Running With Wolves

“How the hell can you not remember that?” Conan demanded his voice filled with annoyance and exasperation.

“It was the biggest Were any of us have ever seen, how could that have not made an impression?” Knoll pressed, the tone of his voice a perfect imitation of Conan’s; exasperation and annoyance was what summed up the feeling of them all at the moment.

Only several moments after the mysterious Were had disappeared Luke and I had returned to our human forms a little worst for wear. Us, along with our brothers, all sported bite marks of varying severities; but that wasn’t on the forefront of anyone’s mind at the moment.

“How many times do we have to tell you that we loose consciousness when we turn.” I snapped not appreciating the way everyone was interrogating me. “Why the hell do you think I never set Salvie free. She’s blood thirsty and I can’t control her.”

“You’re saying you don’t even remember you two fighting?” Rune questioned skeptically. “I mean that…that was bad that was the scariest thing I’ve seen in a long time and I’ve seen a lot of scary shit.“

“Not exactly.” Lukas grumbled, no happier than I was about the third degree.

“What does that mean?” Jasmine asked in confusion. “How can you ‘not exactly’ remember?”

Lukas said nothing and I knew why. We didn’t see through our Were’s eyes the way everyone else did, we were not four legged versions of ourselves the way everyone else was. Our Were’s were a completely different identity from us. We had no control over our Weres but we did feel the emotions our Weres gave off.

Lukas said nothing because that would mean admitting that he recognized the fury, aggravation, and coldness our Weres had felt. How were we supposed to say to the people that assumed that because we were Soulmates w were perfect together that we actually felt our Weres hate for one another? Our Weres were supposed to love each other. But no not us, never us. Lukas and I had yet to look at each other let alone exchange words with each other.

“I think we have other things to worry about,” Jasmine commented. “I think that Were might top the…dispute you to had—temporarily anyway.”

“Dispute?” Rune muttered dryly. It could have only under the loosest of circumstances been considered a dispute.

“You’re right.” Lukas agreed, just glad to have the attention momentarily diverted. “We have to find it.”

“I think we should take care with what we decide to do.” Conan spoke up carefully. All eyes suddenly turned to him with questioning eyes. “We cannot go stomping through the woods with fire and pitchforks after this thing. That Were poses a potential threat, it made the two of you submit for God’s sake.”

“Yeah but we can’t just let it roam Falcon Ridge.” Knoll spoke up. “It is, after all, our territory now it needs to be protected.”

“Yeah? You gonna be the first line of defense?” Jasmine demanded heated. “I do recall you running like a frightened pup at the sight of it.”

Knoll threw a glare at her, his lips pursed into a thin line though he said nothing further.
Mia did not offer an opinion on the matter. She was just glad that Conan was safe at her side. She’d just as well leave the beast alone as long as it meant her new family stayed out of danger. Why go looking for danger? They seemed to have enough of it as it was.

“We have to do something, though. Doing nothing could prove more dangerous in the long run.” And yet despite Mia’s wish to leave the Were be, she had to agree with Rune’s words. A Were that big and that dominant was bound to bring problems for them.

“Sage?”

I blinked and looked up toward my brother. Lost in my own thoughts. Thoughts filled with powerful muscles, strong jaws, black fur, and the scent of Carpathian Bellflowers.

That Were was bound to bring hell for me…

“I-“ but I fell silent by the sound of a knock on the front door.

I had never been happier to be interrupted then I was in that moment.

Truth be told I didn’t want to hash out a game plan right this second. My mind was split into a million different wants and worries; I wanted to be alone, I wanted to be with Lukas, I wanted to just lock the front door and pull down the shades—no one was home. I worried for myself and Lukas and where we stood. I worried for Pack, I worried for the day Viktor came knocking, I worried for the wolf that stalked our woods, I worried for what it wanted from us. I worried I would never find

I moved from the kitchen and cut through the living room to the front door. I suppose when I opened it I shouldn’t have been very surprised by the man on the front steps.

Erik.

He didn’t look happy to be here either.

“You look like you’ve met your match,” he commented, “and it didn’t take well to you.”

I just frowned in response and left the door open as I returned to the kitchen. My eyes instantly locking on Knoll, “Really?” I questioned deadpanned. “I mean really? You really had to call him.”

“You really think you’re going to put a band aid on that?” Knoll tossed back, referring to the towel I had pressed to my side. Beneath the towel was a nasty bite mark that was bleeding badly.

I scowled in response as Erik entered the kitchen. I suppose I could have been a little more grateful. Erik was, after all, a doctor and in spite of everything he still wouldn’t turn us in to Viktor.

His eyes instantly flickered to Lukas. “You two ever consider couples counseling?” My jaw locked in annoyance. Just because Erik wouldn’t turn us in didn’t mean he wouldn’t make snide comments.

“That was couple’s counseling, ‘Extremely Pissed Off Soulmates Edition’.” Conan scuffed. “Did you really expect Sage or Lukas to do anything half assed?”

The glared I sent Conan locked his jaw and he took a step back. I was not in the mood to hear everyone’s opinion on Lukas and I at the moment. It was bad enough that Lukas and I actually physically attacked each other and that we couldn’t remember; I didn’t need to hear how screwed up it was.

Erik’s gaze was indifferent as he set his eyes on me and nodded toward the bathroom. “Come on,” he sighed. “Lets get this over with.”

Irritation at everyone and everything was coursing hot through my veins and part of me wanted to make some snide remark to Erik about telling an Alpha what to do but I bit my tongue and followed him.

He shut the door behind him and placed his back on the sink’s edge. He wasn’t looking at me and he wasn’t making any special effort to speak to me but everything in his body screamed words he wouldn’t say.

“You should take your shirt off so I can get a better look at that.” He mumbled while sifting through his bag.

Wordlessly I complied, pulling my now gruesome shade of red t-shirt over my head and letting it fall to the floor. I tossed the rag I’d held pressed to the wound into the trash and stood perfectly still waiting for Erik to finally offer me his attention.

When he finally look up at me he hesitated for a moment as his eyes scanned my body. I knew it was bad, the one I’d held the rag to had been the worst but I could feel the numbing pain against my rib cage and shoulder as well as my hip; wolf bites always looked worst on a human than any other animal.

He blinked then swallowed as he moved toward me, examining the wound. The wound was as angry as the set of teeth that had made it. It was no accidental snap of a jaw, it was 400 pounds of pressure per square inch with an intention. His lips pursed as he returned to his bag and produced a sterilized cloth and ran it beneath the cool water of the sink and then he pressed it to my hip. I hissed in pain but he ignored the sound.

His voice was dry and emotionless. “I wonder what your mother would say.”

The statement jarred me for a second and left me as dazed as if he’d punched me.

“Excuse me?”

He pulled the rag away and risen it in the sink, drops of crimson red dripped into the sink. He fished back in his bag for the familiar looking hooked needle of a suture kit.

“Nothing,” He grumbled. “I was talking to myself.”

He began stitching the wound closed and my jaw locked in pain. He wasn’t being cruel but he wasn’t being particularly kind as he stitched the wound. There was tension in his muscles and disapproval in his eyes. Erik definitely had something to say and it definitely wasn’t nothing but I decided to ignore it for now.

It was a little over a half an hour before Erik had stitched and bandaged all of my wounds.

“You’re done.” He mumbled turning away from me. And I moved away from him, pulling open the bathroom door. “Think you can get Lukas without having a go at him?”

A snarl slipped through my lips. “What the fuck is your problem Erik?” I demanded heatedly, anger lighting my veins. “If you have something to say, say it. Try not being a coward for two seconds of your life.”

I heard a growl and then he spun around on me, his eyes livid with anger. “I am not a coward Sage, you nothing about me. You don’t know anything. Do not walk around acting you have the world figured out because you are an ignorant little girl.”

“I am not an ignorant little girl!”

“What are you doing Sage?” He demanded heatedly, his voice rising. “You’re doing nothing. You’re playing house with your best friends.”

“They’re my pack!” I snarled at him. I didn’t like the way he questioned me as an Alpha or my pack. “and I’m going to find my sister which is more than anyone else in this fucking place ever did!”

“You don’t know what you are doing!” He barked angrily, his grey eyes dark with rage. “You made yourself a pack because you could, not because you’re an Alpha. A pack is not best friends with their Alpha, they don’t kick back and play Scrabble on the weekends.” He sneered. “An Alpha is not his pack’s equal, they are their pack’s authority. An Alpha rules the others, keeps order so all hell does not break loose and makes the hard decisions even when everyone is against it.”

“Because that mindset worked so well with Blackwood.” I shot back and his eyes narrowed on me. He composed himself, took a deep breath and stood taller but his eyes were so very wolfish it unsettled me a little.

“You are going to start a war Sage.” He stated calmly. “You will unleash a power within Blackwood by stirring up shit in order to find your sister. You don’t even know her location!”

“I’m going to find my sister Erik.” I stated firmly.

“You are sending all of them into danger.” He hissed at me. “An Alpha would not risk an entire pack for one person.”

“Tell that to Catalina and Coralie.” I sneered at him. “I’m sure they’d understand.”

He flinched like I’d hit him but when he recovered he was deadly calm. “You are not the only one who lost people you loved do to lawlessness Sage. Who are you to call more hearts to war? You will get them killed. You think Catalina or your mother would be pleased to see the person you’ve become? A girl whose commanding people who care about you into battle and death for them. Fucking hell Sage! You’re mother didn’t want this life for you. She’d die if she could see you now.”

The remark stung but I shook it off. It had been no secret as to my mother’s feelings about things after Seneca died. Reminding me how much of a disappoint I’d be to her now was a low blow.

I leaned closer to him. “What should I tell your wife and daughter when their niece and not you comes to save them?”

It was an equally low blow.
I wasn’t sure how I’d gotten to this moment with Erik; where tearing open old wounds was suddenly perfectly acceptable.

He pushed me back roughly, his fists coming down hard against the wall on either side of my head. “You know nothing of what happened to them!” He snarled. “They left. They were not taken. You are blinded by your sorrow Sage and it will be the death of you. You act all high and mighty and seem to believe the entire world is against you but everything is not a conspiracy Sage. Sometimes life just fucking sucks and there is not anything you can do about it.”

In a flash I pushed him backwards, Alpha blood coursing through my veins. Who was he to treat me like a child. I was an Alpha, which was more than I could say for him. “They were taken.” I snarled vehemently. “Just like Cheyenne, just like countless other women. Or do you really not know that?”

“What makes you think you even know that?”

I was inches from him now. “I know what those archives say. I know the things this town tried to bury and hide from the pack. I know the war was not started because my father wanted a smaller pack or because your brother wanted to be Alpha.”

“You’re treading dangerous waters.” He warned.

“Erik,” I stated flatly. “I’ve been on dangerous waters since I returned. The only difference is I’ve learned how to swim, have you?”