Running through the woods at Gabel's side, the pack around us, the Bond between us singing with glee and joy, the scent of the hunt and wolves and earth all about, was exactly as things should be.
Except that it was all wrong.
All I had to do was think about Gabel's lips brushing Platinum's hand and him declaring to Alpha Anders "perhaps" and it cut through the Bond's version of the truth.
The Bond wanted to believe. It was lungs that wanted to breathe, a heart that wanted to beat, a stomach that was starving or a throat that was desperate for water. I was the castaway driven to drink saltwater.
Gabel was a large wolf with shaggy, rough-looking fur the color of charred iron. His bones were large and there a raw ugliness to his wolf form. It seemed like his skin was stretched a little too tight over his large frame. His fangs were large, but instead of gleaming white, were tinged yellow, and his claws tore up huge clods of dirt as we moved. He reminded me of the stories of the Skeletal Hounds that guarded the gates of hell. When summoned by the Moon to take away a damned soul, they'd descend upon the soul in full cry, and harry it to its punishment.
We ran through the woods in silence. There were no howls yet. No point in alerting the RedWater to our arrival. They weren't expecting us.
The southern perimeter was rocky forest, where the ground was uneven and punctured with rocks, and covered with a thick carpet of rotting leaves. The pack slowed, and Gabel directed one of the scouting wolves to go find us a path.
The wind blew the scent of wolves towards my snout. I lifted my muzzle and sniffed deep. Many male wolves, but it was hard to tell much more than that. They were still a mile or so away.
Gabel moved over to a tree to sniff it, then pushed his snout into the ground cover to sniff. To my left, Beta Hix waited with his group of warriors. He met my gaze, and his amber eyes drifted to Gabel, then back towards the wind's direction. He was a large wolf in shades of tawny earth and smoky grey, and had large ears set forward on his head that flopped forward when not perked.
It would have been cute, except it was Beta Hix, and nothing about Hix was cute.
His back leg was missing a large patch of fur. It must have been silver-acid that had caused his scars. He also had a few patches of missing fur on his shoulder and spine.
We waited until the scout returned.
"Come," Gabel told us after confering with the scout. He nodded to Hix. We'd sweep around behind the RedWater, and drive them back to Hix and his team.
"Lady Gianna should stay here," Hix stated as Gabel moved off after the scout.
"She is coming with me. Her place is at my side." Gabel informed Hix.
Hix slicked his ears back and his tail lowered, and his spine stiffened. "She is not a warrior. She has no business being in the front assault group. She should remain here under protection."
Gabel's displeasure with Hix was both scent and sensation for me. He growled at Hix. "She is coming with me, Beta. Her place is at my side!"
It hadn't been for meeting Alpha Anders, but it was for an assault on another pack. I would have thought Gabel was trying to get me killed, but I didn't honestly believe he'd be that cowardly or give up on the Bond that quickly. It really didn't seem like what his goal was.
Gabel growled at the scout, then bounded off after his retreating tail.
I darted after him.
No orders were given for any of the males around me to keep an eye on me. I fell back off Gabel's shoulder into the greater pack, because I wasn't stupid.
The scout led us down a twisting hillside. The wind carried the scent of wolves, more and more wolves. Just as they wolves came into view below us, Gabel howled a war-cry.
It grabbed my spine and twisted it with fear.
The rest of the wolves echoed it, and even I threw my head back and joined the cry of the pack, but Gabel's howl was something out of my nightmares.
Ahead of us were half a dozen RedWater males. They broke off their track and their cry sent the birds out of the trees. I fell back even farther into the sea of IronMoon warriors as Gabel's raw-boned form plowed forward.
The tide of wolves pulled me forward into the fray.
One of the RedWater lunged at me. I flung myself left, hit one of my own wolves, another warrior surged forward and grabbed the RedWater. I tried to find Gabel, and saw him several deep wrestling with two RedWater wolves.
A wolf impacted me. I don't know who it was. I got sent rolling in the leaves. I scrambled to my paws and squirmed my way to the left. We were supposed to be herding the RedWater back up towards Hix, so I figured swinging behind Gabel's position was the smart thing to do.
Another RedWater lunged at me. I yipped and scrambled past him towards Gabel, he chomped down on my tail, I yipped again and pulled.
Goddess, I was a Seer, not a warrior! Panic knocked on my brain. I couldn't panic. I'd die if I panicked. I'd panic later. The sea of bodies and claws and howls and barks felt like the Tides, churning and tossing me everywhere as I tried to ride the waves. Gabel's form seemed to loom huge, and then the scent of blood hit me.
Then blood hit me.
Hot and coppery and alive it sprayed me and several wolves around me. I don't know where it came from or who it belonged to. The Iron Moon warrior next to me wrestled with a RedWater, and I instinctively snapped at the RedWater's foreleg. The RedWater struck at me, I bounced back, shot back in for another try.
The courage came from somewhere. Instinct, or perhaps Gabel's bloodlust. I probably was more in the way than I was helping. I bit down on the RedWater's flailing foreleg and heard a shriek of pain, and the taste of blood ran over my tongue.
Beta Hix's team crested the hillside and coursed across the leaves to us. His eyes burned amber even from a distance. He saw me, and barked as he lept over a log. Two wolves seperated from the pack and charged towards me.
They wrestled me off the dying RedWater wolf and one grabbed my ruff in his teeth and hauled me back up the hillside while the other pushed with his much larger body. They pushed me a safe distance away from the fray, and stood guard over me while the Iron Moon broke RedWater.
It did not last much longer. And very suddenly, it became still, as all the surviving RedWater pressed together and realized they had been beaten.
Combat is strange that way. It seems like at the same time everyone realizes it is over, and all motion stills and the world stops to watch how the outcome of these events will conclude.
The Iron Moon milled around, tails wagging, yipping and barking. One threw his head back in a victory howl. Hix barked for him to be silent.
Eight of the RedWater had survived. The rest lay in the leaves and dirt. None of the Iron Moon had been killed, or even seriously injured. Gabel stood in front of the survivors, tail up and spine taunt, reeking of power and glory and cruelty.
The Iron Moon wolves settled down into a circle around the RedWater.
Gabel wasn't one for speeches. He ordered the highest ranked RedWater to come forward. The rest of the Iron Moon closed around the Red Water. The ranked RedWater came forward, his tail up in a gesture of disrespect, ears back. Gabel wagged his own tail, entertained.
Gabel advanced on him, sniffed him, then withdrew, disgusted. "Which one of these wolves was your leader?"
The wolf indicated one of the fallen bodies.
Gabel's discontent churned in my belly. I felt the most awful cruel desire from him. The courage of the wolf in front of him failed, and he curled onto himself, tail pressed between his legs and head bowed.
"Pah!" Gabel spat. "Coward!"
His right foreleg snapped forward, and he ranked his claws across the Red Water's wolf's face. Skin peeled up and blood welled to the skin, strips of fur and flesh dangled. The Red Water whimpered.
Gabel shoved his paw back into the dirt.
"Run, little Red Waters." Gabel said to them. "Run. I will give you a chance to survive. Your dead can rot here."
The Iron Moon jumped up, tails wagging, yipping, eager.
Gabel threw his head back and howled.
The Red Water bolted, leaving behind their dead and dying like cowards, as half the Iron Moon chased after them in full cry.
Two of the Red Water on the ground were still alive. I could see their sides heaving and shuddering as they tried to breathe.
I couldn't believe the RedWater had left them behind. I broke from my guards and trotted down the slope to the closest one. It was a large male. His belly was split open and pink loops of intestines spilled out onto the leaves under him. I lowered my head to him.
He rolled one amber eye to me, his breath shallow and sweet on my nose. He knew he was dying. He knew his pack had abandoned him to die alone.
"Gianna!" Gabel barked.
I yanked my head up. Gabel had moved a distance away. "He is suffering!"
"So?" Gabel growled. "Let him die there."
"Respect costs nothing!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It would take hours for the wolf to die. Maybe days. His family had abandoned him to die. Death would be a mercy to him. Laying there for hours, days, dying, suffering, knowing you had been abandoned... it was horrific. "This wolf has done you no wrong to suffer such a death! End his life and we'll be done with it."
The Red Water had come to hunt on Iron Moon land, and offered grave insult. But no Iron Moon had been injured, no game had been taken, and these were just wolves following orders. There was no reason for them to die like this.
Behind me, I heard the Iron Moon in full cry, pursuing the cowardly Red Water. Oh, those Red Water deserved what horrible death they were about to receive. They had abandoned their packmates to die without even a glance.
"Pah." Gabel spat again. "They do not deserve respect."
"Would you see Iron Moon wolves left like this?"
"If they died to weaklings like the Red Water? I don't care."
"These wolves will die because of Iron Moon." I corrected him. So Gabel would not honor the wolves who had fallen under the paws of Iron Moon warriors? It was almost an insult to the Iron Moon warriors. "You cannot leave them here to die like this! It is cruel! It is wrong!"
Gabel shrugged his raw-boned shoulders. Some of the wolves walked with him. Some others hesitated, glancing between the both of us.
"Let them suffer." Gabel said, "Let the Red Water know their warriors are cowards, who leave their fallen to die."
"But these have not fled. The Iron Moon cannot spare even a shred of dignity for a fallen warrior? The Iron Moon warriors didn't finish them off. You are so scant on remaining strength you cannot spare them a swipe of your paw?"
"I cannot bother getting my paws dirty on that trash."
"If you cannot give his death meaning, you can give it dignity. His pack has abandoned him to die. He has done us no wrong to suffer like this." I argued.
Gabel turned his back to me and ambled away.
He didn't care. In his mind, the Red Water were all guilty, and he was glad to know some of them would suffer for the trespass. He was only disgusted that his warriors had not done a complete job, and these Red Water wolves had managed to survive long enough to be an annoyance.
I looked down at the wolf under me. This punishment did not fit the crime. This was a cruel, cruel way to die. This was not the death I would have thought appropriate had they been my warriors dying like this. This was not how warriors should be treated. There had to be mutual respect.
The ones who had ran? They could run straight to hell. I hoped it hurt.
I stood and watched as the other Iron Moon wolves melted behind Gabel, one after the other. I was nothing to any of them. I was just their Alpha's toy. This was how Gabel acted. This was what he did. The Iron Moon would return to the packhouse, knowing that out in the forest two wolves lay dying, abandoned by everyone but the Moon.
I could bark and bark and it wouldn't matter.
Hix was one of the last ones to leave. His eyes were full of apology as he turned away. He didn't like this, but it was the Iron Moon way, and the Alpha had ordered the dying be left to die.
I didn't blame Hix, or any of the wolves, who walked after Gabel. If I had not been Gabel's BondMate, I probably would have accepted his authority too.
But I was Gabel's BondMate, and this was wrong. Responsibility pressed down on my shoulders. This was not the kind of Queen I would want to be. This was not the reputation I wanted. I would not let Gabel turn me into a cruel monster, or a weakling too timid to do what was right. I would not be the Queen who permitted punishments to exceed the crime committed.
One day, Gabel and I would stand before the Moon to have the worth of our lives totalled. I would be judged, and as Gabel's BondMate, I would be weighed as his equal.
The wolf under me whimpered a soft plea.
I prayed for strength. I knew what I had to do. I lowered my head, and took the throat of the wolf in my maw. He stretched his head back to fully expose the soft tissues. I closed my eyes. He smelled of peace, and calm, and a deep, deep gratitude.
The Mark, long since healed, pounded on my shoulder.
I bit down.
/****
Oh HAI there!
So right after I posted this, I realized the ending was too dark and violent, and would cause problems later. About 100 or so people read it before I pulled it, and replaced it with this version.
Let's recap:
If you just read a version where Gabel pokes out someone's eye, you read the OLD version.
If you just read the version where Gianna calls for mercy, you are reading the NEW (and cannon) version.
If you want to read the old version, I have made it available to my Patrons on Patreon.
Cheers-
Merry
(Your loyal pantster)
***/