You know I'm addicted to the commentary, so please let me know what you think. Thank you to everyone for reading. Enjoy – DW
*
The next morning dawned much too quickly and I stretched out waking up. I sensed a familiar presence before I opened my eyes. It wasn't a surprise to see Joel leaning on the desk when I did.
"Your scent is back," I told him groggily.
Joel came to lay beside me on the tiny bed and then pulled me to straddle him.
"All the spells are worn off," he told me. "The girls are awake, Anthony is awake, and Lucas' wound finally stopped enlarging."
I was wide awake all of the sudden. "What do you mean about Lucas?"
"Nate said you all saw him about an hour after the attack. The wound continued to enlarge until he went to see the healer late last night. Most of the muscle of his shoulder and front leg is still exposed."
"Oh, no Joel, I didn't know. I'm so sorry. I should have insisted he see the healer right away," I moaned dropping my face onto his chest.
"There's no reason to be sorry, love. The healer couldn't do anything either. The wound just grew and grew. Finally it stopped. We were just lucky he wasn't hit with a larger or more direct dose," Joel soothed.
"How did he even know to get out of the way? I thought these spells never affected anybody?" I mused.
"Once again," Joel sighed, "I do owe you a debt of gratitude for not listening to me. I told everyone what that spell did when it hit Anthony. They were all very cautious during the attack. No one wanted to be knocked out like that. If Lucas had been hit with a larger dose or more directly there is no telling what could have happened."
That made me feel better about being so stubborn. Something good did come out of it.
"Are you going to let them out?" I asked referring to the pack in the secure room.
"Already have," he told me. "The shipyard would be a ghost town if we left it to the few humans I hire."
I got up and we went upstairs to bathe and change. It was hard for me not to notice all the new cameras. They were unobtrusive, but they were everywhere inside the den.
"Nobody is sneaking up on us again," Joel told me as we walked through the hallways.
I'd never seen an attack like the night before. Now the security meetings were a lot more interesting. I started to pay more attention and started to get the hang of how it worked.
Emily noted my increased interest and started looking for interesting articles on the topic for me. Neither Emily nor I was particularly well versed in the subject, but she made it her mission I be prepared. I encouraged the initiative and was rewarded with something new to read every day.
Our studies soon said the same thing Joel already thought, security in the woods was going to be tricky. Joel and I finally settled for clearing them away by another fifty yards in every direction. We toyed with several ideas and eventually settled on a round the clock guard to video surveil them. It wasn't like we lacked the manpower, that was for sure.
The only problem with the eyes in the sky watching the perimeter was the rest of the pack. It became a game to see who could distract them while someone else played a prank. Usually the pranksters just pointed out where the security team wasn't watching.
I thought Joel would be angry when he found out what they were doing.
"Angry?" he asked me. "Hardly, they've made their point and my security has heeded the warning. Their game, as of yet, is not disruptive and it keeps the detail on its toes."
Joel continued to update security at the den. He even went so far as to make the windows bullet resistant. His main concern seemed to be places where the pack Council went together. Joel didn't want his most valued advisors left exposed when they were in a group.
"For too long we have depended on our native strength. There are weapons now that could do us serious bodily harm. Who knows what is coming next," he said and I agreed with him.
With everything going on at home it was easy to miss what was going on in the rest of the world. With all the extra security, I felt like we were protected from whatever was happening. Other packs weren't as lucky.
The calls started as a trickle at first and then they became daily. At first it was mostly reports of rogue attacks. Later, it became thefts and break ins on pack property. None of it seemed to have any strategic link. The wolves just seemed bombarded from all sides.
Those simple breaches of security didn't really concern the wolves too much. The rogue attacks were common, in their own way. It was just an upsurge. At first everyone just assumed the thefts were perpetrated by witches. That was bothersome, but not dangerous. Overall, they seemed to consider it a containable threat.
The wolves didn't galvanize until later. A pack out west had a human business rival steal valuable trade secrets from deep within the den and their patience was at an end. Involving the humans was dangerous territory.
"The pack doesn't know who took the information and whoever it is knows too much," Joel ranted to me. "Our secret is at stake, our very future is at stake."
It wasn't just that in danger, though. Our lives were at stake
As I watched Lucas slowly heal from his injury, I was positive the menace could get much worse. Lucas took weeks to improve, which was unusual for a wolf. I shuddered when I thought about what that spell could do. If it could be 'weaponized' it could tear the packs apart. Evidently I wasn't the only one to see promise in that evil design.
Joel got a call from an Alpha Samuel Devoe early one morning. The spell that had glanced off of Lucas had hit several of his highest ranking Betas directly and insignificant quantity. The wolves suffered hours of agony as their bodies were dissolved by the tonic. One wolf died when it destroyed his heart.
"Those spells can kill a were wolf?" I asked Joel stunned.
I didn't really realize much could kill us, besides another wolf. It was hard to process.
"Removing the head from the body or destroying the brain can kill a wolf. Enough injury to the heart can also kill," Joel told me.
I paced inside our bedroom and Joel sat on the bed staring out over the forest.
"Why would someone do that?" I asked Joel finally.
"Rank," Joel said. "Samuel said his Betas were on a regular training run. One of them had circled around to try a blitz attack on his buddies, just for fun. He saw the witches as his friends rounded a sharp curve in the mountain trail. The spell poured down out of the trees and the witches shouted the incantation as they sped off on all terrain vehicles."
"The only wolf left made a choice and followed the witches. He called in reinforcements and the pack's trackers caught up to the witches as they left Samuel's territory."
Joel started to pace as I sat down heavily, but he continued to talk. "The witches went straight back to a diner and met with some of Samuel's younger pack members. Money changed hands."
