Maxime P.O.V

I needed to escape and fast. The hunters were here, and it wouldn't take much time for them to find me with their dogs. I could already hear the sound of my skin tearing and bones breaking under the strong jaws of those beasts breeded for the hunt. I heard a bark and a pained scream followed while the smell of blood became stronger, surely another life unfairly taken. I pushed my right side against the tree I was send flying against by the bear and tried to slowly get up. My legs were shaking like crazy and all my body fucking hurt like I was rolled over by a truck. At least, if it were a truck the driver would have receive a punishment while the stupid bear who made me like this was currently running freely around without as much as a fine*. I hoped the hunter caught her and her cubs. Assholes.

(A/N: *fine=an amount of money that has to be paid as a punishment for not obeying a rule or law)

I started to walk like a baby giraffe just born, my knees leaning toward each other and my body lowered. I took slow steps in the direction I thought would lead me in the opposite direction of the hunters. I heard a gunshot reasoning in the deadly silence of the forest, announcing other souls leaving this world, and decided to run for my life, literally. My whole body screamed in protestation and my muscles aches as I sprinted and zigzagged between the trees. My mind shot down at the pain and I entered an automatic run, front paws, back paws, front paws, back paws, dodge a tree, jump. My mind was completely blank and just worked on adrenaline, I couldn't feel my injuries anymore or my muscles burning. In fact, I couldn't even feel the wind blowing in my face, shaking my fur, and whistling in my ears as I went as fast as I could without collapsing. I feared my legs would cross each other and make me self plant. First, it would be extremely embarrassing and second, the dogs would catch me, and I would die. I could already see my fur put on the wall of a living room or made into a carpet. I could even be a scarf!

***

It had been a week since I escaped from the hunters. During this week, I stopped when I had the chance to find some berries and water but other then that I just kept running on adrenaline nearly without rest. At this point, I couldn't feel anything but numbing pain and a need to sleep. I was now really underweighted but after a few days of hard stomach cramps, I didn't feel any discomfort and was just tired. I remembered that there was a pack in a forest near my ex pack and decided to head there. I didn't know if they would welcome me warmly or with weapons, but I had to take a chance, no matter what. I couldn't continue to just blindly run like I was doing. At one point my body would reach its limit. When this moment would come, I would fall, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to get up again.

Of course, I had to run in the direction opposite of the pack so I needed to do a really long detour to be able to reach the pack without entering my ex pack's territory, which will take me at least two weeks. I sighed and shook my head at my stupidity for not running in the pack's direction after escaping. It would have been so much easier!

Now with a goal fixed, I wouldn't just blindly run around like a chicken that got its head cut. Bad idea. Now that I had imagined chicken, I had the picture of a mouth-watering chicken being cooked above a fire. I licked the drool escaping my mouth and decided to hunt a little.

***

It had been two weeks since I decided to go to the pack next to my ex one. I had stopped a few times to hunt and not just feed myself with berries and water, but I was still really underweight and tired. I also took time to sleep because I couldn't continue without a good nap. Now, I was finally near the border of the pack.

I took one last sprint and collapsed when I felt I entered the pack's border. The last thing I heard before my eyes closed was the sound of distressed howls.