Snow Drifting Down on the Dark Waters
Fury.
Snow under each paw, so hot was my rage that each step was melting.
The Guardian. Human. Nothing.
Stupid fucking Hunter. Fearful, vengeful, spiteful. Unknowing allies of the Empty. Lashing out. Refusing to see. Death was part of life.
Humans had numbers.
Wolves were superior. The Children of the Wolfmother. We had their smarts, their tools, and our own. Wretched things, hunting because they hurt. Because they thrilled.
My kind hunted from need, not sport.
Runt did not know about Hunters. Runt never asked.
It was not for me to coddle her. I did not comfort her. I was alpha. I strengthened, I toughened. The pack and the packmates. To make them ready.
Runt would never become alpha. Not of my pack. Not of any pack.
She had yet to learn. Hers was not to lead. Hers was not to fight. Hers was to help. Her weakness given to the pack, used as strength. To hide among the humans. To gather knowings. To get food.
Anger inside me. Could have killed her. Should have killed her, maybe. Four years, still a pup.
We ran. The pack coming to rescue the runt. Again.
Trees vanished. Buildings appeared. Old.
The smell. Poison. Corruption. Hunter.
Carried on the wind, the scent told me much.
This Hunter used the Wolfmother’s fallen tears. Struck by the Empty, She cried. Tears, falling from her heart, falling into the land.
Silver. The human word. A power they did not even understand, but they used against us.
Red was no longer the color of my rage. White. Hot.
Blood. Rending. Ripping. Devouring.
Death for the Hunter. Feast.
Mine.
* * *
Gwen
I felt powerful in a way I never had before. It was a rush. I couldn't help myself when Tori bared her throat. I leaned forward and bit down as I continued to thrust into her again and again and again. The feeling of her nails raking my arm only encouraged me. The pain was nothing compared to the pleasure. The sound of her scream excited me and I increased my rhythm still.
Pounding her. Each thrust moved the bed, the frame crying in alarm. The thump of the bed against the wall. Every time I drew back to drive into her again, I gave her everything. I took everything.
The possessiveness that had been growing in me was now in full bloom. I loved her. I needed her. I didn't want her to go before, but now I refused to let her go. She was mine. I wasn't going to let anyone take her away from me.
"Your screams excite me, Puppy." Gasped words mingled with vicious glee. I smiled and kissed her. Forcibly. Possessively. I took from her in that kiss, I sought to draw her very essence from her mouth. I wanted her to know she was mine. "Let's see how much more I can make you scream."
Tori was only wordless grunts and moans, her hands sliding across my flesh just to dig her nails in again.
I was surprised when she managed a word.
“Harder!”
Tori could take everything I had to give. I’d never have to be gentle with her, not in bed. I didn’t have to worry about accidentally hurting her. She wanted it. She could take it.
She needed it.
The world was melting around me. All I cared about was her. I felt more alive in this moment than I had in a long time, possibly in my life. Every scream of pleasure invigorated me, pushed me to fulfill that wish. Harder. I had never wanted anything the way I wanted her. An unfamiliar energy filled me, desire in new heights. Harder. It felt like I could go for hours. Harder. I wanted nothing more than to give her everything she asked for.
A crash.
Not the bed. The sound came from outside the bedroom. Down the hall.
My head snapped to the door and I tried to get up, but Tori's hands wrapped around my wrists, holding me with that damnable strength. If something was here I needed to act now. I was unarmed.
Lust was no longer on my mind. Her safety was.
"Tori." I tried to get through to her through the haze, a hushed urging. I wasn't even sure she was could hear me or not. "Someone is here. You need to let me go so I can see what's happening."
How quickly her scream had become unwelcome.
“Don’t Stop!” Laden with frustration, her hands slid to my hips, moving my body, forcing me to continue thrusting into her. Her legs entangled mine and she gasped in a pain that was not pleasure.
An animal whine came from her as the pain from her thigh was bringing her back to reality.
Too late.
A gravelly, cruelly amused voice behind us. "Well well. Caught with your nose in the sacred river." Spoken from inside the bedroom.
Finally, finally I was able to pull away, but the fear on Tori’s face broke my heart. My strap, coated in lube and Tori’s cum hung in front of me. As I turned, I saw the last thing I wanted to see.
A werewolf in her brute form, russet hair and a build that said she could kill me with one strike. Her muscular body was crisscrossed in white scars everywhere, her teeth shone, and her yellow eyes gleamed with malice. I’d never seen a wolf in human form with yellow eyes. They were unnerving, but I couldn’t give that thought any attention.
I couldn’t spare any attention on the huge black scars that crossed her stomach, either. Larger, horrible versions of my own which seemed to ache in sympathy beneath my arm at hers.
“You must be the alpha.” I looked her up and down, trying to feign confidence I certainly didn’t feel. I needed a weapon. "It's rude to enter someone's house uninvited. I just cleaned up the mess from the last break-in."
Tori trembled under me, I could feel her as I detangled our limbs.
"Ah ah, hunter. Let's not be stupid now. You move a finger away from your bed, you die. You wouldn't be the first hunter I've killed." The brute’s smirk was poison. I hated her already, from everything Tori had already told me, and it felt like ants in my blood. "You were doing your best to fight her off, right Runt?"
I heard snickers from behind the brute when she insulted Tori. The cruelty of it was maddening. How could her pack laugh at her in this situation? There were at least three of them. A small pack unless there were more waiting outside.
"I'm not a hunter, wolf." Her way of speaking was a bit more... human than how River tended to sound. But I could hear certain quirks that made me think she was wolfborn. "My name is Gwen. I act as the buffer between this town and the werewolves going through. I'd consider myself a friend to werewolves. It would be extremely stupid for me not to have ways of protecting myself though."
The amusement on the big bitch was giving me room to maneuver. As subtly as I could, as gently as I could while in such a damn hurry, I pulled the strap from me and tossed it to the ground on the far side of the bed.
Her hyenas laughed harder behind her. It was fine by me, I was happy to let them underestimate me.
"You'll have to excuse me for not coming to greet you personally. I usually do for any packs coming through." I felt a growl at the base of my throat as the red fury simmered to mere anger as I pushed it away. "It's just that I didn't think Tori could possibly have an alpha because surely no alpha could be so incredibly incompetent at instructing their pack. So, is the alpha one of the two behind you?"
Tori tensed underneath me, hissing, "Gwen don't... "
The brute’s eyes flickered, promises of violence behind them. "I'm the alpha, not her mother. She's not to suckle on my teat, the Runt is to learn that she is weak and needs a pack."
The beautiful, fragile flower of a werewolf wilted underneath me. River would never talk to her pack this way, she would never cut them down like this. She lifted them up, she guided them. This bitch just wanted to own Tori.
And Victoria was mine. I ran my fingers down her arm, trying to console her without looking, trying to show her that I would do my best to protect her.
"You make them weak." My retort was dry and flat, more cutting that way. "Had you taught her anything, Tori wouldn't be here. She would have been back at your den, getting more abuse from you. I've seen how a real pack functions because I've spent years around them. You run a gang, not a pack. The rest of your gang would do better leaving you and joining a real pack like River's."
"Where the River Crashes Upon the Rocks knows nothing. She is an old fool whose ignorance will bring death to us all. Her own sister knew this." Her words were a splash of cold water, cooling my own anger, clearing my head. She knew River’s name. She knew River. Alpha took a step closer, teeth bared - I could tell instantly, she was a creature of rage. It heated under the surface, waiting to boil. "The Runt was told not to engage. See danger? Run. Her orders were clear." She looked away from me, sneering at Tori. “That’s what you did, right Runt?”
“I… no.“ Tori crumbled, looking down and away. She looked more dejected than I had ever seen her. She was already assuming she was back in the control of her abuser. I wasn’t going to let that happen. I wasn’t sure how, but I needed to protect her.
“Come here, Runt.” The bully - she was no Packleader - pointed to the ground at her feet. “Don’t move, Hunter.”
"Wolf, if I was a hunter you'd have died upon entering my home. You'd have come screaming into this room covered in silver dust." Something stirred inside me, not quite anger. Not hate. Something deep in my bones, a feeling so intense that it hurt. I put my hand down on top of Tori. I couldn't hold her down if she really wanted to get up, but I wasn't just going to let her leave without an argument. "Leave." I snarled at the brute. "This town is not a place for violence between wolves and humans. I'd hate to tell River that I was the one that broke that agreement by ending you. I quite like her friendship. You're infringing upon my territory and I have the right to defend it from you. Return to your den. Tori is mine."
Alpha laughed, that grating, harsh sound full of mockery. A quick, short, almost violent sound. "I see that you have claimed her, but she is my pack. I have saved her from humans before. Runt. Come."
"Alpha please... " Tori pleaded. She wasn’t going to offer any resistance. "Let's take this one as a pet."
The words rattled in my head. I could go with her. But that was still letting her go back to the pack that left her in the dark, the so-called leader that abused her. We had no good options, and it was difficult to find the least-awful.
Tori could renounce her pack. Even if she did, that didn't protect us. This bitch wasn't going to let her go, so that was off the table. Something told me that she wasn’t going to accept me into the pack as Tori’s mate.
There was only one other option. The Rite of the Packleader. If I won it would give me the right to lead the pack. A challenge I was unlikely to win without a weapon - River said I couldn't use one, or I’d lose the friendship of her pack.
But I couldn’t let Tori go back. I’d sacrifice that friendship for her, the most precious thing in my life. I couldn’t just let her go back.
"My understanding is that, since I contest your leadership, I have the right to challenge you for control of your pack." I felt something in my shoulder snap as I spoke. It was like my body was trying to undercut me. An injury from Tori tackling me in the basement? I wished I hadn’t gotten so banged up in that pointless struggle. I managed to keep my gaze on the wolf level, at least. "Unless you're afraid of getting your ass kicked by a human in front of your underlings."
The brute laughed, an ugly sound.
In the time between me closing my eyes to blink and open them, I felt a shoulder in my gut. I was over her shoulder, looking down at the floor.
Shit.
"Well you're dressed for it, but I'm not letting you get your silver." I clenched my jaw but didn’t resist. "We fight, you lose - then you are either my pet, or you die."
"Yeah yeah, I get the gist." I was annoyed that she grabbed me this way instead walking outside with me. I wasn’t off to a great start. "The Rite doesn't allow weapons. Gotta give you the feeling of the high ground. It'll make it hurt more when you lose."
I was having to reformulate my plan on the fly. I had a silver knife in the nightstand. My sling and a set of silver BBs. So many small ways to defend myself, to get some edge, snatched away literally in the blink of an eye.
My only real hope was that she kept me as a pet after the fight. I’d at least get to stay near Tori. I’d at least survive.
The wave of cold air that hit me as we went through the shredded plastic from the front door sent a wracking wave of pain through my body. Something was wrong. And it couldn’t have picked a worse time.
"I'd offer a snack before the fight, but it's best not to prolong your loss." It was hard to trash talk when you were thrown over the shoulder of a giant woman but I did my best, hoping to throw her off. "May as well get your humiliation over with."
Behind us, I could hear one of the wolves talking to Tori. A male. Gruff voice, somewhat subdued. "Oof. Silver. That's rough, kid." The sympathy sounded genuine enough. "Did you have fun getting fucked by a human, at least? You give her the black eye during?" Until that.
Tori growled and the other goon burst into laughter. "Why'd you call if you were having such a good time?"
"It's complicated… "
I couldn’t hear the rest. The big brute dumped me on my bare ass in the snow.