Captured

~Freya~

I ran as fast as my legs carried me away from them. It had suddenly happened, and my whole village was on fire. I was sleeping that night after coming home from work late. My mother had prepared my favorite chicken meal, but I had been too tired to eat it, hoping that when I woke up, I’d eat it, but they had come to destroy everything. I had woken up to the pounding on our door and the crashing down of our door. Rushing down, my parents and little brother were on the ground, surrounded by unknown men in black cloaks. Panic seized me, and I knew that I had to act quickly.

‘’Freya, run please!’’ my mother had shouted at me before the men could see me, and like a coward, I had run out instead of staying behind to save my family. I had run for myself. As I ran away from my little village, I glanced back and saw the fire devouring our homes and every home around us.

This shouldn’t be happening, I thought.

I wanted to turn back and try as much as possible to help my family, but then I remembered my mother’s words. ‘’whenever anything happens, don’t look back and continue running. Who knows if that is your destiny.’’

How could I even run away when the cries of the villagers pierced the night? The acrid smell of smoke invaded my senses, blending with the loud cackle of the fire behind me. The searing heat reached out towards me as if it was about to devour me, but I moved backward, and I could only stare. Tears brimmed my eyes as I thought about what had happened. Why were we being targeted? What happened? Who were they?

Suddenly, from the fire, I heard footsteps approaching me through the shadows. It was the men in black cloaks, and it looked as if they had seen me. ‘’catch her!’’ I heard yells, and I turned around and ran away.

I had no idea where I was running to, but It didn’t stop me as I continued sprinting into the woods. My family had sacrificed their lives for me, and if they caught me, it would all be for nothing. It would only mean that my family had sacrificed their lives for nothing. The haunting screams of the villagers continued to sound in my ear, their anguish etching itself into my ear drums.

These men were not ordinary men. For them to come to our small village meant they were there for something. Our pack was known as the forsaken pack, and they should have never come because we were the lower class. It only meant that someone was sending them, but the question that came to my mind was who the person could be.

Who the hell could be so heartless to want to destroy a whole village?

I turned back to catch a glimpse of those chasing me and missed a step. I shouldn’t have because they were right behind me, and as I fell, they had circled me. ‘’what do you want!’’ I seethed as I got up from the ground quickly. My elbow hurt as I had landed on them when I fell, but that didn’t stop me from facing the ruthless men in front of me. ‘’who the hell are you and what have you……..’’

A blow landed on my face, sending me to fly backward, landing against the tree. The moon was sitting pretty in the sky, staring at us. It felt as if the moon goddess was mocking us at that moment, staring at how we were suffering at the hands of men who had come to raid our village. I stood shakily on my feet, not giving up because I had to fight them again. If they caught me, it would all be over. I jumped and shifted into Rayla, my brown wolf. I growled at them and lunged towards one of them, but he caught me by the throat and sent me flying towards the three again. I whimpered as my head hit the tree, my wolf crying out in pain.

‘’I am sorry, Freya, but I can’t help you now,’’ she said and shifted back to my form, lying on the ground.

‘’what a pathetic little girl,’’ one of the men said and carried me onto his shoulder. ‘’now, let us return and inform him.’’

Him? Who was he? He must have ordered the black cloak men to raid our village, and I wondered who the heartless man was. As they carried me away, I thought about my mother’s voice one last time before blacking out.

The next time my eyes opened, it met with the eyes of different girls. I gasped and tried to get up, but my hands were restrained, tied together, and kept me from standing up. My body was covered up with white clothes, and it made me remember how I had blacked out completely naked. ‘’where the hell am I!’’ I shouted and looked around, realizing that I was probably in a moving car. ‘’how did I even get here!’’

‘’you look as though you never expected to be here,’’ one of the girls said and rolled her eyes. ‘’I never imagined that they would attack the Light pack. You are the worst packs in the forsaken realm, and you have no business with them!’’

‘’what do you mean?’’ I asked as I looked into the faces of the rest of the girls. They were all unfamiliar and didn’t look like they were part of the villagers.

‘’The forsaken realm was attacked, and girls were kidnapped from the different packs, as you can see,’’ Another girl replied, and my eyes widened in shock.

Oh no, I thought. My family. It was not a dream. They had indeed destroyed our village, and who knows what might have happened to my family now. I wanted to believe that they survived, but I had seen the house on fire, meaning that it didn’t happen. They didn’t survive it. ‘’no,’’ I screamed. ‘’This can’t be happening,’’ Tears streamed down my face. ‘’I……’’ I stuttered and looked at the girls again, trying to see if they would act like me, but instead, they looked as if they were tired. Their swollen eyes show that they have been crying for a long and the marks on some of their bodies show that they all have been crying. ‘’what is going to happen to us? Where are they going to……’’ The car suddenly came to a stop, and the door opened to reveal three men in black cloaks.

This was my chance to challenge them and try to escape. I have to escape from them no matter what it takes, but when I reached out to my wolf, she did not respond. She was still recovering and couldn’t come to my rescue. All hope was gone, but it didn’t stop me from speaking up.

‘’where the hell are we? Who are you!’’ I shouted at them. ‘’where did you bring us to!’’

‘’shut up, little girl, and be like the rest of the girls,’’ he said as they began to drag them out, and none of them was saying anything.

‘’you can’t let them take us away. We have to fight back. Staying silent will only……’’

One of the men grabbed my fiery red hair and pulled me out of the car, pushing me to the ground. ‘’I said shut up your mouth!’’ he shouted at me and raised me to face him with my hair, then he landed a slap on my face. ‘’you don’t speak unless you are being spoken to. Didn’t your parent teach you to act well!’’

My parents! How dare he mention my parents? I spat on his face and let out a scream. ‘’let me go right now!’’

The man let out a chuckle and grabbed me by the throat, and then he landed a slap on my face. Tears brimmed my eyes as I could barely see for a few seconds, but I pressed on, seeking answers as to why my small village was attacked. ‘’why! What is the purpose of this? Why did you…..’’

The man dropped me to the ground and laughed, ‘’Shut up, little girl. You are a nobody now. From now on, you are a slave of the great kingdom of Salvador, and everyone that you knew is gone!’’

‘’why? Who sent you to do this to us? My village is a small village, so why did you do this to us!’’ I screamed at him. ‘’why!’’

The man grabbed my hair again and pulled me up from the ground. ‘’you don’t tell me what to do, and if not that you are chosen as one of the potential breeders for the princes, then I would have killed you.’’

Breeder? I could not understand what he was trying to say. I was going to become a breeder for some princes. Was it the reason why my village was being destroyed? The realization struck me like a blow to the gut. I was destined to become nothing more than a vessel for breeding, stripped of my home and forced into a life of submission. Tears cascaded down my cheeks as I thought about my family and pack, their presence now forever lost to me. I was about to protest once more, but the girl shook her head, her voice barely above a whisper. "Just stay quiet. It'll be easier that way. Don't you see? No one will answer your screams."

‘’you better listen to her and stop talking,’’ The man holding my hair let go of it and pushed me to the front. That ended what I wanted to say, and I looked up towards the building in the distance, my new prison. What kind of men were the princes of Salvador? Would they see me as a person or a vessel for their offspring?

As we were led towards the building, I scanned the surroundings and saw other girls assigned to different women. The realization hit me hard - we were being reduced to mere breeders, and there was no going back.

My entire village was destroyed because of this. I would never hear their laughter again, and my brother's dream of becoming a noble elite was gone because I had been chosen.