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In his dying moments, the man had shifted back to human form. He was naked, cold, and lying in a fetal position. His hair was matted and unkempt, his eyes empty in death.
Luna shifted back to her human form, glad that nobody was watching. She would need to find clothing.
She wished he’d offered her the dignity of removing her clothing before transformation.
Gathering the corpse along with sticks and logs, Luna kindled a fire, throwing the man’s body haphazardly onto the heap.
In the cool wind, she thought she heard the hooting of a nearby owl. It wasn’t what she wanted. Not really.
She wouldn’t be happy until the man who called the orders was dead.
She wondered where he came from. He showed up one day and ruined her life the next. Why? What had she done to him? She’d never met him before. Did he want power? Money? Was he after the alpha role?
Didn’t matter what the bastard desired. She would find him and make him suffer like she was. She smelled the air. In the blowing winds, she could make out his scent coming from the south.
Ready or not, here I come.
TWO
ADRIAN
“That’s it, Barry!” Adrian shouted. “But remember, the enemy is not going to give you an in.”
The young child, around ten, sparred with one of the enforcers. His makeshift wooden sword swung harmlessly through the air, occasionally bouncing off Tryn’s fake blade.
In the moonlit forest clearing, several children and teenagers had gathered to practice their mettle against senior enforcers. It wasn’t serious yet, as training had only just ramped up, but they needed to prepare for the kinds of dangers they might face in the wild.
When the entirety of shifter existence was still a well-kept secret from the whole of the human populace, wolf shifter packs needed to stick together. And there were all sorts of strange things happening in the community … so many mysterious deaths.
Barry lunged into Herald’s sword again, this time even more recklessly. Herald slapped his wooden sword on Barry’s shoulder, punishing him for his carelessness.
“Hey, Herald,” Adrian yelled out. “We’re still going easy on the kids.”
Herald shook his head in frustration.
A whole lot of patience was needed for these difficult, escalating circumstances. The longer the pack bided their time, the more dangerous the world became.
Somebody was pulling at the very fibers of shifter society.
Adrian watched the lines of children fighting the senior enforcers. They were all careless and inexperienced, some filled with too much aggression, some afraid of getting hit. It was going to be tough. But he needed to be patient.
Adrian stepped up to Gregory, a small, tousle-headed boy in padded armor who clutched his wooden training sword, shaking in fear.
He put his hand on Gregory’s shoulder.
“You’re doing great, Gregory,” Adrian said. “Though Robert’s going to take good care of you. We’re all friends here. So don’t be afraid to learn.”
Robert stood patiently, watching the pup from a distance.
Gregory swallowed hard.
It would be a miracle if Gregory ever attacked. Some people always needed protection, no matter how old they got. But Adrian was optimistic that as the pup hit puberty, Gregory’s wolf side would take over and he’d learn to embrace his fear rather than letting it command him.
This was a safe space for the children to learn in a world that allowed few if any, sanctuaries. As the night wore on, the clinks of wood filled the air, and the bonfire burned brightly against the pale full moon.
“Maybe next week, we’ll practice fighting in wolf form,” Adrian suggested loudly to his team of enforcers and students. “You’ve got to learn somehow.”
His only concern was that in wolf form, tempers grew unpredictable, especially around the time of puberty. He remembered himself completely taken over by his wolf, driven to callousness and brutality with its fleeting whims.
