Dear Readers,
Following is the story of a different set of wolves from those I've been writing.
I hope you will enjoy it.
KemMyst
*****************
They were running out of time. Two women were now locked below; one was a nurse's aide, and the other, a teacher. Both were being kept in their rooms for now and, while they initially fought and yelled, they had become quiet, seemingly in shock.
Devon was getting to the point where he was considering just grabbing the next fertile female they came across. He'd spent as much time in town as he dared, but hadn't found another female who made sense to bring into the pack.
They were out hunting, trying to scare up another deer or two before winter hit and they went into lockdown with extra mouths to feed. Devon, Duncan, William, and Spencer had headed off in one direction; Marcus, Sam, Kevin, and Nick in another. Devon hoped the others were having better luck.
Suddenly, a scent on the air had them all turned in the same direction, noses up.
*****
The packs lived up in the mountains, as far as they could from human habitation. The area was rugged wilderness and there were numerous mines in the area. The air was cool and the forest full of prey. There were streams, lakes, places to run. They had been generations here. And, for generations, they had lived and died and thrived.
They lived out of doors for three seasons but had to come indoors in winter when the snow got deep. They hunted, fished, gathered, and gardened. They wore skins and furs when they weren't in their own furred form. But, over the years, they gained access to human technology. They stole into towns, got phones and solar panels.
They had only rarely been seen by the humans.
The miners had known the wolves lived here, had seen tracks and the remains of kills. Trappers had had a hard time, catching everything but wolves. Later came hikers, wandering off into the wilderness. The national forest had miles of hiking and backpacking trails but they were in deep enough that few made it that far and the trails were far removed from pack territory.
As humans encroached the packs closed ranks and, while they remained autonomous, had formed a council to address threats from various sources. The council met monthly, kept track of the packs, and made sure of their anonymity. They kept their secret by keeping away from humans and were far enough away that it had never been much of a problem.
However, squabbles still occurred. Alphas died or were killed by challengers. Females were stolen from rival packs and there were often injuries or deaths as a result. There were fights for territory. So, while they lived in proximity and cooperated, so to speak, they didn't live together necessarily peacefully.
Cooperation became essential, however, when their numbers started falling. Winters were harsh and it took a lot of work to feed the packs. Numbers shrank as deaths piled up. One of the smaller packs disappeared altogether one winter and another's few remaining members were absorbed into another pack.
His pack lived here, the McKenna pack, their range bordered by that of three other packs. Their compound had been made up to look like an extension of an old mining compound; the cabin looked old, and held more room underground than above. There had actually been a working mine at one time. However, they, along with the other packs, had developed a problem. While hardy and long-lived, while strong and fast to heal, the werewolf population overseen by the council was losing numbers. They were down to less than 20% of what they once had been. They would die out as a species if they lost any more females. They couldn't go to doctors to find out what was wrong. That could take years, even if they were able to find help. It was time for something drastic. The easiest, and quickest, way to bring their numbers back up was believed to be to bring in new blood, even if it was human blood.
And so, the council had instituted a decree. As it was the females who were dying off, they had all agreed to bring human females into the packs, in hope that they could re-establish their population. Due to their reduced size, it had been decided that each pack would start by bringing in three females, to be changed, and impregnated. In addition, any and all unmated pack females would be required to take a mate as soon as she was of age. At the next spring, if things went well, additional human females might be taken to bring the sexes into balance again.
********
She had always felt comfortable out in the woods, in fact, most of her family liked being outdoors. Being alone in the outdoors always cleared her mind. Her current, no, ex-boyfriend had recently dumped her because she wasn't wild enough for him. Hmph, he was the one who had had problems with her going off walking by herself and yelled at her for bungee jumping. And, she knew she should probably be at home, calling everyone she'd ever met, looking for a new job. But, the severance package had been good and she had some savings. Her family still thought she was a little nuts for just taking off into the woods for ten days. She just needed to be somewhere right now where she didn't have to think about this sudden shift in her life, what she was going to do, and where she would end up.
Her pickup was down the hill, parked at a trailhead. She had told the park rangers her basic route and when she planned to return. Other than that, she wanted to be left alone.
On the third day, she figured she was well over 40 miles in and away from the weekend hikers. She decided to get off the trail. She was taking her time, not in a hurry to get anywhere in particular, just enjoying the warm fall days and the changing colors of the foliage. She had followed a rarely used lane and found the concrete wall earlier in the day and, while she may have been curious, she had no wish to intrude on anyone else's privacy, so she walked off in another direction, further into the woods. She made camp that afternoon on a pretty little ridge above a small stream.
Dumping her pack, she walked out to enjoy the rest of the afternoon, and to pick some of the late berries from a stand she had spotted earlier. She was intent on her picking, but was getting purple stains on her fingers and lips as she tasted some of the fruit.
She was headed back to her camp when a shadow crossed in front of her. Startled by the movement, she stopped briefly then moved forward to where the animal had crossed. Looking around for any sign of it, she dropped down, trying to find a track, and began talking to herself, analyzing what she had seen. "OK, doglike, but too big for a coyote. Maybe it's from that compound." Her finger traced the barest outline of a paw print, a big one. "OK, I really don't think I want to meet up with one of them." She looked around her more closely and hoped not to see movement. "Great, now I'm gonna hafta move camp and I won't get any sleep tonight."
After heaving a sigh, she headed back toward her camp, thinking she might start dinner, snitching a few more berries from her container.
She stopped dead when she saw the wolf in her path. "Shit!" The animal didn't start at the noise, stood its ground and looked at her. "OK, no sudden moves." She lifted a finger to her mouth, wet it, and brought it back down. "The breeze is blowing towards it, why is it standing there?"
She started to back away as the animal now turned towards her and took a step in her direction. "Shit." She stood still; it stood still. She slowly turned to one side, looking around for a means of escape since it was clearly interested in her. There was another wolf behind her. "Shit, shit, shit."
She backed up, slowly, away from them, which worked fine until she stumbled backwards into a tree. A third wolf came into view. He was larger than the other two, and dark. Her chest began heaving as she looked at the three wolves ringed before her. "OK, there's never been a confirmed attack of a wolf on a human in the U.S. The weather's been pretty good so they shouldn't be hungry and it isn't the season for pups. But if they're rabid..." She looked at them as one advanced on her. "Don't look rabid, what the hell?" She threw the berry container at the closest one. It ducked but stood its ground.
She decided on bravado. She waved her arms and yelled at them. "Go on! Go away!" While the one on the right startled slightly, the other two held their ground. Her right hand went into her pocket and she pulled out a knife. Without taking her eyes off them, she found the thumb knurl and flicked it open. "Look guys, I really don't want any of us hurt, so let's just say we all go on about our business and I'll get out of your hair."
*****
