Chapter One: I never Signed up for This!

“I told you this was a bad idea.” I whispered, ducking low as another spotlight passed over our hiding spot. Daniele didn't seem phased by the appearance of the guarded prison, looming in the distance, I on the other hand shivered at the sight of the large guns stationed on each wall. I once again thought about leaving, but I knew Daniele was right, we couldn't leave Steph locked up in a place like that.

“What's the plan?” She asked me, and I turned to stare at her with wide eyed.

“You don't have a plan!” I hissed, checking her face for any sign that she was joking, but her gray eyes were hard and serious.

“Why do you think I brought you, brainy?” She questioned as she rifled through her little bag. While waiting I rubbed my hands together anxiously. I was extremely thankful for the new found heat that came from my own body, but it didn't stop the nervousness that came with the knowledge that I should be freezing out here on the tundra.

Daniele finally pulled out and old faded map of the prison we were staring at. Pointing to the four corners of the square shaped outer walls, in a hushed voiced she started to explain. “They have four guards on this wall here, they walk in a circular motion around the wall. Inside will be more difficult, we passed through a large, open court yard without any protection, which has guard patrols too.” Her finger moved to a blank space on the map that was over the wall, and then onto a maze of cell blocks with tiny numbers scribbled on it. “Okay Steph is in cell block four, here at the back of the first line, in cell one-two-seven. They have guards here, here, and here.” She pointed at the end of each hall and right in the center “But only the guard here, next to the entrance to the block has keys for any of the cells, so either we wait for the moon, or we need to make a stop there too. Now, since they're probably going to be close behind us, the only way out is through the mess hall here, and out this door into another court yard, and then over the wall. Your job,” she said looking up at me. “Is to figure out how exactly we do that.”She gazed at me expectantly, and I sighed heavily, my breath creating a fog as it left.

Looking at the map I could see an easier way to do things. “Daniele, what if we come in the back way first?” I asked. “Then go through the mess hall to et to Steph, after we have her we can just go out through here.” I said pointing to a pathway that led to a dead end on the outer wall, but that would be no problem for us. “It looks to be a guard path but whoever is there, probably won't be expecting us.” It was true, no one at this simple prison institution was expecting to full grown werewolves to come marching in and take their third werewolf friend away.

Daniele nodded her head in agreement. “I knew there was a reason I kept you around.” She joked, I didn't find my knack for always seeing a clear path to do things as a reason to keep me around, for a werewolf, I couldn't be more accident prone.

“How did she get caught?” I asked, realizing in my effort to get her out I hadn't asked one of the important questions. “They don't expect anything, do they?” I was worried now, maybe they were expecting a werewolf retrieval plan.

“Don't worry, she was stealing bread from a deli, you know how bad things are, and the owner showed up.” I sighed in relief, this was all reasonable. Technically none of us girls existed, so gathering food, and making money was difficult, so at times theft was the only option. It depressed me to no end.

“Daniele? If I die in there...” I started seriously, but suddenly I knew this was the wrong time for that, so I changed what I was going to say. “I'm so coming back to haunt you.” I announced, her face lightened and a smile actually graced it. I loved her and Steph like my own sisters, and in truth the secret that bonded us was strong enough that we could be considered closer than sisters. Daniele was all for action and she had practically a map for everything, and it never stopped amazing me. My talent made me very level headed, I was always the one who got to read her maps, and tell them which was best. Steph was our youngest family member, she was sort of childish, but like me she had a talent, hers was seeing a person's future when she touched their skin. Most of us werewolf brought extra over from when we were humans, the bite only worked on special people. People who were bitten and didn't have something that made them unique, unfortunately died. I remembered when I was human how absolutely calm I always was, and bossy too.

The sun was setting in the distance, throwing a pinkish, gold glow out over everything, it would have been beautiful if the landscape wasn't disrupted by the hunk of rock we were about to invade. Daniele was right we would need the moon's help for this. We waited quietly as the the moon appeared in the sky. I squealed still unaccustomed to the pain, after going through it every night for three years now.

The disturbing sound of muscle tearing and bones breaking filled my ears as I and Daniele made the transformation. It always amazed me to see the difference in her from human to large wolf. We were both log and sinewy we were truly half human and half person. Her coat was a deep gray, reflecting the pigment in her eyes, and I knew mine was a dark blue color like my own eyes. Daniele's thoughts flooded into my mind as we communicated through the wolf's way of talking.

Your ready lil' sis? She asked showing us storming a castle to rescue an air head princess. I laughed, a cackly sound, we had always joked about that. About being the female warriors. We knew we had male counter parts out there, mostly because of their incapability to stay undiscovered.

Ready Freddy. I confirmed. With that we both sent up an hear piercing howl into the night air, a rescue signal. In the confines of the prison, and unable to see the moon, Steph wouldn't have turned so she couldn't hear our thoughts, but that would tell her we were coming.

Together we raced across the frozen ground, faster than any human could, keeping in step with each other, running in a sort of gallop. Men started shouting, yelling, and screaming but I blocked them out as we approached the back side of the prison. We launched ourselves at the wall, our claws digging into the bricks, and practically running up it. Shots were being fired all around our heads, but where they grazed our skin, it immediately healed. We topped the wall and jumped over, sailing through the air. The fall wold have broken the bones of most people, but upon impact we healed and kept going. It was like the map had come alive, everything was where it was supposed to be, and soon we found ourselves, surrounded by small rooms, separated by thick metal bars.

“Daniele! Corie!” Steph's usually frantic voice came from the cell a few feet down. We quickly ripped apart the bars and there she was. Her long blond hair was smeared with black soot, she wore nothing but a dress that resembled a rag.

Daniele barked at Steph, who stumbled her way out of the cell. Armed men were starting to surround them, and I hoped I wouldn't have to kill anyone. Daniele caught on to my thoughts, and growled her disapproval. Steph quickly climbed onto Daniele's back and with my enhanced hearing I h her whisper softly, “Thanks sis.” And we were off, barreling through the crowd of men, following the path we had laid out. Soon the wall came into view, in front was at least twenty men who shot at us freely. We dodged the bullets as best we could, I yowled when one caught me on the face, but it quickly repaired itself, and I kept moving. I sprang forward, soaring over their stunned faces and slamming into the wall. My claws dug deeper than before, leaving long gouges as I slid down ward. I could hear that Daniele was facing a similar situation.

Suddenly I was being pulled down and I let out a cry of pain. Whipping my head around I saw that one of the men had grabbed a hold of my tail. My eyes narrowed. Daniele let out a cackly laugh at my thoughts. The man finally looked up and I growled real low and menacing, screaming in fright he let go, and I began to climb up the wall. I could hear the ring of shots being fired around my head and I wished I could see what was going on. Daniele's thoughts mimicked mine.

Finally we reached the top, and were crowded around by more men. I finally decided it was time to show off. I grabbed the nearest gun to me, it was long, and I quickly tied it into a knot, the metal bending easily under my strength. The poor guy gasped and took a few steps back, and I smiled smugly, before launching into a somersault off the wall. Steph's weight forbade Daniele from doing anything fancy or fun, and her thoughts were a grumble of her disappointment. I thought, Serves you right, laughing at me, that guy was not funny, and now my butt hurts!

We were now racing across the tundra once more, Stephenie screaming in excitement. Daniele looked over at me and laughed again. I bet it does! What idiot pulls the tail of a werewolf, he must have been trying to get his head bit off. She laughed again, clearly amused by the thought of her laid back sister being angry enough to bite someone. I grimaced, humans tasted bad.

We finally stopped about ten miles away from the prison, it had to be around nine o'clock at night from the height of the moon. The place was a ramshackle, wooden, shack. It looked to be a small hunting outpost. The inside was nothing but a small bed made of animal skins, and a small hole in the ground covered by a wooden board, that was stocked with some salted meat. There was a single lantern hung from a peg on the wall, and Steph lit it as Danny and I curled up into balls on the floor, tired from being up all day. We both knew we wouldn't be able to go to sleep in our wolf forms, and that we wouldn't change back till dawn.

Stephenie started pacing back and fourth across the doorway, her brow furrowed. Normally she didn't worry about things, normally Steph would be chatting crazily about our victory. Stephenie had deep green eyes, that made her coat a shimmery emerald green when she transformed. All of her features were balanced perfectly, she was absolutely gorgeous, and I took a hit to my ego every time we actually went somewhere and all the boys started pawning after her, even now when there was no one around to see, there was an extra sway in her hips. Her disheveled appearance was odd to see, that and the concentration made her like a whole new person. Both Danny and I were worried, but couldn't voice our concerns.

“Stop staring at me like that, you two. I hate it when you get all protective and junk, I mean thanks and all for tonight, but you can cut it out now, you know I am an adult.” She said, still focusing on the floor as she paced. Only just. I said, eying her. Steph was eighteen, though sometimes she acted like she was older than me. Nonetheless, I still was only nineteen. Danny -the oldest- had just turned twenty one when we all met up two years ago. I remembered the ice cold night clearly. I had only been a werewolf for a measly six months when a message had been passed from wolf to wolf that there was to be a meeting.

The three had met on a road outside of Romania, all three in their wolf form, immediately through the ties in their minds we had become quick friends. After that they had traveled together to the meeting and when it was over, they left together, their special skills becoming complementary to each other. Danny had the audacity to want to try anything, I could tell them the best way to do it, and Steph would tell us if it would work out. Both Danny and I wondered what Steph would have been like as a human, in order to get such a strange power. Stephenie never talked much about her human life, only that it wasn't very pleasant, and we believed her, leaving it at that.

There were some things about this life that scared all of us, like the fact that are healing ability made it so we don't age. Also we all were young and wished to one day fall in love, which had become extremely difficult. Steph's demand to stop acting all protective was futile, and she knew it, we were all protective of each other.

A strong wind suddenly rocked the walls of the little shack, Steph had stopped pacing and was now laying against Daniele's body. “What are we going to do?” she asked. “Nearly a hundred people just watched two werewolves break into a prison and break a girl out. No one would believe one person, but what will they think when all of them say the same thing?”

Danny whined, Rouge wolves? There's at least three packs within the thirty mile radius. I could hear them too, their minds distant pinpricks. I cackled at her idea, we looked nothing like regular wolves.

“Ah! I hate this, I want to hear what your thinking!” Steph groaned, it was really frustrating not being able to talk to her. We all grew quiet, the only noise the howling wind. Soon, Steph started to snore, and I wished I could sleep too. I thought about what we would do when morning came, I knew I would be extremely tired but we would have to move first, by that time the authorities would be close on our trail. Danny was thinking the same thing, she was also factoring in the fact that none of us had suitable clothes, her and I wouldn't have clothes at all.