by RJ Blain
The hunter would become the hunted, and I flattened my ears, crouching low among the stones, watching and waiting for my chance to strike.
A chitter drifted on the winds, and I wasn’t the only one to notice. The human whirled, lifting his weapon.
At first, I couldn’t see the white fox in the snow until the tips of his red ears and paws betrayed him, along with a splash of the bright color on his tail. He barked once, the sound a warning and a threat.
A second sound, so faint I thought I hallucinated it. The mix of whine and whimper didn’t come from the fox; he snarled and snapped his teeth at the human, who stared. The human’s scent altered from surprise to disbelief.
I understood the fox too well to abandon it and its den to the hunting human. With a snarl of my own, I lunged up and over the rocks separating us. I hit the human hard, driving him to the ground.
My teeth closed over his throat, and I bit down to secure my hold on him. I felt as much as heard the weapon discharge. Heat spread through my chest, but instead of the pain and the searing of silver I expected, a chill swept through me. I clamped my jaws closed and gave a single shake of my head.
The dull crunch of bones and the sweet taste of blood flooded my mouth. The chill spread up my neck and into my head, and the mountain spun in circles around me. I dropped the human’s twitching body, bracing my legs to keep upright.
My head drooped, and despite struggling to isolate where I’d been shot, my eyes refused to focus. The stench of the human’s blood deadened my nose.
The fox chittered at me, hopping onto the human’s corpse. He stood on his hind legs so he could bump his head beneath my chin. Baring his teeth, he snapped at me, and I recoiled from surprise. My numbed legs gave out under me, and I hit the rocks hard, sliding down the steep slope before slamming into a rock.
Pursuing me, the fox lunged for my throat. I yipped, unable to force my uncooperative body into motion. The tug of teeth on fur didn’t last long before the fox hopped away, holding something in its mouth.
I recognized the cylindrical shape of a tranquilizer dart before the chill seeped into my head and pulled me into darkness.
Chapter Eleven
The shrill scream of a dying rabbit jerked me awake. Moments after the animal’s cry cut off, I heard eager whines.
It took longer than I liked to realize the sounds drifted on the winds from somewhere nearby. I cracked open my eyes, and snow blanketed me and the stones, although my nose and head remained unburied. My chest throbbed along with my head.
Darkness covered the mountain, although beams of light penetrated the falling snow from below.
At first, my body remained numb and uncooperative, but I forced my paws beneath me and staggered upright. I swayed, shaking my head. The spinning waves of vertigo embraced me, dragging me to the snow several times before I climbed to my paws and stayed there. For a long time, I stood, panting to catch my breath.
Through it all, the whining persisted.
Snow all but covered the human I had killed, although the stench of his blood and the silver hidden away on him polluted the air. I growled, turning my ears back.
One by one, memories seeped into my fogged thoughts. I pawed the snow away so I could better catch the human’s scent.
He wasn’t the one I’d smelled on Mike. The tranquilizer protruded from the snow, and the sight of it angered a snarl out of me.
The human had been hunting, not to kill, but to take. Had he been seeking my puppies, the same as me?
My growls summoned the white and red fox, who perched on a stone and watched me with bright eyes. In the darkness, I couldn’t tell if they were blue or green, neither of which were a shade I’d ever seen on a fox.
Without any sign of fear, the fox jumped down and approached, his ears pricked forward. The sweet scent of fresh rabbit blood clung to him and marked his muzzle. I didn’t know much about foxes except they made good prey when there was nothing else to eat, but I thought it strange he had young not yet capable of caring for themselves.
Foxes weren’t like Fenerec. Their young grew quick and strong.
My puppies weren’t supposed to be on their own yet, although they’d grown well in my care. The thought of them smothered my spirits, and I hung my head.
The fox, likely emboldened by my lack of aggression, hopped closer, stretching his head up to sniff me. When I didn’t move, he rose up on his hind paws and groomed my muzzle.
Among Fenerec, I would’ve found the gesture soothing, welcomed by members of my pack—something I hadn’t been able to experience. My allergies kept me away, no matter how hard I struggled to fit into Yellowknife’s pack.
My efforts had always failed.
The memories were faint but strengthened under the gentle strokes of the fox’s tongue. The animal jumped onto a stone and waited. When I didn’t move, he chittered at me. I listened. The soft whines from the fox’s den had quieted. Puzzled, I forced one paw in front of the other, stepping over the human’s corpse.
The fox led me through jagged stones, down a steep incline sheltered from the wind by massive outcroppings of rock. Cliffs descended into the tops of bared trees to one side and rose to touch the sky above on the other. The stench of silver-tainted blood burned my nose, and I threw my head back, stiffening in alarm. Silver’s corrupting influence tainted the scents enough I couldn’t identify the Fenerec with my nose.
My panic surged, and I scrambled after the fox.
Had the humans shot my puppies? My puppies were too young to survive silver; it’d be years yet before they developed tolerance to the metal. If so much as a single shard of the metal remained, they’d eventually die.
Fenerec sickened with silver poisoning didn’t last long without someone tending to them, providing everything they needed until they recovered.
The fox scurried ahead of me, pausing where two large boulders rested against each other, leaving a gap large enough for a den between them. When he disappeared inside, I followed.
The den extended farther than I thought, enclosed by the cliff and several boulders, leaving gaps overhead allowing snow to drift in. While the wind hissed, it didn’t reach the sanctuary. I pinned my ears back. New blood and old silver taint marred the still air, forcing me to rely on my eyes.
A whine to my right alerted me, and I spun, my fur standing on end. In a cranny where several rocks met, I spotted dark gray fur, which blended with the stone.
My puppies wiggled crammed together in their hiding place. They quivered, their tails tucked close to their bodies. I spotted a pair of flattened, twitching ears and a trembling nose.
The half-eaten carcasses of several rabbits littered the den around them, and I twisted to face the fox.
Why had the fox cared for my puppies? In the wild, our species were enemies. Fenerec ate them as often as the lesser cousins did.
If the fox feared me, I saw no sign of it. He watched and waited.
After I cared for my puppies, I would deal with the fox. I closed the distance, nudging my puppies with my nose, dragging my tongue over their fur in search of their injuries. When they yipped, I pinned them with my front paws, warning them to behave with a single growl.
They quieted.
I burrowed my nose into their wiggling bodies until I found the scruff of Emily’s neck. Picking her up, I carried her away from her brother, set her down between my paws, and went to work, frantically searching through her fur for the evidence of the wound I could smell.
I found a bleeding gash across her shoulder. It stretched along her flank, and large chunks of her fur were missing where someone—or something—had torn it out. She whined, and I soothed her with gentle strokes of my tongue. The darkening of her blood from silver’s taint alarmed me, but as I nosed at the injury, I discovered more than her fur was missing.
Something with small teeth had chewed the silver out, leaving my puppy’s flank open and bleeding. The corrupting taint remained, and I could smell silver sickness on her, but unl
ess there was metal in the wound I couldn’t smell, she would live. It would hurt her, she would suffer, and healing would be long in coming, but I believed she would live. I whined my anxiety and hurried to her brother’s side, dragging him out of his hiding place by his scruff.
He yipped and whined, but he didn’t fight me. I checked him over, snarling when I found the bullet hole in the thick muscle of his hind leg.
Unlike his sister, I could smell the faint taint of silver still embedded in the wound. Pinning him down with a paw against his neck, I bared my fangs and tore into his leg, hunting for the metal.
My puppy yipped and cried, thrashing beneath me, but I ignored him, ripping out his fur in my effort to dig the remaining silver fragments out.
I found three shards, which were tarnished black from contact with my puppy’s blood. I spit them out, sniffing his bleeding leg for any evidence more silver remained. I licked the wound, ignoring the discomfort of my tongue contacting with the silver taint.
Through it all, the fox remained still and quiet. Satisfied my puppies were clean of silver, I left them long enough to snatch the small animal’s nape in my teeth, carrying him to my puppies. I dropped him, pinned him with a paw, and nosed my puppies closer together so I could curl around them. I dragged the fox into the pile, kept him trapped beneath my paw, and guarded, growling with my every breath, my gaze locked on the den’s entrance in case another human dared to hunt for my puppies.
I heard the humans long before I saw them. My growls deepened to fang-bared snarls, and my puppies whimpered, whined, and crowded against me. Their fear polluted their scents, strong enough to mask the silver poisoning them.
The fox chittered. When the humans drew close, he barked, and his fur stood on end.
I rose, stood over my puppies, and lowered my head to guard my throat, tensed and ready to lunge forward.
Even with my wolf’s ability to see in the dark, the human was a dark blur in the entry. I lunged, slamming the human to the ground, snapping my teeth in warning.
A pale form collided with me from the side, rammed me into the cliff, and fangs buried into the scruff of my neck. I snarled and struggled to break free.
A single nip to my neck numbed me, and I slumped beneath the large, silver wolf.
My nose recognized him before I realized Richard was the one pinning me down.
“It’s me, Vicky.” Elliot crouched out of biting range, resting his hands on his knees. “Are the puppies in there?”
I voiced a single whine.
“Your Eminence, it is likely wise if you check. If they are, she might not kill you. She doesn’t know us. With all due respect to Mr. Murphy, desperate bitches do get difficult to contain. He might not be able to hold her.”
Elliot reached out and ran his hand along the length of my nose before rubbing his gloved hand between my ears. “Show me where your puppies are, Vicky.”
Richard released me and without his teeth paralyzing me, I surged to my paws. I rammed my shoulder into Elliot, driving him towards the den.
The only place I could guard him and my puppies from the humans was within the den. I could smell them, close enough to pollute the air. Snarling, I drove Elliot inside and turned to guard the entrance, ears flat and head lowered. Richard followed, blocking the way out with his bulk.
Elliot knelt beside my puppies, pulled out a flashlight, and turned it on. He sucked in a hissing breath. “Silver poisoning, no doubt about it. Deidre, call it in. They’re alive, but they’re both bleeding black. Find out which pack has the most experience with puppies suffering from silver poisoning. We’ll have them air lifted there.”
I swayed at the verbal confirmation of what I already knew.
Elliot sat beside my puppies, and they wiggled closer to him, thrusting their heads against him in search of comfort. The fox scampered to the far end of the cave and barked insults at Elliot’s invasion of the den.
Whining, I stood over my puppies and drew my tongue over them to ease their fear.
Elliot tugged at my scruff, capturing my attention. “Easy, Vicky. We’ll take care of them, okay? We need to get them moved out of the cold where we can treat them properly. Trust me. I won’t let anything hurt them.”
His hand worked into my fur, and I stayed tense but resumed soothing my puppies. When his hand touched the sore, throbbing spot where I’d been shot, I yipped, recoiling from him.
Elliot spat curses. “She was shot.”
“How bad is she bleeding, sir?” the female human demanded.
“It doesn’t look like much, but I can’t tell for certain.”
“Likely the tranquilizer dart we found with the body, sir. It did take us a while to track her collar and get up here. Any sedatives would’ve had plenty of time to wear off. We can check over her when we leave.”
“Vicky, sit,” Elliot ordered.
Unable to resist his command, I thumped my rump to the stone. I flattened my ears and howled my fury.
“Wolfsbane. She did what I told her for once. Vicky, lie down, be quiet, and don’t you even think about biting me.”
While aware of my wolf’s ire over being ordered around, I was forced to obey.
“If the fucker wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him myself,” Elliot snarled. “Richard, get the fucking dogsled as close as you can without falling over the edge. Deidre, find me a helicopter.”
“A helicopter, sir?”
Elliot pointed at Richard. “We have a pilot. Just find me a bird capable of flying in this weather. Helicopter, plane, I don’t care. Find one. Move it. I will not tolerate a single wasted moment.” He paused, and his gaze settled on the fox hiding in the far side of the cave. “It seems the puppies took shelter in a fox’s den. Richard, catch it. We’ll take it with us. With a pack of Fenerec on the mountain for the winter plus a pair of hungry, injured puppies in its territory, it’ll starve. It’s the least we can do for it. I’ll have someone find a better home for it later.”
Richard sighed and targeted a reproachful glare at Elliot, but he trotted over to the fox, who wisely shrank away, tucked his tail, and cried his distress. Picking the fox up by the scruff of his neck, Richard carried him out of the den and into the night.
Elliot cheated. The collar around my throat was bad enough, but he took demonic delight in ordering me around and making it clear to the other Inquisitors I was his and his alone.
When they took my puppies away, I howled my misery, paced in the den, and tucked my tail. Only Elliot’s commands kept me from mauling them all.
Not even Elliot dared to approach me, and I snarled and snapped my teeth in my frustration.
No matter how angry my wolf and I were that our puppies had been taken away from us, I understood the reasons why. They needed care—care I couldn’t provide. Those who could tend to them and purge the silver from their blood wouldn’t want me nearby.
They wisely feared me.
“You should have brought a muzzle, sir,” Deidre muttered.
I growled at her for daring to criticize Elliot.
“I’m not muzzling my mate, Deidre. She’ll calm down, and once she’s reasonably coherent, we’ll head back to the truck, rendezvous with Richard, and get in the air.”
I lifted my head, and while I kept my ears pinned back, I listened.
If I had to choose between the Beast and going to my puppies or staying on the mountain, I’d risk Elliot’s driving. I sidled up to Elliot and grabbed his sleeve in my teeth, giving a gentle tug.
“Are you going to stay calm, Vicky?”
I whined and bobbed my head without releasing his snowsuit.
“I know you wanted to go with Richard and the puppies, but he’ll guard them. He’ll make sure they’re taken care of—and he won’t terrify the shit out of the doctors. You will. If you’re not going to kill us all, we can check on Richard and the puppies.”
“Are you sure that’s wise, sir?”
“Deidre, the instant the wolfsbane wears off, she better be near her
puppies. They’ll probably keep her from killing us—me, in particular. Unless we can figure out how much they dosed her with, let’s not take any unnecessary risks.”
“She seems docile enough.”
Instead of growling like I wanted, I tugged on Elliot’s sleeve again.
“For now. Let’s give this a try. How many of the Fenerec went with Richard?”
“Most of them. There are five still with us. They’re scouting the mountain for stragglers. The others took the body we found with them.”
“Good.” Elliot pulled his sleeve out of my mouth, leaned down, and focused his attention on my nose. He clucked his tongue, removed his gloves, and rubbed his fingers against my muzzle. “You’re going to need a bath. You have frozen blood and snow caked in your fur. Come on. You’ll ride with me on the larger snowmobile. It has a rack, so you shouldn’t fall off.”
I sighed but followed Elliot, crowding his legs and growling at the witch whenever she got too close. The snow was churned and stained where I had killed the man hunting my puppies, and a trail led down the mountain. I herded Elliot away from the cliff’s edge and kept an eye on where the ground fell away into darkness.
By the time we reached where the trail leveled out and escaped the more treacherous path, my body was so tense it hurt to walk. I rammed Elliot down the mountain towards where the Beast waited.
He went, beelining for the dark shapes of two snowmobiles. The engine of the larger one gave Elliot trouble, and he muttered curses at the uncooperative vehicle. When it finally roared to life, he straddled the seat. I sighed, hopped up behind him, and flopped onto the rack, resting my head on my paws.
“Lead the way, Deidre,” Elliot ordered.
The witch had no trouble starting the engine of her snowmobile, turning it to head down the mountain.
I growled every jarring bump of the way. By the time we reached Elliot’s beloved monstrosity of a truck, so much snow clung to my fur he had to peel me off the seat.