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“Someone captured an entire pack to study?”
“No the pack assemblage was composed of unrelated animals interacting under the confines of captivity. You can imagine the results. Captive conditions are notorious for producing vastly different behaviors than what occurs in the wild.”
“That makes perfect sense. Spot anything else?”
“Just more scat. We’re a day or so behind the pack, but I’m willing to bet they know where we are.”
“So, back to the pack stuff. Does this alpha status imply that, like you said about your wolves, they have to fight their way to the top?”
“Yes and no. In a typical pack, competition can take place among members to improve or obtain a better ranking, but leadership positions in most wild packs are determined by lineage. The parents are dominant over the offspring.
“But we’re in a typical forest. In places like this, there are relationships that extend beyond parent and offspring. There are same sex-second-order relatives such as our equivalent of aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews, not to mention grandparents and grandchildren and even unrelated individuals. In that case, it’s more accurate to refer to pack members as dominant breeders, subordinate breeders or non-breeding males and females.”
“And that’s why you chose Yellowstone.” He stopped walking and stared at her.
Oakley stopped and looked back. “Yes.”
“Damn girl, intelligent is sexy as hell on you.”
“Always the flatterer,” she smiled, then abruptly stopped. A moment later, the sound of wolves snarling filtered in.
“It might be them,” she looked at Nashoba and Ba'Cho, who walked several steps ahead of her. Everything about them gave off a “battle ready” vibe. Gunner froze in place, all his senses tuned to his surroundings.
It wasn’t long before the pack who accompanied them, wolves beside and behind them, began to react to another pack in the immediate vicinity. Within minutes, Oakley’s pack was still and watchful.
Snarls, yips, growls and barks came from the wolves surrounding them. Gunner found it impossible to stop possible escape scenarios from playing in his mind. If this went south, they might not make it out.
He’d go down fighting, but couldn’t let anything happen to Oakley. Gunner mentally inventoried his ammunition and weapons. As he stood there considering the best weapon for the situation, a large wolf stepped forward from the opposing pack.
Their alpha, he assumed.
To his shock, Oakley was the one to step forward to greet him. Nashoba and Ba’Cho stayed positioned just in front of him, every fiber of them on alert. He knew how they felt. He’d attack at the drop of a hat, himself.
Oakley spoke in her native tongue, and signed to them. It floored Gunner that he understood her. How was that possible?
“Greetings children of the forest. I’ve bought your children home. They need a pack and will lead and guide you well.”
When the Alpha snarled, threw his head back and howled, Gunner imagined the answer to be “lead? I’ll show you lead.”
Sure enough, Nashoba stalked up beside Oakley, looked up at her, completely disregarding the alpha, then gave the alpha a stare that lasted so long Gunner started to wonder if this was the equivalent of a Mexican standoff. Were the two alphas going to marshal their forces to fight for dominance?
No. They were not. But they were going to fight. Nashoba let out a growl that made a shiver slide down Gunner’s back. The other alpha did the same, but with a far less dramatic effect.
Then the existing alpha leapt at Nashoba.
To say it was an unfair fight would be accurate. Despite heart and determination, the existing alpha wasn’t a match for Nashoba and was belly up in defeat in under two minutes.
Another wolf stepped forward, probably one who wanted to try for the alpha position. To Gunner’s surprise, Nashoba turned his back on the wolf and yipped to Ba’Cho. Ba’Cho left Gunner where he stood and stalked out to meet the challenger. Gunner knew it must be his imagination, but he’d almost swear Ba’Cho gave the other wolf the equivalent of a taunt with his growl.
The fight was over almost before it started. Ba’Cho and Nashoba walked over to stand in front of the pack of the defeated alphas. Along the way, they gathered the old alphas, giving them affection and acceptance.
And then they stood in front of their new pack, threw back their heads and howled.
Soon every wolf in the vicinity had joined in. It was quite a moment, one not many humans ever witness. Gunner knew for sure he’d never forget. Nor would he ever forget what happened next.
Ba’Cho and Nashoba fell silent and turned to look at Oakley. She walked up and stood between them, then looked out over the sea of wolves and made the sign for pack. “Pack,” she put her hand over her heart and then knelt.
Gunner thumbed the safety off the weapon he held, not even realizing his action. But then he never imagined he would see hundreds of wolves converge on where Oakley stood with her wolves. Soon she and her boys were surrounded, wolves almost behaving as if in line to greet their queen.
