Home -- Wolv book 3

Revenant

There was only darkness.

I kicked and screamed, flailing my legs and arms out, trying desperately to grasp at something, anything to give me a sense of location.

I couldn't see my own hand in front of my face. I waved it around, feeling the wind over my eyes as it passed by, but my eyes themselves registered nothing.

It was suffocating. I  was suffocating. The darkness was so complete, so close that I could almost feel it on my skin.

My skin? What about my fur?

Am I human right now?

...Have I finally gone and died?

It was hot.

It wasn't a pleasant heat, either. It was stifling; the kind of hot that would make one feel like the oxygen had been sucked out of their lungs. Coupled with my growing claustrophobia, I was just about ready to jump out of my own skin.

Where am I?

"Hnnnnahhh!"

I froze in place as the moan filled the air around me. "H-hello?"

"..."

Something shuffled noisily, and I twisted myself around in the darkness, listening. Someone, or something was breathing heavily--and it sounded like it was right next to me.

"Is anyone there--AHH!" A hand wrapped around my foot, and I let out a scream.

"It's...you!!"

I kicked with all my might, feeling my heel impact something soft and warm. Whatever was holding on to me cried out in pain and released my foot.

I wasted no time. I scurried forward, mashing my face into an unseen wall. Real smart, Humfrey. If you are dead, everyone else here is laughing at you.

I held out an arm and began feeling my way forward through the blackness. I didn't know if I was, in fact, human, but in the absence of any light, my mind was too confused to be able to properly discern what I was.

The creature behind me growled again, filling the cramped darkness with an inhuman, throaty sound. I picked up my pace, feeling along the wall as I crawled. The ground below me seemed to slope down, and a minute later, I could feel ice cold water droplets plinking down onto my brow from above. I stopped for a moment, letting a few of the cold drops soothe my skin--the air around me was still quite warm.

"AwooooooAAHHHH!"

Another terrifying howl echoed around me, and I felt my heart begin to pound. The ground beneath my feet suddenly turned slick, and I felt myself sliding down the incline until I ground to a halt in a puddle of cold water.

I can see!!

I rapidly blinked my eyes, looking at the way ahead. Dim, grey light filtered down from up ahead, illuminating the walls of a long, up-sloping concrete tunnel. A tunnel. Well, I guess that makes sense. I was in a tunnel--part of my mind almost dared to believe that I was in the same tunnel I had been in when the Gyles lodge had collapsed.

Maybe I'm not dead after all.

I looked down, surprised to find that I wasn't human, either. Sitting submerged in six inches of murky water at the low point of the tunnel, I could still see my paws and furred limbs.

I'm still alive. An' I'm still a wolv. I shot a glance behind me, back into the inky blackness of the tunnel. What happened? I thought that I was trapped back there by that set of metal bars! How did I get past them? Did Machk break through 'em after all?

Speakin' of Machk... where is he? And where is Mingan?

Something slapped against the concrete in the darkness, and another animalistic, drawn out growl sounded in the air. I turned towards the light and began scrambling up the tunnel, ducking my head down to avoid a few low hanging pipes fixed to the tunnel's ceiling. What is that thing?!?

Up ahead, a wooden plank ladder lead even further upwards. Hooking my claws into the wood, I pulled myself up, grimacing as my body ached from the exertion. What am I doing? I don't even know where I'm going. What if Abrams is waiting up here?

Although...I don't want to be stuck down in that tunnel with that...thing!

I pulled myself out of the tunnel, finding myself in what appeared to be a small, wooden shed. A handful of pipes exited the tunnel as well, hooking up to what looked like a water tank inside the shed. A bundle of wires left the tunnel, too, connecting to a thick, grey breaker panel.

What is this place?

On the walls, various maps and charts hung on display. A few pictures of a tiny yellow bush plane had been pinned up, and a thin, sheet metal door stood slightly ajar at the end of the tiny structure.

Well, I'm beyond a reasonable doubt here--I'm not dead. Either that, or this is gonna be an astronomical disappointment. I mean, who dies and goes to a shed--

"YOU!!"

I shrieked as a gnarled hand reached up from the tunnel, grabbing at my tail. I squealed and darted towards the door, nosing it open and tumbling out onto a patch of grass.

Sunlight blared down at me from above, disorienting me for a moment. I held up a paw, shielding my eyes as the world around me slowly began to come into focus.

To my left, the little yellow bush plane from the photographs sat mired wheels-deep in a muddy landing strip. To my right, a tiny bay sat between myself and a charred, empty space which must have once held the Gyles Lake Lodge.

Two blackened, furry lumps lay on the ground in front of me.

I eyed them cautiously, the monster in the tunnel now forgotten. "H-hello?" I poked the larger of the two lumps. "Who are--"

A paw swatted my own away. "Don't touch me, ma'iingan."

"Machk!" I pulled the sooty Alpha into a bear hug, earning a series of angry barks from the Timberwolf.

"Ah! Get your paws off of me, you filthy dog! Look at yourself! Get off!"

I stumbled away. "Good to see you, too!" I shook my fur out, only to find that my own coat of blonde fur was stained black. Meh. Hey! I am still alive!  "I was sure we were done for!"

Machk smirked, rolling onto his belly. His shortened, stumpy tail thumped on the ground a few times. "Ha. Killing you couldn't possibly be so easy." He licked at his paws and sighed--the wolf was exhausted. If he was in the same shape as I, his skin was probably itching and burning as it healed from the fire.

That WILL heal. I poked at the smaller lump. "Mingan! We made it!"

"I am aware," he rasped. "You came back for me."

"Yeah. Again." I punched him lightly in the shoulder. "How many times is that now? I've lost count. Lemme see, there was the time you got mange, the time you tried to run across Lake Winnipeg--"

"Shut up." His eyes opened, and he looked over at the ruined lodge. "It's over."

Metal screeched as the shed door behind me was thrown open. I turned around, raising my eyes at the figure that had emerged.

The "monster" wasn't some awful creature as I'd imagined. No, it was much, much worse.

"What have you done to me?"

Scott Abrams stumbled forward, collapsing to his feet in front of the shed. He tried to push himself back up, only to trip down over his twisted feet.

Sharp, black claws had replaced his toe and fingernails. What had once been normal, rounded ears were now drawn back and pointed; his teeth were looking much sharper, too.

"Oh. You're still alive."

He glared at me fiercely, and tore the melted remains of his stoma from his throat. The hole that had once pierced his jugular and allowed him to breath had closed, leaving a tiny scar in it's place.

Even though his skin was covered in soot, I could clearly see the bite mark I'd left on his arm. Dark, angry lines radiated away from where my teeth had pierced his skin, tracing his veins up his arm and reaching his shoulder.

He pressed a finger to his throat, and his eyes widened when he realized that his throat had healed. "What is this!"

Mingan stood up shakily, baring his teeth at Abrams. "What do you think it is, Doctor?"

Abrams sneered. "Now you choose to talk! I knew you could speak, Mingan!" Confusion clouded his eyes. "No, no, this is all wrong! You're a dog, you shouldn't be able to speak like this!"

I watched Abrams writhe. "We can all talk."

"No! You can't! This is wrong, all of it!" He looked up to glare at me. "I'd won!"

Mingan and I slowly circled around Abrams. Mingan hissed at the man, making him flinch. "You sure about that? Look around you, Abrams. You've lost everything. It's unbelievably fitting."

As though for the first time, Abrams took notice of his clawed hands and twisting feet. "Oh, no."

Mingan continued to circle around, bringing his teeth within inches of Abram's nose. "Now you see what Humfrey has done. You're becoming like us."

Abrams turned to me. "You did this to me! I always knew that it began with a bite! Why did you bite me?!?"

I stared back at him coldly. Because you tried to kill me. Because you tried to use me. Because you cured me and took my wolf away from me. Because you hurt my friends. Because you hurt Nadie.

"Because you killed Spike."

Abrams arched an eyebrow. "Who?"

I pushed Mingan to the side. "Spike. Just one of the dozens you've killed. You burned him to death outside of Bloodvein. He was one of us. He was my friend. My pack mate."

"Pack?"

"It's a good thing I didn't rip your throat out properly the first time," Mingan snarled. "Now you can feel this instead."

Scott flinched, than screamed as a bone broke inside of him. A few of his fingers snapped, grinding down to shorter, more paw-like lengths.

The man was beginning to shift.

He grabbed at his ears, trying to stop them from moving backwards. "Ahhh! Stop! AH!"

His ribcage shuddered, than moved slightly beneath his skin. He doubled over, spitting up a mouthful of blood.

Machk was watching from the sidelines, stone faced. "That looks painful."

"HAAAA! AH!"

Abrams' spine began to split, and the man was knocked down to the ground as his body literally kicked itself. For a moment, his shifting stopped--if only to let him catch his breath.

"You did this to me," he rasped, pointing a clawed finger in my face. "What did I ever do to you? All I ever did was help you?"

I scowled. "Not even YOU can still possibly believe that."

"You couldn't have wanted to live you life as a bloody dog!"

"I am not a dog."

He coughed up another lungful of bile. I could see the bones in his jaw tensing, begging to change their shape. "You had a family! You had a life!"

"You mean back in Winnipeg? Ha! My father was a drunk and my mother didn't care that he beat me." I leaned down to his face, huffing heavily. He wrinkled his nose at the smell of my dog breath. "This is the best thing that ever happened to me. And all you ever did was try to take that away."

Mingan circled around Abrams, nipping at the man's heels. "Becoming what I am now was part of my culture. It is a part of Bloodvein. It is NOT something that can be cured."

"I burned Bloodvein," Abrams rasped.

"Oh?" Impossibly, Mingan's face hardened even more. "Then this is even more fitting," he hissed. "Bloodvein never wanted your help."

"I--ack!--I married one of your people! My daughter was Métis!"

"So what?"

"I'm one of you!" Abrams grasped at his stomach with hands that were no longer hands. "Help me!"

Mingan looked at me, than at Machk, before throwing his head back in a vicious, howl of laughter. "'One of us?' You're even crazier than you look!"

"I'm just as much one of you as Humfrey is!"

Mingan stopped laughing, and cocked his head at me curiously. "No, your not."

"Humfrey isn't a native!"

The sooty little Direwolf raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you're talking about our different races, right. How archaic. So he's not Ojibwe! What's your point?"

Abrams squinted through his agony, clearly confused. Does he need it spelled out to him?  "You may be becoming like us, but you're not one of us, Doctor."

"Humfrey saved my life," Mingan spat. "At least twice."

"Ah!" Blood dribbled out from his ears, and he tore off what remained of his charred, tattered lab coat. "Help me, Humfrey!"

"No."

"You did this to me! You made me like this!" he snarled. His jaw snapped and crackled, moving forward slightly and slurring his speech. "You made me one of you! A dog!"

"I am not a dog," I repeated. I moved back, just out of his reach as he tried to grab one of my legs.

"Then what are you?!" he hissed. "What, Humfrey Michaels? You're not like...them! You never were! You're not native! You're just some hare-lipped city boy!"

"That is not what I am anymore." I sucked in a deep breath, letting the crisp air soothe my burnt lungs.

"Then WHAT are you?"

I flipped my ears back, looking down at what was left of the monster of Bloodvein. "I know who I am.I'm a wolv."

He looked up at me blankly. Blood began to run from the corner of his nose, dripping off of his chin.

"But you, Scott. You may not know what I am, but I know what you are."

He coughed violently, clawing madly at the dirty sand with long, sharpened fingernails. His eyes were wide, and though his lips were tightly sealed, blood ran from the corner of his mouth. His skin was being pulled taught to the point of tearing as bones stretched and moved inside of him.

"You are weak."

He couldn't survive the shift. It wasn't possible. He had no Ojibwe blood in his veins; not even his daughter, who had been half-Ojibwe, had been able to survive the change. He was lacking the single pre-requisite required to become a wolv. The change was going to kill him.

His eyes locked onto mine as his ankles begin to split and move. His gaze held a silent, unspoken question--how did YOU survive?

"I've felt pain before. I've had my bones broken and moved within me, long before I was bitten. I lived through breaking my arm in a wilderness. I survived having a wolf bite into my bones. I made it back home on my own."

I lowered my muzzle down to his. "And when I shifted, I had a friend there to help me. Who brought me back when I was ready to give up. That, Doctor Abrams, is why I survived being turned. And that is why you won't."

He let out a deep, guttural cry as his rib cage cracked loudly beneath his skin. The joints in his arms split and shifted, then, oddly, halted. He thrashed on the ash-covered sand, and it looked like his body was trying to continue shifting, but was unable.

His mouth opened wide, a look of brutal shock plastered on his face. Slowly, the shock turned to disbelief.

Scott Abrams fell limp on the sand, letting out one last long, raspy sigh.

"..."

Somewhere in my mind, I felt the familiar icy rage stir. It kicked, it reared it's ugly head and screamed in my ears, demanding that I do something more. It wasn't fair that he got to pass so quickly, not after what he'd done. This wasn't enough. He deserved more. He killed so many! He killed...

The urge to snap abruptly vaporized. The rage evaporated from my mind, leaving me with a single, calming thought:

Now it is over.

Mingan scowled at the man. He lifted his leg and marked the body--one, final insult for the man who had ruined everything.

"Not to interrupt your moment, but this man wronged my people, too." Machk stood up, and padded over to Abrams' body. He sunk his teeth down into the man's wrist, and began dragging Abrams away from the shed, back along the muddy beach towards what was left of the lodge.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"Tying up a loose end." Machk rounded the beach and pulled Abrams up onto the charred lodge grounds, dragging him next to the smouldering pit that had once been the lodge's basement. I didn't know just how long it had been since the lodge had collapsed, but there were still glowing embers sitting at the bottom. "Couldn't help but overhear that you tried to kill this guy once before." Machk pushed Abrams' body over the ledge, down into the embers below. "There. Now we're not taking any chances."

Mingan and I stood speechless at the edge of the pit. Machk stared down at the embers as they began to catch, than averted his gaze.

"Alright, you two."

"Alright, what?" I sputtered. "What now?"

Machk rolled his eyes, cursing under his breath in Cree. "Omegas. Always looking for a leader to tell 'em what to do! Guess that much doesn't change between our species." He smirked, flicking his head south. "Let's go home."

         *         *         *         *

A/N: The perfect song

I didn't know where I was going. Neither did Machk, for that matter. As it turned out, going "home" wasn't quite as simple as any of us had hoped.

The three of us wandered away from Gyles Lake, keeping our noses to the ground and our ears alert as we entered the forest. Only Sarah had known where Hutch had made his den; needless to say, none of us knew where Sarah was now.

Daanis was gone, too.

The trap that had secured her to a tree was absent as well; only a short length of chain remained 'round the tree where I'd last seen her.

Mingan had sniffed the spot, recognizing his mate's scent and blood on the ground. He'd flipped his ears back and hastily circled the lodge ruins, finally finding not one, but two metal traps covered in Daanis's blood and unfamiliar scents.

Once again, Daanis had been missing. But, despite the pungent scent of several dozen Timberwolves that hung thick around the ruins, there was nothing to indicate that Daanis had been killed by the rival wolves.

She could have been burned in the fire. The Timberwolves could have taken her captive. I grimaced at the thought of returning to Minikwakunis Lake--or wherever the Timberwolves were currently making their den--and breaking Daanis out.

The lodge grounds quickly disappeared behind me, being replaced by forest. I slunk past the jack pines, testing the scent of the air. All I could smell was my own dirty scent; I reeked of ashes and urine--and that was just me. Mingan didn't smell any better; Machk smelled considerably worse.

It was a good thing that my pride wasn't particularly concerning anymore.

"Machk, how are we gonna find Hutch?" I whined. "I can't smell anything."

"Neither can I. All I know comes from that little map Sarah drew in the sand the other day. It's somewhere to the south; that much we can bet on, ma'iingan!"

Mingan's ears perked. "What?"

"'What,' what?" Machk looked back at the grey Omega, raising his brow.

"You said my name."

"No I didn't. I said 'ma'iingan.'"  Machk scowled. "Oh. Right. Sorry."

I elbowed the Alpha in the ribs. "Guess you're gonna have to call me by my name now, huh?"

"I have been!"

I rolled my eyes. "Sure. I think you've done it a whopping three times. Wait--maybe four."

Machk growled. "Yeah, yeah. Who names their kid after their own species, anyways?" He glared at Mingan. "It's confusing."

Mingan shrugged. "I wasn't born this way. I was bitten in." That seemed to get the Timberwolf's attention.

"Yeah, how about that. Did it hurt?"

Mingan and I looked over at each other, and burst out laughing. "'Did it hurt!' Ha!" Mingan imitated Machk's deep voice, cackling loudly. I slapped Machk on the back, pulling him into a buddy hug.

"Oh, Machk. You're funny, you know that?"

"Ha! Next he'll be asking if the earth is round! Ha!"

"Or why food is edible!"

"Or why foxes are always so hissy!"

"Or why coyotes are annoying!"

"Or why prairie chickens taste exactly like chicken!"

Mingan and I poked at the scowling Alpha, gently pushing him back and forth. He flashed his teeth back at the two of us. "It was just a question! You guys are ruthless."

"Ha ha, darn right! Power to the Omegas. Say Machk! You timberwolves don't go around biting people in, do ya? I've seen quite a few of your kind this past year, an' none of 'em have bite scars!"

Machk sniffed at the ground, stepping over a rock. "No, we don't. Unlike you, my kind isn't sterile. Honestly, I can't even remember if we've bitten anyone in the past hundred years--woof!  Wow." Machk withdrew his nose from the ground, shaking his head. "Found something."

Mingan and I wove through the trees, pulling up alongside the Alpha. Machk pointed at an inconspicuous spot on the ground, before breaking into a trot, his now once again held only inches above the earth.

I sniffed, then coughed. "Ugh. Is that...Hutch?"

The first scent marker I'd ever encountered as a wolv had belonged to Hutch. I called up the memory in my mind; sure enough, the marker in front of me matched the one I'd smelled so long ago.

Machk broke into a light jog, leading Mingan and I out of the trees and through a grass-choked marsh, studded with short, stunted pine trees. "There's another one over here!" he called back.

I stepped gingerly around a few puddles of water, and followed after the Timberwolf. After another minute, Machk was calling back again, having found yet another one of Hutch's markers.

Why would he leave so many? It's like he was leaving a scent trail.

Ha! Of course that's what this is!   As Machk leapt on, leading Mingan and I from marker to marker, I realized that we were traveling in a straight line.

As the sun slipped down, Machk abruptly stopped, standing in front of a small section of grasses that had been trampled down. "Wow."

"Wow, what?"

He turned in a tight circle. "Have a smell."

Mingan and I both twitched our noses. Both of us let out a tiny gasp as we did.

The air was full of scents. Beautiful, amazing scents. I could smell Hutch--but I could also smell others.

Mingan sniffed at the ground. "Daanis was here! She was here!" He yipped happily, rolling on the ground and covering himself in the scent. "She's alive!"

I kept my mouth clamped shut, reveling in what I was smelling. Yup, there's Daanis's scent. An' Sarah's.

Tara's.

Nadie's!

Like a magnet being drawn towards metal, my muzzle was pulled by an unseen hand down to the ground, to a little patch of trampled arctic grass. Someone had marked the ground here.

I pressed my nose into the grasses, inhaling the scent deeply. It was rank, but at the same time it was sweet and earthy and unbearably familiar--how could I ever forget it? It was almost intoxicating.

"You're smelling piss right now. You know that, yes?"

I whipped my tail across Machk's face, keeping my nose in place. "Shuddap."

Machk turned around several times, before curling up into a ball on the grasses. "I'll be sure to tell your mate that you're into that kinda stuff."

"Don't you dare!" I hissed at him, keeping myself locked in place. "I'll bite your tail off!"

"Har, har. There ain't much left of it."

I stared down at the tiny patch of grasses in front of me. They were stained slightly grey from the marking. I took in another whiff--I couldn't help myself. Being flooded by her scent, it was as if I was right next to her. I was closer to her now than I had been for a very long time.

I curled up next to the marker, setting my head down on the matted grass. I don't even know what I'm going to say to her when I see her!  After so many months of waiting, I realized that I was going to be at a complete loss the moment I laid eyes on her brown fur.

I'm sure I'll think of something. I mean, a simple "hello" has gotta work, right? Yeah, that's a great way to start a conversation, Humfrey. "Hey Nadie, I've been dead for half a year but I'm back now! What's up?"

...

She'd be okay with that, I think.  I had, after all, been miserable with words when we'd first met--heck, I'd been downright anti-social, yet she'd still managed to make conversation with me.

I inhaled her scent one last time, squeezing my eyes shut tightly. I'll see you soon, Nadie.

The grass next to me rustled. "Machk is right. Sniffing an' sleeping on that is kinda gross."

"Can it, Mingan."

         *         *         *         *

I killed a man.

I rolled over, pinching my eyes shut. I actually killed someone. I bit him and then I watched him die! What does that make me? I'm a murderer!

"Grrr." I let a low rumble escape my lips as I tossed and turned. The sun was already up, blazing down with its morning light, trying to pry my eyes open. As much as I wanted to keep running, my body had other plans--my lungs still ached, and my skin still itched from the fire. Both had been singed by the flames, and healing myself was draining my strength. As such, I was still sleeping...sort of.

While I wanted  to keep running, and while my body wanted to sleep, my mind had its own plans. It was perfectly content to sit back and silently torment me, making me relive what had transpired.

I had come close to killing before. I had nearly shot Norman to death back in Kinwaw; heck, I could have killed Machk there, too. At the time, when I'd finally come to my senses, I'd been horrified by what I had nearly done...yet now, after a year of keeping my conscience clean, I'd slipped up. What did I think would happen when I bit Abrams?   Maybe I'd thought that he would never make it out of the lodge alive, and in the literal heat of the moment, I'd taken a small token of revenge against him.

I knew Abrams was a killer himself. He'd taken friends away; he'd killed pack-mates in cold blood, and if his jumble of dying words had any merit, he had burned Bloodvein, too. To say that he had it coming to him was a colossal understatement--so why did I feel so awful?

If I hadn't done it, somebody else would have. Machk, probably. Hutch would have if he'd been there. Ha! I can even see Mingan getting rid of the man. He almost did it once before, after all!

It had to be someone, I guess.

A paw shook me violently, and my eyes snapped open. Mingan was standing over me, his eyes wild and his mouth open.

"Get up, get up, get up!" he hissed. I blinked groggily and rolled over.

"What's going on?"

He swatted the back of my head and pointed. "That!!"

Ohhh, boy. I swallowed hard. Nearly two dozen Alpha Timberwolves were crossing a narrow field, heading straight towards us. Machk stood a few meters away, keeping his eyes leveled at the posse, waiting for them to arrive.

I squinted at the Timberwolves, noticing one of them had another draped over its back. As they drew closer, my eyes widened.

"Machk...is that Matthew?"

Machk nodded. "Smells like he'd had it."

"What?"

"He's dead, genius."

Mingan shouldered up to me, looking from wolv to wolv as they closed in. "Humfrey...are these your friends, too? Are they friendly at least?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so." My eyes caught sight of a black-furred female, walking purposefully in the middle of the Timberwolves. Her eyes locked on to mine, and I felt my stomach flip.

Elizabeth. Even though she'd shifted since I last saw her, her eyes had stayed the same. Deep, brown, and calculating; I would recognize them in a heartbeat.

"Machk!" I poked at the Alpha. "We need to leave!"

"Too late. They woulda caught up to us, anyways." He shot me a sympathetic look. "Don't worry, I think we'll be okay. I know these people."

The first few Timberwolves padded up within a few feet of Machk. They stared at Mingan and I with deep, unblinking brown eyes...and parted around us. My eyes flicked down to their paws--their claws weren't unsheathed.

I knew that they knew who I was. They had to! I, along with my friends, had been at a banquet in Minikwakunis last year--the entire adult population of the community had been there. They'd all seen me as I was now.

One of the wolves brushed past me, and I shuddered as his fur bristled at my shoulder. "Thought you were dead," he muttered.

Another wolv passed by Mingan, twitching her glistening black nose at the both of us. "I dunno. He looks pretty alive to me."

"Guess Elizabeth was wrong about that after all. Go figure."

The duo continued past, but the looks and mumbles from the Timberwolf Alphas didn't stop.

"Back from the dead, he is."

"Looks like he brought another one of 'em up here with him."

"Ha. Don't bet on Elizabeth doin' anything about that."

"I'll bet we won't even touch them."

"I don't want to touch them. They look half-starved!"

"Probably full of disease, too."

My ears twitched back and forth as the last of the Alphas sauntered past. Only one wolf remained in front of Machk--but her eyes weren't fixed on him.

Elizabeth looked at me, stone-faced and unmoving. Her black fur ruffled in the breeze, showing streaks of grey mixed in to her coat.

"You came back."

I matched her gaze, letting her statement float in the air. She blinked, huffing heavily.

"All this way. Norman told me you were dead."

I twitched. "And now he's dead. How about that." Elizabeth's eyes snapped open wide, and her spine tensed.

"What?"

The sound of two dozen Timberwolves inhaling filled my ears, which, in turn, flattened against my skull.

"Well, isn't that surprising."

"Of course he's dead. He woulda been at the lodge with us if he'd still been kicking!"

"Ha. Looks like that blonde one is gonna get shredded."

Oops. Machk shot me a look that said, "shut up while you still can,"  then pushed me aside.

"Norman is dead, Elizabeth."

The black Timberwolf leapt to her feet, her teeth suddenly bared and her claws unsheathed. "He is, is he?" She began walking a tight circle around me, growling angrily as she did. I could feel her warm breath on my fur as she passed. "I find it hard to believe that a pair of direwolf Omegas could kill him." She completed her circle, and drew her gaze up to Machk. "I appreciate you bringing them to me, Machk. It would seem that Direwolves will be dying today after all!"

Machk's paw shot out, blocking Elizabeth from stepping towards Mingan and I. "They didn't kill him."

"Really?" Elizabeth hissed.

"You said so yourself--they aren't capable of killing and Alpha."

Elizabeth cocked her head at Machk. "Maybe so. Stand aside, Machk."

"No. You cannot hurt them."

"Are you defending them? Machk, have you forgotten what they are?" Elizabeth spat, looking at me with contempt.

"I know what they are, Nohkom."

"They aren't like us. Everything fell apart when they arrived, and at least some of them should answer for that!"

"They didn't destroy our home! We did that ourselves. We brought that here, not them!"

Disgust clouded Elizabeth's face. "You've fallen for them, haven't you! Just like Sarah did. I seem to recall YOU being among those who got rid of this one!"

"...I was. You can't hurt them."

Elizabeth spat angrily. "Does no one respect my position anymore? Machk, they are the enemy! I will not let more of them run free than I already have--"

Smack!!

Machk's paw swung away from me and struck Elizabeth across the snout. Blood splatted onto the grass below, and I flinched. I was dead for sure--the surrounding Timberwolves would surely tear us to pieces now, even if Elizabeth wouldn't. Their Alpha just got hurt. Surely they'll jump us!

I popped open an eye and looked around. None of Elizabeth's wolves had made a move; in fact, a few of them looked almost amused. The wolf carrying Matthew's body let out a guffaw, shaking his head. "First Jess, and now Machk. You're weak, Elizabeth!"

Another voice called out as well. "You're being tossed around like an Omega, Nohkom! Again!"

"You're supposed to be our leader, not a pushover!"

I looked from wolv to wolv, surprised that they were turning on their own leader. Elizabeth slowly recovered her posture, before leaping out at Machk and swiping at him with her claws. Machk sidestepped her attack, and caught her muzzle in his paws. With a heave, he slammed Elizabeth to the ground.

"These Direwolves are mine," Machk screeched. "They are under my protection. They will NOT be harmed." He panned his gaze around, earning a small nod from each of the Timberwolves. "Your Alpha Pair has been broken."

"Broken? Ha! I made this pack what it is!" Elizabeth spat from below. "I made YOU what you are as well, Machk! How could you forget that?"

"You made me hate a group of strangers because it was convenient," he shot back. "You wanted to kill them. We didn't used to be a pack of murderers. We didn't have to become one!" Machk shooed Mingan and I forward.

"You sound exactly like Jess. Hey! Don't you dare walk away from me, Machk!"

"I am sorry, Elizabeth." With that, Machk pushed past the sputtering Timberwolf. "Let's go, you two."

I cast a glance over my shoulder as we walked back into the trees. Elizabeth was staring back at us in cold disbelief, while the rest of her Alphas began to slowly file away.

"I thought we were done for back there! Why didn't they attack us?"

Machk shrugged. "I don't know. They were sayin' something about Jess back there...hmm. You know, under her leadership, we've lost our home and many pack mates. Maybe the pack is beginning to lose faith in her? I'm at a loss here, Humfrey. I haven't exactly been around the pack much in the past month."

That has to be a good thing, right? If the pack was abandoning her leadership, maybe they wouldn't be so bent on killing me and my kind. On the other paw, maybe they would become all the more blood thirsty.

"What did you mean when you said the 'Alpha Pair has been broken?'"

"It is the Alpha Pair that watches over the pack. While Elizabeth was our true Alpha, Norman was integral to her leadership."

"And now he's dead."

Machk nodded slowly. "Yeah."

It's over, either way.

Elizabeth is gone, Abrams is dead, the "cure" has been destroyed, I'm finally going home and good riddance!

I'm going home!  I turned the thought over in my mind, smiling to myself. When was the last time I really had a home? There was my mom's place in Winnipeg, then there was the den in Atikaki...wow. Was Atikaki really the last time I had a place to call my own? That's gotta be over a year ago by now!

Kinwaw Lake had been home for the winter--if it really could be called that. The place was old and decrepit; truly it had been nothing short of alien. I'd basically been living in a condemned trash heap of a building with Mingan and Daanis.

No, Kinwaw had never really felt like home.

I wondered what it would be like to settle down again. To be able to curl up into a ball and sleep, without worrying about where I was going to sleep tomorrow. Without wondering if the friends that slept beside me would still be alive in the morning.

To have my mate back.

I barely noticed the hours that begun to slip by as the day wore on. Beautiful landscapes slipped past my eyes unappreciated; glittering, ice-rimmed ponds were only a shimmer in the corners of my vision. I would have time to see everything someday--but for now, I only walked forward, putting one tired paw in front of the other.

"Hey, Humfrey. Look at that!" Mingan elbowed me in the ribs, pointing up at the trees up ahead. Just beyond a row of pine, a large, relatively flat expanse stretched out.

"It's a clearing. How exciting."

"Oh, don't be so dour all the time!" The Omega swished his tail back and forth. "I don't think we've come across such a big one just yet!"

"Oh no, we have. When we were coming to rescue you."

Mingan raised his brow. "Well, excuse me if I'm a little in awe here. We didn't have clearings like this in Atikaki now, did we?"

As we broke through the treeline, I looked out across the plain glumly. Fairly smooth and covered in shoulder-high, brittle grasses, the field looked to be remarkably boring, save for a few granite hills jutting up from the land below. A few of the upwellings were topped with tall evergreens, while others stood barren, save for the odd scrub growing out of the cracks.

Machk squinted. "Somebody is there."

"Yeah?"

His flicked his nose. "That hill about a mile to the south. Look closely."

I narrowed my eyes, focusing on the uninteresting lump at the far end of the field. A few dark, motionless objects rested on top of the upwelling.

"That's just a bunch of scrub--" One of those scrubs just moved. "Wait. Is that...?"

"Wait?!?" Mingan echoed. "You kidding me? Let's go!" The grey Direwolf shot away like a bullet, plowing through the thick grasses. Machk smirked at me, and clapped me on the back.

"'Wait.' That's gotta be the stupidest thing I've heard you say yet, ma'iingan."  And with that, Machk was off like a rocket, too, leaving me dumbfounded.

Y'know Humfrey, he's not wrong. We've already passed the Timberwolves--who do you think those people are?

Well...they could be hunters. They could be Timberwolves, waiting for us.

Or it could be Hutch.

My paws launched me forward of their own accord. The last thought was all I needed to break into a sprint of my own.

Grasses and shrubs whipped and slapped across my muzzle, and I bounded through the thicket, weaving around taller patches and jumping through shorter ones. I pulled up alongside Machk, who seemed to be deliberately holding back. He's an Alpha; I'm an Omega. I shouldn't be able to catch up to him!

I twitched my ear, catching him mumbling something under his breath.

"Please...please don't let those be Timberwolves. I'm begging you. I can't bear to fight another one of my own people. Please, just let this be over!"

He's praying. He's actually praying!  I let out a short laugh between pants. I thought that was something only I did.

My tongue flopped out of my mouth, and I continued to work my aching paws back and forth. "Almost there," I grunted.

A series of high-pitched, whooping barks sounded from up ahead. I looked up at the barren hill, which was no more than two hundred meters away. The shapes perched atop the granite had now clearly resolved themselves into wolves, although one of them appeared to be sitting cross-legged like a human. That doesn't make any sense. Did somebody shift?  I shook my head, fixing my eyes on the figures and trying to discern who was who.

"You should...stayed away!" Somebody shouted something down from above. I looked at them, cocking my head--

"Ahh!"

Something caught my paws, and I flew head-over-tail through the air. A shock of icy water enveloped me as I came to rest in a puddle.

Machk let out a whoop, and Mingan began barking excitedly as they rushed on without me. Wait, for goodness sakes!  I pulled myself up out of the puddle, and shook my fur out. Dark, soot-filled droplets flew from my coat, revealing my blonde fur below. Heh. I was kinda thinkin' everything had been singed to black!

A shadow crossed over my eyes, and I looked up to see a lithe, brown figure rocketing straight at me. I barely had time to raise my own paws in defense. Wait--

"OOF!"

I let out a surprised yelp as the wolf thudded square into my chest. The wind was blasted out of my lungs, and the two of us rolled backwards on the grass in a tangle of paws and tails and teeth.

Paws grasped at my neck and muzzle while two others locked themselves around my waist--I was effectively locked between the ground and the wolf above me.

"This isn't a Timberwolf!" it screeched, blasting its hot breath straight into my face. I wriggled and pushed, only to have myself tossed around like a pillow.

The brown wolf briefly leapt over me, and I blinked.  It  was in fact a she.

"Hey--" The mass of brown fur pressed into my nose, and four paws were wrapped around my body tightly. You're suffocating me!!  I pushed again, sucking in a gasp of a breath and flooding my nostrils with my own putrid scent, along with a sweet, earthy, and slightly sweaty smell--

"You came back!!"

Oh.

         *         *         *         *

Revenant: Someone who returns, as though from the dead (noun).

It is not over yet!!! But wow, this chapter has been a loooooong time coming!!!!