Rise of the Makoce Pack

Chapter 6. Dawn Approaches

Casey's point of view

As soon as I shut my door I fell behind it and slid down to the floor. "Can I really do this?" I asked my wolf. I felt Chayton nudge me mentally as if to encourage me. "We have the blood of Alphas flowing through our veins, Casey of course we can do this. Besides, I won't let a few fool mutts take me down." I couldn't help but chuckle at her comment. " Fool mutts huh? The problem is that these 'fool mutts' are people I've known my whole life. No matter who I fight tomorrow it will hurt much more than some scratchs or bite marks, these are people I have grown to love. This pain goes much deeper than any physical pain I will endure tomorrow. " The silence in the room was deafening, there weren't even any crickets to serenade the evening hours. It was as if even they knew of what was to come. It made me shudder at the very thought. "I don't even think I can sleep tonight. It's too quiet and the silence scares me." I rubbed my face with my hands and leaned my head against the door. As I sat there contemplating how I would approach the meeting my wolf began to scratch furiously at the surface of our shared being. "God, Chay, what do you want? You can't do that without some warning, that isn't cool, you scared me!" Chay chuffed in my head as if she was scoffing at my reaction. I felt her scratch the surface again. "Explain yourself Chay, I can't answer the door if I don't know what the knocking is all about." She chuffed again at me, I could feel her annoyance at my reluctant attitude. "Stop talking, fool human and let me out. I'm trying to help you. I scrunched my eyes at her and mentally pushed her away,"All you had to do was say something, wolf. If you want out, say so. We share this body, so we gotta be on the same page, got it?" This time when Chayton began to scratch at the surface I let her out. She was obviously not in the mood for speaking tonight. Chay took completely over, forcing me to the very darkest recesses of our mind. It was silent here too, but it carried within it a sense of security and safety. My wolf was trying to comfort me.

Everything happened so fast that I didn't even realize that I had even shifted. Chay continued to push me back into our mind and I felt like I was literally crammed into a bunch of warm blankets. "Let me take watch human, we both need rest, but your human mind is racing and it's irritating me. I cannot think or relax at your incessant thoughts." With that she made her way to my perfectly made bed and dug herself a nice blanket nest to curl up into. She sighed contentedly and licked her chops as she settled in. "Rest, Casey, let me take over for a while." And with that, we slept.

As Casey and Chay slept time crept onwards silently, like death who sweeps the earth for his prey, silence seemed to be the theme of the night. The whole world seemed as if it were holding its breath while things played out for the Makoce Pack. Around 4:30 am, Fletcher carefully went into Casey's room to wake her. He was startled to find that Casey was no where to be found but he spotted her wolf completely passed out in a compact ball on the bed,head resting on one of her thick pillows. He couldn't help but smile at the scene. It seemed that her wolf took things into her own paws and did something to make Casey finally get some solid rest. He was glad, if it were up to Casey, she'd probably never sleep again, there were too many haunting thoughts and memories incessantly coursing through her mind. Poor girl just simply couldn't turn off that brain of hers.

He pushed off the doorframe and quietly made his way to her bed, he remembered to link with Chayton as she slept. With deep slumber like that, both wolf and human were not as aware of their environment. It was a fail safe when too much stress pressed onto both minds. This sort of rest eased the pressure from both minds and allowed for healing and rest to occur. As a floorboard creaked, Chay growled. She knew it was Fletcher, but she was apparently not ready to wake up yet. When he finally reached the dishevelled bed he reached out and gently rubbed the smokey gray fur between her ears. Chayton began to move a bit as he was hitting just the right spot between the ears. She finally decided to crack her eyes open and bleary-eyed looked at Fletcher like the family dog would when it was time to go to the vet. "Aww come on, Chayton, I need you and Casey awake now. Breakfast has been made and I'm making damn sure that no matter what she gets a good meal before the meeting." Chayton flicked her ears in interest at the word breakfast and her tail began to wag just a little. "Come on, Chay, there's steak and eggs waiting for you. And corn beef hash and toast. With your favorite strawberry jam. That was all that was needed to be said, with a graceful stretch and a wide yawn, chayton emerged from the blanket nest like a butterfly from it's cocoon. The she wolf landed on the hardwood floors and stretched cat-like while her tongue flopped out and she lazily shook out the sleep from her body. When she was properly stretched, her eyes began to look a bit glossy as she reached out to a still sleeping Casey Everett. "Human, it's time to wake up now, there's steak and I will not allow you to over sleep and miss such a glorious breakfast. A great bit of murmuring began in the deep parts of her mind and Chay just laughed, however a wolf would laugh that is. As Chay nudged Casey awake, she spurred the change to occur. Fletcher automatically turned himself away from the shifting and covered his eyes. Wolves may not be very prude in terms of nakedness, but he had too much respect for Casey. As the cracks and creaks ceased a loud yawn sounded through the room. "Wow, I need to do that more often, I feel pretty damn good right now." She slowly meandered to the closet and pulled out a thin blue sweatshirt and gray sport capris. "If you're done playing around now, your wolf really, really wants the steak breakfast that's waiting downstairs." Fletcher chuckled. Chayton nudged her human and chuffed impatiently. Casey just laughed as she pulled on a pair of old sneakers and laced 'em up.

The two made their way downstairs to be greeted by the delicious scents of a hearty breakfast. Fletcher fixed them each a heaping plate and they sat down at the kitchen island together. Silence was again the theme as neither bothered to talk, they didn't have to, the upcoming meeting pressed into their minds seemed to have their brains churning and their jaws set on the only job it could handle at the moment. The two just looked at each other as they watched bits and pieces of dawn pierce the night sky. Birds began to make their presence known and pink began to play with the horizon. With a final bite of her steak, Casey pushed her plate away and stood up. It was time.

Casey made her way just to the right of the house where most of the pack meetings were normally held. She was surprised to see that most of the pack was already awake and waiting for her. She gaged the mood of her pack as she confidently strode to the front of the meeting area. Many of the males seemed restless and some of the females did too, but there were far fewer looking for a fight this morning than she originally anticipated. The young that were there seemed curious, eager, and watchful, even at a young age they were looking to her for guidance.

She waited for a little longer as late sleepers made their way to the back of the large crowd that had already gathered. When the crowd settled and fixed their heated stares at her, she coughed and steeled herself, it was time and she was determined to make things good again for these hurting souls. "People of the Makoce Pack hear me now. My heart grieves with you and I hurt with you. Your tears are my own, and do not believe for one minute that the pain of this catastrophe has yet escaped my mind. I have been working tirelessly around the clock since the attack to try and create a sense of normalcy around here. I know things don't seem as if they'll ever be normal again, but I promise you we will achieve a new normal, we are not a pack that gives up easily. We are Makoce and we do not stay on our knees when tragedy strikes. So my brothers and sisters, I am calling on you now, I need you to get on board and work with me to rebuild from the ashes we stand on this morning and for that to happen I need one hundred percent loyalty from every single one of you here today." She stopped and let her words sink in, now was the time to see who would definitely challenge her. "My family is gone. My father, the Alpha that we adored is gone, my brother, fierce and strong that he was is gone too. My mother, the loving, gentle soul that she was is gone as well. So that has left me with the the job of caring for this pack. We are also in need of a second beta to help me and Fletcher with the more technical side of things, so ladies and gentlemen if you find yourself wanting to become one please see Fletcher later today, he will be taking care of that process.

Now for the moment many of you have been waiting for. But before we commence, I will give you one warning and one warning alone. I am ready to accept any challenges that any of you might dare bring me, but each challenge will be one on one. There will be absolutely zero ganging up and this will not turn into an all out brawl. Punishment for breaking my very simple rule will simply be death. You can either fight nobly or die fighting like a coward. I suggest some of you think before you act because it could very well be the last thing you ever do."