Lycanthropy

“Sixty-three-thousand and four-hundred-sixty-nine dollar.” The gold teller said.

“Per kilo?” I asked him, completely astound to what I heard.

We had been mining some gold by ourselves and had carried it all the way to town, about twenty-five miles from here. There on the edge of the small city, a tiny gold shop was stationed. The man had been melting our gold, filtering it from other metallic compounds, and finally weighed the amount that we had brought.

Which was eventually, three point six kilo. So, you can imagine that we were all smiling until our face couldn’t contort any further. And still we have only been mining in the back of the cave for just a single day, with our bare hands and some crude tools, that we had brought to the cave from the small hunting lodge.

We took the money with us, and made sure that the gold teller wasn’t going to tell anyone, by giving him ten thousand dollar. Which was just a small amount, compared to the massive two-hundred and twenty-eight thousand dollar that we received from him.

Of course, we hadn’t told the man that we had plenty more gold to mine, but we would sell that at another shop later, to not make ourselves suspicious.

I had been to the local bank to open an account, but that would require identification documents, which I didn’t have. So, we went to arrange that first, by saying that we all had lost them, on a hiking trip. After a week of waiting, and filling out several forms, we got the documents, and opened a bank account to put all the money on.

Of course we had made cash payments for the things that we required right now, such as food, clothes, beds, a power generator, tools, cables, lights and some light kitchen appliances.

We had put the power generator in one of the smaller rooms, and from there we had put up cables on the ceiling for lights, and power outlets on the walls. Terrence was quite handy, as it seems, as he was the one that drilled all the holes, and connected the cables and such.

After several more weeks, we had brought the gold that we had mined, to other towns, with a new car that we had bought. I didn’t want to start our pack with a stolen vehicle, so, we got rid of the van, and had bought a nice four by four Dodge Ram, that would go easily through the snow with the right tires, and had massive loading capacity.

Terrence had gotten a new driver’s license of course too.

The bear that was hibernating in the first room on the right of the cave, was gone now, and happily foraging through the forest. We actually had left that part of the cave for the bear, as it seemed that he came back every now and then, and he wasn’t fazed by our presence. Maybe our werewolf smell was soothing him, so he just went in and out, and didn’t attack us at all.

“Hello is someone there?” We heard someone yell, at the front of the cave.

“Rogue” Dakota said.

“Yes I can smell it too, don’t worry, I’ll go with Terrence.” I said to her.

I linked Terrence, who was mining at the back of the cave, to get to the front. Together we walked there, carefully, as the stench of multiple rogues became worse. I couldn’t imagine that I once had smelled like that, but I guess that over the years that I was without a pack, I grew accustomed to it. But now that I’m leading one, there was nothing more sure, these people were rogues.

Terrence walked over to the bunch of people, which consisted of three males, two females and three children.

“What are you doing here?” Terrence asked.

“I’m sorry Alpha, but we are looking for refuge, our pack’s ranks got overtaken by some warriors, as our Alpha and Beta didn’t seem to be strong enough. And now the whole pack is in disarray.” The leading man of the group said.

“He is not the Alpha, I am.” I said.

The people shifted on their feet, astound that a female was the Alpha. I have been speaking with Terrence about it, and it seemed that an Alpha was actually always male. There have been packs that were led by female Alpha’s, but they either didn’t last long enough, because a male Alpha had rightfully challenged the female for it, or the female had found their mate, and had given the rights to the pack to someone else.

“I’m sorry Alpha, you were standing right behind him, so I thought that the smell came from him. My apologies.” The man said, and my chest rumbled with a roar.

“How did you find us?” I asked him.

“That would be my fault, Alpha.” Amy said when she stepped inside the cave with several bags of groceries.

“Amy…” I growled.

“You know that we aren’t ready yet! How could you have done this?” I said to her, through the pack-link.

“I’m sorry Alpha but I came across them, when I went for groceries, and I couldn’t leave the children behind.” Amy said out loud.

I sighed.

“Fine, but you will be rogues for two more days. Prove your worth, and you can stay. And stay the hell away from the back of the cave. It’s not safe!” I roared and the people nodded in fear.

“Oh and Amy? Don’t invite people over, without my permission again.” I grunted.

“Yes Alpha.” She said gleefully.

“Under all that grumpy, there is something sweet, please trust me.” I heard her whisper.

“I heard that!” I roared from inside the cave.

I heard the people ask her, if there are more pack members, as they found it strange that there weren’t many other people. But Amy explained that due to personal circumstances, I wasn’t able to grow into a pack, or take over one. But she assured them, that I was strong, and that we had enough resources to grant everyone who came here, a good life.

In the next two days Amy had placed the females in the kitchen, and the males were constructing the cave to be more save, and liveable. Besides that, Terrence started training the adults, giving them the same training that I had given him. I want our pack to be able to defend themselves if danger ever came to us.

Terrence and I had also made a door in the last room of the cave, because we don’t want other people to know that we have struck a gold mine there. I had temporary made an office in that room, with a computer and other supplies, and behind my desk, was the tunnel where we mined the gold. We had put a removable wall up in front of it, so no one could see it. I can’t trust anyone other than Terrence and Amy right now.

That trust with the new pack members, needs to be built over the next months, or years even.

Amy had made some sort of ritual, about entering our pack.

“From now and for eternity, we swear to pledge our loyalty, to Alpha Emerson of Mountain Peak Pack!” Our newest addition of pack members said altogether.

I looked towards Amy, and growled a little.

“Mountain Peak Pack?” I linked her.

“Well you only gave me two days to come up with something!” She complained.

Whatever, I don’t really care. And besides, the cave is halfway up the mountain, and on top of it, there was indeed a peak, with the most beautiful and serene view. So, the name wasn’t a lie.