{"sf1_id":776368,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Trouble Were-ever He Goes","author":"StGeorgesHorse","words":2804,"posted_at":"2014-10-31T20:21:00.000Z","tags":["Bear","Death","Feral","Human","Mayhem","Plot Development","Story Progression","Werewolf","Wolf","Wolves","pack","poachers","russia"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/776368-trouble-were-ever-he-goes","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/776368","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=776368\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"#62 of The Moonrise Chronicles","content":"                Maggie\nwas watching Edward as he tested his strength on some of the trees in the woods\nthey were hunkered down in. They were still awaiting an answer to his summons.\nThe pines were no match for him, as his claws shredded the lower trunks within seconds,\ntoppling them to the ground. She shivered at the wanton destruction, even if\nwas just to plant material. He expended hardly any effort in his actions, and\nit was like he was simply ripping up crepe paper.                He was\ngetting bored waiting for someone to answer his challenge. He repeated his\nhowls every day, and his patience was pretty much gone. If something didn't\nhappen soon, the poor bear was going to find out what breeding was all about.\nHis initiation into male on male sex had actually been pretty brief in comparison to the real thing - werewolf style..                Maggie\nwas bored too and playing with her ring. She had placed it up against her ear\nback at the bar in St Petersburg, and it had worked to enhance the incoming sounds. She\nhad no time to think about it before now, but she had the opportunity to wonder\nnow how it had accomplished that trick. Her feral ears were great for picking\nup sounds, much more so than her human ones. So now she placed the ring against one of her present ones and listened.                She\nheard birds, and a host of small animals chattering in the forest. She couldn't\ntell how far away they were, not having anything to gauge the enhancement by.\nThey might be a few hundred yards away, or farther. They suddenly went quiet as\nshe heard branches snapping, followed by some mild curses in Russian. People!\nChances were good that their presence wasn't going to bode well.                She\napproached the young male. \"What sort of humans live out here?\"                \"Not\nmany and mostly the type that hunt with weapons. Why?\"                She\nheld the ring to his ear. \"Do you hear anything different?\"                His ear\ntwitched and then he jerked away from the circle of metal. \"Those sound like\nwhat the villagers called poachers. I don't understand the term, but they apparently\nkill outside of the restrictions of the human laws.\"                \"I know\nwhat poachers are. I suppose they've heard father's howls and are coming to\ninvestigate. That wasn't what he was planning on.\"                Edward's\nears needed no outside enhancement. He overhead the two talking and immediately tuned\ninto the woods with his own massive set of ears. He heard the men as the rammed\ntheir way through the underbrush, apparently either blindly stupid or assuming\nthey had yet to come close to their quarry. But the fact was, they were not\nwhat he was looking for and if they persisted, they would find out he was not\nwhat they were looking for. As he was not hungry,  he decided to ignore\nthem. After all, what harm could they do?                That\nwas answered a little while later when the poor bear took a bullet to the\nshoulder. Edward was lying in the bushes, and the other two were short enough\nto be concealed by their surroundings. The bear bellowed and ran, despite his\nknowledge 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\nsat up and watched the bear lumbering off. With his head now above the foliage, the\nrifles were immediately aimed at him. Several shots rang out from vintage\nSVT-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\nanew.                Maggie\ntackled the young male and held him down. \"Don't get in his way. And don't get\nin mine.\" She bounded after him.                The\nmen, a ragtag group of around a dozen, continued to fire, and a few pulled out pistols\nand got shots off, emptying the chambers. The beast just roared and with a\nspring that carried him forty feet through the air, landed in their midst and\nwent to work.                 Maggie\nducked as a leg flew past her head, blood splattering her fur as it did. She\nhad no idea why she was here, for he needed no help. Terrified screams were cut short as\nmen had their throats ripped out. A rifle went off in his face, striking him\nunder the chin and ripping through his cheek, but he never slowed down. One man\ndropped his equipment and climbed a tree, for the moment feeling safe. Edward\nignored him, knowing that he would be there when he was done with the others.                No one\ncould go far, not with his great stride. Nor could any of them hide. His nose\nwas too keen. By the time Edward was finished, all but the man in the tree were\ndead. His huge body was riddled with bullet holes, and in two places the\nhandles of hunting knives jutted above his fur. He pulled them out with dark\nclaws and angrily stabbed them into a still expiring body.                Maggie\nwas hanging back, knowing very well that anything she might say could\nantagonize him. He turned, chest heaving and eyes glowing. \"What is it little\nsister? Did you miss out on the fun? There is still one little bird in the\ntree. You can have him if you like.\"                \"No,\nthat'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\ncreatures and they attacked me unprovoked. No one does that. No one.\" His tone\nwas terrifyingly dark.                She\nalready understood that. Yet there was a glimmer of hope that he still retained\nsome morals. He was still thinking, and while his memories were gone, some of\nhis human traits remained.  But it might\nbe only a matter of time until this feral side won. The young male; now he was more\nferal than human, and yet, unlike what she had been told, he still had rational\nthoughts, desires and feelings. This was a more complicated social order than anyone\nseemed to know about, but then, it had been largely destroyed over the years by\nwar, assassination and misunderstanding. She knew about that last part very\nwell.                \"I\nagree. But would you rather I leave you to fight alone? That is not the way of\na pack.\"                \"Pack?\nWhat use have I of a pack except for breeding purposes?\"                \"But\nyou already have a mate back home.\"                He\nstopped dead in his tracks. \"I do?\"                As much\nas she hated to bring it up, if he could latch on to that memory, it might stir\nhis others. \"Yes. Her name is Verona.\"                He\nrolled the name over his feral tongue. \"Verona? Doesn't sound familiar. How\nmany cubs do we have?\"                \"Just\none on the way.\"                He\nhowled with laughter. \"One? One lousy cub? I need to find females to breed\nwith. I will have hundred of cubs running through the woods, and the air will\nbe filled with their howls!\"                She\nknew this would end in disaster. No regular wolf bitch would survive him, and\nin his feral arrogance, the chances he would accommodate his form to their\nadvantage was nonexistent.  They would\ndie in the attempt. He might have a chance with this supreme alpha the male\nmentioned, but all Maggie saw in that future was a battle. He was full of\nhimself, and if the alpha female were equally egotistical, then their friction would\nset the woods alight.                The\nyoung male had said that this alpha didn't like him, and that she commanded who\nmated with whom. Edward's blatant disregard for rules of any sort would put him\nsquarely against this alpha. She was putting her money on Edward. Whoever this\nfemale was, she probably hadn't had to face much competition out here in the\nmiddle of nowhere. There was a new game in town and Edward was it. The only\nproblem was; if he assumed a new leadership role here in the wilds, where would that\nleave them as a couple? Maggie certainly didn't want to leave him, and she didn't want to\nstay. It was a problem of epic proportions and she had no idea how to solve it.                Edward\nwas preparing to feast, and despite her time killing back home, she was now turned\noff by the sight of so much gore. It wasn't that she was against killing, for\nthat was an often necessary ingredient in a were's life.  It was the fact that she could eat anything\nnow, so killing humans for food was no longer a need. But that was lost on Edward.\nEverything was food to him. She slunk away into the forest and allowed him to\ndo what he needed to do.                She\nparked it a few hundred feet away and turned to stare in his direction. She\nnoted the last remaining man hanging on for dear life in the tree, and she\nthought maybe Edward would forget about him. No such luck. She soon heard\nscreams and the rending of wood before the tree came crashing down. What little\ncompassion he had for human kind had vanished the moment the bullets started\nflying.                She was\nsitting there when Kolzac came bounding up to her. \"The pack!\"                She\nturned to see them coming in from the north. There weren't a lot of them, and they\nwere moving cautiously. The young male was wagging his tail, yet despite this\nshow of joy, remained behind Maggie.                \"Why\nare you hiding?\"                \"I am\nnot myself anymore. They may not accept me back into their ranks.\"                \"I\nthink we have bigger problems than that. My father will have a few things to\nsay, and I think that like the poachers, your pack will find out the hard way\nthat he can enforce his opinion on anybody.\"                She ran\nforward and sat down in front of the lead wolf in a show of submission. It\ngalled her to do it, but she was trying to save lives. The leader sniffed her\nand bared her fangs.                \"Who do\nyou think you are?\"                \"No one\nof importance. But I am a companion of one who is, and I must ask you to either\nspeak with wisdom to him, or not to speak at all.\"                The\nbitch was about to say something derogatory when her nose caught the scent of fresh blood\non Maggie's fur. It was obviously human, and she searched the surrounding brush\nfor signs of an ambush. That was when her ears caught the sound of rending\ncoming from a little ways off.                Edward\nwas oblivious to his surroundings. Since there was nothing that could hurt him,\nhe just didn't care what was going on. Even the idea of meeting the pack had\ndiminished to a mere modicum of interest. He was feeding now, and it had felt good\nto kill. Kill! That was fun! He needed to kill some more! Fun, fun, fun!                The\nlead alpha female motioned for the other members to spread out on either side\nof the noise. Her nose caught a scent that made her hackles rise, but she knew\nher duty. This was pack domain and no one entered it without permission. The\nyounger female could wait. Here seemed to be bigger fish to fry.                They entered\nthe area where Edward was sitting,, happily gnawing a red stained bone. He looked up and\ngrowled something incoherent. As the others came into view, his mind remembered\nthe pack. Now that he saw them, they seemed puny and insignificant. What could\nthey offer him that he didn't already have? Sex? Mating? They weren't even worth a second look.                Like\nlittle sister had noted, there was a problem with size. He would have\nbetter luck with his poor pet bear, where ever the dear thing had run off too.\nOf 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\non the femur.                The\nalpha began panting from the stress of seeing what she was seeing. She turned\nto look at the new female (our little Maggie in pure wolf form) and motioned\nfor her to approach. \"What the hell is this monstrosity doing in our domain?\"                Maggie\nwas feeling spunky. \"From all appearances I'd say he was eating.\"                \"Don't\nget cute with me...\"                Maggie\nhad dropped the wolf form and morphed into her nastiest looking werewolf form.\n\"I can be cute if I want to. Like him, I am presently not in the mood to comply\nwith anyone's requests or demands.\"                Edward\nhurled the bone in their direction. \"You tell'em little sister.\"                The\nalpha cocked her head. \"You are both supremes?\"                \"He's a\nsupreme right now. I guess I could be, but I sure as hell am not going to fight\nhim for the title.\"                Kolzac\nmade an appearance as well. \"Hello Nortalia.\"                She\nsniffed him before jerking back. \"I know you. We assumed you were dead.\"                \"Nope.\nI finally got to shed my human form to have this greater one.\"                \"This\nis not good. You must all go.\" She glancing around nervously.                 \"But we\ncame looking for the supreme alpha of your pack.\"                Nortalia\nshivered. \"I would rather submit to a forced mating with this monstrosity than\nto betray our leader.\"                Maggie\nwinced at her words. They were ill timed and ill spoken.                Edward\nreached out and snatched the wolf-bitch and held her in the air. \"She is too\nsmall. But I can always try and breed with her. What's the worse I can do but\nmake more food.\"                She\nyelped and twisted to try to break free, but his grip could crush trees.  None of the pack had any courage after seeing\nthis unnatural force happily eating the only other predator they had to worry\nabout; man.                But\nMaggie jumped up and landed on his shoulders. Without knowing what else to do,\nshe placed the ring against his forehead, right over the bullet wound and\nprayed that something would happen. He stopped and acted rather bemused.                \"What\nis it little sister?\"                \"I'm\ntrying to help you get your mind back before you do things you'll later\nregret.\"                \"I have\nmy memories! I remember my fuzzy bear, and I remember these foolish things\nhurting me. I remember your smell, and what you've told me of a mate called\nVelina\"                \"Verona.\nYes, you remember things since taking the bullet, but you need to have your old\nones back.\"                He\nstared at the alpha female and then dropped her to the ground. \"Memories? Of\nwhat use are they little sister? I cannot eat them. I cannot breed with them.\nTherefore they are useless.\"                \"What\nabout love?\" There were finally tears in her eyes. She had been holding back\nfor so long.                \"Love?\nWhat is love?\"                \"You\nreally don't know?\"                \"Little\nsister, you are a fine thing, but I think you expect too much from me. If you\nknow what love is than tell me all about it. But not now.\" He turned to the\nfemale he had just dropped. \"I think I came here to see your leader. I will do\nso and then I will make up my mind what I intend to do after that.\"                \"I\ncan't take you to her because if I...\" A huge foot slammed down on her head. Her\nnose was filled with pine needles                \"You\nwill do, or you will not do. Do not give me reasons why you are unable. If you\nwon't do as I say, I can find other uses for you.\" His meaning was clear.                Maggie\nspoke down to her. \"We initially meant no harm when we came here. In fact, we weren't planning on\nbeing anywhere out here in the middle of nowhere. We were going to explore a city when\neverything changed. It's not his fault.\"                \"City?\nWhat city?\"                \"St\nPetersburg.                The\nwolf's ears perked up. \"That is a long ways off from here. How long have you\nbeen traveling?\"                \"I've\nlost track. It's been a rough trip. All we set out to do was to find out some\ninformation on who I am.\"                \"Are\nyou as addled as your friend here?\"                Maggie\ngot into a bit of a rage. \"No! I was looking for information on my grandmother,\nAnna Nikolaevna!\"                The\nwolf paused. \"Who?\"                \"Oh\nnever mind. You would have no reason to know about her. You're just a stupid\nbitch living in the wild.\"                The\nfemale licked her lips nervously. \"That I'm a bitch I'll grant you. But never\never call me stupid. Follow me.\""}