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Morrison forces the pack to meet a friend of his, and during so they get a friendly welcome from their neighbours the town over.

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A loud knocking on the front door snapped David out of his slumber. The black wolf raised his head from the red wolf he had been using as a pillow and blinked blearily. He didn’t know what time or day it was at first, having spent the entirety of the day before sleeping after spending the entire night before that in a tour of Pioche’s spiritual reflection in the Shadow.

“Get up, you lot,” Shouted Morrison, “Get dressed in your Sunday Best. We’re going to church.”

“What? Why?” Lucas asked in the First Tongue, the other black wolf having been woken up by the elder’s knocking as well.

“Just do it,” said Morrison before he walked off.

Lucas shifted into HIshu and took off the clothes he was still wearing from the tour and put on a pair of jeans and a plain polo shirt. He roused the others, with David needing extra effort with Lucas needing to boot David up the rear to get him to finally wake back up after the black wolf tried to get back to sleep.

They all got dressed, Colin in a dress shirt and pants, and Jesse in just a straight up dress. Tsu’mara and David just dressed in their regular clothes.

“You’re not going to wear that.” Jesse told David when he saw David put on a plain baggy t-shirt and shorts.

“All I have,” David mumbled in response. They were the clothes the Bone Shadows elders gave him when they were training him. He had literally nothing to his name, as what stuff he did have was left in the Asylum which was just just old ragged clothes that he didn’t want anyway.

He sighed. He wished he knew where his old baseball was.

“We have to change that,” said Jesse. “Those clothes are hideous.”

After they all got dressed they passed through the living room to go outside where David noticed something on the wall that wasn’t there before.

“Since when did we have a TV?” he asked.

“Since yesterday,” answered Colin. “I got it yesterday. You were all asleep and too tired to notice.”

They met Morrison outside the house, who was waiting by the truck. He saw what everyone was wearing and shook his head. He got in the truck and told the others to get in as well.

Morrison drove them to the church he had pointed out to them the night before. St John’s Church. He parked in the almost fully packed parking lot where it looked like most of Pioche was helping break in the new church and honour its first Sunday Service.

He turned off the engine and turned to the pack, telling them, “You’re all gonna be on your best behaviour.”

He gave a pointed glare at David and then continued, “My friend’s the new priest. He’s human but he’s privy to info most humans aren’t. The Seal of Confession works better than attorney client privilege.”

“This isn’t the first St John’s Church,” he told the pack as they got out of the truck. “But I requested that the Las Vegas Council build a new one and pull some strings so that my friend would be given the new Parish.”

An old man dressed in priestly vestments approached the group, who looked the same age as Morrison. But since he was human he would have been much, much younger than the elder werewolf in reality. In his sixties rather than nearing one hundred.

The priest introduced himself, shaking everyone’s hands. David almost didn’t shake the offered hand until he felt Morrison’s furious glare on the back of his head. The priest said, “I’m Father Albert. Nice to finally meet you all. I’d love to get to know you better but I only really have time to say hi because of how many decided to join my church’s first Mass. It’s truly a blessing to see so many people here today.”

Father Albert then left them to introduce himself to the rest of his prospective parishioners.

The Old Man and the Pack took that as time to enter the church and find a pew to themselves. Soon after the rest of the public started filing into the church and almost completely filled the church with only a few spare pews left.

The sermon was fairly typical and which David found boring and didn’t pay attention to. He sat bored staring off into space for the entire time Father Albert gave his sermon, it seemed to drag on forever.

He wasn’t snapped out of his boredom until halfway through the sermon when he heard a sharp, terrified intake of breath from Colin. He looked at Colin and saw him trembling like a leaf, looking at something behind the pack. He was terrified.

Suddenly alert, David snapped his head around to what caught Colin’s attention. There was a group of a half a dozen men in dress clothes that entered the church and sat in a free pew at the very end of the church, close to the entrance. No one in the congregation paid them any mind but David knew that Colin wouldn’t have had such a reaction over regular people, and so too did the rest of the pack. There was something off about the men, something that humans wouldn’t consciously notice. Some sort of unease. An unease that intensified when the leader of their group locked eyes with the pack, an older man sitting in the aisle seat of the pew with salt and pepper facial hair walked with an ornate cane made of lacquered pine wood with an ivory handle carved into the shape of wolf’s head, and the butt of it seemed to be made out of a tarnished silver. He, and his cohort who all ignored the Mass, gave the pack intense glares for the rest of the Mass. Glaring at them like wolves staring at another pack at a territory boundary. A pit formed in David’s stomach.

Uratha.

The demeanour alone was enough to tell the pack that they were, but the scent that came to them soon after confirmed it, cutting through the smell of humans in the church and the church’s incense. It was a wolfish smell that David had grown accustomed to, but there were also others as well. A faint smell of burnt fur and, David scrunched his nose in disgust, a faint putrid smell of pestilence. The Firetouched from Caliente. It had to be.

Colin looked completely rattled, fighting to keep his composure as the Pure stared the pack down. He started when David laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. He calmed down quickly when he saw who it was but remained on edge for the rest of the Mass.

Communion started and the congregation lined up to take it, and Tsu’mara was the only one out of the pack who took it. The Pure didn’t partake in it at all.

After the last of the congregation partook in communion the leader of the pack of Pure approached the pack with two others, the silver butt of his cane clacking against the ground. David looked to Morrison for help but he was nowhere to be seen, abandoning them.

The older man stopped in front of the pack and introduced himself, “I’m Wilhem Talbot and these are my sons Josiah and Joseph.”

He pointed to the two men behind him, one a plain man and the other large brute of a man who was eyeing Tsu’mara like a piece of meat. David was unsure if the look was because he wanted to kill her, sleep with her, or both. Tsu’mara gave the man an unimpressed and dismissive look. David also noticed that the rest of the group that Wilhelm was with was nowhere in sight.

Wilhelm looked over the pack with a scrutinising eye. He raised an eyebrow when David put himself between Colin, who was frozen in terror, and Wilhelm. David tried to keep an ear out for the whispers that clued him in on Ralph Baker’s weaknesses, but he couldn’t make them out. He was too distracted by the sound of Colin’s terrified heartbeat, and the stench of burnt fur coming from the rival werewolf. Wilhelm paused when he saw Jesse and what he was wearing. Tsu’mara simply calmly glared at him when he looked at her.

Wilhelm told the pack, “I’m the leader of your Neighbors to the South, members of the Izidakh tribe. Devout followers of Rabid Wolf. You should be well aware that we’re Father Wolf’s true children.”

Lucas gave him a scrutinising gaze of his own as Wilhelm was talking and was able to work out that Pure werewolf wasn’t at the church for a fight, but was more than capable of turning it into a bloodbath. He then realised why the rest of Wilhelm’s pack wasn’t in the church. They were likely outside and surrounding the church to ensure that Lucas and the others couldn’t escape.

Lucas gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod to Jesse. Jesse then slipped away into the crowd with only Lucas noticing his departure.

Wilhelm continued his one-sided conversation with the pack, “Since we’re your neighbours, I’ll give you a friendly warning. Stay in Pioche and leave Caliente alone and there’ll be no reason for conflict. I am of course a reasonable wolf, so I’m willing to entertain future conversation. You’re welcome to stop by our own church. Places of worship are neutral territory.”

David was told that the Firetouched take pride in killing the Forsaken, werewolves that aren’t part of the Pure. But if they keep that mutual understanding that they stay out of Caliente, and they agree to stay out of Pioche.

Colin grabbed David’s arm and David looked to him. The terrified redhead gave David a small, quick shake of the head.

David looked back at Wilhelm and noticed what he missed the first time, the older werewolf was looking at him, at all of them with a glint in his eye from a predator seeing prey. The bastard was lying to him. He had every intention of wiping them out when he had the chance.

He couldn’t let anything happen to Colin, he looked at Wilhelm’s cane. If he was quick, he could snatch it from him and drive the silver tip of it right through his temple. Dalu wouldWhat he would do afterwards, he didn’t know. He’d figure that out afterwards, perhaps-

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” said Wilhem, interrupting David’s train of thought. “I have to thank Father Albert. I hope to do this again sometime soon.”

He then left, with his sons in tow, towards Father Albert and struck up a conversation with the priest. The pack couldn’t hear the conversation over the general din of conversation from the rest of the congregation. But their conversation seemed amicable enough, though as it went on, Father Albert started to get more and more agitated. Until finally, Wilhelm pulled out a book and handed it to the Father.

Wilhelm then left Father Albert holding the book, the priest’s face blank except for a twitching eye. Once Wilhelm and his sons were out of sight, Father Albert dismissively threw the book onto a nearby desk.

David turned his attention away from the priest and asked the pack, “Did he just proselytise to a fucking priest?”

Coin was too rattled from his encounter with The Pure to chastise David for his language, and was huddled close to him.

“Looks like it,” said Jesse holding the book, and startling David. “It’s the Book of Mormon.”

“Did you just steal from a priest?” asked David.

“I doubt he’ll care in this case,” said Jesse, waving David off with the book before he handed it to Lucas and asked him, “You think you can give this a look over for any tech or spiritual trackers? I don’t trust it.”

Lucas sniffed the book, and his eyes shifted to gold as he rapidly flicked through the book’s pages, “I’m not finding anyth-wait. Hang on…”

He stopped flicking through pages and started reading what was actually on the pages. “This isn’t the normal Book of Mormon. It’s heavily edited and heretical of any Christian text.”

He snapped the book shut, “This is a Pure religion with a thin veneer of mormonism.”

“So what? We burn it?” asked David.

“Nah. This’ll make a good addition to the library. For reference against other Pure beliefs,” Lucas said with a shake of his head, then pocketed the book. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

They then filed out, and as they passed the pew that the Pure were seated, Jesse saw a tin of biscuits with a note saying ‘To the protectors of Pioche.’ He swiped them from the pew.

They got out of the church safely and only then did Morrison return to them.

“Hey, you did a good job dealing with them,” he told the pack. “I only recognised two of them, so you understand why I couldn’t help you with them cause of my condition.”

“No, we don’t. What condition?” snapped David.

“Oh,” said Morrison, surprised. “Well I have a bit of a problem. I’ll explain it later but I can’t interact with Uratha I haven’t met before.”

David glowered at the Old Man, but Morrison either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

Jesse got the elder’s attention, “Hey, Elder. The Pure left these cookies for us but I don’t trust them and I'm gonna destroy them.”

Morrison gave Jesse a nod, “Good idea. It’s probably laced with silver. We might be able to touch silver unlike the Pure, but it’ll still fuck us up if we ingest it.”

He then told the entire pack, “Don’t trust the Pure, especially these ones. Their pack totem is a snake spirit and it was here with them too. Left a trail of venom all around the church’s perimeter. Try to avoid stepping in it, even if it’s in the Shadow the effect of the venom can still effect you since it Reached when it laid the venom.”

They made their way to the truck, following Morrison who seemingly meandered around the parking lot, looking like he was just wandering around. They eventually piled into the truck and headed back to the den.

When they got home, Morrison told them, “Their little visit was less a welcome and more of a loaded threat.”

“Any of you happen to know how many are in Talbot’s pack?” Morrison asked the pack.

“I don’t know. Thirty?” asked Tsu’mara with a shrug.

“Oh, Luna no,” said Morrison. “If that were true then they would’ve taken us out ages ago. Only 6 of them showed up today, and Talbot’s has more than us. I don’t know the exact number but there’s enough that they’ll probably kill us all but we’d take out a few of them with us. So they won’t come against us in a full on fight unless they could do it without any of them dying. Right now, you’d probably take out one or two of them each.”

Morrison thought for a moment before saying, “We need a pack totem to even the odds for when it comes to a fight with them.”

“How do we even get a pack totem?” asked David.

“Leave that to me for the time being,” answered Morrison. “I have a few ideas for some spirits.”

He pointed at David and Lucas. “But when the time comes I’ll have to take you two Ithaeur with me into the Shadow to see what spirit would work best for your pack. Sometime this week probably.”

Lucas didn’t pay attention to what Morrison said. He was too busy reading through Pure’s modified Book of Mormon. Occasionally mumbling to himself how it was ‘Pure propaganda.’

Morrison saw that Lucas wasn’t paying attention to him and saw what he was reading. He scoffed, “Yeah, it’s rather brazen of them to hand out propaganda to The Herd. Though it counts as acceptable if it’s veiled in cultish crap in their perverted version of the Oath of the Moon. They do in fact have their own version, like we do, but they’re more free about killing The People. Will happily kill one of us. Though they’d try to convert you first before trying to kill you. Which involves a lot of torture. If you ever want to find out how it feels to be set on fire while impaled on a silver pike, ask those crazy bastards.”

David smelt a spike of fear in the air from behind and looked to see Colin still huddled close to him, his attention on what the Elder was telling the pack.

“Sounds like a lovely bunch,” said Jesse.

“It reminds me of this one Firetouched pack leader I met back in the fifties,” reminisced Morrison. “He was so devout that he’d burn himself every day. It got to the point that not even Uratha healing would fix all the scars. Ended up looking like a crispy chicken nugget. More scar tissue than unburnt flesh. Was a fuckingugly bastard and it took three Rahu to kill him. Had to pull him limb from limb to kill the bastard.”

“Anyways,” said Jesse, changing the topic and heading into the kitchen, “Who wants shepherd's pie? I’m feeling inspired.”

That confused David. He thought that making crispy chicken would make more sense than shepherd’s pie if he was feeling inspired. Then he realised he was probably referring back to Mass.

Upon that realisation there was a slight knock at the door that caught everyone’s attention. Everyone was on alert except for Morrison who sniffed the air and approached the door when there was a second knock.

“Don’t worry, I know who it is,” he said and opened the door, letting in Father Albert who was standing on the otherside in a clerical suit instead of the vestments he was wearing for Mass and was holding a bottle of whiskey.

Father Albert handed Morrison the bottle who smiled when it was given to him. That surprised the pack, they’ve seen him smile before but this looked to be the first actual genuine smile they had seen from the elder.

Morrison pointed at the pack with the bottle and said to Father Albert, “You would’ve noticed that I’ve been saddled with several of my grandkids.”

“I noticed,” replied Father Albert and gave an exaggerated wink.

Morrison didn’t acknowledge the wink and told Albert, “You know the son I told you about? BIt of a delinquent.”

“Oh yeah, I remember him,” said Albert, snapping his fingers as he tried to remember something. “What was his name again? Jonathan?”

“Yeah, that was his name,” answered Morrison. He pointed at the pack again, “All these brats, different mothers. THe boy couldn’t keep it in his pants. Catherine, one of the mothers, rounded them all up like a herding dog and dropped them off on their grandpa.”

“One of the mothers?” asked Albert. “The sheriff told me it was your niece.”

Morrison’s jaw tightened briefly for just a moment as he was caught in the lie before saying, “No, it was one of the mothers. My niece just dropped them all off, Catherine is actually staying in town.”

David watched the conversation between the two older men with confusion. They were told that the priest was in the know, so he didn’t understand why the two were beating around the bush.

“Whoever it was, it looks like you have quite the handful,” observed Albert. “I can offer services if you need some help.”

“No, you just being around is a help,” said Morrison. “Is there anything I can do for you, Father?”

“Yes, actually. Can you explain what happened?” asked Albert. “I had to reconsecrate the church again. Those weren’t like any of the other morons I’ve dealt with before.”

“The department thinks they’re some sort of fringe cult and are suspects in several heinous crimes but we can’t pin them down cause of how they all cover for each other,” explained Morrison.

Albert gave a solemn nod, “I’ve dealt with several cultists myself. Remember the Jonestown Massacre? One of the survivors was one of my parishioners.”

“Shit, really?” asked David for which Colin slapped his back. David looked back at Colin and grumbled, “Good to see you back to normal.”

“I can’t name names or give descriptions. But I’ve had my fair dealing with cultists, but these ones seem more potent,” said Albert.

“They’re more Manson than anything else,” said Morrison. “If they show up, let me know. The department’s has been trying to pin them for a while. Could be planning something. If I told you half the things they’re suspected of doing, it’d make your stomach churn.”

“I’ve seen many things and heard many sins. I can handle whatever you throw at me,” said Father Albert. He gave a small sigh and said, “Some of them make me drink at night.”

Morrison replied with a wry chuckle and raised the whiskey bottle the Father gave him, “Same thing working as an officer.”

“I’d be more scared for your safety if they were alone in the confessional booth with you,” said Morrison.

Father Albert then held himself higher and said solemnly, “If the Lord decides that it’s my time, so be it. I’ve lived a long healthy life and I can’t say no if someone comes to me for confession.”

“Well if that ever happens, maybe think about a prayer to Saint Patrick when you reconscrate the church later today.” suggested Morrison.

“Yeah, and I’ll have to put up with that horrid stench they left all over the church when I do that,” grumbled Albert. “What even is that?”

“Probably burnt dog fur,” said Colin with a disgusted tone.

“No, it was the putrid smell of a reptile,” Albert said with a shake of his head. “Anyways I should stop putting off the reconsecration. So I’m gonna head out.”

“You sure you don’t want to stay for lunch?” asked Morrison.

Albert shook his head, “No, I should really get back to St John's.”

“What about lunch at Gunslinger’s tomorrow?” asked Morrison. “We’ll all go. You can get to know the brats.”

David didn’t want to be forced into any social engagement. This morning was bad enough. “Colin and I already have-”

Colin cut him off with a punch to one of his kidneys and said, “We’re free tomorrow.”

“Okay, sounds good. I’ll see you there,” said Albert.

Morrison escorted Father Albert to the front door. Once the priest was out of the house and ear shot, Lucas asked, “I know ritualistic symbolism has an amount of power against spirits. Would a prayer to St Patrick help against the Pure’s snake spirit totem?”

Morrison shrugged and said, “I don’t know, never tried. But it’s certainly possible. You’d be surprised what works against spirits at times. But it might not, The Shadow’s fucking finicky like that.”

***

That evening, after sundown and just after dinner they started getting ready to go to bed. Morrison was just about to leave for his cabin when a loud screech of static came from the TV in the living room as it turned on by itself. The squalling screech reached a pitch that it made the pack clap their hands over their ears, and made Morrison cringe.

The familiar hoarse, strangled voice of the Keeper-of-Boots broke through the static and spoke to Morrison in the First Tongue, “Howlmore. Intruders are desecrating my cemetery. Honor our agreement and STOP THEM!”