Gwen
I gasped as I regained consciousness. I couldn't remember what happened. Everything hurt like I was run over by a semi.
When my senses finally returned to me, I realized I was naked and hanging halfway off the couch. A harsh, chill wind was blowing through the doorway without a care that this was my home. I tried to look around and I saw that my house had been ransacked. Doors and cabinets were open.
Then everything fell into place.
I tried to stand, but pain shot through me, sending me to the floor. I couldn’t let that stop me. I dragged myself across the floor and towards the tattered, flapping plastic in the space that had once been the front door. Part of me hoped I had only been out for moments, but it was too late. I could see their tracks in the snow. Wolves running from my front door and into the woods.
They took her from me. She was gone and I couldn't even try to follow her. I couldn't even stand yet. Even though I was fairly sure I knew where their den was, I'd need to do some scouting to find a safe way to approach it. Something I was incapable of doing now.
Minutes passed in crushed sorrow as I laid in the remains of the front door before I managed the strength to start dragging myself over the crater in my living room floor, toward the bedroom. I needed to get warm. Struggling onto the bed, I pulled the blanket tightly around myself and tried to get rid of the chill in my bones.
I laughed a small, bitter laugh when I saw it. The wolves had turned my room upside-down, but they hadn't bothered with my cell phone. I stared at it for a few minutes while I built up the courage to call River.
This was going to be a tough conversation.
"You what?" Lily's voice was frantic, shouting in shock into the phone. I could hear her rushing through whatever the pack had chosen as a den, running for River. "It's Gwen Silver."
Concern was obvious in River's voice. "Gwen Silver? Tell me wolffriend, are you unharmed?"
"Very harmed, unfortunately. I made some bad decisions." Sighing, I tried to find a place to start. As much as I wanted to explain everything, there was an extremely pressing question. "River, I've held off on asking this question. The answer wasn't in any of Granddad’s books and it felt wrong to ask you or your pack about it. It's kind of important right now. How... does one become a werewolf?"
River was unperturbed, her voice filled with the same serenity I knew I could trust her for. "As you know, the Trueborn are born this way - one Trueborn parent, and the other parent a human or a wolf, not a shifter. As for the Turned, it requires either much time or much pain, I'm afraid. Both a male and a female Trueblood must mark the human - Turned are never wolves, it is forbidden. In times of war and great need, the Trueborn can turn humans to aid our causes. Why? You told me your... guest was Trueborn? Is there a male nearby as well?"
It didn't make any sense. I recognized that Tori bit me during...
But I didn't have the second bite. I only knew one male Trueborn, they weren’t exactly common - and Smoke had certainly never marked me.
"Two males, neither Trueborn." I hesitated before admitting to River what I had done. "I challenged Tori's Packleader to the Rite. It was stupid but... I couldn't help myself. And while we were fighting, I changed. I... I became the brute."
River was silent. Thinking, perhaps. It was still hard to believe. Part of me thought it could still be a dream. Maybe my head got jumbled by a concussion.
My eyes found the drawer from the nightstand, askance on the floor. I grabbed the knife that waited, under some mussed papers. Even as I reached for it, I could feel something was off, but I needed to be sure. I took a deep breath, unsheathing it, and held the side of the blade to my arm.
It burned.
It burned in a way that I didn’t have words to describe. I'd burned myself on a stove before, but this burned deeper. When I pulled away there was a red, angry mark on my arm where the blade had been.
"I'm pretty sure I've lost my profession." I managed to get out through my clenched teeth. "I... I was only bitten once though."
"You must have been bitten years ago for a change to come over with such quickness, without the fevers, without the suffering. Two ways, Gwen Silver. Time or pain. Our... wars have much warning. There are signs to know when to begin making help. If you are Turned, yours was the way of time."
Time or pain? It hurt, but I wasn't in pain now. No fever. No real suffering. But to my knowledge, I'd never been bitten by another werewolf, male or female. Even the loners that came through on extremely rare occasions never gotten teeth in me.
There was only one incident that could have gotten me bitten. The one who had given me the scar on my side. Did he bite me? I couldn’t remember. So much of those days of running and fear were a blur.
A thought I had been blocking out for a long, long time surfaced.
Was he still out there?
River exhaled, a long, thoughtful breath. "Who is the other Packleader? Why did you challenge them when I told you not to?"
"I'm sorry, River." It was an honest plea for forgiveness. "I-I couldn't help it. She was staring me down and the options seemed to either be that I'd be taken by the pack as a pet or they'd kill me. I wanted a chance to fight back even if I couldn't win. And-"
I felt a few tears dampen my cheeks as I was forced to face what had happened. What I had told River wasn't a lie, I didn't want to die in my bed with no chance of defending myself. If I was going to be taken, I wanted to at least fight against it. But deep down I knew that if my challenge had been rejected, I would have lunged at Snow to be struck down in an attempt at stopping her.
"They were going to take her away from me. And now she's gone anyway." I sighed as I tried to calm myself down, my free hand trembled. "The Packleader is a wolf Trueborn. Her name is Snow Drifting Down on the Dark Waters."
The silence from River's side of the phone was oppressive. It hung there in the air for agonizing seconds, only the sound of her breathing indicated the call was still going.
"Oh Gwen Silver, you always choose the harder path. Snow Drifting Down on the Dark Waters is a fanatic, she has only one thought and one goal and everything is for that. She is a badger, she will never let go." River sighed a long, deep, weary sigh that showed her age in a way that made her seem fragile for the first time. "What will you do now?"
"I-I'm not sure." My sigh echoed River’s as I was forced to face my future. "Despite what happened, I don't think Snow is coming back to finish the job. They ransacked my place and I’d wager they’re moving on soon. I'm not sure there's much I can do here anymore. The place is filled with silver I can't touch. My profession is gone, I can't make money anymore."
I went silent as the gravity of the situation sank in. I probably couldn't even enter the barn anymore, it was where I kept the raw materials. Most of my weapons were there. I had a nest egg, but I'd probably drain it trying to keep this place running for the rest of the winter. There were better ways of using that money than on this old place.
"River. I didn't listen to your advice. I made bad choices. If you say no to my request I can't be upset with you, I'll understand." I confronted what seemed to be the only option, my stomach in knots. "Can I come and learn from you and your pack? If you say no I'll... I'll figure something out. But I have to at least ask."
I had no idea how I would figure something out, but the last thing I wanted was to abuse my relationship with River.
A soft, motherly laughter came from the phone. The sound of wisdom amused by youth. "Gwen Silver, the only reason I did not suggest it already was so... how do you say it? The cub must choose, the young cannot hear wisdom until they have failed. Come to my pack, you do not need money now. We will teach you our ways."
"Thank you, River." Relief flooded me. I had somewhere to go. "For your kindness. For your guidance through the years. I... I'm going to head towards you guys as soon as I can. I need to clean up a bit so it doesn't look like I was murdered in a robbery. Tori showed her ID in town, so if it looks like I'm missing after I was robbed, they'll be looking for her. Which isn't good for any of us. I don't want to draw more attention to this or make it seem suspicious."
I laughed. Maybe from relief. Maybe from the absurdity of the situation. I knew a lot about werewolves for a human. But I knew Tori was right, there was a lot I didn't know. There was a lot I needed to know before I tried to get back to her.
I could hear River’s gentle smile. “Go to Smoke. Ask him to lead you here. He will not like it, but there is no better choice. You will not find us without him.”