We have been stumbling through the woods for weeks now, and with every day that passes, I become more and more anxious. Our food supply is running low, and even though spring is here, most of the edible berries in the forest have not yet bloomed. Everyone is sore from our wandering and in desperate need of a rest. This is why we are so happy when we come across a lone cabin in the middle of a clearing.

"This seems far too be good to be true," Erik says from beside me. We are all hiding behind a large fallen tree at the edge of the woods, observing the cabin in front of us. The bottom half is made out of gray stones, while the top half is made out of dark brown logs. It looks to be in pretty good shape but something just seems off about it.

"You know what they say: if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is," Tatum mumbles. Taylor and I nod our heads in agreement. I must not be the only one who thinks this cabin is giving off a weird feeling. Something about it just rubs me the wrong way, but I cannot figure out what.

"Well, we have to find some place to stay. This is the only thing we have come across in weeks," Ethan whispers. I can feel how tense his body is from where it is pressed up against my side.

Him and Erik have been worried lately, knowing the dangers of me giving birth in the middle of the woods. Anything could happen if we are exposed to the elements. Knowing the crazy weather of the Great Northwest, I could be exposed to anything while trying to give birth. The chance of infection is high, especially if we have to use an unclean knife. All the enemies we face also makes us anxious, and we all want the baby to be as safe as possible whenever it makes its way into the world.

"Let's just wait a couple more minutes," I say in a low voice, cautious of who might hear us. Wrapping my arm around Ethan's waist, I can feel the tension slowly leave his body.

A warmth presses up against me from behind, and arms wrap around me. Turning my head, I see Erik looking down at me, a tight expression on his face. I grab his hand and press it against where the baby is moving, knowing how that always calms my mates. Whenever they are able to feel their baby kick, they instantly feel better, knowing that the baby is safe from harm at the moment.

"Fine, fi-," Ethan is cut off my loud barking and growling coming from behind us.

"What the hell?" Taylor says as we all turn towards the source of the noise. Running towards us, at full speed, are a pack of dogs. There has to be at least ten of them, with all of them being Dobermans except for one smaller dog trailing behind the pack.

"Oh shit," we all seem to say at once. I am maneuvered behind my mates, both of them standing as tall as they can in front of me. Olive and Grace start whimpering, obviously scared of the loud unfamiliar noises and feeding off the tension coming from all of us. Squatting down, which is definitely hard to do with my belly, I quickly pick both of them up, trying to comfort them as they bury their heads into my neck.

"Watch him, please," Tatum says, placing Elliot down beside me before going to stand next to my mates.

Elliot looks up at me with his big brown eyes while wrapping his small arms around one of my legs and pressing as much of his body against me as he can. It does not take long for me to lose feeling in the leg he is tightly squeezing.

The barking is getting louder as the dogs get closer, but then a soft rumbling comes from in front of me. Confused at first, I try to find the source of the noise, but then I realize it is coming from the wolves standing in front of me. My mates, Tatum, and Taylor are all growling, trying to intimidate the dogs that are coming straight towards us.

The barking turns to whimpers as the dogs discover they are no match against wolves. Quickly, all of them but the one that is different from the others turn around and run back to the cabin, tails between their legs. The one that stayed is smaller than the rest of them, and obviously a girl. She looks to be some type of Labrador mix, her dark hair matted with mud.

"Apparently, we don't scare her," Taylor says while slowly kneeling down. The dog hesitantly walks over to him, her head cocked to the side in curiosity. Taylor has his hand out to pet her, but before he can touch her, a voice starts calling her name.

"Meeka! Meeka come!" the voice yells. Turning, I see a few humans standing around the house. Two of the men seem to be holding a struggling figure, while the woman who had been yelling looks around for the dog. Not seeing the dog run towards her, the woman turns back towards the men. "I hated that good-for-nothing pup anyways. Never could listen."

"Meeka, hm?" Taylor says in a soft voice, finally petting her on top of her head. She seems to be enjoying it, her ears flopped back and her tongue hanging out. "What a pretty name, just like you."

Olive and Grace have stopped crying, and Elliot has finally given up on trying to cut off the circulation to my leg. They are all intrigued by the dog, and soon, the girls are wiggling for me to put them down.

"What the hell are they holding?" Ethan asks. I leave the girls with Taylor and walk back towards the fallen tree we had been hiding behind a couple of minutes ago.

The two men I had noticed earlier seem to be struggling to hold something back. Squinting my eyes, I see that it is another human. It seems to be scrawny but is fighting with all of its might against the hold of the others holding it from escaping.

"It's-It's another human," I mumble, stepping a little closer to the fallen tree that guards us from sight.

More men and women come out of the house, and by now there are over twenty of them gathered around a large circle of rocks in the middle of the clearing. A brawny woman, whose arms look thicker than my head, steps forward and lights a match before dropping it in the center of the pit. Flames rise up in the air, going as high as eight feet, easily dwarfing the humans around it. Everyone in the clearing starts chanting excitedly as the two men tie a rope around the arms and legs of the human they are holding.

"Please tell me they are not about to throw him in that pillar of fire," Ethan says. My eyes shoot up towards his before returning to the scene in front of us. By the excited noises coming from the deranged humans and the sobs coming from the captured one, it sure seems like they intend to through the scrawny figure into the rising flames.

"We can't let them do that. That's horrible," I say, moving to step around the bush, but an arm wraps around my waist and pulls me back.

"You can't go out there, love, that's suicide," Erik says from behind me. His arm tightens around me while his hand rubs agitatedly along the bottom of my stomach as if to comfort himself that the baby and I are still next to him.

"We can't just let them throw the guy into the fire," I say, trying to pull away from my mate. Ethan steps in front of me before wrapping his arms around the both of us, effectively trapping me.

"There's nothing we can do, love. There are too many of them." His voice is gentle as he speaks to me. I can feel tears welling up and my bottom lip begins to tremble when suddenly, a loud scream rips through the air.

My tears fall, and I refuse to look back over at the clearing, knowing what I will see. The small amount of food I have in my stomach begins to turn, and I know that I am about to be sick.

Olive and Grace start whimpering, but I am too far gone to comfort them. I barely manage to break free from my mates' arms before I am getting sick all over the tree we had been hiding behind.

"H-how c-could they d-do that?" I stammer, trying to stay standing on my shaky legs.

Hands rub my back, but no one answers my question. Everyone is thinking the same thing. The humans really have gone crazy. Somehow, they had not been able to hold onto their sanity when the whole world went to shit. We are trying to survive in a world full of power hungry werewolves and psychotic, cannibalistic humans.

"We have to go before they find us," Erik says, gently pulling me back up. I nod my head and go to pick up my sisters, but Ethan and Taylor beat me to it. Both of them pick up one twin and start walking in the opposite direction of the clearing. Thank goodness they did, too, because I do not think I could have carried them, seeing as I am barely managing to stay on my own feet.

"My dog?" Elliot says from beside Tatum. He is pointing at Meeka while staring at his older brother with his big brown eyes.

Meeka looks back at us with her chocolate colored eyes, as if asking for permission to come with us. I do not blame here. I would not want to stay with those psychotic humans either. They seemed to not like her, and I cannot even imagine all the abuse she must have endured from them. Besides, who knows what they will do once they cannot find any more humans to eat.

"Our dog," Tatum answers, gesturing for Meeka to follow them. She is only too happy to follow us through the forest, away from her previous owners. Silently, we walk away from the eerie chanting, all of us trying to forget the screams of the captured human.