by Alex Kidwell
There was the sound of voices from inside the cabin, soft noises of pain from Edwin, Randall’s patient tone. When Randall finally emerged, his own hands stained red, he sank down on the steps next to Redford, looking decidedly unsettled. “Some days,” he said, mostly to himself, “I wish I smoked. It’s supposed to be relaxing.”
“Jed used to smoke sometimes when I first knew him,” Redford said contemplatively. “It doesn’t smell nice.”
“True.” Randall stared down at his hands. “Maybe I’ll take up heavy drinking, then.”
Redford wrinkled his nose. “That doesn’t smell nice either.”
He was about to continue when he heard the sound of footsteps coming back through the forest. Redford could smell him long before he saw him. When Jed emerged, his forearms and clothing were streaked with blood and dirt. And he didn’t wait for the Gray Lady to be done talking, he just strode up to her and said, “Lady, you need to be real fucking careful about who you piss off.”
The Gray Lady’s eyes flashed in fury, though her expression barely changed. “Are you implying that I haven’t thought about this? My pack is in danger, and I am within my rights to protect them.”
“Sure,” Jed agreed. “And that would be just fucking peachy if it was just your pack involved. But it’s not. Take a look at this whole fucking mess we’ve been in for months now. It’s not just wolves. It’s humans too. There was a half blood playing middleman. There’s a half blood sitting in that cabin right now, and you signed a goddamn deal with a half blood for freak solidarity. If you pull too hard at this string, it’s not just wolves that are going to get hung by it. It’s everybody. Those hunters aren’t going to stop at wolves. Not now.” Jed spread his arms, a rigid, too-wide smile creasing his face, making lines in the mud and dried flecks of blood. “Welcome to war, sister. It’s open season on freaks, and you just fired the first fucking shot.”
“They began this—” The Gray Lady started, but Jed was on a roll. He didn’t even let her finish her thought.
“Oh, but you ended it, didn’t you?” he bit out, jabbing his finger in her direction. “You let everyone know that you’re big and bad and you’ve got fangs you’re willing to use. And you forgot one thing in all your furry pride.”
“And what is that?” the Gray Lady said coldly, her eyes glinting yellow in warning.
“Humans don’t just retaliate. We go goddamn nuclear.” Spinning on his heel, Jed stalked back toward the cabin, shoulders set in a furious line.
“Is that a threat, little human?” The Gray Lady sounded as though she was moments from ripping out Jed’s throat herself.
But he just laughed. “Don’t need to threaten when it’s the truth, sister.” He turned back to her, pointing toward her pack. “We know O’Malley hired those guys, but he says that chain of cash changing hands goes even further than him. He paid them. Gave them cash to leave their wives, their kids, their partners, and come out here to shoot at wolves. That was all. And I’m not saying they weren’t going to die anyway. But you brutalized them. For no reason.”
“And you haven’t done the same,” the Gray Lady snarled.
“Probably shouldn’t use me as your moral goddamn compass,” Jed shouted back. “Because I am exactly like those men. Hell, if Buck had called me first, I probably would have been. But me doing that shit? That’s one thing. That’s my life. You? You’re in charge of the furry brigade. You didn’t just retaliate. You started a war. If you thought they were coming after you before? Sister, you’re tits deep in shit now.”
“I did what I had to do.” The Gray Lady drew herself up. “And I will do it again.”
“Yeah,” Jed muttered, turning his back to her and walking away. “You damn well will. Get used to the feel of blood in your fur, kids.”
Redford noticed that most of the wolves had stopped whatever they were doing to listen. Half of them were still wolf, half were human, and none of them looked like they liked what they were hearing. But the Gray Lady didn’t seem willing to back down when she was talking to Jed.
So Redford stepped up. As Jed walked away, the Gray Lady crouched back down by the lake, though she didn’t resume washing the blood off herself. Instead she stared at the water, her gaze far away. Redford picked his way through the wolves and sat down next to her.
“Jed’s been involved in a war before,” he said, keeping his tone respectful.
“You think I haven’t seen wars?” Far from the angry tone of before, now the Gray Lady just sounded weary. “I have seen all of them, child. I have seen what the humans do when they think they must kill something.”
“So why do you want another one?” Redford didn’t dip his own hands into the water. After what Anthony had told them yesterday, it would have felt wrong to mar the lake with blood. “This has to be avoidable.”
She simply shook her head. “The only ways we would avoid this war are through extreme measures, ones that I do not wish to take. They found us in both of the places I had believed to be safe.”
Redford refrained from pointing out that what she’d just done had been extreme enough. “What would the measures be?”
“Deep isolation.” The Gray Lady rubbed her hands together, ridding them of excess water. She still didn’t look up from the lake. “Much further than we went before. It would require a complete severance from the rest of the wolves. I would have to put out word for all the other packs to force them to choose, to come with us, or to be cut off from us and our help completely.”
To Redford, that still sounded like a better option than war, even if it would be harsh to smaller wolf packs.
“There are many that would not come with us,” she continued. There was an upset edge at the corner of her lips, a deep sadness in her eyes. “I don’t think I could sleep at night, with the knowledge that many of my children would be so out of reach.”
“It might not be my place to say so,” Redford offered, “but I think that’s the better choice. Jed’s right about what the humans will do if this escalates. You might be able to take them now, but what happens when they bring in snipers? Helicopters? Remote explosives? They’ll win through technology and numbers.”
The Gray Lady almost smiled. “How strange it is to long for the days when man fought with their bare hands.”
Redford didn’t even try to imagine. He couldn’t comprehend how long she had been alive, and the thought of truly understanding made him feel a little queasy—he didn’t envy Victor, having seen all of that.
“And would it truly matter?” the Gray Lady asked with a sad smile. “There would be wolves beyond my reach. They would be slaughtered. And then what? Half bloods? The vampires, if they are not the ones behind this whole plot? And eventually, they would find me, little wolf. Eventually they always do. No, I am not afraid of war. It has happened before, it will happen again.”
“It will,” Redford agreed. “Victor’s seen it, and this time it doesn’t look like multiple choice. But we don’t have to jump right into it.” He found himself almost pleading with her. “We don’t have to make it start right now.”
He froze when she finally looked at him, all the weight of what she’d seen pinning him where he sat. “If we were to delay, to hide and hope for a few more years before this war, I would require every wolf to find a pack, if they did not come with me. Loners are a weak spot. They know too much, and information is too easily pulled out of them.”
“Okay,” Redford said, mostly for a lack of anything else to say. He’d admit he wasn’t entirely sure what that meant for him—did he and Jed count as a pack? He didn’t want to go find some larger group of a few dozen.
The Gray Lady looked over her shoulder toward the cabin. “Your group is particularly terrible at following orders,” she said, and she sounded almost fond. “But I will speak to them anyway. Come with me.”
Still unsure, Redford followed her into the cabin. The Lewises and Jed weren’t in the main room, and Victor slapped a hand over his eyes when the Gray Lady e
ntered. Redford had to take a moment to figure out why—he’d gotten so used to wolves going naked in one another’s company that he’d barely noticed the Gray Lady wasn’t wearing a stitch.
She sounded bemused when she asked Victor, “Will you go and get the rest of your company for me? I would speak to them.”
Victor scurried out of the room to retrieve the others. He returned shortly with the Lewises, bandages standing out stark white against Edwin’s sun-soaked skin, his arm in a sling. Jed trailed behind them, a flask in hand. He pressed it into Edwin’s hands as Edwin sat and watched as he took a long, grateful pull before sagging back against the couch cushions. It spoke to Anthony’s mood that he didn’t even protest Edwin drinking mystery alcohol.
When Victor came back, he offered the Gray Lady a blanket. She arched an eyebrow at him, clearly bemused, but wrapped it around herself nonetheless. Even in a lumpy green afghan, she still looked regal.
Randall stood behind the couch, arms folded, head down. He looked as exhausted as Redford felt. “Is there something you needed?” he asked, voice little more than a low rumble. “I would like to get my brothers into bed before too much longer. They both need rest.”
“We have two options before us,” the Gray Lady said. She sat in a chair that Redford provided for her, the blanket bunching up around her legs. She looked at Jed, measuring him. “War is coming, whether I like it or not. I can either choose to fight it now, or gather what wolves I can and hope to delay it.”
“I think you know which option we would choose,” Anthony replied quietly.
“I do.” The Gray Lady looked at each of them in turn, Jed and Victor included. “If I chose to hide again, I would cut my pack off from ties to the human world. Nobody would know where we are, not even other smaller packs if they chose to remain separate. My only order for the remaining wolf packs would be that they stay together. That includes all nonwolf ties.”
“You mean me,” Jed grunted, giving her a suspicious look.
“And the medusa,” she confirmed.
“When you say ‘stay together,’ how closely do you mean?” Victor asked, squinting at her.
She seemed to smile. “Very closely. The six of you live in three separate residences, some distance apart. That would be a weakness.”
“I think we’ve managed just fine on our own.” Dread was dawning on Jed’s face. “We’re plenty good the way it is now.”
“Then I will not go ahead with the plan to delay,” the Gray Lady said simply. “Either every pack works with this plan, or we will be too fractured for it to succeed.”
Redford, personally, didn’t think it sounded so bad. For the past week and change they had already been at the cabin for a few nights, and seeing as Victor and the Lewises hadn’t killed one another after living in the mansion for a week, they could obviously live together.
“There’s no room for the Von Trapp Family Furries in our apartment,” Jed pointed out.
Victor slowly raised his hand. “There’s plenty of room in my house,” he suggested. Randall gave him a sideways glance, and Edwin seemed torn between half falling asleep and watching Anthony for clues as to what he was thinking.
“Nope.” Jed shook his head, arms folded. “You guys can do whatever you want, but me and Red, we’re all the pack I can handle full time. We’ve got the cat. That makes three. That’s got to qualify.”
“Oh, come on, Jed,” Victor said, starting to get exasperated. “You can live all the way at the other end if you like, and you’d never have to see anybody else. You heard the Gray Lady, it’s this or fighting. Even you aren’t that stubborn.”
“You have no idea how stubborn I am, princess,” Jed grumbled. But Redford knew that look, the way Jed would dig in his heels when he realized he had no choice but to go along. Same way he looked when Redford insisted they have vegetables on their pizza to try to stave off scurvy. In the end, Jed bitched and moaned about vegetables, but he always ate them.
Redford sidled over and put a comforting hand on Jed’s hip. “Victor told me there’s another kitchen at the other end of the mansion,” he said encouragingly. “So it’d be like having half a mansion to yourself. Think of all the places Knievel could explore.”
“Think of the yard,” Edwin piped up, craning his neck to look back at them. “Redford could go with us every full moon.”
Jed looked over at Redford, his eyes narrowed. “You want to do this?” he asked, clearly willing to keep fighting if Redford said no.
“I think we should,” Redford replied. “It sounds like it might be the best thing to do.” However much he loved their apartment, it was worth giving it up if it meant the Gray Lady would feel secure enough in picking the option that didn’t involve going to war tomorrow. And Jed seemed to realize it. His eyes went to Edwin, half slouched on the couch, bandage bright white against his shoulder, and then lifted to the window. Outside, the wolves of the pack were spread out, some human, some still shifted, tending to wounds, resting, not more than three dozen of them. Redford could see Jed counting them, jaw tightening.
“You came all this way with barely more than a handful,” Jed remarked, turning back to the Gray Lady. “What happened?”
She hesitated before shrugging, spreading her hands. “Hunters took some. We’ve had two new litters, so the pack isn’t as mobile. I left the rest back with the main group, for protection. This is what I could spare.”
Jed finally nodded. “Fine,” he gritted, none too happy with the prospect. “We’ll be a goddamn pack. You take yours and you go as far off the grid as you can. Keep the kids safe.”
“We’ll come too,” Anthony sighed. “If that’s okay with you, Victor?”
“Maybe we’ll section the mansion off into thirds?” Victor tried to joke.
“I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Randall said. Removing his glasses, he bowed his head as he busily cleaned them. “Since we’ve decided, I really must insist that Anthony and Edwin get some rest. I assume you’ll want us to do this as soon as possible?” His gaze flicked up to the Gray Lady, who nodded. “Right. Then we have a lot of work to do tomorrow.”
“Very well, then.” The Gray Lady seemed satisfied as she stood, looking over them again.
Redford couldn’t help but remember first meeting her, and seeing her obvious disdain for nonwolf involvement with wolves. She hadn’t liked that he and Jed had been together, and he imagined she’d felt the same way about Victor and Randall. Her attitude seemed to have softened toward that, as she appeared to be smiling at them all.
“You make for a very strange pack,” she told them. “But perhaps a strong one because of that.”
“Do you need anything?” Randall seemed to realize he’d been neglecting the visiting wolves. “We don’t have much in the cupboards, I’m afraid, but I could go out and catch you something….”
“We are fine.” The Gray Lady stood, inclining her head. “We have the water of the lake and the game of the forest. We will eat, rest, and be gone before dawn. Thank you.”
Anthony stood to show her out, hovering at her shoulder as they left the cabin. They remained in silence until he came back a minute later. Anthony looked around the room and started laughing quietly.
“I guess we really are a pack, now.”
THE WOLVES left as silent as ghosts near dawn, and the sudden lack of their scent woke Redford.
He blinked up at the ceiling, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. He, Jed, and Victor had stayed the night at the Lewises to help them with packing, and at the end of the night, Jed and Redford had retreated to the guest cabin after picking their way through the Gray Lady’s pack, that had parked themselves near the lake.
But now they were gone. Redford could only smell the faint hint of their trail. He wasn’t surprised. The Gray Lady didn’t seem like a person to indulge in drawn-out, formal good-byes. With the tension remaining between her and the Lewises, even though they’d come to a decision, Redford thought it was perhaps better that they
had left without alerting anybody.
Unfortunately, now that he’d noticed, Redford was starting to feel too awake to get back to sleep. A quick glance at Jed revealed that he was still deeply dozing. Redford didn’t want to wake him, because Jed looked like he needed the rest. Instead he carefully got out of bed, putting on clothes as silently as he could.
The outside air was crisp and dimly lit in the beginning of dawn. Redford wound up walking his way toward the edge of the lake, only to nearly trip over Edwin.
“Sorry,” Redford blurted. “I didn’t see you.”
Bundled in a faded blue quilt, Edwin barely glanced up at Redford. “Smelled you coming,” he said with a shrug, low and hoarse. “What are you doing up?”
“I couldn’t smell the pack anymore, so I woke up.” Redford awkwardly stuck his hands in his pockets. Edwin was seated on the same log that Redford, Anthony, and Jed had fished from. “Is it okay if I sit here?”
Edwin was oddly quiet, like he’d become a ghost himself, the mist around them softening his features, hiding him behind a gray thread of silk. “Go ahead.” He nodded, knees drawn up to his chest, still staring out over the lake. “They left about an hour ago. It woke me up too.”
Redford sat hesitantly. The way Edwin had spoken, Redford wasn’t entirely sure if that was willing or grudging permission. He tried to study Edwin without being too obvious about it, wondering if his injuries were bothering him. “Are you okay?”
For a moment, Edwin didn’t move. It was almost as if he’d been waiting for that question, gathering up his answers in advance, ready to say the same thing he’d been telling his brothers all evening. I’m fine. It doesn’t even hurt. I wasn’t scared at all.
Instead, he let out a slow breath, watching as the condensation curled up into the air, smoke signals lost again in the early morning fog. “Do you know what the worst part was?” Edwin turned then, to look at Redford, his brilliant-blue eyes clouded, the corner of his mouth tugged upward in a parody of a smile. “They knew. They knew I understood them. So they talked to me. They told me exactly what they were planning. And now I know what happened to the other missing wolves.”
