Claiming Treasure

Alpha John Coffey’s POV

Cascade Pack Main Entrance

It was only a few minutes until go time at noon, and everyone was tensed up.

Alpha Robertson was with me in the middle vehicle of the three-SUV convoy that was almost to the main gate of the Cascade Pack. The lead and trail vehicles held armed Enforcers, while the personal guards for Alan and I were in the front seat. As soon as we reached their guard, we would state our business, and everyone would race for the Pack House, cutting off escape routes. If it went well, Alpha Carson, his human friend, and Doctor Myers would surrender themselves. If not? Well, it was death to harbor a Council fugitive. Our men were more than enough to enforce that.

“Alpha, there’s a sign at the border,” my Beta sent. “It says ’To Enter is to Die. Go Home Banff and Denali.”

“Ignore it. We’re almost to the gate.”

Alpha Robertson finished linking with his warriors, and he looked a little shocked. “They know we are coming; there was a warning sign at the border.”

“I heard. It probably looks like that one.” There was a sign across the road we were traveling down, hung from the vehicle gate. “Ram the gate, full speed to the Pack House. All warriors attack!”

The locked gate got knocked aside by the brush guard on the lead Suburban, and we saw no guards in the gatehouse. “My men are across the border,” Alan said as we bounced about in the seat belts. Carson didn’t spend enough money on road maintenance.

“FUCK,” my guard shouted as he stood on the brakes, sending the big Suburban into a sideways slide and off the road. The trail vehicle didn’t brake fast enough, and the impact combined with the dropoff and soft ground started us rolling. We stopped when we slammed into the trees, the driver’s side on the bottom. All of the airbags had deployed, leaving me trapped between the inflated pads and the crumpled ceiling. “Everyone all right,” the driver asked as he shut the ignition off.

“I’ll heal,” I said. I unbuckled my seatbelt and tried moving, just as Alpha Robertson cut his way free and his feet swung down onto me. “DAMMIT! You couldn’t wait?”

“Gas,” he said. “Let’s get the fuck out of this thing.” He climbed up and punched his shattered back window out, then hauled himself up onto the door. Reaching in, he helped pull me out before helping the other two.

The warriors piled out of the trail vehicle, which had stayed upright. “Oh, Luna,” one of them shouted as he looked in the lead vehicle. He turned away, throwing up into the grass. The lead Suburban looked like a convertible with a smashed front. It lay steaming against the trees where it had come to rest, the smell of blood heavy in the air.

“FUCKERS,” another man said. “FUCKING FUCKERS, I’LL KILL THEM ALL.”

As we got closer, we could see what happened. There was a thick steel cable tensioned across the road; the driver hadn’t seen it until it was too late. It was just above hood height for the Suburban, and it had cut through the truck like a knife through butter. The six men, two from each Pack, along with two Enforcers, had been decapitated in a moment. Car-sized boulders along the road kept us from getting around it. With the cable size and the big concrete blocks holding it, we weren’t getting past it without heavy equipment. “Leave your weapons and shift,” I ordered. “No arrests and no mercy. Kill the males, but leave the Alphas to us.”

The men let out a howl, pulling their clothes off and shifting into their wolves. Alan and I led them in a sprint down the road, hearing my Pack warriors closing in on each side. We reached the clearing where the Pack House and other buildings were, our warriors spread in a line a hundred yards wide. Howls from the other side of the clearing told me the Denali wolves were with us.

The Pack House was on top of a small rise, and as we ran closer, I could see the high stone veneer and barricaded windows that were in place. It smelled like a fish fry, and I shook my head as I spotted my prey. Alpha Carson was standing at the top of the stairs, and a dozen others were spaced ten feet apart, spaced along the wide front porch.

I let out a war howl as I got closer, answered by men of both Packs. I ran ahead of my men, Alpha Robertson at my side, and gathered myself to leap the stairs and into Carson’s body.

He raised something in his hand, and then I was on fire.

Alpha Carson’s POV

We’d done a lot of landscaping in the past week based on a suggestion from Sawyer.

All of the shrubbery and foundation plants had been removed from around the Pack House, as it created a fire hazard. We excavated the topsoil, then backfilled with dump truck after dump truck of small, sharp-edged rocks that averaged one to two feet across. “Anklebreakers” is what he called them, and I could see why. The random rocks were at all angles, and crevices that could catch feet or paws abounded. The riprap extended a good thirty feet from the foundation on all sides. With it in place, attackers would have to slow down and think about where to place their feet. It also made jumping the wall or using ladders difficult.

It was especially dangerous when we sprayed the rocks with a thin coating of vegetable oil, as we had done when we learned of the impending attack.

Vegetable oil was flammable, as every restaurant knew. It could easily ignite from the roof by dropping a flare or Molotov cocktail down on the rocks below. The sixteen-foot rock wall and insulated solid concrete foundation would easily withstand the resulting flames, and the vegetable oil would not ruin the soil.

That led to the second idea. It was like a pressure washer, but better. We had installed a thousand-gallon tank of the vegetable oil in a remote outbuilding. A hydraulic pump and accumulator supplied the header running along the front of the covered porch and entrance with five hundred pounds per square inch of pressure. Connection points allowed us to attach nozzles like you might use on a pressure washer, equipped with propane igniters at the tip, able to spray liquid death forty feet.

“They’ve passed the border,” Angelina sent me. “East, West, and three vehicles in the main gate, just how and when he said they would.”

I opened up the link to the entire Pack. “Warriors from Denali and Banff have crossed into our territory, ignoring our warnings. Stand strong. Defend your Pack and your future. May Luna protect us all.”

We had two defense plans, depending on how confident the two Alphas were. The first was to draw them close in wolf form and use our new weapons. Wolves HATED fire, and it would stop any full-speed charge. If they were smarter, we were well-defended with warriors at windows and on the roof. We needed to make sure they didn’t bring vehicles if it was to work.

The cables across the roads would keep those away. I watched on a monitor on the front porch as the camera showed the lead SUV getting sliced in half. “What a waste of men,” I told Beta Carl.

“Too bad the Alphas wouldn’t lead,” he responded. We watched for another minute until they were shifted and running again.

“Time for a barbecue,” he said as he picked up his nozzle. He and I took our positions at the top of the stairs, where we would be seen and targeted by the approaching Packs. The other Warriors took their places along the railing since this area didn’t have the ankle-breakers. Each of us tested our flamethrower with a short burst, then held it behind us as we waited. The small propane torches remained lit, keeping them ready for the oil to flow again.

I looked right and left as the monitor showed the line approaching fast. “Don’t show anything until they are about to jump,” I said. “Shooters, target any runaways. Leave any who surrender. Drop the Molotovs as they reach the wall.”

It was going to be ugly.

“There they are,” Carl said. I could see the line coming out of the trees, with the two biggest wolves in front running side by side. “Alphas Coffey and Robertson have arrived.”

“Without permission. Move forward with me.” I moved to the edge of the steps, hiding my magic wand behind my right leg. “Hold. Hold.” They were only twenty yards from the steps, running full speed. “NOW!”

Bringing my sprayer nozzle up, I pulled the trigger, and a jet of pressurized oil flew out the front. Ignited by the propane flame, the atomized liquid ignited into a long finger of boiling flames. It shot towards the charging wolf in a fraction of a second and crashed against his back. I kept the spray on him as he missed his jump, watching as his fur exploded in flames. He crashed into the stairs, howling in agony. I shot the jet into his open mouth, and the howl ended.

Next to him, Alpha Robertson was burning as Beta Carl held the flame on him. We both released our triggers at the same time as the wolves behind them panicked and tried to stop. “SHIFT AND SURRENDER OR DIE,” I yelled to the attackers.

For the most aggressive, it was already too late. Five more wolves were burning after being hit by flamethrowers. I could see a few more trapped in the flaming rocks. From the sounds, many more were dying on the other three sides of the house. The howls of dying wolves filled the air, and the smell of burning fur and flesh made me gag.

Their Alphas dead and with rifles pointed at them from above, and the rest quickly shifted and surrendered. “Bind them and take them to the cells,” I ordered. The warriors and my Beta turned off their flamethrowers before grabbing handcuffs and walking out to fetch them. “Report any casualties,” I ordered the Pack.

There was silence.

“Well done, Cascade Pack. I apologize for the smell we’re going to be dealing with for months.” The front door opened as the men were being led off, and I felt the tingles as Heather’s head pushed its way under my hand. “How are you?”

“I’m about to throw up in the bushes.”

“I’m sorry you have to see this.” She buried her muzzle in my chest as I sat down. The fires were burning out quickly, but the smell would linger. “Angelina, is the Council feed still on?”

“Yes, Alpha. I’m showing the prisoners on both sides now.”

“Switch the feed to the front door camera, audio on.”

A moment later, she answered. “You are live, Alpha.”

I turned slightly and looked into the camera above the front door. “Arrest warrants based on so-called Emergency Powers? Enforcers with orders to remove Alphas with force? Council-sanctioned attacks by enemy Packs on another? The civility and order we established a Council for are gone, and families paid the price.” I looked down to where my fingers were scratching Heather’s neck. “My sons and daughters deserve more. I demand a vote to recall an out-of-control Werewolf Council.”

I moved Heather off my lap, then we both stood up. “If you’ll excuse me, I have burials to prepare for.”