Nikita heard Jutoh as he asked the men if they were ready and, at their acknowledgment, he gave the go ahead for them to bring the next one down. This time it was Nikita’s arrow that failed to hit the mark while the other three men’s arrows sang true to their targets. The last two days had been busy days but with this kill they were almost at the limit of what the sleds could hold over the rough terrain.
Nikita dropped his head to the ground and silently cursed. Rising he jogged toward where the herd had been moments before and began the search for his arrow. Once he found it and looked it over, he stuffed it back in his pouch and gave a nod toward Jutoh. The team with the sleds were within range once again for telepathic speech but they were still some distance away. The sled team had been stopping at each kill zone and loading the deer before tracking to the next site. According to the talk one sled team had a bit of trouble getting back into the harness after shifting and the sled was more awkward to pull than normal. Jutoh had asked Nikita to backtrack to the team and give them a hand after this kill.
It only took a couple of hours to back track to the sled teams and less time than that to fix the twisted harness. The adjustment helped considerably, and the return trip went quickly. The three teams, two wolves per sled, were relieved to be out of the harness and free to let their wolves run. With instructions from their Alpha to return by dawn the six men took off after the herd. Their wolves needed to run, they needed to eat, and they wanted to hunt. From experience Nikita knew the young ones would play and run before getting serious about tracking and taking down one of the reindeer. After they ate the young ones would curl up and sleep a few hours. He knew because that was what he and Dimitri and Adrik had done ten years ago when they were the ones hauling the sleds.
***
Free from the need to hunt for the village the four men took time to hunt some small game for themselves before building a fire and relaxing. The days long journey back to the village would start just after dawn and the men hoped to make good time back, possibly meeting up with Mikhail’s team on the way. The range was too far for Jutoh to find out how the other hunting team was faring and the village too far to know if the team herding the other deer had made it back to the territory. They had been instructed to ease the herd along letting up only when the deer were an hour or so out from the village. After that the men were instructed to back away from the herd and watch them for a day or two. The pack hoped the herd would settle in and stay in the area. Nikita kicked the fire out before following the other’s lead and shifting to his wolf form to sleep.
As light began to ease the darkness from the sky Nikita heard Jutoh start swearing. Shifting back to his human form he stretched before looking around. His wolf hadn’t alerted him to anything unusual and the sleds were still sitting unmolested where they had arranged them the day before. A moment later Nikita’s eyebrows climbed as he realized why his Alpha was cursing. The sleds were in the same spot, but the young ones had not returned and must not be close enough to hear Jutoh if his dire threats were anything to go by. A moment and one questing thought later Nikita realized he was correct; the young ones were out of range of pack communication. It didn’t take long for the implications to occur to Dimitri and Adrik from the expressions of unease he saw on their faces. He was sure his face registered his dismay.
If the young men weren’t back, and Jutoh waited for no one, then someone would have to pull the sleds back. The harnesses were set for two wolves but could be modified for one. If they young ones hadn’t figured that out and taken advantage of it on this trip when the sleds were empty, they would know by the next trip. Nikita stretched his muscles as he eyed the sleds. He and Dimitri weren’t small men, but they didn’t compare to Adrik when it came to sheer muscle and size. Pulling fully loaded sleds single harness would be difficult but possibly not impossible. The going would be slow and agonizing. He didn’t know if the boys had lost track of time, overslept, or tangled with something they shouldn’t have but if they were unhurt that wouldn’t last much longer than the time it took to return to the village. If they didn’t catch up with the sleds before midday, they probably wouldn’t have a pack to return to unless they had a good reason. For their Alpha, a good reason would only be if all the young men were injured.
“We do not wait. They will return or they won’t. Get those sleds ready. Don’t worry about trying to slide into the harness after you set it up. I will arrange the leather on your wolves. Come. Eat quickly I wish to be gone from here before the sun touches my face.”
The men broke their fast and returned the baskets of provisions to the sleds. They would have to stop more often than expected and they would let their wolves hunt during the breaks but this morning, and each morning after, they would break their fast with the provisions the woman of the pack had provided. The wolves were finally harnessed in and had just began to pull as the sun broke free of the night’s hold and the first rays touched the ground.
As the first ray fell upon Nikita’s face and he tucked himself deeper within his wolf the most soul wrenching pain he had ever known shattered him. As suddenly as the pain hit it was gone and his wolf was left gasping for breath and struggling in the harness. It was only a moment before Nikita regained his senses enough to take stock of himself, both inside and out, and to realize he had not been attacked, wasn’t bleeding, in fact he didn’t appear physically injured at all though his wolf was moaning, yipping and howling. He struggled to wrest control from his wolf before taking over the shift and twisting at the last moment to free himself from the harness. Getting into and out of the harness mid-shift was tricky and took time to learn but he had been one of the young men tasked with pulling the sleds at one time and the knowledge never left him.
Looking around he realized the only one in sight was Dimitri and he appeared to have gone through the same thing, whatever the thing was. Calling out to Jutoh was met with silence. Not just silence but a complete emptiness. The same occurred when he called to Adrik and Dimitri despite the fact he was looking at Dimitri when his mental shout went out. He could hear brush breaking and mournful howls of pain in the distance. He ran toward Dimitri who had turned toward the sounds.
“What happened? I can’t hear anyone. My head, my heart, it feels empty, like I have no pack. Did something happen to Jutoh? He was here, right there and then—” Nikita shook Dimitri’s arm and shook it as his voice dwindled to a halt.
Dimitri turned a shattered look toward him. “We aren’t pack anymore.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. I was looking at Jutoh when slicing pain shot through me and he and Adrik took off. I can’t feel either of them. We aren’t pack anymore.” He repeated.
Nikita shook his arm again. “We have to catch them. We have to find out what happened.”
Dimitri broke loose from Nikita’s grip and took off running toward the crashing sounds and the howling wolves. As they ran, they found shattered pieces of the sled and carcasses of the hunt scattered along the ground. A few minutes later they found a snapping, snarling, howling Adrik, tangled in the brush. The leather straps almost choking him as he fought against them flinging himself forward over and over. As the two approached him they tried to calm him, but the wolf was enraged, wild, almost, Nikita thought, like a wild animal trapped by humans.
“We have to cut him free. Did you,” Nikita stopped himself, and murmured, “no, neither of us thought to grab a weapon or a knife.” Almost before he was finished speaking Dimitri whirled and headed for the sleds they had left behind. He hadn’t gone far before he saw the bundle of weapons Adrik had lashed to the sled he pulled. Picking up the bundle he sprinted back toward his friends. Once there though, he was as lost as Nikita about how they would approach Adrik in the condition he was in. Adrik, in wolf form, dwarfed both men when they were in wolf form, in human form they had little chance, not as enraged as he appeared.
“Try to get his attention and hold it. I will jump on his back and try to saw through the leather. Here, use his spear and try
to keep those jaws from my neck.” Dimitri told Nikita.
A moment later Dimitri dived for Adrik’s back as Nikita tried to jam the wood in the wolf’s mouth from the side. Adrik didn’t react the way Nikita expected though and a sharp stinging slash ripped through his arm before he could dodge.
With a twist Dimitri managed to get a section of the leather strap in the wolf’s mouth and he pulled up and back. “I can’t hold him, get the knife. I dropped it, no, the other side. Hurry.” Dimitri grunted as he was slammed into a tree, but he didn’t give up his hold on the leather nor did he release the grip he had with his legs around the wolf.
“Hold on, if you have him, gods hold him, and I will get this buckle free. Hold him.” Nikita struggled to release the wolf from the harness. Claws ripped through his leg just as he managed to wiggle the leather loose.
Seconds later Dimitri again slammed into a tree as Adrik’s wolf broke from his hold and took off, the leather harness no longer holding him back. Blood pouring from his arm and leg Nikita limped toward Dimitri. He noticed Dimitri was also losing blood, but they couldn’t afford to wait long. Neither of the men had any clothing on, they hadn’t brought any with them and it didn’t shift with them so they never figured they would need it. With nothing to bandage the wounds they scouted around until they had some moss to pack around the worst of their injuries and used the leather from the harness to bind the moss in place. The men took off at a run toward the faint sounds of howling loss they could still hear in the distance. They didn’t speak as they ran. Nothing they could say would explain what was happening, so they saved their breath and pushed forward.
Surprisingly, they found Jutoh before they found Adrik though they could still hear him in the distance. Shock held them momentarily speechless as they watched their Alpha crash into a tree only to back off and crash into it again. The third time he crashed himself into the tree the two men lunged for him. Dragging his body down to the ground the men held him. As the wolf buckled and howled Nikita struggled with the leather wrapped around his arm. Finally freeing the leather, he told Dimitri, “Help me lash his mouth closed. What the hell has gone wrong?”
The two men fought with the wolf but before they could contain him, they found themselves holding Jutoh in his human form.
“Jutoh? Jutoh?” Nikita turned toward Dimitri and shook his head. Jutoh’s eyes, unfocused, stared in horror at something neither of the men could see. They backed away a few feet and watched as their Alpha, the strongest man they knew, rocked and stared, now soundless. Seeing nothing, answering nothing, almost as though he were deaf, mute, and blind.
“We can’t leave him here, not like this. We have to catch Adrik.” Dimitri reached down tried to pull Jutoh to his feet, but the action proved pointless as the man slumped to the ground again. With more determination this time Dimitri again reached for Jutoh and slung him over one shoulder. Adjusting the weight, he looked at Nikita. “Let’s go.”
The two men took off at a jog following the mournful sounds of their best friend as his wolf’s pain echoed across the land. A few minutes later the howling stopped and the two turned startled eyes toward each other before Nikita glanced at Jutoh.
The men ran on until Dimitri called a halt. After Nikita took Jutoh from him, Dimitri said, “We can’t hear him, not mentally and not with our ears, we will have to try to track him.” Dimitri shifted and started nosing around trying to pick up the scent of his friend. At first unsuccessful he finally crossed the trail and howled at Nikita. With the scent of Adrik strong he followed the invisible trail his friend had left behind leaving Nikita to follow with Jutoh. His occasional howl giving direction to Nikita.
Nikita stumbled to a halt as he caught up to Dimitri. The silent sobs of the man sent a wave of pain through his heart. Laying Jutoh down beside Adrik he looked up at Dimitri who shrugged as he struggled to contain his emotions. Nikita watched as a mask seemed to fall across Dimitri’s face as he regained control.
“He isn’t there. I can’t feel him in my mind, not in my heart, and I can’t wake him. He just moans. He hasn’t opened his eyes or acknowledged I am here. I shook him, I hit him, and I shook him some more. Nothing. What could have caused this?”
Nikita stared at the two men, one his mentor, his Alpha, his leader, the other his best friend since childhood. The one he hoped would someday be his Alpha was a shell of the man from the previous day. Turning pain filled eyes toward Dimitri he uttered two words.
“The village.”
Dimitri sank to the ground beside the two men and wrapped his arm around his knees as he bowed his head. He and Nikita sat in silence as they pondered what could have happened. Nikita finally broke the silence and gave voice to the horror in his heart.
“Whatever happened, whatever caused this, the village must be gone. The mates, the ones we had who were mated, they must be lost. I mean our females, must be lost. We know the tales of losing a mate.” Nikita shrugged before continuing, “It isn’t that I didn’t believe the stories, but I have never seen it firsthand. This though must be what the others talk about. What is it they say, the mates go crazy when one is lost?”
“Yes, but why aren’t we pack now? Did Jutoh disown us? We were not the cause of his loss, if that is what happened. We need to get back to the village.”
“How? We can’t leave them here and neither one of us can carry Adrik, not far. Jutoh is smaller and lighter but Adrik would be like trying to carry a boulder.” Nikita sank to the ground beside Dimitri.
“One of us will have to go back for the sled. Dump the hunt from the sled and bring the sled back. I will go. You carried Jutoh last. Stay and watch over them. I will be back in a couple of hours, maybe a bit more.”
Nikita nodded, his eyes wet with unshed tears he waved a hand toward Dimitri as he choked out, “With my very life. I will guard them with my very life.”
Dimitri, one last look at the two men on the ground, shifted and raced back toward the two sleds he and Nikita had left behind.
It was almost four hours before Dimitri returned dragging a sled behind him. The sled wasn’t empty. Nikita could see he had brought the basket of food from the other sled along with their weapons and the hind quarter from one of the reindeer.
With a twist as he shifted Dimitri was again standing beside Nikita.
“We need to get to the stream. Help me load them on the sleigh. We can’t be more than a few minutes from the stream, I can smell the water from here. We must get some food in them somehow and we all need water. We need to eat. We have three days hard travel home, maybe less if we travel at night. Did they say or do anything while I was gone?” Dimitri asked.
Nikita shook his head. “No. I don’t think they are going to make it.”
“We can’t give up. I won’t give up. We will feed them and keep them watered. If there is any chance they can pull through I will take that chance.”
“I wasn’t suggesting we give up. I don’t plan on giving up. But anything we do may not be enough.”
“We have to try.” Dimitri’s harsh voice rang through the clearing.
Nikita nodded as he pulled the basket and weapons from the sled. Together the two worked on shifting their Alpha and their best friend to the sled then, while Dimitri worked on changing the harness back to a double pull, Nikita arranged the weapons and basket of food along with the hindquarter back on the sled. Soon enough the two were twisting as they shifted to get in the harness and headed for the stream.
***
“We will just have to figure something else out.” Dimitri spat out while shaking the water from his arms.
“Well, I call it a win. We did manage to get some water down their throats.”
“They almost choked on it though. Almost like their bodies forgot how to swallow. If we can’t get water down their throats how the hell will we get them to swallow food?”
“We will figure something out. Maybe if we cook the food to mush and feed them like we do our babies.” Nikita, hands shaking, l
owered Adrik’s body back down.
“Even a baby is greedy to be fed though. If we had a nursing mother, no, they would still have to suckle. Come on. We are rested and fed. We run until we need to rest again. We don’t even have anything to carry water in for them. We need a wineskin at least. If we travel hard, we may make the village in three days. If we travel harder, we could reach home sooner, if we have a home now.” Dimitri’s voice broke on the last word.
Nikita took a deep breath trying to control his voice before he spoke. “We work well together with the sled, but it has been years and never have we hauled one of our own in such a condition. Our skills are rusty, and we risk breaking the sled if we are not careful. We will have to slow down instead of speeding up. If we could still communicate while shifted our path home would be easier but every obstacle that has two easy paths around will try our skills of working together. We are going to get angry at each other, our wolves are going to fight if we can’t figure something out.”
The two slumped to the ground as the complications of pulling a sled when they couldn’t communicate filtered through their minds. It was never easy to pull a sled but, in the past, they could speak and make decisions on the run.
“Right, if the path leads either direction we will go right. I think, if we angle toward the right, we can find the path the sleds took toward us, but it could cost us time we don’t have. We are too far from the village to have a path home and they broke from our camp toward the village. This isn’t familiar ground to us, and it may be another two days before we are close enough. We can’t backtrack our trail from here. But we can’t keep going without clear direction on where we are at. We know we were at least one day journey east of the path home so if we continue to angle toward the west as we head south, we should connect with our trail back home in a day at least.” Dimitri said.
Blood of the Wolf (Safe Haven Wolves Short Stories Book 1) Page 3