Trouble Were-ever He Goes
#62 of The Moonrise Chronicles
Maggie
was watching Edward as he tested his strength on some of the trees in the woods
they were hunkered down in. They were still awaiting an answer to his summons.
The pines were no match for him, as his claws shredded the lower trunks within seconds,
toppling them to the ground. She shivered at the wanton destruction, even if
was just to plant material. He expended hardly any effort in his actions, and
it was like he was simply ripping up crepe paper. He was
getting bored waiting for someone to answer his challenge. He repeated his
howls every day, and his patience was pretty much gone. If something didn't
happen soon, the poor bear was going to find out what breeding was all about.
His initiation into male on male sex had actually been pretty brief in comparison to the real thing - werewolf style.. Maggie
was bored too and playing with her ring. She had placed it up against her ear
back at the bar in St Petersburg, and it had worked to enhance the incoming sounds. She
had no time to think about it before now, but she had the opportunity to wonder
now how it had accomplished that trick. Her feral ears were great for picking
up sounds, much more so than her human ones. So now she placed the ring against one of her present ones and listened. She
heard birds, and a host of small animals chattering in the forest. She couldn't
tell how far away they were, not having anything to gauge the enhancement by.
They might be a few hundred yards away, or farther. They suddenly went quiet as
she heard branches snapping, followed by some mild curses in Russian. People!
Chances were good that their presence wasn't going to bode well. She
approached the young male. "What sort of humans live out here?" "Not
many and mostly the type that hunt with weapons. Why?" She
held the ring to his ear. "Do you hear anything different?" His ear
twitched and then he jerked away from the circle of metal. "Those sound like
what the villagers called poachers. I don't understand the term, but they apparently
kill outside of the restrictions of the human laws." "I know
what poachers are. I suppose they've heard father's howls and are coming to
investigate. That wasn't what he was planning on." Edward's
ears needed no outside enhancement. He overhead the two talking and immediately tuned
into the woods with his own massive set of ears. He heard the men as the rammed
their way through the underbrush, apparently either blindly stupid or assuming
they had yet to come close to their quarry. But the fact was, they were not
what he was looking for and if they persisted, they would find out he was not
what they were looking for. As he was not hungry, he decided to ignore
them. After all, what harm could they do? That
was answered a little while later when the poor bear took a bullet to the
shoulder. Edward was lying in the bushes, and the other two were short enough
to be concealed by their surroundings. The bear bellowed and ran, despite his
knowledge of what he could suffer if he did. He knew hunters all too well and figured a sore ass was better than being dead. Edward
sat up and watched the bear lumbering off. With his head now above the foliage, the
rifles were immediately aimed at him. Several shots rang out from vintage
SVT-40 rifles before the bullets struck him. Even then he didn't seem to immediately notice. When he did, and he connected the stings with the men, his ire erupted
anew. Maggie
tackled the young male and held him down. "Don't get in his way. And don't get
in mine." She bounded after him. The
men, a ragtag group of around a dozen, continued to fire, and a few pulled out pistols
and got shots off, emptying the chambers. The beast just roared and with a
spring that carried him forty feet through the air, landed in their midst and
went to work. Maggie
ducked as a leg flew past her head, blood splattering her fur as it did. She
had no idea why she was here, for he needed no help. Terrified screams were cut short as
men had their throats ripped out. A rifle went off in his face, striking him
under the chin and ripping through his cheek, but he never slowed down. One man
dropped his equipment and climbed a tree, for the moment feeling safe. Edward
ignored him, knowing that he would be there when he was done with the others. No one
could go far, not with his great stride. Nor could any of them hide. His nose
was too keen. By the time Edward was finished, all but the man in the tree were
dead. His huge body was riddled with bullet holes, and in two places the
handles of hunting knives jutted above his fur. He pulled them out with dark
claws and angrily stabbed them into a still expiring body. Maggie
was hanging back, knowing very well that anything she might say could
antagonize him. He turned, chest heaving and eyes glowing. "What is it little
sister? Did you miss out on the fun? There is still one little bird in the
tree. You can have him if you like." "No,
that's fine. I came to make sure you ended up safe." "You're concerned about me? What kind of silly ass do you take me for? I did nothing to these
creatures and they attacked me unprovoked. No one does that. No one." His tone
was terrifyingly dark. She
already understood that. Yet there was a glimmer of hope that he still retained
some morals. He was still thinking, and while his memories were gone, some of
his human traits remained. But it might
be only a matter of time until this feral side won. The young male; now he was more
feral than human, and yet, unlike what she had been told, he still had rational
thoughts, desires and feelings. This was a more complicated social order than anyone
seemed to know about, but then, it had been largely destroyed over the years by
war, assassination and misunderstanding. She knew about that last part very
well. "I
agree. But would you rather I leave you to fight alone? That is not the way of
a pack." "Pack?
What use have I of a pack except for breeding purposes?" "But
you already have a mate back home." He
stopped dead in his tracks. "I do?" As much
as she hated to bring it up, if he could latch on to that memory, it might stir
his others. "Yes. Her name is Verona." He
rolled the name over his feral tongue. "Verona? Doesn't sound familiar. How
many cubs do we have?" "Just
one on the way." He
howled with laughter. "One? One lousy cub? I need to find females to breed
with. I will have hundred of cubs running through the woods, and the air will
be filled with their howls!" She
knew this would end in disaster. No regular wolf bitch would survive him, and
in his feral arrogance, the chances he would accommodate his form to their
advantage was nonexistent. They would
die in the attempt. He might have a chance with this supreme alpha the male
mentioned, but all Maggie saw in that future was a battle. He was full of
himself, and if the alpha female were equally egotistical, then their friction would
set the woods alight. The
young male had said that this alpha didn't like him, and that she commanded who
mated with whom. Edward's blatant disregard for rules of any sort would put him
squarely against this alpha. She was putting her money on Edward. Whoever this
female was, she probably hadn't had to face much competition out here in the
middle of nowhere. There was a new game in town and Edward was it. The only
problem was; if he assumed a new leadership role here in the wilds, where would that
leave them as a couple? Maggie certainly didn't want to leave him, and she didn't want to
stay. It was a problem of epic proportions and she had no idea how to solve it. Edward
was preparing to feast, and despite her time killing back home, she was now turned
off by the sight of so much gore. It wasn't that she was against killing, for
that was an often necessary ingredient in a were's life. It was the fact that she could eat anything
now, so killing humans for food was no longer a need. But that was lost on Edward.
Everything was food to him. She slunk away into the forest and allowed him to
do what he needed to do. She
parked it a few hundred feet away and turned to stare in his direction. She
noted the last remaining man hanging on for dear life in the tree, and she
thought maybe Edward would forget about him. No such luck. She soon heard
screams and the rending of wood before the tree came crashing down. What little
compassion he had for human kind had vanished the moment the bullets started
flying. She was
sitting there when Kolzac came bounding up to her. "The pack!" She
turned to see them coming in from the north. There weren't a lot of them, and they
were moving cautiously. The young male was wagging his tail, yet despite this
show of joy, remained behind Maggie. "Why
are you hiding?" "I am
not myself anymore. They may not accept me back into their ranks." "I
think we have bigger problems than that. My father will have a few things to
say, and I think that like the poachers, your pack will find out the hard way
that he can enforce his opinion on anybody." She ran
forward and sat down in front of the lead wolf in a show of submission. It
galled her to do it, but she was trying to save lives. The leader sniffed her
and bared her fangs. "Who do
you think you are?" "No one
of importance. But I am a companion of one who is, and I must ask you to either
speak with wisdom to him, or not to speak at all." The
bitch was about to say something derogatory when her nose caught the scent of fresh blood
on Maggie's fur. It was obviously human, and she searched the surrounding brush
for signs of an ambush. That was when her ears caught the sound of rending
coming from a little ways off. Edward
was oblivious to his surroundings. Since there was nothing that could hurt him,
he just didn't care what was going on. Even the idea of meeting the pack had
diminished to a mere modicum of interest. He was feeding now, and it had felt good
to kill. Kill! That was fun! He needed to kill some more! Fun, fun, fun! The
lead alpha female motioned for the other members to spread out on either side
of the noise. Her nose caught a scent that made her hackles rise, but she knew
her duty. This was pack domain and no one entered it without permission. The
younger female could wait. Here seemed to be bigger fish to fry. They entered
the area where Edward was sitting,, happily gnawing a red stained bone. He looked up and
growled something incoherent. As the others came into view, his mind remembered
the pack. Now that he saw them, they seemed puny and insignificant. What could
they offer him that he didn't already have? Sex? Mating? They weren't even worth a second look. Like
little sister had noted, there was a problem with size. He would have
better luck with his poor pet bear, where ever the dear thing had run off too.
Of course, these men had hurt it. It wasn't his pet's fault. They had scared the poor thing off with their noise. He went back to gnawing
on the femur. The
alpha began panting from the stress of seeing what she was seeing. She turned
to look at the new female (our little Maggie in pure wolf form) and motioned
for her to approach. "What the hell is this monstrosity doing in our domain?" Maggie
was feeling spunky. "From all appearances I'd say he was eating." "Don't
get cute with me..." Maggie
had dropped the wolf form and morphed into her nastiest looking werewolf form.
"I can be cute if I want to. Like him, I am presently not in the mood to comply
with anyone's requests or demands." Edward
hurled the bone in their direction. "You tell'em little sister." The
alpha cocked her head. "You are both supremes?" "He's a
supreme right now. I guess I could be, but I sure as hell am not going to fight
him for the title." Kolzac
made an appearance as well. "Hello Nortalia." She
sniffed him before jerking back. "I know you. We assumed you were dead." "Nope.
I finally got to shed my human form to have this greater one." "This
is not good. You must all go." She glancing around nervously. "But we
came looking for the supreme alpha of your pack." Nortalia
shivered. "I would rather submit to a forced mating with this monstrosity than
to betray our leader." Maggie
winced at her words. They were ill timed and ill spoken. Edward
reached out and snatched the wolf-bitch and held her in the air. "She is too
small. But I can always try and breed with her. What's the worse I can do but
make more food." She
yelped and twisted to try to break free, but his grip could crush trees. None of the pack had any courage after seeing
this unnatural force happily eating the only other predator they had to worry
about; man. But
Maggie jumped up and landed on his shoulders. Without knowing what else to do,
she placed the ring against his forehead, right over the bullet wound and
prayed that something would happen. He stopped and acted rather bemused. "What
is it little sister?" "I'm
trying to help you get your mind back before you do things you'll later
regret." "I have
my memories! I remember my fuzzy bear, and I remember these foolish things
hurting me. I remember your smell, and what you've told me of a mate called
Velina" "Verona.
Yes, you remember things since taking the bullet, but you need to have your old
ones back." He
stared at the alpha female and then dropped her to the ground. "Memories? Of
what use are they little sister? I cannot eat them. I cannot breed with them.
Therefore they are useless." "What
about love?" There were finally tears in her eyes. She had been holding back
for so long. "Love?
What is love?" "You
really don't know?" "Little
sister, you are a fine thing, but I think you expect too much from me. If you
know what love is than tell me all about it. But not now." He turned to the
female he had just dropped. "I think I came here to see your leader. I will do
so and then I will make up my mind what I intend to do after that." "I
can't take you to her because if I..." A huge foot slammed down on her head. Her
nose was filled with pine needles "You
will do, or you will not do. Do not give me reasons why you are unable. If you
won't do as I say, I can find other uses for you." His meaning was clear. Maggie
spoke down to her. "We initially meant no harm when we came here. In fact, we weren't planning on
being anywhere out here in the middle of nowhere. We were going to explore a city when
everything changed. It's not his fault." "City?
What city?" "St
Petersburg. The
wolf's ears perked up. "That is a long ways off from here. How long have you
been traveling?" "I've
lost track. It's been a rough trip. All we set out to do was to find out some
information on who I am." "Are
you as addled as your friend here?" Maggie
got into a bit of a rage. "No! I was looking for information on my grandmother,
Anna Nikolaevna!" The
wolf paused. "Who?" "Oh
never mind. You would have no reason to know about her. You're just a stupid
bitch living in the wild." The
female licked her lips nervously. "That I'm a bitch I'll grant you. But never
ever call me stupid. Follow me."