Pack Pride - Preview
This is a reward for a $10 level Patron who wishes to remain anonymous! It's got a bit of stuff in there I'm not usually a fan of, but it was a lot of fun to write and a great workout getting into the mindset of a character who enjoys something I do not, personally. Paws aren't something I plan on writing again for the foreseeable future. To see this and other stories and show your support, visit www.patreon.com/DragonValor and pledge as little as $1 per story!
~~~~~
A wolf is on his last leg, lost in a blizzard hunting an elusive prey. Instead, he finds himself prey to a much larger predator. But she's not after food. Not the way he assumes she is. Instead, she offers him a proposal he cannot refuse. Pack up and survive a powerful blizzard that would surely consume them.
The snow howled, cutting at his vision and whipping his fur about. The wind bit at his flesh usually protected by a thick layer of fur. Now, it passed right through his coat and pierced into his very core. He grit his sharp teeth and dug his claws into the white beneath him. His toes burned with every step into the freezing layer blanketing the land.
He had been shadowing a skulk of foxes for some time, hoping and praying to the stars above that he would find one of them dead in the snow. In this blizzard, he could have walked over all of them and never even have known it. In that moment, he only hoped to find their cave they'd dug out in the snow. If it was even still there.
It had to be around there somewhere. He could catch faint whiffs of fox on the howling wind. They were fleeting, there one moment and gone the next. Half of them he was sure he imagined, his frozen brain playing tricks on him. It was one last practical joke before he froze out here in the-...
Something heavy collided with his side! He grunted and felt into the snow. The weights pressed down on his flank, hard and warm. Over the wind, he heard a deep growl and knew his life was over. Before he found the foxes' home or feasted on one of their frozen bodies, he was going to be the feast of something bigger and meaner than him.
"You've been wandering around in circles out here for hours!" a female voice called over the screaming blizzard. "You are obviously looking for something and you're going to take me to it!"
The wolf rolled his eyes. He'd rather she'd have been there to eat him. He lifted his head to glare at his attacker and said "Do you really think I'll take you there just so you can take it-..." His ears laid flat as his eyes fell on the more rounded face of a large, striped white feline. Her icy blue eyes chilled him more than the ice she held him against.
"I'm not going to take anything!" she yelled. "You obviously don't have a pack and my pride kicked me out, said I was bad luck!" He would have sworn she'd just grimaced if it weren't so cold. He was certain she'd merely bitten back a shiver. "If I'd wanted to take from you, I'd have killed you and eaten you before you ever knew I was here! Then somebody else would have killed me and eaten me, and neither of us wants those things!"
He licked his frozen lips and shifted beneath her weight. Her paws flexed and he felt pricks along his flesh beneath her toes. She was right. If she'd wanted, she could tear him to shreds with minimal effort. "What do you propose then?"
"You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours," she said and pulled her paws off of him one by one.
He leapt up and stared at her, ready to run. But he knew he'd never make it. She was nearly twice his size. Beneath her striped hide, the white tigress looked toned and fit. Her middle bulged outward, though. More than just a large meal's worth. For someone who played herself off as helpless, she seemed quite well off. But she was right. Alone, they'd be shuffled to the bottom of the food chain and picked off.
"Take me wherever it is you're searching for," she said, her icy hues unblinking as she stared him down, "And I'll pack up with you. I'll protect you and you protect me. We'll last longer this winter if we work together instead of competing for what few resources there are out here."
His golden hues narrowed and he glanced over his shoulder. He was painfully aware of his scrawny complexion. He hadn't had a decent meal in some time. He'd had a bunny rabbit a day or two ago, but that was it.
"So what are you looking for?" she asked, following his gaze. "Food or shelter?"
"There was a skulk of foxes out here last week. They had a cave somewhere around here and I was hoping to hide from the storm inside!" he stifled a shiver and looked back to the tigress. "Can't you smell fox out here?"
"It's all I smell anymore. I ate them all, yesterday and finished up the scraps this morning. I've been living in their cave for a few days now." The corners of her muzzle curled at the edges, flashing the briefest glimpse of sharp teeth. "Come on, it's this way."
She turned and began to retrace his steps through the snow. He glanced about, sure her pride would emerge from the snow any moment and tear him apart. But they never came.
"Hurry up, Wolf!" she called somewhere ahead of him.
His eyes snapped forward and he pranced after her, rushing to catch up. Her patterns was so hard to make out in the snow, though. He couldn't see her anywhere! He stopped, looking this way and that. Where had she gone?
"Hey! Over here!"
His head turned sharply to the side and spotted her head sticking up out of the snow only a few short paces to the side. He rushed toward her but the ground suddenly vanished. He tumbled and fell into the snow and scrambled back to his feet. As he righted himself, he saw her standing in the mouth of a dark earthen cave. An amused smirk played over her muzzle as she watched him.
He puffed his chest out and strode toward her, acting as though the entire thing had been a part of the plan to get down in front of the cave where she was.
As he strode past her, she said "Oh yeah," and lifted a paw to swat his rump. "You're a class act, aren't you?"
He scowled at her and danced into the cave. Once he was inside the relative warmth and out of the wind, he turned to face her. "I was going to find this place eventually, you know! I was getting close!"
"You walked by it six times yesterday and three times today." She winked at him as she strode in beside him. "Let's just wait out the storm as peacefully as possible, hm?" She huddled up against the back wall of the cave and pat the smooth stone beside her with a forepaw. "Come on, hunk. Cuddle for warmth."
Deep down, he knew it wasn't a question or a suggestion. This female absolutely screamed Alpha. Why her pride had dismissed her was beyond him. Bad luck indeed. She'd found the foxes he'd been stalking. He nodded and padded over to her form and laid himself out beside her.
She shifted and her body shook a little. "Better," she said and gave his head a little lick. "Stop acting like a frightened pup, Wolf. I don't bite. Much. I'm a nibbler, but you'll enjoy it, I promise."