Wild Winter

by Amelia Wilson

  “These little shits will need to learn that I’m tougher than them,” the old man said. His voice was hoarse and raspy, and Sasha realized she couldn’t believe he was even talking. The surprise must have registered on her face because her grandfather shrugged his shoulders and spoke again. “Damien does good work,” he said.

  “Tell me about it,” Sasha said, pulling a nearby chair over to the bedside and sitting. “Tell me about all of it.”

  Connor didn’t need her to clarify, he knew exactly what she meant. He nodded, reached for a nearby cup of water, took a sip, and then started.

  “I was only fifteen when I was given the gift. That's what I’ve always called it, the gift, being able to shift, to change. I was fifteen, and I was working on a ranch, and there was this old Indian out there. Well, Native American I guess is what you gotta say now, but we just called him an Indian back then. We called him Blue because he used to always wear this bright blue woven bracelet around his hand, and I’m not sure any of us knew his real name.

  “He and I got to be friends, and he gave the gift to me. It’s something strange. Giving and getting the gift is an old bit of magic. Yeah, I guess that’s what we call it, even though no magic is supposed to exist in the world, but there it is, and it’s in me, and old Blue gave it to me.”

  “What did he do?” Sasha asked, her eyes wide.

  Her grandfather was clearly back, in another time, his eyes hazy, his voice almost sounded far away. “We were out, in the moonlight, you have to do it in the moonlight, not a full moon or anything, but it has to be nighttime, and you have to feel the moon on you. There’s something about a wolf and the moon, and it won’t work otherwise. Blue, he lay his hand on my head, and I just felt it, I felt the power coming into me, and he had his eyes closed, and I closed mine and I could feel him, and I could feel the moon, and it felt different. It has to take hold. And you have to have something, something you love, and something the person you’re changing loves. Blue held his bracelet in his hand, he said his mother had made it for him before she died.

  “In his hand with that bracelet, he held a picture I had given him, a picture of your grandmother. I knew her way back then, and I knew I would marry her, and I loved her. So, he held those two things, and he put his other hand on me, and under the moonlight, I changed. It took with me. It won’t work with everyone, Blue must have seen something in me, he must have known it would work because it did. And that was that.”

  “Was grandma a shifter?” Sasha asked.

  “No, she was never interested in it, she never wanted it, she seemed to look upon it as… I don’t know what. But no, she wasn’t, and it wasn’t a part of my life I shared with her often.”

  Sasha was surprised to hear that. Her grandfather picked up on her shock, and he shrugged his shoulders.

  “Not everyone takes to it, right? Like I said. Your grandmother, she didn’t take to it. This world, I’ve learned there’s a lot more to it than we thought - than most people ever realize. I guess that’s why it all stays a secret or stays a myth. It’s because most people aren’t made for it, so they just don’t see it.”

  “Like Harry Potter,” Sasha said, and her grandfather laughed.

  “Whatever that means,” he said.

  “Why did you call me? Why did you have me come out here?” Sasha asked, the question entering her mind suddenly, but forcefully, shoving its way to her tongue, and then out past her teeth and lips.

  “I feel you sometimes,” the old man said, his voice quiet. “I know it would take with you. I wanted… I wanted to give you the gift.”

  Sasha felt her breath catch in her chest, a sudden sharp intake. It rattled around her ribs. “Me?” she said.

  “I thought so. But now, after all of this…” the old man trailed off.

  “I don’t know,” Sasha said. “I don’t know if it would work.”

  “Would you want it to?” Connor asked his granddaughter.

  “I don’t know,” the girl said with a shrug. “It’s… it’s too much right now.”

  Connor nodded. “Is Hunter here?” he asked suddenly.

  “Yes.”

  “I need to speak with him.”

  Sasha couldn’t help but feel as though her grandfather was dismissing her. She nodded. “I’ll send him in,” she said as she stood, but before she went she bent over and kissed the old man’s forehead. Then she turned and left, and Hunter took her place.

  Sasha waited for the man she had fallen in love with in the waiting room, and he was only gone for ten or so minutes. When he came out, he looked as though he carried the weight of the world upon his shoulders.

  “Are you alright?” she asked him.

  He looked at her as though he was seeing her for the first time. He forced a smile on his face and nodded. “Yeah. I just have a lot of work to do. Are you staying here?”

  “Yes, I don’t want to leave him.”

  Hunter nodded. “Good, you’ll be safe here.”

  “What are you going to do?” she asked him.

  “End this,” Hunter said, and after quickly kissing her, he left.

  Chapter Nine

  Hunter sped back to Damien’s house. They would be using his garage as a meeting place, and after talking briefly on the phone to Blake, he knew to expect a good number of people there. Indeed the drive in front of Damien’s cabin was packed with vehicles, and Hunter parked at the rear of the line.

  Inside the garage long fold out tables had been set up, with metal folding chairs to go along with them, but no one was sitting down. Hunter did a quick head count, there were twelve people there aside from him. John found him quickly.

  “This is who answered the call.”

  Hunter nodded. “We can only hope it’s more than Kurt gets.”

  John smiled and placed a friendly hand on Hunter’s shoulder. “I think it is. I trust that it is.”

  Hunter nodded once more. “Let’s get started then,” he said, turning away from John then and raising his voice. “Could everyone take a seat?” he asked, and everyone did so quickly and quietly.

  Hunter looked about the room, and he felt his pulse quicken. This was a line he was about to cross. And once he did, there would be no going back. Once he took command of this pack, it was his. And that was exactly what Connor wanted, it was exactly what they spoke about briefly in that hospital room.

  “I spoke with Connor. He is gravely injured, but he will live. He was attacked not once, but twice. Kurt attacked him the first time, and then Kyle Rose, who you all know no doubt, attacked him in Kurt’s name a second time.”

  There were murmurs throughout the crowd at that news, and Hunter stayed quiet for a moment, letting them run their course. When everyone had stopped talking once more, he pressed on.

  “First of all, I want to stress to you, that I have Connor’s blessing. His support. He wants me to take point on this, and he has put me forward as the new pack leader. I will take the position. I want to know now if anyone in this room has a problem with that.”

  Another pause, but this time no one spoke. Hunter suppressed a smile and went on.

  “I’m not sure if anyone here is unclear of this, but we will be killing Kurt.”

  Hunter hated speaking so bluntly, especially about another member of his pack, but there was simply no way around it, and Connor had agreed with him. They couldn’t give Kurt another chance, he had made his own bed, and now he was going to have to lie in it.

  Heads were nodding in the garage. Hunter looked from face to face, mentally making a note that these men (well, two were women) were the ones who stood by him when he needed it the most. They were loyal, and he would make sure to keep them close.

  “Does anyone know where Kurt is?” Hunter asked.

  Silence.

  “Does anyone have an idea?”

  Slowly, one of the women stood up. Her name was Heather, and she was blonde and pretty. “He was dating my sister. Well, not dating, they just, I don’t know, friends with bene
fits or whatever.”

  Hunter nodded, that was helpful.

  “Your sister isn’t a shifter, right?” Hunter asked.

  “No, she wanted to be, but it didn’t take. But she met Kurt through me, and they hit it off, it’s been a thing for a couple years now.”

  “You think he could be with her?” Hunter asked.

  Heather nodded. “I think it’s possible.”

  “Great. Anyone else?”

  To Hunter’s surprise, a few more people had good leads on where Kurt could have gone. Hunter called John, Blake, and a very tired Damien over while everyone else stood and broke into small groups to chat about what was going on.

  “What do you think?” Hunter asked with his attention on John.

  “Four good ideas there. We could check them first, send a few people to each.”

  “I’d hate to find him, and he have more than a few people,” Damien said, and Blake nodded in agreement.

  “Took the words right out of my mouth,” Blake told the older man.

  “Well, we can do some looking, and hopefully not tip him off, and then get everyone there,” Hunter suggested.

  “I think that’s a promising idea,” John said, and when nobody contradicted him, Hunter got everyone in the garage listening again, and broke down what was happening.

  Hunter had come to think of John, Blake, and Damien as his generals, and it was decided that each of them would head up a group to investigate one of the possible places Kurt may be laying low.

  Hunter himself was going to take Heather and three others to check out her sister’s place. Heather’s sister was older, a woman named Holly. (There was even a third sister who no longer lived in Alaska named Hailey. Their mother must have had a thing for the letter H.) Holly lived an hour or so away from Tall Tree proper, out on a large lake that saw a lot of tourists come hunting and fishing season. Hunter climbed behind the wheel of his truck, Heather beside him. The other three men followed along in one of their SUV’s, and they began to drive.

  Heather didn’t speak much, and that suited Hunter just fine. He was nervous, and he couldn’t stop thinking about Sasha. He was worried about the woman, he wanted to solve this problem quickly, so he could ensure her safety. He felt bad that everything had gone to shit when she had just come up to spend time with her grandfather before he passed away. Now she had seen him attacked twice, moments from death during the worst of it, and had almost become wolf food herself.

  When they neared Holly’s home, with Heather giving directions, Hunter pulled over to the side of the road. The SUV pulled up next to them, the driver, a man in his forties named Stephen, rolling his window down.

  “What’s the plan?” Stephen asked.

  “She says it’s about a quarter mile up the road. There’s a dirt road to the right there, which stretches down to the lake and her house is on that. Only one there, right?” he asked, looking back to Heather, who nodded. He turned back to Stephen. “Let’s get to the road, go a bit past it, and pull off there. We’ll walk through the woods to the house, and see what we see.

  Stephen nodded and rolled his window up, gunning his SUV forward and taking the lead. It wasn’t long before they saw the dirt road, and both vehicles moved past it and then shortly after that pulled off to the side of the road.

  They all got out and stood together by Hunter’s truck. “Remember, we don’t want them to see us coming if they are here, alright? And we don’t know how many people could possibly be here. So just be quiet, get a look, and if we need to call in backup, well that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

  Everyone nodded, and Hunter took the lead, stepping off the paved road, and into the woods.

  It wasn’t a long walk before he saw Holly’s house through the trees. It was white and big, and running down a small slope from one end was a paved walkway which led to a dock, where a small row boat sat rocking on the slowly churning water. The wind picked up a bit, and Hunter could hear the boat clunking against the side of the dock. He sniffed, but couldn’t smell anything. They were downwind, which would suit them well. He turned to his group.

  “Let’s go furry,” he said, knowing it would sharpen their senses. A moment later they were all wolves, their clothes in piles about their feet. Hunter turned, keeping low to the ground, his belly almost running along the dirt, and he crept forward.

  He picked a good spot and lay down on his stomach, his keen wolf eyes remained trained on the house. The others did the same on either side of him. They watched the house for a long while, but no one came in or out, and they didn’t see anyone pass by a window, and they didn’t smell or hear a thing.

  Hunter was disappointed. He felt like he had surely picked the right place to investigate, he had been sure Kurt would go to a girlfriend’s house, but it appeared as if no one was there.

  Hunter got to his feet and trotted forward a few steps. The others stayed where they were. Slowly Hunter stepped out of the trees and into the small clearing where the house sat. He stood there, canine heart pounding in his broad chest. He half expected Kurt to come flying out of the house towards him in his wolf form, teeth bared, drool slipping into the wind. But nothing.

  Hunter went on up to the house. He walked around the side, glancing back to where he had left his friends, seeing that they were now on their feet and had moved to the edge of the clearing. He went to the front porch, walked up the stairs. A rocking chair sat moving gently in the breeze. The screen door was closed, as was a solid front door beyond that.

  There was a window in the wall above where the rocking chair sat, so Hunter climbed up into the chair and looked through the window. He was looking into a living room, a couch, some chairs, a TV set on the wall. There was no one there.

  Hunter returned to his friends, and they shift back into their human forms and dressed quickly.

  “I don’t think anyone’s home,” he said.

  “I’ll just knock,” Heather suggested, and Hunter nodded.

  “Might as well,” he said, and then the girl turned and made her way towards the house. Hunter and the men crouched down at the edge of the woods, watching the girl. The disappeared around the corner of the house, and Hunter moved down some so he could see her once more. She was on the porch, and she knocked. Heather waited a moment and knocked again. There was no answer.

  She had turned to come down off of the porch when they all heard the roar of an engine and a black car pulled down the dirt road which led to the house. Heather froze on the stairs.

  Hunter could see four men in the car, none of them Kurt, but all of them men he and Damien had reckoned would be loyal to the little shit.

  “Well, well, well,” the driver said, getting out of the car. He was a tall skinny man with a shaved head named Seth. He was looking at Heather, it didn’t seem as though any of the four in the car had noticed Hunter and the other men.

  “Came looking for my sister,” Heather said.

  “You can see her real soon,” Seth said with a laugh.

  “What does that mean?” Heather asked.

  “It means she’s dead,” Seth said, and then with a speed that took everyone by surprise he pulled a gun from the back of his pants and fired at Heather. The bullet tore into her shoulder, knocking her back and spinning her around as she fell.

  Hunter was moving before she even hit the ground, shifting and screaming and jumping forward all at once. He was a wolf by the time he slammed into Seth’s back, the man hadn’t even had time to turn. He went falling forward, beginning to shift himself but Hunter put a stop to that, bearing his full wolf weight down upon the man’s back and closing his jaws over the back of his throat. He had just enough time to jerk his head up, tearing a large section of Seth’s throat out before a wolf slammed into him, one of Seth’s friends, knocking Hunter aside.

  The fight was on in earnest then, Heather lying in the snow holding her injured shoulder, Seth dying some feet away from her, stuck in a transformation, halfway between a wolf and a man, and the res
t wolves, snapping and biting and slashing at one another.

  Hunter was enraged by the assault on Heather, and it served to make him fight more ferociously than he ever had before. The three men who had come with him seemed to feed off of his energy, and it wasn't long before they had bested Seth’s friends, killing them all, leaving them dead or dying in their wolf forms.

  Seth shifted back to a human and went to Heather while he was still nude.

  “Holly,” the woman said, gritting her teeth as she held her bleeding shoulder.

  “I’ll check,” Hunter said, and he turned and saw that one of the men had brought his clothes, and he pulled them on quickly and then went to the cabin while the others set about tying a tourniquet around Heather’s shoulder.

  Hunter found the door locked but a solid kick from his boot clad right foot broke the door inwards, and he stepped in. The cabin was still. Hunter stood just inside the doorway for a moment, his sensitive ears straining for any sort of sound, but none came.

  He found Holly upstairs in one of the bedrooms, lying on the floor, her throat slashed, her eyes glazed and unseeing. He thought for a moment and then took the blanket from the bed, wrapped the woman’s body within it, and then carried it downstairs and out of the house. Heather was sitting up by then, and when she saw the blanket, she let out a soft wail.

  “No!” she said, climbing to her feet and rushing forward.

  “I’m sorry,” Hunter said, setting the body down, making sure to keep it wrapped.

  “Let me see her,” Heather said, and Hunter did so, pulling the blanket away from her face but staying careful to keep the ragged wound in her throat covered. Heather bent her head over his sister’s face, setting their foreheads together, and she wept. Hunter let her do so.

  “We have to bury her,” Heather said, and Hunter nodded. It was the right thing to do, and they would never go to the police with what had happened, and so they would need to bury Seth as well. The Wolves could keep, they would never revert back to human form, and some dead wolves seeming mauled by other wolves would arouse no suspicions.