Wolf Lake

Chapter 5

“I just don’t know what it would hurt for you to take a couple classes in the winter while all the bee-stuff is slowed down Aspen.” My mother brought up for at least the millionth time since I had announced I was going to work with dad full time as an apprentice at the apiary after graduating high school instead of attending college. Dinner had started innocently enough, after Jillian and Michael had made their rounds of greetings and sticky hugs. 

Seriously though... why are kids always so sticky? 

We all sat around the dinner table, passing dishes laden with food around. Mom had made another delicious marinara sauce with ingredients straight from the gardens, cooking it last night and letting it rest in the fridge until she warmed it back up on the stove this evening. She swears that is her only secret to what has to be an award winning sauce, but I am not convinced there are not a few tricks up her sleeve she hasn’t shared yet. The kids were absolutely covered in red and cut up noodles, as is to be expected with a three year old…. But I think Jillian at seven covers herself so as not to feel left out. She did not take not being the baby of the family all that well and has experienced some bumps along the maturity road as a result. Her teachers assured Willow and Paul that it was perfectly normal, but I don't always have the patience for it. Not my kids…. Not my problem… I just have to keep repeating to myself. 

“I just don’t see what paying an arm and a leg to a stuffy, out-of-the-field professor can do for me that watching and learning directly from Dad in the field can’t.” Dad had to hide the smug look on his face with his glass of wine. “These professors are the same ones that are always calling dad for advice. I should not have to go into debt to convince you that I know what I’m doing.” 

Okay, okay, calm it down a notch…. Starting to take it a bit personal…. She just wants what’s best for me…

My mom frowned at me. “You know that I have absolute faith in your fathers abilities and yours for that matter. But what if you wanted to go out into the world and do something else someday? What if you change your mind in five, ten, even twenty years and want to do something different?” 

Did you? I thought to myself, again, a little more sassily than necessary. 

“I hear what you’re saying Mom, I really do. Maybe I will look into some community college classes that I can take one or two courses at a time during winter semesters.” There… a compromise… happy? I give her an exhausted smile to let her know that I did not want to stay on this topic of conversation. 

Just then, a glob of what looked and felt very much like a mouthful of partially chewed spaghetti hits my neck and starts to slide down under my shirt. The red stain was immediately evident on my blouse. “Seriously Jillian?!” I shouted, pushing back from the table and giving her a look before I turned it on my sister. “I’m so sorry Aspen, I will buy you a new one if that stain doesn’t come out….” Willow offers as I scoop the handful of mush out from my cleavage and into a napkin. The damage is done though, there would be no saving the blouse.

Willow took the plate and fork away from Jillian, whose face was beginning to change from gleeful troublemaker to feigned sorrow at her mischief being cut short. “That is quite enough of that Jillian. Now what do you say to your aunt Aspen?” Tears begin to roll down her plump, sauce-covered cheeks. “What do you say?” Everyone sat waiting on the apology we knew wouldn’t come. Paul and Willow had spoiled that girl beyond recognition when Michael had been born, as if trying to make up for the fact that they’d had another child. Jillian starts to whine and cry, looking down at the floor and wringing her hands to avoid eye contact. 

“Lets just go get cleaned up,” Paul finally interjects, picking Michael up from his highchair and leading both kids to the bathroom. Dad got up and starts to clear away dishes, bringing them into the kitchen to be wrapped up or rinsed and put in the dishwasher. Willow sighed heavily and drank deeply from her glass of wine, holding her temple. “I’m sorry.” She said, looking as though she had suddenly aged five years. “How was your meeting with the Tribal Elders this afternoon Mom?” she asked, trying very hard to not have to talk about the elephant in the room.

My mothers frown deepened. “Unfortunately eye-opening I’m afraid.” 

While Wolves are notoriously secretive and as a general rule keep our existence hidden from humans, many indigenous tribes are still aware of our existence. Our pack is even more closely entwined with our local tribe than many others. Our packs territory is situated within the Reservation and has benefitted from our relationship with the Tribe. According to the lore, our ancestors helped the Tribe protect their lands during the colonization of the continent. Together we held back the invaders and ensured treaties that allowed the Reservation to remain on original tribal lands, unlike so many others, the Tribes ancestors avoided the fate of being forced to move south and west to far away reservations. In return for the Packs aid, the Tribe has helped keep our existence a secret. 

Every child of the pack attends the private, tribally controlled schools on the Reservation. This protects us from any outside humans learning about our existence from any loose-lipped children who do not yet understand the importance of staying under the humans radar. It also means the Federal government doesn’t come around asking as many questions as they might if we had dozens of kids either being home-schooled or going to some other exclusive “Wolf-Only” school where we would have to try to explain our selection process without either giving ourselves away or sounding like a terrible group of people. We all attended normal core classes like every other student in the country, but some of our extracurriculars were just a little…. Extra.

“What do you mean? What is going on with the Tribe?” I ask. While I am not politically minded like my mother and sister--as a member of the pack’s Braves, Wolves who help protect and enforce the rule of the Alpha--I am interested in ensuring the alliance with the Tribe remains strong. 

“Another woman has gone missing…The Tribal Police have exhausted every clue and resource and are not getting anywhere on the case.” My jaw just about lands on the table in front of me. Another one?!  This is ridiculous!  “But that makes four women or girls from the Tribe that have either gone missing or been murdered so far this year alone!” Mom nodded solemnly. “It is a documented issue across the country, Indigenous women have murder rates that are ten times the national average…. Doesn’t make it any easier to swallow though…”

“So far, none of the cases appear to be related in any other way, so it’s not that we have a serial kidnapper on the loose--but it is just so upsetting that there is so little progress in getting answers.” Willow added, having been to most of the meetings with the Tribal Elders since she was being groomed to take over for Mom someday. 

Mom nodded in agreement, “The Elders say they are reaching out to other law enforcement offices now, but the lack of communication combined with the state, local, federal, and tribal jurisdictional issues hamper the investigations so much.” 

“Is there anything we can do? Would the Elders like the Braves to come around the woman's house to see if we can catch her scent during our patrols?” Mom shook her head with a sigh. “I am sure they would appreciate the sentiment, but she went missing off the Reservation. As most of the women did. She had gone out for a girls night with her friends in one of the big cities, got separated from the group in one of the clubs, and has not been seen or heard from since.” Just then Paul returned with Jillian, my dad coming up behind him with Michael in his arms. 

“I know Anthonette through my job, she is on the building committee. It's terrible that she's missing. I really hope it’s just a case of miscommunication and she’s fine and she comes home soon.” Paul is an optimist, an architect, and he is also a painfully naïve human sometimes. A few years ago he was hired in for some architectural work for the Tribe and met Willow during a meeting to discuss renovations to the local library. He asked her out, totally oblivious to her unique lineage and after a few months of dating, Willow got permission to tell him the truth. They broke up for a few weeks after that--it IS a lot to take in after all. But he eventually came back--albeit with A LOT of questions--and they were married a year later. Paul and Willow rotate their work-from-home/stay-at-home parenting duties pretty well, though Paul does get to leave town for work far more often than Willow. 

“Well, I hate to have to be the one to break up the party, but I have got to get going so I’m not late for rounds. I will fill Hawthorn in tonight on the situation, I know he likes to stay updated with this even if it might not appear to directly affect the safety of the pack.” I give hugs all around--even to little Jillian, who seems no more sorry now than she did before--before I head out the back door. 

The temperature definitely dropped over ten degrees during dinner. I head towards the back of the estate where the trees of the forest edge up close to the property line. I hop over the fence before taking a quick glance around. When I am sure there is no one anywhere nearby, I strip down to the skin, folding my clothes and putting them, my purse, and my phone in the little wooden trunk my dad had built out here for me. Lastly, I took the pin out of my hair, setting it in my purse before closing the lid. I took a few steps into the woods before I began the shift.