The Porch Wolf

Present Day

Waking before six, I put on running gear and went down to my home gym for the first time in years. The room was dark and dusty, and I pulled the cover off the treadmill before plugging it in. Turning on the stereo, I cranked some Pink Floyd while I ran.

I was breathing hard after ten minutes; I wasn’t a young wolf anymore, and my fitness had deteriorated after Catherine’s diagnosis. I pushed on, alternating between thirty seconds of sprints and sixty seconds of jogging until I couldn’t take any more. I walked ten minutes as a cooldown, leaving the gym sore and feeling every one of my fifty-one years.

Today was thirty minutes; tomorrow would be better. I took a shower and ate breakfast, then watched the news as I thought about my day. I was hoping that Liv would contact me early with more questions; it would be even better if she came over with Vicki. While I waited, I had a lot to do.

My first call was to my in-laws, Larry and Donna. Larry picked up first. “Leo? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong, Dad,” I said.

“Then what are you doing up at seven in the morning?” I heard Donna laughing in the background.

“I need to talk about a few things. Are the two of you alone?”

“Yes, let me put you on speaker.”

“Good morning, Leo,” Donna said. “Did you talk to your niece and her mother?”

“I did.” I walked them through the whole night. I told them everything I did and said, and what their reactions were. “Other than running off to the bathroom, Liv handled it well.”

“That was last night. Today, they’ll realize that people shouldn’t be turning into big, furry wolves. Liv and Vicki will be questioning everything you told them,” Donna replied. “She won’t do anything rash, at least I don’t think she will. She’ll focus on her daughter, that’s what she’s done for the last five years. It won’t change now.”

“I agree. You took a risk, Leo, but it’s not in their interests to expose our kind.”

I was glad they agreed with my actions. “While I wait for Liv to agree with me training Vicki, I wanted to verify what I have to do to form my own Pack. I haven’t paid any attention to Pack politics lately.”

Larry chuckled. “There’s not much that has changed. You never lost your Alpha Mantle, so no one can question that you have the right to form a Pack. You need to meet the minimum size requirements and announce your Pack formation at the Alpha Summit. Once you are recognized, other Packs are required to respect your position and your boundaries.”

“Who would join me?”

“The fastest thing would be to take over your old Pack. You still have the Mantle, and Alphas Todd and Susan are just Betas, punching above their weight. If you get yourself back in shape now that you have a reason to fight again, you could defeat him. Kick him out of the Pack this time.”

“It could take months to regain my strength, and I don’t have the time or the patience to go back. Todd did what was best for the Pack at the time. I said I’d never return, and I won’t. He can keep it.” I looked out my window. “I have my land, and I have enough room in my home that I could ask a few people to live here with me. Warriors, preferably, who can help train and protect Vicki as she grows up.”

“Do you have a Beta in mind,” Donna asked. “The Beta pair will be your protection at the Summit, so they must be strong enough to do so.”

“I haven’t the first idea who to ask,” I said. “I haven’t talked to a werewolf outside of you two since the banishment. I don’t get out, and if I run across someone, we don’t even exchange a ‘how ya doing.’ Who is going to want to leave a successful Pack for an old Alpha who gave up on his last one?”

“You lost your MATE, my daughter, after twenty-five years together,” Donna said. “Few can survive that kind of grief and keep their wolf sane.”

“I have an idea, but I have to talk to them first,” Larry said. “I’ll call you when I have an answer.”

“Thanks, Dad. You guys have a good morning, I’ll be fine.”

“We love you, Leo. Thank you for letting us help.” Donna hung up the phone, and I set it aside. Opening my laptop, I started searching for surveillance systems. I would have to rely on technology to provide some warning if someone came here after Vicki. I purchased a commercial surveillance system with wi-fi linked cameras and solar panels that I could use for the remote areas of my property, and hard-wired cameras for in closer. It had motion detection and alarms that could be used to give me valuable seconds to get them to safety.

I looked at my phone, but there were no texts or missed calls. I sent Liv a text. “Thanks for listening, call me if you want to talk.” I went to my office as I waited for a response. Opening the gun safe, I pulled out a Smith and Wesson M&P9 Pro, the long-slide version of the popular pistol with tritium fiber-optic sights. I unloaded it, then moved over to the desk where I put a pad down to protect the wood. I stripped it, cleaning and lubricating it, then put it back together. I threaded a holster on, then slid it in place. I grabbed an ammo box of target ammo, tossing it in a range bag with a dozen targets, some cardboard, and a staple gun.

I put on a jacket and boots, then drove the ATV out to the range I’d made in the back of my property. It was a V-shaped ravine, and I could shoot between five and fifty yards at multiple targets. I started out simple; slow fire from five yards. I was rusty, but after running through a few magazines, I started to get my muscle memory back.

I moved back to ten yards, then started double-tapping targets from low ready, then drawing from the holster. It was like riding a bike; soon, I was running through shooting drills like the old days. When I noticed my accuracy was fading, I’d shoot at half speed and focus on making the transitions smooth. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast; I kept telling myself that until my body listened. You don’t shoot faster by trying to be fast, and you don’t shoot well when you hurry.

I spent about two hours out there, shooting until I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore. I packed up and went back inside, starting to worry that I’d heard nothing from Liv. I cleaned the pistol and loaded it with hollow-point silver core ammunition, putting it back in the holster and pulling my outer shirt out to cover it. I was going to have to start carrying all the time if I was to protect her, so I might as well start now. Looking at my carry permit, I saw I’d have to renew it soon. I’d take the class with Liv and put in both our paperwork.

Tomorrow I would start on rifle shooting. I should alternate days until I was proficient again.

It was late afternoon, and I was hungry. Liv would be working tonight, but I didn’t want to push her. Instead, I kept to my routine and headed to Red Wing and the St. James Hotel. The historic hotel had a dark and quiet restaurant in the basement that I could hide in for hours. With every mile, I was getting farther away from Vicki, and my wolf didn’t like it.

I never made it to the hotel. I pulled over by the Dairy Queen into Johnny’s Gyros, a tiny Chicago-style food place that made better hot Italian beef sandwiches than Portillo’s. I grabbed two with fries, then got a big milkshake from Dairy Queen before heading back towards Hastings.

I was trying hard not to be that creepy guy, but my wolf didn’t like his pup being vulnerable. I found a place to park within sight of the fourplex and got the paper towels ready. I didn’t know what I was thinking; the messy dipped sandwich was the worst possible food to be eating in the cab of my truck. The peppers and onions would fall out, my hands got coated with the juices, and the peppers burned my mouth and stomach. The heat was the reason I got the large vanilla milkshake, to quell the fire in my belly.

It was dark just after four in the afternoon, so Vicki wasn’t playing outside. When I cleaned up after my dinner, I pulled out binoculars and checked the windows. I could see the television, along with the back on Natalie’s head. There were sharks on the screen, so Vicki must have been watching her shows.

“Raise your hands if you can hear my voice, Vicki,” I sent to her. I saw two hands in the air, then she jumped up on the couch and started to look around. Her wolf wasn’t able to send back yet, and she was looking for me. “Relax and watch your show. My wolf just needed to make sure you were all right.”

She waved, still not seeing me, then she sat down to watch her show again. I stayed there for an hour until they left to go eat, then drove off to go to the grocery store. I drove by again on the way home, then continued on. I swung through the Wiederholt’s parking lot, spotting Liv’s car in the back row.

She hadn’t called or texted me back, and she’d be busy working for another few hours. I couldn’t barge in tonight, I had to let her come to me. Disappointed, I drove home.

I was surfing the web for supplies for my safe room when my phone buzzed. I picked it up, hoping for Liv and seeing Larry instead. “Hey, Dad,” I said.

“Are you busy, son?”

“No, just doing some web surfing. Liv hasn’t responded today, and I’m worried.”

“Well, we’ll be there in half an hour. Put some coffee on,” Larry said, and then he hung up.

‘Something is going on,’ my wolf told me. I quickly cleaned up the kitchen and living room and fired up the coffeemaker, anticipating the first werewolves to be welcomed into my house since my banishment. I was waiting outside for them when they arrived. “Mike? Anita? What are you guys doing here?” Mike was the fifth child and third son of Larry and Donna; he and his mate were ten years younger than Catherine. I’d watched Mike grow from an eight-year-old Alpha’s son into an impressive young man.

“I heard you needed a Beta,” he said as he walked up, holding Anita’s hand.

I hugged them both, then Larry and Donna. “Come on in,” I said as I opened the door. We settled at the kitchen table as Donna took care of the coffee. I looked at Mike and Anita, realizing that Dad had set me up. “Why would you leave your brothers for me,” I asked them.

“You’re family, and you need help,” he said. “My brothers have the Pack well in hand; I’m not fully utilized, just like Mom and Dad. We can do more with you. Building a Pack from the ground up would be fun.”

“It could get dangerous,” I said.

“Our niece needs us,” Anita said. “Mike and I have been in charge of training the youth for fifteen years now. Vicki will need to learn to shift, then learn to be a wolf, and there isn’t much time. John and Brenda have a son and a daughter. I called a friend in their Pack to ask her what she knew about John and his brother. She confided to me that the Alpha Mantle is not on either one of his children, and Brenda has kicked John out of their bedroom. He’s sleeping in his office while she tries to find the bitch that took her mantle.”

“He might know her name already if John told her,” I said.

“They are looking for a girl named Olivia, who was a college student in 2014,” Anita replied. “It’s just a matter of time.”