When a Pack Dies

by Gwen Campbell

  Fina felt the sadness creep in again. Her pack had been comprised of eight families only with no singles living on their own. Two of the families had been her older, mated sisters’ and even her older brother—who everybody expected to take over as Alpha when her father got too old—still lived at home. She saw that her pack had been small and wealthy, ripe for takeover.

  “Hey, Fina...” Nath squeezed her hand and nuzzled her temple. “You up for this, sweetheart?” he asked quietly. Even Cutler was looking down at her with open concern and he could be as emotionally subtle as a tick with gas.

  “Just...remembering,” she whispered and blinked hard. When another couple, followed by two single males passed them on the trail, she lifted her head, forced a smile and waved with her free hand. “I’ll feel better after I run. It’s been awhile. Maybe too long. I’ll be better after,” she added firmly and even Fina wasn’t sure if it was for the brothers’ benefit or hers.

  The path opened out onto a big, flat, grassy clearing, roughly oval in shape. A mixed, ancient forest ringed it. Fina could smell the growing excitement in the hundred or so wolves already there. She’d never seen so many assembled at once. Cutler led them in a slow, informal loop of the clearing, greeting members of his pack and introducing Fina to the few she hadn’t met. He laughed, asked after their families or their jobs. A lot of the single males looked at her with open interest. There was a time when Fina would have blushed under the attention. Now, she physically withdrew behind Cutler and Nath’s bodies—as much as she could without being obviously rude. Cutler’s unsubtle growls whenever another male showed too much interest in her kept any of them from getting too close.

  Because of Ryan, she’d met most of the families with young pups. The two weeks they’d been alone and on the road, his cognitive skills had started to retard. Fina didn’t know why but his ability to read, even his vocabulary and his ability to form complete sentences had diminished. From the first day with Cutler’s pack, she’d asked the Alpha to introduce her to families with pups Ryan’s age so he could socialize and she could watch the parents interact with their kids, hoping to pick up clues about what she was doing wrong. She really hadn’t learned anything except that Ryan needed to sit in a booster in the back seat when she drove but for whatever reason, Ryan was almost back to a full post-kindergarten reading level, could do addition and subtraction again, and he played readily and happily with other children instead of withdrawing into his electronic games.

  By the time they’d completed the full loop, the perimeter of the clearing was packed with wolves.

  “Time to get started,” Cutler said to no one in particular. “Any latecomers can catch up with the rest of us.” He led Fina and his brother over to an unoccupied spot and nuzzled Fina’s hair before lifting his arm from her shoulder. He began to unbutton his plain, ironed, light-blue shirt.

  The rest of the wolves began disrobing.

  Fina didn’t feel nervous or self-conscious being naked around others. It was something she’d been used to since reaching puberty and she lifted her lightweight sweater over her head, folded it, set it on the ground beside her then reached back to undo her bra. With puberty came the ability for a young werewolf to change into wolf form...and changing meant getting out of your clothes first unless you felt the need to shop for more to replace the shredded ones. She glanced at the brothers’ bodies and her heartbeat picked up.

  Nathaniel was simply too beautiful for her inexperienced eyes to fully comprehend. His shoulders were almost as big as his brother’s and his skin from the waist up was dark gold from the sun, shimmering with health and vitality. It stretched taut and smooth over striated muscles, deep pronounced pectoral muscles and a six-pack of abs that looked ready to punch out of his skin when he rolled his torso to drop his shirt onto the ground. He started to undo the button fly of his jeans and she looked away, swallowing the hunger growing inside her that belonged more to her wolf than herself.

  Her eyes turned to Cutler next and they got real round real fast. Although he was the same height as Nath and had the same chestnut-brown hair, he was just...bigger. Everywhere. Cutler’s arms were thick bands of defined muscle, his biceps and triceps huge yet managing to stay in proportion to that endlessly wide, lightly furred chest of his. Fina bit back the uncomfortable urge to rub her face all over him. Unlike his brother, Cutler folded his shirt before setting it on the ground and the movement made his obscenely wide lats fan out to dimensions that made Fina’s mouth water. She actually licked her lips before she realized she was staring.

  She looked away and hurriedly removed the rest of her clothing. The fluttering in her belly was deeply unsettling and she needed to change into her fur as soon as possible to run off the uncomfortable tension rising in her. She toed off her running shoes, pulled off her jeans and panties then ran her hands over her bare arms, fidgeting and needing the run to start soon.

  Cutler scented her arousal the second it started emanating from Fina’s small, nervous body. Just a trace of it. He held off unzipping his jeans when he realized his cock was starting to fill with blood. This was a pack run, not a mating run and he didn’t feel like standing around in his skin sporting a hard-on in front of his pack. Although with Fina standing beside him, he figured folks would understand.

  One look told him Nath was having the same problem. His baby brother kept looking at Fina’s naked body and Cutler smelled the lust coming off him. He dared to take a quick look at her and immediately knew why. It wasn’t because Fina was physically perfect—she wasn’t. Her hips were too narrow and although her ass was taut and round like an adolescent’s, both body parts were still girlish instead of womanly. But he figured they’d fill out after she’d had a pup or two. Cutler liked a well rounded, comfortably fleshed out woman in his bed. He liked the feel of a lush ass cushioning his hips as he drove into her instead of bony, unforgiving angles. Fina’s waist was tiny but it was her breasts that drew his eye—and made his mouth open in anticipation of tasting her. High, firm and big enough to sway and jiggle enticingly when she turned and looked around the clearing or into the night sky, searching the treetops for the moon.

  Mine. Wait. Soon.

  His wolf’s voice was stronger than usual, sensing the rise of the full moon and the freedom that was coming. Cutler swallowed hard. He didn’t know if he could wait. He didn’t know if he had that much self control and he saw his hands come up, reaching for Fina, needing to pull her to him.

  “Hey, boss!”

  Cutler grit his teeth when that familiar, obscenely cheerful voice broke through the haze of lust that he just knew was turning his eyes red.

  “What?” he snarled with unnecessary venom.

  “Tes-ty,” the owner of the voice purred, deliberately goading him. “You know if you ate more roughage, you wouldn’t be this irritable.”

  He growled and his upper lip fluttered, exposing his descending canines. “What do you want, Young?” Cutler’s voice was thick and gravelly—his wolf was very close to the surface now and the changes in his cells, the structure of his face and throat made talking difficult.

  “I want an introduction,” she stated self-righteously and flashed a smile at Fina. “Rude-o,” she shot back in his direction.

  Cutler exhaled impatiently. “Fina Whitesage, meet Officer Suzanne Young—my dispatcher.”

  Fina held out her hand politely. “Ah...you’re the voice I hear coming over the radio.” Instinctively, Fina hated the woman on sight. She’d never felt that way about another woman before. The strength of her reaction startled her. Despite that, she pressed on, remembering her manners. “I swear you’re the only one I can understand. All of the men I’ve heard sound like they’ve got a mouthful of chewing gum. I can’t make out a thing they say.”

  Suzanne threw back her head and laughed delightedly. Fina hated her even more. Suzanne was a sex goddess. Her laughter was silvery and musical, her teeth white and perfectly straight. She was maybe five or six years older than Fina and nex
t to this vivacious, confident woman, Fina felt like a child. Suzanne was taller than her, with long shapely legs that rose up to womanly hips and a waist that defied physics. It was just too small to hold up the rest of her and the rest of her made Fina want to slouch, cover her own chest and skulk away into the darkness. Suzanne’s breasts were round, large and flawless. Fina bit back a growl of envy when they swayed with the woman’s laughter, displaying all to clearly that every perfect, naked inch of them was real. Her nipples were so perky and pink that Fina wanted to slap the woman across the mouth. But it was her face that really ticked Fina off. It was the most radiant, beautiful oval Fina had ever seen, capped with a long, silky, lustrous fall of pale blonde hair.

  Fina promised herself that next time she took Ryan shopping for a new toy, she’d snap every damned Barbie in the store in half.

  Despite all that, Fina froze her pathetic, warm smile in place.

  “That’s because I make an effort,” Suzanne laughed. “It’s called enunciation, boss.” She slapped her Alpha’s belly lightly with the backs of her long, slender fingers. “You should try it some time.” She turned back to Fina. “I like this woman already,” Suzanne smiled and it made her impossibly beautiful. “I feel like I know you already. He talks about you all the time.”

  Fina didn’t know what to make of that but with her conflicting and uncharitable feelings, she wasn’t about to explore it—not now.

  “You got what you came for,” Cutler snapped at Suzanne and the tall blonde paled visibly. She let out a quiet yelp then a whine...a nervous sound of distress then, tentatively and slowly, moved closer to her Alpha.

  Cutler swore at himself mentally and held himself still. He had no right to go off on Suzanne like that. It wasn’t her fault her timing sucked. That was the second time she’d interrupted him with his mate. She didn’t deserve to be reprimanded for what amounted to his lack of self control. He didn’t refuse her when she hesitantly lowered her head to his chest. She moved slowly, in small increments, sniffing the air around him and glancing up at him again and again, gauging his anger and wary of it. She trembled lightly when she pressed her cheek over his heart.

  Fina actually backed away from Cutler when the busty blonde started rubbing her face against his chest. With long, deliberate, gentle strokes Suzanne caressed his heavy pectorals with her cheeks, nose and chin, nuzzling him and whining so quietly Fina barely heard her. Her breasts pressed into his ribs but with boobs that big, there was no way it could be avoided. Fina was surprised the woman didn’t just fall flat on her face from the weight of them...only she’d probably bounce right back up again.

  Fina felt like booting her in the ass to test her theory.

  Fina jumped a little when Cutler’s strong hand wrapped around her wrist, pulling her back to his side. She tried to resist—tried to pull away from him but he held her tight and refused to let go.

  Cutler knew why Suzanne was nuzzling him. He’d been angry with her—really angry and she needed the reassurance that her Alpha’s reprimand was over—needed comforting and needed to reaffirm the bonds of Alpha and pack member between them. He held back his impatience, held himself still and waited for her anxiety to recede. When the scent of it faded, Cutler sighed quietly. “Go on, Suzanne,” he said with uncharacteristic gentleness. He tipped his head toward the huddle of six, unmated males who were standing nearby and raptly watching his dispatcher’s every move. “Before your admirers have a stroke.”

  Grinning self consciously, Suzanne lifted her head from him, glanced up at him once then lowered her eyes and walked back the way she’d come.

  When she left, Cutler filled his lungs slowly then exhaled. Suzanne’s scent was fresh on him, light, healthy, fertile and undeniably female—but hers wasn’t the scent he wanted. His wolf snapped its jaws angrily and prowled through his head, trying to get away from the scent of this interloper and locate the smell of its mate again. Cutler tightened his grip on Fina’s wrist and drew her closer.

  “Mark me,” he growled, dipping his face and rubbing his rough cheek across the side of her face. He slid his free hand around her waist and pulled her into him, overpowering her strength easily, holding her small, warm body against his. “I want your scent on me. I need it,” he snarled. Cutler let go of her wrist, wrapped his hand around the back of her head, stood up to his full height and drew her face to him.

  He threw back his head and let his wolf’s growl reverberate through his still-human larynx. It was a frightening sound—part man and part animal but the cry was picked up by other male werewolves throughout the clearing. The wolves inside them trumpeted their strength and vigor in anticipation of the rising moon.

  Trembling from head to toe, Fina rubbed her face over Cutler’s chest, reveling in the scratchiness of his hair, drinking in the heat of his body, letting the beating of his heart overwhelm her hearing. The pulsing filled her head and her blood began to pound in her ears in time with it. She opened her mouth, dragged her lips over him, moving faster now. She gripped his thick biceps, dug her fingers into him, stretched up onto her toes so she could reach more of him, flipped her head back and forth and painted him with her scent.

  Cutler held himself absolutely still except for his head. It lolled back and his eyes gazed unseeing at the stars. He willed his skin to drink her in and let his arms fall helplessly to his sides as his mate touched him.

  The other woman’s scent on Cutler’s body receded, replaced by her own and Fina growled. A low, continuous sound she’d never made before—hadn’t even known she was capable of. It was a song of possession, intent and need and a rational part of her wondered why this formidable Alpha didn’t just simply throw her body away from his. Raise his hand to her and cuff her for her insolence. She snarled and stiffened when she felt another werewolf pressing into her back but her anger fizzled when she realized it was Nathaniel. He lifted her hair and began rubbing his temple against the back of her neck, her shoulders and spine—rubbing his scent over her like she was rubbing hers over Cutler. When her scent had completely erased Suzanne’s, Fina turned, grabbed Nath’s biceps and began to rub her face over his torso.

  Cutler blinked then grinned like he was drunk. He growled but it was a drugged, glutted sound. He leaned down, wrapped his arms around Fina’s waist and began sliding his cheeks over her shoulder blades, marking parts of her his brother hadn’t.

  The three of them clung to each other in a sated huddle until Cutler’s deepest instinct lifted his head. With unerring accuracy, his eyes turned to the white nebula just visible over the treetops, heralding the approach of the full moon. He held his breath for the span of a heartbeat, then two, then threw back his head and howled. “Let the run begin,” he bellowed in a voice that was half human, half wolf.

  All around him, naked, human bodies shrank in height but expanded in mass. Rising, multiplying howls sang out through the clearing as his pack shifted into the form of the wolf. He kept his chest pressed to Fina’s back but clawed at his zipper, yanked down his jeans and kicked them aside. He could hear his brother panting and growling as he too shed the last of his clothing.

  The two of them stood on either side of Fina, standing tall and powerful and pressed against her.

  Fina trembled but for the first time in weeks, it wasn’t with fear. It was desire—raw and foreign and she looked at the two powerful males, smelled the heat and need pouring off them, saw the fully erect and formidable penises rising from the dark thatches on their groins. Her wolf howled with all the power it possessed and she felt her bones splinter. Her spine shifted, drawing her head back and pulling her mouth open. Her gums ached, then her jaw as her teeth shifted, grew and moved back to fill her elongating mouth. The ache flashed into pain then disappeared entirely. The sound of her howl changed. It was fully animal now, strong and primitive and gloriously free. Her skin broke loose from the thin layer of womanly, insulating fat beneath it, slithered over her freely then fastened onto violently expanding muscle. Hairs formed beneath her sk
in and slid out through tight follicles. She dropped down onto all fours and howled again only this time the tremendous sound of it joined hundreds of other wolves crying out with unfettered joy. Her ankles shattered, stretched without impediment then knit themselves up almost immediately. Her nails thickened into sharp, thick daggers that promised death to anyone foolish enough to challenge her.

  Her snout snapped shut and Fina’s fully wolf eyes gazed over the clearing, seeing everything. Her tipped, perked ears swiveled and she heard everything. She smelled everything. A red squirrel in a cedar chattered down at them aggressively then seemed to sense the combined power of the new animals crowding its territory. Its tiny claws dug into the soft bark and it spun, raced up the trunk and disappeared into a tiny crevice between two limbs. Fina knew it wouldn’t come out until after sunrise. She heard a leaf tremble in the breeze, heard a blade of grass bend as the rough pad of a paw passed over it, smelled the quick, frightened release of an elk’s urine from over a thousand feet away just before it flipped its tail up and ran, causing its small herd to stampede away in its wake. The muzzle of the wolf that was Fina pulled back from its sharp, solid teeth in a parody of a human smile. They were the most powerful creatures on the face of this land this night and the most powerful had the luxury of play.

  But before her wolf let itself indulge, it had a piece of business to attend to. Moving smoothly and powerfully, Fina loped forward a few feet and waited. Another female, smaller than her, sleekly muscled and elegantly beautiful because of it, strolled her way with a wide-eyed crowd of young, impetuous males so close on her tail their muzzles bounced off each other as they pressed in after her, jostling each other for a whiff of her scent. When the female was close enough, Fina’s wolf growled in warning. She turned to the side, presenting her flank to the other but held her tail high. The glossy, reddish-brown fur on her haunches stood up and her head was low to the ground.