Rescued by the Pack by Leah Knight

pain from outside, and her heart began to pound, nauseating her. She lifted her head, trying to catch a glimpse of what was happening.
     
    “Shh,” someone whispered, and she quickly glanced to her right where she saw Logan smiling reassuringly as he loosened the ropes that bound her right hand.
     
    She left someone loosening the other, and she turned her head to see Luke, who nodded a brief hello.
     
    In seconds, her bonds were released, and she leaped to her feet. Logan grabbed her hand and pulled, and she quickly followed him out the back door, moving as silently as possible.
     
    Once outside, Logan and Luke shifted. Logan, she noticed, was smaller and gray with a snowy white chest, while Logan was thicker and tan mottled with flecks of dark, rusty brown.
     
    Logan lowered the front half of his body to the ground in front of her, his muzzle resting on the ground with his tail thrust into the air. For a moment, she stared at him awkwardly, and then she realized what he wanted. She swung her leg over him and grabbed two thick handfuls of the fur at the nape of his neck.
     
    Logan rose and began to sprint, Luke dashing along beside him, occasionally looking over his shoulder. Logan sailed over a fallen tree and ducked under a low branch. Allison’s heart leaped into her throat and stuck there, choking her as she clung fiercely to Logan’s thick fur. They were moving so rapidly she could scarcely breathe, and the forest was a hazy blur of greens and browns. She screwed her eyes tightly shut and buried her face in Logan’s neck, hiding from her own terror.
     
    Luke growled something and Logan barked a hasty reply. She could hear their paws rustling the leaves as they dashes away, two distinct sets of paws. Two.
     
    “Michael!” she found herself gasping aloud, her eyes popping open. “Logan, stop! We have to go back!”
     
    Logan yelped with distress, but he continued to dash through the forest. Her heart had already been pounding furiously, but now it felt as though it were about to explode.
     
    “Logan, stop!” she demanded, ponding his shoulder with one hand.
     
    He shook his furry head and continued to run, while visions of Michael being torn apart by Victor and his pack played through her mind like a horror movie.
     
    Why wouldn’t he stop?
     
    Luke continued glancing over his shoulder, keeping pace beside his brother as though the two were one. Unable to convince Logan, she shouted over to Luke and said, “Luke, we have to go back! We can’t just leave him!”
     
    Luke’s ear twitched, and she knew she’d managed to reach him, but he continued to race beside his brother as if she’d said nothing. Defeated, she buried her face back into Luke’s furry neck.
     
    Moments later, their paw falls began to slow, and they came to a stop. Raising her head, she could see they were outside a small cave. It was mostly hidden by a thick mass of brush and tree limbs, but the dark entrance was still easy to spot.
     
    Logan lowered his body, and Allison took the signal, dismounting him. Luke and Logan shifted. Allison flushed at their nakedness and turned away.
     
    “What’s to become of Michael?” she demanded.
     
    “Michael knew the risks when we came to get you,” Luke said.
     
    “So you’re not going back?” Allison shrieked.
     
    “The plan was for Michael to distract them while we got you out and brought you to our safe haven,” Luke said. “It seems to have worked. I don’t think we were followed.”
     
    “And you just left him there to die?” Allison shouted. Her rage had overcome her embarrassment, and she wheeled to face the brothers, her eyes narrowed and her body trembling with fury. “He’s your brother, how could you?”
     
    The brothers glanced at one another, and Logan opened his mouth to speak. He quickly closed it.
     
    “We had no choice,” Luke said coolly.
     
    “No choice,” Allison muttered. Then more loudly, “No choice! Do you think Michael would say he had