I had my doubts that all the women saw it happen, and not a single one did anything to try to stop it, but it was a crowd of people filled with the prejudices of old. Tree people and wolves hated and distrusted each other. While Red was ambitious and wanted the kingdom to be whole, it was going to take longer than eighteen winters to get rid of their prejudices. Humans couldn’t...or wouldn’t forget that easily.
“What are we going to do?” someone asked Red.
She looked at the weeping woman and then turned to where I was in the woods.
“I will follow the tracks of the wolf and search for the baby. A search party should be made right here to comb the woods near-by. It might not be the wolves at all. It’s always possible the baby crawled away. We need to look for him as quickly as we can. It’s too cold for him to survive the night out here alone.”
Everyone around her stared back, but no one said a thing. I could see on their faces that they didn’t believe Red. They all had their bad guy already, the big bad wolf.
“Sera will come with me to help track, but Charles and Ruth will lead the groups here to start searching around the village.”
Two people in the crowd stepped forward.
“Split everyone up into groups and fan out from this spot. Don’t leave a single place unturned.” Red nodded to the man and woman standing in front of her. “Sera,” Red turned to the younger girl beside her, who was her assistant. “Go ahead and get tracking. I’m going to gather some supplies, and I’ll catch up.”
Sera nodded her head to Red and then dashed off into the woods. Red disappeared to the nearest platform in the trees.
The two left in charge walked toward the trees and where I stood like a statue with Grace.
“We need to go to the wolf village and demand they give the baby back,” the lady named Ruth told the guy with her. “Red is too soft and blinded by her love of these animals. They need to be shown a lesson and put in their place. Once a killer always a killer. It’s time to go wolf hunting.”
“We can’t go alone. They’ll just kill us. We need weapons and a hunting party to go with us. The wolves won’t stand a chance if we all act together,” the man, Charles, replied. Ruth nodded her head, and they both hurried back to the group of people as Red descended from the trees.
Red walked back to Ruth and Charles to talk more with them, but I couldn’t just sit around and wait any longer. If they could convince her to bring weapons to the village, who knew what was coming next. The wolves were in trouble.
“We need to leave now and stop this before anyone gets hurt,” I whispered to Grace. Her eyes were large as saucers as she stared at the crowd. She had heard everything too.
I didn’t wait for her to respond as I grabbed her arm and pulled her further into the woods. She stumbled along beside me as I began to run. Running at night in the woods was a problem for most people, but not a wolf or me, for that matter. The woods were a second home, and I ran through it often. Grace’s stumbling was something else. She was in as much shock as the rest of the people. She tried to keep up with me, but she was slowing me down. We needed to get to the wolves before the hunting party from the village.
“You need to change so we can run faster,” I told Grace.
It wasn’t ideal to be running around the forest as a wolf when a whole city of people wanted to hunt wolves, but we both knew that it would be faster. If we ran more quickly, we could stay ahead of them, and that would make it safer for Grace. Wolf or human form, they’d know she was a wolf either way.
“I can run as fast as a wolf,” I told her. Only Nikkan, my best friend and also a wolf, knew that about me. I could track the wolf as I ran, but that wasn’t something I needed to add.
Grace finally snapped out of her shock.
“I thought you said this date wasn’t romantic, and here you ask me to strip,” she teased as she walked behind some bushes and began to disrobe.
I chuckled as she tossed her clothing to me and emerged as a wolf. I was glad to see she wasn’t still in shock, and her humor had returned. It wasn’t a funny matter we were dealing with, but it meant she was back to herself, which was a much better partner to be running in the woods with. Wolf Grace would be able to help me if she wasn’t in shock. Her silky red coat matched her auburn hair she had as a human. The wolf was ready.
“I’m pretty sure this isn’t romantic, but if you tell Nikkan I asked you to strip before we came back to the village, he might not understand, and I’ll never have him as a friend again.”
Wolf Grace nipped at me as I joked.
“So it wasn’t a date?” Sera asked as she came out of the trees where she had been hiding. I knew she was there the whole time, but I ignored her.
Sera was my mother’s assistant. I was pretty sure that while neither of them confirmed it, she was the next Red of Elder. Sera stood with her hands on her hips as she looked between me and the wolf.
“Are we going to track this baby stealer or not?” Sera asked.
Wolf Grace growled at Sera before turning back to me. She whined and nodded towards where the wolf scent headed further into the woods. I nodded to Grace and took off with her into the dark woods following the wolf’s path.
We ran quickly, and Sera kept up with us. It just further cemented my opinion that she was the next Red. No average human would be able to run at a full pace through the woods in the dark. I had better seeing than most people, and it was the end of winter, so there was less foliage, but it was still not an easy feat.
Grace led the way, tracking the wolf by the scent it had left near the village. I could follow it too, but I let her take the lead. I was trying to pick up the child’s scent, but after being at the festival, it was hard to keep all the human scents that were on both me and Sera from messing up my tracking. It was better to track the wolf. After we passed my place, Grace slowed down until she came to a full stop. We were closer to the wolf village but still far enough away that I couldn’t be sure the wolf was one of Micco’s. Wolf Grace looked one way and then the next. Sera knelt down and touched the soil at her feet.
“The wolf went both ways,” Sera explained what wolf Grace was trying to get across.
I nodded as I looked around the night woods. Where was the rogue child-stealing wolf? My mother, The Red, didn’t want to believe it was a wolf, but I knew it was. And from the looks of it, it had to be one of Micco’s sick wolves. Taking a deep breath, I tried to figure out which way to go. The wolf had been here. In fact, it had been by my place several times. Its path crisscrossed itself again and again. Some of the scents were old, but some were new and mixed with the smell of my wolf friend, Nikkan.
Sera looked angry at the halt in our progress, but I knew it was anger fueled by being scared. Where did the wolf go? It wasn’t like he had a significant head start on us. He had to be around, but we didn’t hear, see, or smell him or the baby.
I took another deep breath and closed my eyes. He had to be somewhere. The woods were usually my friend, but this time it was failing. It was like all the life around us ran away from the wolf, and there was nothing left for us to lean on for help.
“We need to go get help from the other wolves,” I told the girls. “There are at least ten different paths the wolf ran tonight alone. We need people to follow each track, or we’ll never find the baby in time. We need more wolves.”
Sera looked like she wanted to protest, but she didn’t. She was smart enough to know it was true, even if she didn’t like the wolves. She wasn’t enough to track this many trails. If all three of us split up, we could only go three different ways. We needed more tracking help.
Wolf Grace didn’t need any prompting as she took off into the woods again, heading towards her home. Normally, it would take most of the morning to jog to the wolf village, but we didn’t have that time to waste. We were trying to get to the child in time and outrun the villagers. I didn’t mention to the girls, but faintly I could hear that we were being followed by horses. The tree villagers
were hunting. I didn’t think they’d be able to convince Red, but it seems she didn’t have the power to stop them. The only way to stop the fight coming was to get to the baby first and pray to the gods that it hadn’t gotten bitten when it was taken.
It would have been nice if I had magic and could have just appeared in the wolf village instead of running, but being with a wolf and the next Red did have the benefit that we could go faster than the horses following us. When we arrived at the village, we only had a little time to get help and the baby back.
I ran straight to Micco’s hut and let myself into his home. In most cases, I would have never pushed myself into a wolf’s hut unannounced, but we didn’t have time for formalities.
“Micco, we have to get everyone up now,” I said, rousing the older man from his slumber.
After working for days on building a wall to protect the tree people from the wolves, I was sure the whole village was sleeping like the dead. But that didn’t matter. We had to wake them.
Micco sat up and rubbed his eyes as he looked at me.
“A wolf took a baby from the festival and headed in this direction. We couldn’t track it past my place, and we need the wolves out there to help us find it.”
Micco was out of bed without a single hesitation and yelling for the wolves to wake up with his booming voice that carried through the whole village. Within no time, the place was filled with sleepy, but awake human wolves.
“I need teams of two to help us track a sick wolf in the woods,” I said to the gathered crowd. “The wolf took a tree villager baby from the festival tonight, and the tree people are on their way here. We need to find the baby before it’s too late, or they will be hunting wolves again.”
The sleepy eyes that greeted me warily were now open wide. The older wolves all looked at me with fear, and the younger ones were confused. While I knew the full history between the two villages in Elder, the wolves didn’t teach the whole story to the younger generation until they joined the town as a full member when they got married. They hadn’t lived through the winters where a wolf could be shot on sight in wolf or human form. And the stockpile of weapons my mother had would make it worse. I wasn’t sure the wolves could survive another war.
Horses sounded in the distance, and I froze where I stood. They were faster than I thought they’d be. I looked into the sky and cursed the bright moon that was making it easier for them to travel than it should have been. It was the same moon that caused the sick wolf to turn into a baby taking monster.
“No one leaves the village,” I changed my mind. “Let me talk to them.”
Micco looked at me and nodded. He knew that they would likely shoot a wolf on sight, and I was their best bet. Wolf Grace whined beside me, and I shook my head at her. She needed to stay with her people. The wolves followed me to the partially made wall, but everyone stayed behind it as I moved forward into the woods around the wall. Sera joined me.
“We can talk with them,” Sera told me.
Whatever would get them to not kill the wolves was fine by me. Usually, I would argue with Sera over her assumed authority, but this wasn’t one of those times to argue. Maybe together, we could save as many wolves as possible.
We didn’t have to wait long as the first of the riders approached.
“Where’s Red?” Sera asked the older man that was supposed to be searching the woods near the tree village.
The man looked to the rider next to him, and they both shrugged. Anger started to bubble inside of me. If they had done anything to her, it wasn’t the wolves they’d need to fear. I’d make them pay. Red was their leader, and they were going against her order, but worse yet, they did something to keep her from stopping them. My mother would have never let a hunting party go to the wolves in the day, let alone in the middle of the night. They had to have done something to her. I wanted to turn into a wolf myself and rip apart the guy that so casually didn’t care for Red. Sera laid a hand on my arm, and her ice-cold fingers made me turn to look at her, cooling my anger only slightly.
“Let me handle this,” she told me quietly. The anger I felt was mirrored in her eyes.
It was probably best as I wanted to knock that guy off his horse and give him a pounding, he’d remember the rest of his life.
“Without Red here, then it’s my authority you have to follow,” Sera told the man who was now surrounded by more riders. Every one of them carried some sort of firearm. It wasn’t safe for any of the wolves.
“You aren’t…” the man began, but soon he was yanked off his horse and lying on the ground with Sera’s boot heal at his throat.
“I’m the next Red,” she declared, authority ringing in her voice. “And what I say goes.”
The rest of the riders all bowed their heads to her.
“Castiel is going to explain to you our plan, and you’re going to follow exactly what he says.” Sera nodded at me.
I didn’t exactly have a plan; it was time to think on my feet.
“Micco is picking his top ten wolves, and we’re going to spread out to find the child,” I explained. One man began to open his mouth to protest, but Sera gave him a glare that shut him right up. “The wolves can track better than any human like you or I. We need their skills as I found the wolf in question has laid almost a dozen trails for us to follow. If we track each one at a time, we won’t find him by the time the sun comes up. This is quicker, and the wolves all want to help. Not a single one would hurt the child in question. I trust them with my life and the child’s life.”
“But they are wolves, they won’t track one of their own,” a brave man spoke even though he was facing the wrath of Sera.
“We don’t condone biting humans and especially taking children. I have more than enough wolves that will gladly track down whoever did this and apprehend him,” Micco replied. “We aren’t killers, and this lone wolf will be punished.”
The men on horses didn’t seem to want to let me and the wolves track the rogue wolf, but Sera wasn’t taking no for an answer. She nodded to me as I turned to Micco, who was already ready to dole out their assignments.
“Each wolf takes a direction. Weave in a search pattern and then make your way back. If you find anything, alert us all,” Micco directed them before stepping back and turning into a wolf himself. The tree men on horses all stared in shock at the older wolf but stayed right where they were.
“I’m going with Micco,” I said to Sera. She nodded, still holding the lead man hostage with her boot.
“I’ll keep the village safe,” she told me. That was all I needed to hear; I nodded as I took off after Micco.
It had been a long time since I’d seen the older gray wolf. And he was a sight to be seen. As alpha, he was more than twice the size of an average wolf. I was used to running with my friend, Nikkan, but he was only a teen; Micco was like a giant compared to him.
It didn’t take us long to pick up one of the scents. Tracking in the woods could be hard if you didn’t know where you were going, but the woods were home to both of us. Micco picked up speed off in the dark, and I followed. He wasn’t going to lose me in the night. The rogue wolf had run that trail not too long ago.
Micco continued heading north. When I first heard the cry, it made me miss a step in my run, but I was able to right myself before I fell. As Micco ran in the wrong direction, I turned toward the baby. This rogue wolf wasn’t just dangerous because he had no control over his wolf; this wolf was smart and had left a trail that even the alpha was going to follow. If the child hadn’t been crying, we might have missed it.
“This way,” I said to Micco, who was now several saplings ahead of me as he ran.
Micco skidded and altered his run to match mine without question, not like he could question me while in wolf form.
It didn’t take us long to find a baby, almost a toddler, sitting in the woods. There was dirt all over the poor kid, but it didn’t look like any blood. The child cried as we stopped and looked around. The rogue wolf h
ad to be close by. I could smell but not hear him. Micco took a couple of brave steps towards the baby before I spotted the wolf. His growl shook the leaves around him as he got ready to pounce.
“East,” I called to Micco, who turned his head just in time to see the wolf leaping out at him.
I didn’t wait to see what Micco would do but instead ran across the woods to the child and scooped it into my arms. The wolf lunged for us, trying to get past Micco. Micco used his massive body to protect me and the child. I looked back the way we came and wondered what would be the best thing to do. Do we try to run past the fighting wolves and back to the village, or would it be better to stay away from the fight by getting up in the trees where the wolves couldn’t get to the child?
I didn’t have time to decide as the fight moved closer to me, forcing me to climb the closest tree. Without hesitation, I tucked the young child into my shirt and tied it tighter against my body. The baby continued to cry as I grabbed the lowest branch and hauled us off the ground. Using one hand to support the child and one hand to balance, I made my way to the center of the tree to go higher. When I knew we were far enough off the ground, I stopped and pulled the child out of his make-shift sling. He continued to cry but was quieter now that we were further away from the fighting.
Down below us, Micco continued to fight the rogue wolf. To say the rogue was stronger than normal was an understatement. He was fighting equal to Micco, and Micco was the alpha and strongest of all of the wolves. This sickness was giving the wolves super strength, and that was one more problem the people of Elder didn’t want to have to deal with.
Quickly, I checked over the child. There didn’t seem to be any teeth marks or scratches. He was dirty from head to toe, and his clothing was ripped in more than one place, but he was fine. I looked into his eyes, and the moon was bright enough for me to see he still had brown eyes. The child hadn’t been bitten and was still a normal human. Thank goodness. Now that I knew he was fine, I anxiously wanted to get him back to his people. The sooner they saw there wasn’t a problem, the sooner they would leave, and the wolves would be safe, for now at least.
Castiel: Son of Red Riding Hood (Kingdom of Fairytales Boxset Book 3) Page 9
