Fenrir's Fang

Chapter 1 - Them or Me

I shook the memories of that night from my skull and headed out into the early evening; I was rogue hunting tonight. It was an unpleasant experience but was one of the few ways I remained safe. Pack wolves could smell a rogue, we didn't stink or anything like that, but we lacked the familial scent of pack wolves and instead we smelled more wild and dangerous like the air before a particularly violent thunderstorm.

When pack wolves smelt a rogue, they were put down on sight when the feral beast attacked, or hunted and then put down, assuming their feral state was irreversible and thus they halted an issue before it began. I'd like to say I took the moral high ground and only put down the feral, but keeping rogues out of my territory in the in-between was the only way to keep packies from having a reason to come snooping around. It was a them vs me situation and I always chose me.

To be fair I had yet to meet another rogue like me in either age or original gender, I also had yet to meet a rogue that was playing with a full deck of cards. Regardless I slept just fine at night despite the blood that was on my hands. This moral ambiguity is exactly how I made my living. I was a mercenary, a bounty hunter, though most often an assassin. I was paid in cash to take out the proverbial trash of the supernatural world. Rogue shifters, feral vampires, renegade witches… I was who the factions called to take care of the issues they couldn't or didn't want to deal with.

No one knew it was me specifically they were hiring, they just knew once they called "Fenrir'' into a situation that their issue would be quickly and quietly dealt with and given the god's blood thirty ways I didn't think he'd mind the violence in his name. It may not be the most honest or safe vocation but I had been doing it for over 3 years now and made enough money for me to survive and keep up my life in the middle of the woods.

My territory wasn't vast, but the edges of it were several miles from my home and even more miles before I got near the closet pack territory. I was fairly self-sufficient out here, though, as risky as it was, there were a few times I had snuck onto local packs territory to hunt game or even pilfer some medical supplies or other hard to obtain shifter-specific items. I was faster than any pack wolf I had come across to date and well versed in hiding my scent in less magical ways when I needed to lose a hunting party having been hunted more times than I care to recall.

So far the evening had been quiet, I crept through the darkness for hours, satisfied my area was clear. I was about to head back when I heard it. The screaming of a young girl; I stopped in my tracks straining my hearing, then she screamed again and I took off in a silent sprint. So much for "them or me" I huffed at myself as I drew my bow and nocked an arrow. I burst into the clearing letting the first arrow loose, it caught the feral rogue in the back of his head just at the base of his skull. He slumped over dead immediately releasing the girl he had been pinning to the ground, she couldn't have been more than 5 years old. I nocked my next arrow and let it fly as the second feral charged, my arrow finding its mark in his bloodlust filled eye. I turned to face the third just as he slammed into me, shifting into his mangy brown wolf. His teeth sank into my shoulder and shook his head, ripping fabric and flesh free. I groaned in pain as I abandoned my bow and slid a dagger free with my good arm, the wolf lunged again his claws raking my abdomen as his jaws went for my throat but instead met only the razor point of my weapon as I slammed it up through his jaw plunging it deep into his head.

I pushed his dead weight off of me, standing I sheathed the dagger and grabbed up my bow. I adjusted my hood keeping myself as hidden as possible and kept my distance as I observed the child where she now huddled against the trunk of a tree, she was dirty, her clothing ripped and judging by the angle of her foot her ankle was broken. Sniffing the air I could pick up the scent of fresh water, she was definitely a pack pup. "Where is your pack, little one?" I kept my voice low and soft. Her small hand shot up pointing west and I nodded. "Can I pick you up? I won't harm you..." I took a step towards her and nearly lost my balance. Though it was healing; my shoulder wound and the gashes in my belly had lost me a lot of blood and rogue bites and claws just like alpha bites healed painfully slow. The child nodded and I carefully hoisted her up onto my hip using my good arm, my abs screaming as my core muscles engaged to help carry her weight. "I will take you to your territory, in return you will tell no one you saw me. Is that understood?" The girl tilted her head at me before she whimpered a soft "I understand" and rested her head against me taking in my scent. She giggled softly, "you smell like a thunderstorm and nutmeg." I smirked, "um… thanks? I guess?" She yawned softly, relaxing into me and I couldn't help but smile through my pain. It had been a long time since anyone was comfortable around me. She nuzzled into me like I was pack and my chest tightened with the memories of childhood affection. "I'm Ella." She whispered sleepily. I nuzzled her back as I remembered others doing for me at that age. "Rest Ella, you're safe now."

I trekked for about an agonizingly slow hour, Ella drifting in and out of sleep before the pace of her heartbeat quickened, we were nearing her territory and she could scent it, we both could but my head was starting to swim from blood loss. "I need to sit you down princess, my wounds aren't closing." She slid down my side and I leaned back against a tree lifting the hem of my shirt, the gashes in my abdomen were deeper than my adrenaline had led me to believe. My vision went double as I looked up to the girl as she took off in a limping sprint towards 4 grey wolves who came running towards her. I tried to shove off the tree to my shaky feet but my legs gave out and I slipped down the trunk to my butt, silently watching the reunion; the smallest shifted into a woman in her mid twenties with dark brown hair just like the girls… her mother most likely. She swept the girl into her arms hugging and sobbing as she stroked the girl's hair. With all attention on the child, I tried to take the opportunity to slip away attempting to push back up to my feet only to end up back on my ass, my breath coming in short sharp pants now. Glancing back I froze, the largest of the 3 remaining wolves was no longer with the group. I started trying to crawl away, willing my panicking heart rate to slow less I bleed out faster… maybe he had gone back? The scent of sandalwood and fresh water filled my nose, my wolf tried to push forward as the smell enveloped me but my injuries prevented my shift. My head fell back against the tree trunk as I struggled to regulate my breathing. A large figure had crouched in front of me, I tried to lift myself up but my legs had stopped responding. I felt a calloused hand pull down the fabric of my mask, and I sucked in an unobstructed breath greedily a moment before that strong hand collar my throat. My hand rose to futilely clutch at his trying to pry it free while my other arm hung limply at my side with a slow trickle of blood flowing down it from my shoulder wound pooling on the forest floor below me. Nordic blue eyes swept over my form taking in my wounded and weakened state. I watched him, my vision darkening around the fringes until all I could see was that piercing pale blue color that stared back at me. The last thing I heard was Ella's small voice crying out, "Alpha he saved me!" Before my vision went black and darkness enveloped me.