Page 18 of Danny's Dance

“Stop it, Aspen. It wasn’thim.”

“How’re you so sure?” he growled, his eyes flickering from light to dark. He was clearly struggling to keep himself in check. I placed a soft hand on his arm, hoping it would calm him down. We couldn’t deal with the town going up in flames and Aspen’s Alpha ripping loose. It would becatastrophic.

“Trust me, Aspen...” I begged, hoping that he would come to his senses and reigned his rage in. “Don’t go there. Not now. You need to take care ofAsh.”

At the mention of his sister, his eyes turned back to their usual golden hue and he released Darren from hisgrip.

“Sorry, man,” he apologised, dusting off our newestcompanion.

“No sweat.” Darren graciously waved away the incident and turned towards the town. “That’s a lot of smoke... And I can hear a ton of horses coming our way. Whatnow?”

“We run,” I said, turning on my heels to grab our belongings from inside the barn. We needed to hurry, there wasn’t much time left before they would reachus.

Darren jogged behind me. “You can’t outrunhorses?”

“We’ve done itbefore!”

“It’s madness. Runwhere?”

Aspen caught up with us, already throwing as much stuff as he could back in his backpack. Luckily, we travelled light and never unpacked too many things. We knew things like this could happen at any giventime.

“Yes, run where?” he asked, stowing away as much of our produce as hecould.

JP stomped out the small fire in the hearth as Regan heaved his large backpack on his shoulders. Aspen gathered all the throwing stars from the wall and the ground, while Darren hesitantly grabbed the pan from thefire.

I did a quick headcount and ran back outside, tugging on Ash’s arm. My best friend was frozen to the spot, her hands trembling as she stared at the scene unfolding in front of our eyes. Her face white as a sheet and her eyes the size of saucers. I placed my hand on her shoulder, making her jump up in fright. “Ash? You here with me?” I gently asked, knowing that big fires always triggered those memories. The fact that we were followed by pyromaniac bastards was quiteunfortunate.

Aspen followed me outside and gently patted Ash on her face, trying to bring her back from her memories. “We’re not kids anymore. This is different,” he firmly spoke, but I could hear the tremble in his own voice. They were both terrified. And for goodreason.

“We need to go, right now,” Aspen yelled, his tone changing just a tad as his Alpha emerged. That snapped Ash out of her haze and her eyes clearedup.

“Yes, yes, we do...” she stammered, slapping her own face as she slowly regained colour on her cheeks. “We got tomove...”

“Exactly. Here, Aspen grabbed your stuff. Now let’srun!”

The rest of the boys joined us outside. Regan curtly nodded and JP gave me a thumbs up to signal that we were all clear and ready togo.

“Let’s go!” Aspen yelled as he pointed ahead, giving us the starting shot. With our satchels bobbing up and down on our backs, we ran away from all the ruckus and thundering. Noticing that Darren wasn’t following, I turned around andwaved.

“What are you still standing there for? Run, Darren!” I yelled, stalling as I encouraged the young man to move his ass. He hesitantly looked at the fumes rising up from the town and then seemed to make up his mind as he jogged towardsme.

“We don’t have time to waste,” I scolded him, not sure what he was waiting for. Maybe he did send the troops onus.

“Wasn’t sure if I wanted to get caught up in your crazy!” Darren shouted, winking at me as I hit hisarm.

“Oi! This is your wartoo!”

“It is now, apparently!” he grinned, a twinkle dancing in his eyes as he ran alongside me. Secretly, I was glad that Darren was joining us. I liked his company and his boyish charm. It was like a fresh breeze. He was like a freshbreeze.

I stomped him again and shook my head. Even though we were running for our lives, he seemed carefree and unworried. Like nothing could touch him. He seemed different from the man I met this morning. The man with dead eyes and a hollow stare. No, apparently being chased by madmen made Darren look alive. And I had to admit, it looked good onhim.

“Just shut up and run!” I deflected him, pulling my backpack harder against my shoulders as I tried to catch up with the rest of thegroup.

Out of nowhere, a massive black horse suddenly blocked our path and startled, Darren and I jumpedback.

“Danny!” Ash shouted as more horsemen appeared from behind the hills and closed usin.

“Run! Get out” I shouted at the rest of my friends, praying they’d get out of here instead of coming back to play the hero. Too late. Regan already dropped his satchel and came storming towards us, his wolf raging in his chest. Silly man. Why was he so devoted to me? But then again, I would’ve done the same for him. For any ofthem.

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