Wolves and the Water

Chapter Three

Autumn walked out of the tent into a warm breeze. Immediately, she was greeted by her father and he took her arm in arm. Alpha Mitchell beamed proudly at his daughter. As her eyes adjusted to the night sky she saw a huge bonfire ahead of them.They walked arm in arm towards it with her mother in front of them. Alpha Mitchell was now in his pack attire. He was shirtless and wore the traditional elkskin skirting with an alligator belly belt, and at the bottom once again were the feathers of every bird from their home.

She looked around the fire seeing the faces of every member of her pack. She thought how talented the witches of her tribe were to be able to hide such an enormous gathering from the humans. There were 276 wolves and soon to be wolves staring back at her with pride. The younger pups were sitting across legged in front of their parents feet. Some of the adults were standing. Some of the older members were sitting in camping chairs. No one spoke as they walked to a small podium in front of the crowd. You could hear the crackling of the fire, the waves gently washing upon the shore, and the heartbeats of all 276 pack members.

Once they were on the podium there was a brief moment that everyone just stood there silently and Autumn took in her surroundings. From the podium the bonfire was about 20 yards away and beyond that was the beach and open bay. It was a completely cloudless night. If you listened close enough you could hear the prairie grass moving in the wind and the last of the summer's cicadas chirping.

Alpha Mitchell released her hand, and she sat down behind him on a driftwood chair. Luna Desiree took her place by her husband's side as they addressed the crowd.

"Good Evening Coastal Clan!" Alpha Mitchell's voice rang over the crowd.

"Good Evening Alpha and Luna," the pack chorused back.

He continued, " We are gathered here to bring forth the new Luna and her mate. Under the stars of the Moon Goddess and the Waves of the Ocean Goddess I call upon this tribe to present your warriors!"

Eight men stepped forward in front of the pack. Eight men to represent the eight phases of the moon. Autumn's eyes flickered over all of them. The firelight dancing across all of their faces. She briefly wondered if there was such a thing as a fated mate, and if she would sense him standing there. Some of the men were older than she was by quite a fews years and others were closer to her age. Who would be the new Alpha? She knew all of them by name. They were the strongest of the pack members that did not yet have a mate.

Looking from left to right like reading a book she said their names in her head, "Graham, Cayden, Zayne, Marcus, Eli, Jackson, Kasey, and Alan." None of them really stuck out to her. She felt no pull towards any of them. Maybe fated mates weren't real? Then again her wolf had not yet emerged. She thought she would reassess this topic later.

"Warriors! Our future Alpha is among you! Which of you will prove strong enough, intelligent enough, and cunning enough to be worthy of the title and my daughter's hand?" Luna Desiree sounded off powerfully like every Luna did. Her voice commanded respect.

"We will prove ourselves worthy Luna!" the men chorused back as if it were rehearsed.

Alpha Mitchell and the reigning Luna took their seats.

"Then let the tournament begin!" he called above the roar of the ocean.

The crowd stepped back and the men took their places in front of the water and quickly unbelted their tribal skirts and placed them at the waters edge. With a wave of Alpha Mitchell's hand the drummer hit his gong one time. Then they were off. They quickly waded into the water in a mad dash and started swimming with every muscle in their body. The first test was trial by water. The men had to swim a half of a mile out to loop around a buoy and back to the beach. Once back to the beach they could perform the second trial which was trial by fire. The mean had to walk across a stretch of hot coals that was easily 50ft long. Then the real test began which was the fight of submissions. Last man standing would be the new Alpha and Autumn's mate.

The tests were seemingly simple for any werewolf warrior, but these tests were meant to break them down. If they swam too fast they would tire once they were back on land. If the spent too much time on the coals they would burn their feet. If their feet burned then shifting to their wolves for the fight would be excruciating. It was all about strategy and timing.

*****

The men were emerging from the water one by one about 30 minutes later. The first to finish were already panting. The first to reach the shore was Eli with Cayden right on his tail, followed by Marcus, then Zayne, Graham, Alan, Jackson, and lastly Kasey.

Autumn watched as the men ran across the coals as quickly as possible. While Eli and Cayden were fast she could see them tiring, and both men burned their feet before reaching the end. The others ran across with no injury except for Jackson who tripped and ended up digging his big toe between the coals. She could tell it hurt him tremendously, but he let out no sounds.

Finally, all the men gathered around the bonfire in the center of the ring that the pack created for them. Some were panting and showing signs of exhaustion on their faces already. The wind kicked up sand and everyone held their breath and waited for Alpha Mitchell to give the signal.