The Leader of the Pack
#24 of The Moonrise Chronicles
Edward woke up to a tongue slathering his face with
affection. He pushed the silly girl away. "Stop it Maggie!" Then he stopped. He
was blinking up at a blue sky. The sun was shining through the overhead canopy.
He sensed movement and sat up. It wasn't Maggie. And this wasn't Central Park. He
could smell water nearby, but that didn't help him orient to his surroundings.
The
female licking his face was a wolf, a bone fide, as-natural-as-they-come wolf.
And she wasn't alone. As they noticed him waking up, they congregated like a
swarm of mosquitoes. Happy yapping and licking ensued until he was forced back
to the ground.
The
ones that weren't swarming him were the males. They stood back at a respectful
distance. Sometime during the early morning hours there had been a struggle for
dominance, and he had obviously won. The problem was, he couldn't remember it.
He had a hazy memory of the church, and of Fish crumbling to dust. And he
remembered sadness. But past that, his mind was fairly blank over the past
twenty four hours.
The
bitches in his new pack had no such lapses. Apparently they had taken an
instant liking to him, and he wasn't sure how he liked that in return. He
remembered his daydream and suddenly wondered what he had done during the
night.
"Uhhh,
hello ladies! Nice to meet you!" he called out cautiously. He was flooded with attention again. It was like
dealing with an enormous litter of puppies. He was pretty certain this wasn't
their normal reaction to humans. Then again, where did they come from? He
looked around and counted over forty. They seemed to be two different types,
but he was hardly a naturalist.
He was
brought out of his ponderings by a vigorous licking in his crotch. "Whoa now!
None of that!" But at the same time, he had to wonder what, if anything, he had
done with them during the night. His mind was trying to reboot, but while he
could clearly recall everything from before this transformation, everything
from the battle on was blurry.
He
fought his way to a standing position only to be bore back down by the press of
furry bodies. He shuddered from all of the lapping at his cock. He concentrated
and tried to will himself to be more human. He felt human, but he remembered how Verona could control her pheromones.
Maybe he could do the same. After a few minutes the bitches settled down. However,
he as now left stiff as a board and wanting to satisfy the need to breed.
He drew
in a deep breath and suppressed the urge. Now that he had his chance of
screwing a wolf, he found he didn't really want to. What he did last night was a
whole other thing, assuming he had done anything at all. But something told him
that he hadn't ranged all the way to Yellowstone. And unless he encountered a
fence close by, he may have done something stupid.
He
decided to check around. Of course, what was he going to do if he encountered
people? A naked man would attract the police and unwanted attention. Of course,
that would be far better than being a werewolf. That would attract even more.
He
decided to try being something halfway. Maggie did it all the time. She could
look like a large shaggy dog/wolf. He only wished he knew how to do it. Heck,
he wasn't even certain how to be a full werewolf right now. Last night's
transformation must have been triggered by being confronted with so much
sensory overload. He grunted in frustration and dropped back to the ground. He
lost his concentration, allowing his scent to be released. He was flooded with
immediate affection.
"God
damn it girls! What kind of party did we have last night?" He fought his way
upright, and in a fit of anger tried to morph into his scariest form. He felt
his hands tingle and change. That was good! He tried to imagine what it would
be like to be a wolf, and his nails thickened and narrowed. He closed his eyes
and allowed his imagination to guide him. He became disoriented but when he
opened his eyes again, he was standing on all fours. As far as he could tell he
was a wolf.
But if
that was so, why was he so much taller than the others? He was easily as high
as he was before. He was huge! He tried to shrink his size to no avail. Worse,
his head was getting fuzzy. No, not like that. Yes his skull was covered in
fur; it was his mind that was beginning to swim. He lurched forward and pushed
the pack aside. He needed to get away from their scent. It was almost as strong
as Verona's!
He
found a trail and followed it for about a mile. He heard voices and radios from
ahead, and staying in the shadows, listened to what they had to say. If he
could have slapped himself he would have. It didn't take too long to figure out
that he had let loose an entire refuge worth of endangered animals. The cops
were being told that they could shoot the animals only as a last resort, and
there was much grumbling about that.
Great! He
thought. I'm going to get these poor dumb beasts killed. He wandered back and
stood among them. They looked to him like he was some sort of god. "What the
hell did I do last night?" He said it out loud, and to no one in particular.
What he failed to recognize was that it was no longer in a speech understood by
humans. But it was understood by the pack.
"You do
not remember?"
He
whirled on the voice. "Who said that?"
"I, Aryan
of the Confined."
He
looked down at the lovely wolf. "Did you just speak?"
She rolled
on her back and exposed her belly to him. "Yes, but I can stop if you wish."
"Can
you all speak?"
To a
human observer it would have sounded like nothing more than quiet yipping and
howling.
"Yes!"
Edward
sat down. This was too much for him. He was going mad, completely insane. "Alright,
then tell me this. From where did I set you free?"
"The
cage," said Aryan.
"A
forest with a fence around it?"
"Yes!"
She yipped.
"I need
to get you back there and pronto."
"But we
like it here. We are your pack now. Lead us!"
"Yes,
lead us!" came the chorus.
"Fine!
Then you will follow me back to the cage. If you stay out here, some of you may
get killed. Besides, there is food and safety in the cage."
Aryan
was still on her back. "Yes, but what is safety? The pack keeps keen with
hunting and killing. Can we not hunt the humans?"
"No! Aren't
the humans your friends? Don't they feed you and care for you?"
"Yes.
But it never feels natural. We should be free."
He
sighed. He was arguing with wolves. It was amazing enough that they understood
him, even more so that he understood them. But regardless of his feelings, they
couldn't stay where they were.
"You
will follow. You will not attack or show any threats towards any humans. You must
go back to the cage for now. I was not in my right mind last night when I
released you. I know today the danger you are in."
"If you
lead, we will follow."
He took
a deep breath and headed into the woods. He soon had a conga line of wolves
marching towards where he assumed the preserve was. His nose was full of she-wolf
scent and he was stepping faster to keep upwind. They came out on a road and
saw several police cars, a few jeeps from the local dog catcher, and a group of
around twenty people. Biting the bullet, he stepped out of the woods and walked
towards the wildlife refuge. Jaws dropped as the animals marched their way in
single file.
One man
raised his gun, but another told him to stop. A tranq rifle or two made an
appearance as the pack closed in. Edward had no idea how disproportionate he
looked. No one was paying a bit of attention to the other wolfs. Suddenly they
looked like mere mongrels.
He
walked up to the main gate. Someone got smart and opened it, and the line
headed in. Edward heard someone say, "Well I'll be damned!"
Enclosures
were opened and shut again as the wolves found their normal spots. By the time
order was restored to the facility, every animal was back in its place. There
was a lot of head scratching going on. Even more enigmatic was the big black
wolf. Try as they might, no one could find a trace of the beast. And in their
amazement, no one had thought to have a camera out. The whole incident had to
be taken on word alone, and after all that had happened in the city, no one
believed them
Attention seekers they were called.
Edward
knew better. But now that he had corrected his mistake, he had nowhere to be,
and nothing to live for. Maggie was dead, and he had no desire to see Verona or
her parents. He wanted to be alone, and so breaking into a house he stole some
ill-fitting clothing and headed down the road. He felt bad for being a thief,
but he was sure they would get over the loss.
He
headed out on the road, his thumb in the air, until a passing pickup truck
stopped and offered him a lift. "Where are you going son?"
"Doesn't
matter. As far as you want to take me. As far as the road will lead me."