The Next Day
Cleaning up all of the rogue bodies is taking much longer than the pack anticipated. There's so many rogue bodies and so few pack members to clean them up. Thankfully these bodies aren't being buried, they're being burned in one big heap.
The pack members work together in pairs of twos and one loner. By working together the pairs can get more bodies moved onto the burn pile. Our loner, Wilder, is finding himself wishing he had help dragging all of these bodies.
Wilder is approaching three rogues that for whatever reason are heaped up into a pile. He grabs the closest one and starts to drag it away. A sound similar to a deflating ballon causes him to drop the body in shock.
From under the bodies a hand reaches out as if trying to flag down help. Wilder grabs the hand and pulls the person out.
The person coughs quite a few times before finally speaking, "Took you long enough to find me wolfboy. I thought I was going to die under there."
"Paul you're alive!" Wilder whoops before crushing the sickly vampire in a bear hug. The bear hug breaks apart leaving the vampire with a crushed sort of feeling. "Not if I don't have a drink. May I?" Paul doesn't wait for an answer and instead latches onto Wilder's wrist. He doesn't drink much only enough to make him feel less sickly. "That felt weird." Wilder shakes the bitten wrist.
"I heard somebody passing by many times yet no one heard my cries for help. I really thought I was going to die," Paul's tone is sad, which causes Wilder to feel bad, "All those wars to die in a werewolf fight. Ha! That's not how I planned on dying." He then cackles.
"Wilder, we need your help!" A pair of pack members call from nearby. "We'll continue this later." Wilder tells Paul before running off towards the pack members in distress.
As it turns out his fellow pack members have a rogue cornered in the burnt remains of a house. How this rogue survived the war is not clear.
"Please, I'm not a rogue!" The rogue says with his hands in front of him. The skin on his hand is peeling back and is not nearly as gruesome as one would expect. "See? I'm not a rogue!"
"Let's rip him apart!"
"Please don't make me do this." They don't listen and advance on him. He sighs and sheds his skin which stops their advance.
"Now look at what you made me do. That was a good skin you made me shed." The creature whines.
All three werewolves take a step back, this creature looks dangerous and it's best to keep space between them and it until they can figure out the best way of attack.
By now Paul's caught up to them and is watching the scene in interest.
"What is it?" The female werewolf asks.
"That my dear would be a skinwalker. I would help in the killing but sadly I know this one." Paul's lips curl in disgust.
"I'd rather be torn apart. I do not want to deal with this vampire." The skinwalker spits out venomously. Paul retorts some smart ass comment and the two get into a full blown argument.
"Let's go, these two won't cause us any trouble." Wilder instructs the other two werewolves. The three take their leave and the two supernatural start arguing about who would've won that dogfight back in the day.
Work continues on until Alpha Conan sends out a mind link summoning everyone to the pack house.
Now Wilder and his other pack mates are waiting for Alpha Conan and Luna Rose to come out and explain what's going on. Many are wondering why they have been gathered here when they should still cleaning up the bodies. There's many bodies left and that's days of work.
The door to the pack house opens with a loud creak, drawing the attention of the gathered crowd. Alpha Conan comes out first with Luna Rose close behind, clutching their son to her chest.
"I have gathered you all here because I need to make some announcements."
Murmurs flow through the crowd. What is there to announce? They should be cleaning up the dead, not listening to some crumy announcement.
"First I would like to apologize for falsely accusing and imprisoning Wilder. I should've known that he wouldn't do the things he was framed for." Alpha Conan's apology doesn't sound very sincere and the pack takes notice of it.
"Secondly I would like to apologize for not believing Wilder when he warned me of Lop's plan." Angry shouts follow Conan's confession.
"You know this war was coming and did nothing to stop it?!" A man howls in anger. "My family would be alive if you had done something!" Another screams.
"Let's rip him apart!"
All of the pack, except for Wilder, surge forward and swarm the two authority figures. It's a flurry of screams and blood as the pack tear into their once beloved Alpha and Luna.
The baby's scream cuts through it all though and call upon the developing paternal instincts of Wilder. He doesn't even try to fight the instincts and goes to help the baby.
He ducks and dodges the pack's attack. Conan and Rose are long dead and now the pack is folding in on itself and killing each other. None of this concerns Wilder, all he wants is the baby to be safe.
It doesn't take but a minute for him to find the baby. Even in death Rose is trying to protect her baby. What remains of her body is curled around the baby, protecting him from his vicious pack members.
Wilder scoops up the baby and slips out of the scuffle unscathed. Wilder moves to a safe distance away from the practically rabid fighting and watches things unfold. It doesn't take long for them to kill each other. It's so strange, they turned on each other as if they were possessed.
"What happened here?" A voice asks. Wilder's eyes dart towards the speaker. It's just the skinwalker from before.
"They turned on each other."
"That doesn't sound like normal werewolf behavior." Paul comments, moving to stand next to the skinwalker.
"That's because it's not. Lop had been poisoning the pack ever since Wilder came back. He knew with Wilder back his plan had to accelerate."
"Then why wasn't I affected?"
"You were always with Dewey, there was no way he could poison you. Dewey always likes helping out where she can, she'll be thrilled to hear this."
"And who are you?"
"She knew me as Leo but my real name is Yee Naaldlooshii."
"Paul don't tell me you have a real name too."
"Of course, I change names every few decades but my name before I became a vampire was Sir Antony Charcuterie."
"Yeah, I'm just going to call you guys Leo and Paul. That makes life way easier."
The baby starts to whine and wiggle in Wilder's arms. A surge of protectiveness suddenly flows through Wilder as his instincts to keep the baby safe from danger (vampires and skinwalkers) takes over.
His eyes change to pure black and he growls at the "dangerous" creatures. His instincts tell him he can't fight these guys and the safest option is to get away from them.
He shifts into wolf form and carries the baby by the clothes he's wearing. He bounds off into the forest leaving two very confused men in his wake.
"What got into him?" Leo asks.
"Didn't you see his eyes? His instincts have full control of him right now. Having a pup with him likely triggered them." Vampires always seem to know everything.
"That makes sense. Now, are you ready to burn things down?" Leo asks, pulling a gas can out from seemingly nowhere.
"I always hated your arsonistic tendencies. Pass me a match." Paul extends a hand that is soon filled with a dozen matches.
"Burn the evidence!" Leo screeches, his evil tendencies showing. He goes about dousing everything flammable in gas and starting it on fire with a flick of his fingers. Of course he snatches a pack member's arm to snack on before going to start the next house on fire.
Paul shakes his head in disgust at Leo's actions. He never liked skinwalkers and he especially doesn't like this one. He can remember the beast going about on the battlefield and scavenging on injured soldiers. What a disgusting creature!