Just a Wolf

Dominic

Theo and Evan and I carry trays full of sandwiches and fruit and chips behind Janine as she returns to the front room. We lay the trays on the low tables near where the leaders are seated. She sits on the couch next to the Alpha, and he immediately pulls her close so that she is sitting right next to his side. He keeps his hand on her thigh, close to her knee.

It seems so natural, their closeness. I understand it. I envy it - not their position as leaders, but their ability to openly be this close to each other, their mating publicly known, not hidden like mine.

I want it too. So much. As the three of us head back into the kitchen to eat, leaving the leader group here, I glance at Janine, her head leaning against the Alpha’s shoulder, her long dark hair making such a contrast to his pale blond hair. They look perfect together, and so, so happy.

To eat lunch I have to get my hand back off my throat, where I hadn’t even realized I was rubbing back and forth, back and forth, across Amelia’s not-mark. It brings me so much comfort somehow, touching her little spot there on me.

It’s strange, how much I miss her, and want her, and wish I was with her, but how this little spot lets me function anyway. And it’s almost like having this tiny piece of her with me makes me feel more alert, not less. Like some of her smarts have rubbed off on me too, and she is helping me not only to survive without her immediate presence, but to thrive.

The three of us guys are leaning against the counter, enjoying our meal, getting to know each other. They’re talking about the plan to go surfing tomorrow, and Theo is giving Evan some tips. It’s kind of funny to realize that Evan, who looks exactly like someone Hollywood would cast in a surfer movie, has never tried it. I even have a few suggestions to offer, based on my fairly limited surfing experience.

Theo looks at me and nods. “Dom, you really need to come with us tomorrow. It’s Christmas Eve, I’ll bet that your Alpha is going to let you guys have a couple of days off, you probably won’t need to work.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I shrug. I’d work if I had to, but if I don’t I’m more likely to want to spend the day with Amelia. Well, unless she’s working, I guess. “I’d like to, but I have to wait to see whether it will work out.”

After an hour or so of chatting and eating, we’re starting to really enjoy ourselves. Turns out that Evan is a sci-fi fan too, and we’re comparing notes and starting to try to convince Theo to try out a couple of t.v. shows, when Beta Nolan comes into the kitchen.

“Hey guys,” he says, “come on back out here.”

We immediately stop laughing and follow him back into the front room.

Alpha Kanen tells, “We’ve decided to shift and spend some time tracking the rogues out here in this area. We’re going to split into teams and meet back here in a couple of hours.”

We nod. My wolf gets very happy, he had been jealous that the other wolves all got to shift and run around earlier, so we’re both glad he’ll have the chance.

Theo’s boss, Malcolm, tells him, “You’re with me. Gamma Michael is staying with us too.”

Evan’s boss looks at him and they nod at each other.

Kanen and Janine are holding hands and they are obviously staying together. Kanen says, “See you all back here in a couple of hours,” and they head towards the back of the house. Presumably they will shift together in private, because obviously the Alpha is not going to let other men see his Luna without her clothes on before and after changing into her wolf form. I mean, I’ve actually seen her before, we’ve all shifted together on occasion - just the other day when we were all grabbing clothes out of the bags after the fight on the road, for instance. But it’s different now. She’s their Luna, and it wouldn’t be right for anyone else to see her.

I look around. Everyone is teamed up except me. And, uh…

Alpha Ross tells me, “You’ll come with me.”

Oh. Yikes. I have to run with the Alpha? Shit. This guy is huge, and his wolf is even huger, I know from the times I’ve seen him during our pack runs and training. Before today I have never spent much time with him, I never have had any reason to. I feel totally intimidated. I hope I can keep up. He’s the Alpha, and I’m just a wolf.

“Let’s shift and leave our things here,” Ross instructs us. We all immediately start shedding our clothing. Nobody is shy, we’ve all done this a million times, it’s a perfectly normal part of pack life. We quickly change out of our human forms, three black men and four white men, into our wolf forms, which are a mix of every kind of color. My fur is a very pale tan, Alpha Ross is an enormous black wolf, the others are a range from russet to grey to mottled. It’s one of the reasons that werewolves don’t really care about our human skin color - it doesn’t correlate with our wolf color, and it seems stupid that humans still act like their skin color somehow differentiates them from each other. It’s one of the many ways that werewolf society is different from human society. Their racism is absurd.

When we get outside, I have to maintain some control over my wolf, rather than letting him have free rein. We have a job to do, so I stay more at the front of our mind than I usually do when we run. The Alpha and Luna have already taken off, and the other two teams head off in different directions, their wolves running through the trees, not too fast to be observing and sniffing their surroundings.

Ross leads us towards the northeast. Through the mind-link, he tells me, “Keep your eyes and nose open, tell me if you detect any trace of the rogues.”

I follow along behind.

After we get a few miles away from the lodge, I realize that the terrain seems more familiar. Our pack lives in Lassen County, where signs of volcanic activity are still evident. Some of the geologic formations are extremely ancient, but some are more recent, even within the last couple of centuries. Lava fields can be seen in some areas, and volcanic caves and lava tubes are not unknown. I didn’t know that the volcanic areas spread this far southwest, but I see some evidence of volcanic rock as we run, and wonder whether this is related to the Lassen County activity, or from a separate volcano. I’ll have to do some internet research about it when I get the chance.

I’m starting to smell a trace of the rogue pack, when Ross mind-links, “Do you smell that?”

“Yes,” I respond. He slows down, following the trail more carefully. We’re in an area that is less heavily forested, more scrubby brush interspersed through a rockier area, with some of the rocks clearly from an ancient lava flow. I wonder if he is noticing the volcanic activity, but I’m sure not going to chat with him about it. That’s not why we’re out here. I might be interested in geology and stuff, but there’s no reason to assume he would be.

We both realize that the rogue scent is becoming stronger, and there seem to be more lines of it, more areas where different wolves have come through this area. It doesn’t smell terribly recent, though, probably at least a couple of weeks old. But as we proceed, we smell it more and more. Obviously a lot of rogues have been in this area, almost as though they were gathering here. Like, dozens of them.

“Keep your eyes out for a shelter,” Ross mind-links me.

That has to be it, they must have a home of some kind out here. We circle around, looping farther and farther out from the highest concentration of scent, but we can’t see any sign of any buildings. No structures of any kind, no cabins or sheds, definitely nothing larger. Not even any areas that look like campgrounds - no cleared fields or fire rings. They’ve been here, lots of them, but what on earth were they doing?

The scent diminishes the further away we get, so Ross leads us back towards the center of the concentric circles we have been tracing. I think a couple of hours have already gone by, and everyone else is probably back at the lodge by now. But I’m sure not going to dare to remind my Alpha that we shouldn’t be tardy getting back.

We are crisscrossing the area again, trying to figure out why the scents are centered here, but with no identifiable purpose. Ross is exploring what looks like an animal trail, and I am on a jumble of rocks, chunks of basalt and granite covering a little hillside. The scent is strangely strong here, and I can’t figure it out. Why would dozens of wolves keep coming back to this bare, craggy hillside?

I follow the trails until I come to a huge boulder where the scent is extremely strong, where obviously lots of werewolves have come and touched and passed by. Furthermore, I can tell from the scent that they had been here in both their human and wolf forms- the scent is different. I am puzzling over this, sniffing everywhere, poking my nose into every nook and cranny in the rocks that it will fit, when I feel a slight change in the air pressure. Not exactly a draft, more like the awareness that there is an open space behind this boulder, not just the hillside or more rocks. Huh.

I sniff all around the boulder, and sense that in a couple of more spots, cracks where the boulder meets smaller rocks, that same thing happens, there is air behind, not dirt or rock. The scent here is very strong.

As much as I hate to intrude and bother the Alpha, I have to report this. “Alpha?” I mind-link to him.

“Yes?”

“I have found something I think you should see,” I respond.

He runs here in moments. I am waiting next to the boulder in the jumble of rocks, finding more and more places where there is clearly air coming from behind the rocks, just from little cracks. I wouldn’t normally find this terribly significant, but the strong concentration of scent makes me think that the rogues have gathered here because of whatever is behind the rocks.

“What is it?” Ross asks, his huge black wolf keenly looking around, sniffing the air, obviously smelling how strong the rogue scent is here.

I poke my wolf nose into the biggest gap where air is apparently flowing from behind the rock, and where the scent is the strongest.

He inspects it carefully, nudges at the rock with his nose, and then his paw. He pauses for a moment, then tells me, “Shift.”

We both immediately change back into our human forms. We can’t see or hear or smell as well this way, but now we have hands with opposable thumbs. He crouches down, feeling around the edges of the rocks with his fingers, and I take his cue and do the same with some of the other nearby rocks.

As we are investigating the rocks, I feel one of them shift slightly under my hand. Oh. I hook both of my hands around the edges of the rock, tentatively pull out a little, and sure enough, it moves. It is a flat rock, and is leaning up against the other ones, balancing there, and I am able to move it up and away from the others.

Behind it is a gap about twelve or eighteen inches across, leading to a dark opening in the earth.

This is a door.

Air flows from the gap, heavily imbued with the scent of rogues. Again, it doesn’t seem very recent. I don’t think new scent has been laid here for at least a few days.

“Alpha?” I say, and he comes around from behind the other side of the boulder.

We stand staring at it for a moment.

“It’s a door,” he says. Yes, I know, but of course I’m not snarky enough to say that. I just nod. He looks around. We don’t have any equipment with us, or lights, or clothes, or anything. We aren’t prepared to go spelunking. However, he obviously doesn’t want to leave without at least some preliminary exploration.

He kneels down next to the opening, and sticks his head inside to peer around. I doubt he can see very much, not with his human eyes. He reaches one of his arms in there, and I can tell he is waving it around, trying to see how big the gap is.

He kneels back out. “I can’t see anything, or feel anything. I think it’s a cave, I think the rogues might have used this place for shelter.” He looks at me, while I am standing here next to him, and his eyes go up and down my body. “I think you might actually be able to fit through the hole,” he says. “I sure can’t, and our wolves wouldn’t fit either. Would you be willing to give it a try?”

“Um, yeah,” I say. What else am I going to say? If my Alpha wants me to try something, I sure am not going to say no. Besides, I am super curious. I’m pretty sure the rogues have been going in here, which means that it’s probably safe enough. Like, there shouldn’t be too big of a drop getting in, or anything.

He moves back from the hole to give me access. I think feet first is probably the best way to approach this, so I kneel next to the hole and back my way in, sticking my feet into the gap. They don’t touch anything. I wriggle my hips and torso past the entrance, while Ross kneels right next to me, his hands extended, clearly ready to grab me if needed.

I get my entire lower body into the hole, feeling nothing but cool air within. I try not to think of my vulnerable naked ass dangling there, exposed in the dark. My head and shoulders and arms are the only thing still outside, and I am hanging there, holding myself against the rocks with my hands. I am starting to think that I am going to have to just let go and drop and hope it isn’t too far. But then just a fraction of an inch lower and I feel rock against my foot.

“Ah!” I say. “I found the bottom. It’s right there.”

“You still good?” Ross asks, and it strikes me that my Alpha is actually concerned about me, not just casually sending me into a hole in the ground.

“Yeah,” I say, “I think I can get all the way in.”

He nods.

I squiggle further into the gap, feel both of my feet on solid ground, and slip my shoulders past the entrance and all the way into the hole. It’s a tight fit - nobody very big would be able to fit through here. My head and arms follow behind, and now that I am not blocking the entrance with my body any more, some light is able to come into the cave.

I turn around, trying to see how big the cave is. On both sides, there are walls within reaching distance, I’m in just a narrow little chute. But in front of me, the walls extend far beyond the reach of the light from the little hole. It looks like a round shaft of some kind, weirdly even, almost seeming man made, like machinery had bored it out of solid rock.

No, wait! I think I know what this is!

“Alpha,” I say, trying to peer down into the darkness, “I think this is a lava tube!”