When a Pack Dies

by Gwen Campbell

  An hour later she was merging a customer contact list when her computer chirped an incoming-message alert. It was from a personal but generic military address. Fina opened it immediately.

  “Are you safe?”

  She blinked as she re-read the three, stark words. Her reply was less stilted and flowed easier than her first message. Typing as fast as she could, she told Owen that she and Ryan had been taken in by a large pack in Wyoming. They were making a place for themselves and were well provided for. She hit “send”.

  A reply came back in minutes. It was an invitation to join him in a live chat. As soon as she agreed, the little light beside the webcam built into her laptop screen lit up.

  “You really look like him.”

  Fina’s fingers hesitated on the keys. Owen Wells wasn’t what she expected. He still looked big, even bigger than he had at eighteen and his face was all hard edges and stark intensity. He was terrifyingly handsome because of it. There was a crease between his eyes that looked like it had become permanent. His dark-blond hair was cut very short. He had the same nose as Ryan which caught her off guard. She’d forgotten they were second cousins.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t know. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to take care of you and Ryan. Are you sure you’re OK?”

  She smiled and watched his big hand move over the screen, like he was tracing the outline of her cheek. Without thinking, she tipped her head into his imaginary hand.

  “I’m sorry I forgot about you.”

  “You were just a little kid. I can petition for compassionate leave. Be stateside maybe day after tomorrow.”

  It took her a moment to think through her reply. “If it’ll help you, come.”

  His image on the screen smiled quirkily as he read her post. “So you’re saying you don’t need me.”

  “Men...always fishing,” she teased then glanced guiltily over her shoulder before hitting “send”.

  “Funny. Give me time to absorb this. Computer time here is limited and there’s a line-up of guys behind me. It’s oh-five-thirty here. I can log back on in a couple of hours when everybody’s at chow.”

  He touched the screen once more then logged off.

  By the time Cutler switched off the game, Fina was again engrossed in an on-line chat with Staff-Sergeant Owen Wells. Cutler leaned over her, kissed her forehead and left her to mourn with this pack mate she didn’t know anything about while he ambled off to bed.

  Chapter Nine

  “Have you met Wally’s parents?” Cutler cut up the breakfast sausage on Ryan’s plate, poured him some juice then drizzled maple syrup over a toaster waffle. Officer Wally Pierce’s parents would be watching over the cubs tonight during the pack’s mating run.

  Ryan shook his head. Holding his utensils upright, his small body humming with impatience, he watched Cutler with a suspicious eye. Cutler suppressed a grin, amused by Ryan’s hyper-vigilance, even though Cutler had yet to mess up his breakfast and always added enough syrup.

  Ryan nodded his thanks when Fina added some hunks of melon to his plate.

  “Wally’s mother is fun like Wally is,” Cutler said. “She said she’d make mini pizzas for bedtime snack and you could roast marshmallows outside over a fire.”

  Closing his mouth around a forkful of waffle, Ryan raised his eyebrows, clearly pleased. Anybody who fed him pizza was all right in his book. He looked down and focused on his breakfast.

  “Nath’ll be back before noon?” Cutler asked Fina when she topped up his coffee cup then hers.

  “Yes.” She toyed with the food on her plate and stopped only when Cutler lay his hand over hers.

  “We don’t have to go,” he offered and his thumb moved over her fingers. “We can skip this one,” he added with a nonchalant shrug.

  Fina knew his indifference was feigned. She knew he and Nath were anxious to publicly display their claim on her. She knew they wanted her to take on her rivals in wolf form—dominate them like she’d dominated them in human form. Cutler especially tried not to show it but they’d been impatient to have her fully demonstrate her right to be the pack’s top bitch. Until she did, the undercurrent of tension in his pack wouldn’t go away. Every wolf needed one thing—an established hierarchy.

  “You never said anything,” he said quietly. He glanced at Ryan, making sure he wasn’t paying attention. “But Nath and I, we always figured you were...forced in wolf form.”

  She stiffened then nodded jerkily. “I’m not saying my wolf won’t have issues.” Despite the anxiety clouding her eyes, the corner of her mouth twitched up in a halfhearted grin. “It’s definitely got some issues. But I need to do this. I need to try. Just don’t expect a really good time.”

  Chuckling, Cutler leaned across the table, kissed her then picked up his fork and started devouring his breakfast.

  * * *

  Before sundown that evening, Cutler knocked on the front door of Wally’s parents’ house. Wally’s father greeted them warmly and once they were inside, Cutler stood on one side of Ryan. Fina stood on the other. Nath stood a step behind, his hands resting on Ryan’s shoulders. The adults in the room took a moment to take in the positioning of their bodies, their closeness and sniffed the air around them. After that they came forward in ones and twos. Their greetings weren’t fawning but they were overtly polite and respectful because of it. Children came up to them too. Those old enough to understand that Cutler was Alpha greeted him with a touch on his leg or arm, depending on how tall they were. They nuzzled him with unfeigned pleasure, deferring and affirming with the same gesture. Then they turned to Nathaniel. They nuzzled and touched him as well but their smiles were wider, their laughter louder when he grinned, told jokes, asked what they’d been up to.

  After a few minutes, Ryan was pulled away from his surrogates, enticed by the movement of small bodies like his, by the giggling and wrestling match going on in the corner of the Pierce’s living room. Fina’s eye never strayed from him, although she was friendly and greeted the men and women who spoke to her. The children who were the same size as Ryan played with him enthusiastically but let him lead the games like they were obeying some deep instinct they were barely aware of. Koby stuck especially close to him, looping his thin arm around Ryan’s equally thin shoulders in a fine display of bonhomie, demonstrating their friendship. The larger children stuck to their own games but they gave Ryan space. Gave way to his group when they tumbled past. The smaller children were excited but noticeably sleepier than the others. Mostly they watched an animated movie or clustered around a cardboard box that had once housed a refrigerator. Now it had windows cut out of it and crayon drawings to make it look like a fort. When they did check out what was going on around them, they also looked to see what Ryan was doing, where he was.

  Fina’s shoulders squared. She could live with being a cheat and a fraud if it meant Ryan didn’t have to spend his youth cowering like a whipped dog and deferring to everyone else.

  After she thanked the Pierces for looking after the children for the evening, she led her mates out of the house. Most of the other adults followed, got into their individual vehicles and drove off in the wake of Cutler’s oversized SUV.

  * * *

  “I love your ass.” Nath nuzzled the back of Fina’s ear, swept his palm over her rear so quickly and nonchalantly she wasn’t sure anyone around them noticed then grinned like a naughty schoolboy as he unbuttoned his jeans.

  “Hmm. Mighty fine,” Cutler murmured in agreement. He glanced down at her body as he folded up his shirt. “Grade A. Choice cut.”

  “Are we going to have sex or pass the steak sauce?” she huffed and slapped away Nath’s hands when he reached for the zipper holding her pants up.

  “Just saying,” Cutler grinned, buried his face in her hair, inhaled with open pleasure and smiled until his pale, aqua eyes shimmered beneath the rising moon.

  There was no full moon tonight. They were reserved for pack runs. This was a smaller gathering. Younger wolves mostly, more si
ngles than married couples. As he and his pack stripped, Cutler scented the air. Four of the women in the clearing were in heat. He smiled. Come spring, there would be four new cubs in his pack. More if some of the births were multiples. His pack was strong, vital and growing.

  He watched his old friend Eddie Robertson hover around his wife. They were standing a little apart from the others. Cutler smiled. Jane Robertson was one of the women in heat. No wonder her husband was staying close, touching her, keeping a watchful eye on the other males. Jane stood near her husband and pressed her breasts into his body. Still grinning, Cutler looked away. If everything worked out, this would be Eddie and Jane’s second cub.

  He and Eddie had gone to school together and once a day if he could, Cutler walked the block and a half from the station house to Eddie’s bakery for one of the man’s apple fritters. “Ambrosia,” he thought as he licked his lips unconsciously. Someday he and Nath would be hovering around Fina just like that, gravitating to her fertility, orbiting her like planets around the sun.

  “That lecherous look on your face better be for me,” Fina growled and dragged her fingernails across his naked abdomen.

  Cutler hissed then growled in response. “Always.” He bent and ran his teeth over her shoulder. “Well, you and Eddie Robertson’s apple fritters.” When her blue eyes narrowed, he held up his hands defensively. “What? Do you want me to lie?”

  Laughing, Fina smacked his hard belly then leaned into his warm body. He wrapped his arms around her, held her tight and gently rocked back and forth.

  She sighed when Nath leaned his naked chest into her back and rested his head on hers.

  After a moment they straightened and removed the rest of their clothing.

  Bending to her, Cutler closed his mouth over one of her nipples. The cool night air had hardened it and his mouth felt especially good. Nath moved behind her, brushed her hair aside so he could kiss her neck and reached around her so he could hold her other breast, and gently comb the curls on her mound with his free hand. She reached up and clasped her hands behind Nath’s neck, arching a little and pressing her breast into Cutler’s face. He made a low sound of contentment as his tongue circled her nipple.

  Fina scented the air and opened her eyes. Single females—not a lot of them but enough—were circling them slowly. The females gave them a wide berth to be sure but hovered nonetheless, giving off a hostile vibe in contrast to the single males trailing after them. The males were focused on the circling females almost to the exclusion of everything else, oblivious to the sway of their hard cocks as they walked. The females looked at her coldly but glanced away when her eyes met theirs.

  Finally, Cutler squeezed her breast, kissed it one more time then straightened. His hard cock twitched against her bare abdomen. The muscles in his face contorted and when he called out, his voice was guttural, half man and half animal.

  “Let the run begin,” he bellowed, howled at the quarter moon then dropped down on his hands and knees.

  Fina watched as fine, dark hairs slithered out of his skin, covering him completely. His legs shortened, his neck elongated. Dark, vicious claws replaced his trimmed fingernails. He trembled with pain for just an instant as his face grew long, his head flattened and pulled back. A wet, midnight black snout replaced his sculpted nose and he pressed the fleshy end of it into her mound, sniffed her then growled with pleasure. He butted her once and Fina sensed the impatience in him before he sniffed her again.

  She and Nath dropped to their knees at the same time. By the time their hands reached the ground, their palms had shortened into tough, thick pads, fur had grown between their toes and the sensitive strands brushed over lush grasses, dark earth and small stones, distinguishing the different textures with ease. She shook and her skin trembled in response. It was thicker now. Tougher. Her reddish brown fur fluffed when a light breeze stirred it, communicating the direction of the wind, its speed and temperature. She ran her snout over the muzzle of the massive, brown wolf standing in front of her. The other brown wolf, almost as large and almost as heavily muscled, held its nose out patiently and nuzzled her when she finished greeting his brother.

  For a moment, Fina’s wolf let itself relax, taking in this feeling of belonging, being wanted, cherished. She was theirs. They were hers.

  When the moment was over, she lifted her head and scanned the clearing. Three bitches in particular were watching her. One was small and sleek with a shimmering, silver coat. Six salivating males trailed after her. Fina’s wolf sensed acceptance from her, perhaps even friendship. She watched Fina but her bright, blue eyes picked out the other two bitches, telescoping their positions and conveying the information to Fina.

  The second bitch was large for a female with a fox-red coat and long legs. The third was black and she lifted her lips, exposed her sharp teeth in open challenge, yet it was the red bitch that closed in on Fina first.

  When Fina stepped away from the brown males, they growled and moved their bodies to cut off her escape. Her snarl froze them in place and she walked into the middle of the clearing. It emptied quickly. She held her tail high, her shoulders low and turned toward the red bitch. The red bitch charged her, bared her teeth, snarled. Fina’s back end jumped, spinning her fast and effortlessly. She dipped her head, got in a nip at the other wolf’s belly as she hurtled past, then dropped her shoulders again as she waited for the next charge. The red bitch yelped but didn’t falter. She came back at Fina, faster than before, leading with her shoulder rather than her head so her momentum wouldn’t carry her off course this time. Fina dug her feet in and sprinted forward, catching the other wolf’s shoulder with hers, knocking her to the ground. As soon as she fell Fina leapt on her, bit down on her neck then released her just as quickly. She trotted away with deliberate arrogance, circled back and stood ready for a third charge. Fina’s wolf tasted the red bitch’s fur, her skin, a drop of her blood. She bared her teeth, exposing the proof of her victorious strike and waited.

  The red bitch got up quickly, faced Fina but didn’t move. She seemed to be considering her next attack, reassessing the large, new, reddish brown bitch that had mated with their Alpha and his Beta. Her blue eyes glared at Fina and she breathed fast. Without warning and perhaps motivated by desperation rather than relying on skill or finesse, she hurled herself at Fina. Saliva trailed over her cheeks as her jaws snapped. Fina charged. Ducking her head, she lined her heavy skull up with her powerful spine and plowed into the red bitch’s chest. She was taller than Fina, her center of gravity higher but she wasn’t as strong...or as motivated. The red bitch yelped, flipped, fell hard on her shoulder and yelped again. Before the sound was fully formed, Fina was on her, spraying spittle over the fine, bright pelt and sinking her teeth into the other’s neck.

  Blood. Fina’s wolf tasted blood. She snarled with savage triumph. There was not so much blood that the other bitch wouldn’t recover and recover quickly but enough to tell Fina that any more pressure from her powerful jaws would drive her canines past the thin network of capillaries beneath her opponent’s skin, into the arteries below. The bitch froze and so did Fina. A part of her understood that this one had value in their pack. She was young, strong...an unmated, breeding-age female. She might have wanted Fina’s mates, might have wanted the status and position that Fina now held and even though she wasn’t strong enough to claim them, she should not die for trying.

  Trying was good. It ensured that only the strongest female ruled. That her worth and position were established in the eyes of the pack. It affirmed the hierarchy.

  When the red bitch began to whine piteously, Fina released her, growled once then stood her ground when her opponent ducked her head submissively and ran off. Fina scanned the clearing with unnatural alertness.

  The other wolves stared at her then looked away when her gaze passed over them—male and female alike. All except for the massive, brown males who stood shoulder to shoulder as they watched her. She barked at them, calling out playfully and they barke
d back.

  Fina circled the open clearing, ringed by the other wolves in her pack. Yes. This was her pack. She ruled as top bitch. The two strongest males were her mates. Despite that she felt hesitancy inside her, like something wasn’t quite right. Like her holding this position wasn’t quite right. Her wolf dismissed the feeling. It was an instinctive creature. It understood strength, the bonds of the pack, affection—even love. It knew that to rule was its birthright.

  The black bitch stepped forward and circled opposite Fina. Fina growled. This one was cunning. She was large and projected confidence and power. By her size alone she should have claimed first challenge. Instead, she let another step forward. Let another tire Fina, demonstrate her fighting abilities, reveal any weaknesses.

  Fina growled again and her wolf licked its teeth. No sly pretender would rule in her place. No calculating sneak would get her paws on Fina’s mates. Fina didn’t wait for the challenge this time. She raced for the large, black bitch and their bodies collided in the middle of the clearing. Teeth dug into shoulders, tore into the thick ruffs of fur protecting throats. They shook their heads violently, powerful paws smashed into snouts, claws raked chests.

  Fina bit, held on and dug her back claws into the ground. She shoved forward, hard, letting strength and mass drive her body into the black bitch’s. The momentum carried her up and over her opponent, carrying the bitch’s body with her until the other was on her back. Fina planted her body over the black bitch’s, sunk her teeth in and shook her head violently.

  Her opponent struck out with a powerful paw, twice. She couldn’t dislodge Fina. She froze, lay back in submission then started to whine.

  This opponent had been too cunning to let off that easily. Fina let go of her throat and smashed her paw across the other’s black snout, rocking her head to the side before she got off her, shook off the saliva peppering her coat and walked away with her tail held at an arrogant angle. Before she reached the ring of watchers, she turned back. Her shoulders held low in readiness, she paced around her prone opponent. The black bitch whined piteously and watched her every movement. Her sleek, powerful body twisted and she crouched with her belly on the ground. What she didn’t do was cower in submission or run away.