Free Charity Moon by DeAnna Kinney

and formed lines facing each other, leaving about twenty feet between them. Levi and Wesley emerged from amongst the others and walked into the center to face each other. Ashley took the binoculars from me and pressed them against her eyes, making adjustments for clarity. Levi and Wesley were talking too low, making hearing impossible, but they pulled their shirts off over their heads and snatched off their shoes as they began circling each other—not good. Whatever they were saying it wasn’t helping. We heard rumbling and what sounded like growls coming from the spectators surrounding them. Ashley and I looked at each other, wide-eyed.
     
    I jumped as Wesley yelled, “Soon I will have her, Levi! I will make her my own!” That didn’t sound good. Was he talking about me?
     
    With my human eyes it looked as if the two men were changing, growing somehow. The binoculars began shaking in Ashley’s hand as she reached out to touch me. I snatched the binoculars from her and peered anxiously through them, trying to steady them in my hands. My heart leaped at what I saw. Levi and Wesley were morphing into something else, something my mind tried desperately to reject. Violently shaking their heads from side to side, their faces began to grow—they became covered with hair—claws shot out from their toes and fingertips, and fangs proceeded from their mouths. Ashley and I looked on in horror, as the two men became………werewolves!!!!
     
    Ashley gasped causing me to drop the binoculars to cover her mouth. All the rumbling stopped as the group of men turned their heads, in unison, in our direction. Fight or flight? Fight or flight? My mind repeated.
     
    “Ashley, run!” We both jumped up and bolted back in the direction of the car. We could hear rumblings of activity behind us.
     
    “Get them out of the buffer zone and to the west boundary! Now!” I heard a desperate voice call from behind. It sounded like Levi but only muffled somehow. Growling and fighting broke out all around us, but still we ran. I had just rounded a tree when someone grabbed me from behind, releasing me, as someone slammed hard into him. I was knocked down as they fought around me. It was as if both sides were trying to get to us at once.
     
    I heard Ashley scream. “Ashley!” I jumped up and dashed in the direction of her scream, but lost my sense of direction immediately. I couldn’t see much. We were too deep into the forest for the headlights to be much help anymore, but I could hear chaos everywhere. My heart froze in fear at the realization that there were werewolves all around us, and I had no idea where I was. I finally just stopped and stood there like an idiot—not knowing which way to go. Someone grabbed me, throwing me over his shoulder and bounding through the forest. I screamed and kicked wildly against him.
     
    “Stop fighting me, Charity, so I can get you out of here!”
     
    Although I should’ve been terrified, I sighed in relief at the sound of Levi’s voice. “But Ashley.”
     
    “We’ve got her. She’s in front of us.”
     
    Something slammed into us with a massive force, knocking me from Levi’s grip. I fell hard to the forest floor and screamed out as pain stabbed my ribcage. Levi had shifted again, and I could make out the two werewolves snapping and clawing at each other. One knocked the other back and rushed at me, picking me up, this time more aggressively, and I was well aware it wasn’t Levi. I was terrified at the claws grabbing my thighs and the growling rumbling through his body, causing it to vibrate. I was knocked to the ground yet again as the other werewolf attacked. Frozen in a state of fear, I was powerless to even move. A werewolf came out of nowhere and grabbed one of the two, freeing the other who then picked me up over his shoulder and began running. I didn’t know who had me or what he was planning to do with me, but I submitted, knowing it was useless to struggle. I felt a shifting