My ears swiveled on top of my head as I ran, keeping track of the members of my clan as we moved swiftly through the forest. The only sound was our soft paws delicately hitting the decaying leaves and fallen branches; the rest of the world was quiet. The three of us wove through the thick forest, leaping over fallen trees, splashing through puddles that were left on the ground from the previous rain, and sprinting through the open areas to avoid detection. The threat of being exposed was exhilarating and alarming all at once. It made my heart pound with excitement was my tongue lolled out of my mouth.

We were dangerously close to the royal lands and it gave all of us a rush like no other.

The royals were all powerful and could do whatever they pleased to a small pack of wolves like myself and my teammates. I could be captured and beaten within an inch of my life everyday if they felt so inclined. Or they could kill us all without even blinking. There was always the possibility that we would never return home after one of our excursions and though we never talked about it we all knew it was true.

But the royals were weak.

Years ago the kingdom split off from the human realm, struggling to keep both under control with such conflicting interests. But the first queen had been human mated to a halfblooded prince and it had only gotten worse from there. The pair had brought Queen Athena into the world. And the current Queen of werewolves had hardly any werewolf blood in her and she was married to a human, unable to find a werewolf mate. Now, the prince was a useless human, a man who could never shift into a wolf, and he was ruling the kingdom.

It was pathetic and feeble, laughable even.

But that's all the other werewolves were doing. They were laughing at the dire irony of the situation while my team was exerting itself to the fullest in an effort to bring order back to our realm.

The grand black wolf that was sprinting beside me tilted his head back and let out a low yip, snapping my attention to him. I just gave him a wolfish grin. Some would've considered his actions brash and ignorant. We were on the brink of crossing onto royal land and he was drawing attention to us, alerting the guards who surrounded the area, always on vigilant. Or so they pretended to be.

But I knew that they were only protecting a frail little human. I knew that they had turned their back on their true nature for the sake of walking around on two legs and having lavish parties in massive gowns like the humans did. It was bizarre and irregular. I knew that they were not prepared to face a true werewolf.

But we were just having harmless fun.

For now.

So I willingly followed the midnight black wolf who made a sharp turn, breaching the boundary line- a small creek that nearly circled the palace grounds- panting hard with nervous excitement. Now the fun truly began, but so did the work.

Yes, we were infinitely more in touch with our wolves. We were faster and stronger on our four legs than they could ever be. Nonetheless there was always a risk. Fortunately, that was half the entertainment and all of the challenge. I adored pushing my stunning and small wolf to the absolute limit for the simple sake of annoying and inconveniencing the privileged few who were lucky enough to be guards for the king and queen.

I watched my troop as we progressed. Thorn, the dark black wolf who guided us the majority of the time, had his ears pricked upwards and his nose high, sniffing for any guards who might be nearby. Hunter was the opposite end of the spectrum, relying on his nose far more than his eyes and ears, trying to gather the scent of any guard who had been here in the last hour. He was the follower, the willing subject and the easily swayed companion. And my job was to be the eyes. To see gasp that would abolish our fear or to find well-worn trails that would undoubtedly guide us to the palace. And because of my small stature I was also the distraction if we gotten into a tangled mess. I was quick and tiny, hard to catch and so easy to lose.

As much as we often pretended that we toyed with the guards for the sheer pleasure of it we all knew that we had a real purpose. We were gauging response times in different areas. We were scouting the land. We were trying to understand the cycle that the guards were on. We were gathering as much information as we possibly could during our brief journeys onto the royal lands.

Because we could not go into this blind. If we were going to take down the pathetic human royals that pretended to guide the werewolves we were going to need the most brilliant plan with as much information as possible to validate it. The king and queen might've been weak and the prince might've been as close to human as one could get but they still had relatively capable guards that greatly outnumbered us.

Each time we dipped onto the forbidden lands we progressed a little further. We were able to catch glimpses of the grand castle that the prince and his parents lived in. it could be possible that it would be easier to topple the whole castle instead of hunting down individuals within it and we had to be prepared for that. We found areas that the guards thoughtlessly patrolled less often because it was further away from main entrances. We found smooth trails through the surrounding forest that hadn't been used in months but would guide us to the palace or surrounding buildings perfectly. And each time we grew a little more confident. A little more brazen, seeing if the guards would chase us off their lands by taunting them relentlessly. It was an astounding game, like one played between a cat and a mouse.

And so far the cats saw the mice as nothing more than tedious and annoying. That meant that we won every time, fleeing their lands with more information than we had before. By the time they figured out our scheme it would be too late and the idea of conquering the humans filled me with delight.

But I was so focused on assessing the world around me, trying to find good spots to hide in and fallen trees that would add obstacles that I hadn't realized that my teammates were no longer by my sides. They had vanished. I slowed down, trying to spot them.

"My God."

The human voice made me freeze mid stride. The sound gave me chills and my head jerked towards the voice in panic.

I had been so intent on my task- trying to assess possible threats for our massive attack- that I hadn't been paying attentions to possible threats for this exact moment. Because of my impotence I hadn't seen the massive, bay horse that was only a few paces to my left, jigging anxiously on the spot.

And on the noble beast's back was a human man holding the nervous horse tightly. But he was no guard as he was not wearing the mandatory uniform. I attempted to shift my body around as I examined him, but that was another mistake. His striking blue eyes captured mine, effectively eliminating my ability to turn away.

I stayed perfectly still, just staring at the man who watched me back just as closely. His face was clouded with confusion and fear, but I could also see something else. Something that I felt within me as well but was still unable to identify.

I was horrified of the position that I had put myself into and I was impatiently awaiting for him to call out to the guards, the only reasonable step after finding a rogue wolf on the royal grounds. But there was something that was preventing me from bolting. It was like there was an invisible tether that extended from the human to me, keeping me attached and unable to move despite the fear that seeped into my blood stream.

There was a deep draw to this man that made a part of me- the less than sane part- want to stay.

"Come here." The man murmured.

His voice made me want to whimper when I knew I should've been snarling ferociously.

But it was his brash movements that broke the spell. When he adjusted his hold on the reins and moved to dismount his skittish horse tossed its large head and flashed the whites in its eyes. This prey animal did not fare well against predators.

That was enough for me. When my eyes darted off the man to catch the movement of the animal whatever vile spell that had fallen over me broke. I shifted my weight onto my haunches, spinning away from the pair so quickly that the startled horse reared up, kicking his forelegs in the air. I bolted both from the heavy horse hooves and from the man.

I heard something fall to the ground, but I didn't bother to look back to see what had happened. I had adjusted my path so I was facing my escape and I didn't allow myself to think about anything else. I just had to get back to my pack of misfits and all would be well. We would probably even laugh about this someday.

My sleek grey wolf raced through the woods that I was coming to know so well. I dodged and darted around stumps and logs, avoided ponds and creeks that would slow me down and make an excess of noise. But I was running so quickly, exerting myself so aggressively that I was panting madly. It was probably loud enough to be heard a kilometer away. My ears were constantly moving upon my head, listening desperately for the sounds of guards chasing me or the man crying out for help, but I didn't hear a single thing. I didn't know if it was puzzling or comforting, but I forced myself to ignore the oddity and press on.

I ran hard for a long time. After about an hour I slowed my pace to a calm lope, baffled by the fact that I didn't get caught. I had been on royal land and I had stayed still for several seconds, but still no guards had managed to detain me. I didn't know what to make of it. I decided I would have to speak to my teammates about it before we attempted to go back for more scouting.

But when I arrived at my home, a tiny clearing in the middle of a deeply dense forest, I stiffened with all the tension that was in the air.

Thorn was waiting for me, standing in human form, only wearing stolen trousers.

"That was a grand performance, I'm sure the prince enjoyed spotting you while he was out for an afternoon ride."

I ducked my head down and let out a soft whimper.

"We can't stay here." He continued, "The guards will come looking for us since you made such a public appearance. We need to find a new place to set up camp for the time being. Pack your things. I don't want to be here when the guards finally decide to do their job. God knows what humans like that would do to rogues like us."