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There’d be plenty of time to grab a burger on the way home if he survived that long.
Wolf’s Run was not a trail you would find in any A to Z or guidebook, but every inhabitant of Lupus Latr knew it like the back of their hand.
It was a short walk up from the village centre, along the high street, then a sudden sharp turn at the Butcher’s, up an alley, and along a cobbled path into the woods. That was the marker and the boundary, where the old world and the new meet went separate ways. Where the villagers could cast off their skins and embrace their true nature and run.
Even for all of the danger he knew would lie ahead, Danny walked easily through the trees. It felt good to be back on the run, to walk in the footsteps of his ancestors and breathe in the free air. The city was too cramped, too confined. There was nowhere to move and even the air was a poisonous smog. The confinement had made his skin crawl. It had hung around his neck and bound his limbs like iron fetters. Here he was free in the way nature had intended. The beast in him longed to be let loose, to be allowed to run and hunt as he had when he was a pup. To reclaim his kingdom.
However, he forced it down, knowing he needed to stay focused on the task at hand.
That wasn’t why he was here. Those days were long gone, forgotten, given over to history and darkness along with all that was left of his kin.
Yet even as he walked along the ancient path beneath a canopy of oaks, chestnuts, and beeches, his eyes scanned the space between every trunk for the slightest hint of movement.
They were out there. Danny could feel them watching, waiting, preparing to launch their attack.
It didn’t matter that his father had once been their Alpha. After he and his mother had fled, they would have been cast out, exiled. Where once he had been a prince, he was now an invader, and he was trespassing on sacred territory. He would have only one warning, one chance to plead his case for safe passage, before they would attack.
It was their way. The wolf’s way.
Snap.
Danny froze, his ears pricked trying to pinpoint its direction, suddenly very aware of how dark it was getting. Night was creeping in as the hour drew on, and he still had two miles to go to Lacum Hall, the seat of Lupus Latr’s ruling family.
His father’s ancestral house.
His heart raced. He waited, silently counting down from twenty, fighting to keep calm. If he made a sudden move, or anything that could be considered aggressive, the attack would be immediate, and for the kill. There was no room for softness in this world nor mercy, only submission or death.
Only when he was certain no attack was- for the moment anyway- forthcoming, did he slowly raise his hands into the air and turn a full circle. “I’m alone, I didn’t come to fight.”
His voice rang out through the trees, but only silence answered.
“Hello,” he pressed. “I know you’re out there. This doesn’t have to get unpleasant, all I want is to talk.” Still there was no answer.
Danny slowly lowered his hands. They were out there. He could feel them watching him. Just out there in the dark, beyond the range of his human eyes. His beast could sense them lurking in the dark, waiting, watching, hunting.
With his guard still up, he turned and continued on down the trail. It was a dangerous move. Nothing was a more inviting target than fleeing prey, and his instincts were roaring at him to turn back. To stand his ground, force them out, and show he could not be herded like sheep but that was the beast talking. The Alpha’s way. He had turned from that path long ago.
So he walked on slowly and carefully, ever aware of the occasional rustle of leaves and distant twigs snapping underfoot as he was followed along the trail. He walked until the trees opened up and he emerged out into a clearing. On the opposite side, just past the tops of the trees, Lacum Hall stood visual over all its domain, high atop the summit of Monkshood hill, bathed in the light of the autumn moon just as he’d remembered it from all those years ago.
Beneath it, the encircling wall of yew and oaks was a patchwork of shadows. Within it, darkness moved against darkness as a beast much like his own stepped out into the clearing.
Danny watched it move into the light. At a first glance, a casual observer could almost be forgiven for thinking it was a man. Almost. Against the dark, it walked upright into the illuminated space, but it was larger than any man had a right to be. Impossibly large. As it stepped out of the shadows, it was impossible to miss its unnaturally long limbs tipped by razor sharp talons, its broad body covered in thick fur, its canine head framed by pointed ears, and powerful jaws large enough to crush a man’s head in one bite.
And for all that, he couldn’t help but laugh. “Jake, is that you? Little Jake Evans, well didn’t you get big.”
The werewolf’s only answer was a deep growl that rumbled up from its cavernous torso like thunder as it stalked out of the shadows, advancing on him.
Danny held his ground, then heard movement behind him, the sounds of branches cracking and something big stepping out in the open. Careful not to make any quick movements, he slowly glanced back. “Ah, Bill, was that you back there then? Well, can’t say I’m surprised, you two always did stick together. Have you tried licking your own balls yet, or do you just do each other’s?”
The second werewolf was the spitting image of the first, but where Jake’s pelt was a dark chocolate colour, Bill’s was a lighter tawny colour shot with gold. Together they advanced, penning him in and closing the trap.
“Okay, now look, guys, I just want to talk with Erza, we don’t have to do this,” offered Danny, still trying to keep his voice level and calm even as he looked from one werewolf to the next, watching his chances of escape shrink by the second.
Jake snapped his jaws in answer, wet and shiny with hunger while opposite him, Bill raked a yew with his claws, leaving great gouges through the bark. When he brandished them his way, the challenge was clear to see.
“Ok, maybe we do.” Sighing, Danny shrugged off his coat. Looking down at his feet, he took a deep breath, and gave himself over to the fury that raged in his soul. He’d come this far, there could be no turning back now. “Alright, come on then you bastards. Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!” His head snapped up and his eyes burned as bright and as fierce as the moon above. “Come on!” His challenge dissolved into a long bestial howl, their ancestral homage to the goddess of the hunt. The orbed maiden with white fire laden whom mortals called the moon.
It was time to remind these pups just who they were fucking with.
