Tilting his head down he stared at the ground, the faint drops of dried blood from his friend barely visible in the torn-up snow and dried leaves. He stayed listening for a moment more before heading into the village. Since Adrik had returned home, Dimitri knew no one was left alive to follow.
Another hour or so passed before Dimitri was able to piece together a possible reason for the slaughter and then only because he focused his attention on the trail back to the first village. After a few more sweeps of the village, his attention on areas to the east and south he shifted and headed for home, stopping a few times to rest and chase down game to eat.
***
“I don’t know his reason, Nikita. I am telling you what I found. Call it a guess if you wish. You know him as well as I. He is like a brother to both of us.” Dimitri stared at the wolf lying beside Jutoh before looking back at Nikita.
“But it makes no sense. The Adrik we know would not kill a village of innocent people just because someone from the village visited the ones who, who, the ones who.” Nikita’s voice stuttered to a halt when he tried to give voice to what the first village had done to their pack.
“Then you tell me why? Why would he track the scent of a human back to another village and destroy the village?”
Nikita’s head bowed. “You are certain? No, of course you are. The village you found; did you find any sign that he could do it again? Any trace of others coming into that village from other places?”
“Too many. The village was small, but the location was ideal for trade between other villages. I found signs that travel is constant between that village and others to the east and south. The scents were faint. With the weather turning, and the snows beginning to fall the travel will be less frequent. I fear others will find the village and after that one they will find the one we destroyed. It is a matter of time before they come here. I may be wrong, if the snow fall is heavy this year and the paths are closed all evidence between us and the others will be long destroyed by the time the rivers thaw and the birds sing again.”
“Then we will hope for a bitter winter and come spring we will find somewhere else to go. Far from here and the pain of living every day where our people fell.” Nikita said.
***
The following months were hard on the two men as Adrik continued to disappear, often for a week or more before returning to the house. Jutoh had made a few sounds over the months, mostly moans and some anguished screams. Each time the men’s hopes had risen only to be dashed when they couldn’t rouse their Alpha. When the first sprig of grass broke the ground the two gathered everything they needed, including the new type of carriage-sled they had built over the winter and two horses they stole from a scouting trip and headed south. They didn’t have a plan or a destination, all they knew was they couldn’t handle living where the blood of their pack soaked the ground.
Spring gave way to summer and still Jutoh gave no sign of recovery. Adrik stayed close to the men as they traveled south, avoiding villages and other packs. On a few occasions, when confrontation was unavoidable, and the fear people had for the giant wolf caused problems, the men would fight. More times than not Adrik would track the ones who attacked back to their homes and another village would fall in the middle of the night. Nikita didn’t try to tally the dead they left behind but he often heard Dimitri muttering in the dark of night, praying to the God of their ancestors for the souls of the humans. Sometimes the two men ended up fighting alongside Adrik, not because of their hatred for the humans, but because they feared losing the friend they loved. A few times they fought to get others off their trail. They didn’t plan to become the hunted and the only way to stay safe was to leave no one alive who could track them. As the leaves started to fall and the temperatures began to drop Nikita and Dimitri started looking in earnest for a place to winter, not too close to others but not so far they couldn’t trade.
“I don’t know, Dimitri. It seems as good as any other place. If we can somehow convince Adrik not to kill our neighbors, we could winter here.” Nikita looked around the meadow.
The language had shifted as they moved south and east over the months and the men were trying to learn enough to communicate with others. The wolf seemed to understand their need to settle somewhere and for the last couple of weeks stayed close to them, occasionally riding in the carriage-sled with Jutoh and staying out of sight of strangers. With a bit of barter the men had proposed a deal with one of the local packs to winter on an abandoned farm far enough away the wolves wouldn’t have territory fights. Villages of both humans and shifters were closer in this new area than back in the land they left behind. The local pack assured them they had never had trouble with the humans. The two men hoped they could keep Adrik from his vengeful hunts in the new area. Moving in winter would not be easy, not with Jutoh to worry about. The two men took turns stressing the problem to the wolf continuously.
Adrik’s wolf seemed calmer in the new home so it was with shock and surprise when the men were awoken in the early morning hours to the screams and cries of their friend.
“Natasha! NO!” The anguished screams reverberated in the small farmhouse, over and over.
Nikita lit the oil lamp as Dimitri rushed to Adrik’s side. Rocking back and forth on his knees beside Jutoh’s bedding, arms wrapped around himself, tears falling as sobs shook his body, Adrik didn’t give Dimitri a glance. As Nikita fell to his knees beside his friends, he could feel Adrik’s anguish shatter his soul. The pack connection, missing for months, rushed through him. He gasped in pain, in unison with Dimitri as their friend, so alone for so long, reached through the abyss to bond their souls to him. Both men reached for Adrik and wrapped their arms around him. No words could convey the men’s sorrow for the loss of the pack, the mates, the future they would never have, so they didn’t even try.
“What happened?” The voice, hoarse with disuse, spoke.
“To the village?” Nikita asked.
“N’yet. To us. Where are we? This isn’t our home. Where is everyone? I can’t feel Jutoh and he is beside me.” Adrik paused in speaking. “Alpha? I took his position? When did this happen? Why can’t I remember? Why do I only feel you, both of you, and no other?” He turned tear streaked eyes to look at the two men as he shrugged out of their arms. Turning he bent over Jutoh. “Did we fight? Is that why he is as he is? Did I do this?”
“No! No, Adrik, it wasn’t you. We lost the pack, the bond, when the village fell. When we found you and Jutoh you were as he is now. We had no Alpha, no bond, no way to talk to either of you. This is the first we have heard your voice in months. You, I don’t know, reached out to us when you shifted back and drew us in. You gave us back the pack bond and made yourself our Alpha at the same time. But Jutoh, he is the same as he has been.”
“He doesn’t wake?” Adrik asked.
“Not since the day it happened.” Nikita answered.
“Yet you carried him here? You kept him alive? Why? How?”
“He was our Alpha, we could not leave him, we would not leave him. Our love, our honor, demanded we save you, both of you. We did what we had to do to keep you both alive. You were all we had left, and we vowed we would never give up.” Dimitri told him.
“Where are we? Were we all who survived? Did no one else make it? Mikhail?” Adrik asked.
The two men looked at each other before looking at Adrik. “We don’t really know. We are many months from where our home was. The daily pain was too great. With no Alpha we couldn’t choose a new territory so when the spring came to the land, we started our journey. We hoped, one day, Jutoh’s wolf would awaken or your wolf would sleep, and you would return. We thought, if we crossed enough land one day it might call to one of you and we could be pack again. With a new home we could start fresh, so we traveled. The others, the ones who pulled the sleds, unmated, they made it back. But without pack, they couldn’t stay. We took our vengeance on the ones who destroyed our pack and then the young ones left to find a new pack. We don�
�t know if they made it. The others, they didn’t, we didn’t, there is no one else. Just us. We are all that is left. They say Mikhail gave himself to the river. Yakov took his own life.” Dimitri told him.
“No others?”
“No. We are the only ones left.” This time it was Nikita who answered the question.
Adrik pushed the hair from Jutoh’s face. “He is so thin. How do you feed him?”
“As we would a baby. Slowly. We dribble soup into his mouth. Sometimes he swallows, sometimes he chokes. We care for him as we would a small babe just learning to eat.” Dimitri’s eyes lingered on Jutoh’s face a moment. He drew in a deep breath before continuing. “We thought, we hoped, since your wolf is stronger, the spirit is greater, you could call to his wolf. Perhaps a shift, even one against his wishes, would wake him.”
Adrik closed his eyes and shook his head. “My wolf hurts. He has carried me all this time and shouldered our pain. Now it is time I shoulder his pain. His loss and mine are the same. Our dreams are the same but mine was a nightmare I could not escape. He carried me. Our nightmares, blood and death, a continuous cycle of destruction. Did we destroy so many? Was it a nightmare or was it real?”
“Many villages never saw dawn break the sky. Your wolf took his pain in the blood of others.” Nikita said.
“Innocents? We took the lives of innocent people?”
“Many. Streams ran red with the blood of your wrath and your pain.”
Adrik sagged against Jutoh’s body. “No more. Never again will we take the lives of those who haven’t harmed our people.”
“What will you have us do now? We have this land but only for the winter.” Dimitri told him.
“Do? You will show me how you care for the father of my heart and I will care for him. When my wolf is stronger, we will call to him and return him to us. I will be the Alpha he needs. He lost mate and a child. He will need us, and we need him to teach us how to be the pack we will one day become. I will be the greatest Alpha this world has known and together we will gather those who need a strong pack. We will search for the lost ones, the ones who need someone strong to lead them, the ones who have no pack but would make our pack strong with the right leadership. But we need Jutoh to make that happen. I need him. He was not finished with the task of teaching me and he must be made to return to us. Mated pairs are more vulnerable than I realized. More vulnerable than anyone could have explained. We will always protect a mated pair. No one will ever suffer as I have suffered, as Jutoh still suffers, we will always make certain nothing comes between mates.”
“You can’t protect them from the world. And I must tell you, after what I have seen, after what we have lived with, I do not want a mate. Promise me, if I ever find a mate you will kill me before you let me mate. Swear this to me Adrik.” Dimitri demanded.
“I cannot make you that vow. I will not. I will never come between a male and his mate. Not in this lifetime or the next. That is one vow I can and will make to you. I will never be the reason a male is without his mate. After my loss this is not a vow you will ever have of me. I will swear to you, if you ever find your mate, I will protect your bond until the end of time. Though the fires of hell lap at my feet I will protect your bond.”
“Then I pray I never meet a female to bond with for I would never live with the pain such as I have watched these last few months.”
“Months? How long?” Adrik asked.
“Is near the time of the year again. When the moon rises twice more will be one year.” Nikita told him.
“We are safe here?”
“I think so. We have a pack to our west. We bartered with them to stay here for the winter.” Nikita said.
“Then we shall. At the first hint of spring we will begin our journey to gather a pack. We will search out the cities for those who are without. When we have enough, when my wolf is ready, we will find a new territory and we will rebuild what we lost. I know I will never have another mate; this isn’t a gift one is given twice, but I will make a territory safe from others. One where we need no others. This I swear.”
Adrik straightened as he made his vow and reaching out, he clasped his best friends’ shoulders. “We will build the greatest pack this world has ever known, and we will hold it against all who come against us.”
And thus began the future of the man who would one day become Gammon, the Alpha of the largest, most defensible pack in the world.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Introduction
I really recommend reading the series before continuing these short stories. Finding Mia takes place well before the first book in the series and the date alone is a spoiler for some of the questions other characters discuss. Continue at your own spoiler risk. It isn’t much of a spoiler and you can read this story without messing up the main story line for yourself. But if you don’t want to risk it go grab Gabby and join us in the Safe Haven Wolves World. http://mybook.to/Gabby
Finding Mia
Alaska- 1979
Gammon glared at his two Betas before turning and stalking toward the stream. He didn’t see Nikita and Dimitri look at each other and shrug.
“I am going, you both are staying. That is final. You will guard our home. You will kill any intruders. I will take six males with me, but it will not be either of you.” Gammon looked over his shoulder at the two with raised brows before wading out into the stream. The blood from his kill was still fresh on his skin. Scooping water up, he washed his throat and chest. The moose had bled freely when he ripped the throat and his wolf’s fur had been drenched. Without hands, the wolf had done little more than roll in the water to wash the worst of the blood away.
“If you can’t find more females, what then? Our pack isn’t be the only one with such a low birth rate. The last forays into Canada and the northern states didn’t yield many. Do you honestly think this trip will give us answers?” Nikita asked.
“According to William, the High Council has no answers either. Someone somewhere must know something. We are safe here, but we are also cut off from everyone but the High Council, and those visits are rare.”
“Probably because you told them you would find a way around the oaths and when you did you would rip the flesh from their bodies and feed it to them one inch at a time.” Dimitri muttered.
“I have warned them this is my territory, and I will not suffer others, even those who hold our oaths, to trespass upon my territory.”
“I wish you hadn’t given your oath.”
“Sometimes my friend, I wish the same damn thing. But William was correct when he approached me. We knew one day, if we wanted to have a chance of trade among packs, we would need to join our fate to the High Council. We avoided them if possible. We avoided them because I thought it was the right thing to do. We gathered many in those early days. But even with the varied bloodlines that allowed our pack to insulate itself from the rest of the world, if the females don’t reproduce it won’t matter how many original bloodlines we had.”
“What the hell are we going to do?” Nikita asked.
Gammon straightened and glanced down at his chest. Wiping at a spot of blood, he took a moment to answer. When he did, the answer didn’t make anyone happy. “Figure it out. We survived all the shit this world and the fucking humans have thrown our way; we will figure this out.”
“Surviving and prospering are two different things.”
Gammon swung a fist and connected with Dimitri’s shoulder hard enough to knock him off balance. His Beta snarled as he stumbled to catch himself. Before he could retaliate Gammon told him, “If you have an answer feel free to share.”
He watched as his two Betas glanced at each other before they turned their attention back to him. With narrowed eyes, he waited to see what sheer fuckupery they came up with this time. He didn’t have long.
“We have
been talking to some others in the pack. No, let me be more specific. We have been talking to the unmated females in the pack. They want mates. They want the chance to look for true-mates. They can’t do that here.”
“They can’t fucking do it out there either. The last time we took some females south, we had to destroy three fucking packs.”
“I mean, those weren’t a significant loss to our people. The Alphas weren’t oath bonded to the High Council and the males of the packs were a sorry bunch. We didn’t lose much.” Dimitri pointed out.
“I don’t regret killing them. But it isn’t my fucking job, or the job of this pack to protect the others. It isn’t my job to be the defender of our race.”
“Our race is dying out. If not us, then who? We can’t get females for our people if other packs are fucking up. Willow has an idea--” Nikita broke off what he was saying and stared at the hand Gammon threw up.
“Stop. That female is a pain in my side and has been for the last twenty years when it comes to ideas of what she thinks she can do. If Willow came up with an idea, I guarantee it is a bad idea.”
“Actually, I think this time the idea is a good one. Wait, before you shoot the idea down because it came from her you should listen to the idea.”
Gammon wiped at the water droplets on his chest as he noisily exhaled. “You thought it was a brilliant idea when she wanted to cut hair and Dimitri thought it would be the absolute best idea when she decided she wanted to be a chef. Were either of those ideas great ideas? Even good ideas?”
Blood of the Wolf (Safe Haven Wolves Short Stories Book 1) Page 5
