The Pack
DISCLAIMER: The following FICTIONAL story is intended only for open-minded Adults aged 18 years or older (21 in some jurisdictions), and may contain instances of underage characters depicted performing sexual acts, as well as other content which might be considered objectionable. The author(s) of this work do not advocate or condone any of the acts depicted in the writings present. None of these stories are based on real events in any way, and the author's find it reprehensible to even think of committing the acts in reality. The stories are works of fantasy only and should be considered as such. If you do not wish to view such content, please navigate from the page immediately.
The Last Pack Standing
A Post-Apocalyptic story by: Kosetsu Tsume & Kazimir Dragoslav
Part 2: The Pack
A pair of guards stepped from behind some trees, but when they saw who it was they stepped back and let them pass with their prisoner.
Kosetsu headed straight for the healers, tossing her bag of rabbits to Ros. "Voz'mite te, v ogon' (Take those to the fire). Grigori and I will talk to the healer about this guy. You can meet us there to see what we can find out from him when he wakes up." She really wanted to be alone to figure out what it was about this stranger that had caught her interest, but she didn't think she was falling for him.... Was she? She gave a mental shake of her head, clearing the distracting thoughts from her mind while she needed to focus on his injuries and finding out more about him, things to help the pack, not things that would make her fall for him. She might not look like it, but she was still a kid.
Ros nodded and deftly caught the brace of rabbits, carrying them off to the fires so that they could be prepared. Grigori, being the most medically inclined, went ahead of her to get the healers and let them know she was coming. That left her alone for a few minutes as she walked the trussed up wolf down to the Healer's cave. As she walked, her prisoner began to stir, and after several moments Kaz groaned and shifted, then went still again. Seconds later he groaned once more, "??? ????"(Where? What?)
Ahead, the pair of healers, Varya and Petya, a mated couple, came out of the cave with Grigori and waved to Kosetsu. The older male stepped forward, "What have we here, young one?" he asked, holding out his paws so that he could help her lower the wounded male to the ground and so that he could take Kaz into the healing cave.
"Legkiy, Kazimir (Easy, Kazimir)," she murred softly to the male wolf. "You're in my pack's den. And I'm taking you to our healers. They're nice, so you behave, or I'll make those three that were after you look like pups." Her threat didn't carry past the two of them, not wanting to offend the older wolves, who could still take care of themselves, but she knew they moved slower than she and her brothers and, from what she'd seen, Kaz.
As she neared the mated healers, she smiled to Petya as he reached out a paw to help lower the male from her shoulder. As soon as the healer saw the restraints on the injured male, he gave her a look of reproach. Lifting her paws, she shook her head. "Only healers I knew of are pack healers. He's been out the entire trip here, but I'm not risking pack lives, should he suddenly think we're the enemy. He was being hunted when I first saw him. Fought off a bear, who is the one who put the bullet through his arm, and it was during that fight that he injured his ankle. And before the bear was a feline, and before that a snake-like creature. And before that, the ocean. Before that, I don't know. So no, I wasn't taking any chances with your lives, or anyone else's in the pack!"
Petya easily lifted Kazimir from her shoulder and lowered him to the hard-packed dirt of the ground. They would carry him inside in a moment. He motioned for his mate to come over, and Varya swiftly did so, and knelt by Kazimir's feet, examining his ankle for a moment to ascertain if it was broken or merely badly sprained.
The elder male looked up, "He sounds like a fierce warrior. I do not doubt that you did the right thing, young one." He looked as though he still didn't approve of her having to truss Kaz up, despite the fact that he hadn't shown any aggression to them, yet. For Kazimir's part, he had come more fully awake when he was being lifted, and now that he was on the ground he was trying to get a handle on his bearings and what was going on. He was slightly dizzy from the loss of blood and the pure exhaustion, which, frankly, his fainting had not relieved in the slightest. His eyes were heavy and kept drooping, only to snap open again.
Varya touched lightly at his ankle and he whined like a wounded pup, but the whine turned into a light growl at the end. He wasn't threatening, but he wanted it clearly understood that it hurt. He tried to speak but found that his lips and throat were too dry for any speech. Varya removed a hand from his ankle and reached up to take his head in her paws. She lifted his eyelids one at a time, "He is exhausted...beyond exhausted. We should carry him inside and lay him to rest. We can tend his shoulder and ankle while he sleeps." She stood.
Kosetsu backed up, intending on letting the healers work on him as he rested, but that growl brought her to a halt. While it was more of a pained growl, it was still a growl, and she moved towards him again, picking him up with ease and carrying him to the healing cave, only this time, in her arms and not over her shoulder. She lay him down on one of the stone beds, his injured shoulder and ankle on the easily accessed side of the bed. Leaning down, she whispered to him, "I'm taking these restraints off, Kaz. But you are to be on your best behaviour, or you will have hell to pay from me." She undid the four restraints she'd used, freeing his arms and legs. As soon as she did, the blood flowed a little more from the wound on his shoulder as his arm fell to his side.
Kaz was almost too out of it to even process her words. His reaction to the pain had been natural. None of them knew the hell he had been through since the war. He had been 8 when it happened, and since then he had been on his own, alone. They would find out in due time. Right now his muddled, sleep-deprived brain was just trying to process, running on instinct. When she laid him down on the stone bed, and the healers followed them in, looked up at her and the depth of his exhaustion was plain to see. His pain, more than just the physical, was written there as well. And though he would have normally hidden it, also fear. Part of him knew he should trust them. She hadn't killed him, she had actually stayed with him so far, and she had taken him, from what he gathered, to healers.
He whimpered when she released the bonds and suddenly the feeling began to return to his limbs. His arm fell limp to the table, his ankle just laid where she put it. He looked up as the healers moved toward him, his vision swam, and everything went dark again.
She'd seen the fear in his eyes, and she knew she had to stay with him. She was the familiar face that he would recognize when he fully regained consciousness. Moving to the inside of the bed, away from the injured arm and leg, she climbed up and lay down, taking his paw into hers, holding onto it. He'd know, even in his comatose state, that she was there for him. She didn't know much about him, or what he'd been through, but she knew a warrior when she saw one. She gave Grigori a look, daring him to say something smart-alecky, as he tended to do, as she lay with a complete stranger, trying to give what comfort she could while the healers worked on his shoulder and ankle.
Grigori was so very tempted to make a wise-crack about her. It was on the tip of his tongue, his mouth was open and he saw the withering glare she gave him, as if daring him to say something and suffer her wrath later. He shut his mouth with a soft 'click' of his teeth knocking together and then cleared his throat, "I"ll uh...I'll wait outside I guess." He turned and strode from the cave. Petya and Varya gathered in close and got to work. Petya washed and cleaned out the wound on Kaz's arm, and then swiftly, skillfully, wrapped clean bandage material around the wound, tightening it so that the bleeding would be as little as possible and so that it could heal. Varya took off his boots and then massaged some oils into the fur and skin around his ankle, seeing to it that it was not broken and just sprained. She wrapped it as well, for support, and then stood, wiping her hands on a cloth.
Once they were done, they both stepped back and cleaned up the area, then walked further back into the cave to take care of some other business that they had.
Silence reigned in the cave for a while. There was no clocks to tell the passing of time, but the light lengthened and then began to grow dim. Kaz slept on, now shifting slightly, now peacefully, eyes closed, only his breathing interrupting the stillness of his body.
Kosetsu kept an eye on Kaz, but the silence helped lull her into a doze a few times, waking as she caught the scent of the pack Alphas coming to check on the newest arrival to the pack's lands, her father with them. But as both of them were clothed... well, at least mostly, considering some of his clothes had been shredded during the fights... she wasn't too worried about that. But she had felt bad about having to restrain him with his injuries. She would volunteer to keep an eye on him should the Alphas decide he needed to be restrained again. He needed time to heal, and to see that they weren't out to hurt him.
The pack was not in league with those three he fought when he arrived at the island. In fact, she'd never seen many anthros like them. And definitely none of those snake-like ones. The island was too remote, too isolated, to attract many visitors. Or settlers. The pack had been here for ages on end, the city at the southern end of the island having been the city the pack lived in before the war, before the explosions, before the radiation. Now the city was off limits to the pack, by Alpha word. No one was sure how the city had changed during the decade the pack had lived in the 'wild' again.
Alexei and Klava came in together, with Shun not far behind them. And behind Shun came the quadruplets. As they came up to Kaz, who was still out, Kosetsu leaned up, propping herself on her side, still holding Kaz's paw. It seemed, to her, that having her next to him was keeping him calm and relaxed as he rested and healed.
Somehow, Kaz's sleep became less rough and much more peaceful the longer she laid beside him, holding his paw. His nights alone were sometimes peaceful, but usually broken by dreams of destruction and fire and the loss of his parents. Something about her was calming though, perhaps his body knew that she was like him, knew that the two of them were one in a million and that eventually they would be together. Or perhaps his mind just connected with the fact that he wasn't alone for once...for once he was actually with someone that wasn't trying to kill him.
And so he slept on, even when the Alphas, her father, and the quadruplets approached the cave and came inside. He stirred slightly when she sat up, but his paw clenched and felt hers still residing in his own, comforting him.
All of them could see that the new one she had brought in was a young one. Not as old as Kosetsu's brothers, but not nearly as young as she. Alexei came closest and looked down at him, then up at her with a raised eyebrow. His mate, the elder Alpha female of the pack stood by his side. Alexei spoke first, "Kosetsu? What can you tell us?"
Kosetsu's father was nearby, with his sons, watching. There was something he caught in the way his daughter was laying by the other male's side. Call it instinct, call it fatherly intuition. She might not even known it, but there was something foreboding about her decision to lay with the newcomer before they had even really formally been introduced.
Kosetsu looked at Alexei, and bowed her head for a moment, showing her respect for the Alpha male of the pack. "While I was hunting, I heard some strange noises, so I went to investigate. It was at The Clearing that I saw him. A feline jumped out at him. Not a feral one, but one that walked like us. They fought, and the feline was killed. I remained hidden in a tree, watching. I knew that I was the first line of defense for the pack, so I remained motionless and silent. He was fine after that, but then a bear, again not feral but on two legs, crashed from the trees on the far side and started firing a gun. The two of them fought. He was hit by a bullet and twisted his ankle during the fight, but he managed to kill the bear as well. I came down from the tree and up behind him. His name is Kazimir, though he only told me Kaz."
She took a breath before continuing. "I restrained him, laid him under a tree, and confiscated all weapons I found, tossing both the bear and feline off the cliff and into the sea. I followed his scent back the way he came, and found a snake-like creature half in the water, what was in the water eaten by sharks. I took what I found on him, shoved him into the water for the sharks to finish off, then found a boat they used to come over. Only one boat, and those three were after him. I took everything from the boat, bashed a hole in the bottom and shoved it out into the water to sink. Went back to the tree, picked him up, carried him back to the riverbed, where the quadruplets met up with me, having heard the shots from the bear."
Another breath as she paused, then looked at her father as she finished, "When we got him in here, I saw pain, fear and loneliness in his eyes. I knew that at least he'd seen my face before he passed out and he'd heard me talking about getting him to a healer, so when he woke, I wanted him to see a familiar face. He has the speed, agility and even the stamina of one who got affected by the explosions like my brothers and I. I plan on finding out the rest of his story, but for now, he needs the rest and care that Petya and Varya have decreed as what he needed to heal right now. I will keep him from trying to harm the pack, but I am not restraining him again."
The group of wolves who had come to see her 'prisoner' now got the full picture of what had happened and what she thought. The pack Alphas gazed down at the young wolf in wonder, for if he had killed not one, but three enemies, and swam the ocean currents, he was stronger by far than he looked.
Her father, Shun, looked back at his daughter and he saw in her face the determination that was customary of her mother. He knew that if the Alphas did order this 'Kaz' to be restrained again, she would put up a fight for him. She was not the kind who wanted to keep any creature locked up, though she was a fierce hunter and fiercely loyal to the pack in turn. He could not, however, shake the feeling that there was something about this new male that interested her, beyond just what she had seen of him. He was indeed handsome to even Shun's eyes...and clearly a survivor judging by what she had told them of him.
Alexei considered for several moments, "If he, indeed, did all you say, then he's formidable indeed and quite skilled."
"A fine addition to the pack?" Asked Klava, looking at her mate with inquiring eyes.
"Perhaps, in time. It depends on his actions when he wakes." He glanced at Shun, "Your daughter is as strong willed as her mother. However, I would not have him restrained unless he became violent. I will put two guards at the entrance to the cave." he looked back at Kosetsu, "See that you send for me when he wakens." He turned to leave and paused halfway to the door, "Though I do not doubt you will probably extract his story first before you do..." He chuckled, and departed. Klava waited behind for half a moment and stepped closer, looking down at the male, then at Kosetsu with a smirk playing on her lips, "He is rather fair, isn't he, Kosetsu?" She smiled and then followed her husband out of the cave.
Kosetsu sighed as her Alpha seemed to understand that Kaz didn't need to be restrained again. At least not now, and if she got through to him when he woke up, not at all. She kept Kaz's paw in hers, unaware that in the old days, before the wars and the bombs and missiles and radioactive explosions, laying with a wolf that was not your mate or family was akin to staking a claim on them. Shun knew, and was amazed that Kosetsu had let Klava step close enough to Kaz to make that remark to her.
After both Alphas were gone, she moved to lay back down, offering her body warmth to the unconscious male. She looked at her father, remembering the first words Kaz spoke to her "Yesli vy sobirayetes' ubit' menya , pokonchim s etim ..." (If you're going to kill me, get it over with...). She worried that all he knew was running from others out to get him. She whispered softly, "Nikto ne sobirayetsya vas ubit', Kaz. Zdes' ty v bezopasnosti. (No one is going to kill you, Kaz. You're safe here.)" She turned the words into a litany to help him recover and wake to find friends to help him.
Shun stood nearby and just watched her for a few moments, a small smile playing on his muzzle. Her brothers were gathered behind him, talking with one another in low tones that were barely audible. Somewhere in the depths of Kaz' sleeping brain her words came in like a gentle spring of water and soothed him from inside, helping him to remain asleep and calm, aiding him in healing and recovery of his worn muscles. Hopefully he would awake refreshed and healed and ready to take the next step in his life, with this new pack.
Ros came forward after a few moments and whispered to Shun. Father and son held a discussion for several moments, it seemed that Rostislav and her other brothers were inquiring about how 'proper' it was for her to be laying beside this newcomer. She was, after all, only 14, and he was a wildcard that none of them could predict. On top of that it appeared that she intended to sleep beside him until he should awaken, which would be who knew how long.
Shun quietly informed his sons that in the old societies, before the wars, this was not an uncommon thing, and that even now it was not to be looked down upon. He pointed out that while their concerns were valid, both Petya and Vanya were in the cave, and there were guards outside, should anything happen.
Night descended upon the pack lands a little later, and, despite the whispering, she had heard Ros talking to their father. She looked at her brothers, giving them a glare, then snuggled down next to Kaz, only taking her paw from his after taking his other so she could lay her head on his shoulder. She took his free paw again, not wanting to hold his injured arm for too long. The way she had settled herself in for some rest of her own put her head on his shoulder and his arm over her. Both of them needed the rest, him more so, but she was tired after hunting, then carrying him back to the den.
The next morning, she woke and stretched, her body pressing against a warm, hard male body. It took her a moment to realize who he was and where she was. She blinked a couple times to wake herself up, then started to move to sit up. She needed to pee. That early morning piss was always the longest. After all, it normally was at least 8 hours since the last use of the restroom.
Kaz had slept soundly, perhaps stirring once or twice, but never enough to draw him fully from his restful, peaceful sleep. It wasn't until the next morning that he began to stir, his body finally telling him that after having slept for about 12 or 13 hours, he should waken. He stirred when she sat up, withdrawing the comforting warmth that she had lent him all night long. Of course, he knew nothing about her having slept with him, not that he truthfully would have minded.
His eyes fluttered when she stretched, and after a few moments of that snapped open. He blinked, then blinked again. The only thing he could see was the rough ceiling of the cave above him, daylight streaming in with early morning haze from above his head. He didn't move, he dared not, for several moments. Not until he felt her shift again. His eyes widened and things finally began to come back. He had been wounded, there was a girl with a pistol. Flashes of running and her saying something about healers. Then his mind went blank, and frankly that scared him. He shivered lightly and his tongue flicked out a few times along the sides of his mouth. His head turned and he saw her beside him, causing him to start and inch away a bit. "wh...who are you?" he asked, though it came out half croaked and half whispering, so that he sounded as though he had lost his voice.
She turned to him, a reassuring smile on her lips. "I'm Kosetsu. We met after the fight you had. You fainted, but not as much from your wounds as from exhaustion. Or at least that's what Varya said. She's one of our healers, along with her mate, Petya. They took care of your wounds and you've been in our healing cave since last night. None of us are going to hurt you." She moved to get him some water from the pitcher left on the other side of the stone bed they were on.
"Where are you from, Kaz? Why were those males after you? Oh, I should let you know, they're at the bottom of the ocean by now, nothing more than bones left of them. I tossed the bear and feline over the cliff into the water, and found the boat they came in, along with a snake-like being who was half eaten by sharks. I tossed him in too and sank the boat. Sharks won't be hungry for a while."
Kaz's eyes drifted to his surroundings a bit while she answered his questions, telling him her name freely, which was something that he hadn't exactly expected. He was used to people being guarded about their identities, and here she was being very open about things. He swallowed and reached out to gratefully take the water that she poured him, though she had to lean almost over him to get it. He inhaled and got a whiff of her scent, something he found instantly pleasing. He drank greedily and quickly drained the glass.
His voice sounded better and his throat felt less scratchy as he spoke again. "Males?....Oh...you mean Detshky's boys..." he said with a lick of his lips. He lifted his arm, the wounded one, and winced when he felt the skin pull under the bandage. He wiped his paw over his muzzle to clear away the last droplets of water. He suddenly realized that he was completely at the mercy of her and...whoever else was around. He thought he heard others in the back of the cave. He had no weapons it seemed, at least the familiar weight of his pistol was not on his hip. It would do no harm to keep answering her questions. They had fixed up his arm after all, and his ankle was not so sore.
"So you did away with them and their boat too...good. Maybe he'll forget I ever existed." He turned and looked away from her at the other wall of the cave, then up above his head and down below his feet. He slowly sat up on his elbows. His awareness was coming back now, he was just checking things out. He realized that she must have been laying beside him all night, he remembered someone whispering into his dreams, "I Uh..." he coughed harshly into one paw, "I was running...." he looked back at her, "They were trying to kill me. I was hired to do a job. Detshky was re-assembling a bomb. I was supposed to steal the detonation trigger. They're rare and you can't just get them anywhere." He licked his lips, "It was either a setup and they knew I was coming, or they just caught me. I'm not sure." he fell silent for a moment, looking up at the ceiling, "I was running for....fuck how long have I been out?"
She listened to him, then smiled at his last question. "Less than a full day. I carried you from the clearing to the riverbed, where my brothers met up with us and came here. I brought you to our healers, who figured the main thing you needed was rest. My Alphas would like to meet you, but I didn't want to make you nervous when you first woke up. And they knew I'd want to talk to you before they got to be 'big bad and scary'." She sighed, then looked up, hearing a faint scrape of a paw on the cave floor. Seeing Petya, she smiled and nodded. "Petya is one of our healers. He's the one that worked on your shoulder, while his mate, Varya, took care of your ankle."
She sat back, giving Petya room to look at his patient's shoulder wound and change the dressing on it. He then looked at Kaz's ankle, then nodded. "Light activity on your hindpaws, young'un. Rest is needed for full recovery." Petya's eyes went to Kosetsu and softened. "Why don't you take him to meet the Alphas? Might be more comfortable for him to meet them on his own two paws than on his back."
Kaz laid still when she introduced Petya to him, allowing the older wolf to look at his shoulder and ankle. When the bandage came off of his shoulder, he examined it as best he could, seeing how much damage had been done by the bullet. It didn't look worse than some other wounds he had in the past, and it was less sore than he might have thought, but of course it pained harshly if he tried to move it much. He looked back at the healer when he recommended only light activity. "Thanks, I'll be careful," he said, grateful for the healer's skill, even if he wasn't sure about trusting this new group he found himself with. Still, he was willing to take it on some faith, after all, they healed him, and Kosetsu had actually brought him back when she could have just killed him.
"I uh...Yeah," he said, sitting up slowly and waving away Petya's proffered hand of help, wanting to see if he could support himself on his own. "I suppose I should meet the leaders of your pack. I imagine that they won't take kindly to someone stumbling on their territory."
The female wolf moved to his side, but gave him enough room to get up on his own. She wasn't about to step on his pride or malehood by insisting she help him. But she was there in case he needed her help. "Honestly, they're good Alphas. But the last outsider that came into the pack was a long time ago. My father was that outsider. He fell in love with my mother, and my brothers. And despite the warnings my mother was given, she got pregnant with me. When I was born, she passed away. But by that time, my father protected the pack, and was a full member. They can be understanding, but they don't like being kept waiting too long. Being that you just woke up and they did give me permission to talk to you first, they're ok with a bit of a wait, but not too much of one."
Kaz nodded, slipping off of the bed that he had been laid on and standing tentatively on his paws. He wobbled a little, getting his balance on the sore ankle, and the took a few steps. He looked down at himself, frowning a bit at his somewhat ragged clothing. A week of running for your life did nothing to help your appearance. Still, he was rested now, so there was that, and while his ankle was sore, he could move on it, "I didn't mean to say that they weren't good. In these times they would have to be wary of strangers of course..." he started walking slowly toward the entrance, "To be able to hold any pack together in these times takes strong leaders."
When they reached the entrance the light was more fully coming through the trees and into the cave. He stepped out into the sunlight and stretched slightly, then looked over toward her, "So your mother fell in love with the last outsider?" he inquired, "And now chance brought you to the next...seems fitting in some way." he shrugged and sighed, looking about him and shifting some, "Well, I'll let you lead me. I'm the outsider here so I don't know that I should walk freely around the place."
Without thinking about it, her paw reached for his, not only helping to guide him to the Alphas, but to support him if he needed it. She didn't rush him through the village, but kept to the levelest ground, and the pace slow enough, to keep his ankle from twisting again. "My mother wasn't interested in any of the pack males, having grown up with them and either knowing their secrets or having bested them in the pack's annual mock-war. It's similar to me. Except that the only males young enough for me are my brothers. So it just wouldn't happen. I love them all, but I know how overbearing they can be at times."
There was something she was holding back from him, but her Alphas wanted to meet him, so she had to hold it back. She'd let him know about it after the meeting with the Alphas. She knew Alexi and Klava would pass a sound judgement on Kaz's presence in the pack, and she also knew that fate had brought them together for a reason. What the reason was, though, was still up to chance to show them.
He noted that a pair of older wolves stood guard at the entrance to the cave when they exited and started moving into the main part of the village. His eyes were roving about, checking things out as he walked along. He didn't want to act suspiciously, but he was curious about them, and justifiably wary about the whole situation that he found himself in. Hunted men don't easily relax, but Kaz was young and perhaps felt that actions spoke more loudly than words. In that respect Kosetsu had already proven herself to him.
He permitted her to take his hand and begin leading him across the village, evidently toward where the Alphas would speak with him. Kaz had no idea what to suspect from them, "I see. So, you have brothers then." he was dying to ask where they even were. He remembered leaving the mainland and heading toward the distant shore, but the fog had rolled in and he had somewhat lost track of his exact location. He could tell directions easily enough, but where she had taken him in relation to where he last remembered was a mystery to him.
"So there are no other young members of the pack besides you and your brothers?" He inquired, trying to keep the conversation up, "You speak as though you, ah... you could have mated with one of them if you wanted." He noticed that he saw no children around the pack as they were walking, which he did find rather unusual. Packs needed to keep producing more generations if they wanted to survive for any length of time.
Kosetsu smiled up at him. "Four of them. Quintuplets. They were born well before the 'big bang' and I was only a few years old when it happened." She paused and grinned at him as she spotted the two males following them from the cave. "As a matter of fact, two of them apparently think they're sneaky enough to tail us after standing guard at the cave all night," she said in a low voice, not wanting her words to carry back to her brothers. Not just yet. "Don't look back. I'll call them out and make them realize they are not all that stealthy. Neither of them is Makari, who is the stealthiest of my brothers."
Stopping to turn on her brother's, she gives Kaz a moment to shift off his bad ankle and rest it. "Rostislav! Miroslav! Really? You two are not meant to sneak up on me! Makari could have, but not you two!"
"Oh, four..." he trailed off, nodding slowly. If she were born just a few years before the bombs, that would put her a few years younger than he, and if the brothers were already older, they were probably slightly older than he was. At least he had a picture of her family now. He paused when she did, and shifted around, wincing and giving the tiniest of whines when he put weight on his bad ankle, then shifting until his weight was all on the good one. He was missing a few hunks of fur from here and there, where the feline and bear had tangled with him, and his right arm, the opposite of the wounded one, had long cuts already scabbed over. He was looking a bit rough, but there was a bearing about him and a fire in his eyes that made him look better than he had before.
The boys stopped short at her rebuke and glanced at one another, "The Alphas told us to guard the door, we thought that meant keeping an eye on you and...our guest, as well." Said Rostislav. Miro just kinda looked sheepish for a second and then ran a paw back over his head, "On mozhet byt' opasnym ...(he could be dangerous)".
Kaz just swallowed and turned to look back over his shoulder, "Ne meneye opasno, chem vy ...(no less dangerous than you...)" by his words he showed that they weren't hiding anything from him by speaking their native tongue.
Kosetsu growled at her brothers, knowing they were being very stubborn about Kaz. But it was more than keeping an eye on him for the Alphas. It was because she had yet to leave his side and they were protecting her. But the knowledge that he spoke their language hadn't been mentioned by her to her brothers, though she knew Kaz spoke Russian like she did. What she didn't know was just how long he'd been running from those three males... Detshky's boys, as he called them.
Exasperated with her brothers, she sighed, then snapped to them, "Vy mozhete sledit' za nami, no ne boleye shpionil za mnoy! (You can follow us, but no more spying on me!)" Taking Kaz's paw once more, she lead him towards the designated meeting spot, near, but not too close to, the Alpha's home. "Tell me about yourself, Kaz," she said softly, glancing up at the taller wolf.
He looked down at her, a small smirk on his face. She knew how to handle her brother's it seemed. He detected a bit of hostility from the boys, but he supposed that was natural. Kosetsu was their sister, after all. In this world you protected your own....or you were supposed to. He had seen some pretty horrible things perpetrated by people that should have been protecting one another.
Kaz limped lightly, using her paw for support while she guided him. He cleared his throat. All he knew of her so far was what he had gotten from their brief encounter in the forest, and so far this morning. He was used to making quick judgements about people, and sizing them up quickly in dangerous situations, so what he knew of her was that she was a strong woman, but quite young. He wasn't sure her exact age, but by his calculations she was probably 14? 15?. Obviously she was female. He had gotten that before he even saw her. It was now quite clear of course just who he had scented in the woods while being hunted. What's more, she was a virgin, or at the very least unmated, though he would have bet on virgin. There was just a certain scent about her, one more reason her brothers were extra careful. He was a strange male from outside the pack. They were used to her scent, he wasn't and might take advantage.
"I was 8 when the devastation happened." His face turned serious. Kaz still remembered it quite vividly, and figured he always would. He didn't know if he should tell her everything though, opening up immediately wasn't always advisable, ""I...Uh...I guess I'm an orphan now, no family that I know of. I basically raised myself, had to rely on my own skills and instincts to survive. Moved from one place to another and back again, tried to stay moving. I fell in with a small village a couple of years ago and stuck with them for a while."
She listened to him, her ears flicking slightly as her brothers followed them. Soon, she heard Grigori joining them and the furtive whispering between the three... no, there was Makari's voice as well. She hadn't heard him slipping up with the others. Proof that had her brothers wanted to spy on her silently, they should have just sent Makari to follow them.
"I was four when it happened. I was already showing signs of being an excellent hunter and crack shot. My brothers were teaching me, in secret, how to handle pistols and knives, how to track and how to bring down ferals for food. After the bombing, though, the training became more intensive and in the open. As I got older, my weapons training was added to to include rifles, shotguns and submachine guns, as well as bow and arrows."
Giving a shake of her head that sent her long hair flowing around her shoulders, she gave a self-deprecating smile. "I guess I've been lucky to have my father and brothers with me. And I know I've been lucky with my pack. Everyone in this pack is close to each other. While I didn't have my mother growing up, I did have the entire pack to help me learn. Everyone here is my family, blood or not." Her words were a warning that she would kill to protect her family against any coming after them. She didn't feel she had to threaten him again, but it never hurt to repeat how much her pack meant to her.
Her brothers saw her head close to Kaz, her words not quite traveling back to them, though they heard one word here and there. Grigori called out, "Kosetsu...," reminding her that she didn't know Kaz. While Grigori was a clown around the family, unless they were in the field, he was just as deadly as any of her brothers.
Kaz felt a bit of a twist in the pit of his stomach. She had been lucky, She had gotten off easily. She had her family, at least her father and brothers it would seem, and then a whole village to take care of her, he had none of that. He was old enough when the bombs fell that he remembered his parents and remembered the day they were taken from him, and how when it was all over he had no one. He just fell silent while she spoke, perhaps thinking to himself and brooding a little. His eyes kept looking around, and his ears twitched this way and that to illustrate that he was listening to everything around him.
"We lived right on the edge of a pretty large town over on the mainland. Just a small place, but then I didn't have any siblings. My Father was just a simple man. Worked hard to provide for us. He was a mechanic, loved working with his hands. Mother did sewing work for the neighbors and took care of the house." He sighed, sucking in a breath and then almost flinching when the sudden voice of another one of her brothers spoke up. He was getting just the tiniest bit annoyed at that, even if he had no real reason or right to be. His thick tail swished in annoyance, but he kept talking.
"I was in the forest playing that day. I liked going off by myself sometimes and our property reached back right to the edge. There was this really huge old oak that had a hollow in one side that I would go to and stay for hours. I was there when I heard explosions. When I came out...the city was gone, and our house along with it."
"So I had to survive on my own. I learned to hunt with my claws and teeth, I stole what I couldn't get myself and I forced myself to keep going. It was hell, trying to go from a simple kid and having to change like that, But I did it, I survived, I made my own way. I picked up whatever I could from anyone that I met...hand to hand, pistols, rifles. I was good. I was too good."
"There's this group of villages on the mainland who try to work together, build something out of the ruins of the old cities and there's this sonova-bitch asshole named Detshky. He's... well... he's like a mob boss, he runs a bunch of gangs that cause trouble for the good people. If they pay him with food and whor....and uh...companionship, he's fine. Anyway he wanted to build a bomb. He found this guy from before the war that knew how to build shit like that, and the guy helped him build one, only they needed this one particular part. Me and a couple of others were asked to make sure he didn't get it. We fucked up his plans and stole the part. Ever since then I've been running. That was a week ago now I think. They lost me for a couple of days but then picked me up again and it's been touch and go ever since. It had been two or three days since I slept when you found me."
Kosetsu chuckled at him. "Is that your way of telling me you would have known I was there, had you not been overcome with exhaustion? I think not. I grew up here, I know how to blend in with the surrounding land. I wish you'd been able to see what I was able to take down yesterday to feed the pack. And that was before I found you and those.... males." She shook her head, then padded towards a table in the clearing. It was obviously a spot that many meetings were held, the ground worn into paths from feet walking around the area. Even the benches at the table were worn from where the elders sat to discuss things with the Alphas.