THE CURSED MATES RETURN

Kira's ears twitched at the sound of rustling leaves in the dead of night and a faint noise. Laying down in her little spot in her cave, her eyes snapped open. She quickly got some water which she kept aside for thirst and quenched the fire in the cage that was lit to keep her warm.

Her heart pounded as she concentrated and strained to hear over the thudding in her chest and to know if someone was truly out there, lurking around. Finally she heard it.

Someone was coming!

And they were getting closer. Who were they? What did they want?

Kira tried to hide herself and it was already too late for her to leave the cave. Whoever it was, was already so close. She held her breath, hoping that they would pass and leave, but the sounds of footsteps and the sound of twigs breaking grew louder.

"Did you find her?", she heard a voice ask. It seemed like they were looking for her 

"Not yet, but I am sure she is here, I can smell her. I recognize her scent", The other voice answered.

"Werewolves but Rogues", Kira whispered to herself as it finally dawned on her who they were.

She did not think they would actually look for her. 

"Ummm...", she started thinking, her brain running wild.

Suddenly a thought came to her. She always gathered pine needles leaves and slept on them. It was not bad but turned out to be nice and had a lovely scent. Quickly Kira took those leaves and started rubbing them all over her body, wanting to cover up her scent.

They were already so close to the cave. As soon as she was done, she went to the furthest corner in the cave, slid down to the ground, her knee at her chest as she closed her eyes praying she wouldn't get found.

"Someone was here", Another totally different voice said, observing the quenched firewoods.

"She should not be so far gone", The first voice she heard said.

Kira's heart was beating as she listened to them talk and when she looked up from her knee, her eyes met with one of them.

She just froze, not even blinking.

He smiled at her and said, "Peek-a-boo."

Before Kira could react, he grabbed her from her hair, dragging her out of the cave. Kira struggled, punching his arm, clawing and kicking, but he was way stronger than her and her attackers were many.

"You thought you could steal from us and then disappear?", The man dragging her asked while chuckling, "We will teach you a good lesson not to take what does not belong to you."

"I did not steal, I was only hungry, I needed some food", She tried to defend herself, trying to fight him off but to no avail.

She then thought about screaming and as if he knew, she barely managed a scream before his hand clamped over her mouth, silencing her cries for help.

As if anyone would save her from this.

"No, no no no", Kira screamed in her head, "I was so careful, so cautious", she was so scared, "they might kill me, torture me...", tears started rolling down her face, terror surging through her veins as her screams were muffled.

The faces around her were covered and shadowed, their eyes glinting with range. She had confirmed that it was them.

She tried to plead for mercy but with her mouth covered, she could not get a word out. They tied her hands roughly behind her back, the ropes cutting into her skin as Kira pleaded her eyes, trying so hard to get at least an eye contact with one of them. Maybe they would have pity on her and let her go.

"Mmmm...pwmmmsemm", Kira kept on begging but as soon as they were done with the ropes, with a sharp tug, they pulled her to her feet and began moving through the forest.

As they dragged her through the forest, she kept stumbling on rocks, stones, barefooted. They did not even care and suddenly a searing pain shot through her foot as a rusty nail had pierced her skin.

Tears sprang to her eyes as she forgot everything else, a wave of nausea washing over her from the excruciating pain from her foot.

"Not this, not now, please...", she said in her mind while stumbling. 

Their roughness with her just made it worse and she could feel bruises forming, her body aching. Kira had to bite down on her lip to try and suppress the pain as much as she could.

"If I am going to die, well I am not going down without a fight", Kira said to herself. It was like the anger from the pain she was feeling and the way they were treating her just fueled her with so much anger that she started fighting.

"Stay in one place like the good girl you were before, unless you want me to slam your head on one of those big strong trees", The man holding her whispered in her ears, only for her to turn and nod him on the head so hard, he let go of her and stumbled backwards.

Kira winced, because as much as that felt satisfying, her head started hurting a lot. Before she could register, she was grabbed from behind. Kira managed to turn around while struggling to get whoever it was off her and kneed him in his little baby boy, making him let go of her, hands on his crotch as his face was filled with pain mixed with anger.

"Get her", he shouted at the rest, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!"

"Such a shame", Someone said out of nowhere, "How many men against one female, it is a shame."