Warning: this chapter contains graphic content that may be difficult for some readers to read. Please continue with care.
~
"Hey, I want to explore this place I spotted a few months ago. It's by the junkyard," Star said. Fox hadn't been around the junkyard much, mainly because he was called to work in other places, and jobs involving the waste sector were intended for more misbehaved loners.
"What is it?" Fox asked, curious. Junkyards had always pulled at him in some way. They were places filled with all kinds of things, and a younger Fox had always enjoyed exploring.
"It's this really tall tower. Goes way above the trees," Star told him. "I've never seen anybody on it, and it looks abandoned."
Fox was intrigued. "Sounds interesting," he said. He followed Star as she led him through the territory to an area he wasn't fully familiar with. As they neared the junkyard, the air began to smell of rust and inorganic decay.
The trees spaced out from each other the closer to the junkyard they grew, and they were smaller and had thinner branches. The air most likely wasn't good for them. A tall chain link fence rose high above them, enclosing a dirt lot filled with faded old cars, piles of tires, hunks of unidentifiable metal, and weathered materials that once had purpose but no longer did. A signpost was bolted onto the fence every hundred feet down its length. "No trespassing. Employees are not responsible for injury that occurs to unauthorized personnel."
"Do people get hurt here a lot?" Fox asked.
"Sometimes. They try to keep things organized but there's a lot of sharp objects and unstable structures in there. I've seen someone slip on top of a pile of old street signs and slice open their leg, ankle to thigh. Blood everywhere..." Star said.
Fox allowed his imagination to conjure an image of what that might have looked like. He shuddered and blocked the image out. "We aren't going in there, right?"
"Nah. There's not much to scavenge that'll be of any use. I just want to check out that tower," Star gestured with her head towards a looming figure in the dark. Fox followed her gaze. Fox had seen a few firewatch towers in his travels, and this tower was just like them. Square house on top of four strong beams with a single staircase leading up. It rested high above the treetops, a silent sentinel in the night.
Star wagged her tail and bounded over to it. It stood outside the junkyard, but it had its own fence surrounding the base, with the same warning sign bolted to it.
Star sniffed at the fence. She tested it with a single finger, probably seeing if it was reinforced with electricity, but no shock came. She checked over her shoulder to see if Fox was still nearby, then she began to climb the fence.
"Are you sure this is safe?" Fox asked. He didn't care if he fell to his death, but he did care about if Star would have to witness it.
"I don't know. I've never been in here. I'll be careful, don't worry," she replied.
Fox made an uncertain groan. He hesitated to climb the fence after her, and stayed on the other side as Star dropped down inside the fence. She sniffed around the deadened grass curiously, then sniffed around the rusted metal beams supporting the tower.
Fox watched as she tested the first few stairs leading up to the top. She cautiously stepped up, then looked over her shoulder again. "Coming?"
Fox lowered his head and gauged the stability of the structure. "I don't know about this... It's dark. Even with our vision we might miss something," he said.
Star took a moment to consider his words. She turned her head up towards the building on top. A still moment passed, then she smirked at him.
"Psh. Don't be a pussy," she teased. Fox's ears perked up in astonishment.
"Excuse me?" he said, both amused and offended. Star just laughed and continued to climb the stairs, this time with a little less caution.
"Star," Fox barked after her. She only ignored him, giggling in excitement as she climbed the steps on all fours.
Fox growled in anxiety under his breath and climbed the fence. He hurried to follow Star, to keep an eye on her and help her if she ended up in a precarious situation. The stairs under his half-paws felt surprisingly sturdy, though, as he began to ascend.
The two loners rose up and up the tower. With each new level of height, Fox's heart raced faster in his chest. He dared not look down into the dark abyss below.
"Whoa..." Star exhaled as she reached the top. She trotted inside the tower. Fox quickened his pace to catch up with her. As he reached the narrow wrap-around landing at the top, he could see the building was exactly like a firewatch tower; open windows on all sides, wide enough to get a good three-sixty view of the land around them. There was no glass in the windows, however, either broken or removed long ago. All that was left were the wood frames. The wood all around the building was chipped and sunbaked, and also covered with graffiti. Layers and layers of spray paint emblazoned unintelligible phrases and hearts with arrows shot through them. Some graffiti was carved with a knife, engraving initials and edgy punk quotes lamenting of a bad society.
Fox looked out towards the land below. He mused that this tower was probably an old watchtower for the pack. Maybe years and years ago, when the pack was smaller, the border only reached out this far, and this had been their lookout post for potential danger. Fox could only see miles and miles of treetops, broken apart by various fields and buildings.
"I expected the graffiti, but not the net," Star commented. Fox peered inside the tower and found Star sniffing said net. It was oddly thick and hung up in a square, the corners nailed to the inner corners of the tower, creating a sort of hammock. Along the floor beneath it were scattered cigarette butts, empty lighters, discarded trash, and a forgotten shoe. Just one shoe, which had Fox tilting his head in question.
The net hammock was high enough that a lone wooden box was placed at the edge of it as a means to reach it. Star stepped atop the box and used its boost to climb onto the net.
"Huh," Star noted, rolling onto her back within it. "Not as uncomfortable as I thought it'd be. Come up here, Fox."
Fox picked his way through the rubbish on the floor and pulled himself up into the net. The material hurt his hands and feet a little, but he copied Star and rolled onto his back beside her. He found that the net wasn't so painful anymore. It dug into his fur and skin a little, but it didn't bite. It was bearable for the time being.
He gazed up at the roof. Weather and neglect had worn away some of the wood paneling, creating jagged gaps that revealed the night sky high above them. Abandoned bird nests nestled in the cracks of the remaining roof.
"What a nice view, huh?" Star mused.
"Yeah..." Fox agreed softly. A calm waft of air blew through the tower, enough to barely rustle the tips of their fur. The chilly air made him acutely aware of the warm body next to him. Fox hadn't meant to, but he'd rolled close enough to her that their arms and legs touched.
"Tonight was fun. I'm really glad Ahren let us do this," Star said.
"Me too. It felt good, getting to let go like that," Fox replied. "Do you think we messed up at all?"
"Nah. Maybe with the pumpkins, but I'll bet nocturnal animals will eat what's left. Most of it, anyway," she said. "I'm so surprised nobody told us off about it."
"Maybe they're used to people making a mess during Halloween?" Fox guessed.
"Probably. I bet the school's soccer field is a mess. From, like, snacks and smuggled booze," she said. "I'm sure we're fine."
Fox heaved a sigh. "I hope so. I don't want to face a punishment from Evander."
"Yeah, his punishments are the worst. He's only punished me once, but it was scary enough to make me not do anything bad again," she admitted. Fox frowned and turned his head to look at her.
"What did he do? And what for?" he questioned. A grimace pulled at Star's lupine mouth, exposing some of her teeth.
"I got into a fight. A bad one. It was when I first got captured here, maybe a month or two in. One of the pack wolves kept looking at me wrong, and I could feel that he had disgusting intentions. It sent me so on edge that when he finally approached me, I went berserk. Just the look on his face was enough to make me want to rip it off. I sent the guy to the hospital. It took four Betas to pull me off him. I was sent into solitary confinement in one of the prison holes, then Evander showed up..." she said. She paused for a moment, reminiscing. Her claws picked at each other. "Evander has always been a douchebag, but when he punished me, it looked like something else was inside him. Something dark in his eyes. Like it wasn't him in the present moment. He barely held any remorse for whipping me."
Fox's back drew taut. "That's... horrible." Memories attempted to surface, but he pushed them back down.
"Did... did you ever know Oriand? Evander's father?" he asked. Her mention of something dark inside Evander made him recall his conversations with Anodyne, and he grew curious.
"I never saw him, but I've heard of him. I've only been here for two years, and Oriand's Alpha period ended, I think, maybe eight or nine years ago?" she answered. "You know all those awful rumors you heard about this pack? All the humiliation and cruelty they used to put the loners through?"
"Yeah. I thought I was done for when I got captured," Fox responded.
"Those rumors all stemmed from Oriand's leadership. He was the one who kept trespassers as prisoners to begin with. He used to make them do all kinds of things. Labor was just one of them, and definitely not the worst he came up with. I heard that he forced the lone wolves to stay naked all the time, except for shock collars. He made them beg for their food, groveling in front of him for just a bite. He made them compete in sick games as a means of entertainment for the pack. And towards the end, he even experimented in psychological abuse," Star told him.
At the mention of all those things, Fox's body grew more and more tight with discomfort. Some hit a little too close to home.
"What happened to him?" he asked.
"Some of the pack wolves realized what he was doing was wrong, even for lone wolves, and accused him of becoming a tyrant. I think there was this big trial held, with official evidence and a judge and everything. He was guilty of abusing his power and becoming a true danger to the pack, and he was banished," she told him.
A sensation akin to scratching an itch settled within Fox. He'd been wondering where the ex-Alpha had ended up.
"And Evander? What was his part in all of it?" he queried.
"I've heard two different views. Not much, just so you know. The pack doesn't speak too openly about it, it's all very hush-hush. People say Evander was being groomed by his father to become just like him. Some say he harbored that dark streak and just learned to hide it really well, and others say he was another one of Oriand's unfortunate victims. Some feel bad for him, others disagree with the decision of making him Alpha," she said.
Fox hummed thoughtfully. Speculations began to turn in his mind. Had Evander grown up abused? Had he grown up with his father forcing him to partake in his twisted delights? How close had he come to turning into Oriand?
It seemed like Evander was already like Oriand. He wasn't sadistic, Fox could see that much, but he also didn't feel any empathy towards how badly he treated the loners. He could dish out beatings in a blink of an eye, and give lashings that lay exposed for days. He didn't use them for entertainment, but he didn't give them any creature comforts, either.
Fox didn't know how he felt about Evander now. The Alpha made him wary before, but now he felt as though he really needed to walk on eggshells around him. He wondered if his gift earlier had meant anything to the Alpha.
Abruptly, Fox remembered his conversation with Evander when the Alpha had been touring the group of werewolves wanting to join the pack. Evander had said he knew Fox's look of haunted fear, because he'd seen it on himself.
Maybe Evander was far more complicated than a simple good or bad label.
Fox's thoughts settled, and he stargazed in calm silence with his friend.
Some time passed. Fox stirred and blinked blearily– he'd fallen asleep. He looked around him and found that he and Star had slightly turned on their sides and moved closer to share their warmth. The night had grown significantly colder, and a quick search of the sky revealed the moon had changed places.
"Hey," Fox whispered, gently nudging Star. She snored softly against his shoulder. He nudged her again until she stirred.
Star inhaled sleepily and stretched, opening her mouth wide in a yawn, revealing the ridged roof of her mouth. "Fuck..." she groaned, "I didn't mean to fall asleep."
"Me neither," Fox reassured. "We should probably head back."
"Yeah. As much as I hate the bunkers, I still would rather sleep in a bed than outside," she responded. She sat up and sighed. There was an air of exhaustion to her breath, not one of physical tiredness, but an emotional drain. "I feel like I've spent a lifetime sleeping outside."
Fox could feel her exhaustion straight to his core. He understood what she meant completely. "Same here..." he said quietly.
She gave him an understanding smile. They crawled out of the net hammock and carefully made their way back down the tower. Fox felt much better after his feet touched sturdy ground.
They ran back towards the bonding sector. Their spent muscles had them loping rather than full-on running, but they made it back. The bonding sector was deserted, although everything was still standing. Fox figured the pack had worn themselves out and would spend the next day cleaning up, once they had a chance to rest. It made him feel better about leaving a mess.
The two found their hidey-hole on the outskirts of the sector and transformed back into their full human bodies. They donned their clothes and gathered up their night's winnings. Then, they ambled towards the bunkers and Alphas' houses.
It was a silent walk, both too tired to converse, but it was nice. When they reached the halfway point between their respective places of stay, they stopped and turned to each other.
Star smiled at him, and he smiled back. "I'm glad I have you as a friend here," Star told him.
"Me too. It's nice to have someone who understands the kind of life we've had to live," Fox replied. Star nodded.
"Honestly though, it's not all bad here. I'd probably choose to stay here rather than face a life surviving each day out there," she admitted. At first Fox didn't agree, but as he thought about it, he figured he could understand why she'd choose to stay. Here they had food, albeit scraps, and shelter from the elements, and an Alpha who was taking the chance to advocate for them. If things kept going well, maybe they could reach a decent social standing in this pack. They could never be accepted, but they could come close, and maybe that would be enough.
"I can get behind that," Fox said, parroting her phrase from earlier in the night. She lightly hit his arm.
"Goodnight, Star," he said.
"Night, Fox," she replied, then turned and walked away towards the bunkers.
Fox turned and headed towards Leyra's house. He could see a porch light had been left on, and he hoped that meant she had left the back door unlocked for him.
He stepped quietly up the porch steps and tested the handle. It turned without resistance. He sighed in relief.
Just as he was about to open the door, though, he heard rustling in the grass beside the house. He froze and listened intently, subtly sniffing the air. A musky mammalian scent filled his nose, and he gasped as his gaze snagged on movement to his left.
A fox trotted out from the side yard. It froze, too, upon noticing Fox. A pair of orange eyes fixed on him, watching. Hanging limp and unmoving from its long narrow snout, clutched between its teeth, was a dead groundhog.
Fox stared. The fox stared back. A tense moment passed, and then the fox decided Fox wasn't a threat, and resumed its path towards the woods. It paused a few times, looking back at Fox to see if he was following it. Fox watched it until the sight of its bushy tail disappeared in the trees.
It wasn't often that Fox ran across actual foxes in the wild. They had appeared at random but also significant moments in Fox's life. Always unexpected. It had happened enough times that it became part of the reason for his chosen name.
Fox wanted to believe that this visitation meant that good things were coming his way. He truly hoped for it.
He opened the door and went inside.
~~~
The next morning at breakfast, Star was absent.
Fox found it strange that Star hadn't sat down next to him at the usual time. All the other lone wolves had been seated already, and the Betas had already brought the cart of food. They were waiting for her to emerge from her bunker.
Fox waited, too. He secretly didn't like the cold empty spot beside him. Maybe Star was just sleeping in. They'd had a very energetic night, after all. He was still a little sleepy himself.
One of the Betas grew tired of waiting and approached her bunker. He knocked on her door a few times. "Wake up, it's time to eat," he called. A moment passed, and there came no answer. The Beta knocked again, harder this time, the sound echoing inside the small structure. The sound of clanging metal should've been enough to wake her if she was oversleeping.
But another silent moment passed, and no one opened the door. The Beta frowned. "I'm giving you to the count of three before I open this door myself. One... Two... Three." The Beta swung the door open.
Fox watched the Beta's head swivel left and right, brows furrowing. He stepped inside the bunker.
Something cold and unsettling prickled inside Fox's gut. His instincts whispered that something wasn't right.
The lone wolves exchanged looks with each other. Fox rose as a second Beta headed over to the bunker. Fox could feel multiple eyes on him as he cautiously followed the second Beta.
They paid him no mind as Fox moved close enough to peer inside the bunker. He could see a bed and trunk and a small table with a single lantern on it, as well as an open doorway leading to the smallest bathroom he'd ever seen. The bed laid undisturbed, and the bunker was empty. Star wasn't there.
The first Beta came out and spoke to the second one. "Get Alpha Evander, and alert the trackers that a loner is missing."
Fox swallowed down the dryness in his mouth. He could've sworn he saw Star come back to the bunkers last night, so why wasn't she here? She'd been so sleepy, she would've gone straight to bed.
"You, Fox. You were with her last night, weren't you? Where is she?" one of the other Betas, a female, came up and asked.
"I- I don't know, I saw her come here last night, before we went to bed," he told her. The Beta crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes were narrowed, disbelieving. She faced one of the other Betas.
"You were on guard duty last night, did you see her come back?" she asked him.
"As far as I know, nobody left and nobody came," he said, shrugging his shoulders. Fox's eyebrows cinched together, and his heart picked up its pace.
"What? But I swear I saw her come here last night. It would've been early in the morning, before the sun was up," Fox insisted. The female Beta looked between him and the guard.
The guard shook his head. "Like I said, I didn't see anyone come here last night. The only time the loners were out was to eat leftover sweets from the food stands. That was around midnight. I didn't see Star at all, before or after that," the guard stated.
Fox shook his head a little, confused and growing increasingly worried. "I don't understand..."
"You were the last one she was with last night, so you're going to help us look for her," the female Beta announced.
Breakfast was quickly divided up between the rest of the loners. Fox couldn't find it in himself to eat. His head felt like it was swimming as he racked his memories. He knew Star came here last night. There was, however, a good bit of walking trail between the Alphas' backyard fields and the bunkers. Star could have potentially wandered off to somewhere else after she disappeared from Fox's sight. But what Fox didn't understand was where she could've gone. What could have caught her attention?
This wasn't the first time this had happened to Fox, though. Through all his travels, he had made friends who did things that friends normally wouldn't do. They would steal his things and lie to him about it. They would trick him into falling for a trap. They would promise to stick with him so they could help each other out as long as they could, but each and every time, they left him. Either in terrible death, or by choice in the dead of night.
Lone wolves could say all kinds of things. Things they believed you would want to hear. Things they truly meant in the moment, but in the next, completely switched their minds.
Star had told him she'd rather stay if she had a choice, but Fox wouldn't deny the possibility that Star had seen an escape route, a perfect opportunity for her to run away and not get caught, and she took it. Friends had left him so abruptly in the past, Fox believed that was the most plausible reason for her absence.
He didn't blame her. Sometimes lone wolves were forced to make split second decisions to ensure their best interests and their survival. He only wished she had said goodbye.
Worry crackled quietly under a newfound sorrow. It pulled down Fox's shoulders and kept his gaze on his feet. He hoped Star was alright, wherever she was.
Evander and Ahren arrived at the bunkers midway through breakfast. Fox's shoulders tensed and he lowered his head down between them. Evander checked Star's bunker, as if the Betas could've possibly missed her in such a small space. When he came back out, his gaze landed right on Fox.
"Fox, get over here," he commanded. Fox completely disregarded his food and went over to the Alphas. He avoided looking anywhere up past Evander's chest. "Where is she?"
"I don't know, sir. I saw her come here last night, before I headed inside Leyra's house. That was the last time I saw her," Fox told him.
Evander growled quietly as he weighed the truth of Fox's words. "How do we know that's not just your cover story? You two disappeared after–" he stopped abruptly. He exhaled short and curt. "After you ran too close to the border. How do I know you two haven't conjured up some plan to escape?"
"Please, sir, believe me. We did explore, but we didn't test the boundaries. I swear I don't know where she is," Fox insisted.
"It's a little hard to believe you when no one saw you for hours," Ahren said calmly. Fox chanced meeting Ahren's gaze, as he seemed far less angry than Evander. The Alpha's gaze was patient, but hidden behind that patience laid a disappointment ready to be accepted. "I will ask Leyra if you truly slept at her house last night."
"That won't necessarily prove that these two didn't plot something. I bet he's hiding her somewhere, and she's working on an escape route as we speak," Evander pointed an accusing finger at Fox.
"If I must, I'll show you where we were for hours last night. You should still be able to smell us there," Fox offered. He wrung his hands together, and his shoulders fought not to tremble. He was on an extremely thin line.
"That would be a good place to start," Ahren replied. "Fox will come with me. Evander, you and the trackers can start a search for Star."
Evander huffed, but seemed compliant. "Fine. Betas, I want every lone wolf on lockdown until we find out her whereabouts."
The Betas chorused an affirmative and moved to herd the loners back into their bunkers. The lone wolves protested, growling and demanding to know why they had to be detained when they'd done nothing wrong. The Betas ignored them, and with two Alphas present, it was difficult for the lone wolves to retaliate.
Ahren gestured for Fox to follow him. He trailed after the Alpha as they went back to Leyra's house. Evander stayed behind to begin the search for Star.
The walk back to the Alphas' houses was tense and nerve-wracking for Fox. He didn't want Ahren to lose all faith in him, however miniscule that faith was.
"So where did you two run off to last night?" Ahren inquired. Fox didn't want to reveal their act of trespassing, but he figured that the punishment for exploring someplace abandoned was far less than the punishment for potential conspiring. If telling the truth about where they were would help the Alphas believe they weren't plotting to escape, then Fox had no other choice.
"By the junkyard. We were exploring there," he said.
"You didn't go in the junkyard, did you?" Ahren asked. Fox shook his head.
"No, sir," he answered. This wasn't a lie, because they hadn't gone inside the junkyard. The Alpha hummed, not quite sounding convinced.
They approached Leyra's house. Ahren knocked on the back door, and a moment later, Leyra opened it.
She raised a brow as she looked them over. "Yes?"
"Fox came back here last night, right?" Ahren asked her. "He slept here?"
Leyra squinted her eyes a little. She leaned on one hip and crossed her arms over her chest. "I heard him shower before heading to bed, yes. That was around three in the morning," she said.
"You only heard Fox? Star wasn't here?" Ahren clarified.
"Not that I'm aware. I didn't smell any other loners in my house," she replied. "What's going on?"
"Star is missing. Evander believes Fox is hiding her somewhere. I know it's your day off, but would you care to join the search?" Ahren explained. Leyra's eyebrows rose and her visage grew more serious.
"Of course. I'll let Sunshine know what's happening, then I'll head out. Are the trackers already on it?" she responded.
"Yes, Evander is rounding them up now. Fox is going to show me where they spent their night, and we'll go from there," Ahren told her.
"Got it," Leyra replied. She leveled a skeptical look on Fox, then turned away to let her mate know what was happening.
"Come on, then," Ahren said to Fox. Fox began to walk in the direction he and Star had come from earlier that morning.
They walked in silence. Fox's thoughts tumbled over each other in his mind. He didn't understand why Star had chosen such a narrow window of time to run away, and right after she had said she would rather stay here, where there was food and shelter provided. She had even told him she preferred the small bed in her bunker to sleeping outside. So why would she completely discard her bed forever, to sleep outside forever?
And Fox also couldn't wrap his mind around how the Alphas thought he had a significant part in that. Surely they knew that lone wolves operated mostly alone, even while imprisoned in a pack. He knew their friendship surely had to be obvious, but that didn't necessarily mean they would plot together. Then again, pack wolves had always been quick to jump to conclusions.
He'd slept in Leyra's house for two months now, and she didn't think Fox was someone she could trust, even just a little? Fox had had plenty of opportunities to steal their things, or go snooping around their private rooms, but he never had. He'd only snuck in a few times, and Leyra had never caught him.
He figured Ahren would at least have his back to some extent. Fox had also been given ample opportunity to search for ways to escape, and he'd even had the chance to attempt running away multiple times. But he'd never gone close to the border, except when being watched by the pack. Why did they all so readily believe that he and Star had decided to try and leave?
He hoped that showing Ahren where they'd been for most of the night would help prove his innocence. He wasn't even that worried about getting in trouble for trespassing.
Fox led the Alpha all the way to the watchtower. He gestured up at the building on top. "We were up there," he admitted. "We just talked, and we fell asleep. We woke up and decided to sleep on decent beds rather than in there. Please believe me when I tell you that the last time I saw her was right in Leyra's backyard. I watched her walk to the bunkers," Fox said, turning to face Ahren.
The Alpha studied the watchtower, then looked at Fox. He still seemed hesitant to believe Fox, still seemed ready to be disappointed. After a moment of Ahren simply studying him without saying anything, Fox became desperate.
He whined a little, a noise he hadn't intended to make. "Please," he crouched down onto his knees in the grass and bowed, pressing his forehead into the dirt. "What do I need to do to make you believe me?"
Ahren sighed heavily. There was an air of internal frustration to it, like Ahren was warring with himself. "I want to believe you, Fox. I do. But you have to understand my perspective. I trust you two to keep out of trouble during Halloween, and the next morning I hear that Star is missing? I watched you two have your fun in the bonding sector, but after midnight you two went off the radar. And you say you were here the whole time?"
"Yes, sir," Fox said, his chest tightening. He wasn't certain which emotion he was on the verge of; anger or sadness. Maybe it was both, tangled together in one dangerous ball.
"Stay," Ahren ordered, and Fox looked up to see the Alpha walking over to the watchtower. He climbed the fence and walked up the stairs to the top. He spent some time in the building above the trees. A few minutes passed and he returned back down to the ground. He climbed the fence again and approached Fox.
"Alright. Both of your scents were pretty heavy up there, so I believe that you two spent a good amount of time here. Leyra said she heard you around three in the morning..." Ahren quieted, thinking out loud to himself. "And you disappeared after midnight. And you say you two just talked and fell asleep?"
"Yes," Fox answered. Ahren sighed again and rubbed a hand up and down his face. Fox waited anxiously.
"Okay... okay," Ahren relented. "It adds up. But how do we know you two didn't plan anything? Did Star just decide to up and leave while everyone was tuckered out?"
"I don't know..." Fox murmured. His back slouched, and he looked at his hands in his lap. "Lone wolves do that sometimes. They up and leave without saying anything at all."
Fox remembered all the times his companions had left him. He'd never truly had any closure with them. He got lucky a couple times, when his companions reached their desired destination and Fox chose to keep going. But this wasn't the first time Fox fell asleep with a friend nearby, and woke up alone.
"I don't know where she could've gone," Fox said, quiet and upset. "I don't know–" he stopped and gestured up at the tower, helpless and lost. "I don't know." He pressed his face into his hands and curled his fingers in his hair. He really wished Star had stayed.
"We're looking for her, alright?" Ahren said, his tone gentle. Fox felt a hand lay on his shoulder, a thumb rubbing into his shoulder blade. "We'll see where she wandered off to. And if we can't find her and it turns out she ran away, then..."
"Will you hunt her down? Like she's just a wild animal?" Fox whispered, but there was a hidden bite to his words.
Ahren exhaled, long and slow, uncertain. "I... I can't promise anything, Fox."
A fire briefly ignited inside Fox's chest. What else did he expect? He'd been pampered too much by Ahren's experimenting. He'd been fooled to believe he was seen as his own person, and not as a potential monster-to-be. That's all the lone wolves would ever be to the pack.
"Whatever," Fox growled. He shoved away Ahren's hand and got to his feet. He started looking for Star in the woods surrounding the junkyard. Maybe she had grown curious about something else here and came back to look.
Ahren didn't reprimand Fox for his sour reaction. He just looked for her, too, sniffing around for her scent and scouring the ground for prints or other evidence.
The search for Star stretched from one hour well into five. Nearly a dozen trackers and Betas combed the forest for signs of her having been anywhere. The first sign was her candy she had won at the bonding sector. It was found well away from the bunkers, almost too close to the patrol outpost the lone wolves were forbidden to get close to. Wildlife had torn into it, and what was left was now crawling with ants. It didn't look like Star had sat down and enjoyed it.
A little while later, someone caught on to a strong trail of her scent and led everyone to the other side of the territory. They entered unoccupied woods that came a little too close to Anodyne's conservatory. Fox grew nervous about the proximity, and he could sense the Alphas were nervous, too. Fox pretended to be none the wiser, and the Alphas cleverly kept the search party from roaming too close.
The thing that confused Fox was that Star's scent seemed to have trailed everywhere. It cut off in some areas and reappeared in others, mainly due to the fact that other werewolves' scents mingled with hers or completely overpowered hers. Footprints and pawprints of all sizes littered the ground in haphazard fashion. The pack seemed to have run around everywhere last night.
A little past noon, Fox caught a different scent, but sickeningly familiar all the same. It was a mix of two distinctly foul odors. One, Fox recalled from when Benjamin the Omega had been found stumbling, drugged, out of the cemetery. A toxic plant inside the cemetery itself prevented the Alphas from being able to investigate further.
The other one, Fox was so familiar with that his heart lurched in his chest, and a prickling sensation began to flow through his veins.
His hackles slipped out along the back of his neck. He stopped in his tracks, and he swallowed. Don't tell me. Please don't tell me.
Fox reluctantly followed the mixed scents. The motion of his legs felt robotic as he picked his way through the underbrush and low-hanging branches.
Ahren had been sticking close to him the entire search. "Fox?" he called. He could probably see a difference in Fox's body language. If he was close enough, he could see his hackles.
Fox's voice was lost, though, and he could only press on. Soon, he heard a faint buzzing noise, a sound he was also sickeningly familiar with. It was the sound of flies, swarming.
In the midst of a cluster of ferns, Fox saw clothing. Splattering the tree trunks and fallen leaves around the clothing were specks and sprays of dark drying blood. He shuddered as nausea pressed at the back of his throat. "Star?" he whispered.
"Fox?" Ahren called again, hurrying closer.
Fox crept closer to the pile of clothes. As he neared, flies whizzed around his face, and the horrible aroma of death suffocated his lungs.
There was Star. She lay crumpled on the ground with blood all over her body. It pooled, dark and grotesque, in her abdominal cavity. Her stomach had been ripped to shreds, intestines tangled with her shirt. Blood matted her blonde hair and dripped from her slightly-agape mouth. Fox could see her fangs were out, as were her claws. Both were coated in blood. She had fought someone, and she had lost.
Star's green eyes stared up at nothing, lifeless and empty.
The world around Fox quieted, and a cold, cold sensation slowly filled Fox from the inside out. A faint ringing in his ears drowned out the muffled sound of someone's voice.
Fox sensed someone next to him, but he couldn't take his eyes off Star. She was dead. She was dead. She was dead.
He felt weight on his shoulder, then nothing. More nothing. Nothing but cold, nothing but dread, nothing but How? Why? Star?
She was dead. She had been alive earlier that morning, and now she was dead.