I felt like my lungs were about to burst.

I had been running for 45 minutes now-or was it over an hour?- leaping over fallen trees and mounds of brush and twigs. The thorns reached out to all four of my legs, ripping fur and skin as I ran. Birds chirped with alarm, and squirrels ran for cover, knowing it was best to hide away in the safety of their nests until the big Wolf was gone. Suddenly, I heard sticks snapping and leaves being crush by a heavy animal to my right. As I looked over, I only heard a heard a mighty roar shake the entire forest floor, before all I saw was gone..

I woke up screaming, sweat sticking to the hair on my face and my hands shaking with fear. Instinctively, I sat up in my soft bed and turned on my bedside lamp, looking around my light blue room to find no demons or dark shadows lurking under my desk or in my closet. My heart was still hammering hard in my chest from that awful nightmare, and I looked out my window to see it still black, probably about 3 am .I heard pounding coming up the stairs before my door swung open, revealing my older brother, Isaac, dressed in only his shorts.

"Elenore? Are you okay? Was it the nightmare again?", he asked worriedly.

"Don't worry, Isaac. I'm okay, I promise", I replied with a false confidence. The truth is, that nightmare had been plaguing my dreams every night since about two months ago, when my mother started talking to me about making a dress and preparing for the Running. Before that, I was never really scared. After all, I was one of the best she-wolf runners in the village!

The Running is an annual event, where she-wolves from ages 18-24 meet on neutral ground of Wolf territory and are chosen as mates to an eligible male. Here, all males from all wolf packs in the Unites States that haven't found their mate yet, and are in the ages of ages 18-26, chase their desired mates into the forest after the females get a 60-second head start. This way of choosing mates is considered a 'game', and many males prefer this way of finding their mate instead of the old fashioned way, which is going around to other wolf territories in hopes of finding their soul mate. The only way for a she-wolf to escape the Running is to make it to the far border 15 miles North, the direction all she-wolves are facing when they're let out of their small cages.

Stupid males.

My brother sighed and walked into my room, already knowing that I wasn't in fact 'okay'. Isaac is my elder brother, him being 21 and me being 18. Like me, he has dark chestnut brown hair and blue eyes, surrounded in dark black eyelashes that make most girls envious of him. He stands over my 5'5" figure with his 6'1" one. He was quite the ladies man, might I add, and with him being eligible for the running and all, many girls who don't mind being taken by a male Wolf flaunt themselves at him, flirting and pushing their butts and boobs out, in hopes of gaining his attention.

Honestly, it's funny to see beautiful girls practically throw themselves at his feet, and him not give a care in the world about them. He doesn't believe the way males are supposed to chose their mate today is right, so he's hoping he meets his mate the old fashioned way. The way we were supposed to meet our soul mates.

Isaac came to the side of the bed opposite of me, and I scooted over so he could have more room. Once he sat down, he pulled the cover back over both of our legs and leaned back against the headboard. I copied his actions, and waited for what he was going to say. "Ellie, I know you and I both believe we were meant to meet our mates to old way; finding them on our own. So I'm going to give you some advice." I nodded, and stayed silent. "When you go out there in the field in a few days, and the bell sounds, you RUN. Run like you have never ran before. I don't care if you pass your friends or hear other wolves trying to catch you, run as FAST as you can to the far border, because that's your only chance. You're a beautiful girl, Ellie, and a bunch of males will be trying their hardest to get to you, but I know you can run faster than almost all of them. And it doesn't help that this is your first year in the Running either, because you'll be seem as 'fresh meat'. Do you understand?"

I nod, absorbing what my brother just told me. See, this is why I love him so much. After my father died when I was 8 after being attacked my a group of rouges, I needed an older male figure in my life, to be there for me and protect me, and my 11 year old brother stepped up to the plate. My mother, Annabelle, was devastated for months after my father's death, and me and my brother went to bed hungry for months, before both my mother and brother went to work in the local market, selling fruits and vegetables we grew in our small garden in the backyard.Once I turned 12 on August 1, I went to work with them and eventually we stopped going to bed hungry, even having enough food to fill the pantry in our cottage on the South side of the village.

My brother then kissed my head, standing up and turning off my lamp before walking towards the door. Once he was about to close the door, he stopped and turned around to me, his head being illuminated by the light in the hallway. "Try to sleep, okay Ellie? You're starting to look like a zombie," he ended thoughtfully, but teasingly. I smiled and threw my extra pillow at the door, knowing he would close the door right before it hit him. He did just that, and I laid back onto my bed. Ever so slowly, I drifted off, only seeing peaceful blackness until morning.