Wolf Creek

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2Josh started to back away, anticipating violence. With his luck, he would be caught in the middle. It might bring him the escape he so desperately wanted, but he was a little squeamish about meeting his end by being ripped to shreds. Now that he was faced with the very real possibility of being disemboweled or torn limb from limb, he was certain that he couldn’t will his body to step into the melee, even to obey Silverbane.

While Silverbane was the family’s strongest fighter, the two male rogues looked like they might be a match for him. If he didn’t kill the alpha, the other rogues were likely to join the fight. Then there really would be bloodshed. As long as Silverbane wanted his fighters to keep their distance, they had no choice but to watch him fight on his own.

“Which one is the alpha?” Elaine grabbed Josh by the shoulders and shook him. “Who is directing their transformation?”

“How should I know?” Josh concentrated on the circling wolves.

“Because detecting an alpha is about the only useful thing an omega can do.” Elaine blocked his escape path and snarled. “Now figure it out before someone gets hurt.”

Josh wasn’t sure who was more terrifying: Elaine or the rogues. Never mind that Silverbane was counting on him. The look that he’d given Josh before he had transformed again was enough to make Josh queasy at the thought of failing him.

The two transformed rogues looked equally impressive. One didn’t really seem more dominant than the other. In fact, they both seemed to be protecting the females and lesser males. Josh panned the untransformed rogues. The remaining males watched the circling werewolves with an equal mixture of anticipation and fear on their faces. One of the females clutched at the other in terror.

That was when Josh noticed the slight bulge of each female’s belly. These rogues were setting up their own pack. The large males were protecting the young and their alpha. But which female was the alpha?

“Wait,” Josh said, and took a tentative step toward the fray. He spoke to all the rogues, but his eyes focused on the short, blonde female. She was the only one who actually looked calm; as if she was confident the outcome of the fight would be in her favor. She had to be their alpha. “You don’t want the young to be harmed.”

The blonde’s eyes locked on him.

“I know you are protecting them.” Josh could feel everyone watching him and waiting for him to fail. Since that was not an option, he had to find a way of stopping this fight before it got out of hand. “It’s honorable how you protect and nurture the young. They will help make this pack stronger.”

“What do rogues know about being a pack?” Bryce stepped forward.

“Quiet,” Elaine snapped.

“Give us the command and we will show these rogues what pack honor is,” Bryce said.

Elaine took a step toward Bryce and cuffed him hard enough that he staggered backwards before regaining his balance. “You will hold your tongue or I will rip it out.”

When Bryce said nothing more, Elaine turned toward Josh and nodded for him to continue.

“A pack needs a territory,” Josh said as he tried to pull together the strands of reason that gave him the courage to speak up. “Everyone needs a home. You can’t win this fight. Even if you defeat Silverbane, his fighters won’t rest until each of you, even the young, are destroyed. They are defending their pack and their home.”

The blonde female stared at Josh as if she might actually be considering what he was saying.

“Just like you would,” Josh said.

“Exactly.” The blonde finally spoke. Her hand reflexively covered her belly. “We are a family and we will protect what is ours.”

“Then you need to find a home to call your own,” Josh said. “What would you do if a pack moved into your territory?”

The blonde nodded.

“Asher. Terry.” She spoke with a force that froze the two males who faced off with Silverbane in place. Their eyes locked on their target. “That’s enough. We will leave. We will find our own home.”

The two males reluctantly pulled away from Silverbane, their teeth still bared as they returned to their human form. They took up their sentry post on either side of their alpha, their flight or fight response fading.

“And I will help you find that home,” Silverbane said as soon as his transformation back to his human form was complete. “You have my word.”

* * * *

After the initial confrontation and introductions, the rest of the night was spent in civil discussion. Silverbane and Elaine sat down with Stephanie, the rogue alpha, to work out the details of forming a recognized pack. They had a lot to learn about being an organized group of werewolves.

Rogues pretty much went wherever they pleased and did as they pleased, but that put them at risk of trespassing onto another pack’s territory or drawing the attention of the Amazons—the self-proclaimed guardians of the human race—as well as the other dark creatures that lurked around the periphery of humanity. There were rules, even though Josh wasn’t sure exactly what they were. Being a pack werewolf had protected him from encountering many of them. His mother had tried to convince him that the safest place was within a pack. Maybe it was for everyone else, but not for the omega.

“We are no longer the animals we once were,” Silverbane explained. The rogues stretched out on their makeshift beds and listened intently to him like eager children. Even Asher and Terry, the fighters of the group, occasionally glanced at him as he explained the dynamics of modern werewolf society. “You all came to your heritage without the benefit of a pack—rogues, as we would call you.”

“We found each other.” Erin, the brunette, took the hand of one of the lesser males. They shared a bed and a bond that even Josh could see. “After the transformation took us, we had nowhere to go.”

“Didn’t your families accept you?” Elaine asked.

Erin shook her head. “They saw us as freaks, monsters. We weren’t human anymore.”

Josh didn’t envy rogues who had to face their wolf side without the guidance of someone with wolf blood.

Most rogues were orphans or runaways, but from the sound of it, these rogues had parents without wolf blood. Maybe they were adopted and didn’t know it.

“And now we’re a family.” Stephanie smiled as she looked around at her pack. They weren’t much to look at, at least not to Josh’s eyes. Their clothes were dirty and torn, so they must still be mastering their transformations, not yet able to remove them in time.

“We didn’t know we were setting up in your territory.”

Even though Stephanie took obvious pride in her pack and was their authority, she was still hesitant when addressing Silverbane. Josh couldn’t blame her. Silverbane could be intimidating when he wanted to be. Josh had seen him put more than a few young wolves in their place when Elaine didn’t beat him to the punch. Just as she was the pack’s enforcer, so Asher and Terry were clearly Stephanie’s.

“My family has inhabited the forest and mountains around Wolf Creek since the first settlers came to this area,” Silverbane said. In the dim light of the candles the rogues had lit, his salt and pepper hair had more gray than black, and the lines on his face were etched more deeply. He almost looked like he was speaking about a past he’d lived through personally. It was a story that Josh had heard so many times that he could probably have recited it himself.

“My great-great-grandfather, Ian Silverbane, did not ask for the curse each of us was born with. The bite of the wolf-demon, Lukar, infused his blood—and the blood of his descendants—with the demon’s dark essence. At the first full moon following the bite, Ian transformed into a creature that was neither man nor wolf, but something deadlier: a werewolf. He lost control of himself and forgot his humanity. In the morning, he woke to find his wife and infant son torn to pieces. In his madness, he had slaughtered them.

“He came to these lands to escape his curse. He sought to isolate himself in the forests of northern Maine so that he would never shed another drop of human blood. It was the vow he made to his dead wife and son, who haunted his every step. But these forests were not uninhabited. One woman from the native tribe who hunted these lands carried the blessing of their spirits and guarded them against the tainted creatures of the forest, and she taught him to subdue the beast within and quell the urge to kill. From then on, Ian found others that shared his curse. With those that adhered to his vow not to kill, he formed the Silverbane pack. We are all descended from him or from others with the curse who shared his belief in the sanctity of life.”

“We were all born this way then?” Erin rubbed the soft swell of her belly.

“Yes,” Elaine said. “As your young will be, too. That is why you must learn to be a responsible family. The beast within must be controlled. Only then will other packs recognize your right to territory. Not every alpha is as understanding as Silverbane. Stray into the wrong territory and you could be slaughtered without warning. Most Amazons will kill you on sight if you don’t have a treaty with them.”

“Where will we go?” Stephanie asked. “How do we find our own territory?”

Silverbane smiled. “There aren’t so many packs that we can’t find you your own home.”

“The elders will need to approve your petition for recognition as a pack,” Elaine said.

“Until then,” Silverbane said, “you are welcome to stay here.”

“Temporarily,” Elaine added.

“As our guests.” Silverbane’s eyes narrowed only slightly as he corrected Elaine. “But you must restrict your hunting activities. The Amazons that patrol this area don’t take kindly to poachers any more than the game wardens of Burnt Mountain Park. They will be watching. Do not take more than you need and let nothing go to waste.”

“Who are these Amazons?” Asher asked. “Are they really that strong?”

Silverbane rose to his feet with a slow steadiness that might be seen as confidence, but Josh could have sworn he saw him falter. The proud alpha’s age was showing, and Josh wasn’t sure what to make of it. Silverbane was choosing to negotiate rather than fight. He was helping these rogues form an official pack rather than killing them or chasing them off their territory. As strong as he was, he was also mortal and that made Josh more than a little nervous. When his time as alpha was done, the pack would choose another. Silverbane was the only one that wanted Josh around, so without him maybe, just maybe, Josh had a way out alive.

“They will appear as any other human.” Elaine stood to leave. “Perhaps a little taller, a little bolder than most.

You will know them by the glyphs on their skin. Tattoos of vines and leaves that encircle their limbs and glow when they are near anyone with tainted blood, as they call it. Werewolves aren’t the only predators to hunt mankind. Bunyip, vampires, chupacabra, and sirens either lack the self-control to keep from killing, or they disdain the importance of any life not their own.

However, we are not animals, and our treaty with the Amazons ensures that they leave us alone.”

“Why would they want us dead?” Stephanie asked.

Silverbane sighed. “They know we are descended from Lukar. His blood contaminates our lines, and it is our greatest strength and weakness. From him, the infection spread through bite and birth. The Amazons believe we are forever cursed by our heritage.”

“Then we are damned?” Erin gasped.

Silverbane shook his head. “How we choose to live defines us, not the blood we are born with. That is why our truce with the Amazons is so important.”

“Our peace with them means limited hunts in specific areas and no killing of humans,” Elaine continued. “We work together to keep these woods safe from anyone who doesn’t value life.”