Born 01 - Born

for two months. I glance at Leo and raise an eyebrow. He slumps slightly under my scrutiny. He is ashamed but doesn’t know why. He just knows my looks.
    "I am sorry. We didn’t mean to scare you. We saw how many guns you had, and we knew you had the wolf. We wanted to leave you alone, but we had nowhere to go."
    The voice speaks from the hole. "Look, don’t hurt my sister. Just pass me the rope and I'll pull myself out. We won't bother you again. I know you're scared but we really are just regular people like you."
    Like me. I hear my father's voice, 'it's us and them, Em' and remember there are no regular people.
    I lean my gun against the tree. Leo stands beside it at the ready, just like I trained him to. I turn and tie the rope around the tree next to me. I toss the remainder of the rope down the hole. When they're gone, I will set up booby traps. I won't be caught by surprise again.
    "Tie it under your arms," I say toward the entrance of the hole.
    I can see the rope moving as he ties himself up.
    "We will pull you up. Just try to help a little, okay."
    "Okay."
    I look at Anna and wait for her to come help. She looks back at me expectantly.
    I frown. "I'm not pulling him up alone."
    She laughs slightly. It feels weird for me. I don’t know when I heard someone laugh last.
    She gets up and walks to me. Neither of us trusts the other. She eyeballs me as much as I do her. We each take the rope in our hands. I wrap it around my hand and she does the same.
    "Ready?"
    She nods, just as he calls up from the hole, "Ready."
    "One, two, three."
    We dig in with our feet and pull hard. I can see her neck straining against the pull.
    It is the hardest thing I've ever done. I grow frightened of just how big he is. He weighs a ton.
    I watch a huge hand reach up out of the hole and claw at the dirt. Anna drops the rope and runs to it. Another huge hand pops up and digs in. She reaches down and pulls on his arms. I try not to gasp as a massive man crawls from the hole. I can tell he's thinner than he should be. His frame towers over Anna.
    He smiles at me. "Thanks. I never thought I would get out of there. I honestly didn’t think you would help us."
    My heart does something it has never done before. It skips a beat. His dark shaggy hair hangs around his forehead at eye level. His blue eyes sparkle, even in the faint moonlight, up through his hair. His smile is devastating, with chiseled features and a strong jaw line. He is handsome. That is the word for him, handsome.
    "Um, hello?"
    I shake my head, seeing the smile cross his lips. "What?"
    He laughs. They laugh a lot.
    "My name is Jake, and this is my sister, Anna." He stands on one leg, resting his arm over Anna's shoulder, holding his hurt leg in the air.
    "You'll need that set." I point at his hanging leg.
    He smiles again. "You can do that?"
    I nod my answer and point to the cabin. "Let's go." I pick up my rifle.
    "What's your name?" he asks.
    I walk to him, trying not to stare. "I will help you. I think I'm stronger than her." I don’t trust them, but the faster I help him, the faster they can leave.
    His warmth crashes onto me as he clutches my shoulder. I have never wondered if I am short, but he makes me feel tiny. I can smell him all around me. He smells different.
    I look at Leo who walks up to Anna and nuzzles her, encouraging her to start walking.
    "Traitor," I whisper.
    Jake laughs again. "She's really good with animals. It's the only friggen reason we are still alive."
    I don't know what that means, but if Leo likes them I have no reason not to. Leo has never liked anyone but me, and I feel like he might have made a good choice there. I can’t help but wonder if she’s going to try to eat my wolf? She doesn't look like the kind of kid who hugs and pets her food before eating it. I'm not sure there are even kids who do that.
    We walk the short bit back to my cabin in silence. He tries talking but I just listen, not to him. I listen to everything around us. This isn’t how I want to die, and I don't know how much noise they've made thus far. He doesn’t seem to have a clue how to be quiet. His sister is the opposite. She listens like I do.
    I feel considerably better when I smell the fire of my cabin and see my front door.
    "How did you find this place?" he asks when I open the door.
    I put my finger to my lips and creep in with my rifle raised. I never locked the door. Another rule I've broken.
    I clear each of the two rooms and the bathroom. I check