The Interview
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 3: The Interview
A pair of older couples was already sitting at the table, and Kosetsu gave a formal bow of greeting to her Alphas and Betas. "Privet moy al'fa i beta. YA prinoshu pered vami, Kazimir. On ne iz nashego paketa, no materik i ne imeyet paket svoyey sobstvennoy. (Greetings to my Alphas and Betas. I bring before you, Kazimir. He is not from our pack, but the mainland and has no pack of his own.)" She waited, keeping Kaz on his feet, though she was on the side of his weak ankle to give him a hint of his strength while appearing in front of both highest mated pairs of her pack.
Looking to Kaz, she made the introductions swiftly. "Kazimir, meet Alexei and Klava, as well as Ulric and Ilya. My Alphas and Betas, meet Kazimir."
Kaz didn't have a chance to reply to her question before they arrived at the meeting area. He intended to tell her that what she took as his meaning wasn't what he meant at all. He was simply informing her how long he had been on the run, and therefore the reason for his exhaustion and the fight, not trying to undermine her skill. She was evidently extremely proud of herself, a rather strong-willed female wolf. He found that attractive. She was feisty and could hold her own. Even if she hadn't been forced into the life like he led, and he was therefore much more world-wise than she was, she still could handle herself.
He cleared his throat when she introduced the Alphas and Betas to him, and he to them. He had never faced an actual formal pack-style village before. The towns and cities and villages on the mainland were more modern, just with leaders and such. This wasn't, he supposed, so much different. He gave a nod toward them all, "I'm not sure exactly how to begin here. I figure you'll want to question me, but I would just like to say that I'm sorry for trespassing on your land. It was not intentional and I mean none of you any harm...na chestnoye slovo (on my word of honor)"
Klava gave her mate a look, then extended a paw to indicate they should sit. "Tell us how you came to be here, young one," she said, her voice low, but commanding. Expecting obedience, but not demanding anything...yet. She sounded like an Alpha, which, of course, she was.
Kaz spared a half glance in Kosetsu's direction before he nodded at the gathered Alphas and Betas of the pack. He stepped toward one of the nearer chairs, gently avoiding stepping on his twisted ankle as much as possible, and then sank down into it. His muscles were still weary from his flight the past few days and sitting down provided them with a much needed respite. He now looked toward the gathering and focused his gaze specifically on the female who had spoken. He didn't know her name but her coat was distinctive among them, being nearly all black with white at her throat and extending down into her clothing.
His initial reaction to being told to do anything was usually a bit of rebellion. He had gotten along just fine by himself for most of his life now, or at least he had done so while making his own decisions, but then he also understood leadership, and he was in their territory. "I swam the channel from the mainland." he stated, getting straight to the point, figuring that was the best way. "I was being hunted by a group of men that belong to a gang over there. The leader of the gang, his name is Nikolai Detshky, was attempting to rebuild one of the bombs that was used in the destruction. He wanted to use it to threaten nearby villages into joining him and to be able to exercise control over other gangs."
He paused, wondering if they knew anything of the areas outside their own borders now. They lived on this isolated island, but surely the elders and the oldest members of the tribe would remember life before the bombs fell. "On the mainland everyone fends for themselves unless they can join with a group of likeminded people...most of the time that means that you either run into those we call 'Raiders' or 'survivors'. There are good people, but there's a lot more that just turn to crime and killing to get what they want, no one can stop them anyway. So Detshky's trying to build this bomb. My friends and I find out about it, one of the villages asks us to stop them. We sneak in and grab some of the parts they need to finish the bomb and we split. I don't know what happened to the others I was with, but the raiders were onto me and I ran. I've been running for about a week, though running straight for the past three or four days. I finally hit the coast and saw the island out here before the fog rolled in. It was my last chance so I just dove in and swam for it..." he paused, shrugged and nodded, "I guess that's pretty much it."
Next to Klava, Alexei sat, dressed in his hunting gear. His ears twitched as he listened to Kazimir's story. He had an innate sense of who was telling the truth and who was lying. Right now, he only sensed truth from the younger wolf in front of them, but also, he sensed that Kaz was holding something back from them. In a deeper, almost growling voice, he said, "Tell us about you, now, pup." His intention was not to be insulting, but he knew Kaz was much younger than he was, and therefore, a pup in his eyes.
The fur on the back of Kaz's neck prickled slightly at being called a pup, but he made no other outward reaction. This male was older than he, and the leader of this pack. He didn't wish to rile them or make them angry with him. So far he had actually felt rather...welcomed...by them, or at least by Kosetsu. He was used to moving around alot, though he had lived in one village for a time as well, as he had mentioned to the young female.
He sighed and glanced among them, then began to recount the story he had told to Kosetsu. About how he was eight when the bombs fell and his world was destroyed, how he was an orphan who had to grow up fast and learn to survive without any guidance from any mentors. How he had joined with a village a few years ago and felt somewhat at home there, or at least like a friend of the people.
"Now I suppose that you might say I make my living by trying to right wrongs that are being done, as best as I can anyway. I'm no hero or anything like that. I've gotten my hands dirty enough times that I can't even call myself, well...I've not always been good. I've stolen to survive, I've killed when people try to kill me. But I like to think I saved more lives than I've harmed and I try to do what's right..." he put a paw on the center of his breastbone for a moment, touching the pendant that hung there at the end of a dull silver chain. It was an absent minded thing that he just did sometimes when he needed to feel a connection with his past. It had been his mother's, the only thing of hers he pulled from the rubble of their home.
Kosetsu moved from the edge of the small clearing to his side, sitting in the chair next to him. Taking his free paw into hers, she looked closely at him before voicing her own opinion to her Alphas. "I think Kazimir would make a fine addition to the pack. Especially after taking out three hostile anthros after a week on the run. I could teach him where to hunt here, and what to avoid on the island." Her violet eyes gleamed with anticipation and a hint of mischief that her Alphas could see. It was obvious she wanted to show off her skills to Kaz, though they didn't know why, or to what extent she was going to show off.
The Alphas and Betas glanced among themselves after having heard Kaz's testimony about himself and then hearing Kosetsu's words. Klava and Alexei leaned toward one another and spoke in low tones, while the Betas, Ulric and Ilya eyed the youngsters. It seemed to all four of them that Kosetsu was unusually interested in bringing this male into the pack after having only met him and even captured him, the previous day.
Alexei's deep voice came out first, "Kosetsu, you know that we do not allow just anyone to become a member of the pack without first proving themselves. He is a capable fighter no doubt..." Klava picked up where her mate trailed off, "But we have only his word about who and what he is." She looked pointedly at the young female, then at Kaz for a moment.
Ulric cleared his throat, "We could propose a test of the male perhaps. Something to prove his skill. If he passes, then perhaps we could give him a time among us to see if he will fit in. Much as we did with Shun when he arrived."
Ilya finished, "You recall that we did not necessarily trust Shun at first either, but he proved himself to the pack, I think that Kazimir deserves a chance."
Kosetsu's temper flared at their words, especially considering what Klava said the night before. The only males in her pack that weren't sterile were her brothers! And half the time they still treated her like a child! Kazimir had caught her interest, but not sexually... yet. But she was interested in someone who could move as fluidly as she, and her brothers, did. Barely keeping the respect for her Alphas and Betas in her voice, she snapped at them, "I'd say keeping three hostiles from discovering us, when he didn't even know about us, should count for a lot." Without thinking, she jumped to her feet and spun towards the woods outside the village, shifting to her feral form before running from the meeting place.
Grigori tried to grab her as she streaked past him, but she bared her fangs and snapped at him, something that told the quadruplets that Kaz meant something to her, even if she didn't know it yet. Roz stepped forward and looked at Kaz, but before he could speak, Makari spoke up. "Kaz, you're with me. We need to track down Blizz before she hurts herself or runs into others that would hurt her. Consider this part of your test for the pack."
Klava had not wished to sound unfair to the young female in their midst. The previous evening she had suggested that he would be a fine addition to the pack, and even that she knew Kosetsu found him fair or handsome. That didn't mean she was going to throw out safety in favor of just admitting him directly into their pack. She wanted safety for everyone, and if that meant testing Kaz to ensure he was no threat to them, then so be it. "Kosetsu..." The elder female said, trying to calm the girl, but it seemed she would not be calmed.
Alexei let out a soft growl at the fact that she was rebelling against their wishes, but before either he, his mate, or any of the betas could react, she was up and running. Everyone reacted in surprise, with her father and brothers reacting the most. Kaz had climbed halfway out of his chair when she bolted up, and suddenly he was left alone with the other members of her pack.
Kaz could understand the Alphas wanting to be wary of him, that was the way of the world now. You couldn't just trust anyone. Though he had stopped the three males chasing him, that was for his own ends and not for theirs, since he had no knowledge of them in the first place. He stood fully, wobbling just a tad on his ankle as one of her brothers, he wasn't sure which exactly, came up to him and said that they needed to find her before she got hurt. This was something Kaz could do. He wasn't the kind to sit still when something needed done, and frankly he would rather try to prove himself to the alphas rather than try to convince them with words. And behind all of this, somewhere deep in Kaz' mind, he felt a draw anyway. Something about Kosetsu had so affected him that he wasn't even aware of it, only that he felt a need to make sure she was safe. He would do whatever was necessary to get her back to them. "Right, let's go..." he said, ignoring the protests of his ankle as he moved away from the table with her brother. By deduction he thought he had worked out now which it was. If Rostislav and Miroslav were two following them earlier, and only one of her brothers could have snuck up on them, that meant that the sneaky one was probably the tracker and scout, and since this brother was the one suggesting they find her, "You must be Makari, right?" He asked as they entered the trees now at a jog.
Makari chuckled and nodded. "Yeah. Grigori is the clown of the family, as well as the group field medic. Ros is the leader of the Tsume pups, as we're called by the elders of the pack. Miroslav is our sharpshooter and I'm the scout and tracker. Blizz... well, she's Blizz. She does anything she wants to, but always protects the pack." As they made it to the outer edge of the pack lands, he shook his head. "She's got a decent head start on us, especially since she's not in her two legged form now. It won't be easy catching up with her now."
Kaz took in what Makari was saying and nodded his head as they moved. Now that he was on the go again, his ankle didn't feel so bad. It still ached, and if he stopped it would probably pain him like crazy (After all, the pack healers had said to take it easy), but he pushed it out of his mind and pushed on. This was the pup that had just swam the entire channel between the island and the mainland, and had fought off three attackers on almost no sleep. He could handle this, he just had to make sure he didn't make a fool of himself. There was something about this pack. Something....different. He hadn't felt like this when he visited any other village. Something about them spoke to him. Something about Kosetsu called to him.
"So we need to track her down..." he murmured, crouching to look at the ground and pick up a leaf that looked trampled. He sniffed it and found that it smelled very faintly of, well...of Kosetsu. He cocked his head and then walked forward a few paces to another branch, this one that the tip was very faintly broken on, it smelled the same. "That way..." he said, gesturing. "I can smell her.."
Not too far from where they were, the young wolf ran into the stream, padding through the water slowly enough to cover her scent from her brothers. She knew that Makari would be coming after her, but she needed time to herself after that outburst. She emerged on the other side of the stream, taking off into the deeper woods and her spot where she liked to go when she needed to be free of her brothers and her pack for a bit. Luckily for her, her brothers hadn't found it yet, but the moment they did - and she knew that eventually they would - she would make herself another place to hide.
Going deeper, she jumped up onto one of the branches she was used to jumping to in the trees, then moved through the trees and limbs until she was sure she'd confused Makari's abilities to track her. In all actuality, she'd circled the pack lands a few times before jumping out of the trees. She moved to the den she'd made and moved to curl up inside it. It was not large enough for her brothers to get into. Only way anyone could get in with her was if they had a feral form as well.
Makari raised his eyebrows at Kaz for a half a moment, "Her scent will be muffled by the other times she has passed this way of course, are you sure it is her fresh scent?" He was testing. Even the most novice of hunters knew that animals and even anthros used the same paths, even if unintentionally. It was likely that Kosetsu had started off on one of the common paths and left it later.
But Kaz just nodded, "It's her scent. Even in feral form I can tell that it's her." he glanced at her brother, "Trust me, eh?" And with that he started off at a slightly limping lope through the woods in that direction. He inhaled deeply from the forest smells as he ran, finding that the air was clear and woody, but thick with the intermingling of a dozen different species of animals and scents from the members of the pack that left the edges of the village.
Out further in the forest, beyond the two young men now looking for the young girl, a large pack of wolves were on the prowl, hunting through the forest for their next deer, rabbit or even a bear, if they were desperate enough to try and bring down one of them. Food was getting harder and harder to come by, and every once in awhile they would attack or be attacked by the two-leggeds who also existed here.
Their alpha was a large male, twice the size of his brethren, mutated by the same radiation that had blanketed the land in the days following the war. He led with fierce determination and violence. His hide was scratched and one of his eyes was blind, but he was still the largest and meanest of the pack.
And now, floating on the winds and filling the air was the scent of a fertile female ready to be bred. The first that any of the males had scented in many a long night. They picked up the pace and began bounding through the wild lands.
Kosetsu was curled up in her den, unaware that a feral pack of male wolves had caught her scent and was trailing it to where she was hiding. Of course, being feral, they were taking a direct route to her den, rather than the circuitous route she had taken to avoid her pack from following her. It would take a bit of time for the feral wolves to reach her and get into the den with her, or trick her out into the open. Her first heat was hitting her, and the scent of her was enough to drive the ferals, and Kazimir, wild with need of her!
Her head rested on her forepaws, her eyes closed, her ears twitching to catch any unusual sound, even as she rested, almost asleep in her hidden den. Had she known about the ferals heading her way, she would have stayed up in the trees, or stayed out of the forest completely, but as it was... Her eyes drifted closed and she let out a small snort of displeasure as a burst of air through her nostrils, sighing as only a wolf could.
Kaz and Makari dashed as quickly as they could through the forest, following the trail that Kaz had picked up on. It was a scent that they had deduced Makari couldn't smell, and the only that Kaz could describe was that it was 'very female' and 'very Kosetsu'. Makari could smell his sister by the familiar scents that he always associated with her, just the same as he would have followed Rostislav or Grigori, but Kaz seemed much more sure about his scent. He thought he knew what that meant, but at the same time he wasn't sure. He had never smelled something of that description coming from his sister, but this was part of Kaz' test, so he was letting the other young male lead the way. He was looking all the while to find fault in the way that the young male moved, or crouched, but he could find none. It was like the movements and actions were instinctive to Kaz.
For Kaz's part, as they kept moving, he was able to pick up his pace, pausing only every once in awhile, otherwise moving through the forest like a shadow. His coloration blended well with the surroundings, and even his partially tattered clothing helped him to merge with the trees and grasses.
At last they came to a river, and here Makari paused, "Dammit, she covered her trail with the river...fuck, Blizz..." he sighed and calmed himself. "It's a trick we use. Sometimes to double back, other times to cross. You look on the far side of the river, I'll look on this side and we'll meet up a mile upstream. Downstream it gets more rocky and leads eventually to the edge of the main water."
Kaz nodded and plunged through the stream, wincing as the cold water soaked into the bandages around his ankle. He shivered as he got to the far side, and then shook off like a wild wolf, before starting to try and pick up the scent of her again.
She was actually close. And on this side of the river, that very female scent was stronger than on the other side. It wouldn't be easy to find her, but he could take a direct route to the den she was hiding in, rather than the circuitous route she'd taken to throw them off her trail. And with the feral pack closing in on her, it might be a good idea for him to take that direct route to get to her in time.
Feral howls echoed in the distance, but Kosetsu didn't lift her head, since she knew that the nearest pack was a distance away. She paid no attention to the warning in the howls, too lost in the misery of not having Kaz added to the pack. She knew that it wouldn't be an easy thing to happen, but she had hoped after Klava's words. The young wolfess was irrevocably attracted to Kaz, though she didn't know what was going on with her own body. Without her mother, she didn't have a female close enough to warn her about her first heat or the strange feelings she was experiencing now.
The wolf pack was closing in faster than any of them might have actually thought. Running at full speed through the woods, the pack of 7 males were panting and slobbering, sweat on their bodies giving off steam in the cool air as they panted and bounded, one thing on their minds, and one thing alone...mating, breeding, advancing their line. The Alpha would have first pick, followed by his subordinates....
Kaz was nearing her too, he could sense it, there was just something in the air. He felt a strange stirring deeply within him, in his loins and in his chest. It was the call of the wild in him, that base instinct that called him to a young female in heat, specifically in this case, Kosetsu herself. He was out of sight of the river now, and out of sight of Makari. Suddenly on the wind he heard the howls of a pack of wolves. He knew that sound well, having heard the same noises many times in the forests of the mainland.
"Ferals...damn..." he muttered to himself, picking up the pace. Those howls were getting far too close for comfort. He had no weapons but his teeth and claws, no way to defend himself if that pack grew close and decided a partly wounded young pup was their next meal.
Finally the howls registered in her psyche and the young female lifted her head and looked intently at her surroundings. Her den was small, making it easier for her to defend, if need be. But another wolf in feral form could get into it. She stood and backed in further, putting the tree trunk at her rear. It gave the approaching ferals one less way to control her. Once in place, she sank down again, making herself look vulnerable to the approaching ferals.
The feral wolves only knew that their next mating was approaching swiftly, as swiftly as they could run toward the young female in heat that is. At the same time Kazimir was closing, but moving slightly slower than they with his pained ankle and the wound in his shoulder which was starting to feel like it might need to be rebandaged already. He hoped he found her soon and they could get out before the wolves got much closer.
Unfortunately, that was not to be.
A short distance ahead, the wolves came over a hill and their howling became loud and immediate. They rushed down the side of the hill and barrelled toward the place where they knew the fertile female to be. The alpha was in the lead, of course, and they skidded to a halt in the small clearing just before her den. The members of the pack began to sniff and pace, circling around the fallen tree, the hole where she had gone in, back and forth. The alpha stood growling menacingly just outside the entrance, then sprang forward and clawed at the opening. It was somewhat small for his large bulk, but he could smell her, and even see her huddling at the back. She would be his!
Kosetsu whined as the rogue Alpha tore at the entrance to her safe haven. The sound was just loud enough for the pack to hear her. She wanted them in a frenzy, to be insane with need. Cause she was far more than what they thought. She knew she could take out a couple of them, but the Alpha... She could see he was powerful, and she tried to back up further into her den as he shredded the entrance and came towards her. He was the one member of the pack she'd have to escape from. She knew there was no way for her to take him down.
Suddenly, he was directly in front of her, snarling and biting at her scruff to drag her from her den. Her paws dug into the ground, trying to delay him, as she yelped from the ruthless grip he had on her. That sound carried to the incoming Kazimir, and further. Makari heard it from the far side of the river where he'd been looking, fruitlessly, for her tracks.
The Alpha dragged her out, growling at her, his cock already out of its sheath and fully engorged with blood. He was ready to conquer this female, to breed her. And he might let the rest of the pack have her after he was done...
When she had whined, Kazimir was close enough to actually hear the noise. Perhaps it was some sort of hearing that he was gifted with, but that sound dug at his ears and made him quicken his already fast pace. He was sure he was the only one coming to her aid. He had seen the wolf pack crest the hill through the trees, and seen them dash down into a depression just beyond his current location. Then a cacophony of barks and growls and yips sounded from the large bowl-like depression.
Above it all rose one larger sound, of the alpha of the pack while he tore into her safe haven, tore the entrance open and plunged in to drag out the young female. The moment she came out of the den, drug by their leader, her scent hit them all and every male there began barking and yapping and their sheaths pulling back to reveal dripping members. Her yelp of pain at being grabbed reached Kaz and he let out a growl of pure rage. Mentally he wasn't sure why he was so desperate to find and save her, aside from the fact that she had simply rescued him and tried to be his friend in the short time they had known one another. Nor did he understand why such rage took him at hearing her harmed. The fact remained that it did, and he became a rather terrifying sight to behold. Every hair on his body rose, especially in a long ridge down the center of his back. His claws on all four paws extended to their full, knife-sharp length and he bounded forward, heeding neither the fact that his shoulder wound was beginning to seep, or that his ankle was screaming for him to just fuckin STOP!
In the distance, Makari froze in his tracks, ears alert and eyes rapidly darting as he heard his sister's pained yelp echo through the forest. The final echo told him the direction, and he pointed his muzzle skyward and howled out to call for his other brothers. Their little sister was in mortal danger and he had no idea if they would reach her in time.
Kaz reached the edge of the clearing and stared down into it. The large alpha was beginning to hump at her, still growling and biting at her scruff to force her into a position to allow him to pierce her and give her his seed, force her to bear his pups. A roar from the lip of the depression caused every member of the pack to look, and discover that they were staring into the face of a nearly berserk anthro male, 6 feet of muscle and anger bearing down on them, and then falling among them to tear them apart.
Kosetsu looked up with the others at that terrifying roar, but she settled down once she recognized Kazimir. She snapped at the Alpha, forcing him back from her, then took a jump to her feet. She sprang up into the trees and climbed up even more, getting as high up as her feral form was comfortable, then pushing herself higher, not wanting the Alpha to get a hold of her.
Once up in the tree, she gave a series of high pitched yips, which told her brothers she was a little scared, but unharmed, for the most part. She did have some swelling to her scruff, where the brute Alpha had bitten her, though, as well as sore pawpads from being dragged out of her den. She wiggled back on the branch she was on until her rump pressed against the trunk of the tree, her eyes on the fight scene below. She didn't want Kaz to overdo it himself, though, so she watched for any opportunity to help him.
Kaz fell into the middle of the rogue pack with very little concern for his own safety. A tangle of arms, legs, paws and fur was all that was visible, amid the angered growls of the anthro male and his opponents. The alpha moved away from the pack, letting his subordinates deal with the newcomer, confident that they could tear the anthro apart while he dealt with their prey. He ran to the bottom of the tree that she climbed and jumped, clawing at the bark and howling, snapping and growling up at her.
The young male who had taken on the entire pack was holding his own quite admirably, using his teeth and claws to batter and scratch the other wolves. Two had fallen to him, either from gouging their throats out or breaking their neck. The dead carcasses lay on either side of him, but now he was hard pressed as the other five began circling, making snapping barks and deep growls. Kaz's anger was still flaring, and he was determined, not paying any attention to the freshly bleeding wound in his shoulder, nor to the fact that he had suffered yet further wounds in protection of Kosetsu's innocence.
The final five ferals started charging at him in pairs, pawing at him, tearing into his flesh with teeth and claws if they could. He kicked at one while grabbing at another, picking up the smallest and hurling it against a tree where it fell and did not rize. His strong leg was pulled out from under him by another and he went down hard on his side, throwing up his paws to cover his face while they began biting. He was not cowed or out of it yet, "Hell no you don't!" He snapped, yowling as he bit down into the shoulder of one that got too close to his head, tearing a hole in its skin and causing it to yelp and slink away. He was whittling their numbers away, slowly but surely.
Kosetsu growled her defiance at the feral Alpha trying to get up at her. She was out of his range, though, and she was more than willing to jump even higher into the tree to get away from him if he figured out how to get up into it with her. Her eyes went from the Alpha to Kaz tearing through the pack to protect her, her violet hues striking with her fur coloration. She didn't hesitate to snap her teeth at the Alpha as part of her defiance of him as she watched the male that had intrigued her and stirred something to life within her.
Kaz battled and fought with the other members of the feral pack until at last he sent the final one running off into the forest at a limp, clearly licked. Up in the tree, he could hear Kosetsu growling at the Alpha who was clawing and jumping into the tree, paying no attention to the larger anthro male. Kaz was much the worse for the wear now, with dozens of cuts, scratches and punctures on his arms and legs and torso where the wolves of the pack had torn into him. His wounded shoulder was soaked with blood, and his ankle was swollen once again from the strenuous use he had given it.
Still though, he wouldn't be finished until the Alpha either died or ran away, and so even amongst its growling, he came up behind it and threw his arms around its thick neck, dragging it backward with him into the packed dirt and light snow that covered the ground. A snarl came from the Alpha, who then turned on this interloper, and the two of them began to roll across the ground, scratching and crawling and making awful noises. Their fight was fierce and ranged all over the area, until finally Kaz stood and limped a few paces away to put distance between them, and the Alpha tackled him over the rim and into a thick patch of bushes. Everything fell silent.
Kosetsu stood on the limb she'd been laying on, looking down to see if she could see anything. After a moment, she started to jump down to the ground, using the limbs to keep her from hurting herself on the landing. She raced over to the rim, staring down into the bushes, hoping to see Kazimir coming from the plants. Her tail flicked over her back, sending the heat scent out to surround her again. The same scent that her brothers didn't even know she had. But Kaz and the ferals had noticed it. She whined a few times, getting antsy as she watched the bushes and she took a couple steps towards the rim, then backed off, over and over.
From behind her, approaching through the woods at a fast run, Makari bounded over the lip of the rim and stopped short. "????? ????....(holy shit)!" He looked at the carnage. Six dead feral anthros lay scattered here and there around the hollow in the ground, blood was all over the damn place. He glanced up to see Kosetsu, still in her feral form, pacing and whining and looking over the rim. He came down toward her, "Kosetsu! Where's Kazimir?"
Behind him, her other three brothers came up only moments later, weapons drawn at the ready, but soon nearly dropped from their paws as they too saw what Kaz had done to the ferals.
Suddenly the bushes on the far side of the rim started to shake and a bloody paw emerged, followed by an equally bloody Kazimir. He drug himself out of the bushes and up toward the rim of the hollow, his chest heaving and a his limbs shaking. He caught one look at Kosetsu, saw her brothers, then his eyes rolled back and he collapsed in a heap.
She leaped to his side, licking at him, cleaning the blood from him as she saw him emerging from the bushes, squirming to get herself under him to keep him from hitting the ground, but he was exhausted and wasn't able to keep up while she moved. Looking up at her brothers, she whined at them, which got Ros and Miroslav to move towards them and carefully pick him up between them. Ros looked down at Kosetsu, questions in his eyes, but she shook her head, not wanting to shift out here right now. She'd tell them when she was ready to. Or let Kaz tell them.
Once the two had Kaz out of the depression where the bushes were, Kosetsu squatted and relieved her bladder, letting her urine run down and puddle under the defeated Alpha. He wasn't touching her! Her paws dug at the ground and kicked it out behind her to rain down on the feral Alpha. Moving back to Kaz's side, she pushed her head under his limp paw, then turned her head to look at the ruined den she'd been using. Giving a wolf-sigh, with a snort of annoyance, she turned to walk with them towards the village, but just outside the village, she paused, and shook her head. She'd have to deal with the consequences for her outburst in front of the pack's leaders. She wasn't happy about it, but she would deal with it when they summoned her to face them. First, though, they had to go back to the healers for Kazimir.
Kaz was unconscious, exhaustion, loss of blood, using his already strained body beyond its limits to save this girl he had only just met. Her brothers carried him, as gently as possible and as swiftly as possible by the straightest route back toward the village. They moved straight for the healers, knowing that the Alphas would be waiting for a report, but also knowing that getting Kaz back to Petya and Varya was the first priority above all.
Grigori paused to remain back with Kosetsu, or at least stuck by her side as they walked. He was mercifully quiet, his usual joking demeanor kept under wraps right now by the seriousness of the situation. Makari had rushed ahead to call for the healers, and when they came in sight of the cave the mated couple was already walking out toward them. Rostislav turned over his side of Kaz to Petya, and Miroslav turned his over to Varya. The two immediately began speaking to one another while carrying him the rest of the way toward the cave, examining his wounds as best as they could before they even had him laying down on a bed.
Kosetsu stepped to follow the healers and Kaz, then paused, knowing she had to talk to the Alphas and Betas about her actions. Shaking her head, she loped off, following Petya and Varya to the cave, not wanting to let Kaz out of her sight. She'd caused the injuries with her temper, and she wasn't about to let him suffer any more than he was already. She jumped to the bed they'd used the night before, and lay down before the healers lay him on it. She remained still on the bed, her head on her paws as she watched the healers caring for him. She was not acting like herself at all, and she'd make the Alphas come to her this time.
Outside the healer's cave, her four brothers were deep in conversation with her father, the Alphas and Betas. It became generally decided that there was little explanation that they could see for the change in Kosetsu's personality and behavior ever since she had brought Kaz into the camp the day previous. It was not like her to either blatantly disobey and disrespect the Alphas, nor to rush off into the forest and put the lives of others at stake by her actions. They all knew that she valued the pack above all, at least until now. The Alphas asked for Makari's rendition of what had happened, and the other brothers also told what they had seen upon arriving at the hollow in the forest. Shun remained quiet, deep in thought, glancing toward the cave every once in awhile.
Inside the cave, the healers laid Kaz out on the same bed from the night previous, and now got to work on the young pup for the second time in as many days, only this time his wounds were more numerous, and perhaps more serious. That would remain to be seen. A bucket of cold, clear water from the stream was brought and heated to boiling, then Varya took to washing the male, cleaning each wound with expert care and precision, while her mate prepared bandages with special salves to ward off infection and keep the wounds clean. Many scratches were simply washed and touched with the salve, but he had deep bite marks on his legs and forearms, these were bandaged completely once they were washed, and a particularly nasty cut across his forehead that cut down over one of his eyes was also bandaged, effectively giving him an eyepatch.
Petya looked at Kosetsu, "Young one, I would advise that, in the future, you take more care in your actions..." His voice was soft but stern as he spoke to the young wolfess. Kosetsu lifted her head and nodded to him, taking his scolding without heat this time. She knew she'd done wrong when she took off, but in the heat of the moment, she couldn't stop herself from running. Normally, her runs were to blow off steam and no one followed her, unless it was one of her brothers. And she usually came back home on her own, having worked out for herself what she needed to. But this time, she'd put herself at risk of having the feral pack breeding her, and caused Kaz more pain and injuries, on top of the ones he'd gotten from the three males that had followed him across the mainland and through the water to the island.
She shifted back to her anthro state and held onto Kaz's paw as Petya and Varya finished working on him. "I don't know what overcame me to act like that in front of the Alphas and Betas. I just hope that it satisfied their need to test Kaz. He doesn't need to be put through the wringer again." She lay down next to Kaz again, uncaring of her rather nude state.
Petya looked at his mate for a moment as if to communicate that he suspected very much what was partly the reasoning for her sudden mood shift. During their brief examination the previous night, the two of them had concluded that Kaz was both an intact, and fertile, male. That meant that he was like Kosetsu and her brothers, and that meant that Kosetsu's body was reacting to Kaz, and Kazimir to hers. It would explain why her hormones were raging and causing her to act differently. "I am sure that they will judge fairly as they always do," he said softly, leaving unspoken that she herself would have some explaining to do.
As she shifted, Varya moved to take a blanket and put it over the nude wolfess, but Petya shook his head. "Leave her be..." he said. "We have done all we can for Kaz, he is bandaged and must now rest...and I mean it this time," he said the last, glancing at Kosetsu pointedly. "When he awakens, if he must be moved, we will see about giving him his own dwelling." With that he rose and moved toward the back of the cavern once more, to see to it that he noted down the supplies they had used and what herbs they would need to reacquire. Varya remained for a moment by the young couple as they lay, then shook her head and moved away to join her mate.
Kosetsu lay against Kaz, totally unembarrassed by her lack of clothing. It felt right to her. She lifted her muzzle to nuzzle his neck as he slept, her scent mingling with his, the two of them bound by their need of each other. Closing her eyes, she slept fitfully next to him, her mind reliving the meeting with the Alphas and Betas and then her race to her safe haven to work things out on her own. A low whimper slipped from her as she relived the ferals finding her den and tearing it apart to get to her, and the feral Alpha's determination to get to her. Her eyes snapped open and she looked around the cave, calming down as she breathed in Kaz's scent. Nothing was out of place, and her eyes swiftly looked Kaz over, making sure he would be alright. A hesitant swipe of her tongue slid over his muzzle as she didn't want to wake him. She knew he needed the rest, but she had to be sure he was alright.
Kaz's body had finally just told him, 'Fuck this, to go fuckin sleep', and so he did. That didn't mean that he slept well the entire time though. The pain in his limbs, though dulled by the herbal mixtures applied, still caused him to stir, and the dreams that haunted his mind did nothing to help either. Most of the dreams were of his past, from the day his parents died to a hundred other things that clawed at him through the years. They were not of the killing he had just done, for that didn't bother him. The emotions of that moment were less about killing and more about saving...saving her, and about the horrible thought that he might have somehow just lost Kosetsu. She featured prominently in them, and every time she did he saw her as a calming presence...and almost always nude.
He never awoke fully, even when she stirred and whimpered, but his heart did beat faster and one of his hands twitched as if looking to find her own. He calmed a moment later when he felt her lick him lightly along the nose. Somehow he just knew it was she that had done it. He sighed and breathed out deeply, then fell into a much calmer state.
She maneuvered herself closer to him, her body pressing against his side, her head resting on his good shoulder. Her eyes closed again and she fell asleep as well, her mind calmer now. But again, she only slept for a little while before waking to check on him again. She was giving every indication of a female who was in love and about to mate the male of her dreams. It was known that Kosetsu and her brothers would have to find mates among outsiders, as they were the only ones in the pack that were still fertile and able to grow the pack. And the first outsider that came along, they wanted to test to make sure he would be a good fit in the pack. Kosetsu hadn't stopped to think they were doing it for her protection as well as the pack's. She was the only fertile female in the pack, so Kaz would be drawn to her, and the two of them could bring in new pups to a dying pack, but they had to make sure he wouldn't hurt her.