Walking Wolf Road (Wolf Road Chronicles Book 1)
Page 33
“Yes.” I braced for his anger.
“Good. Mad dogs need to be put down.” Bo’s wolf sensed his agitation and looked up at him, then whined and rubbed his head against Bo’s side as he sighed and closed his eyes, “So, I guess we’re dead then?”
“Not quite. Your body is still alive, I can try to take you back if you’d like.”
“You can do that?” as he turned and looked at me, his wolf did as well.
“I think so…” I answered, slightly less than certain.
Bo sighed and looked at me “I want to go back… But I don’t want to leave him.” He resumed rubbing his wolf’s ears and smiled.
“So bring him with you.”
“Can I do that?” he asked surprised.
“Yes, but there are consequences. You’ve always been fascinated by wolves, because you had one deep inside you. If you fully embrace it, you’ll become like me, and then there’s no going back.”
“God yes!” Bo laughed, “I don’t even have to think about it, it’s what I’ve wanted my whole life!”
“Good, let’s go. Oh, and just a warning, it’s going to hurt like a bitch and I’m not even capable of expressing the joys of catheters and tracheal tubes.”
He moaned, “Maybe I’ll just stay here after all.”
“Oh, shut up. It’s not going to be easy, but I’ll be with you and so will Loki. We’re a Pack now right?”
“Right.” He smiled and held out his fist. I hit my knuckles to his and turned to guide him back to the pool. His wolf whimpered as a shadow moved on the silhouette of the boulder.
Lupa’s pure white coat shimmered gold in the sunshine like a fiery halo. She hopped down from the rock and approached Bo’s wolf. She sniffed noses with him and rubbed her flank along his, and then turned toward the path and looked back over her shoulder at him.
“Bo, you like to run right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Because you’ll need to soon…” I shifted into my wolf form and Bo’s eyes grew wide. I greeted Bo’s wolf, who stood taller than me in the shoulder, but he lowered himself in deference to me. I nudged his muzzle, and then jumped back in an invitation to play. His tail wagged as he stood.
Lupa changed into her human form and whispered something to Bo, who smiled at her and nodded, and then ran down the hill. His wolf and I chased him and Lupa caught up with us. I led them to the waterfall and then shifted back to my human form and smiled at Lupa, “Thank you, for saving my life.”
Her muzzle stretched into a wide lupine grin. “My warrior wolf, this battle is over, but the war still remains ahead of you. At least now you have a good Beta, a strong knight by your side, and I’ll always be with you, in my way.”
Bo turned pale when he came to the edge of the water. “Uh, Jimmy? I guess this would be a bad time to mention I have aquaphobia…”
I looked at him and raised an eyebrow, “Seriously, you charged in to wrestle a sociopath with a rifle, but you’re afraid of water?”
“Um…” Bo flexed his hands open and closed, “Yep.”
“Bo, you literally cannot drown here. Please come with me… I don’t want to lose you too.” I held out my hand to him.
Bo swallowed and edged his way into the water, but his wolf stayed on shore and whined. Lupa nudged him, but the unknown still terrified him. He sensed that something was about to change in a very big way, but he didn’t know how.
“Bo, lead him into the water and hold him to you.”
Bo walked toward him and held out his hands for him to come. They stood still a moment, and then Bo turned to me. “He wants me to put my hand in his mouth.”
“Then do it, he needs reassurance.”
“But what if he bites me?”
“Bo, he is you.” I laughed.
Reluctantly, Bo held out his hand and his wolf wrapped his jaws around Bo’s wrist. Together they walked into the water until his wolf could no longer touch bottom and had to doggy paddle.
“Now, hold him close and don’t let go, got it?” He nodded and I wrapped my arms around them. We sank below the surface while the sunlight on the water’s surface cast rippled shadows over my eyelids. I reached deep inside and felt Raven’s cool violet light within me as we flew back up through the soil, the pipes, and back into my aching, heavy body.
I felt them inside me, not as two forms, but like a single egg of vapor lodged in my chest. I summoned my shifting energy and focused it as I lifted Bo’s hand, careful not to let his parents see my eyes. I placed his hand in my mouth and bit down into the yielding flesh of his palm. My teeth sharpened just enough to break the skin and when I tasted the copper of his blood, I shoved my shifting energy into Bo’s inert body and pushed his spirit in with Raven’s power. The weight lifted from my chest and I fell back into my wheelchair, exhausted for the first time since I woke.
The room exploded. Everyone was yelling, Mom stood between me and Bo’s father as he gestured wildly, enraged. It all sounded muffled and far away, and I clenched my eyes shut while I willed the pain down.
Blip. Blip. Blip…
Everyone froze as Bo’s heart monitor sped up. Bo’s un-bruised eyelid twitched and then opened. For a moment, the only sound in the room as the clicking, wheezing, and beeping of machines, and then Bo’s mother let out a wail and lurched for his hand.
I slumped in my chair, exhausted and drained. Loki wheeled over to me, and I took her hand while we watched a family ground down by despair be lifted completely by joy. After his parents settled down, Bo reached for me. I let go of Loki for a moment and took his hand.
A familiar tingle teased the nerve endings of my fingers as he squeezed, a silent ‘thank you’ in his eye as the image of his russet and black brindled fur flashed in my mind’ eye. He let go of me and reached out for Loki, and at his touch Loki gasped and then looked over at me and I smiled. She smiled too and let him take his hand back.
I whispered low enough that only she could hear. “In the spring everything starts over. I’d like you to meet our new Beta…” We smiled at each other and then she kissed me, long and deep. Her lips felt like satin, smooth against the raw edges of my soul.
Like Lupa said, the battle was over, but the war was just beginning. There would be more challenges and pitfalls, new joys and anguishes, but we would survive all of them. Loki and I had each other now. Our Pack would endure.
To be Wolf, is to survive…
The Wolf Road Chronicles will continue in Book 2:
Bearing Raven’s Mark
About the Author:
Brandon M. Herbert is an author, artist, musician, entrepreneur and voracious biblioholic. He was born a third generation Colorado native, but his heart and soul belong completely to the Pacific Northwest.
Brandon wrote his first short story in fifth grade, and hasn't stopped since. He enjoys writing Urban Fantasy, both for Young Adults (Walking Wolf Road and The Wild) and Horror fans (World of Shadows and Tales of the Underground). He is a passionate wolf supporter, and has spent most his life researching the history, mythology, and reality of werewolves, shapeshifters, and therianthropes. Brandon also does freelance graphic design and plays guitar when he’s not kayaking Puget Sound or quaffing inhuman quantities of coffee.
Brandon is a member of the Whidbey Island Writers Association and the EPIC Writing Group. He currently resides in the Seattle area, and welcomes contact at:
www.BrandonMHerbert.com
Facebook.com/BrandonMHerbert
Twitter.com/BrandonMHerbert
Goodreads.com/BrandonMHerbert
About Walking Wolf Road:
When I started writing Walking Wolf Road in October, 2005, I honestly had no idea where it was going to go. WWR started off as a highly fictionalized autobiography, and evolved its own existence separate from me over time. There is still a lot of me in there for those who know where to look. A lot of the impossible things were real events in my life, and a lot of the mundane events never occurred.
Which is which th
ough is my little secret.
This story marked a period of war in my life, as I discovered the challenges of ADD, and forced myself to develop ways around it. Music was of monumental importance, and helped me overcome my distraction and mental flightiness when I found a piece that perfectly embodied a certain scene or emotion. On the following page is an abbreviated 'soundtrack' for WWR.
I also had a lot of fun with symbolism, and if you reread the book with a critical eye; it’s like an Easter egg hunt (Here’s a freebee: Bo’s last name is Tyrson, as in the Norse god Tyr, whose hand was bitten off by the wolf Fenrir; think about that when reading the last chapter).
One of the things that made this book difficult was that it is actually two storylines intermeshed. One storyline is a paranormal mystery, chronicling Jimmy’s transformation (both paranormal and mundane) and his evolution tied intrinsically with that of his antagonists. The other storyline is a coming of age struggle, confronting some of the biggest challenges and taboos my friends and I faced growing up. From parental conflict and separation, to love, sexuality, suicide, depression, bullying, and collegiate expectations.
I refused to dumb down the material, because these are real conflicts teens face, and pretending they don’t happen won’t make them go away. In particular, I have received a lot of criticism regarding Jimmy’s bisexuality. When I was in high school, only three of my friends did NOT identify themselves as LGBT; and the pain, struggle, denial, and rejection I witnessed deserves to be addressed. Additionally, I am neither anti-gun, nor anti-Christian. I am however pro-accountability.
I hope you enjoyed the story, and if you feel like contacting me, I would love to hear from you! You can find my contact information on my website: www.BrandonMHerbert.com.
Howls!
~B
Walking Wolf Road: The Album
10 Years - Seasons to Cycles, Shoot It Out
Angeli Milli - Requiem, Sarah, The Field, Surgery
Apocalyptica - S.O.S. (Anything but Love), Sacra
Breaking Benjamin - Fade Away, Dear Agony,
Anthem of the Angels, So Cold, Breath, Hopeless
Chevelle - To Return, The Red, Panic Prone, The Clincher, To Return, Bend the Bracket, Breach Birth
Cold – Wasted Years, Black Sunday
Dianna Krall - Autumn Leaves
Disturbed – Darkness, Dehumanized, Devour, Awaken
Evanescence - Before the Dawn, Anything for You
Gurdjieff/Tsabropoulos - In Memory, Gift of Dreams,
Bayati, Trois Morceaux Apres de Hymnes Byzantins
(Three Pieces After Byzantine Hymns)
Howie Day - Numbness for Sound
James Newton Howard - Rituals, Noah Visits,
The Gravel Road
Leona Lewis – Run
Linkin Park - My December
Loreena McKennitt - Dante's Prayer, Full Circle,
The Mystic's Dream, All Souls Night, The Highwayman
Michael Andrews & Gary Jules - Mad World
Nine Inch Nails - Hurt
Placebo – Running up that Hill
Ra - Walking and Thinking, Sky
REM - The Sweetness Follows
Sacred Spirits - Ly-O-Lay Ale Loya
Sarah McLachlan - Angel
Slipknot - Circle, Snuff
Stabbingback - The Enemy Within, Graveyard Hill
Staind – Lost Along the Way, Take a Breath, Something to Remind You, Devil
V.A.S.T. - Lady of Dreams
Vertical Horizon - Footprints in the Snow
VolkoV – You Walk Alone, Memories in Snow, Requiem
Within Temptation - The Howling
Wolf's Rain OST - Leaving on Red Hill
Sadly, this is an abbreviated list...