Walking Wolf Road (Wolf Road Chronicles Book 1)

by Brandon M. Herbert

  “More than ever,” Fen replied, “You’re Pack. Your wolf waking up had little to do with that ticking bomb inside you. As bad as you think this was, it could have been so much worse. We’re fine, this’ll heal in no time.” He waved a hand past his bloody cheek and rolled his eyes. “You have the most healing to do, you didn’t realize how deeply infected the wound was.”

  “Um,” Geri started, as he pulled his sleeve back and looked at his watch. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but my mom wanted me home by two.”

  “You’re not sleeping over? It’s his first time!” Loki whined while I asked, “But I thought we were spending the night?”

  “You are…” Fen said as he and Loki chuckled.

  “…But not at Geri’s.” I finished for him.

  “I’ll take you over, but I can’t stay, I’m already late,” Geri muttered and looked at his watch again. “Besides, I have a raid in the morning too…”

  “A raid?” I frowned.

  “World of WarCrack.” Loki volunteered, “Geri’s addicted to video games”

  “It looks like it’s time for us to leave anyway,” Fen muttered and pointed toward the parking lot, where red and blue lights flashed in the snow. Fen seemed to enjoy sneaking just a little too much, and none of the officers saw the four shadows that slipped past them and quietly drove away.

  We sat in silence, each lost in our own thoughts while Geri’s windshield wipers squeaked a gallant losing war against the snow.

  “Um, Loki? What did you do back there?”

  “Oh, I just used a little vampire trick I picked up. You had too much energy, we had too little; I just sorta—” she made a slurping sound “Drained it outta you and shared it around. Kinda like how Fen woke up your wolf actually…”

  “It wasn’t me…” Fen muttered.

  “What do you mean?” Loki turned and looked at him over the back of her seat.

  “I wasn’t the one who bit him, it was Lupa. She—took over my body. I thought I was dreaming, I couldn’t remember exactly what happened.”

  Loki stared at him for a moment, “Has she ever done that before?”

  He shook his head, looking for a moment just as confused as the rest of us. “Never.”

  We fell silent; I didn’t even know where to begin to process everything that just happened. The thoughts that I was important, that I was wanted, that I was powerful; they were so foreign to me. I’d been nothing my whole life; I didn’t know how to be anything else.

  Geri dropped Loki off at the mouth of a driveway that disappeared into the snow, the soft glow of her house lights beyond the curtain of snow. Then he drove us few blocks through a twisting maze of streets and let Fen and I out. His taillights disappeared into the white dark, and I followed Fen toward another irrigation ditch. Fen walked off the edge as though it wasn’t even there.

  What the hell do you think this is, Underworld?

  He disappeared from sight until I reached the edge and looked down. Fen hadn’t slowed at all and already faded from sight into the snow. I hurried down after him, and slipped on a patch of leaves, which dumped me on my ass in the snow. I followed his footprints as I trotted to catch up with him.

  “Do you mind telling me where we’re going?”

  “It’s a surprise.” He smiled over his shoulder, and I blinked compulsively when snow landed on my eyelashes. I wiped my nose on the sleeve of my coat and watched clumps of snowflakes land in Fen’s blonde hair until his body heat melted them. I caught myself staring, so I looked down at his footprints instead.

  We came to a gap in the hedge along the ditch’s rim, and without warning, Fen leapt up and disappeared through the hole. I stood and stared at it a moment in shock. The wall wasn’t as high here, but it was still a good six feet up, and while Fen seemed to be capable of ridiculous feats, I had no such confidence. I took a few steps back and then leapt up as high as I could toward the gap.

  I performed an ugly parody of a swan dive and belly-flopped hard onto the cold ground. I coughed and fought to catch my breath again as I pulled my knees beneath me and crawled the rest of the way through the thick hedge into a scrubby little patch of brush and trees. The foliage overhead blocked most of the snow, but my hands chilled as they shuffled through the fallen leaves. My nose told me that cows were nearby, and—something else—something familiar…

  “Hey pup.” Loki’s voice surprised me, and I followed the sound to where Fen stood next to a dark blob on the ground with her grinning face. She rested her head on her arms while the rest of her seemed to disappear into the ground. “Took you long enough.”

  “But—” I stuttered, “I thought Geri took you home?”

  “He did, I have to keep up appearances.”

  “She just sneaks out her window whenever she wants to,” Fen muttered as he pulled off his coat.

  “Yeah, my parents totally didn’t know what they were getting themselves into when they gave me a room on the first floor,” she laughed.

  “But, where are we?”

  “The Pack’s den,” Loki replied from her hole.

  Hm, I didn’t know we had a den. “That’s useful, but where are we?”

  “My back yard.” Loki crawled out and stretched her arms over her head.

  I crouched and looked around. “You live here? Won’t your parents see us?” I hissed.

  She turned and pointed out over the pasture that spilled up to the edge of the thicket. “Do you see the house over there?”

  “No…” I muttered, puzzled.

  “Exactly. Even if they were still awake and looked right over here, they couldn’t see us. We have privacy fence to keep the neighbors at bay, and the only other way in is the way you came,” she explained while Fen rolled up his jacket and pushed it ahead of him as he crawled down the hole, head first.

  “Down the hole with you.” Loki nodded her head toward it. “You might want to take off your coat if you don’t want to get stuck halfway.”

  “Oh, um, okay.” I unzipped my coat and the greedy air sucked all my body heat out within seconds. I wadded my coat up like Fen did, and yipped when a sharp pain stung my butt. I spun around reflexively, and Loki just stared at me with utter innocence.

  “What happened?” She smiled, and her emerald eyes shone in the night. I remembered the way she looked twirling in the snow, and any sharp words or acts of retribution I’d planned fell from my head. I had to look away before my blush betrayed me, and could only shake my head as I turned back toward the den.

  Bracken and twigs formed an arch just barely large enough to crawl through, the snow had settled into a thick frosting on top. I pushed my coat ahead of me, and found that the tunnel floor just a few feet in was dry. When I looked up, a framework of branches arched over the earthen part of the tunnel, and I saw patches of blue behind them, probably a tarp to keep the den dry. From the outside, it’d just looked like a mound of sticks and field discards. The tunnel curved before it opened up into a larger chamber.

  I smelled Fen and heard him move, but light was pretty much nonexistent. Even the efficiency of my wolf’s sight was powerless when there simply was no light to see with. Helplessly disoriented, I groped my way along one of the walls of the chamber. About halfway around, my fingers encountered warm flesh; some part of Fen obviously. Which part I had no idea.

  Too late, my mind whirled down dangerous paths. I apologized, and Fen grunted an acceptance as I scuttled away from him as quickly as the cramped space would allow until I hit the cold earth wall on the other side of the chamber.

  “Okay, so, new guy here. What do we do in here? What do we sleep on?” I asked.

  “Each other,” Loki’s deadpan came from the darkness as she crawled in, and it took me a moment for it to sink in.

  “What!” I yelped and my eyes bulged in the dark.

  “It’s part of the exercise,” Fen answered this time, annoyed.

  “We depend on each other for warmth and reinforce our bonds through touch.” Loki’s tone w
as subdued, “You might be uncomfortable at first, but you’ll get used to it. Just try to trust your wolf, okay?”

  Trust something with no real form, that shouldn’t exist, while dog-piling with two other people. Okay, sure, no problem.

  I kept my mental grumblings to myself, and gathered my coat under my head like a pillow. Exhaustion caught up to me with a vengeance, and I almost nodded off; but woke up shivering with the frigid dirt floor dug into my skin and drank away my body heat. My sweater was a pathetic barrier against the cold. I shifted and wriggled for what seemed like hours, struggling to find a spot that was—if not comfortable—at least less uncomfortable.

  “Jus’ settle down and go to sleep,” Fen grumbled out of the darkness and I lifted my head to look toward the sound, not that it did any good.

  “I can’t, I’m freezing my ass off here,” I muttered between chattering teeth and let my head thud on the dirt floor.

  Loki giggled, “I think I just heard his butt-cheek fall off.”

  “You’re a wolf right?” Fen sighed, obviously sleepy, like the cold night had no effect on him.

  I growled with irritation, “Workin’ on it; of course that’s if I don’t die of hypothermia first.”

  “Are wolves cold in the snow?” he prompted.

  “Of course not, they have fur – I don’t!”

  “Then grow fur.” He said, matter-of-factly. I rolled my eyes in the darkness, even though he couldn’t see it.

  “Oh! Piece of cake; one furry motherfucker comin’ right up! Dude, not even you can shapeshift.”

  “Obviously I don’t mean literal fur, use your spirit wolf’s fur to keep you warm. If you’re really as powerful at Loki thinks you are, you should be able to bring enough of your wolf into the physical world to keep you warm. It’s no different than if you feel claws or ears you shouldn’t have. She and I can do it, let’s see if you can…”

  As soon as he mentioned the ears, I felt them twitch, as if responding to him. I closed my eyes and focused on my ears.

  “Remember,” Fen murmured, “Wolves have two coats. Their inner coat is downy, warm, and gray. The outer guard hairs are longer and coarser, their oils act like a raincoat and they’re what give you your colors.”

  I imagined fur flowing over me from the tips of my ears. First a thick beige-gray undercoat and then longer black hairs sprouted up along my spine and washed out to the tip of my tail. I felt my wolf’s shifting energy push through my body and fill me up like a hand filling a glove. I shuddered as my skin prickled, and heat crawled over my body in the wake of the prickling fur. My ears and face had been almost numb, but now they flushed with heat. I could feel it, my wolf, just beneath the surface like it was finally growing comfortable inside me. And it wasn’t trying to take over this time.

  Every time I almost fell asleep I lost it and woke up shivering. I heard somebody move behind me. Warm hands startled me when they touched my back and wrapped around my waist. Loki’s smell grew stronger and the small soft hands didn’t feel at all like Fen’s.

  “Get over here, pup,” she mumbled and pulled me closer. Fen’s warm scent grew and I heard him breathing, already deep asleep despite the cold. Loki coaxed me to squirm up closer, and wrapped her arms around my waist and her body touched along the length of my back.

  “Just relax and go to sleep,” she whispered, her breath a wash of heat that bloomed where her cheek pressed against my shoulder. I closed my eyes, but still couldn’t sleep.

  Too much had happened tonight, too fast; my mind refused to settle and my muscles locked up from trying not to disturb them or touch anything I wasn’t supposed to, despite how much I wanted to.

  I sighed with frustration and inhaled a nose-full of their scent. Their smell stirred the wolf, and his fur flowed back over me like flames over a log—I even felt a tail lying on the ground behind me. As the wolf ascended in my mind, it pulled my mind from unfamiliar bodies, to friendly smells.

  These were my friends now, this was my Pack.

  I felt Loki’s face move into a smile, “Thaz more like’t,” she muttered groggily, and then sighed and fell back asleep. This time, I went with her.

  Chapter 6 – Forbidden

  The sounds and smells of the nighttime forest surrounded me as I slipped along dark forest paths. The rich scents of alder and pine wove a tapestry in the moist air, while the layer of cedar needles under my paws padded my journey. The place reminded me of the forests my mother took me to near Coeur D’Alene, in a different life, in a different body…

  I came into a field and saw a man playing a flute while wolves sang with him. He looked so much like me, but much older; with silvering hair and deep creases around strong dark eyes that seemed to look into my very soul.

  When I approached him, he stopped playing and turned toward me. He spoke to me in a strange language I’d never heard before.

  “Chitskhuy hnt'lane', łe e hntsetkhw, kuchnek'we'et, kwnqheminch.”

  As he spoke, ravens flooded the sky, blotting out the moonlight until the world went as black as their feathers…

  The crow’s cawing seeped into my brain and stirred it from warm soft oblivion. Something sighed near me and I cracked one dry eye open. In a rush, the prior night returned to me.

  I opened my other eye and struggled to focus as I blinked the bleariness out. Fen, Loki, and I were curled up in a hodgepodge tangle of limbs. Fen used my calf as a pillow while my face rested on Loki’s back. The den glowed a thin blue as the sun filtered through the tarp overhead.

  Holy shit, I’d just slept with and girl and a guy, I thought, and immediately winced at the duel meaning. We were all clothed, nothing happened; we were fine.

  Still, oddly fitting for a freak like you…

  I told the spiteful voice in my head to shut up, and the moment faded. I closed my eyes and relished the soft warmth of Loki’s body on my cheek; I’d never felt anything like it. Their familiar smell was almost intoxicating. I felt my wolf inside, content and comfortable inside my skin, a slight smile on his muzzle.

  Cark, cark, cark!

  I winced as the cawing continued relentlessly, and moment later Fen’s face shifted against my leg as he mumbled, “I wish he’d shut up…” Loki hummed in agreement, and we unraveled ourselves. The den felt warm, and we all stretched and popped various joints. Everyone’s hair stuck up at odd angles, and we looked more like a trio of anime characters than a pack of werewolves. Loki yawned, long and deep, and Fen and I joined her almost like a howl.

  “Oh hey, I forgot to tell you. My folks are going to Colorado Springs this morning. If they’re already gone, do you guys wanna come in?”

  “Sure.” I moaned as I stretched, Fen just nodded as he yawned so deeply his tongue curled.

  “’Kay, I’ll go check.” She grabbed her coat and grunted as she worked her way out of the den.

  Fen and I sat in silence while we dozed and tried to clear away the funk of sleep, until I muttered, “She really is beautiful isn’t she?” more to myself than to him.

  I heard Fen shift behind me, “Yeah, she is… But dating within the Pack is forbidden.”

  “Huh? Why?”

  “The same reason you don’t date coworkers. We’re bound to these people; and if a relationship goes sour, it can hurt the entire Pack… I know what you’re going through though, that girl flirts easier than most folks breathe.”

  “Oh… oh well. She’s way out of my league anyway.” It hurt, but it made sense. I couldn’t control my body, or my heart, but at least I knew my limits. I snuck a glance over my shoulder at Fen, stretched out across the ground, facing away from me.

  He’s not exactly hard on the eyes either…

  I flinched away from the unwelcome thought. Footsteps crunched at the entrance, and Loki called down to us, “Yeah, they already left. Come on inside, I’ll make you breakfast.” I shoved my insecurity and self-loathing down into the dragon’s hole and caught myself on every damn stick as I followed Fen up the tunnel.

 
I squinted into the blinding light as I emerged into a dazzling world of white. Everywhere, crystals of ice flashed like a sea of white diamonds, unmarred across the entire field to Loki’s house. The sky was bright blue, and the warm autumn sun had already melted through the snow where it was thin. That first breath of air felt so clean, as if the snow had scrubbed everything foul from it. Fen zipped his jacket up and we followed Loki around the glittering expanse, the big ridge of mountain along the edge of town loomed close by, frosted and bright.

  Her house looked like a big ranch, with a tall peaked front that seemed entirely made of windows. We kicked the snow off our shoes as we stepped through the back door, then pulled them off altogether and set them on the tiles by the door. The sun poured in through a huge window over the sink and warmed the tile floor. Loki scratched her mussed hair while she opened the fridge and looked inside. “What do you guys want to eat?”

  “Whatever’s easy,” Fen shrugged.

  “I’m fine with cereal; I don’t want to be a bother.”

  Loki threw her hands up, “What’s the world coming to? A girl offers to make breakfast, and they want to eat cereal…”

  Fen and I laughed. “If cereal’s too hard, we could pick something else,” he teased.

  “How about we start with some coffee and work from there?”

  “Oh damn, I must be out of it if I forgot coffee.” She stretched her back while she padded across the room in multi-colored socks and set up the coffeemaker.

  We rifled through the fridge until we came up with all the ingredients for biscuits and gravy. I put the biscuits into the oven and sipped coffee while I poked the sausage around, half-awake and yawning, until Loki snatched the spatula out of my hand. “Hey!”

  “Don’t make me maul you,” she growled and took over the skillet, “this is my kitchen damnit.”

  We dished up our plates and took them with us into the cavernous living room. Raw log rafters met at the peak of the two-story vaulted ceiling, while windows covered the entire front wall and flooded the room with sunlight. A blackened fireplace dominated the back wall and the room was decorated with western ranch décor; it even had a chandelier made out of an old wagon wheel.