Imperium Lupi

by Adam Browne

  “I don’t like it, sir. She could be a Bloodfang agent out to eavesdrop, or worse an assassin.”

  Chuckling at the notion, Duncan reached for a sandwich and chomped the dainty morsel down in a single bite. “The Bloodfangs would nae dare,” he claimed.

  Horst, to general amazement, including Janoah’s, came down in her camp. “It’s not loyal Bloodfangs but the conspirators we need to worry about,” he said. “Who knows who Amael’s gotten to by now. If a fanatic will swallow a black-imperium capsule they will as likely blow themselves up with a black-imperium bomb, taking us and more importantly the Alpha with them.”

  Pausing for thought, and a glance at the intruding Cub who was making yet another unsubtle pass, Duncan waved a cucumber finger at his fellow Prefects, “Then tell the lass tae buzz off.”

  “I’ll do more than that, sir,” Janoah claimed.

  The Alpha offered no input – his protection was the duty of his Prefects – he merely sat and watched the geyser, timing its regular eruptions with his pocket watch like the amateur naturalist he claimed to be.

  “Bruno,” Janoah said, with a nod and a flick of the finger.

  Nothing more substantial passed between Janoah and her well-trained henchbeast; Rafe left the table to intercept the nosy wolfess.

  Olivia heard him coming, heard those boots crunching on the grass and gravel, but could hardly speed up or attempt to run away; there was nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, she was out in the wilderness hundreds of miles from Lupa. She acted natural, strolling along as before, pretending to take in the scenery but seeing nothing of it for her panicked thoughts.

  The giant Prefect suddenly blocked her path.

  “Come with me please, Cub,” he said, his voice booming in defiance of his muffling ALPHA-black helmet.

  Olivia recoiled with as much indignation and confusion as she could muster. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Come with me, please,” the Prefect stated, sterner.

  He spread an enormous muscle-packed, brown-furred arm out from under his cloak. As said arm rose and the folds of the Prefect’s cloak opened somewhat, so did Olivia feel the tendrils of an imperious presence reach out and pierce her corona down to the bone.

  By Ulf, is that power coming from him?

  Containing her surprise, if not working with it, Olivia cupped a paw to her chest and asked with eye-fluttering innocence, “Have I done something wrong, Prefect?”

  “I dunno,” he replied.

  “I’m Elder Amael’s guest, you see,” Olivia excused. “I’m a student reporter, here to write an article about the Summit. I’ve never been to anything like this before.”

  The Prefect’s initially stern front softened like chocolate under the sun. “Me neither,” he admitted. “Oi look, I’m sure it’ll be fine. Janoah’s just being funny.”

  “Janoah?”

  “My boss,” the Prefect said, flicking his head towards the tables and half-joking, “Come on, or I’ll get in trouble.”

  Disarmed by this wolf’s familiar charm, Olivia allowed herself to be shepherded across to the little ALPHA enclave nestled by the lakeside. This could be the end. ALPHA could find out that I’m not a Howler in training and then we’ll be for it. Linus won’t be able to protect us now.

  How could I be so stupid?

  “What’re you playing at, Cub?” the red wolfess at the table demanded. Olivia supposed she must be Janoah.

  Before anything else, Olivia saluted like a good Howler Cub, fist to chest then out.

  “Save your silly salutes, girl,” Horst scoffed with reliable derision, even whilst devouring another sandwich. “We’re ALPHA, not members of your decadent pack.”

  Janoah continued her interrogation. “Well? What’re you doing lingering around? Yes, I saw you, walking by over and over. I see the other one too, hiding by the train. She looks very worried now. Spies are we?”

  Olivia cast a glance at Sara, who was standing with her paws to her face, then chirped, “Spies? Of course not-”

  “Oh? Assassins then?”

  “Don’t be absurd, marm.”

  “Excuse me?” Horst cut in again. “Do you know who you’re talking to? You’re in the presence of the Alpha and his Grand Prefects! The Alpha is the equivalent of your Den Father and we your Elders. ”

  “Not quite, Grand Prefect.”

  “What?”

  Olivia glanced at the wolves sitting about the table and decided to run with it; be bold, be brash, do not cower, know your rights as a Howler… if you were one.

  “I mean no offence, sir,” she said, “but Den Prefect Adal and yourselves are accountable to the Den Fathers, not the other way around.”

  Frowning hard, Horst sat forward. “Who are you?”

  Olivia tipped her head back a little. “I’m Howler Cub Livia Bloodfang, student reporter.”

  “Reporter?” Horst blustered on.

  “Yes, sir. I’m writing an article for the student paper-”

  “About what?”

  “The Summit, sir. Would you like me to include you in my article?”

  “My dear, you’ll be writing an article on the working conditions at Gelb from inside with your attitude-”

  “That’s enough, Horst,” the Alpha sighed. “ALPHA does not exist to antagonise our fellow wolves, but to work with them to guard our fair city.” Slipping his fine timepiece into his cloak pocket, the Alpha turned away from the dying geyser which he had been timing and beckoned Olivia round the table to stand before him, his handsome, white, mask-like face beaming warmly up at her. “Besides, we’re guests aboard Den Father Vito’s marvellous train and will be gracious to all his pack, including his Cubs.”

  Horst said nothing.

  “Now then, Cub,” the Alpha began, amiably but business-like, “if you’re writing about the Summit you’ll need a few interviews to go on, won’t you?”

  Olivia didn’t know what else to do, save bow a little and say, “Yes, Alpha, sir, uh… Den Prefect Adal.”

  “Either will do,” Adal chuckled. “Well, go get your friend and sit yourselves down.”

  “Sir?”

  “You may interview me. How’s that?”

  “Oh, thank you so much, sir. I never dreamt I would so much as meet you as talk to you.”

  “Indeed. Off you go.”

  Another salute, then a bow, whatever came to mind, then Olivia scuttled away.

  Duncan chuckled, “Och! That’s very generous of ye, my Alpha.”

  “All the poor Cub wanted was to get near me,” the Alpha replied, confident of his own importance. “I’ve nothing else to do whilst Vito toys with his new plaything.”

  Bruno turned and watched Livia traipse over to the train to fetch her friend – a short black wolfess in the same Howler Cub uniform. Words were spoken, gestures made, Bruno couldn’t hear them nor lip-read, yet was unable shake off the creeping feeling of familiarity in the cut of the two Cubs.

  “Something wrong, Bruno?” Janoah asked, bringing his attention back to the table.

  “No,” Rafe sniffed, standing to attention behind the Alpha.

  “How’re your eyes?” Janoah pressed. “It’s very bright out here compared to Lupa.”

  “Fine.”

  “Josef’s nearby if you need him-”

  “I’m fine! Stop fussing me, Jan.”

  “You address her ‘Prefect Janoah’ or ‘marm’,” Horst tutted over his teacup, “not ‘Jan’, you ignoramus. You’re a Prefect now, Bruno, start acting like it.”

  Rafe raised his chin, “Yes, Grand Prefect, sir!”

  A nod, “Better.”

  Despite sensing Rafe was a bit off, Janoah settled again, at least outwardly to the wolves sitting around her. Inwardly she was a storm, her heart beating hot and cold.

  She glanced across the fields, spied Amael standing by the lakeside with Vladimir and some others. She met Amael’s hard eyes. He didn’t nod or wink, but Janoah knew what he was going through too.

  The vital moment stea
med ever closer.

  *

  Linus slipped nervously into the sweltering pool. Not willing to appear a limp-pawed weakling in front of Den Father Vito he suppressed the urge to yelp as the painfully hot water first infiltrated his breeches, then his guard fur and, finally, his water-repelling undercoat to scald his hide.

  “Refreshing, no?” the scar-flecked Den Father Vito crackled, his wiry grey arms splayed over the pool’s edge, ember smouldering between crooked lips.

  Linus managed a convincing, “Yes, Den Father,” fully expecting strips of flesh to peel off under the impenetrably green water and bob to the broiling surface like so much pasta. However, the pain soon passed and the water became at least bearable, if not at all ‘refreshing’.

  The young Howler wasn’t quite sure what to expect from an imperium spring, despite having read about them. He couldn’t see any imperium glowing in the murky green water, but it was of course daytime and the mixture must be extremely dilute in any case. Even so, Linus noticed his imperious senses fogging over. There was no direction to his inner eye anymore, no up or down, front or back, not even Den Father Vito’s potent corona pushed through the imperious haze choking the air.

  It was just like being inside the Riddle District imperium refinery, only worse.

  “What’re you expecting to see?” Vito laughed, watching his guest cup the spring water in his palms like a curious otter cub catching minnows. “The dissolved imperium?” Vito guessed before Linus could mount a response. “Oh, it’s there. Can’t you feel it?”

  “I-I-I can. Yes.”

  Whilst Vito blew a cloud of vapour overhead and relaxed like a wolf at ease in his own bathroom, Linus stood stiffly in the water, wondering what next to do, what next to say. Two red-and white cloaked Den Guards loomed over the pool like lifeguards, imperium rapiers at the ready. So far as Linus could tell they were not directly watching him, their eyes scanning the surrounding woodland instead, but no doubt each stood poised to stick Vito’s guest like a fish if he was so foolish as to make a wrong move.

  “Sit down, relax,” Vito encouraged, patting the smooth lip of the pool. “There’s a bench under the water here by me, carved from the very rock. It’s quite comfortable.”

  Linus glanced at the guards.

  Vito sensed the youngster’s unease. “Oh, don’t mind them,” he chuckled. “Despite what you may have heard from my overprotective adjutant we do not kill a beast for the merest infraction, uh… Linus.”

  Linus reciprocated Vito’s humour with a slight laugh and waded through the chest-high water, the temperature of which felt more acceptable on his flaxen hide by the minute.

  I could get used to this, Linus thought, seconds before scraping a kneecap against a rough and unyielding stone ledge somewhere down below – that’d be the bench then. Weathering the ensuing sting in silence, Linus settled on the submarine stone seating beside Vito whilst maintaining a respectable arm’s length between himself and the Den Father.

  Unfortunately, planting his posterior firmly on the bench-shaped rock resulted in the water level reaching Linus’s chin. Feeling ridiculous, the short Howler brought his feet up and knelt on the bench instead, surreptitiously raising himself to chest-height, like Vito.

  If the Den Father noticed Linus’s sudden increase in stature, and he was watching throughout, he didn’t pass comment, at least not regarding Linus’s height or lack thereof.

  “You’ve an impressive figure, Howler,” he praised, casting his eyes over Linus’s thick, rounded-off chest and shoulders. “You must train very hard.”

  “No harder than my partner, sir.”

  “Partner?”

  “Howler Uther, sir. He’s a far better wolf than me. P-p-perhaps you’ve heard of him?”

  Raising his brow, Vito said, “Yes... rings a bell.” He looked away for a time, then returned his attention to Linus. “Amael’s fortunate to have such fine wolves as you serving him.”

  “I-I-I do my best, sir.”

  “How would you like to serve me instead?”

  Vito’s words went over Linus’s head for a time, before his mind hurried to grab them back. “S-sss-serve you, Den Father?”

  “Yes.”

  “I serve you through Amael, as I’m able-”

  “Oh stop it, boy!” Vito tutted, flicking his spent ember into the water. He remained friendly, but stern, “Drop your tiresome act of false modesty and speak to me like a wolf, not a sycophant.” Turning to face Linus properly, with one elbow resting on the pool’s edge, the Den Father all but whispered over the bubbling pool, “You know what you are; what you’re capable of. Rufus never just picked up any old Howler, he had exquisite taste that wolf.”

  Linus knelt in silence, heart thumping, mind racing, thinking, ‘What’ve I got myself into now?’

  Vito looked his prey over, those imperious eyes burning with hunger. “And now he’s regrettably… gone,” the Den Father crackled, with a minute shrug of his grey shoulders, “you need a new patron. It’s only out of respect for Rufus that I never sent for you after the incident in the Common Ground. After all, Rufus found you first and we alphas don’t tread on each other’s toes.”

  “Incident, sir?”

  “That Howler-killer in the Common Ground. You took care of him, you and Uther.”

  “That again?” Linus guffawed. “I did nothing, sir.”

  Vito growled, “What did I just say about false modesty?”

  “I’m speaking truthfully, sir. I-I-I did nothing noteworthy. If Uther hadn’t been there-”

  “That’s for others to decide, not you,” Vito maintained. “And I, your Den Father, have decided you’re most worthy.... Yes, most noteworthy indeed. You’ll serve me, as my beta.”

  “Beta?” Linus gasped.

  “Of course! What did you think I was talking about? Why do you think you’re even here?”

  “I-I-I… well….”

  “It’s a great honour to beta a Den Father. You’ll get more out of the arrangement than that rogue Rufus could ever provide; respect, power, wealth, your own apartment and car, whatever you desire, within reason. Once we weary of each other, you can go your own way with all that was provided.”

  “B-b-but I-”

  Vito over-talked the stuttering Linus. “Nobody will mock you as they did when you belonged to Rufus,” he growled. “If anyone dares I’ll slap them down so hard they’ll find themselves in Gelb!”

  On that crescendo, Vito glared hard at the Den Guards lingering about, as if warning them personally despite their oaths of discretion and loyalty.

  “Does that satisfy you, Howler Linus?” he asked with a crooked smile, cupping a bony paw to Linus’s thick neck. “Will you submit to me?”

  Silence.

  “Your friend Uther was mine too, you know,” Vito claimed, cupping his paws on Linus’s shoulders, “before I let Rufus take him. He was an ungrateful beta that one. I should’ve left him rotting in the gutter! But he was so… magnificent; more so now I hear. Still, you’ll please your Den Father gladly, won’t you?”

  “N-nnn-no,” Linus stammered.

  Vito chuckled, yet conversely frowned, “What?”

  Linus raised his chin. “No thank you, Den Father,” he said levering Vito’s searching paws aside of his stocky frame, “I can’t be your beta, or indeed anyone’s beta, that’s not who I am.” With a gulp he continued, “Whatever you’ve heard about me is untrue. Grand Howler Rufus was just my friend. There was nothing more to it I’m afraid.”

  Vito recoiled a little, “You expect me to believe that?”

  “Whether you believe it or not, it doesn’t change my answer, sir. I will submit to nothing-”

  “Mind your tongue, boy. I’m your Den Father!”

  “Be that as it may, sir, I must respectfully and humbly decline your most generous offer.”

  Vito laughed.

  Linus remained stern.

  “Who do you think you are?” Vito scoffed at Linus, looking him up and down. “Do y
ou think you’re an alpha, is that it, little wolf?”

  “I’ve never given it much thought, sir-”

  “Liar! Every wolf wishes to be an alpha. Few ever are and you certainly are not!”

  Linus shrugged.

  His silence only infuriated Vito further. “You’ve not the right to spurn me!” he snarled, wading into Linus, nose pressed to his. “You’re a lowly Trooper hardly out of your Cub’s mantle. Do you know what kind of power sleeps within my veins? I could destroy you with my bare paws-”

  Thwip!

  Vito’s right ear inexplicably tore off of its own accord and spiralled through the air. Linus flinched as his face was flecked with blood.

  What?

  The thunderous blast of a rifle bolt followed shortly thereafter.

  Ka-crack!

  “Agh!” Vito yelped, clapping a paw to his bleeding skull and wading backwards from Linus, his face a mask of horror and shock. “Murderers! Assassins!” he accused, pointing at Linus in his pained confusion. “Seize him!”

  *

  “ALPHA was set up for the packs, by the packs, to curb the excesses of the Howlers and protect the little beasts from abuse,” the Alpha went on. “If we’re disbanded the citizens will have no recourse for their grievances except revolt, and we all know what happens then.” He sipped his tea, “I remember the war, Cub. I was there.”

  “Yet some argue ALPHA is too powerful,” Olivia said confidently. “They claim you’re just another pack now, serving your own interests. What do you say to such wolves?”

  “My only ambition is Lupan stability. You see….”

  Whilst Olivia made notes and asked the questions, acting the part she was apparently born to play, Sara stood behind in silence, that giant Prefect of her fascination looming anonymously over her. She could feel his presence without any aid of imperium, sense his eyes burrowing into her shoulders. Unable to bear it any longer Sara looked behind and followed the muscular bumps and folds of that unnaturally black cloak up to a thick brown chin nestled within a black helmet.

  The towering Prefect cocked his head and hunched his mountainous shoulders a little in a friendly gesture.