Retaliation

by Paul C. Middleton

  “He raised you? Why would he do that? I mean I can understand him getting a lone Werewolf child away from ordinary kids, but why didn’t he just hand you over to the pack?” Janna asked

  “I’m not sure he knows himself. He’s not like most other werebears, though. Traveling with him I’ve met a few, and they tend to be loners, through and through. Some wolves are that way too. While he might appreciate a few days, even a week alone, there is not a driving need for constant solitude within him. After that he gets lonely. Being pack leader and as feared as he was after the Great Patriotic War, perhaps he just wanted some reliable company.”

  Danislav continued “If you like what you are wearing I would suggest that you get undressed. If you stay in those clothes, they’ll be wrecked when you change. Oh, and after you change, a lot of animals will be skittish around you. The predator scent lingers for a time. I don’t know of a were that doesn’t like changing every so often for the hell of it. I’m sure there are some, but it is a lot of fun being an animal.”

  He looked to the sky and then back down, “The key is to really want to change. Once you manage to transform there is a kinda switch in your mind’s eye that you can just flick. Then you change. No mystical clap-trap. It’s that simple.”

  He turned and headed back to the container. He did not need to see a beautiful woman that his father desired naked. No sirree. At best he’d be seeing a potential stepmother naked. Ick. At worst he’d start falling for her. He didn’t want to cause that sort of tension between Boris and him. He respected the man who had raised him too much to risk it.

  Janna stood there for a couple of minutes considering everything that Danislav had just told her. She was plunging into a world of which she had only seen the edges. Well, she had friends in that world already. People who cared for her. First, there was Boris. He had been treating her differently, as if she was emerging from the shadow of his past to a real person in the here and now. And there was Danislav who was treating her as if she belonged and that there was truly a place for her in their world as well. A group that wanted her for her. Not for the skills and tricks she had picked up and learned over the years. Her. It was as if for the first time in her life she understood what family meant. Even if it was a strange conglomerate of a family.

  She truly wanted to belong. To do that she had to figure this out. She slowly started undressing, focusing on that desire. She heard Boris lumbering up behind her. Quietly she said. “If I figure this out, please let me try and enjoy the form for a bit first.” She didn’t turn, didn’t look at him, but she heard him lie down. After she had finished undressing, she closed her eyes.

  She didn’t notice when Boris rose and moved around to get a better view of her body. It was spectacular. He estimated she had gained an inch or so. With her still in recovery, it was hard to tell what she’d look like an end result. She was healthy now, though. Still underweight, but not looking like a walking skeleton with a thin layer of skin and muscle over the bones. Seeing that she was improving gave Boris a level of calm he hadn’t achieved in a week.

  Her focus tightened, and she found the switch that Danislav had talked about. With trepidation, she flicked it… and nothing happened. She cursed out loud but all that came out was a bear’s roar.

  She opened her eye and saw she was standing as a bear. Standing felt uncomfortable so she lowered herself to all fours, both stunned and exhilarated by the transformation. She was extraordinarily large for a female bear, taller than normal and at least seven hundred and fifty kilograms in weight. She had brown-grey fur and was similar to Boris in body shape and markings. If she were thought to be a normal bear, a zoologist would describe her as belonging to the Siberian subspecies of brown bear. Though smaller than Boris, the difference in size was not as large as in nature – instead, it was closer to the difference in size in their human forms. Her form would still need to finish filling out but that would come in time. Her muscles would strengthen, and she might still gain a bit more weight.

  The world had more scents and… her train of thought was interrupted as she failed to coordinate the movement of all four legs. Her back paws tangled each other, propelling her into a hard fall onto her face. In the back of her mind, she thought she could hear a chuckle. She turned in irritation and stared at Boris, who was facing away from her. Huffing at his back, she started to climb carefully back onto her feet when he turned to look over his shoulder at her. With a challenging roar, he began to run.

  Concentration and precise movement were abandoned in her response to the challenge. Scrambling without thought to her feet, she wrenched her body back up and into the exhilaration of the chase. His scent clearly showed the path he traveled, and as she gained confidence, she picked up the pace. Within an hour she was fully confident in the form but was still trailing Boris. His path had formed an arc around their camp, but he was still well ahead of her. The air had a faint metallic scent on it as she got closer to him. When she found him in the clearing, she saw that he had run down a deer. With surprising dexterity, he had also gutted it and put the stomach and intestines in one pile with the offal dumped separately.

  He stood his ground, rose to his full immense height, and roared a challenge at her. She knew that he wanted to spar with her. The scent of blood and fresh meat excited her, and she wanted to get past him to the prize displayed on the ground. His plan on how to train her was obviously well thought out. He knew the nature of Weres from hundreds of years of study, Janna doubted he was challenged with how to engage her bear form.

  For the next hour, she tried to get past him as her hunger and frustration increased. His defense of the carcass and her desire for the food pushed her into trying to maul him with her claws, attacking him from either side to no avail. Eventually, she saw him come in a little slowly with one of his forepaws, and she swung back out of its path and bit it. Hard. He backed off and let her pass.

  After the intensive exercise, she was famished, and her nose led her straight to the pile of offal. Without thinking about it, she ate the entire pile, finding it far tastier than she had as a human. Finishing, she saw that Boris had slung the gutted carcass over his back. As her head rose from her meal, he made a soft sound to get her attention and started heading back towards the camp.

  CHAPTER NINE

  NVG Base Omega, Russia.

  Shen was nervous. His captor had been pacing and ranting around his cell for days. Finally, after nearly a week of the ranting, the vampire called him over and started demanding answers from him.

  “You are from China originally, right? Your clan borders the lands claimed by this, this Werebear that claims Siberia. What do you know of him? What resources does he have?”

  Shen stood for a minute, shocked by two things. Why was the vampire asking him something, rather than using him as a living experimental blood supply? Amazing, and odd. Then there was the question. There were legends as to why the clans had never moved into Siberia. The legends and stories told about the Siberian Bear were truly terrifying. Most agreed he was truly ruthless against any Asiatic Weres.

  With cause, Shen had to admit.

  The last major incursion by the clans had been more than three centuries ago and had been a disaster. The stories were often told to children as a warning against having contempt for a foe. Those who had attacked had gone in sure of victory, but not one in ten of the Werewolves that had been involved had returned alive. Even fewer of the Werecats had returned.

  Even the vampires of the East had been cautious about sending people into Siberia. It was as if the area was a black hole for Asiatic members of the UnknownWorld. He suspected it was part of the reason why there was so little transfer between the Asiatic UnknownWorld and the rest. His personal experiences were somewhat different, but that might be because he was simply traveling as a businessman, not acting as any kind of threat.

  At his hesitation and the glaze-eyed look on his face the vampire cursed and left the room. He came back quickly with a large amount of
smoked meat, which he passed through the bars. Shen broke out of his reverie at the smell and started to wolf down the food. He had been hungry for so long that the food was all he could focus on.

  After he had finished eating, he looked out of the bars at the vampire who repeated his questions to Shen again, this time with forced calm in his voice.

  Shen considered his answer carefully. He was in this vampire’s power, and he really didn’t want to piss him off.

  “Just answer with the truth, Were. I have no reason to punish you. Anything less puts my plans at risk. Answer honestly and I will provide more food for you.”

  Shen nodded his understanding, if not his belief, “If it is the same one that my people encountered centuries ago, then I have to say that this Werebear is dangerous. He managed to turn back several attempted incursions by the clan over the last three centuries with massive losses on our side. Only one of the Weres sent to take and hold the territory returned. He was insane, kept mumbling that a bear attacked his forces, taking them apart a piece at a time. That the bear could not be touched. He was missing an arm when he returned to us. His mind never recovered.”

  “Even vampires attempting to claim dominion over Asia were cautious about provoking him.”

  “He became known as the Ghost Bear. Some people doubt that the original one is still alive, but the fear he has caused over the years is such that people still are cautious when thinking of entering Siberia.”

  “Vampires from China became more and more cautious about their travels to Siberia. It is said that they behaved impeccably or ended up dead.”

  Konrad swore. The Ghost Bear was the pack leader in Siberia? The man had led a very successful campaign against the Weres and lesser vampires on the Eastern front. He had killed two of Konrad’s brothers. He’d never been able to find out more than the code name. Peter had refused to tell David, stating that it was war, and people on both sides had died. Even though the Ghost Bear was only a Wechselbalg, Peter had offered to take it to Michael for arbitration. David had backed down. He did not want Michael involved on the off chance he might find out some the formula survived.

  This whole project suddenly became personal, not just a power grab. He wanted this Ghost Bear, Boris, dead. He would have to be careful, though. Boris’s pack was reputed to be very loyal. The setback at Romanovka had him out of position and his troop strength lower than he truly liked. Konrad needed to come up with a plan.

  His thoughts turned to the refugee column and the Border Forces Spetsnaz unit whose commander he had subverted. Yes, perhaps by distracting him he could still improve his position enough to succeed in his plan. Once that was done, he would be in a far better position to get revenge. With control over key areas, he could force the President to change Russian policies to what he wanted over time. And to send as many teams and assassins as it took to kill Boris.

  ************************************************

  Major Yerokhin had called together the five Captains of the teams that were available and could be spared from the reserve. He had four of his fifteen teams already acting on drug interdiction operations, one gathering intelligence. He needed to maintain a reserve of four teams. His contact with the NVG had managed to arrange orders from the Ministry of the Interior to mobilize his available forces to interdict and delay the column of civilians en-route to make an illegal border crossing.

  He had been promised a promotion by his contact in addition to his usual payment if he managed to delay the convoy ten days. With his other responsibilities, he needed to be here in case his other units needed the reserves. He’d be sending in five teams to operate independently. It gave them more flexibility and him more cover if the government decided to disavow the orders. He had career goals of his own that did not involve any sort of time in jail.

  He started issuing movement orders. The troops would insert by helicopter tonight and start operations immediately.

  **************************************************

  Captain Evgeni Dubrovsky was not comfortable with his orders. His team wouldn’t be either. Taking down drug traffickers and thwarting slavers - that was why he had joined. Killing civilians fleeing something was not. If they were fleeing illegal paramilitary troops, as was the most common rumor, he liked it even less. Harming civilians, Russian civilians, put into an impossible situation was not what he’d signed up for. He’d run any man without similar feelings out of his team. A team needed to know they could rely on each other. He was aware that there were many corrupt people in the forces but made sure there were none amongst his team.

  After they had landed, he was going to head straight for the refugee column and attempt contact. His men would follow him and his orders, or not. He would not have his honor stained with innocent blood if he could help it.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Refugee Column en route to Mongolia

  The progress of the column had been slowed by the weather. With all the older people in the column the trip was having to slow its pace. Many of them were succumbing to the cold and illnesses. This was despite the fresh meat that the Werewolves were able to bring in to supplement the supplies. The off-road capabilities of the military trucks and four-wheel drives were sorely tested.

  The convoy commander, Lev, was worried. They were at least three days behind schedule, and if there were more slippage, they wouldn’t make their pickup period. He needed to find a way to pick up the pace, and if the weather didn’t clear up, he couldn’t see how. He only hoped their rescuers would understand. He believed the Czarina would.

  It was at that moment he heard a wolf howl in the distance. The howl repeated three more times. He swore and started organizing a group of the armed men. That was a signal for armed men moving to intercept. This was the last thing he needed.

  Within the hour he had four groups of a hundred men heading in the direction of the howls. There was a reserve of two hundred and fifty men waiting for one of the wolves to give details of the number and direction of the troops. They had to be Border Forces, not regular Army. There simply were no bases near enough to the route for the Army to have sent enough troops, even if they were willing. Spetsnaz to slow them down further was a worrying possibility. The wolf with the report would be here soon.

  ******************************************************

  It was a Spetsnaz team, but they were acting very strangely. They were compromising stealth for speed, something special forces rarely did. And they were heading directly for the sides of the column when the most effective way of sabotaging its progress would be to either raid the rear or set impediments to their progress at the front. He sent the wolf back to the group with orders for them to ambush but negotiate before firing. It was a risk, but if it got them more information, it would be worthwhile.

  He only hoped it would end well. If they were defectors, he was sure that either the Czarina or Boris would be able to find a use for them.

  ******************************************************

  Evgeni chose to take the lead position. It was only fitting that since this was his idea, he would take the position of the greatest risk. He was pushing his men hard, abandoning all stealth for speed. The five teams had been given different drop off points and were to act independently to ‘maximize confusion in the refugee column’. Even if this was a legal and legitimate operation, that was one of the stupidest orders that could have been given. For less than eighty men to cause any significant effect on a column of this size, even of civilians, they needed either air support or coordination. They had none of the former and the weather in Siberia would become that of a Caribbean paradise before the latter was provided. Not that he could blame any potential pilot. He wouldn’t want his name on an attack on any group of refugees.

  The howling of wolves had started within an hour of their drop off. It was somewhat unnerving. In the past when he’d been near wolves out in the wild they’d not been as… active. He even saw one of the wolves howl four times a dist
ance away on a small hill. It didn’t matter, it wasn’t like they were communicating his location or anything.

  The team kept moving fast towards the refugees for about two hours more when he slowed down. There was something wrong, something he couldn’t define. He stopped and gave the signal for the rest of his team to halt and take cover. Then he heard the distinctive sound of several rifles being taken off safety around him. He estimated he was still an hour’s hard travel from the column at least. They were being ambushed this far out, and while Evgeni couldn’t figure out the how.