Akela was pacing.
A few floors up, she could feel Kira writhing in pain and there was nothing she could do.

"Will you stop your pacing Aki," Kira huffed.

Akela shifted and tried her hardest to suppress the worry she felt for her sister.

"I wish I could help you," she said in thought and voice, her hands stopping millimetres from the silver bars that separated her from the doorway and stairs leading to where she needed to be.
Her hands were full of burn scars from all the times she had tried to break out. The desperation to reach her sister was overwhelming. They had done everything together. Twins of a bond so close they even shared names.
Akela couldn't imagine living without her sister.

"Don't worry. I'll have this pup and we'll be fine," Kira huffed as another contraction racked her body.

Akela felt it as if it was her own body, her own child. The twin link between them was as strong as if they were one. Having grown up as rogues, always on the move, they relied on each other.
Especially now.

Akela wished their parents were there.
She wished Kira had a mate who truly loved her to raise this pup with.
That she wasn't in a dingy basement several floors below Kira.
And that Kira could have her baby in freedom outside of this mansion. Away from the North pack.

Away from Alpha Preston

"Aki," Kira huffed.

"Yes Ki," Akela replied, trying to send her sister strength.

"If... I don't make it... or if he claims me...Try to get out and find the Cizinec heir. Dad said he'd take us in. He will protect you," Kira groaned.

"I'm not leaving you Kira! Never!" Akela said.

"Don't you get it Aki? He needed one of us!" Kira groaned.

"I'll try to get you out! Felix will help me..." Kira groaned and let the pain close the twin link, leaving Akela clutching the silver bars, ignoring the pain while crying for her sister and feeling the pain of separation and childbirth mixed.

For hours, Akela was back to pacing while sensing the pain her sister went through. Her hands stung from the silver bars and her face felt stiff from the grime and tears.
In the end she shifted and curled up in a corner to wait. Eventually, Kira's pain abated and Akela fell asleep from exhaustion and worry only to be roughly shaken awake.

"The Luna has delivered a male pup. We need to hurry while the Alpha is distracted. You need to run," Felix said and grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, hauling her wolf shape self up the stairs, past the other Deltas and out of the house. Akela looked at him and prayed he would be gentle in whatever he was going to do to her.

"Come with me.... Rogue scum!" He said harshly kicking her towards the forest where the Delta barracks were.

Akela shifted while walking backwards, away from the man who was following her until her back was up against a rough wood wall and Felix was stood millimetres from her.

"But Kira? And the pup?" She asked with a look up at the blonde boy not much older than herself.

"Alpha was so pleased with her that she will be his mate. Now go!" The delta said, nodding to the woods.

"Kira!" Akela screamed as the delta continued to push her around the corner of the barracks and into the woods.

"Akela! Leave! Quickly! It's best!" Kira mind linked.

"I can't leave you!" Akela thought with warm tears running.

"Go! Run!" The delta half-growled and pushed her again.

To Akela's amazement he was pushing her towards the territory border, not towards the privacy of his room. She frowned in question and saw him nod carefully towards the forest. Frozen up she stared at him, wondering why he helping her escape.

"But... she's my sister! I can't just leave her!" She begged.

The delta looked at her with a flash of unexpected sympathy.

"Yes you can. You have to," he whispered.

"Kira!" Akela shouted again.

"Go, Aki. Save yourself! The pup and I are safe," Kira mind linked before the connection was broken.

Akela screamed in pain as the connection with her twin sister was severed and her emotional link was gone.

"Go! Before the alpha tells me to kill you," the delta whispered with a pointedly vicious push towards the woods. The other Deltas looked at them with amused grins, waiting for Felix to do his thing.

"The other Deltas said I could have you first because I've been bringing you food..." he said with a snarl on his face but a softness to his  voice.

Akela looked at him in confusion.

"You're free for all here now. I'm supposed to get you into the barracks and do what I want with you. The Alpha doesn't need you now that he has his pup," the delta grinned and grabbed Akela's bare arm roughly, showing off to the other deltas watching before closing the distance between them, standing with his face less than an inch from hers.

Only a few feet away, several Deltas catcalled, egging him on.

"You're a very good looking female and the Deltas have been waiting for the Alpha to choose what to do with you and your twin. It turns out your sister is the submissive one, which means you... are up for grabs and we have been told we can use you as we want until you are unable to give anymore," he breathed hotly into her ear, walking her further into the woods to the sound of rough laughter and jeers about Felix needing privacy from the other delta fighters.
Akela's heart pounded in fear. She had barely avoided this with the alpha inside his chambers. Unwanted images of what Kira had done in her place rose in her mind.  Images of being held down while he.... the thought made bile rise and tears spring to her eyes.

Once safely hidden from view, he released her and brought out a rag of something foul smelling from a ziplock bag in his pocket.

"Now kick me!" He whispered, rubbing her arms and hair with the nasty rag held in the bag.

"What?" Akela asked, she stunk of what she recognised as fox urine.

"Kick me! Hard! And run!" He said seriously, pushing the rag into her hands.

Akela stared at him for a few seconds, seeing a caring, frightened smile. His blue eyes were lit with sympathy and care.

Slowly she nodded, understanding what he was trying to do. There was something familiar about him. He felt safe. She tied the rag around her arm to keep the scent on her.

"Get off me!" She hollered at the top of her voice, digging her emerging claws into his shirt, dragging them through the fabric and breaking his skin to create wounds, before she brought her human heel sharply down on his foot.

"Good! Now run!" He groaned at the pain of her claw marks, pushing her into the woods. Blood seeped through his shirt in stripes.

Akela shifted while turning and ran, leaving him behind.

"You bitch!" She heard Felix holler once she had a head start, followed by some observation that she had gone south. Akela took the hint and ran north-east, hearing the growls and barks of the other deltas in pursuit of her. A few of the deltas gave chase behind her, but her saying the dingy cellar and being doused in fox pee hid her scent amazingly well. 

For hours, Akela ran with the taste of blood and panic in her mouth. She stopped to hear the arking of Deltas in the woods behind her. She kept listening for Felix. for some reason he made her want to trust him. as the day darkened into night, the sound of deltas fell behind her and she curled up for the night in a small, narrow rock crevice behind a pinetree. The next morning she woke before dawn and continued her run south. The snow was in drifts that she had to leap over, but as soon as she was across the territory border, she found a human road where her paws would not mark the tarmac.

She ran. For a few days she considered looking for the cabin the family had stayed in a  year earlier, but fearing it might be too close to his territory she ran in a different direction.

Days turned into weeks. Nights were spent running while days were spent curled up under the branches of low growing pine trees, most of the time shivering from the cold, loneliness and fear. She regretted running. The guilt of leaving Kira behind was eating her alive. She could have asked Felix to free Kira too. She would have given him anything he'd want. But something about the way he had looked at her, told her he wouldn't have wanted that kind of a prize.

Slowly she trekked east and south towards where she thought she would find what the help she needed. Early winter became darker as midwinter loomed.

She lost all track of time, avoiding other lycans and human settlements.

She was running through a forest, she hadn't eaten for days, when she heard the glam of dogs and picked up the dangerous scent of humans. But there was also the scent of food so she dared approach to see a team of Alaskan Malamute dogs on a break from pulling a sleigh. On the sleigh sat two humans with a meal heated on a small campfire.
The woman looked up, seeing her the edge of the forest just as Akela was wondering if she had the strength to keep going without food. The last rabbit had escaped her when it realised she was too weak to catch it.

She didn't notice the woman approach until she crouched right next to her with a curious look in her eyes.

"Richard... could this be the leader that Egon lost?" She asked the man.

Akela stumbled towards the woods but the woman put her hand on her. Kindly.

"Hey girl. You're all skin and bones. Hey pretty girl," the woman cooed and Akela realised she was taking her for a malamute.
And she was holding a piece of food in her hand.
Carefully Akela followed the food as the woman walked backwards towards camp.

"Oh wow. You are pretty," the man said.

"Yeah. Look at the eyes. She's intelligent and too friendly to be a wolf. It's got to be Egon's lost girl," the man said and crouched down but Akela shied from him. He was too masculine. His scent that of a virile leader.

"Someone been treating you bad?" The woman asked and set out a bowl of that protein rich food the sled dogs ate.

"Here girl. Have some food. We'll take you to Egon and your team," she said once Akela sniffed the foul mix of dog pellets, dried meat and other unknown human foodstuffs in front of her. But it was food. So she ate it in slow, deliberate bits. She knew she should have shifted. But she was so tired. And she really didn't want to explain. Or fight. Or run.

The woman spread a reindeer skin on the snow for her and Akela curled up, falling asleep to the gentle breathing of the sled dogs around her, almost convincing her it was a pack, a family.

For a week, Akela was running with the team, pretending it was a pack. But she knew it couldn't last. The dogs were strictly trained into a hive mind. She tried striking up conversation with them in the evening but all they could talk about was paw care and how good it felt when they were running fast. The old matriarch of the pack was the only one with an ability to think outside the loyalty to their two humans and the joy of running. But even she was unwilling to tell her where they were. Akela knew they were going back north. She could feel herself going in a circle, back towards her greatest fear and her greatest longing.
She missed her sister like she would miss her arm if it was cut off. Half of her was gone.
Still alive, but gone.
And the baby.
Akela's nephew.
The pain of thinking about them hurt.
But the fear of going back hurt more.
She would need help.
Strong help. From the only lycan to ever fight Erberus Cizinec and walk away with his life.
The one who had killed what her father named the greatest terror of his generation.
But the Cizinec heir was a long way away. All the way down south. By the Shadow mountain.

She had to go.

And so one night, she left. 

Returning back south was easier after a week of actual food rather than the scraps she had been fed in the basement cage.
And her freshly honed muscles and lack of a sleigh to pull had her doubling back and down from the north mountains in just a few days. Her dad's hunting techniques proved to be valuable, but there was no joy.
All she could think about was how to explain to the mighty warrior that he was her only hope. That he was the only one who was strong enough and brave enough to get Kira free from the prison she was in.

 She was close enough to a mountain pass she recognised. Her dad had always told them to avoid it because of the human town there, but Akela decided to risk it. She ran through town in the cover of darkness, amazed at the streetlights and human activity around her. She didn't dare stop for long. Only for a quick search for a meal in a plastic bin in somebody's garden and another snack from a dog bowl another mile along. Akela knew she was taking a risk, but she didn't have the strength to cross over the mountains.  

And so her journey continued south. Sleeping under the low branches of trees, her fur matting with pine needles and mud. All the time searching.
In the distance a low mountain gradually became her goal.
The Shadow mountain.
Home of the Connor pack.
Where her father had said they would be welcomed.
Where her mother would have received the help she needed.
Where the last of the feared Cizinec lived openly among humans.

She ran every night and slept restlessly in the day.
Her wolf was leading the way. Towards some unknown safety her human self did not recognise. But her wolf longed for it.
The last of her strength was waning. She wasn't eating enough to maintain the running speed. She felt her own ribs protrude when she had the strength to clean herself.  There was no doubt that she would starve to death soon, in the winter cold, unless she found shelter and food. 

Her wolf drew her on. Some unknown bond pulled her towards an unfamiliar sense of safety. As if her wolf was running towards a home she had never known.

She was about to give up hope of ever getting there, when suddenly the scent barrier was right in front of her. It had been refreshed that morning.
And one of the scent markers smelled so good. It was this candy apple spiced scent of something she had never had.
It smelled like home.
Her wolf sighed in relief.
Akela crossed over on unsteady legs and collapsed in exhaustion.