogues who had been pursuing her. Its height at its shoulders was taller than her five foot five frame, and its eyes glowed a blue-grey tone brightly through the forest mist.

She was in real trouble now. This was no ordinary wolf. This was an ….

“Alpha…” she gasped under her breath.