"5"

Voices echoed and muddled up in her brain as she started waking up. She couldn't make out a single word that was said but she understood that they were worried. A hand caressed her fur and she felt the sun's warmth warming her up. She tried to move her leg, but the pain and memories of the prior night immediately came back.

"Don't move."

She stopped moving and whimpered. Her body was stiff and aching, causing every movement to send shock waves of pain through her.

"You need to shift," a voice said and Lupita slowly began to open her eyes. The light pushed at her eyelids as she did, but it was suddenly gone and her eyes didn't burn once she opened them. Everything was fuzzy and she only made out a few colors and strange shapes around her. She guessed she was still in the forest based on the green and brown colors around her and the hard ground beneath her. Again the voice told her to shift and she did. Her bones slowly began to crack and with all her new wounds the process became more painful than it usually was. Whimpers and growls echoed in the space where they were as she slowly and painfully shifted. Once the pain had finally stopped she was enveloped in something soft and warm.

"Can you see me?"

Lupita looked up and tried to focus on the person in front of her. Slowly their white hair became noticeable, then their eyes, and finally their whole face was in front of her.

"Yes," Lupita whispered and slowly began to look around. Valeria was over by a tree, leaning against a tired-looking Jazmyn. When she looked to their left she could see Aoi and Mia walking around looking stressed.

"Good," North said and placed a hand on either side of Lupita's face. "We need to get to Elizabeth. She will be worried sick."

Lupita nodded weakly and tried to stand, but North quickly placed a hand on her shoulder and pushed her down. "You are too weak to walk by yourself," she said and picked her up, bridal style. The position pushed at something in Lupita's shoulder, so he tried to move her arms to get more comfortable, but her shoulder flared up and she let out a scream.

"Shh," North said and placed her back down in the grass and began to stroke her hair back and her other hand slowly went up and down the bridge of her nose, immediately calming her down. "You are too hurt to move," she mumbled, seemingly to herself.

"Is she awake?" Jazmyn said and stumbled over to them. Lupita tried her best to look away but everything ached so she was left looking at the worried halfling. She looked like she had been crying as her eyes were puffy and her nose was red.

"Yes, but she is hurt," North quickly said as Jazmyn was about to throw herself at Lupita.

"How hurt?" she asked and carefully crouched down.

North sighed and slowly revealed Lupita's shoulder. Lupita tried to look but North gently pushed her head away.

"It's better if you don't see it," she said, but the horrified look on Jazmyn's face told her it was horrible. "We need to call your mother."

"I don't have my phone," Jazmyn said and looked over at the colorful trio who were watching them from a distance.

"I brought mine," Valeria said and pulled it out before dialing a number. It took a few times before she began talking and then she slowly walked over to where Lupita was laying. She gave the phone to Jazmyn before shifting into her fox form – which at first looked like she went up in flames, something Lupita hadn't really paid attention to before but looked very cool – and settling beside her mate.

Jazmyn began to talk with her mother and Lupita heard how distressed the woman was from the other end of the weird device.

"Mom wants to stay on the phone while she drives here," Jazmyn said while holding the phone flat in her palm.

"Let her," North said with a smile and scratched Valeria's ears before she laid herself under Lupita's head. "It will calm her."

It took a while before the car came to where they were, and when it did it pushed over a few small trees in its way. Elizabeth came out of the car before it had even stopped properly, ran over to Jazmyn, and held the girl tightly to her chest.

"Are you ok? Are you hurt?" she rambled and began to search her daughter for any possible injuries.

"Mom, I'm fine," Jazmyn said while her cheeks were squished by her mother. "I am not hurt. Lupi is."

Elizabeth finally turned and her hands flew to her mouth once she saw the state Lupita was in. She had the exact same horrified look on her face as Jazmyn had had. They really were similar.

"Oh. Oh!" Elizabeth kept repeating to herself as she searched Lupita's body and found more and more injuries. "Ok… We have to get you in the car right away." The older woman was breathing heavily and she was looking quite pale by now.

"Mom? Are you ok?" Jazmyn asked, having caught what Lupita had caught.

"I'm fine honey. I just need some time. It has been a long while since I last saw something this gruesome," she said through deep breaths. Once she had finally calmed down, they all helped carry Lupita to the car. Daniel was in the driver's seat, looking just as bad as before but that didn't seem to stop him from checking his daughter just as thoroughly as Elizabeth did. His eyes also widened once he saw the state Lupita was in. He looked very comical but Lupita tried not to laugh at him while she was being carefully placed in the back seat along with Jazmyn, North, and Valeria.

"You guys will be fine right?" North asked once they were all sitting inside the car. North on the floor, Lupita with her head in Jazmyn's lap, and Valeria on her chest. It was quite nice to have a warm fur ball on your chest after getting hurt, Lupita realized as the small fox purred and heated up.

"Yeah, we took my car here so we'll just use that," Aoi said and waved before taking Mia's hand and leading her out of the forest.

"Are we ready then?" Elizabeth asked and turned to them. North nodded and glanced over at Jazmyn who was doing her best to not look at Lupita.

The car started and Lupita's muscles involuntarily tensed and her mind drifted. She was suddenly back in that metal box. It tossed and jolted, making people crash into each other or the walls. Some lay half-conscious on the ground, some were in cages, others were chained to the wall and some were dead. Lupita was chained to the wall by the neck, wrists, and ankles while in a tiny cage. Every time the big box jilted she crashed into the metal bars. Luckily they weren't made of silver, unlike the chains on her wrists and ankles. This train ride would last for 16 more hours. Less than half of them would survive. The ones that survived would be sold. Sold to those monsters. Sold to…

"Lupi."

She was brought out of her flashback as the car stopped. Jazmyn was carefully combing through her hair with her fingers while the other ones were getting out of the car.

"No touchy," Lupita said weakly and tried to move Jazmyn's hand away from her hair with no success, but she pulled away anyway.

The girl laughed and opened her door so they could help her out. Daniel brought out something Lupita was very familiar with. A stretcher. They carefully lifted her out of the car and placed her on the stretcher before hurrying inside. Elizabeth was on the phone when they entered and hung up as they laid Lupita on a mattress on the floor.

"I just called the doctor," she said and came over with a medicine kit. "She will be here in a few minutes." Elizabeth took out something that she immediately recognized as alcohol by the strong smell, a cotton ball, some white big cloth, and bandages. "Jazmyn can you hol- North why don't you do it." Lupita looked over at Jazmyn and saw the dark-skinned girl turn paler and paler by the second.

North took the cloth and applied pressure to her shoulder causing Lupita to let out a loud growl and her wolf to partially come out. Meaning her body got covered in thick fur, and her claws, ears, and canines grew. They all flew back except North who held a steady pressure on her shoulder.

"Now would have been a good time to have the vampire here, huh?" North joked which caused Lupita to both be more aggravated and calm at the same time. "Relax. No one here is going to hurt you."

Lupita slowly calmed down. The image of the pretty newborn and the reassurance of her friend made her wolf back down and her whole body relax. As North was applying pressure to her shoulder, she got a weird feeling of something being pushed further into her shoulder. She didn't have long to dwell on it though, as just a few minutes later the doctor came. She was tall, had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a strong, but kind face. Lupita thought it was weird how fast she came.

"Hi, I am Thalia. You guys are hard to find," the doctor said and laughed a little while coming over to them. "Tell me what happened," she said and took off the blanket that was covering the top half of Lupita's body.

"Why don't you kids go upstairs and watch a movie while the doctor works? My love, you need to sleep. Do you need help?" Elizabeth said, managing everyone and seemingly trying to get Lupita some privacy, even though she didn't care that the others saw her.

"I would like some assistance, yes. Do you have training?" the doctor asked while putting on a pair of gloves.

"A little. I used to help out in my old pack," Elizabeth said. The other teenagers began to walk upstairs as the two women talked. Daniel was being supported by Jazmyn as they slowly made their way up the stairs, but before they were completely out of sight, Lupita saw Jazmyn glance back at her with a worried look and a slight pink tint to her cheeks.

Once they were all out of sight and the TV sounded in the distance the doctor turned all her attention back to Lupita. "Now tell me, what happened?"

"I was attacked by rouges," she said weakly. The doctor hummed and examined her body finding all the different wounds and scratches.

"I am going to put you to sleep," she said after a while.

"What?" Lupita asked. She had never been put to sleep for any of her patch-ups. Only one time and she was pretty sure her brain was still damaged.

"I am going to put you to sleep with a gas, that way you won't feel a thing," she said, but Lupita only grew tenser at her words. Gas? What kind of gas could put her to sleep? "You will wake up again. I promise." The doctor had to have sensed her worry. "I need you to calm down. The more stressed you are the worse it will get."

Lupita tried her best to calm down, but it was becoming difficult. She didn't understand what was happening.

"She is not from here. I believe her pack was a little old school," Elizabeth said and began to calmly rub Lupita's ears, which she oddly found comforting.

"I promise you, this will not hurt you," the doctor said as she pulled out a small mask. "Elizabeth will be here the entire time."

"And when I wake up?" Lupita asked, her voice shaking as she looked up at Elizabeth.

"I will be here, don't worry," she said as the mask was being put around her face, which caused her to panic. Her mind went straight to those horrible muzzles she would be forced into when she wasn't able to control herself. "Shh," Elizabeth said as she made sure Lupita held eye contact with her. "It's all fine. You are ok. You will be ok." Lupita took a few deep breaths and concentrated on the woman above her, eventually helping her calm down.

"Count down from ten," the doctor said and Lupita did as she was told.

"10"

The world was getting a bit fuzzy. And the mask began to smell funny.

"9"

Elizabeth was getting blurry. Her own voice felt like it was failing her as she began to count.

"8"

Her mind was panicking again. She didn't want to be forced to go to sleep. What would happen to her? What would they do to her?

"I… don't want… to continue…"

Her voice faltered and her breathing was becoming heavier.

"It will all be ok," Elizabeth's voice echoed in her head. "Continue counting."

"6"

She realized she didn't have a choice. It was too late. The world became fuzzy, her eyelids were too heavy to keep open.

She had to let go.

"5"