Wolf Untamed by Alexis Calder

15

The first day of walking had been awkward and quiet. Thankfully, the rough terrain gave us all an excuse to stay quiet. From what I could tell, our group was in decent shape, but our route was all uphill, over rough and unstable ground. By the nightfall, we were all exhausted.

A fire crackled in the center of our makeshift camp. I dug through my pack and found a blanket I could use to protect myself against the cold, night air. When I pulled it out, a package of cookies came along with it. I grinned and held them up for the others to see. “I take it Greta knows what we’re up to?”

“I never told her, which means, she knows everything,” Alec said.

I opened the package and offered them around the group. Everyone took a few and chewed them quietly. We’d already eaten some of the food from Alec’s bag, but jerky and canned fruit left something to be desired. The cookies were a nice treat.

“We should get some rest,” Alec said. “I can take first watch.”

“We should have a pair on watch,” Kyle said.

“I’ll take first watch with him,” I offered. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep anytime soon. My body ached from the hiking we’d done all day, but my mind hadn’t settled. Plus, I was honestly terrified I would have another dream about Tyler. That was the last thing I wanted.

“You three sleep,” Alec said. “I’ll wake the next group in four hours.”

“You sure you don’t want to sleep first?” Sheila asked as she stifled a yawn.

“We’ll be fine,” I said. “Sleep.”

“I’m here if you need me,” Kyle said. “But promise you’ll actually wake me.”

“I will,” I assured him.

The fire crackled and the wind rustled the trees. It was a beautiful night. The moon was nearly full, casting a silvery light over the forest. If not for the fact that we were making our way to a witch, I might have enjoyed the beauty of the secluded campsite.

Alec was sitting on a large rock, out of the way from the flatter area where the others had set up their sleeping bags. I walked over to him and sat down on the space next to him. We were only a few inches apart, but it was the best seat if I was going to stay awake and watch the woods for a few hours.

Aside from the occasional stoking of the fire, neither of us moved or spoke. It was probably a good hour before I got too restless to sit in silence anymore. I stood and stretched, then walked in a quiet circle around our camp before returning to the rock.

“I was thirteen when I had my first shift,” Alec said.

I looked over at him, surprised that he was the one to break the silence. “That’s young, right?”

He shrugged. “Most of us shift between thirteen and fifteen. In packs outside Wolf Creek, we start to worry if you haven’t shifted by sixteen.”

“It must have been nice to grow up somewhere where it wasn’t so restricted,” I offered.

“It wasn’t a glamorous life, but I had a decent childhood. My parents were kind and loving, I had friends and family nearby. Everything was simpler then,” he said.

“Sounds wonderful.” I knew he had tragedy in his past, I’d heard some mentions of it, but I didn’t know the whole story. Keeping my responses short was safer. I didn’t want to bring up any bad memories or ask questions that might cause him pain. I might not be happy with him right now, but I wasn’t an asshole.

He stood and added a few pieces of wood to the fire, then returned to the rock. I wanted to ask questions, especially about why he was helping me. Why did he care about a random shifter who passed through his camp?

Instead, I could only come up with small talk. “At least the weather is nice.”

He chuckled. “Yeah. We’re lucky it’s not raining. This whole forest would be a mud pit we’d have to trek through.”

“How did you meet this witch?” I asked.

“We’ve been working on something together,” he said.

“Oh,” I said softly. “So, we’re back to the secrets?”

He glanced over at me. “I’m not trying to keep things from you. I’m not sure how much you want to know. You’ve been through a lot.”

“So have you,” I pointed out. “I can handle it. Just tell me what you’re so afraid of sharing. Let me in, just a little.”

“Like how you let me in?” he accused.

“That’s not fair. I told you everything. You know about my mate and how I was treated. You know all my pain. And you still sent me back. I know nothing about your past,” I said.

“You’re right.” He stood and walked to his pack, then pulled out a flask. After a long drag, he walked back to the rock and sat before offing the flask to me. “You told me about your mate and about your life in Wolf Creek. It’s only fair if I do the same.”

I took a swig, the liquor burning my throat on the way down. It made my eyes water a little. “What was that?”

“Bourbon,” he said. “Takes some getting used to.”

He took another swing, then closed the flask. “My mate and I grew up together. We’d been friends our whole life. So when the mating bond appeared, it was natural to fall into each other. We were happy.”

I knew she’d died, but he’d never talked about her other than that. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“She’d have liked you,” he said, glancing up at me. “She was feisty, and strong, and never quit anything.”

“What was her name?” I asked.

“Sofia,” he said.

“Beautiful name,” I said.

He hummed and nodded.

We sat without speaking for a long while, the sound of the fire and the wind the only noise. For the first time since my return, I didn’t feel the need to fill the silence or escape from him. I was content to just be. He’d opened up and shared something, and I appreciated how difficult that must have been for him. I never knew his mate, but I knew how strong the bond could be. And what I was experiencing was for someone I didn’t want to be with. I couldn’t imagine how crushing it would be to lose someone you wanted to be with.

“My pack was small. Right on the border of Wolf Creek. There weren’t many of us left, but we had been there a long time. It was our home for generations. Wolf Creek wanted the land. We turned them down.” He took another sip from the flask and offered it to me.

I declined. “I’m not sure I like where this story is going.”

He nodded, knowingly. “They attacked while I was away at my first year of college. Used the toxin to weaken everyone and prevent shifting. Then, they killed anyone who resisted, which meant, they killed every member of my pack. I never even got to bury her. They burned all the bodies. There were no survivors. Not even the children.”

My lips parted and my eyes widened. I tried to process the utter horror of his story. How could anyone do such a thing? I recalled a ceremony years ago for new land acquired by the pack. I didn’t know the details because I hadn’t been welcome to attend, but the posters were all over the school. I was young, and it didn’t cross my mind to question why any of it was happening.

“I’m so sorry.” My words sounded hollow, empty. How could I express exactly how terrible I felt for him? “Nobody should have to endure what you went through. And nobody should kill innocents. I knew my pack was made up of monsters, but I didn’t know how hateful and truly monstrous they were.”

“I know.” He turned to me. “Now you know why I needed the recipe.”

“No, I don’t,” I replied. “Honestly, it makes me regret giving it to you. We don’t need more of that out in the world.”

“I’m not trying to make it,” he said. “I was a chemistry major before the attacks. I have friends in the field working on an antidote from a scientific perspective. And that witch we’re seeing, she’s been working on potions and spells to see if we can fix it with magic.”

“Wait, what?” It seemed too good to be true. “How would that work?”

“I’m not sure yet. A pill, maybe, or a potion or some kind of herbal mix. If my pack had something, anything, they might have stood a chance. They couldn’t shift, and they couldn’t heal. Instead, they were slaughtered.”

I wiped a tear from my cheek. The more I learned about the pack I’d grown up in, the worse it got. I wasn’t sure if my mom was originally from Wolf Creek, but I didn’t know if where she was from was better or worse. Add in the fact that my father’s family would kill me on sight, and I wasn’t sure there were any good packs out there. Maybe feral shifters were the ones with the right idea.

“I don’t think I can do it,” I said.

“Do what?” Alec asked.

“Take over Wolf Creek.” I shook my head. “I can’t lead a place like that. I don’t want anything to do with them.”

“Their history is exactly why you should be going after this,” he said. “You got that mark for a reason.”

“What about you?” I asked. “What if you challenge Ace?”

“My pack is gone,” he said.

“If you won’t claim Wolf Creek, you need to look around at what you’ve built,” I said. “Your community is more pack than anything I grew up with.”

“Packs complicate things,” he said.

“Yet, you want me to go run one?” I asked, skeptical.

“It’s different for you. Your pack is still there and it needs to be run by someone with compassion and intelligence.”

I lifted my brows. “That is high praise for someone you hardly know.”

“It doesn’t take much time with you to know your heart is in the right place,” he said.

I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. None of this was what I expected. I wanted so badly to be angry with him. He wasn’t making it easy.

“We should wake the others,” he said.

“Okay.” It hadn’t felt like four hours, but I honestly wasn’t keeping track. Either way, after everything I just heard, I could use some time to process and I probably wasn’t the only one. That had to be near impossible for him to share with me. No wonder Sheila insisted that it was his story to tell.

“Thanks for telling me all of that,” I said.

He gave me a weak smile. “You deserved to know after everything I put you through.”

My heart felt like it was going to explode. I was so overcome with sympathy for Alec, and at the same time, I was wondering if there was anything between us I could still salvage.

With everything I had on the horizon, I wasn’t in the right place to assess my heart. Quietly, I stood and walked toward my sleeping bag.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the others waking. Kyle stretched and turned toward me. “You good?”

I nodded.

“Five more minutes,” Sheila moaned.

“You got this, protector,” Malcom said, using the title she’d have if she was in a pack where her mark had been honored.

“Way to use my words against me,” she teased.

“Stop your chatter, the others need some sleep,” Kyle said.

Alec was already in his sleeping bag, his body turned away from me. I hoped he would be able to get some sleep after reliving his past.

I settled into my sleeping bag, lulled to sleep by the quiet, muffled conversation of my friends but my slumber didn’t last long.