Wolf Spell

Chapter 1: Principlum/Beginning

Katarina Clark had been to a lot of pack meetings in her twenty three years, but tonight underneath the watchful eye of the full moon this one was the worst. Despite the darkness, she could clearly see her saddened pack members from her position high up on the stone steps of the pack house. There were too many wolves here tonight to fit inside since all four hundred members had shown up. They had to tightly maneuver themselves onto the grass in the surrounding area standing shoulder to shoulder. They all looked rather imposing, their presence settling a heavy weight over her shoulders. 

Over the years their numbers had exploded with more wolves finding their mates and no one was complaining. It used to be an uncommon occurrence until recently when wolves started to travel from pack to pack for the direct purpose of finding their other half. With the large number of supernatural creatures roaming the earth it was easier for one species to become eradicated by another and there was power in numbers. Wars were now started over the smallest of things and it paid off to not be in the minority.

The only sacrifice they had to make was that they could no longer live as an isolated community in the forests like they used to. They now subsisted among the humans but still within the packs territorial boundaries. Through the mind link that connected all of them as pack mates they were able to still communicate as long as they stayed within those invisible lines. It had been used to call all of them back into the woods tonight to the original location of the pack by her father, Alpha Charles Clark.

She proudly stood next to him and her mother Clare at the foot of the pack house like she had done for so many years. Glancing over her shoulder at the sturdy brick structure towering over her she saw their entire history within its walls.

The old building seemed to be alive. The power radiating from it was strong enough that a human could detect it even with their dulled senses. It helped to keep those who were not supernatural away, not that many humans came this far out into the woods.

This was the one place that remained the same throughout all of the changes. The location where generations of werewolves had met and gathered. She had even been born here since they were unable to go to hospitals in the city.

Turning away from the past hidden with the bricks and stone she looked back at her pack members sending a prayer out that none of their descendants ever had to go through anything like this. No words could describe the pain and suffering that was currently being inflicted upon them.

In the past month forty she-wolves had been murdered during the night across the Five Packs that made up Washington State. The newest victim Charlotte Marks took that number up to forty one. She was visiting for the weekend from the University of Washington where she had been studying. Charlotte was supposed to leave tomorrow morning but instead her parents were planning a funeral.

Kat could see Mr. and Mrs. Marks in the back of the crowd with an almost perfect circle of empty space around them before the sea of wolves began again. It was as if the other pack members were afraid they would be next if they got too close to ones who had already been touched by death.

Kat knew that was not the way the victims were chosen. In fact there was no pattern to it at all. After talking with her father she knew that some of the victims were found in dense forests while others were discovered in major cities all across Washington. Every she-wolf was different leaving no correlation between any of them. The reach that the killer or killers had seemed infinite and spread everywhere blackening the map leaving no place safe.

Despite all they had done to contain the mass panic it was quickly spreading through all of the packs including hers as the death toll rose. Someone was clearly targeting them and the precautions they had taken so far had done nothing to stop it. Females were encouraged to stay inside and their loved ones were not to let them go anywhere alone until they found out who was behind these killings. The patrols around their territory had been doubled but they found no unusual scents or disturbances that would account for what was happening.