Ulrik

by Steven E Wedel

  “Is that you?” Vincent asked.

  “What do you want?”

  “The Indian woman’s here. She’s howling. She wants to talk to me.”

  “To you?”

  “Well, not me, necessarily. To you. She knows you have someone here watching the place.”

  “When did she arrive?” Fenris asked.

  There was a long pause before Vincent answered. “I’m not sure. I think … I think it was yesterday.”

  Fenris’s hand tightened on the receiver. “You think it was yesterday.”

  “I … I got bored. I went into town for a drink. And … some female company.”

  “Did she come alone?”

  “She’s the only one I hear.”

  “You don’t know if she came alone.”

  “No,” Vincent admitted. “I don’t know for sure.”

  “So, she could be there alone with Woodman, or Ulrik could have sent a small army in there. And we just don’t fucking know. Am I right?”

  “Y-yeah.”

  “What about the eavesdropping equipment?”

  There was another very long pause. “I’m really sorry,” Vincent said.

  “What have you done?”

  “I spilled beer on the receiver. I took it apart to fix it, but … I crossed some wires.”

  You goddamn idiot! “When did this happen?” Fenris forced himself to remain calm. The mistake would be dealt with later.

  “Two days ago. Fenris, I’m sorry. Really. That’s another reason I went to town. I got some new wire and some radio parts. I think I can fix it.”

  “Don’t answer her,” Fenris said. “Don’t acknowledge her in any way. I’m going to send you some help.”

  “Yeah. Okay.”

  “Vincent?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do not fail me again.”

  “No. I won’t. I swear it.”

  Fenris hung up the phone. He paced the room for several minutes, then stopped before his patio doors. He flung them open and breathed deeply of the breeze coming off the Pacific before stepping onto the patio. He leaned over the rail around the patio and looked down the slope to where two tall wooden posts were driven into the ground. Stretched between the posts was a man-shaped skin. It was covered in wolf’s hair and had a decidedly canine head.

  “You’re going to have some company down there, Nick,” Fenris said. “I will not tolerate failure.”

  He returned to his living room and picked up the phone, punching in a Denver number. The phone was picked up on the second ring.

  “Yeah?” Walter Hess answered.

  “It’s Fenris.”

  “You have news?”

  “I need you to do something for me.”

  “What?”

  “Take your friends to Stillwater, Oklahoma. I have a man, Vincent Oldham, there watching one of our target sites. Ulrik’s bitch, Kiona Brokentooth, is calling for a meeting with me. I want you to go. Send Vincent to parlay with her.”

  “Is it just her?”

  “I am very sorry to say that we don’t know. We do know that Chris Woodman is there. He isn’t a werewolf, but he is armed with silver and should be considered dangerous. Vincent has failed me.”

  “So no biggie if she kills him?”

  “I would rather she didn’t,” Fenris said. He glanced toward his open patio. “I have other plans for him. However, Vincent has become expendable. Let him find out what the bitch wants. If he lives, have him report back to you, and you to me.”

  “What’s in it for me?” Walter asked.

  Fenris smiled, but it wasn’t with pleasure. Walter Hess was a mercenary. He offered no loyalty that wasn’t bought and paid for. “I will wire you the cash to pay for your travel expenses, plus a few thousand extra for your trouble. Assuming he lives and you deliver Vincent back to me, I’ll show you a little trick I think you’ll find quite amusing.”

  “What trick? Did you finally figure out how to skin a werewolf?”

  Fenris chuckled. “Indeed I did. It was amazingly simple once I realized I was trying to make it more complicated than it needed to be.”

  “You’ll let me do it?”

  “Why not?”

  “All right,” Walter agreed, then asked, “Tell me, is it true? You found the Mother and her whelp?”

  Fenris hesitated, wondering how much he should give away. He had no doubt Vincent would say a great deal in an effort to impress the massive and notoriously cruel Walter Hess. “We just missed her. Chris Woodman is her husband. Shara believes he is dead. It is important to me that he remain alive for the moment. Do you understand?”

  “Yeah. Sure.”

  “Do not let on to Vincent that his fate is determined,” Fenris warned.

  “I’ll make him think he’s a real important puppet.”

  “Very good,” Fenris said. “Let me give you directions to Woodman’s home.” He told Walter how to get there, then hung up the phone.

  Fenris went to a small refrigerator and took a bottle of water from it, then returned to his balcony and the view of Nick Singer’s pelt stretched between the posts. He opened the water and sipped, keeping his eyes on the skin. In other parts of his home, over two dozen werewolves entertained themselves with everything from board games to an orgy. He knew at least another dozen were en route to northern California to join him.

  The sea breeze ruffled Nick’s hair and brought the smell of his drying hide to Fenris on the balcony. He breathed deeply and drank from his water bottle.

  “The Pack is gathering, Ulrik,” he said. “I’m eliminating my culls. Are you?”

  Ulrik

  “You will not be so grumpy with me this time?” Ulrik asked. He held the back door open for Shara and she slipped past him, laughing.

  “You wouldn’t let me have my breakfast,” Shara said. “And you woke me up by panting all over my face. Speaking of breakfast, maybe we should wait. Joey will be up soon and he’ll want breakfast.”

  “Had I known you were so cranky in the mornings, I would have given you breakfast,” Ulrik said. He remembered well the morning in a cave in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, waking Shara and demanding she change shape and hunt for her breakfast. “As to Joey, Cheryl will offer him whatever he wants for breakfast.”

  “I probably wouldn’t have done so well if you’d let me eat,” she said.

  “Very true,” he agreed as they descended the steps into the yard. “I never before had a pupil who mastered the Gift so quickly.” He stopped and she turned to face him. “Do you think you can do it again?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, the smile slipping away.

  “Do you want to?”

  She bit her lower lip in the way Ulrik remembered so well, and for a moment she once again was the shy young rape victim to whom he had offered the Gift on a snowy night in 1985. Finally, she nodded her head once. “Yeah. I want it,” she said. “I do.” She smiled. “There were times I missed it. But … Chris … he …”

  “I understand,” Ulrik said.

  Should I tell her there is activity at her home in Oklahoma? He believed it would be a bad idea. All I know for certain is that a female wolf is calling to Fenris’s people from inside the compound. Shara does not need to know that yet.

  He realized Shara was studying his face and he smiled at her. I will not believe the wolf is Kiona and I will not give Shara false hope that her husband is alive.

  Ulrik glanced over Shara’s shoulder and saw that Thomas McGrath had come out of the house to sit on the back porch and sip coffee while watching the proceedings. And there are other possibilities that could develop …

  “Are you ready?” Ulrik asked.

  “I’m ready,” Shara answered.

  “You’re not going to undress?”

  Shara looked toward the house, then shook her head. “No. I wore these loose clothes. If I change, you can help me out of them. I don’t want to be standing out here naked when Joey could walk out of the house.”

  “Al
ways the modest one,” Ulrik said and chuckled. He looked over her khaki shorts and loose flowered shirt. “Very well. You remember how to summon the wolf?”

  “I think so.”

  “Bring her to me.”

  Shara closed her eyes. Ulrik watched her relax her facial muscles. Her shoulders sagged and her head bowed. Behind her, Joey came out of the house and started for the chairs on the porch, saw Thomas sitting in one and immediately turned away. He sat on a step and watched his mother.

  Does the boy understand what is happening between Shara and Thomas?

  Ulrik believed Joey knew something wasn’t quite right.

  Shara moaned, pulling Ulrik’s attention back to her. Hair had sprouted on her arms and legs. Her bare feet, too, were covered in black fur.

  “Very good,” Ulrik said. “You are bringing her. Let the wolf come. Let her overwhelm you. Let the – ”

  She lost it. The hair fell off, blowing away from Shara in a wispy cloud as it got caught in the warm breeze. She blinked, opened her eyes and shook her head. “I almost had it, then remembered being stuck in the wolf shape those two years and I lost it.”

  “Remember, after those two years you quickly regained control of the Gift,” Ulrik said. “You never had trouble changing from wolf to woman. You will not have such trouble now. Change.”

  “There you go demanding again,” she said, but smiled as she did.

  Ulrik followed her gaze as she found Joey on the porch. She waved to him and the boy waved back. Then Shara smiled at Thomas.

  “Concentrate, my cub,” Ulrik prodded.

  The morning wore on with minimal results. She could make parts of her body change – could almost completely transform – but at the last moment she pulled back. Or, Ulrik thought, the remnants of her serum held her back. When the sun was almost directly overhead, he called a break to the session.

  “I’m sorry,” Shara said.

  “Do not be sorry. You gave a full effort. It has been long since you changed. You took your serum for a long time and may still have it in your system. I am happy with our progress,” he lied.

  She nodded, then looked at Joey, who was playing with toy trucks in the yard, then back to Ulrik. “I want to go for a walk. I just want to be alone and think. Will you watch Joey? Make sure he eats lunch?”

  “Of course.”

  “And tell Thomas I want to be alone. Don’t let him follow me.”

  “Very well,” Ulrik agreed.

  “Okay. I want to walk in the shade and just think.”

  “Go, my cub. Go and meditate.” Ulrik squeezed her shoulder, then turned away and went to the house, feeling Shara start for the woods. He saw both Thomas and Joey watching her. Joey jumped up and was about to run after her, but Ulrik stopped him.

  “I wanna go,” Joey said.

  “No.” Ulrik put a hand on the boy’s back and turned him back toward the house. He looked at Thomas, who also had risen from his chair. “She has asked to be alone for a time. She wishes to think.”

  Thomas lowered himself back into the chair. Ulrik guided Joey to the group of chairs and sat in one, motioning for the boy to sit near him.

  “Perhaps you and Thomas could hunt together,” Ulrik suggested, watching Joey closely. “It would be good for you to learn to hunt with wolves besides me.”

  Joey shook his head, not looking at either of the men.

  “Why not?” Ulrik asked.

  Joey didn’t answer.

  “You do not want to hunt with others?”

  “I hunted with Aunt Kiona,” Joey said.

  “Kiona is no longer with us,” Ulrik said, trying to keep his voice neutral. What new treachery is she up to? “And she is not your true aunt.”

  “I like her,” Joey said, then vehemently added, “I don’t like him.” He pointed to Thomas. Ulrik followed the accusing finger and saw the look of pain that crossed Thomas’s face.

  “I believe Thomas McGrath likes you,” Ulrik said.

  “Aye, lad, I do,” Thomas agreed. “You are a fine young man.”

  “I saw him kiss Mom.”

  Ulrik sighed and sat back in his chair. “Friends often kiss one another,” he offered, knowing it was a weak argument.

  “Not on the mouth,” Joey said.

  “I am sorry, lad,” Thomas said. “You should not have seen that.”

  “Only Dad can kiss Mom like that. You’re not her boyfriend!” Joey sprang from the chair and jumped off the porch, running in the direction Shara had gone.

  Ulrik watched the boy go, not bothering to try to stop him.

  “I am sorry he saw that,” Thomas said. “It was not meant to be.”

  “Shara must tell him the truth,” Ulrik said. “He is a stubborn child and will not accept it at first. In time, though, he must.”

  “He is the one?” Thomas asked. “The one we’ve been waiting on?”

  “He is the only werewolf conceived and birthed naturally,” Ulrik said. “He is the only one. So far.” He finally looked away from Joey’s retreating form to face Thomas. The other man blushed deeply.

  “I don’t seek that,” Thomas said. “Can she … can she even conceive again?”

  “I see no reason why not,” Ulrik answered. “But we do not know for sure. We cannot know.” He paused, then asked, “You take no precautions when you lay together?”

  Thomas shook his head. “No.”

  Ulrik nodded. “We shall see,” he said, then stood and went inside to prepare lunch.

  Joey

  “Mom!” Joey yelled again. A twig snapped under his sneaker and low-hanging branches brushed at his arms as he pushed through the trees, calling for his mother. The shade was thick and heavy, cool but almost oppressive. He was a little scared. “Mom!”

  He thought about stopping, taking off his clothes and changing into a wolf the way Ulrik had taught him. But he didn’t want to be a wolf. He just wanted his mother. He wanted desperately to feel her arms around him and smell her motherly fragrance.

  “Mo-om!” His voice cracked on a sudden sob.

  “Joey?”

  He stopped and looked around, but didn’t see anybody. “Mom? Where are you?”

  “Over here.”

  He found her sitting on a boulder in the dense shade of a group of trees. “Mom!” Joey ran to her and threw himself into Shara’s open arms. He hugged her as tight as he could and didn’t try to stop himself from crying like a little kid. Jenny and the other kids at school would laugh at him if they saw him crying like this, but he didn’t care right now.

  “What is it, Joey? What’s wrong?”

  “I missed you when you weren’t here,” he said, leaving his face pressed against her shoulder. She squeezed him and stroked his hair, kissing the top of his head.

  “I missed you, too, baby. I missed you so much.”

  She was crying, too. Joey wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he hugged her harder and they cried together for several minutes. Finally he asked, “Mom, why were you kissing that man? Thomas?”

  He felt her arms loosen. It was just a slight release of pressure, but noticeable. He let go of her and stepped back so he could see her face.

  “Why does he sleep in your room? When’s Dad coming? You finally got here, but you spend all your time with Thomas.”

  Joey watched his mother wipe her eyes and nose. She tried to smile at him, but her lips only quivered a moment before she looked away. He knew she made herself look back at him. She did it the way he’d first looked at a cat that had been run over in the street by his school.

  “Joey,” she said, then faltered. “You know now that you are a werewolf. I’m sorry I never told you the truth about that. I didn’t know how. I mean, how do you tell a little boy that he’ll turn into a wolf if he doesn’t take his shot? You just don’t. And your father … he never liked it that you had that in you. The wolf. When you were just a baby, you couldn’t control it. Every time you cried you grew teeth and hair and it hurt you so bad. So bad. It hurt your
father, too. And me. So I started giving you the shot, and I took it, too, and me and your dad tried to pretend there was no such thing as werewolves.

  “And then you just grew too fast,” she said, and now she did smile, but it was just a little one and still looked kind of sad. “I don’t know if I wasn’t mixing your medicine strong enough, or … or if it was just your destiny catching up with you. But then you became the wolf.”

  “And Aunt Kiona found me,” Joey said. “There was another wolf. Thomas. He fought with Aunt Kiona and she beat him.”

  “That woman is not your aunt, Joey. She’s not.”

  Joey looked at the ground and didn’t answer.

  “I’m sure Ulrik has told you about the Pack,” Shara said.

  “Yes. He gave me a mark like you have on your shoulder. He has one, too.”

  “He did?”

  “Uh-huh.” Joey pulled on the collar of his T-shirt to show the scar on his left shoulder. He saw his mom’s eyebrows bunch together and she acted like she’d tasted something sour as she looked at the mark. “He said all the werewolves that get taught how to be werewolves have that scar.”

  “Yeah. I can’t believe he did that without asking me.”

  “You wasn’t here.”

  “It’s too late. Okay. Well, fine. He told you that and gave you the rune mark. Did he tell you that you’re special? That you’re different than any other werewolf that’s ever lived?”

  “Sort of.”

  “You are. You see, all the other werewolves – me, Ulrik, Thomas, all of them – were just people first, until they were bitten by another werewolf. But you were born a werewolf. Do you understand that?”

  Joey nodded. “Yes. But why does that make me special?”

  “Somebody said a long time ago that there would be a girl werewolf able to have babies. That girl werewolf was me,” Shara said. “I was the first one ever able to have babies. They said that my boy baby would grow up to be a great leader of werewolves.”

  “Ulrik told me that part.”