by Skyler Jaye
THE WILD HUNT
by
SKYLAR JAYE
Amber Quill Press, LLC
http://www.amberquill.com
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The Wild Hunt
An Amber Quill Press Book
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or have been used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.
Amber Quill Press, LLC
http://www.AmberQuill.com
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All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.
Copyright © 2013 by Skylar Jaye
ISBN 978-1-61124-528-8
Cover Art © 2013 Trace Edward Zaber
Published in the United States of America
Dedication
Thank you to the countless authors I've read who continue to show me shapeshifter culture can be written in different ways with each new piece of work. Thank you to modern fantasy for turning the fae into something attractive. And lastly, thank you to Amber Quill Press for allowing Eadric and Cadeyrn and their story to see the light of day.
THE WILD HUNT
Deep in the wilderness in a simpler time, there was an untamed valley called Eoforwine. The valley was home to a wolfshifter pack, led by an alpha chief who was strong and fair to all of his pack. This alpha chief was mated to an omega, the love of his life, and they had two strong pups.
The eldest pup was Oswald, born and raised as alpha like his father. Oswald would be chief of the pack when his father stepped aside, but that day was many years away. The other pup was Eadric, though like his brother he could hardly be considered a pup anymore.
Eadric ran through the wild forest, easily jumping over fallen branches and upturned boulders. The pads of his paws made barely a sound as they fell with each thrust of his strong legs. He was at home in his wolfskin, just as he was in manskin, but he could not run so fast nor so easily as a man.
He let his tongue loll out, betraying his happiness. The air was chilled, his breath showing in visible pants as he leaped over a frozen stream and kept running. It was near midwinter, known as Yule day, and for the next few weeks it would only get colder. The fae-guarded mountains surrounding the valley kept the larger snowstorms at bay, but there was a still a sprinkling of that white powder on the ground.
Eadric's paws slipped in the snow as he came skidding to a stop. He nearly tumbled head over paw, but managed to right himself at the last moment. He was no longer a pup--he'd grown into his paws--and his balance was usually one of the best of the pack. He glanced around to make sure no one had seen his unfortunate near tumble, but the nearest members of his pack were several yards away still and out of view behind the hill.
Eadric shook the snow off his pelt and shifted. His manskin grew chilled immediately, but he ignored it. He stepped with bare feet over the hill and down the other side. Most of the members of his pack sat around in the grass or inside the cave burrowed in the hill that had been made into the pack's den.
There were several large roaring fires scattered around the grass by the entrance of the den, and another inside the den itself. The heat had melted all the nearby snow such that when Eadric sat next to his brother he landed on warmed dirt. He sighed in bliss at the feeling and spread his legs out.
Oswald was in his wolfskin, but he shifted to his manskin to talk to Eadric. Eadric waited until the man had human thighs before laying his head on them and looking up at his brother's face. Oswald had their father's broad nose and dark hair, including the scruff around his chin. Eadric, in comparison, had inherited their mother's light brown hair that looked as fluffy atop his human head as it did in his wolfskin. His features were also more slender, though he maintained he was faster because of it. He'd yet to be able to grow more than a few hairs on his chin, which only added to the rumors surrounding him.
For, while Oswald was a known alpha, Eadric was an anomaly. He could fight like the best of the pack, but he rarely chose to. He spent more days running on his own or helping the omegas and gammas cook and tend to the pups than he did roughing with his brother and the other alphas and betas.
From looks alone, Eadric was a gamma or even an omega. Many visiting packs had assumed such immediately, but as soon as one of their alphas pushed too far they found out the hard way that Eadric was not one to simply lie down and take it. Yet still, Eadric couldn't be an alpha, the pack thought, because he didn't seem to seek power. He'd never challenged his brother for the right to be their father's heir.
Eadric had turned of-age this last summer and with that ceremony came the time for the final decision to be made as to his place in the pack. Eadric's father had labeled him a beta, with want of any better distinction, and for the most part the pack had settled down.
The label still sat wrong with Eadric, though he didn't know why. He knew he wasn't an alpha, not like his brother or the others in the pack, but nor did he feel he was a beta. All the betas in the pack, even the stronger ones, deferred to him when he gave rare orders. And yet, the omegas and gammas never seemed to be tense around him as they would around an unmated beta or alpha.
Eadric pushed the matter out of mind as his brother casually ruffled his hair.
"Have a nice run?" the alpha asked in a gruff but friendly voice.
"I did," Eadric said. "The far western lake has finally frozen over."
Oswald sighed. "I will tell Father. At the very least, we can continue to have some of the gammas gather and melt snow for drinkable water."
Eadric looked over where there were stone bowls full of water. As he watched, a gamma walked up to one of them in wolfskin and lapped up some of the water. A beta came up behind her and immediately the gamma stepped aside to let the beta drink, before returning to the water herself when the beta was done.
Eadric never stepped aside, not even for the alphas, and they never seemed to want to make him. He wondered if he would've had a harder time of it if his father hadn't been the alpha chief of the pack.
"Father has been asking about you taking a mate," Oswald said. "He has been wondering about contacting a pack from one of the other valleys for an alliance mating."
Eadric frowned. "If that is what the pack requires," he said slowly.
Oswald sighed. "I know you would rather fall in love."
"I will not take that choice from you, my son." Their father approached from the den. Eadric hadn't even realized he was in the clearing. It was hard to differ between scents when there were so many, new and old, and he hadn't wasted the time to concentrate on figuring it out when he'd arrived.
His father took an easy seat next to Eadric and Oswald. The man was built like a tree. He was easily the largest of the pack, whether in manskin or wolfskin. Eadric had a feeling his brother would one day be just as big, but Eadric himself was only barely larger than their mother and would likely not grow much more than that.
"I believe in love matches for any and all who wish it," the alpha chief continued.
"That is what makes us the strongest pack," Oswald said firmly. "Our pack is happy and healthy because of it."
His father nodded. "I fell in love with your mother over my own father's disapproval."
They'd both heard this story before, but Eadric never grew tired of it. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see other nearby members of their pack settling down to listen in, too.
"It was Yule day. Our connecti
on to the world is strongest on Yule, as you know. I saw Aebbe playing with the pups. She was just barely of-age, but she was as beautiful as she is today. She must have felt me looking, for she glanced over at me and when she smiled I knew that she was the only one I wanted, the only one I would ever want."
"And she still is," Eadric said. He sat up, leaning so that his upper back rested on Oswald's shoulder. Oswald shifted so he could be more comfortable in the position.
His father smiled. "I have never looked at another omega or a gamma since." His smile dropped then and his golden eyes--the same color all wolfshifters had--darkened. "My father was not pleased that I had chosen a mate from inside our own pack. He wanted me to form an alliance with another pack, to mate the gamma daughter of the neighboring alpha chief."
"So you left," Oswald said. "And you formed your own pack with Mother. Our pack."
"I did. We were both young and inexperienced. The first few winters were hard, but we persevered. We grew stronger." He reached forward and clasped one large hand on Eadric's left ankle. "We had you two. I will never regret the choices I made to get us to this point."
"Nor should you," Oswald told him. "Not even your father's old pack can dare challenge us. Our pack looks up to you. They would follow you beyond the veil should you wish it."
"I would never wish that," his father said. "No chief should ever wish death upon their pack. What I do wish for you all is happiness." He turned his gaze to the listening pack members, some in their wolfskin and others sitting in human form. "No member of this pack should ever feel they would not be allowed a love mating."
Eadric cleared his throat and his father's attention turned back to him. "There is no one I love as a mate in this pack, Father."
His father nodded. "I will not arrange an alliance mating to someone whom you do not develop such feelings for, but if you are accepting, my son, then I will arrange visits with other packs so that you may perhaps make such a connection with one of their members."
Eadric considered his father for a moment. "I do not believe I will ever love a female," he said softly. He knew alliance matings were usually designed such that pups could be made from them. While wolfshifters had no problem with same-sex matings, pups were important. One pup of an alliance mating always went to be raised in the pack the omega or gamma member came from, such that said pack was merely trading a wolfshifter for a wolfshifter and cementing with blood ties the alliance between the packs.
Oswald shifted slightly and Eadric was forced to shift with him to keep his comfortable seating arrangement. Their father pressed his lips together in thought.
"Perhaps I will invite more lone wolves into the pack," he said. "One of them perhaps will catch your interest. Oswald may find a female in another pack to form an alliance with."
Oswald nodded. "I have no quarrel with that, Father."
The conversation was over then, but Eadric knew his father would do as he said. He'd never doubted that his family loved him, and his pack as well, though more distantly perhaps. They all wanted to see him happy, enough to put up with his irregularities and accept him as he was.
* * * *
"I want to run in the Wild Hunt!" Paega exclaimed.
Eadric smiled at the excitable pup. Paega was the result of an alliance mating. His mother was the omega sister of one of their alphas who'd mated with an alpha of a nearby pack. He had two siblings who still lived with their parents, but Paega had been raised by the Eoforwine pack ever since he'd been weaned off his mother's milk. He was allowed to visit his mother and siblings when their packs met a few times out of the year, but Eadric and the others of his pack were his family and they raised him like their own.
"You are not yet old enough," Eadric told him. He continued to groom through Paega's hair, brushing away the mud he'd gathered in it over the day. Pups were easier to clean in manskin, with less hair to worry about. Most dirt gathered in the wolfskin fur fell off when a wolfshifter changed forms, though it stayed in the hair atop the human head.
Paega sighed. "You are though, right, Eadric? What is it like?"
"This will be my first year," Eadric told the pup. "So I do not yet know."
The pup pouted.
Eadric chuckled. "I promise I will tell you all about it on Yule day. How does that sound?"
"Okay!" Paega gave him a quick hug. "Can I go eat now?"
"Go on."
Paega bounced away toward where the rest of the pups were gathered around a couple of omegas that were serving them cooked venison. Wolfshifters occasionally ate their meat raw in wolfskin, but it was more often that they cooked the day's hunt over a fire before eating it in manskin.
Eadric stood and walked over to where his father, mother, and brother all sat. As he ate his own dinner, he considered the Wild Hunt. Tomorrow was the day before Yule and as such was the only day of the year when wolfshifters did not reign supreme over their land.
The Wild Hunt was a tradition centuries old, designed to remind wolfshifters what it felt like to be prey. Though it was all in good fun and rarely did anyone get hurt, it was supposedly often a frightening experience for first-time runners. This would be Eadric's first year, the first winter since he'd come of age, and he was filled with a mix of fearful anticipation and joyous excitement. Finally, he wouldn't have to stay back in the den with the omegas while the gammas, betas, and alphas yipped and howled through the valley with the fae hot on their heels.
The tallest mountain in the surrounding range was called Gwrtheyrn. It was the fae clan of this mountain that hunted the Eoforwine pack while the clans of the other mountains hunted the packs of the nearby valleys. The first year it had been the Gwrtheyrn clan that had come down into their valley had been the year Eadric had been born, and the year that the Eoforwine pack had been acknowledged as one of the strongest in the land.
It had been twenty years since then and finally Eadric was to join them.
"Nervous?" Oswald asked with a smirk as they went to bed that night.
"No," Eadric said defiantly. His brother was only a few years older than he was. He had no right to act so superior.
Oswald snorted, but he shifted into wolfskin before anything else could be said. Eadric copied him, and together they curled up across the skins lying on the den floor while just next to them their mother tucked herself beside their father. Across from them the rest of the pack found their own spots to sleep the night away.
The next morning, Eadric had to force himself to eat. His stomach was a jumble of nerves, but he needed the food to keep his strength up for the Hunt. The fae wouldn't come until just before dusk, but none of the pack would leave the den and clearing until then. It was tradition that they wait until they hear the hunting horn call, announcing that the fae were on the move.
Eadric spent the day roughing with his brother and a few of the other alphas. He rarely did so, but his body was tense with excess energy and he needed to work it off. He was smallest among them in his wolfskin, but he was fast. It took his brother and two others to pin him down and even then he didn't submit. His brother growled a bit, before letting him up. Eadric gave him a wolf's grin.
The ambient light began to dim as the sun dipped just below the peak of the mountains. Eadric took his place beside his brother and father. Their mother stayed in the den with the other omegas to watch over the pups.
Eadric wasn't the only wolfshifter who was excited for his first Wild Hunt, but all the others were gammas. They found their place in the back of the pack, behind the betas and the alphas. Eadric technically should be standing behind the alphas as well, but no one growled when he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his brother, directly behind their father.
The world seemed to still in anticipation. Eadric flicked his ears back and forth, settling his bushy tail. They would run until the moon was high in the sky.
A low sound began to echo throughout the valley. It was the call of the fae, the trumpet of hunting horns as they began to race down from their tree-filled
dwelling on the mountain's side.
Eadric's father took off. Eadric and the rest of the pack followed behind him. They were a large group and they didn't stay together for long. Several alphas separated from the rest, taking with them some betas and gammas each. Eadric continued to run with just his father and brother.
He wasn't sure how long they ran before the fae caught them. All he knew was the ground beneath his paws, until all of the sudden he was aware of being chased. His father veered sharply to the right, picking up speed. Eadric kept pace with him. The human part of his mind was aware that the largest group of the fae clan was likely chasing them. He supposed it was always a treat to be the one to catch the alpha chief.
At the rate they were going, it wouldn't take the fae long to surround his family. His father seemed to realize this as well and, with a few flicks of his ear, he ordered Eadric and Oswald to separate from him.
Eadric darted right and Oswald left. Eadric let himself get lost in the undergrowth. His brown fur would be an advantage over his father and brother's darker coloring. Eadric was determined to last as long as he could, though he knew no wolfshifter was able to go the entire night without getting caught.
His heart raced and his fur prickled. He'd never felt such exhilaration before. He liked hunting, was good at stalking prey animals, at lulling them into a sense of safety before attacking. He could rarely take down anything larger than a rabbit on his own, but with a group he'd brought down stags and had even helped against the one brown bear that encroached on their territory last summer.
None of those times could match what he was currently feeling. None had even come close. Eadric felt strong, and yet so very vulnerable, and it excited him.
