Snow Drifting Down on the Dark Waters
Stupid children. Pups. Fighters? Not good. Simple tracks. Stupid. Fang knew better. Human training, wolf training, still stupid. Still the smartest that wasn’t me. Best fighter that wasn’t me.
Turned trash. Mutts of human meat. Mutts of human thinking.
Anger. Betrayal. Frustration.
Snow, snow, snow. Running too fast to enjoy. Needed them. To fight the Other, to fight the Empty. So much stupid, so much stupid everywhere in wolves supposed to be smart.
Disgrace. Fury. Rage.
Protect. Defend. Defend pack, defend all wolves, old wolves of stupid, too weak to help all the wolves.
First attack. Find. Hunt. Attack first before other pack. Pack of attacking, pain to my pack. No more pain. Anger.
Loss. Hurt. Gone.
Always fight. Always defend. Always kill and rip and blood.
Human den. Close. Fight. Fight then find Runt.
Hurt runt. Disobey. Danger. Stupid, always stupid. Runt of need. Always help, always keep life.
Pack of need.
* * *
Fang
Darkwater ran like the world was on fire and there was exactly one exit. The two of us couldn’t keep up, she dove through the snow like it was nothing, like she could swim in it while we were tangled up, running through tar.
My fear had made me stupid, she’d been right to be angry. I wasn’t used to it anymore, fear hit differently as a wolf. Instinct took over. I knew better than to run straight home. It wasn’t the first time I had put the pack in danger, but I was hoping it was the last. I couldn’t call to her, she was too far ahead. If I did, it would alert the giant fucker in the shack, and surprise might be the only way we could take him.
We had to find out where the rest of his pack was and where Tori might be. If he lived on the south side of town, other wolves might be elsewhere. It wasn’t unheard of. Still a pack, just not living in the same spot together.
I had managed to tell her that the runt had probably run into trouble, ditched her clothes in town, been in the store. Managed to tell her about the giant wolf - but I hadn’t gotten to the part where he didn’t speak English. She was going off half-cocked and once again I was missing Old Willow real hard. And cursing my own idiocy.
Darkwater burst through the door, going from wolf to dire midair. I was closer than Spike but it was going to take me a minute to catch up with her - and a minute in a fight was a long damn time. The bastard had been just on the other side, standing right behind the door, and he slammed against the wall from her force. If we were lucky, he wouldn’t see Spike and I coming.
He was dire, she was dire, and while Darkwater was smaller, she was fierce. She knew how to move, she knew how to throw her weight around, she knew how to use an opponent’s size against them. She was a fighter and always had been. It’s why the other packs recognized us, why they recognized her as Packleader, even though they made it pretty fucking clear they didn’t like her.
When shit went down, it was much better to have Darkwater on your side and not the other. The giant’s blood was on the wall, they were tumbling, rolling in the house and knocking everything over in the process. Plastic plants fell everywhere.
Before we entered, I shifted to the brute.
I pointed to Spike and jerked my head inside. We rushed in, two brutes going in on the dire whirlwind. Darkwater would know what I was doing. She always did. The far side of the room was two strides away, and with the second, I kicked the table over and stomped on it.
Wood tore and screws gave as I yanked, tossing one table leg to Spike. Taking one for myself.
We charged. Darkwater jumped back. Spike and I went to town on the giant fucking dire before he could get after her again. Between eyeblinks she was up with us, clubs making a sickening smack against wolf flesh, the boss’s feet stomping on him along with us.
He lasted longer than I expected. Spike took a nasty gouge to his thigh, I got grazed with huge teeth, but he went down.
I stepped back, panting, sweating. Spike didn’t get it and went for the kill, swinging the club toward the now-smaller wolf’s head. It never connected, as Alpha’s fist went straight into his face. He had thrown his whole body into the swing and when her punch came up full force, Spike’s already bruised mug exploded in a shower of blood. He hit the back wall, unconscious.
“We don’t kill wolves,” she spat. “Unless there is no other choice.”
I stood, unflinching. “Don’t gotta tell me, boss.” We stood in this guy’s house, Spike unconscious and bleeding, him unconscious and bleeding, and the front room trashed. I’m not even sure why I looked, but when I did, I spotted his little makeshift kitchen. Spotless. Everything back exactly the way it was, as if I’d never been here.
It was fucking odd.
We gave him a bit of time to heal, put Spike’s face in the snow to help the swelling. That was hilarious, though he didn’t think so. After searching his place, there was no sign of Tori. No sign of any other wolf either, and the guy didn’t have much. Some CDs, mostly of nature sounds and classical music. A ratty old flip phone with exactly one number in it, for “Lily”. Small stockpile of food, staples, stuff that wouldn’t spoil. No bathroom, that must have been in the part of the house that was sealed off.
And we sat, waiting for him to heal enough to regain consciousness. We might have overdone it a bit.
I answered Darkwater’s questions best I could. “He speaks only Wolftongue?”
“Knows some words, but he didn’t understand me when I talked until I shifted.” I kept my voice level as I answered. She was on edge - made sense, more wolves could show up at any moment and we had just kicked the shit out of one of theirs.
“He did not attack you, just threaten?”
I nodded. “Yeah, kept yelling at me to get out, wouldn’t let me leave until I shifted and… well, agreed with him.”
She snarled, those yellow eyes narrowing unnervingly. “Stupid, Fang. Why did you not tell this to me?”
Like she would have listened. Soon as I mentioned another wolf, I had been up against the wall. Before I could give her any info, we were already charging across the snow. Attack first, ask questions later. Not that I could blame her, really.
“Sorry, boss.” There was no sense in arguing, she wouldn’t listen. Defending myself would only provoke her to attack, it was just how wolves worked. Something the runt still hadn’t learned, and if there was another wolf pack in town, chances were that was why she was in trouble.
We had nothing to indicate that there was another pack, though. All the clothes were his size, there was no other sleeping spot, no other scent. Even if they all lived apart, it seemed unlikely that he would have visitors.
But there was no way he was lone, not a big fucker like this, definitely not one that didn’t speak English too good. He was a mystery.
“Didn’t know they came that big.” I gestured at our victim. “Biggest I’ve ever seen.”
The idea of that enormous sack of fangs and fur hitting the beast form that I’d seen Darkwater use a handful of times was a petrifying thought. Nothing would be able to stop him. Seemed real unlikely that he was Turned though, not if he only spoke Wolftongue, although he might speak Spanish or something.
Big, redheaded Mexican fella wasn’t the strangest thing in the world. Werewolves were real, after all.
“From far, far north.” Darkwater was restless. I hoped Spike would have the sense to stay outside, she wasn’t in the mood for shit. “Where the ice covers the land, where the seasons do not go. I’ve traveled there but not all the way there. He’s a long, long way from home.”
Contractions were a good sign. She was calming down. Her speech was always clipped and broken, single syllables and short words when she was worked up. Made it harder to talk to her, much harder to reason with her.
“Fuck, Alpha.” Spike decided to join us after all. Shame. “You hit like a goddamned Mack truck.”
“We do not kill wolves, Spike.” Her full attention was on him. “You kill a wolf without me saying so, you die. Got it?”
“Yeah, Alpha, sure thing.” He folded instantly, holding up his hands. “Not gonna, wouldn’t dare. Just got caught up in it, y’know? Thrill of the fight alongside my pack, yeah?”
She was satisfied with that.
Spike, of course, couldn’t stay quiet long. He had sat down with us, but he wasn’t still with us. He didn’t get it yet. “So… um… why are we still here?”
“We gotta ask him about the runt, dumbass.” I shook my head. “Gotta find out if he has a pack somewhere.”
“Oh yeah, right. Of course.”
I stretched, rolling my shoulders while we waited. Spike made it another two minutes before he was yapping again. “You were so cool, Alpha. You tackled him and wrestled him like he was nothing. Didja see how I fought? Was I good?”
“Yes.” Darkwater smirked at him. “You didn’t get hit, you didn’t get hurt. The enemy went down. You did good.”
As if on cue, the wolf stirred. Spike and I moved, grabbing our pilfered table legs. We weren’t going to be able to hold the bastard down but we could make it clear that we’d give him a one-way ticket back to sleepytown if he tried anything.
The enormous wolf whimpered and lay still, Darkwater shifted to wolf - probably to talk to him.
* * *
Snow Drifting Down on the Dark Waters
Wolftongue could not be spoken with human lips and human limbs. They lacked the ability to communicate.
I am Snow Drifting Down on the Dark Waters. Reveal your name. Reveal your Packleader’s name.
Name was such a simplistic translation, it was expressing the essence of the wolf, of their guiding and their history and their meaning. Human names were just sounds they made, it didn’t tie them to the land, the wind, the moon, the spirits, nothing.
Their names were as hollow as their hearts.
I made the sounds in their tongue more easily than most wolfborn, but it had been too long since I had communicated with another. I was confidence, I was power, I was might and I spoke it with all of me.
I was sure I would not be missing it long.
He was submission, he was sadness, such deep, heartwrenching sadness. The wolf was… hurt. Badly.
I am Dark Clouds Above the Wildfire. I follow Where the River Crashes Upon the Rock. Do I die here in my den?
The question was offensive, but he did not know. The depth of his sadness was unknowable. It seeped into the air. I had met Where the River Crashes Upon the Rock only once, on the night of the ritual hunt though I knew much about her and her beliefs. She was no friend.
Pain, in that scar, at the remembering. Dark Clouds Above the Wildfire would smell it, but would he understand?
Could he?
Where the River Crashes Upon the Rock was one of many, wolves of unbelieving, wolves of danger and foolishness. Peace-lover. Fight-fearing. Weak and old. They had not yet known loss as same as Snow Drifting Down on the Dark Waters.
I worked and I fought and I bled so they might never.
How far does your pack roam? Do they hunt and leave Dark Clouds Above the Wildfire in his den?
His pain was old, as old as he, older than me. It gnawed at him, it was in his every motion and breath. He was older in body but so much younger than me in spirit. More than most. More than the runt, who had found her spirit in the trickle, not the torrent.
Far beyond the tall mountains, beyond the snows to the place of sun. Where the River Crashes Upon the Rock gives them safety.
The devotion he felt with her, mixed with the sadness and the fear and the youth of his spirit was a terrible smell. The wolves of my pack would not know it. The wolves of my pack were too human to know it.
This pack is not your enemy. A humanborn might not have believed, but this one would smell the truth. I roam to rescue the runt of the pack. She is too young.
His eyes closed, and I felt him. The love of a parent, the bond of a wolf to a cub, the pride and fear and joy and sadness. He did not understand his own pain, but my communication made his heart wander to his pup.
His spirit felt far, far too young to have sired. The depths of this wolf were not known to me.
The pup of Snow Drifting Down the Dark Waters who attacks with the force of the winter storm?
I denied him. It was a thing he should have known from how she felt to me. She did not feel to me as his cub did to him.
The runt of my pack, not my pup.
I let the fear show. The runt could not care for herself. She could not accept her weakness or her place in the pack. She brought suffering to her heart. Humankind would not let her understand.
Too young, too proud, too stupid. I needed her. I needed believers.
I pressed him, Your pack is far roaming. What danger is in this place?
His sudden stillness said much. Fear, not the fear for the self, but the fear for a packmate. The meaning overwhelmed even that bottomless sadness.
More. I said, Where is this packmate roaming?
No packmate here in the cold. This answer was his truth. Not a packmate, but someone he loved like one. He was distressed, he was upset, he was frightened. Do I die here in my den?
The finality of his meaning mingled with that all-sadness that filled him always. That touched every thought, every love and hope and breath.
The runt of my pack is in danger?
His finality was there, but he gave a softness. Gentleness, kindness, and admiration.
No danger. Only defender.
Frustration. Anger. Stones tumbling without control.
My pack leaves. Our den is not safe for you.
* * *
Fang
I tried my best to follow the back and forth. Wolftongue was hard at the best of times, my brute had a better chance of understanding than my human self, but it would be a lot easier if I were closer to the wolf.
He was Smoke. His Packleader was Splashing River?
I knew I was missing something, but I could tell he was afraid and sad. And there was something wrong with him. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but listening to them, I could feel it, that there was something broken or mangled inside his heart.
Darkwater danced back and forth as they talked, her tail swishing here, her head up there, a curled lip or a confident step. His language was covered in pain. Not surprising, given that we had beaten the holy hell out of him.
I was pretty sure he could have taken Spike and me handily. I was also sure that Darkwater wouldn’t have been able to subdue him. She would have been forced to kill him. So as shitty as our tactics had been, it was the way to complete the mission.
Finally, they were talking about the runt. His pack was gone and he was ready to die… and something about a big rock to hide behind?
Darkwater stepped back, going to her brute.
“Where is she, boss?”
The smile that spread across her face was somewhere between amused and insane. “He says she’s not in any danger as long as she doesn’t go hurting people. If she does, someone will stop her.”
The frustration crashed upon me, a wave and storm all at once, spinning me and drowning me and leaving me with nothing. “So basically she’s fucked.”
Spike was laughing. “The runt can’t go ten minutes without fucking something up. Where do we find her?”
Darkwater looked down at the wolf who waited, unmoving. Ready to die.
“He’ll die before he tells.”
Spike lit up instantly, the dumb fuck. “So we’re killing him?”
He went down in a single swift punch, Darkwater yanking the table leg out of his hand on the way down. Shaking it at him, she growled.
“We do not kill wolves.” The table leg hit the ground next to his head, bouncing with a sharp clack before rolling off. “We fight to save the wolves who won’t save themselves. You fight for that.”
“What’s the play, boss?” I wasn’t going to challenge her. I didn’t fully understand what she meant, but I’d follow her to the ends of the earth. I’d die for her if I had to. Seven years I’d been with her, I’d seen some weird shit, but I still couldn’t understand what she meant when she talked about her mission.
There was always something she wasn’t saying.
“Fang, you ask the humans, find out what’s protecting this place. Spike, you’re going hunting.”
He grinned, kipping up and cracking his knuckles. “What am I hunting, Alpha?”
“Deer, you stupid mutt. Rabbits. Elk, moose, ducks, fucking snakes. We will need dinner.”
I allowed myself a small chuckle as his face fell.