The sun was starting to set and Chris and I were getting ready to head out, I hadn’t really eaten much but I didn’t mind, I was too preoccupied with the idea of Joe to eat.
“You ready?” I asked Chris as we stood outside next to the dying campfire.
“Yeah, so, what’s the plan?”
“Plan is simple, we shift in our cabins, leave, find Joe, and we either make him back off, or kill him.” I kind of sounded mean now.
“Can’t we just... I don’t know, not kill him?” Chris said slightly worried
“It depends...” I paused for a second “Depends if he tries to kill us or not, and if he nearly succeeds, if we can get him to shift back into his human form, and by that I'm saying we are going to need to seriously hurt him a bit, otherwise he won’t shift back.”
“Sure... at least we won’t kill him” he stopped and started to think for a bit “Wait.... what are we going to do with him afterwards?”
“Now you mention it... I have no idea...” it was true, I did have no idea “If we let him go, he could try to kill us again and what would be the point in going to get him if we just let him go at the end of it without anything?”
“A warning?”
“True... but still, you get my point”
“Yer” Chris said laughing “I get ya”
“You could take him back here.” I turned round to see Ashley walking towards us “We could keep him here, try to make him better, it could work, and he could give us information, and in case it does all go wrong and he stays bad, we kick him out and well... he’s screwed... you can even kill him but I think Mark would do that for betraying him possibly?”
“No... Mark would want him alive after he joined so he could find it easier to get us” I said whilst still thinking about what she said, to be honest her idea wasn’t that bad, it made sense, and it might work, and if we could help him be nicer then why not.
“We never said he would join!” Ashley said quickly
“I know but, in case he does... you said it yourself when you said kick him out”
“True...” Ashley said softly, I simply smiled back at her.
“You know what, I think she’s right” Chris said suddenly as he looked up “We can’t exactly lose much unless he backstabs us and then we can make him pay, so I'm pretty sure he won’t.”
“Maybe... how about we just take him back, make him better, and by that I mean heal him a bit, dress his wounds and so on, and then, once we know he is on our side, then we can ask if he would like to join the pack?” I didn’t like the idea of simply adding him to the pack; he was still too much of a threat.
“Sounds good, now what about Mark, he’s gonna be with Joe, he will want him back” Chris sounded worried, if not suspicious as to why Mark wasn’t with him, or so that’s what we thought.
“Well... we have no idea where he is, and we can work that out as we go along.” I smiled trying to be positive.
“Sure thing” Chris nodded
There was a small moment of silence before Ashley spoke.
“So when are you guys leaving?”
“Now I guess” I shrugged because I was ready and simply waiting
“Yup now” Chris agreed “I’m going to go and shift, meet you back here in a few seconds
“Sure thing” I nodded as he turned around to leave.
I was about to turn away when Ashley grabbed my arm.
“Please be careful” she said softly as she kissed me
“I will be” I said kissing her back.
It felt nice, knowing that she cared, then again I guess as Alpha everyone would care because I ran the place sort of, but she cared differently, she cared more and for more personal reasons.
“See you later” I said as I turned away and headed for my cabin, I didn’t like to leave like this, but I needed to, and no one could really stop me.
It took me about a minute to get to my cabin, take off my clothes, shift, and then go back to the campfire where Ashley was gone and Chris was waiting. We nodded at each other and we headed west, we didn’t run, I didn’t really see much point in running, walking seemed like a fine pace right now, and anyways, we would need our energy for later.
After about five good minutes of walking I picked up a scent I hadn’t smelt in a long time, it was Joe. Chris and I exchanged looks and carefully made our way forwards. Within a few minutes we crossed the boundaries and I soon became very cautious, we almost always stayed within our territory because it was pretty big.
It took us about twenty minutes of walking slowly to get to a clearing, and right in the middle of it, stood a wolf.
He was a light brown with a tinge of orange and bright green eyes. He looked a bit more built up than when I saw him last time, but when I say a bit... I mean a tiny bit; he was probably about the same build as Chris, if not a little less, which made me wonder who had trained him.
Chris was on my right and we started to walk slowly apart until we were both five meters or so in front of Joe, but about three meters to each side. Joe smirked and then let out a howl during which Chris and I exchanged looks, I was wondering if Joe was being cocky, or asking help from Mark, either way I was going to be careful.
Joe stopped howling and started to growl at us both showing off his teeth, it may have intimidated Chris slightly but I was kind of bored, it was an unfair fight. I put one paw forwards and started to growl back, showing off my set of fangs, Chris soon did the same, and this time, it was Joe who seemed intimidated.
Joe shook his head trying to show no fear and sprang forwards in Chris’s direction. The two leapt at each other’s throats and I couldn’t really tell if one had bit the other until Chris lost his balance slightly and Joe scratched his shoulder. I darted forwards and jumped up growling, but Joe was ready and turned round ducked just in time for me to miss. We stared at each other for a second or two before once again jumping at each other’s throats, this time I was successful and managed to bite down on his shoulder, but he managed to dig his claws into my back.
Joe yelped out in pain and stepped back, shaking free of my grip. I stared at him as he tried to look at his wound then back to me; he looked extremely pissed off and was about to pounce until Chris smashed into his side and bit down on his back. I lunged forwards and bit his front leg and Chris bit down on his shoulder again where I had just to remind him of the pain.
Joe fell to the ground and I took the opportunity to get a grip of his neck and carefully held it in my jaws. At that moment Joe stopped moving and Chris backed off.
Joe was still alive of course but was too scared to move, I slowly started to apply pressure, not enough to actually cut his skin but enough for him to whimper like a pup. He then started to shift back slowly; scared I’d crush his neck. I loosened my grip and let him shift back peacefully.
It was pretty dark by now and Joe started to crawl away from us, I wasn’t too happy and so I growled at him.
“Hey, I'm just getting my clothes, ok?” he said annoyed and in pain, I couldn’t really argue and so I followed at a distance staring at the ground.
“I have spare shorts if you wanna talk...” he said carefully, I nodded and he threw me a pair of shorts before changing into his own.
I shifted back and quickly pulled the shorts on.
“Chris stay as a wolf, we don’t know if Mark is going to surprise us or not and if Joe has any bad intentions yet.” Chris nodded back at me and stood there watching us.
“So, what do you want” I asked Joe
“I wanted to kill you, at least Mark really did, and he hasn’t even shown up... he should have been here when I howled but he isn’t...” Joe still looked pissed off and in a lot of pain.
“Not here?” I said as I shifted my eyes to make sure he was saying the truth, and sure enough, I couldn’t see anyone around “Nope, you’re telling the truth, I really can’t see anyone here.”
“He left me to die...” Joe said shocked, only just realising he had been betrayed “That asshole left me to die, the fucking idiot left me to die!”
“Whoa, calm down Joe” I didn’t really know why I was trying to help but I was.
“NO, fuck you Tilyer” he said as he tried to punch me, but I dodged and punched his shoulder where he had been bitten... twice
“How about no” I said smiling “You’re done Joe. If I wanted to, I could kill you here and now, or I could get Chris to do it, you’re in too much pain as a wolf to run or defend yourself and your shoulder looks too bad to fight with, so why don’t you calm down and talk.”
Joe staggered slightly as he gripped his arm and nodded his head
“Fine... Mark was supposed to come here and ambush you guys, you’re both supposed to be dead...” Joe paused for a moment “Are you going to kill me?” he asked slowly
“No...” I smiled “If I wanted to kill you, you would already be dead, but you’re not.”
“Thank you...” Joe actually sounded honest, and grateful, and by the sound of his voice you could tell he didn’t want to die. He then sat down before I continued to talk.
“Don’t thank me, this doesn’t mean we are friends yet, now why don’t you tell me what you plan on doing now”
“Nothing... I have no plans” As he spoke the words a tear came to his eye “Mark has betrayed me and I have no friends left, I know he heard my howl, he knows we are here right now...”
“You mean Mark knows where my pack is?” now I was worried
“Yeah... he made me get close to lure you out, but now he’s betrayed me...”
“He’s a dick Joe, everyone knows that”
“True...”
Chris started to growl in a completely different direction to us and I quickly turned to face where he was facing. Having shifted my eyes, I could see like a wolf, in other words, I could see in the dark, and what I saw shocked me. It was Mark, leaning against a tree, smiling.
“What is it?” Joe asked
“Mark...” the moment the name left my mouth Joe shot up and looked in his direction without actually seeing him.
“MARK YOU TRAITOR” he shouted, full of anger, aggression, and pure disgust, as if he was speaking to me.
“Forget it...” I said as I saw Mark turn and leave “He’s left you now...”
“I hate him” Joe spat
“I thought you hated me.”
“Not anymore... you’ve shown compassion, something Mark could never do, and anyways, you once tried to be nice, I declined it foolishly, and Mark betrayed me... I kind of like loyalty” Joe stopped and stared at me “What is it?”
“Nothing just... never thought you would be the kind of person to use those words...” to be honest I was surprised, I didn’t think he would talk so nicely, at least not with that vocabulary.
“Yer well I read a lot...” he said shrugging
“You read?”
“Oh my god, yes I read, I was actually good at school, I just tried to fit in ok” Joe spoke quickly, it had never occurred to me that actually he may just be as damaged as any of us, only he tried to fit in with the wrong people.
Chris growled again and this time it was more of a “I’m bored lets go” growl.
“Right, well, you have a choice here Joe” I said slowly “Either you leave now, and NEVER come back or threaten us again, or, you can come with us, back to my pack, and can stay with us for a while whilst you tell us what Mark has been up to, what he’s planning, and stuff like that. I might even think about letting you join if you’re nice to us.”
“Really?” Joe seemed shocked “Could I please come back with you guys then?”
“Sure thing” I said smiling and held out my hand, Joe and I shook hands before continuing to talk.
“You have any clothes? Belongings?”
“Umm... only this rucksack, that’s all Mark, let me bring... it’s not that much...” Joe said shamefully
“That’s fine, come on then let’s go.” I said as I turned away “Right well I'm going to give you your shorts back ok, umm... please turn away?”
“Sure” Joe said as he turned away to give me privacy.
I took of the shorts and shifted, then nudged Joe. Joe turned back around picked up his shorts and shoved them in his rucksack; he really didn’t bring much at all, Mark really had been harsh on him, but still, I guess you could say he deserved it.
We walked back slowly because Joe was hurt; Joe apologised once or twice but never really said much else.
When we got to camp Ashley was sitting by the campfire. She walked up slowly and inspected us all.
“Joe I presume?” she said looking at Joe who simply nodded “Hi, I'm Ashley, the other Alpha, you look like you got a beating... sit by the campfire and I’ll be right back with some first aid stuff” She sounded slightly annoyed, probably because she was worried. She then turned around and started walking towards the main hall where we kept the first aid stuff.
Chris and I both walked away to our cabins and quickly got changed. I threw on some shorts and my shirt, I then slipped on my shoes before grabbing my knife, I didn’t know if this was all a trick or not but I thought I might need it, and anyways, if Ashley needed first aid stuff I knew the scissors weren’t in the first aid box, we took them out and never put them back.
“Well... welcome to camp” I said walking up to Joe
“Thanks...” he said as he looked around “Is this your home?”
“Yup, it’s our home, the cabins are our rooms, and the big building, it’s the main hall, we eat in there, cook, store food.” I was kind of proud to tell him all this
“So... this is what a pack looks like... or feels like?” he was curious and intrigued.
“Eh... sorta, it’s a lot better than you think, we’re like a family, loyal to the core, we hunt together, eat together, live together. It’s pretty nice, with our families gone, this is our new one.” Chris said as he sat down next to us.
It was nice of him to be nice to Joe. I smiled knowing that Joe too had lost his family and I don’t know how much he cared but he must miss them, everyone misses home eventually.
“Whoa... it is pretty nice... I'm sorry I tried to kill you... twice.” he said as he looked down
“Stop saying sorry for that, I coulda killed you... twice...” I was teasing him slightly; to be honest I was still annoyed.
“Stop annoying him, we can decide later if he’s worthy of joining or not” Ashley said as she walked up to Joe with a small green case, I hadn’t even noticed her get close.
“Now, let’s get you boys fixed up.” She said as she opened the first aid kit. Come to think of it, we all looked pretty bad. Even if all Joe had been able to do was scratch us a few times.