BEHIND THE LINES OF THE WERE WAR

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As soon as they were out of sight, he asked for volunteers to stay behind for pyre detail. The funeral detail would have to hide for three days, watching as the soldiers dug through the ruins in search of any more clues as to their whereabouts. Eventually they left and the dead were piled and cremated. The pack could smell the smoke from the pyre from three mountains away as they howled their grief to the moon.

Tears ran from his face, but tears didn't help him with the war. The Were War was never something the werewolves could win once their existence was known. There were too few of them, and they were too isolated from each other and lacked the trust needed to band together into an effective fighting force. There had been too many border disputes and raids in their own history to trust the other packs. The Pack structures did not encourage cooperation. As individual Packs they were strong, but they were outnumbered and lacked the technological edge of a modern military. The government strategy was unimaginative but effective. Isolate the population, decapitate the leadership, then use search and destroy tactics to drive them into extinction.

August 2016, Casper, Wyoming

Death was coming to Casper North Middle School.

Joe Donnelly was impressive in wolf form as he loped out of the woods towards the open gym doors. Standing four feet tall at the shoulders and over 200 pounds, he dwarfed the gray wolves occasionally seen in the area. His black coat shimmered in the sunlight, and his eyes glowed yellow. Humanity had left them; the events of the past day had turned him feral, abandoning his Pack and his home with revenge on his mind. His mate had been attacked by Betas of the Casper Pack while on patrol near the border of their lands. She had sent him desperate messages as she was r***d and killed. The people responsible had been allowed to live because their Alpha accepted that she was on their land. His grief and his outrage overcame him at this. Nothing would stop him from taking down the Alpha of the Casper pack, who was the principal of this school, along with any of his sons who got in his way.

The screams started just as he entered the gymnasium where the sixth graders were playing Dodgeball. Joe caught a whiff of the Alpha's scent and tore across the gym, scattering children and teachers along the way. Several were bitten or scratched, though they were not targets they were in the way and that was enough. The school lockdown alarm was sounded as Joe entered the hallway, but it was too late to save the eleven students killed and 23 wounded in the four minutes the attack was going on.

Joe was killed, but not by police. Principal Johnson and two of his sons, along with two teachers and two other students in the Pack, shifted into wolf form and tore Joe to shreds. The Alpha was seriously wounded, and his beta shifted back and carried him to their truck. They were all on their way to their Pack healer before the police even arrived.

The video was a national sensation. The school had an advanced security system that had caught not only the attack, but the seven werewolves already in the school as they shifted into wolf form and back. There were dozens of witnesses. In a few minutes, the secrecy that Weres had used to protect their existence was shattered. The dead Were was analyzed and autopsied, having remained in the wolf form at death; shifting forms is something only a living being can do.

If that wasn't bad enough, within hours the injured went through forced turns. Were saliva and scratches carry the virus that creates new Were. If the virus is introduced willingly and associated with joy or ecstasy, the turn is calm and welcomed. If the person is in fear or stress, they fight the wolf nature as it comes forward and the new wolf fights and subdues their human nature, becoming a raging animal with no mercy or retraint. Since no one knew what werewolves were, they did not know that the injured required sedation and isolation. There were so many humans injured that rampaging Weres shut down every hospital within 200 miles, and one in Denver that received an airlifted patient. Cameras and news reports showed the agony of the first shift in gory detail, and the former children and adults who suddenly found themselves with a new and very angry animal nature. It made zombie movies look like a relaxing afternoon.

It took two days, a full police mobilization and the National Guard to contain the rampages. Lacking a pack or help, the newly formed Weres rampaged until they were put down, and anyone hurt by them would change. It was finally treated like a deadly epidemic, anyone who was bitten or scratched was immediately executed. Anything that even LOOKED life a wolf was immediately shot, and suspicion of being a Were was enough for mobs or police to attack entire families. Entire communities were decimated.

Alpha Johnson and his pack were the first casualties of the Were War. They would not be the last. The humans feared the wolves and wanted them exterminated. It did not matter that they had been friends and coworkers and family just a week before.

August 2021

The war was now a desperate bid for survival for his pack. They used intelligence, sniper teams and small unit attacks to keep the military uncomfortable and maintain some freedom of movement. It wasn't a classic insurgency- they didn't have the support of the population- but you do what you can. THEY were considered the invading force, even though Weres had lived since before the founding of the state and they used to be respected members of the community.

Weres who entered the military tended to gravitate towards Special Forces, Scout Snipers, SEALs and Rangers. Their strength and stamina was well above human averages, and their enhanced senses gave them an huge advantage in battle. If you ever heard a story about a guy running point on a patrol who saw, heard or sensed something wrong that saved his unit, it probably was a Were. They served with distinction in every war since the United States was founded. In small units, a group of Were was a formidable force. Oh, and the stories about heroic K-9 patrol members? It's a lot easier to train a young Were to find explosives than a dog, especially with their handler being Were as well. After the war started, the few veterans left in the Pack had trained everyone on small unit tactics, marksmanship and camouflage. It just didn't help you win against overwhelming air power and artillery. The Army avoided direct contact with Were units, knowing that their losses would be high and direct contact risked forced turnings.