White Fire

Chapter Six: The Homecoming

Down in the pack lands, Coran struts proudly along checking on her pack. Since her sister Kasai’s disappearance a year prior and the death of her brother Steele and her father, Coran has been taking charge and ruling the pack. The pack feared Coran just as they did Roan. As Coran came up the rocky path that led up to the large den that was seemingly etched into the side of the mountain by the Gods specifically for the Alpha of the pack. She looks up and smiles proudly as her friend races down the trail from the den towards her with a pup roughly 6 months old chasing her. Coran giggles as she sees this and sits down at the base of the pathway. “Now Micco, are we torturing our friend again?” She speaks to her young. The little pup races up to her, wagging her tiny tail happily as she dives into her mother's lap. “Aunt Mishu was teaching me to hunt mice!” the pup says proudly. Coran nods to the pup and turns to her friend as she stands to work her way up the trail to her den. “Mishu, how is the productivity of the pack today?” The quiet wolf answers “The pack has been working diligently as of late to prepare for the coming season change and have nearly finished the preparations on your celebration, my Alpha” Misha slightly nods her head towards the ground as if to bow her head to her Queen.

Inside the den, Coran wobbles lightly as she approaches the Alpha’s Throne where her giant mate sits grooming himself. She trots up the side of the throne shaped boulder towards him. “Haji, Our daughter is doing well in her hunt training.” He nods to her carelessly “but she apparently has a problem with keeping focus and chooses to play rather than learn.” He glances at her, then to the pup standing next to Mishu, nods then returns to grooming. Coran scuffs in displeasure as she lowers herself carefully to the ground to lay on her side, exposing her broadened belly. Hajime glances once more out the corner of his eye towards the female, pregnant with his second pup. In his mind, he can't help but imagine that his mate was someone else. As the three adult wolves and the pup sit around the enormous den, howling and the sound of commotion travels its way up the trail into the den, falling on their ears. As the sound hits Hajime’s ears, he raises quickly to his feet and darts out of the den while Coran slowly raises her heavy body from the ground to follow suit. When Hajime emerges from the den’s gaping mouth, he sees Luka race towards him. “Alpha Hajime, The scouts have reported that there are two wolves heading this way. They think one is our Kasai!” Luka points towards the Shadow Woods. Off in the far distance, Hajime catches the figures moving out of the tree line heading their way. He shoves past Luka and bolts as quick as a flash down the path. As he speeds across the open plains of grass past the members of the pack who have stopped working, he sees the two wolves coming closer, closing the gap between him and them. As he gets even closer and sees it’s his beloved Kasai, He realizes that the wolf she was with was a strange male he had never seen before. He slows to a stop as his heart races excitedly to see her, his eyes catch something moving in a deer skin sack hanging from her neck. A pup and a strange male? What has happened to his love?

Kasai sees her long time friend and removes Nova from around her neck. She takes hold of the newborn’s scruff and passes her to Okami. She licks Okami’s face and turns to run to Hajime. As she reached her friend smiling, happy to see him, He turned his head slightly away from her to hide his pain. “Who is the newcomer and pup, Kasai?” she smiles, turning her head to the male walking closer carrying the tiny baby wolf. “That is my mate Okami. And he is carrying our new pup Nova” Hajime does not return an answer right away but slightly shakes his head in disapproval before the other male could get closer. When Okami reaches Kasai and Hajime, he passes the newborn to her and proceeds to introduce himself. Hajime decides to make nice and meet the male without altercation. Okami was slightly larger in size than Hajime. The two males introduce themselves as Kasai looks past them and sees her pregnant sister coming towards them with another female wolf and a pup much older than her own.

“Oh my dear sister! We all thought you were dead! I’m so glad to see you have survived your foolishness.” The second female that accompanied her moved forward to see the tiny new pup and examine the enormous male newcomer as Coran continues to speak to Kasai, Her tone of voice quickly changing from happiness to attitude towards her sister. “Sister, You do know that there are laws around here about bringing strangers into the pack lands without seeking counsel with your Alpha. Are you sure he is safe?” Before Kasai could answer, Coran continued. “But of course you would know, it was Father’s law. And I see you have even bared him a pup. How cute.” She snorts and turns away to walk back to the clearing at the base of the mountain. Mishu turns to follow with Micco right behind her. Kasai steals an angry glance at Hajime as he shakes his head to how Coran was acting. As Hajime begins to turn away to follow the others back to the plains, Kasai whispers to Okami before catching up with Hajime. “Love, I need to have a word with my old friend if that is alright?” Hajime nods his head in agreement with Kasai and begins to work his way with the tiny pup, moving ahead of Hajime and Kasai. Kasai reaches Hajime and slows to his pace. “So…. What’s with you and Coran? She seems awfully…..” “Controlling?” Hajime tries to guess the next word to come. Kasai shakes her head and giggles “Not really what I was thinking nor was it what I was going to say.” Hajime stops in his tracks and gazes into Kasai’s bright emerald eyes. “What’s going on Kas?” Kasai stops as well and looks around before looking up into his golden eyes. She sighs. “Are you and Coran something special now?” Hajime hesitates and tries to hold his composure. “Kas, You’ve been gone for a little over a year. After you disappeared…. No one knew if you were dead or alive. I wasn’t sure if you were ever going to return. I never intended on being mated with anyone else except you.”

“Haj, I had to get away. I needed time alone to process everything. So much was resting on my shoulders and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I just need to know, why Coran?” Hajime looked at her with a fearful yet hesitant gaze, struggling to find his words. “It’s difficult to explain Kasai. I loved you more than anything. After you left the way you did, while the pack and I were all asleep. I woke to find that I was alone in an empty den and the spot next to me where you were laying had gone cold. I was so heart broken and torn that I couldn’t handle it alone. Coran comforted me and brought me peace. One thing led to another. Now I have a pup and one on the way with her.” Kasai looks away with tears welling up in her eyes as she hears his words. Her heart stinging with sheer agony. All she can do is softly shake her head and reply “I am so sorry.” Hajime leans towards her to nuzzle her like he had done many times before. Kasai yanked away and started to shake her head harder as she backed away from him. “I am sorry that I pushed you towards my sister. But I still can’t accept it.” Hajime looks at her with confusion. “Kas, aren’t you with another mate as well? Did you want me to wait for you even when you returned with another mate and a pup you had with him?” She turned away and snapped at him before she sprinted off after Okami and her tiny offspring “I don’t care that you have a mate and a pup. I care about the fact it’s MY SISTER!” Kasai caught up with her mate and pup, nuzzling Okami before retrieving the young one from him. He looked at her with sincere concern. “Is everything alright?” She nods her head, lying to him and concealing how upset she truly was as she began to continue on her way to the dens.

As they all reach the center of the pack lands, Kasai begins to look around to see that the members in the pack looked far more different than they had before she left a year ago. Some of them looked skinny and hungry. A few of them looked depressed and sad. Others seemed slightly fearful as Coran walked by them. Kasai knew something was not right. Two small pups nearby whined and begged for something to eat as their two mothers fought over a small portion of venison. Kasai’s stomach sank as she witnessed her beloved pack falling into a state of desperation and despair. As Kasai witnessed the horror of the pack’s plight. Kasai lumbered up the steep pathway to the large den that was once her father's and entered to see Coran and Mishu with the small pup playing with her mother’s tail. She looks around the den and spots an enormous pile of deer, rabbit and other prey found around the lands and woods. Tears begin to swell in her eyes as she realizes the harshness that the pack is experiencing. She turns agrily to Coran and growls as she speaks “Sister, what in the name of the Gods is going on here? Are you pampering yourself and leaving our pack to fall into starvation? There are pups that look close to death and mothers fighting over scraps!” Coran stands and stomps quickly towards Kasai and snaps out her words. “You left, little sister. Your place to speak to anyone like that was lost to you when you disappeared! You have no right anymore to speak your mind in such a manner!”

As the two females began to growl at one another, Hajime and Okami entered the den. Okami moved quickly to Kasai to retrieve his young pup from his mate and Hajime maneuvered between the two females facing Coran. “What on earth is going on here? What could possibly have caused you two sisters to become so bitter to each other?” Coran glared at Hajime with her response. “My dear baby sister thinks she can talk down to me and tell me how to run this pack!” Kasai shakes her head in anger and growls louder as Okami tries to calm her. “Do you not see that this pack is falling apart? They are dying a slow death from hunger and mistreatment!” Coran, now enraged, thrusts forward with great power towards Kasai. Kasai howls and swipes at her sister, striking her across the muzzle. As Kasai’s paw slams into Coran, a claw catches on her fur covered flesh and tears a gouge in her cheek, drawing blood. Coran steps back a couple paces and wipes her cheek on the back of her paw, seeing the blood, tilting her head slightly to the side as she snarls at her sister. “The challenge has been made now, Dear Sister.”

Later on outside the den, Kasai paces back and forth grumbling to herself. “I can’t believe this. I should have never left this pack in her hands. She doesn’t care at all about the well being of this pack, only about herself.” As Kasai paces a trail in the ground, deep in her angry thoughts, Okami approaches her with a concerned look sprawled across his face. “My Love, Are you alright?” Kasai shakes her head and grunts. “She’s killing my father’s pack Okami.” He nods in agreement. “I know Love. What do you want to do about it?” She pauses in her tracks and looks to Okami. She smiles widely at him and opens her mouth to speak. “For now, I think I’ll just help the pack. If anything were to happen between my sister and I, then I will decide what to do then.” He nods in approval “I think that’d be best. So, what are we going to do first?” Kasai looks off in the distance towards the Shadow Woods and laughs “We’ll feed them.”