† Maddock †

Nose to the ground, we inhaled the fresh earthy scent of damp soil and dew as a new day dawned on the woods. A rabbit stirred in the underbrush with his nose twitching as it caught our predator scent and scurried away.

The thrill of the chase called to the wolf.

Later, I told him. We have work to do.

He heeded my command with a low growl and we set off at a trot to inspect the perimeter.

I let my thoughts drift, giving full control to my beast and knowing he’d continue on the right path. We were in sync on most things and I trusted his instincts sometimes more than my own.

Last night, I hadn’t gotten much sleep. I was still trying to process the dream. It was like a bolt of lightning in the middle of the night that jarred me awake. Something was coming.

I wasn’t one for superstitions. My mother handled that department. But even in the daylight, there was a heavy sensation that things were about to change.

Which was strange for the Cerberus pack.

It’d been a long time since we had newcomers, friend or foe, and my brother wasn’t in a position to defend us from invaders. Apollo had grown weak as the Alpha.

That’s why I’d set out earlier than normal, rousing my wolf who

sometimes acted older than his age, to ensure our borders were still properly marked.

In other packs, this was the job of the Alpha, but my role as Sigma and enforcer for the pack let me bend the rules. Most packs didn’t produce a Sigma and the threat of a lone wolf with alpha strength was a deterrent as much as it was a mystery.

Then again, most packs didn’t have a level head in the bunch.

But my scent was strong. It’d been keeping the pack safe for the past eighteen years and I’d continue to do so for as long as it was needed.

Even if I hated this job.

Attack. My wolf growled, snapping me from my human thoughts. Our ears twitched at the crunch of fallen leaves. The step was distant but moving closer.

Backing to the cover of the trees, we scanned the woods for the threat. Yellows and blues and grays came into sharp focus. It was still early spring so my human eyes would have registered the green of the leaves and grass. But the wolf didn’t need to see the world in bloom.

His vision was designed for the hunt.

We inhaled deeply, smelling for any new scents, and let the intruder come to us.

There was no point in rushing these things.

After the dream last night, I was expecting this. Our heart beat was steady as we waited.

The woods stilled to a background noise and we pushed out our senses to feel it.

Something moved. A gust of wind.

She landed in the clearing with a pounce, looking for her target and coming up short. Her red and blond pelt puffed out with a shake.

My wolf snapped his jaws in irritation.

The wolf pup jerked back, ready to charge, and then broke into a series of yips. “I almost got you this time.”

I grunted in response to her human voice connecting with me over the pack link in my mind. “Go home, Kera.”

“But why?” She barked playfully as she rushed to my side. “Admit it. I was close.”

No, you weren’t. I continued along the border, swiping at her snout with soft claws. “Get out of here. I have work to do.”

“Uncle Maddock, the lone wolf, doesn’t want company. Tell me something new.” Kera continued to trot alongside me, ignoring my simple request.

I sighed but didn’t argue. It was pointless. She always found excuses to be a pain in the ass and join me away from the pack.

I didn’t blame her.

“Can I help?” Kera’s voice was overly excitable this morning.

I looked over my shoulder at my niece, sensing the power she was trying to subdue by asking that simple question. “An Alpha demands.”

“I’m not that kind of Alpha.” She huffed as she continued by my side. It was true. In another pack, a powerful alpha female and heir to the current Alpha would have been given more respect. She wouldn’t have to deal with the political divide. Her strength would be enough to quiet anyone that opposed her.

I hoped with time, the pack would come around, but they were stuck in their dying ways. The great Cerberus pack was fated–or cursed–with a triplet male birth to each ruling Alpha and Luna. It had been that way for centuries. The remaining members of the pack who still supported Apollo were waiting for the fates to bless them with the destined male births again.

But Kera was the only destiny they were getting and I was tired of

the disrespect directed her way. In a few years, when she was older, I’d help her fulfill that role despite what the pack wanted.

“Watch my back and cover the tree line.” I gave her something to do, knowing she was restless in a way that only a wolf of her strength with no clear purpose could be.

“Gross.” Her snout wrinkled as she sniffed the border and then followed behind, watching the perimeter with a predator’s gaze.

Doesn’t stink. My wolf growled in confusion, causing me to chuckle. “You’re the one who wanted to come.”

That quieted her for a few blissful moments as we continued on patrol of the border invisible to the naked eye. This far south I didn’t worry as much about other packs encroaching on our territory.

The human purists’ city was a few hundred miles away and the land between us and them was neutral ground for the packs. The purists hadn’t caused any trouble in the north since before my grandfather’s time. There were sometimes skirmishes down south near the Anubis borders when we were younger, but we hadn’t been needed in any fights since Gabriel and I fought with the Anubis pack when we were seventeen.

I assumed that battle had finally been won.

Then again, we weren’t welcomed by the other packs anymore so maybe I’d missed the notice.

But something had drawn me here today and after the dream last night, I figured it was a warning that I’d not been as attentive to this particular area. Safety was something I took seriously.

Someone had to protect this pack.

We sniffed the border again with a nagging feeling building at the base of our spine. It wasn’t awful, but it was there.

“Do you feel it too?” Kera asked, effectively ending the silence. I grunted in response.

“Something is different about today,” she mused. I stopped walking to look at her. She held her shoulders straight, nose turned to the woods, and was taking the role of back-up seriously.

“What do you sense?” My question drifted over to her on the pack bond. These were the lessons her father should have been teaching, showing her how to tune into her instincts. But every day she was coming more into her natural abilities without his guidance. Soon, she wouldn’t need me either.

“Nothing bad.” She laughed softly as my wolf lifted his leg on the tree. “Last night I woke up with a fever dream like something was about to change, but whatever it is felt right.”

Kera continued ahead and our heart beat quickened. The pup had put to words what we were feeling. She moved lithely without a care in the world, content with being heard for once, and pranced to my right side.

My wolf snarled at her back leg with a surge of protectiveness. The pup is in pain.

A bright pink and already healing gash tainted her left flank.

Kera jumped at my response, spinning so her front was to me, and wagged her tail in the air. “It’s nothing.”

The growl in my chest rattled our bones as I stalked around her. She tried to step back, dodging me as she ducked to the side, but I pinned her easily with a heavy paw she didn’t see coming.

“What happened?” The anger in my voice was stronger than an Alpha’s command as I demanded to know the answer.

Kera’s wolf snapped at me, but it wasn’t out of fear. The pup was embarrassed. “What do you think?”

I lowered my muzzle to inspect the wound and she went deathly still. It’d be fully healed in another few hours, but my anger would linger

long after as it always did. After I finished these rounds, Apollo and I were going to have a long conversation.

Again.

She broke free from the hold and rolled to her feet. “He’s getting worse. I know you don’t want me to challenge him, but I’m not sure how much longer I can hold back my wolf.”

“You’re not ready,” I snarled, hating this. She was still a pup. The responsibility was too great for anyone this young. Apollo had been forced to take over the pack at this age, but he had me and Gabriel at his side. Even still, he’d cracked under the pressure.

Some things in life could break you.

And I didn’t want Kera to suffer that fate.

“You always say that,” she grumbled and then shook out the dirt and leaves in her fur with a sigh. “Can I still hunt with you?”

“Alphas don’t ask they…”

Kera cut me off with a sharp growl.

*

We continued along the southern perimeter without any noticeable

change to the scents. Like I’d assumed, nothing had been here to disturb the clearly marked lines. Kera kept her attention on the horizon while memorizing the territory she would one day rule.

My wolf was proud of her quick study, but every time he got a glimpse of the healing mark, we roared in anger again. Our senses were

heightened and emotions running rampant the further we patrolled. The full moon had been a week ago so that couldn’t account for the strange effects.

“It’s coming.” Kera ground to a halt, sniffing the air in excitement. She bounced forward to the trees and raced back to me like she was a little pup again.

Her antics gave me pause and a low growl came from my wolf.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“Don’t you feel it?” she cried, racing around me in a circle and kicking up a cloud of dust.

I rose my snout to the air and the world blurred as my wolf surged to the front of my mind, fighting for complete control. The primal urge was all

consuming. I’d never felt him act this way.

Enough. I pulled him back, trying to make sense of this new aggression.

We sniffed. Hunger.

Kera’s wolf bounced around us, trying to get us to play, and my wolf jumped to the side, lowering his muzzle to the ground. Then she took off running, taunting him with a chase. My wolf whined with the need to burn off energy that I didn’t know he had.

My mind was whirling now. Since when did he ever want to play?

Kera raced back. Her wolf body was vibrating with excitement.

“Come on, Uncle Maddock. Let’s go see.” “See what?”

The sound of an engine rumbling in the distance froze my paws where they landed and my lips curled back as I bared my teeth, ready to

fight off a new intruder. But the brute strength of my wolf was clouding my mind with some new sort of need.

A car flew by on the dirt road leading to the pack settlement and we sniffed again as the smell of cinnamon and roasted acorns drifted on the breeze.

Hungry. My wolf was starving and suddenly, so was I. Whatever

the newcomer was bringing to our lands was the only thing I wanted to eat.

We let out a howl that sent the birds flying from the trees.

Kera was a few yards ahead, glancing over her shoulder with a teasing glint in her grayish blue eyes. “Are you coming or what, old dog?”

My wolf and I regained equal footing as we barreled through the trees, leaving the pup behind in the dust. The thrill of the hunt urged us forward at full speed. Something was coming.

And it was mine.