Peak Moon: The hunted Alpha

EPISODE 1

The cabin smelled of pine and wet earth. A single oil lamp flickered in the room, casting a yellow hue against the log walls. Outside, the wind rustled through the trees. It was one of those cold nights in winter. The fireplace in the cabin burned with vicious embers to keep the house warm.

It had been Matvey’s Idea. After the President betrayed them. Later, the badges of honor didn’t come and instead, they got bounties on their heads.

`“We scatter,”` he’d told every Alpha on the call that night. “We will extract ourselves from human society into safe hiding. We will build our homes on the peak of the mountains across the country. The army will find us for sure, but it will take a while. It’s better than being hunted down in town. In the woods, we’ll be scattered, they will never find us.”

It worked, for a year. But then the army got some hint about some werewolf settlements and took their helicopters with them hunting. It was a bombardment. After such attacks, the survivors would flee and regroup and rebuild somewhere else, still in the woods, on mountains away from urban contact.

Anastasia stood by the window. Her arms were crossed, but not in anger. In fear. Matvey and she had moved three times in a year. Some of their men had fallen. It wasn’t making sense anymore, and you could see the pressure swell on her luscious skin.

Ema, their daughter, was asleep in the loft above, curled around the wolf pelt Matvey had given her.

“We’ve moved three times, Matvey,” Anastasia said. Her voice was low. Steady. The way she used to talk to him before he became the most hunted man in Crussland. “Three cabins in eight months. Each time we build, each time they find us.”

Matvey didn’t look up from the map. His finger traced the red string to their current village. Twelve cabins. Forty-seven wolves. His people.

“It’s working,” he said. “The army can’t bomb all of Crussland. We’re spread out. That was the point.”

“Working?” Anastasia turned. Her eyes, the same amber as Ema’s, flashed. “Is this working for you? They’re fishing us out, one village at a time. Bombing the Altai last month. Gassing the Urals before that. We bury our dead and then we run. Again.”

She stepped closer. She wasn’t a weak woman. She was Luna. She’d fought beside him in the war. But tonight she wasn’t a wolf. Tonight she was a mother.

“You told them to scatter,” she said. “You told them it would be safer. And it was. At first. But now? Now we’re not an army anymore. We’re prey. Running and looking back. Always looking back.”

Matvey finally met her eyes. His were granite. Unmoving. The same eyes that had stared down the President’s tanks.

“So what do you suggest, Anastasia? That we gather? That we give them one place to aim their missiles? One place to wipe out every wolf in Crussland?”

“I’m suggesting we stop playing defense!” The words came out sharper than she meant. She glanced up at the loft, then softened. “We can’t keep hiding forever, Matvey. Hiding is making us vulnerable. It’s all defense and no assault. They know where to look now. They’re learning our pattern.”

She reached across the table and covered his hand with hers. Her hands were calloused. A fighter’s hands.

“This isn’t you,” she whispered. “That’s fear talking.”

Matvey’s jaw ticked. He pulled his hand away.

“What do you want us to do against a military that has so much gun power?” His voice was quiet, but it shook the room. “Right now, hiding isn’t cowardice. It’s timing. It’s wisdom. This is our guerrilla grace.”

Anastasia stepped back. Her chin lifted. The Luna came back into her spine.

“Then fight like the man who won us the war,” she said. Her voice didn’t shake. It rang.

“They couldn’t win that war without us, Matvey. Not without the packs. Not without you. And if we stood with them then, we can stand against them now. Alone, we are going to beat them down to the ground.”

Silence. Only the lamp hissing.

Matvey stared at her. At the woman who had bled beside him. At the mother of his child. That conversation was a few months ago and she herself had become a casualty. It was his strong heart that grieved her death, but it was his warrior’s hands that closed her eyelids in death before she was buried in the mountains which he chiseled to cut in a cave for her resting place. The army had gotten her. He had fled with Ema, moved, but they were here again.

Shoot! Shoot at them soldiers!” The commander’s voice echoed across the woods as his battalion charged onward.

The bombastic sounds of gunshots immediately boomeranged across the wild forests.

The weather was cold and frosty. Blisters of snowflakes being driven wildly by the wind. Gunshots and fire crackles were heard in the distance. Matvey could be seen running down the snowy mountain with his nine-year-old daughter as they tried to evade the army’s pursuit.

“Carry me in your arms, daddy!” Ema wimped as she stretched up her arms, showing her vulnerability.

Matvey turned his back and raised her up into his arms; “Daddy’s got you. Darling, don’t be afraid.”

Ema was confident her father could protect her. She had witnessed him in full rage slashing through brigadiers of the armed forces. They were no match for him when he was in full rage, but discretion today had advised him to flee, also because of his daughter, Ema, who could become collateral in the war. He had lost Anastasia because of his pride, he wasn’t going to lose Ema either.

“They are not one of us. It’s your job to exterminate these monsters from the land. We do not want Werewolves among us. This is the world of men and it so must remain.” Instructed Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Hitrov. He was the one commanding the battalion on a special mission to attack Matvey’s abode in the mountains of Palma.

The soldiers were trigger ready as they chased down Matvey and his daughter. The soldiers held special guns, the pp 2000, a submachine gun for the operation, and its magazines were specially laced with special rounds which could neutralize their target. Matvey was faster than they ran and, even on the snow, he had no difficulty as he went down the steep. Wolves had no problem with snow, and he even felt weirdly strong as adrenaline pumped into his system, making him run faster, avoiding the shots of their bullets. The soldiers couldn’t run well due to the steep and some had even started falling and rolling on ice. The commander spoke into the walkie-talkie, requesting the lieutenant colonel for assistance as Matvey could be seen making away. Lieutenant Colonel Hitrov called in a combat helicopter to map the area and shoot Matvey from the opposite end.

“Do it carefully, don’t kill any of my men, or you will be in soup!” Lieutenant Colonel Hitrov had added the warning as an added precaution for the pilot.

“Roger sir! On it!” The pilot telephoned back.

The whirring of the helicopter could soon be heard from afar, and before it got closer, Matvey had sensed it and prepared himself into a position to either attack or duck into the woods. The latter seemed to be more feasible as he was still in his human form, but the helicopter firepower broke through the concave of snow and rocks he thought he was hiding securely under.

“Damn!” he exclaimed, jumping out fast. Still protecting his daughter as he bowed to the ground. He didn’t waste time down there, and he swiftly hid Ema on a tree and crawled out of the place, snow bristling his palm and scorching it. He then transformed into his beastly form. The helicopter still tried to maintain target, but he was really fast in his new beastly form and the pilot couldn’t lock a shot on him. Matvey climbed a few plateaus that would get him just a bit closer to the helicopter, and he jumped and caught the helicopter by the landing skid. The copter began to make erratic movements in the air as the pilot couldn’t maintain his grip because of what was underneath.

“Kent, we need to shoot at that beast down there, if we are ever going to control this bird!” said the assistant pilot.

“Fine, take a pump action and shoot him down so he falls off, “Kent instructed.

Matvey feared fire, and he didn’t want to crash with the helicopter. It would hurt him badly too, so he was aiming at something the pilots couldn’t even see in their distress. The assistant pilot got to the door side where the plane tilted and hoped to find Matvey underneath. Before he could even set the gun, Kent shouted,” What the FUC….?!”

The assistant pilot looked back immediately and saw how it happened so fast! It was like the mountains moved towards them as the interior of the copter got darker because of the foreshadowing of the closing in object. “GBUSHHJ!”

Matvey had successfully spun the helicopter into a mountain. While it crashed, he jumped down and landed on his feet. He quickly ran off from the base of the mountain before it fell over his head. The battalion saw fire rise from a distance and knew immediately it was their bird. They seemed afraid for a second, but the commander told them to cast their fears away.

“We are winning this war against the Werewolves, whether they like it or not! So be brave boys, victory is ahead!” The commander yelled as his soldiers quickly fell in line and kept advancing towards the crash.

“Split into three factions and find him and kill him. Get where he is hiding his daughter and bring her for me.” Ordered the commander.

“No, not my girl!” Matvey panicked.