by Chris Savage
“I can spot a few of his pack members working at his facility tomorrow, very early. They rise the earliest. And are surprisingly too easy to recognize. Jasper and his mate Raymond are both city dwellers. We can go in together as patients.”
“Good one, Mark,” William said, standing up. “I may not be able to see you until you leave tomorrow, but go over the details and plans in full with Shane before you set out. I have to get back to Casper before he wakes up, if he hasn’t already. You both have a good one now,” he said as he shook the two men before leaving the cabin.
“And try to spend some time in your home, guys! It’s like a haunted house already!” he said as he stepped outside, raising his voice. Shane and Mark lived in another huge house situated in the woods, within the same vicinity as the Naltice cabin and William’s house, but they rarely ever went there for anything. Their lives were in the Naltice Cabin, and they spent most of their time there.
William got to the entrance of his home and stared at the door in a way that looked like he was contemplating whether to step in or not. He opened the door and climbed up the stairs, his nervousness returning in an instant. He looked at Casper where he lay, upon entering the room, still looking as peaceful as he did when he left him. He lay back in bed with him and closed his eyes for a moment, the aura of determination filled him once again. Laying by Casper, he was determined to ensure that the peaceful look he had on his face, continued to stay that way, and thereby silently swore to himself to make sure Damion faced the greatest defeat he had ever faced. He thought about Mark and his decision to send him into the wolf’s den the following day, and wished he could go himself if there was no risk of being recognized immediately by the first wolf that set his eyes on him. Besides, he thought, things were different now. He was the alpha who had a mate, so his recklessness must be reduced if he still had any plans to lead the pack to victory in the war.
Lying face to face with Casper, he looked directly into the closed eyes of the young wolf and felt at ease. He felt the urge to forget the world and close his eyes, which he did. He had never felt such peace since before the Great War.
Chapter 11
The days flew by, with Mark not sending any message or report about the status of his mission. The entire pack was worried. Some of the city dwellers came periodically to give reports on what they had all been able to gather in town, but no one had anything concrete to account for the whereabouts of Mark, Jasper, and Raymond. Neither could anyone convey the status of their mission nor the level of information they were able to gather.
Back at the Naltice Settlement, as it was fondly called, Shane was trying his best to keep it together. He was in the greatest state of confusion. He could not leave the cabin or the woods to look for Mark in town, as he was constantly needed to attend to pack affairs alongside William. For the days when no one heard from Mark and the team, he usually kept to himself as he ensured the smooth running of affairs and the preparation for war. He only spoke if he was spoken to, and tried to avoid long conversations, as he did not trust himself not to lose it at any point. He was a symbol of leadership within the pack and he was not ready to jeopardize that due to his inability to control his emotions.
He sat by the lake one afternoon as he thought about Mark. He was the only one who ever understood him sometimes, his anchor. He had been trying to keep it together for the previous days, because he knew that there was no one to bring him back from the edge if he lost his calm. He noticed William walking towards him by the lake and tried to hide the forlorn expression on his face. William sat by him and held his hand, trying to reassure him that all would be fine. He was assuming the position Shane always served to him now, and was trying to be there the best he could for the older man.
“He’s alive, Shane, you know that, right?”
“I don’t, William, and you don’t. Nobody knows that. The only ones who can possibly know that are Mark, Jasper, and Raymond, and whoever has held them captive! And even Mark will not know that if he’s dead! You know, you can’t ‘know’ you’re alive if you’re dead! ‘Cause you’d be dead! So you see William, nobody really knows anything here!” Shane yelled, raising his voice. He was sure he could lose his cool when William was around, without the alpha judging him.
“Another hunting party will be sent out to sniff through the city for him, okay?”
“Another hunting party won’t do shit, William! We both know they won’t find shit! They only ones who can find any vital information are us. And we can’t leave, not at this point!” As emotional as Shane was, he was still being practical about the safety of the pack. He knew that Mark was just one man, and no matter how much love he had for him, he was not ready to undermine the importance of the pack’s safety for his personal concerns.
“What if you went alone, for just one night, to see how things go? I’ll handle things till you’re back,” William suggested, trying to look for a way out of the mess.
“The issue is not if you can handle things, William, you’re the alpha. Of course you can handle things! But what if there is an invasion? Huh? What if Mark and the others were captured for this exact purpose? What if they are trying to draw one of us out just to weaken the base more, and then they strike. How well can you handle an invasion without me here, William,” Shane replied, still being a beacon of objectivity.
“This won’t be the first time I’m left alone at the base without you and Mark, Shane. We can still hold our own if there’s an invasion. You know that.”
“But how well can we do that? We can’t leave anything to chance, Will. I don’t want us to hold our own, I want us to destroy those Hagen sons of bitches and make them regret the day they first turned! I need to be here!” He was not going to budge.
William appreciated his loyalty, but he was concerned about Mark as well. He needed him to be safe, and he knew that the best person to figure out what was really going on in town was Shane, both as an experienced wolf and a man who was desperate to find his lover. He also understood the sense in what Shane was saying. There was a serious of possibility of Damion and his minions striking at any point, as the rumors of his intention to go to war had been going around for a while now. War was imminent, and it was going to be a very bad move to leave the pack without Shane, with Mark being unexplainably absent. He decided to reassure Shane as sincerely as possible.
“Shane. We’ll get him back. I promise. We will.”
“What if he’s gone, William? What if getting him back is impossible?” Shane asked, sounding concerned, downcast.
“Then we will get every single one of them and make sure they suffer the most painful degree of agony any wolf can possibly go through, before we kill them. I will have the head of every one of them on a spike, for the rest of them to see, before I end the lot of them too!” The anger in William’s eyes was real. He could not bring himself to imagine Mark’s death as well, and at the same time he was prepared for the worst. He looked at Shane and held his hands tighter this time, sending a chill of emotions through Shane, and relieving the pain he was going through, temporarily—another ability of experienced wolves like William.
“William! William!” There were shouts coming from a man running towards William and Shane. William got up immediately.
“What’s going on, Gary,” he asked.
“Mark… Mark. It’s Mark…” the man said, trying to catch his breath.
“Gary!” William yelled, trying to push the man to get himself together. “You’re not making any sense here, Gary. What about Mark, what happened to him. Did you see him? Did he reach out to you?” William asked the man again. Shane was already on his feet at this point, waiting anxiously for William to get something out of the man, as he did not trust himself to be rational.
Gary looked straight into William’s eyes in fear and horror as he said, “They are being chased!”
Shane turned to his half wolf form immediately. “Where?” he roared as he faced Gary, looking him straight in the eye.
“At the edge of the woods, the city borders! It was bloody, Shane! They were greatly outnumbered! I came here as fast as I could.” Before Gary completed his explanation, Shane dashed into the woods.
“Where are the other patrol wolves, Gary?” William asked him.
“It was just me. The other two are city dwellers. They left for home already.”
William looked into the woods from where he stood and tried to get a scent of Shane’s direction. He immediately turned into his half wolf form and faced Gary.
“Watch Casper!” he ordered, and dashed into the woods behind Shane. In no time, he caught up with Shane, who was running as fast as he could. With his incredible speed, William held Shane’s hand as they ran, leaving him with no choice but to move faster.
At the edge of the woods they saw the three wolves, Mark, Jasper, and Raymond, fighting with every ounce of strength they had. William was able to count twelve wolves fighting against them, as one was laying on the ground, dead with a torn out throat.
Instinctively, Shane dashed to the arena and with a single hit, took out one of the five wolves fighting against Mark alone. He then backed Mark, who in turn backed him, as they were surrounded by four wolves. William terminated two of the wolves fighting Jasper and Raymond by inserting his hands into their chest cavities and pulling their hearts out at once.
William let out a loud roar, and in an instant, like a flash of light, he dashed towards two of the wolves and killed them in the same manner. Jasper and Raymond were both dumbfounded at this point. They had heard stories before then about his fighting prowess, but never imagined such speed matched with his level of strength and agility.
Shane grabbed one of the wolves fighting against him and threw him at Mark, who caught him like a baseball and immediately plucked his heart out. He roared twice and dodged an attack by one of the other wolves. While Shane fought with one wolf, Mark was being attacked by two. One of them managed to grab him from behind, and as the other was about to leap against him, Mark noticed his head come off his neck. William had beheaded him. Mark overpowered his captive and knocked him twice in the temple, rendering him unconscious. Shane mutilated the last wolf fighting with him and in no time, all the other wolves were down. Jasper was still in awe at what he’d seen William perform, and immediately fell to his knees. He was embraced by his mate Raymond, who had sustained a few injuries like Jasper. William had killed six of the wolves and did not attack any of them with more than a single blow. Mark ran towards Shane and embraced him wholeheartedly. He kissed him with every emotion in him, as William watched silently and smiled.
“The last one,” William said. “The one alive. We take him home with us. We have a prisoner of war, gentlemen,” he said, as he heard the heartbeat of the wolf Mark knocked unconscious.
A few days later, William was going through a certain map of a part of Lone Wolf, as Casper walked in on him.
“Hey, what’s up? What’re you doing?” he asked in a cheerful tone. He had settled in quite well since the ceremony.
“I am reviewing information I got from Mark on his last recon mission. You are preventing me from doing that,” William said to Casper playfully.
“Oh really? You want your focus divided when I’m in the room and you know it, don’t come around giving me all that alpha stuff now,” Casper said to William, smiling uncontrollably.
“Okay, that’s it Casper,” William said with a mild laugh. “This is when you leave.”
“Before I leave—”
“What is it?”
“Well… I have a bit of a request, it’s simple, really simple, and you know, being the alpha, it’s nothing to you. Believe me.”
“Out with it, Casper.”
“Okay, so you know how… Mark has been watching my every move ever since he returned from the mission? Could he just ease off at bit? You can make him do that right?” he asked, with his strong, bright eyes looking straight at William.
William looked at his eyes and almost got lost staring at him when he finally said, “Okay, Casper. He’ll ease off.”
“Thanks!” Casper said as his face lit up, and he dashed out of the room.
Chapter 12
Just over two months after the ceremony, Casper was beginning to settle in quite well, although he never eliminated the possibility of one day leaving the woods and exploring the city once again. He had noticed that William was trying to hide how close the war was, and the level of danger they were all in. He knew there was an incident the night Mark and the others returned from their mission, and tried to get it out of William a few times, to no avail.
He had noticed the increased sense of obedience among the wolves, particularly the woods dwellers. He had also noticed that a lot of the city dwellers in the Naltice Pack were already back in the woods, and that a lot of them spent time having meetings with William, Shane, and Mark. Still he remained curious as ever. He wanted to know more. He tried getting information out of Gary, who had been training him on orders from William, but got nothing useful. He decided to talk to Mark, whom he felt confident about getting some information from. Mark, on the other hand, had not been available to have their usual conversations together, and Casper knew that he would smell a rat immediately if he brought up any topic related to the war. However, Casper had also noticed something else: he knew Mark had been following him for a while from a distance, watching his every single move with the intention of not being noticed, only Casper had noticed him for a week already, and pretended not to have any clue. He decided to turn the tables to his own favor and thought of an effective way to do that.
The afternoon Casper finally decided to get more information, which he thought he deserved as the alpha’s mate, there was less activity in the Naltice Settlement as most wolves had stayed through the night in an exclusive pack meeting with William and Shane. Casper thought of using the opportunity to get Mark somewhere quiet, where he would try to get as much information as he could. The problem with his plan was that he had absolutely no idea how to go about it. Casper decided to rely on his instincts in getting Mark to fess up. I’m an instinctive wolf after all, as Mark said. So how bad can this possibly go?
He took a lone walk deeper into the woods, knowing that Mark would be on his tail again. His grand plan was to use the information to prove to William that he could be as valuable to the pack as the older experienced wolves. He wanted to show William that he understood the burden on him, and the responsibilities he had to shoulder. Most importantly, he wanted him to know that he did not need to shoulder it alone, as he was always there to help.
He was walking deep into the woods now, as he could not hear any sound emanating from the Naltice Settlement any longer. He had not noticed Mark following him so far—which gave him little worry, since the entire success of the plan was hinged on Mark following him—but somewhere in his amateur wolf mind he was sure that he was being followed. He decided to keep moving until he noticed Mark’s trail, so he continued walking. After a while of noticing absolutely nothing he gave up. He turned back and started to head back to the cabin.
“If you’re going to have such a daring plan the first rule is that you should be ready to see it through to the end, you know!” It was Mark’s voice. Casper dropped to his knees in relief. Mark was laughing, but he didn’t care. The first phase of his plans had been actualized.
“So,” Mark said as he concluded his laughter. “Why exactly did you drag me out here?”
“What do you mean dragged you out herw?” Casper asked, trying to feign ignorance. He knew it would not stand since he was dealing with Mark. “I should be asking you why I’m seeing you showing up suddenly when I’m taking a peaceful walk into the woods,” he continued, trying to keep up the pretense.
“You’re going to make me start laughing again with how well you’re failing at this pretense thing. It’s not working out for you, Casper.” Mark was still amused, and it was beginning to get to Casper already.
“Alright, yo
u need to stop it with the laughter,” he said with a scornful look.
“Not until you answer my question, my dear,” Mark said, still holding back the laughter.
“Fine, fine. I’ve noticed you on my tail for a week now and—”
“I’ve been on your tail for longer than that, actually. But for a novice you noticed in good time,” Mark interrupted him, still having fun.
“Okay, ease up on the show off too. I want to know what’s going on, Mark,” Casper said.
“Okay, okay. Now I’m lost. Let me see… I ask you what is going on, and in answering my question, you ask me what is going on. Considering how confused that makes me, I’m forced to ask again. What the hell is going on?”
“You know what I mean, Mark.”
“No I don’t, I really don’t. You dragged me out here, remember?”
“Yes! So I could figure out what exactly is going on!”
“Oh boy.” Mark smacked his forehead in frustration. He was beginning to get an idea of what Casper actually wanted, but he was not ready to help him say what he was struggling to say, most importantly because he was not ready to answer the questions on Casper’s mind.
“Okay, Mark, I need you to be honest with me here,” Casper said, looking straight into Mark’s eyes. “How fucked are we?” He raised his voice a little as he asked the question. Mark was a bit impressed; even if he was not ready to give him answers, there was no better way to ask the question.
“By we you mean—”
“Don’t start, I’m serious here. I understand that you all are trying to protect me but if we’re really fucked, which I think we are from the signs I’ve been seeing, then I think I should be brought into the loop, honestly. So answer me, Mark, please.”
Mark was bought at this point. He saw perfect sense in what Casper said, even if he knew Casper did not exactly say it from a point of objectivity, but of curiosity. But he still knew the limits to what he could reveal to Casper. He could not reveal anything that could scare him off, or have him over excited about a war, so he decided to keep his answer as simple as possible.