Safe Haven Wolves
Short Stories
Book 1
Sherry Foster
This story is a work of fiction.
All of the characters, organizations, events,
and places portrayed in this novel are products
of the author's overactive imagination.
Copyright © 2020 Sherry Foster
DAS Publishing
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means.
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Contents
Adrik Finds a Mate
Tragedy Hits Home
Finding Mia
Fleeing Justice
Time for Change
Billy
Edward isn't Happy
Author Notes
Introduction
In this short story we find out a bit about Gammon who started life as Adrik in a little village in Russia. If you haven’t read the books then this first story will offer no spoilers but it will give you a glimpse of the power of one who will be known as the most power Alpha in the shifter race. If you have read the books, you will know Adrik as Gammon, the Alpha of the Alaska pack and the keeper of the Safe Haven for the females of the race. I hope you enjoy this short story and make the decision to continue with the Safe Haven Wolves.
Gammon’s Early Years
Adrik finds a mate
Russia- 1589
Adrik wasn’t like the other little boys in the pack. Jutoh’s lips quirked. No, the boy wasn’t like the others at all. He played like them, and he got into as much mischief as any other three-year-old little boy but there the resemblance ended. The spirit of the little boy was unmistakable and one day, Jutoh knew, he would have to send the boy out to build his own pack. But until that day arrived, he would train the boy to be the best Alpha possible. If the boy lived that long. And it was looking more and more like he would have to kill the little one if he wanted any peace at all. He hadn’t gotten a chance to be alone with Sasha in days. He could smell the heat of his mate and he needed to mate with her if he wanted a little one of his own.
But right now, he could smell the scent of another in his bedroom, a male who should not be in his room. Tilting his nose and inhaling again he searched the room with his eyes. He could smell the male, but he didn’t see him. He leaned over the bed again and inhaled. Closing his eyes, he gave a low growl as he took a step back. Leaning down he looked under the bed. The bed his mate was on. The bed he wanted to be on. Naked, in the arms of his mate. But he couldn’t do that. Not with the set of eyes of another looking at him from under the bed.
Reaching under the bed he grasped the tiny foot and pulled. Adrik came out kicking and screaming and managed to land one tiny fist to Jutoh’s nose. With a snarl Jutoh held the little boy away from his body as he glanced down at the bed. Sasha was laughing at him.
“You wait right there. I am going to return this little terror to his parents. I will be back. You will wait.”
“I will wait for you until the stars fall from the sky and the rivers turn to dust.”
“I won’t be that long.” Jutoh inhaled the fragrant scent of his mate once more before turning toward the door with Adrik. He talked as he walked the little boy home.
“It isn’t done. It is not right. You can’t come over any time you want. Do your parents even know where you are? You should be asleep, in your own bed, not curled up under mine. Swear we are going to tie you at home if you don’t stay there.”
He paused in his speech and sent his thoughts toward his Beta. Pavla, where is your son tonight?
My son? Which one? Mikhail or Adrik? No matter, they are asleep. Did you need something? Pavla paused a moment before continuing. Never mind, I hear him screaming.
Pavla opened the door as Jutoh arrived. Reaching out he lifted the screaming child from his Alpha’s arms. “Hush. You will wake the village with your racket.” He handed his son off to his mate and turned to face Jutoh. “Where did you find him this time?”
Jutoh snarled. “Under my bed. Try to keep him home this time.” Jutoh glared once more at the screaming child before turning to face Pavla. “Explain to him he can’t have my mate.”
“Oh? Is that why he keeps screaming mine? I will try. I don’t know what’s wrong with the boy. We have talked to him before. Are you sure it isn’t because he has the Alpha spirit?”
“An Alpha spirit will not cause him to try to take my mate from me. The boy is three and his age is the only reason I don’t kill him for trying to claim that which is mine.”
Jutoh turned to leave with a snarl. He almost jogged back to his home. His mate wouldn’t be in heat much longer. He had already missed most of her fertile cycle. But the village had to be fed and feeding the village meant someone had to hunt for meat.
As he slipped into bed and pulled her to him, he said a small prayer that this time would result in the child they both wanted.
***
Three weeks later
Sasha looked up at Jutoh and Pavla in dismay before looking at the small wolf pup sleeping in her lap. “He wouldn’t go home. I did try, his mother tried, even Mikhail tried to pry him away. That is when he did this.” She pointed to her lap.
Jutoh shook his head. “That is not possible. No one can shift that young. He is still a baby.”
Pavla reached for the pup before pulling his hands away and turning to his Alpha. “What do we do? Is something wrong with him?”
Jutoh threw his hands in the air. “Wrong? How the hell should I know. You’re his father, you tell me.”
“How do we get him to shift back? Do you think he can? He isn’t old enough to understand what he needs to do. What if the wolf won’t accept the change back to human form?”
Jutoh shrugged. “Then I guess you are stuck with a pup. Where is your mate?”
Sasha looked back up at the two men and told them. “I sent her home. I had Mikhail take her. She was upset. Neither of us knew what to do and she was making the situation worse with her fear.”
“Take him home. He will fare better at your house with his mother than he will here. I don’t want Sasha upset. It isn’t good for the babe she carries.”
“What do we do about getting his human form back?” Pavla asked.
“I don’t know. I will ask some of the elders if they know what to do. But I don’t think they will be helpful. That isn’t normal.”
Pavla reached again for the small pup. The pup woke as he was scooped up in his father’s arms but his attempts at escape proved futile as Pavla tucked him against his chest and turned for the door. The pup tried in vain to snap at his father as he growled and snarled. Pavla’s lips twitched in amusement at the fierceness of his son. The pup, no matter how much he tried, could not pull off fierce, not at three years of age and barely larger than his father’s hands in size.
Two more weeks pass
Jutoh stared at the small pup sitting at Sasha’s feet. “Well how did he get inside?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I heard the door open but when I turned to look, he was already in. He used his nose to close the door.”
“He may have closed it with his nose, but he didn’t open it with his nose.” Jutoh narrowed his eyes as he stared down at the tiny ball of fluff sitting on the floor. The little one was content to sit at Sasha’s feet and watch the room
until Jutoh tried to move closer.
“Sasha, come here. If he won’t let me approach perhaps, we shall see if he will let you leave.” Jutoh held his hand out.
As soon as Jutoh had stepped inside the little one had started growling. The closer he had gotten to his mate the louder the growls had become until Jutoh was only a couple of steps away at which time the growls had turned to snarls of rage. The pup had calmed down as soon as Jutoh had backed away.
As Sasha eased from the chair Adrik looked up at her and whined. She crossed the room with the pup at her heels. Jutoh tilted his head as he watched the tiny one. Sitting down on the bench he pulled his mate onto his lap while he watched Adrik. After a couple of attempts to jump onto the bench failed the couple saw a shiver rack the little one. A moment later a small, naked, human three-year-old little boy hefted his way onto the bench before shifting back to a wolf pup. As soon as the shift was complete the pup pressed his nose against Sasha’s stomach and whined before licking at her stomach.
“Sasha, love, I don’t believe he wants you after all. I think, I am almost certain, he wants the babe you carry.”
“But Jutoh, how would he know? I think you must be wrong. He has been coming to me since he could crawl. If he could reach me, he came. Since he learned to open doors a couple of months ago it has been hard to keep him away. The babe I carry is only just begun to grow within me. His attention to me has gone far longer than since my last heat.”
But instead of answering her Jutoh wrapped his arm around her and rested his hand on her stomach. As soon as his hand landed, as light and gentle as he placed it, the little pup set a racket of snarls and yips while trying to snap at the hand covering what Jutoh was beginning to believe could only be the future mate of the young boy. The young pup tried to push his hand away using his nose and failing that his next attempt was to wiggle his head under Jutoh’s hand. Jutoh, hand loose, didn’t try to prevent the attempt. He wanted to see how far the pup would go. Once Adrik’s head was between Jutoh’s hand and Sasha’s stomach the small pup stopped moving. Jutoh leaned over and stared into the face of his mate before motioning toward the pup with his head. “Tell me again it isn’t the babe he seeks.”
“How would he have known?”
Jutoh shook his head. “How do any of us know when our mate is close? We just know. Some things can’t be explained. How did he know, before you were even with child, that one day you would have someone he needed to protect? It is a mystery of the gods the ways of our wolves. Who are we to question what the gods do?”
“You think it is a female I carry? A female to mate with Adrik?”
“Can you explain his need to protect you from even your mate? How else to explain his actions? The babe you carry must be the mate of this one. How strong an Alpha will he be to seek out the mother of his mate before she has even gone into heat to receive the babe?”
“What if he is wrong? What if the babe I carry is male?”
“Sasha, love, even you no longer believe that. Look at him. He has gone to sleep with his head pressed against your stomach. He didn’t even worry about my hand on top of his head, not once he was able to get his head between us. Didn’t you say he sleeps best in your lap?” Jutoh lifted his hand from Adrik’s head. “Look at him and tell me it is not the babe in your womb he seeks to protect.”
“Why him? Why couldn’t it have been someone else?” Sasha’s shoulder’s sagged.
“Why not him? He has the spirit of an Alpha. If our daughter is to be his mate, I will make certain he is the greatest Alpha the world has ever known. If he is of the size of his father and his brother, he will be a beast of a man and well able to protect our daughter from the world around us. Well able to take on any human who might come sniffing around with harm in his heart.”
“But, Jutoh, he can’t stay in our pack. He will have to leave and when he does, he will take her with him.”
Jutoh snarled. His thinking hadn’t progressed as far as his mate’s had. That much was obvious. At his snarls, the ball of fluff woke and wiggled around until he was across Sasha’s lap as his snarls joined Jutoh’s. The tiny pup’s attention darted back and forth across the room as though seeking what danger had set the larger wolf off.
Sasha ran her hand down the back of the small pup while her other hand reached for her mate. Stroking both males she drew a deep breath. “How long do you think we will have before they have to leave?”
Jutoh thought for a moment. His snarls of rage gone with the caress of his mate. He shrugged even though she wasn’t in a position to see it. “A century, maybe less, certainly not more. If he isn’t strong enough to lead a pack at the century mark, he will never have the strength to lead. If the spirit we can feel is any indication we will only have a few decades. To mate so young is never good. He will not have the strength or experience to lead when she comes of age and his wolf won’t allow them a child in another’s pack. To keep them here for them to grow will be to deny them children. But to turn them loose before he can lead will be to condemn them to die. It will be as the gods will it.”
“What do we do until then? What do we do with him? I think you are wrong about his strength. Never has a babe shifted so young. He has strength enough for two wolves to have shifted this young. I am afraid, Jutoh. What is a couple of decades with our child compared to centuries without her?” With Sasha stroking his fur, no obvious danger and the snarls of the large wolf silenced the tiny wolf pup had drifted back to sleep.
“I don’t know love. It will be as-”
“Yes, yes, I know, as the gods will it. But can’t you shift it in our favor? Give him a reason to stay near our pack. Find him land to claim as his own. Land close enough we can visit?”
“Sasha, love, we can only do so much. His wolf will decide the territory. You know this. Didn’t our wolves choose this valley? We can’t claim the land for his wolf unless his wolf wants the land. It will do us no good to rail against the fates or try to change what has already been set for the future. We need to concentrate on what to do about him now. My wolf will not humor him for long. At some point my wolf will cease to be amused by the actions of the pup. His innocence protects him, but that won’t always be the case. Already I feel the rumbles of my wolf to protect his mate.”
***
Pavla stared at his Alpha in dismay before turning to look at his mate. “Mischa, love, please don’t cry.” He pulled her into his arms. The lines on his face deepened as he closed his eyes and tightened his grip. Tears tracked down Mischa’a face and those tears caused his wolf to tear at his soul.
Jutoh watched the pair for a moment in silence before he spoke again. “It would explain why he rubs at his chest. His howls of agony make sense if you consider the situation. The babe, she is his mate or will be if Sasha can give birth to a living child this time. He acts as our males do when they find their mate young.”
Pavla opened his eyes and shook his head as he answered. “But Jutoh, he isn’t just young, he is a mere baby. I have never heard of a child finding his mate so young. It can’t be. He has been this way since, well, always.”
“Can you explain it otherwise? Is there anything, any other reason for him to be so desperate to cling to Sasha?” Jutoh asked.
Pavla rested his chin on Mischa’s head as he considered Jutoh’s words. “What do we do? How can we help him?”
“I will take him to my home. The weather is turning and soon the snow will fly. Better to foster the child at my hearth than to risk him in one of our storms. We can’t keep him from my home when the weather is good. We have no hope of keeping him from my Sasha when the winds howl and the way between our huts is filled with the blinding blizzards. I will care for the boy as though he were my son. I fear the only way my wolf will continue to humor him is if we give him a home with us. As more than just a member of our pack. I have already vowed to raise him to know the ways of the Alpha as I have trained Mikhail. Now I give my vow to you and your mate to raise him as though my Sasha had bi
rthed him.” Jutoh’s lip quirked up as he continued, “It is not as though the boy is leaving to another village. If the babe can be delivered, we will not try again. Already my Sasha is sicker than other females in her condition. She has lost many babes these years past and this babe will be our last attempt. I would not have tried my mate’s health this time had she not begged to try once more. If she loses this one, I fear not only for her health but for Adrik now also. And yes, even for myself do I fear this time may prove too much for her. But I couldn’t have denied her this no more than you can deny your mate. You trust me with your life, your oath, and your bonds, trust me with your son. I can’t make this decision for you, not either of you, but we must protect the boy from himself. Blizzards don’t seek out the innocent to spare them any more than they seek out the guilty to destroy them.”
“Leave us. We will consider your words and make our decision. Forgive me, but I can’t so easily let him go.” Pavla murmured.
“You have until the first snowflake falls to decide. But if you want to spend time with him you will have to fetch him again from my home. I hear him running away from your home even now.” Jutoh’s voice was heavy as he turned toward the door.
“It wouldn’t do any good to bring him home again.” Pavla’s hand stroked the back of his mate as his ears caught the scrambling sound of his son’s paws on the gravel outside the house. “We obviously don’t have a choice, not in this. I thank you for making it seem as though we do.”
“No, my friend. I fear you don’t. It is as the gods will it. Our ways have always been as the gods will them.” Jutoh paused as he opened the door. “It is good we are of the same village for your child will always be close. Perhaps, as he gets a little older, he can be persuaded to return to your hearth.”
“You don’t believe that.” This time it was Mischa’s trembling voice that broke the small silence.
Blood of the Wolf (Safe Haven Wolves Short Stories Book 1) Page 1