"Mommy, can we get out of the car and play?"
Abigail looked back at the children in the back; her daughter Autumn was giving her the puppy eye look. Fitting, she thought, for a young girl who was in the process of becoming a werewolf. She was still wearing the soft cast on her arm from where it had been broken the previous night while running around in the back yard with her friends. "How does your arm feel?"
"It throbs a little, Mommy, but I can still play. I'll be careful."
Michelle was still asleep in the car seat, and Zach was also begging to be let out. "Mom, we won't go far. We can just play on the grass right there by the creek."
Abigail looked over at Silvia, who was sitting in the front passenger seat now. She was still recovering from her miscarriage, and clearly didn't have the energy. She looked in Abigail's eyes. "If you can watch them, that will be fine. We don't know how long it will be until Josi and Rachel are back, they won't want to be cooped up in the seats that long."
Abigail nodded. "I'll watch them." She opened the door and helped the two out. "I'll let you guys play, but there are some rules." She knelt down so she could look in their eyes. "No rough play, you have to be IN MY SIGHT at all times, and you have to stay in bounds."
"In bounds? Where?" Autumn was confused, looking around at the grass and the woods behind it.
"We'll find out. I'm going to tell you to run, and then I'll count to ten. Wherever you end up, that's out of bounds. And if I tell you to run back to the car, you RUN, got me? No arguing, no delays or you can sit in the seat buckled up." Their children nodded. "Ready? Set! GO!" The two took off down the ditch and up the other side, racing across the field as she counted. "Three, two, one, STOP!" They had made it about halfway across the field. "NO FARTHER, AND YOU COME IF I YELL." The two nodded and started to run a little closer, burning off some of their energy.
"There might be a ball or something in the trunk," Silvia said. Abigail took the keys and opened the trunk, there was a soccer ball under one of the bags. She tossed it to them and closed the trunk; the moon was just coming up, it wasn't easy to see but it was better than nothing.
"What do you think will happen, Silvia?"
"I don't know." She reclined her seat and looked up at the stars and the incredibly northern light displays they had been having since the solar flare that wiped out civilization as they knew it. "I hope they find a way to stop it, but you know... the werewolves are so much stronger than us. They are predators, they are at home in the same night that gives me the willies. I get out of this car and I feel helpless against them." She sighed. "Then again, I owe my life to them. Most have been nothing but kind to me, to my family. I could see myself staying, if only they weren't going to wipe out my entire race." She closed her eyes. "I keep telling myself that you can't judge a people by a single person, so I'm trying to keep an open mind. This Alpha up in North Fork sounds like a good man."
"And if he's not?"
"Then I'll take my chances. I'll protect my kids first, same as you will. It's just... it's just not the same world any more. Those men who attacked me, they were human. As much as I hate it, I know that I need to be with people in order to stay safe. It makes me feel vulnerable, but with David gone, I have to face my new reality."
"I don't trust her parents, but I do trust Rachel," Abigail said. "Believe me, I gave them plenty of cause to hurt me if they wanted." She told them the story of how she found out they were wolves, and how she had shot a can of baked beans over Rachel's brother and sister in law. Silvia's laughter at how she described it made them both feel better.
"Marcus is a good man too, I wish they were in charge of the Pack." Silvia told her about her first impressions of him, certainly a one-eyed, three-legged werewolf was NOT what she expected to come to her rescue.
They stopped talking when they heard whistles, first one then it was repeated from different places in the town. Abigail froze, then she figured it out. "KIDS! BACK HERE NOW!" The two looked up, then started to run for the car. They weren't halfway there before there was a series of loud bangs.
"Gunshots!" Silvia brought the seat up as Abigail opened the door so the kids could jump in. She then raced around and jumped in, firing up the classic car. Silvia looked around, trying to make out what was happening through the dim moonlight. The shots stopped, then they heard pained howls coming from the center of town. "GO GO GO!!"
Abigail dropped it into gear and floored it, peeling out of the parking area by the creek and over the bridge. They headed north as fast as they could go, leaving the war and death behind them.
-
Beta Donald Ross was working his way south from North Fork on his patrol. His group had been tasked with Security, and one of their first priorities had been scouting. The North Fork Pack needed to know what was out there that could be an asset or a threat; they couldn't afford to be surprised.
So far the trip had been relatively boring; the road coming north from Salmon wasn't heavily traveled. He had come across a dozen vehicles so far, and no survivors. Some people he found dead in their cars, others had tried to get to the hills, but no one had made it that far. The radiation blinded them and they ended up going in circles or falling. He was collecting anything useful in the bag he carried on his chest while in wolf form. He hadn't hit any jackpots yet, but he had a good collection of road flares and a few other items that would be helpful.
He could still make out the faint scent of Marcus along the ditch on one side of the road, along with the human Josi he had taken with him. He had to smile when he thought of the young woman, she was a real spitfire. The whole Pack had taken to the girls after Britney and Bethany were found to be mates of two of their Pack. He was trotting down the road at an easy pace when he suddenly stopped, realizing the scent had left. He circled back, tracking Marcus as he left the road and climbed the hill.
When he got to the top, he was even more confused; the scent of Josi was stronger, and when he got to the cliff edge following her trail he found the empty shell casings. Worried, he followed her scent back down to the road and carefully moved forward, expecting the worst.
When he got down there, the wind shifted and blew the smell of blood and rotting flesh his way. He could smell both of them among the strange scents, and it took a few minutes to find the bodies and verify it wasn't them. Two had been shot, the other had its throat ripped out, but that wasn't what made him growl. It was that the three men shared the scent of a woman, and from the blood mixed with the scent she had not been with them willingly. Rape was not something that happened in Werewolf society, they respected their women and their equipment wouldn't work for another anyway. If he ever found his mate, he vowed, he would protect her from bastards like these.
"WHEN we find our mate," his wolf said to him. He shook his head; he was fifty years old, well past the age that werewolves found their mates. He had visited other packs, traveled the world, but his other half was not to be found. He kept wondering if she had died, if she was hard to find, or if Luna just didn't want him to be complete. When he turned forty, he had given up on the search and devoted himself to protecting his extended family in his Pack.
He went back up to the road; sniffing around, he could tell there was a car involved that was no longer there. The scent of Marcus and Josi mixed with other humans, but it was faint. They had gotten in the car, he concluded.
