There is no sex this story. More character background is provided in the stories Pancakes and The Arena.
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The leaves gave and occasional crackle or crunching sounds under their feet; it was late fall and the forest floor was blanket with the fallen dried leaves and the occasional patch of white left over from an early snow. Moving silently through a forest was never an easy thing and was a time consuming process as not only did each step need to be carefully thought out an placed but the entire path need to planned as far as visibility allowed. The visibility problem was eased somewhat because it was a cloudless night with a full moon. It was so bright the moonlight even cast shadows.
Even Werewolves were not totally silent when in a hurry and this pack of was in a hurry as they tracked their prey. The blood lust was on them and this time of year prey was scarce in the wilds of central Russia so they rushed to close and make the kill.
Abram was the leader of the back. The oldest and most experienced among them he had begun to form this pack after the last one he was a member of was decimated by hunters and slayers near St. Petersburg two years ago. It was a slow process to build a strong pack because you had to choose member's carefully. A rare combination of strength and intelligence with a degree of submissiveness was desired in the humans you decided to bring over. Strength and intelligence were obvious qualities but submissiveness was also desired so they would not present a serious challenge to your leadership. Pack leaders who ignored this in favor of building a large pack rapidly found themselves trying to hold a weak pack together, torn by dissention and intrigue. No werewolf could last for long on its own, membership in pack was essential but a weak or divisive pack was almost a big a threat to survival as no pack at all.
Increasing a pack size creates its own problems. As a pack grows in size it needs a larger population base to provided enough prey. These means large towns or cities. Many cities already have a pack or packs laying claim to them so your pack must be big and strong enough to carve out its own territory or content itself with feeding on the fringes and staying out of the way of the bigger packs.
With eight werewolves counting himself the pack was getting too large for this rural area. Too many humans start falling victim and it attracts too much attention. In a larger city like Moscow more prey means less attention attracted. Abram also really hated country living. With winter coming on the comforts of a larger city is what he longs for. After this next kill it would be time to move to the city or at least the suburbs. Abram still had some misgivings about his pack. All seven of them were relatively young all in their 20s or early thirties. He had turned them himself these past two years.
In human forms the members of his pack looked like college students, urban professional farmers or miners; which they were before he turned them. In lupine form most were 6'4" to 6' 8" tall 280lbs to 350Lbs. They had a mouth full of fangs and 2" to 3" claws. The fur that covered their muscular bodies was a variation of grays, browns and black and their eyes were solid red orbs. There were three exceptions and these three exceptions were the cause of problems within his pack.
There were three females in his pack. Two of them Alena and Rani were difference in appearance. While the same size as they others Alena's fur was a deep solid coal black while Rani's fur was almost a solid white. Their appearance was not the cause of the problem. Their sexuality was. Alena and Rani had become lovers. While Abram did not care about their sexuality there was only one other female in the Pack, Gelya, and she was his mate. That meant that four remaining male werewolves had to sate their lust with their victims as well as their hunger. This was part of what caused the third problem with pack.
Georgyi was a miner and the first that Abram had brought over for this new pack. At first he was submissive enough but he became more impressed with his own lupine strength. He was almost as large as Abram himself who was 7' 2" and close to 400lbs. Georgyi's growing ego and the lack of a mate created more discontent. Abram refused to allow him to bring over a female of his own. Bringing over a human to the pack was privilege reserved from the pack leader to ensure that the human was suitable. Georgyi resented this and resented Abrams leadership. He had not challenged Abram directly but he had made comments to others about Abram being old man who he was too timid to bring over more to the pack and his caution in picking victims.
In the old days Abram would have simply killed Georgyi but Abram was older by 427 years, wiser now and yes, more cautious. Abram's size was already described. His black fur was streaked with silver due to his age. He had a vertical scar that ran across his right eye from his forehead to his jaw. It was gift from a witch he was fighting just before he ripped her in half. He had five parallel scars across his back from a fight with another werewolf over a hundred years ago. A wound from conventional sources such has knives or bullets healed without a trace. The damage from a blessed, enchanted or magical source or from silver, other werewolves, vampires, demons etc. would leave signs of damage depending on the power of the blessing, magic or enchantment involved.
Abram had a wound despite having received some 300 years ago that never fully healed. It was an ugly open wound on his neck. In human form he always wore a scarf or high collar to hide it and in lupine form it was partially hidden by his fur. He had received it when the first pack he was in pushed an attack on a group of what was assumed a group of hunters and slayers. His pack inflected a few casualties on the humans but they ended losing almost everybody in the pack and those few that survived did not escape unscathed. He was a long time in recovering from his wound and while it no longer inhibited him it never fully healed. Abram had learned from the incident that even when the bloodlust and hunger was upon him to be cautious.
Now he was cautious in his dealing with Georgyi. That he could kill Georgyi he did not doubt but there were always risks. There was a chance that Georgyi could injure him severely or even cripple him in the fight and that would end his leadership of pack. More than likely the others would kill him in the fight over who would take his place. Abram also knew that he needed every member if they were to move to the city as planned. As of yet Georgyi had not undermined his leadership and he could tolerate him a little longer. Right now the pressing concern was their current prey.
Something about this prey bothered Abram but he could not put his finger, or claw on it. It was like an itch in the back of his mind. There was something about the prey's faint scent that nagged at him. The prey had moved rapidly though most of the previous night but followed no straight line path but often turned off its route only to double back almost as if to throw them off his trail. They had lost his trail several times the previous night. He had the pack spread out trying to find it again.
At his point Peter let out a howl indicating he had found the trail. Peter was the youngest of his pack a farmhand in origin. The pack moved to Peter's location on a low ridgeline that had been clear cut and was free of vegetation. In the distance they could see the small glow of a campfire.
They approached the fire slowly. The pack circled the fire continuously sniffing the air and looking for possible traps as their circle grew smaller the camp fire was in site. One of the scents puzzled them but the sight they saw was even more puzzling.
