Mikhail had always been used to hard work, but nothing in his life prepared him for the moment when he discovered a girl trembling in the forest, caught between a pack of wolves and an uncertain fate. She was a stranger, someone he could have passed by without ever knowing—except that the wolves had seen her, and he had seen them.
As he hurried to take her to safety, Mikhail noticed how fragile and pale she was, with deep cuts on her arms and dirt smudged across her face. He had never seen her in the village before, and he knew almost everyone. The girl was out of place, as if she had stepped straight out of a nightmare. As he drove her back to the village, her faint murmurs broke the silence between them.
“Who did this to you?” Mikhail asked gently, though he feared the answer.
Her response came in a whisper, barely audible: “They were chasing me. They said I knew too much. They—they left me here.”
Mikhail’s heart sank. He had heard whispers of strange activities in the area—people who had vanished, rumors about dangerous men who hid their faces in the shadows. But he had never thought they would be involved with someone so young. He didn’t press her for more information; it was clear she wasn’t ready to talk.
When they arrived at her house, Mikhail didn’t let her go until he saw her mother, a woman who looked as though she had been expecting her daughter’s return for far too long. She was frantic, tears in her eyes, yet somehow relieved.
“Thank you… Thank you for bringing her back,” she said, her voice shaky.
Mikhail simply nodded and left them to their reunion. As he walked back to his truck, he felt the weight of the events pulling him down. He didn’t know why the girl had been targeted or who was behind it, but his curiosity gnawed at him. The next few days were uneventful—until the police came looking for him.
The girl had been more than a victim—she was the key to exposing a dangerous trafficking ring operating under the radar of law enforcement. The men who had left her in the forest were not ordinary criminals; they were a network with connections that reached into the most powerful corners of society.
Mikhail didn’t hesitate. He shared everything he knew with the police, his story of the girl and the wolves, and his suspicion of the men who had been seen in the woods. His testimony, combined with the girl’s courage, was enough to bring the criminals to justice. They were arrested, and the girl was placed under protective custody.
In the end, Mikhail learned that the girl’s name was Anna. She was a runaway, a victim of a broken home, forced into a world she never chose. Her life, though tragic, was saved not by the power of justice alone, but by a truck driver’s bravery and the wolves who had somehow known the truth before anyone else did.
As for Mikhail, he couldn’t help but look out over the forest every time he drove through, wondering if Gray still watched over it.