Wolf Hunting
By
Toni L.H. Boughton
Copyright © 2015 Toni L. H. Boughton
All rights reserved.
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Dedication
This is dedicated to everyone who has supported me in the writing of these books, especially my friends - Brenna, Pam, and Shannon.
But first, foremost, and always - this is for my mother.
Thank you for always being there for me.
What came before
Nowen was brought down out of her mountains by the burning of curiosity. A man, Anton, had found her and told her that he knew what she was. He spoke of a place being reclaimed from the undead, a place called ‘New Heaven’. And he spoke of a white wolf that he had seen change into a woman.
Nowen and Anton travelled north through Wyoming and into Montana. Along the way they found a young girl named Sage, orphaned by the effects of Flux, and a woman named Suzannah, who was not as innocent as she appeared. Upon arrival at New Heaven Nowen was met with betrayal.
Months of captivity followed, with the wolf in charge and Nowen driven deep inside her own mind. The leader of New Heaven, a man named Isaac Vuk, had plans for the wolf, and others like her - werewolves, or as Vuk called them, vukodlak. Only when the wolf was broken by torture did Nowen find herself free. Along with Sage and Suzannah Nowen fled the horror of New Heaven.
Vuk would not be so easily denied his plans for a new world run by vukodlak. Nowen and her companions searched for a refuge, always on the lookout for the forces of New Heaven. In a little churchyard Vuk finally ran them to ground. In a battle with Vuk’s people and complicated by the presence of the undead Nowen managed to drive Vuk away - but at the loss of one of her friends.
And the changing of another.
Nowen and the new wolf return to New Heaven, looking for any sign of Vuk, determined to make him pay - but he is gone and his compound burned to ashes. As Nowen wonders what to do next a stranger steps out of the forest.
And recognizes Nowen.
Table of Contents
Book One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Book Two
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Book One
Chapter One
“Hello. It’s good to see you again.”
Nowen stood as still as a stone and stared at the tall man with the lightly tanned skin and gunmetal-grey hair. His one copper-colored eye stared back calmly. It was Sage who spoke, rising from her crouch and stepping in front of Nowen. “What did you say?” the girl said. Through her daze Nowen could see that Sage’s hands were clenched into fists. Fine russet-shaded hairs were rising from the girl’s olive skin. Calm her before she does something foolish. Nowen forced her stiff limbs to move, stepping up behind Sage and placing a hand on her shoulder.
The stranger looked confused. “I said it was good to see her.” His voice was low-pitched and his words carried the faintest of accents, something Nowen couldn’t place.
A nearly-inaudible growl from Sage helped Nowen find her voice. “Do you...know who I am?” she asked.
A dip of the grey-haired head in response. “Yes, of course.” Nowen watched as his copper eye ticked over her face. He must have seen the confusion on her own face, because he frowned and asked “Why?”
“Because I don’t know who I am.”
The man took a few steps closer. Sage growled again, louder this time. Nowen tightened her grip on the young girl’s shoulder and looked at the stranger. As he stood in the full sunlight of the clearing she took in his bare feet, the black jeans that were too short, and the ill-fitting green shirt that stretched tightly across his muscled chest with sleeves that ended well below his hands. She stared at his face, the one bright copper eye and the black scar that ran from the missing eye down to his chin. A memory of standing in the doorway of a small cabin surrounded by a snowy forest, standing with Sage and watching a-
Nowen gasped. “You!” She pointed at the stranger. “You were at the ski resort!
You’re a vukodlak!”
The man winced. “Yes, I am. Although I prefer the term-”
Sage pulled free of Nowen’s grasp. “Why were you there? Were you tracking us?”
Another dip of the grey-haired head. “Vuk sent for me from a New Heaven camp in Nebraska. He asked for my help in finding someone - as he called it, ‘a feral vukodlak that should be brought into the fold.” The single eye focused on Nowen. “But I didn’t know that I was tracking you.”
Nowen frowned. “What difference-” she started to say but was cut off by Sage’s scream of rage. “It’s your fault Suzannah died! You led them to us! It’s your fault I-” the rest of the girl’s words were subsumed by the growls that ripped from her throat. Nowen lunged forward and tackled Sage. By the time she dragged the girl’s body down to the scorched ground her arms were wrapped around a russet-furred wolf clad in rags of clothes.
Nowen shot the stranger a glance and motioned with her head for him to step back. She snaked her arms and legs around the young wolf, pinning the violently struggling limbs to the heaving body. Nowen dodged an ill-timed snap of the wolf’s teeth and placed her mouth to the heavily-furred ear. She began to whisper, nonsense stuff for the most part, repeating Sage’s name over and over. The girl was still new to the challenges of shifting, and Nowen remembered her own struggles to keep her humanity from being swallowed by the freedom of the animal. Now she fought to keep Sage grounded in her own mind, even as the wolf snarled and snapped and fought to get free.
Nowen didn’t know how many minutes had passed before the wiry wolf body relaxed in her grip. She didn’t loosen her hold until the wolf gave a great sigh and fell completely limp. Carefully Nowen eased herself free and got to her feet. The young wolf stood up and looked at her, ears down and dark brown eyes filled with a very human shame. Nowen stroked her hand over the wolf’s head. “It’s ok, Sage. Go change. I’ll toss you the bag with our clothes.” The russet-colored wolf whined and trotted away, heading towards the back of the clearing. Nowen picked up an army-green duffel bag that sat nearby and threw it in the direction the wolf had taken. Only now did she turn and look for the stranger.
He stood several feet away. His back was turned toward her. Nowen walked up to the man, keeping some distance between them. She waited until he moved his eye from the forest to her and then she spoke.
“Are you working for Vuk? Are you here to try and take us to him? Because I warn you, that’s not going to happen.” Nowen spit out.
The stranger
shook his head. “No. I’m not working for him anymore.”
Nowen took a step forward. “And why the hell should I believe you?”
One solitary copper eye met her gaze. “I can’t offer any proof. All I can do is swear I’m telling the truth.”
She laughed, a harsh bark laden with pain. “I believed another stranger once, not too long ago. It didn’t end well.”
The man just stared back. Should I take a chance? Or just kill him? Her wolf growled and licked her lips. Settle down. “Tell me everything. Who you are, how you know who I am, what Vuk has to do with this - everything.” Nowen crossed her arms across her chest and pinned the stranger with a steely gaze. “But understand this - if I even come to think you’re up to something, I will kill you.”
“First, is the girl ok? I didn’t mean to upset her.”
“She’s fine. Answer my questions.”
The stranger turned his gaze back to the tall trees that seemed to march on forever. The weather had been unseasonably warm the past week, and he tilted his sharp-boned face to the sun as he talked. “My name is Everett West. I am - I was - a teacher at the University of Wyoming. You worked there too.” Everett looked at her. “What happened that you don’t know who you are?”
Sage spoke from behind them. “That’s none of your business. We ask the questions, not you.” Nowen motioned the girl over, and when Sage stood next to her she took one of the girl’s hands in her own. Sage seemed in control, but the tiny tremors that ran down the girl’s arm said otherwise. Nowen tightened her grip slightly.
Everett was looking fully at Sage. “What happened to this Suzannah?”
“She got her head blown off.”
“Vuk killed her?”
“Him, or one of his men.” Nowen said. “We’re just not sure why. Vuk wants as many healthy, young people as he can get.”
A startled look crossed the man’s face. “You know what his plan is, then.” A statement, not a question.
Nowen nodded. “He wants to make more vukodlak and...rule the world? I never got that far in our conversations.”
Everett scuffed the burnt earth with his bare foot. Puffs of sooty dust rose in the still air. “You’re not far wrong. I was never a member of Vuk’s inner circle, so I can’t speak to all of his plans. But I do know this: Vuk has been around a long time, desperately trying to restore the vukodlak to some sort of remembered or imaginary glory. The Flux seemed like the answer to all his dreams. We are immune to the bite of the infected. We can survive off the land like few others. We can heal ourselves from most minor injuries-” From the corner of her eye Nowen saw Sage make a fist with her left hand, the hand missing the last two fingers. “and we’re all around pretty damn hardy. My understanding is that we can live longer than twice the average human lifespan.”
“So, with civilization in collapse the vukodlak can reign supreme.” Nowen said.
A nod of the grey-haired head.
“Has he had much luck? We know that’s what he was doing at this place - winnowing out the weak and ill and old. Trying to change the healthy and young.”
Everett shook his head. “I don’t think it’s going that well. It’s not easy to create more vukodlak. The change is difficult, and even if you survive, there is always the possibility of becoming so lost in the wolf that you never find your way out again.”
Nowen felt Sage’s body stiffen. “Why was Suzannah killed, then?” the girl asked.
“I can only guess. Everyone who gets taken into New Heaven gets intensive medical exams. Something must have shown up on your friend’s, and she was deemed unworthy of the change.”
A small sound escaped Sage, and she tugged her hand free of Nowen’s and walked a few steps away. Nowen watched as the girl’s thin back shook with suppressed sobs. She turned her attention back to Everett with narrowed eyes.
“I’m telling the truth. Don’t you believe me?” he asked.
“So far everything you’ve said fits with what we know. But why are you here? What do you want with us?” Nowen said.
He sighed and looked back down at the ground. “I’ve been a fool. I’ve worked with Vuk since the Flux. He found me, wandering lost and shocked through the ruins of Denver, and offered me safety and, eventually, a purpose.” Everett looked at her, and Nowen could read the pain in his face. “I saw terrible things. I barely escaped with my own life. Vuk told me about the vukodlak - and then showed me. I jumped at the chance to become something strong enough to survive.” He laughed, a sound of disgust. “I was an idiot. The change was intense and painful, but I lived through it. And then I made ready to ride out and rid the world of the infected. Only to realize there were so many more of them that I would die before I even cleaned out one city. Again, Vuk was there, giving me a purpose. He spoke of his desire to create more compounds like this one, to help humanity recover by giving them the power of the wolf. And I believed him. I went out and found as many survivors as I could and brought them back to the compounds.” Everett lowered his gaze. “If only I had known what I was bringing them back to. It was only after I tracked you down that I saw Vuk exposed for what he really is. I saw the burn pits for the bodies of those that didn’t fit his criteria, and I saw the sheds where he worked to create and then tame his vukodlak. So I left, and went in search of you.”
“Why?” Nowen said.
“I recognized you at that cabin in the woods, and then I realized that you were the feral wolf that Vuk was looking for. I knew I had to find you, and find out what happened to you.”
A wild fervor gripped Nowen. Her identity had been a locked door for so long, and here was someone offering the key. She took a step forward, a burning intensity flooding her body. “Who am I?”
“Your name is Harper Addison.”
Nowen held the words in her mind and waited for the door to open. She clenched her hands tightly, ignoring the pain of her nails digging into her palms, and waited.
And waited.
A soft touch on her arm drew Nowen back to the world. Sage was looking at her with concern. “Anything?” the girl said.
Nowen shook her head fiercely. Disappointment warred with anger within her, and it was anger that won out. She glared at Everett. “That name means nothing to me. I don’t know ‘Harper Addison’ and I don’t know you.” She pointed a black-furred finger at him. “I don’t know what you want and I don’t care. Leave us, now, if you know what’s good for you.”
He held out a hand. “Harper, what happened to you?”
“Don’t call me that!”
“I’m sorry, I won’t. But listen,” his gaze ticked back and forth between Nowen and Sage, “the only thing I want is to help you. You want to find Vuk; I know where he is.”
Nowen snarled. “And why the hell would you help us?”
Everett returned her gaze evenly. “Because I owe you. I led Vuk to you and got your friend killed. I knew you before, Harp- I knew you. I want to make it up to you.”
“Bullshit. I don’t know you. And I don’t trust you. I don’t trust any stranger who says he can give me what I want. I did that before and all I got was betrayal.” Nowen drew herself up to her full height and found that she was taller than Everett by a couple of inches. She used the difference to her advantage and glowered down at the man. “I told you once to leave us. The next time, I’ll force you.” She saw anger flame in the copper eye.
“You would set your wolf against mine?” His words came out on a half-growl.
Nowen narrowed her own amber eyes. Sage spoke suddenly, before she had a chance to answer. “We would. The odds are two against one - pretty good, I think.” For a moment the tension and fury in the clearing was almost palpable. Nowen could feel her wolf pushing at her control but, in a change from just a few months ago, not fighting her over it. She kept her gaze locked on Everett but focused her concentration on Sage. The girl’s wiry body thrummed like a barbed-wire fence in a high wind. Oh, Sage, keep your control. I can’t fight two of you at the same time. Abru
ptly all the energy fell away from Everett. He sighed and looked away, a gesture the wolf recognized as an attempt at appeasement. Nowen relaxed and felt Sage slowly do the same. She waited for the man to speak.
“I don’t know how I can convince you.” he said, after a long moment’s pause.
“Then don’t-just leave.” Nowen replied.
Everett opened his mouth to speak but a sudden gasp from Sage stopped him. Nowen looked at the girl. The head of russet-colored curls was tilted in a listening position and, as Nowen watched, a dawning expression of horror filled the thin face. The dark, dark eyes met Nowen’s. “Do you hear that?” she whispered. Nowen concentrated. During the confrontation with Everett a breeze had picked up, and at first all she heard was the soft susurrus of leaves and branches swaying in the wind. Then, at last, she heard it: the sound of a loud engine, close and getting closer.
She looked at Everett. “You bastard.” she said, and drove her fist into his face.
Chapter Two
Everett dropped like a stone. His eye rolled up in its socket as his head fell to the side. Blood dripped from his nose to the scorched earth.
“Whoa!” Sage gasped.
“Come on!” Nowen grabbed the girl’s hand and ran toward the far end of the clearing. Black puffs of soot and dust whirled around Nowen’s feet. Damn, we’re leaving a trail! A rise of flat boulders appeared from behind the burned-out shell of a building and Nowen charged up them like they were a staircase. The upper-most boulder, about twenty feet off the ground, had a small depression on the top. Nowen dove for this relative shelter.
She hit the granite hard, wincing as the knees of her jeans shredded. Sage landed beside her with a grunt but Nowen could only spare a glance to ensure the girl was ok before she turned all her attention back on the clearing.
From her vantage point atop the boulder Nowen could only see about a third of the remains of the New Heaven compound. But she could see what she needed to see - the burned timbers that used to mark the entrance. Sage slid up beside her and Nowen pointed at the view as she spoke.
Wolf Hunting (A Wolf in the Land of the Dead Book Book 3) Page 1
