Me? I was enjoying the feel of the wind through my fur and adrenaline rush of the hunt. Anything was better than staying in bed all day and nursing my wounds, especially with the fresh, lingering memories of my deceased friends. I definitely needed this distraction.
One musk ox slipped up and stepped the wrong way, took a stumble over a rock and recovered. That was all Jack needed to pin it as our next target. He caught up to it along its right side to separate it further from the herd; Henry took up the left flank, just in case the creature decided to turn around and try to escape. Zack served as his backup, while I remained a spectator for the time being.
Henry was the first to charge it, in a playful taunt that would hopefully to distract it and give us an opening. The ox charged only a few steps before it returned to its prior position, knowing that one mistake would cost it its life. It hoofed at the ground, nervous at the situation it found itself in. Zack circled around to one side, while I took the other. Henry and Jack stood shoulder to shoulder at the front of our prey, snarling and baring their teeth. Surrounded, the creature had nowhere to go and lunged at them. But its endurance was low, and the half-hearted attack only left it open for my assault.
My teeth found home in its neck, and there was a baying scream that escaped it. It continued to swing its large head around, determined to sink its horns into any of us, but the blood loss followed with its endurance and made it even weaker. A few sinking bites to the back legs from the brothers soon brought the creature to its knees. But the musk ox continued to struggle, despite our teeth in its neck. The herd had left it to die, choosing to survive rather than tangle with a small pack of wolves and risk their own lives. The babies screamed in bewilderment and worry, afraid they would be next. But we left them alone; there wasn't enough meat on the musk ox to feed four of us.
I continued my grip long after the musk ox sank to its side. It was only when I saw no more plumes of breath escaping its large nostrils that I finally let go and licked the blood away. Despite having eaten not too long ago, the taste of a fresh kill instantly stirred my stomach and made me hungry. I started to work on the flesh, eager to get rid of all the hair in the way so I could get to the delicious meat and bone underneath.
Jack pounced upon me and pinned my head to the ground, his teeth bared at me. I was startled and confused. His muzzle soon relaxed, and he nodded back the way we had come, towards the cabin. He meant to bring it back instead of devouring it here. The smell of the fresh kill would likely pique the bear shifters' interest, and none of us were prepared for another fight with them.
I pinned my ears back in understanding and yipped in his direction. In our current forms, dragging the musk ox back would be a problem, and leave behind a trail that would be much too easy to follow. The fur fell away and left me naked again to the elements; my neck and torso smeared with blood. Three pairs of brown eyes stared at me as they shifted too: claws disappeared, fingers elongated, knees and hips and ankles changed, and moved and twisted into their human forms. The brothers grunted in the process and stretched their arms over their heads to realign their spines.
"Not a bad kill," Henry remarked and wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. Jack stared down at the creature and did the same, though there was no fondness in his eyes for the kill. He only saw it as a necessity, not something to find thrill in.
"Not bad, Mia." Zack came over, his bloody fingers running through his blond hair and leaving rust-red streaks behind. It was a sight to behold, and I covered my mouth to hide my smile. "You've definitely healed up a lot faster than, uh, than I thought you would." He averted his eyes before he could finish his compliment.
"I've never seen anyone take down a musk ox so quickly, especially with such few numbers." I pulled my hair back and to the top of my head, where I quickly knotted it back into a bun to keep it off my neck. The run had left me a little sweaty and I was in a desperate need to cool off.
"We've had practice," Zack said as he turned away, blushing all the way past his shoulders at the baring of my breasts. Adorable.
"Come on. We should get this back before someone else catches the scent." Jack rubbed his lower back and swept his arms in large circles to warm them up. The other two followed suit; muscles moved and worked differently between human and wolf form, and it was best not to sprain anything, especially while doing something so simple.
With their attentions elsewhere, it was difficult not to admire their physiques. All lean, and muscular in different ways. Henry was thin with most of his strength in his shoulders and arms; Jack was stockier and well-balanced; Zack had more definition in his back and legs, and slightly softer in the stomach than the other two. By no means fat, but it was obvious he loved food a little more than doing sit-ups.
What was more surprising was that I hadn't garnered any stares from them when it came to my own physique. There'd been no comments about my curves, or how I managed to keep up with them, looking the way I did. I'd been subjected to snide comments all my life, and it was refreshing to not hear them for once.
Almost downright welcoming, in fact.
One by one, we each took a leg and hoisted the beast back to the cabin. It was a trek, but the weight was manageable for each of us. We moved mostly in silence until I peppered them with questions: how long they'd been here, where had their pack hailed from, what did they do out here for fun. Jack replied that they had only been out there a short seven years, and that the pack they had left behind was farther up north. He had no answer for my third question and I heard Henry chuckle ahead of me.
"Jack is the last person you should be asking about fun. He wouldn't know what it was even if it bit him on the ass."
Jack had no response for that either. With his back to me, I couldn't tell what his mood was, and decided not to probe any further.
The wooden structure eventually returned to view... but something was amiss. Jack was the first to raise his fist—a signal for us to stop in our tracks—and slowly lowered our kill to the snow. He dropped low as well, and the rest of us followed. I focused my eyes on the snow just around me instead of the view Jack was presenting me with. It was getting very hard not to blush at the sculpted rear before me, the curve of his cheeks, how the lines disappeared into the dark crevice between his thighs towards—
"It's Terry..." he whispered, and Zack perked up on the other side of the musk ox.
"Terry?? Hey, Terry!" The blonde was off like a shot, sprinting towards the cabin and flailing his arms. Henry and Jack stared at each other with unimpressed looks before they followed as well.
"Wait," I hissed. "Who's Terry?"
"Someone... from our old pack." Jack extended a hand and helped me to my feet.
"Jack! Hurry!" Zack's frustrated call roused us into a frenzy as we hurried to their position. When we got there, we found a red-haired woman, looking deathly pale, grey-green eyes staring back at us. She looked frightened, and the brothers helped her inside.
I glanced back at the ox and decided it wasn't going anywhere. We could take care of it later.
By the time I caught up with them, they were fretting over the woman. I caught the sight of blood and saw Henry easing her down on to a seat. They were frantic with their questions, save for Jack, who waited until their panic subsided to make sense of what was going on.
"How about you start over from the beginning?" He gathered up one of the blankets I'd left behind on the floor and placed it around her shoulders. This Terry tried to compose herself but failed the first few times as she wiped away tears with bloodstained fingers. I decided to let them discuss things while I went to the kitchen and poured her a cup of coffee. Someone had forgotten to turn the percolator off while we were gone, and it was starting to smell burnt.
"They have... they have the cubs," she managed between sobs, as she took the coffee from me with both hands. She stared down into the dark liquid, looking entirely uninterested in it.
"The bears have them."
Henry and Zack stared at their
brother, then looked back at me. Their young ones had been taken just like my pack’s. It seemed that even our pack wasn't the only one to suffer.
"And they called us, too. Said that they would return them to us if... if we pay them." Terry looking dreadfully sick, peered around the room, like searching for the nearest garbage to throw up in.
Ransom? This was the first I was hearing of such a proposal. Our pack hadn't received any such request, nor did it make sense. The bear shifters were cruel and greedy, only caring about their territory and how much food they had within. What could they possibly gain from keeping our cubs for ransom?
"Subjugation." The word slipped out of Henry's mouth in an almost-whisper, as if he'd been reading my mind. Everyone in the room stared at him in question, waiting for an explanation.
"The war's been going on for so long, we keep losing numbers on both sides. It's much easier for us to repopulate, but they... only have one child at a time. What if they're trying to win by enslaving us?" The more he talked, the more panicked Henry grew. He was trembling slightly, his hand over his mouth.
"Enslaving?" Zack placed another blanket over Terry's shoulders, then leaned on the back of the couch.
"They still have to hibernate sometime. Makes it harder for them to keep a watch on their territory at all times. But if they can bribe us with our own kids, make us hand over all the food we have, or whatever it is they're asking for..."
"There won't be enough to sustain our own numbers," Jack finished. His brows furrowed deeply, his stare fixated on nothing in particular. The room fell silent. I didn't know how to process any of this.
Then Jack broke the silence.
"We can't help you," he said as he stood. "You can stay for the night until you're patched up, but you'll have to return empty-handed. I'm sorry."
The looks on Zack and Henry's faces told me they felt the same way I did: that his decision was too rash and unsympathetic. But none of us had the heart to tell him so, in front of Terry.
She, on the other hand, looked like she was about to cry. I took a seat beside her and offered her some tea instead, as coffee would only keep her awake. She said that would be fine and thanked me. An offer of stew was turned down, and she curled up on the couch to try and come to terms with what she was going to have to tell the rest of her pack.
She was almost asleep by the time I returned, as it took me a while to find anything, and set down the mug of hot tea on the table nearest her.
"Can I talk to you for a second?" I whispered harshly to Jack, who only nodded in response before following. The other brothers weren't far behind as I led them upstairs to the room they had provided me with so we would be out of earshot and wouldn't wake Terry up. Before the door was closed, however, Jack already had some idea of what I wanted to talk to him about.
"We have no obligation to them," he said curtly and crossed his arms over his chest.
"No obligation? They're your pack! How could you just turn a blind eye to their suffering?" I couldn't believe I was trying to convince a wolf shifter of his duty to his own. It was something that was ingrained in us from a very young age, and a difficult rule to ignore. It was hard not to get heated up about this.
"We chose not to play a part in their war anymore. Our parents died fighting it, for what? Pride? Our borders? Nothing ever changes, whether we're there or not." Jack sounded like he'd had this discussion before, and I could see why he was adamant in his resolve. Only this morning had I wanted to stay here and forget about the problems I'd left behind in my own pack, to pretend as if I could find pure bliss here. It was an easy escape from it all.
"Maybe not, maybe you're right... but the cubs are innocent. If they need help, why would you want to turn that away?" I figured if I couldn't win an argument with logic, I might as well play on his emotions. He seemed like a just and fair person who was always concerned for the little guy.
I was right; Jack stiffened on hearing my plea. He could see the sense in my words.
"If not for your pack, at least for the little ones. They don't deserve to be scared and alone in a place they don't know. With people they don't know." With any luck, he would have some idea of what that was like, after the death of their parents.
He seemed to think on it for a while before the tension in his shoulders softened.
"Fine. It seems like I'm not going to be able to convince you otherwise."
"Great. I'll go get ready." I headed to the door, but Henry blocked my path.
"Hold up, hold up, wait a second!" He spread his arms wide, looking concerned. "We didn't ask you to tag along. This isn't any of your business, Mia."
"Excuse me?" Was he really pulling this now? They remembered I helped them to take down a musk ox, right? As well as fighting off a number of bears just yesterday?
"It's too dangerous! You haven't fully healed yet and..." Zack looked close to tears. His concern was touching, but I hadn't gotten this far on coddling.
"Boys, it's nice and all that you think I'm going to sit here and be a damsel in distress, but I'm a lieutenant in my pack. I can handle my own. And as I recall, I have a score to settle for you helping me out. So, politely? Go to hell. One of our cubs is there, too, and I'm not going back home empty-handed."
"You almost lost your life!"
"I would put it on the line again if it meant finding those cubs. You're not talking me out of this, Henry."
I didn't know why I was arguing with him, though. It was Jack's decision to make, and I turned to their leader to measure his opinion. Jack glowered down at me, his downturned mouth fixed. He seemed tempted to lock me in here and throw away the key to keep me out of his way. He probably would have too, if his situation wasn't so desperate.
"You know I'm right, Jack. You need me."
"Personally? I don't need anyone. But those cubs do. You're a stubborn one, Mia, and I'm not going to hold your hand when we get there, understand? We do need the numbers, and you'll have something to report to your pack instead of hearing it from us secondhand. But this is a risk you take alone. We're not going to stop for you if danger arises. Got it?"
I understood perfectly and nodded. He had no obligation to me either, but I was definitely going to prove to him how well I could take care of myself now that I was healed up.
"I'm... going to drag that musk ox around back." Zack excused himself, likely to get away from the tension filling the room. Henry only stood there, his expression mostly unreadable. Jack followed his brother.
"Don't take too long getting ready. We'll be leaving soon. Keep an ear out or you'll get left behind." And with that, Jack was gone.
"That's... that's his way of saying thank you. I think." Henry’s apologetic smile told me I was doing the right thing. I was definitely going to have a better chance finding the cubs with the brothers at my side.
7
I slipped on the shirt and shorts from earlier before following the boys back out of the room. By the time we got back downstairs, Terry was gone. I wasn't sure whether she'd overheard our argument or chose to return to her pack, but the couch was empty. The mugs of coffee and tea remained, untouched. Zack stood by the open door, calling out for Terry in desperation, but she wasn't answering.
"Don't feel too bad," I said, as I passed and pat his shoulder. "She has to inform the rest of the pack anyway. Hey, our kill's still there." I hooked my elbow around his and dragged him along behind me. Henry decided to join in and help us carry the creature to the back of the cabin, so we could remove the skin. It was thick and woolly and would make a few good coats for when winter became unbearable.
"You think we should go tonight?" I asked, as he dug his large knife into the belly and dragged it through the middle. Blood and organs oozed out, and there was a smell of partially digested food that clung to the air. With the heat of the fresh meat, steam instantly rose.
"Might not be the best idea. We still need to recover and come up with a plan first." Henry grunted as he pulled the organs aside to get to the bet
ter meat. "Plus, the pack's a good four hours away and getting there would only make us more tired. Traveling by snowmobiles would make way too much noise, and the bears would know something’s up. We're better waiting until dawn when no one else is around. Fresh start to the morning, you know?" Henry offered with a bit of a smile, his bloodied, slick hands held up in a defensive shrug.
"I'm surprised you're listening to him, Mia. I would think you'd want to get out there as soon as possible," Jack added, as he joined us for the butchering. He took to pulling back the skin until the meat was entirely exposed; the bones could be saved for a stew; Zack worked on getting the head separated from the body since none of it was good meat anyway.
"There's nothing wrong with exercising a little common sense here," I replied, and placed an armful of organs inside one of the large metal basins that had been provided. "I want to get out there as quickly as possible, but only when we're at full strength."
"I can see why you're a lieutenant. Help me inside, would you?" He hacked through a thick slab of rib meat, hoisted it over his shoulder and headed inside, leaving his brothers to take care of the rest of it. I saw no reason not to follow and grabbed one of the basins to carry inside. Jack started wrapping up the rack of ribs to place in the large freezer while I placed the basin in the sink.
"I want to say that I'm sorry for earlier. The yelling. I can't control what you do or how you do it. I was merely... concerned for your well-being, especially with everything you've been through already."
I rinsed the meat off under the water and turned to look at him briefly. I was surprised to hear an apology from him; it wasn't necessary, but it was still comforting to discover he was more than just the serious leader. Once he was done, he stood beside me to help with the rinsing.
"How about you make it up to me with a kiss?" I bumped my hip against his, and he looked down at me in question.
"A kiss? We don't know each other that well, Mia."
I rolled my eyes and flicked some water at him.
Mated to the Alpha Wolves Page 5