Walking Wolf Road (Wolf Road Chronicles Book 1) (6 page)

Just go with it, like it or not, you’re one of these people now.

“Um, sure, I guess. Just… bear with me if I seem a little out of it.” I looked down at the fallen leaves that crunched underfoot while they laughed and Geri and I collected our things. I dug the necklace out of my backpack and slipped the chain over my head. My head felt clearer right away, some of the chaos ebbed, and I took a deep breath.

We left
the little wooded sanctuary and Loki asked, “So, uh… how do you like it here so far?”

“Well, other than getting mauled by a werewolf within a week, it’s just like any other place I guess except there’s no air here.” I smiled when they laughed. “People are the same dipshits no
matter where you go… Oh, and this place is crawling with evil beasts of the night.”

“Hey!” Loki looked insulted. She tried to make herself look cute and innocent—which was pretty fucking adorable—and my stomach fluttered. “Do I look like an
evil beast of the night
to you?

“You’re the worst of them all!” Geri cried and we laughed.

“Yeah, I guess I can’t argue that.” Loki conceded as we walked up to the last car in the parking lot, Geri’s red Civic, and he unlocked the doors. While we drove, I disappeared into my head, thinking about her question.  

The truth was, I hated this place.

And I fucking despised moving; the pointless ‘fresh start’, the ceaseless cycle of upheaval. Even the toughest goddamned houseplant would have croaked after being uprooted as often as I had. At least this town was the polar opposite of the homogeneous mass-produced suburbs in Chicago and Miami. Here, huge elm and maple trees dominated the sky and uprooted the sidewalk. Plus, none of the houses matched.

I shook myself out of it and broke the silence. “So, Fen said you’re a pack right? I remember reading something about wolf packs having different ranks, do you?”

“Yeah, Fen’s the alpha male, our leader,” Geri replied. “I’m the omega, lowest on the pecking order, but that might change now that you’ve come into the picture.” He winked and grinned in the rearview mirror.

I grinned back, but it was more a bearing of teeth than an actual smile. “After what just happened, I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

“He’s probably right Geri-boy; I think you’re gonna be our scapegoat for a while yet.” Loki patted him on the shoulder.

“Can’t blame a guy for dreaming…”

“You’re our omega, we can blame you for whatever we want!” She ruffled his short-cropped hair and they laughed, though Geri seemed genuinely sad.

“So, you’re the alpha female?” I glanced at Loki and she seemed to choke.

“Noooo-ho-ho! I’m beta, second in command but usually first in trouble.”

“So, Fen’s at the top, Geri’s at the bottom… where do I fall?”

“We’ll find out soon enough. Pretty much everything else is just called ‘mid-ranking’. Mid-ranking wolves usually have some sort of special job, like scout, or nanny. But with so few of us, we don’t have much use for that,” Loki replied. “So, my dear new wolf, tell us about yourself.”

“There’s nothing interesting about me,” I muttered and looked out the window as the dappled sunlight slid over us through the trees.

“Bullshit, we’ve got you outnumbered and surrounded, so start yappin’ pup!”

“About what?” I asked, irritated.

“I don’t care, grades?” She shrugged.

“Piss poor, thanks for reminding me.” I grumbled.

“Sorry, but if you don’t contribute anything, I’m just gunna dig for it.”

When I remained quiet, she resumed her interrogation. Car? Nope.
Driver’s License? Yep. Grade? Senior. Girlfriend? Don’t even go there. Favorite band? You want a freakin’ list?

Loki had such an easy character; I never would’ve guessed it from the way she dressed. Her cheer was infectious and irresistible, I’d never been so open with complete strangers before in my life, but something about her just felt… comfortable. I wished I could put my finger on why.

Geri parked at the curb, and I led them up the porch that stretched the width of the old Craftsman house. The sage green siding contrasted with the dark red and black bricks of the porch’s columns and the chimney that jutted from the side. It was cute enough to be annoying.

“Mom? We have visitors!” I called as we walked into the house.

“What’s that, Jimmy?” She came around the corner from the kitchen and wiped her hands on her apron. “Oh!  Hello, come in, come in!” She waved Loki and Geri into the house “Welcome back! I wanted to thank you for helping Jimmy out that night. Would you like to stay for dinner? I could call out for pizza?”

I groaned inside and felt myself turn red. This was probably the first time I’d ever brought friends over from school—first time I had friends to bring—and my mom was making
way
too big a deal out of it!

“Well… sure, if it’s okay with you; I’ll just need to call my folks. What do you think Geri?” Loki glanced at her cohort.

“If there’s pizza involved, I’m in!” he grinned.

“Great, what do you want on yours? I’ll call them in right now.” Mom wrote down our toppings and ordered a pizza for each of us. Loki looked at the family pictures on the wall while she and Geri called their parents.

I stepped close to Mom and muttered in a low voice. “Seriously, Mom, can you cool the overeager parent thing a bit? It’s freaking us out.”

“They don’t seem to mind.” she said.

“Okay, it’s freaking
me
out. Can you please just ease down a bit?” Too late, I realized I’d hurt her feelings.

“Okay, fine, whatever you want Jimmy,” Mom pursed her lips and rubbed her temple, “I’ll stay out of your way.” To avoid any more awkwardness, I led Loki and Geri through the kitchen to the back yard to enjoy the last rays of the sun.

Loki leaned in and whispered a question to me, “Sorry if this is awkward, but, were you adopted? Your mom looks
way
too young to be your—uh—mom…”

“And I look nothing like her or the guy in the pictures.” I added. “Mom had me when she was seventeen. She married John when I was six; he’s my brother’s dad, not mine.” Very little bitterness slipped through into my voice, and I felt proud of my accomplishment. Loki and Geri didn’t seem to know how to respond, so we
chatted about school for a while.

The pizzas arrived and Mom called us in just as the sun neared the mountains. We collected our pizzas and I led them down into the Dungeon.

“Sorry about the mess,” I muttered. I glanced at the stuff scattered around the room and the stack of still-unpacked boxes. Band posters and guitar chord diagrams hung from the sterile concrete walls in a pathetic attempt to make it my home. It had never struck me as slovenly before—Mom was a different matter—but I felt a burning shame as they entered.

“Ha! You call this a mess? You’d have an aneurysm if you ever saw my room…” Loki scoffed and I felt a little better as I kicked a spot clear of clothes and we sat down. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until the molten cheese touched my tongue and kicked my salivary glands into overdrive. I turned on my CD player and poured soda for everyone.

With a cheek full of food, Loki said, “Hey, is that a guitar amp over there?” She pointed with her pizza crust.

“Yeah,” I muttered.

“Really? Play something for us!”

“I’d rather not, I’m not that good…” I muttered and felt my neck tingle with embarrassment.

“Whatever!” Loki jumped up and marched across my room. She grabbed my guitar off its stand and shoved it into my hands, “I don’t take excuses, so, rock my socks off!”

I shook my head as I plugged it in and powered on my amplifier. I tuned and started to play. Just one month without practice had made my hands clumsy and slow and I turned a darker shade of red with every mistake until my hands remembered what they were supposed to do.

My eyelids hooded as I lost myself in the music. When I couldn’t think of anything else to play, I stopped and looked up at them with beads of sweat rolling down my face.

“That was the shit!” Geri laughed, wide-eyed and grinning.

“Sorry it sounded so rough, I haven’t played since before we moved.” I said and wiped my face with my sleeve.

“Really? Coulda fooled me!” Loki nodded her agreement.

Warmth, foreign and treacherous, leached into my heart. That was the first time anyone ever complimented my playing. Mom and John pretended I’d never touched the damn thing.

“That cinches it!” Loki yelled and jumped to her feet. “You’re gonna teach me guitar. I’ve wanted to learn for years, but no one here teaches metal.” She bounded across the room and hugged me so hard we both almost toppled over.

As soon as she touched me, grey and chestnut mottled fur flashed in my mind again, but now I understood what it meant; those were the colors of her wolf. “Have you ever played in a band?”

“Uh, no… I just taught myself how to play a couple years ago.”

“Hey, once you teach me how to play, we should start our own band! Ooh! A werewolf band! Fen can learn the bass and Geri; you can play the pots and pans.” Loki almost vibrated with excitement.

“The what?” Geri and I said in unison.

“You know, ‘pots and pans’? Drums? Oh never mind. It was
supposed
to be a joke, but y’all suck.”

“Actually, that would be kinda cool. I can’t think of any other bands with an all-out werewolf theme, and certainly not with real werewolves. Do you have good rhythm?” I glanced at Geri. He was so quiet; it was easy to forget him in the intensity of Loki’s personality.

“I can’t even play Guitar Hero.”

Ouch…

When they left, I felt reluctant to see them off, like a starved slave who’d tasted chocolate for the first time. They opened the door and a cool breeze drifted inside. Loki closed her jacket and winked at me as she pulled the door shut. “Full Moon’s the Saturday after next, so remember to keep that night free. As of now, you have plans.”

The moon grew full like a looming presence in the back of my mind. As the weeks passed, an impatient itch festered deep inside me where nothing could ease it.

I ate lunch with the Pack every day out in their little wooded sanctuary. They took turns teaching me how to control my shifting energy, that heat that flooded me whenever my wolf stirred, and how to integrate myself with the animal inside me. I practiced whenever I could, it eased the itch just a little bit when I burned off a little of that heat. I even figured out how to increase my night vision when I practiced at night, because lord knows I couldn’t sleep.

Whenever Fen came over to my house after school John seemed to just adore him. Fen was confidant, smart, in shape; basically everything I was not. Fen relished John’s attention too, and asked me endless questions about him at school. I stowed the bitter jealousy out of sight, stuffing it down into the dragon’s pit like everything else that hurt, while finding any excuse I could to keep the two of them separate.

Trees turned gold and the nights grew cold, and Full Moon night descended at last. I thought I would explode if I stopped moving, until I heard a knock on the door.

Finally…

I beat John to the door and yanked it open. The tension in Fen’s eyes mirrored my own.

“Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” I muttered and then shouted at my parents in the living room, “Fen’s here, I’ll see you guys tomorrow!”

“Don’t forget your coat, it’s supposed to snow tonight! Do we have Geri’s number?” Mom yelled back.

“It’s on the fridge!” I shrugged my coat on.

“
Okay, have fun!” she called as I pulled the door closed, anxious to get Fen away. He led us to the High School, the air around him almost seemed to shimmer; my own skin felt hot and just a little too tight.

The light breeze promised a cold night as the last light of sunset faded from the clouds and we waited for Loki and Geri in the parking lot near the football field. A chill ran down my spine and Fen’s back stiffened. I glanced over my shoulder as the edge of the moon broke the horizon, wide and orange.

I stared, transfixed, until Loki’s voice snapped me out of it, and I turned to see Geri’s car pull up with her hanging out the window. “Hey you bums!” She grinned; a ring of topaz lined her irises.

I felt excited to see them, but terrified at the same time. I wanted to shut down and hide so I wouldn’t risk ruining this precious, tenuous hope. I wanted to save it in a box and cherish it before I could destroy it. But the rest of me craved their company, the sound of their voices, and most of all that rare and dangerous feeling of belonging that had crept into my life. And for that fix, I knew I’d risk almost anything.

Fen walked toward the athletics field, Loki and Geri followed, roughhousing, and I tagged behind.

My senses woke on their own.
 The heat curled in me and my wolf’s awareness bloomed within my mind. Where the night was supposed to be dark, every detail was lined with silver, almost brighter than the day. Every bird, every creaking tree called out clear as a bell. My skin tingled and my nostrils flared to siphon in all the scents I could gather; cut grass, sprinklers, and cow manure wafted through the air.

Loki and Geri veered left and split off along the perimeter of the field, while Fen led me toward the football field. “Tonight, this is our territory,” Fen said, “We patrol it, mark it, everything in it belongs to us.
 Just for tonight, this place is ours…”

“By ‘mark’, you don’t mean—”

“You don’t honestly think the restrooms are still open do you?” He smirked and patted my shoulder. “We just kill two birds with one kidney stone, so to speak.” Ugh! “We just need to make sure there are no interlopers before the real fun begins. Since this is your first time, just stick with me.” He led me into the shadow of the football bleachers and along the edge of a dry irrigation ditch toward the trees near our thicket. Everything around us shimmered. I glanced at the moon and my chest tightened from its power.  

We followed the line of the ditch through the trees and then headed back through them toward the field. As we neared the end of the tree line, we both froze.

My heart sped up as adrenaline dumped into my bloodstream.
Whatever caused Fen to stop had tripped my senses as well. My nostrils twitched as I backed up and crouched in the shadow of a large pine where my dark clothes blended in. Fen advanced slowly as his eyes swept back and forth.

A snap to our right drew our attention, and I saw the shadow hurl itself at Fen out of the corner of my eye.
 Fen snarled as Geri tackled him from behind and sent them both grappling across the ground. Loki emerged from her hiding place and ran to help Geri, so I slipped around the tree and tackled her to the ground. Though startled for an instant, she jumped up as soon as I backed off and growled as she bared her teeth, her eyes yellow and vivid behind her eye-shadow.

The thought streaked through my mind that it wasn’t right for people to act like this at our age, but I tuned it out.

Not all the rules of my old world held true anymore.

I jumped back and crouched with my hands touching the ground. She leapt at me and I tripped her over my foot.
 This time I pinned her and held her down despite her snarls of protest. The silver necklace weighed heavy and wearisome around my neck like a ball and chain; but the eyes of the wolf in my mind’s eye opened regardless, and he told me what to do in his strange language of image and sensation.

I bared my teeth and snapped where Loki’s muzzle would be.
 His eyes blazed through mine and when I looked at her I didn’t just see a girl; I saw a feminine wolf overlying her, fair brown and gray in color. She struggled, but I refused to relent and eventually she stopped snarling and whined.  

Satisfied, I looked over toward Geri and Fen.
 Geri was well built with a strong frame, but the lanky alpha had him subdued already. Fen watched us with deathly stillness and I realized he’d seen everything. His face was in silhouette, so I couldn’t make out his expression, but Geri seized Fen’s distraction and rolled out from under him to counterattack.

I jumped up from Loki and rushed Geri as he disengaged from Fen. I reached for him, but my fingers slipped on his slick coat, and he took off running along the tree line. 

Fen and I jumped up after him, but they quickly drew ahead of me. Even though he was shorter than me, Geri was somehow a
lot
faster. Behind me, I heard the patter of Loki’s feet gaining as we dashed through the thickening snow. The scar on my leg burned from the strain, and I tried not to limp.

The wolf within me reveled in the chase, and as he filled me the distance between us stopped growing. I felt wholly disconnected from the ground; the balls of my feet barely touching down as the wind washed around me.

Before I knew it, we’d reached the line of the ditch, and Geri turned to face us. Fen barely slowed before he slammed into Geri like a ton of bricks.

I slipped on the wet grass and slid a few feet on my ass until Loki pounced me from behind. I rolled and threw her off me. We came up on all fours and faced each other. A grin slowly spread across our faces and we relaxed a little.

“Not bad pup.” I blushed from her comment. Her eyes had turned pure gold, and I assumed mine where the same.

“Good enough to beat
you
anyway.” Fen said. I had the disconcerting feeling of my ear swiveling toward the sound of his voice. “He’s barely been at this a month now, and you submitted to him.” Fen sat on top of Geri, scruffed-up and sprawled on the ground.

“So? I was stuck, he wouldn’t let go.” She sounded defensive and almost sullen.

“You’ve never submitted to me like that.” Fen’s voice was level, but something made Loki’s expression go dark. Fen looked at me. “Normally you’d be the new Beta, but I won’t allow it yet.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Yeah, care to explain?” Loki crossed her arms and Geri’s nervous eyes flicked back and forth between us.

“He’s too new.” Fen stood and Geri got up and brushed what snow he could off. Loki didn’t look like she believed him, and pursed her lips. “That’s the
only
reason, Loki. I don’t think he’s strong enough to handle the position yet.”

“Not that I particularly like it, but he
was
strong enough to beat me.” Loki countered while they matched stares. I squirmed inside. I didn’t want to start a fight, even though it felt too much like human bureaucracy.

“Loki, it’s okay, don’t worry about it.” I tried to calm her down, and winced as something inside me with sharp pointy teeth expressed his displeasure.

She closed her eyes and sighed, her breath a plume in the cold air. “Fine.”

The snow thickened into fluffy white puffs that drifted down around us and built up on the grass and trees. Fen looked up and smiled at the diffused halo of light on the other side of the clouds. He sighed. “I’d hoped it would be nice and clear for your first Full Moon, Jimmy.”

“I like the snow.” I smiled and walked over toward them. The heat of my shifting energy surged when my wolf moved.

Geri seemed to sense my intent a moment before I leapt for him and he took off
running. He wove between the thick pines that bordered the ditch, but with my wolf’s speed, he couldn’t outrun me. Geri’s fate was sealed with one wrong turn and I tackled him. We rolled over each other in a snarling ball of werewolf until we crashed into a tree, which doused us with cold slushiness.

Geri gasped at the sudden cold, and we laughed. Loki and Fen caught up and joined us.  

After a moment though, they fell silent and I looked around at their gaping stares. Fen quickly hid his surprise, but I joined them when I saw the tendrils of steam that evaporated off me as my wolf’s energy pulsed within me. It was awesome, but sort of spooky. I stood up, and stared at the mist that rose from my bare hands, warm and flushed in the cold night air.  

Loki seized Geri’s distraction and pounced on him. He howled with frustration as he grappled with her. I felt bad; because of me, everyone had to re-establish their place, and Geri just kept getting worked over.

Fen moved past me to watch them, and I wondered if it made him uncomfortable to see what a freak I really was.

I dashed over and shoved Loki off Geri, and then danced around on my toes until all three of them jumped up after me. I turned and ran with three werewolves in hot pursuit. My wolf still pounded through my veins, his eyes in mine as I ran a cat’s cradle through the trees until either they fell out of eyeshot or gave up.

I hid inside the overhanging branches of a big pine while I stopped to catch my breath and give my aching leg a break. I thought I felt the shadows move around me, almost as if they swallowed me, but I wrote it off to my imagination. Fen and Geri ran past my tree and disappeared into the veiling wall of snow, but Loki dragged behind breathing hard.

She waited until they were out of sight, and then looked around. When she didn’t see anyone, she closed her eyes and raised her hands to the cloudy sky and twirled in circles as the snow fell around her. My breath caught when I saw the smile on her face, stolen in a moment she thought no one else could see.

She sighed and collected herself, and then took off after Fen and Geri. I shuddered as I stepped out of the pine’s shadowy boughs, like they didn’t want to let me go. The scent of the sap lingered on my clothes as I followed their tracks and considered ambushing Geri again.  

I rounded a tree, and noticed marks in the snow. I crept over to inspect them; hiking boots like Fen’s walked up, then sort of milled for a while before ba
cktracking the way they came. I followed their line and saw the swirls in the snow where Loki had danced, like someone had watched.

My puzzlement lasted only a second before something hard rammed me in the side. I cried out and rolled through the slush, and then came up facing Fen’s feral grin.

“C’mon pup, show me what you’ve got.”

My muscles vibrated with tension, but when the attack came, it was faster than I could have imagined. I lurched back, but slipped on the wet lawn, and Fen’s swipe glanced off my shoulder with a bruising thud, barely buffered by my thick coat. His speed overwhelmed me, and I ducked under his arm only to be tackled into the snow. I took Loki and Geri, but Fen was in a class of his own, and fear bloomed in my gut.

“C’mon Jimmy, I know you can do better than that…” Fen goaded while he circled me, and knocked me over again when I tried to get up.

The wolf inside me wanted to stand and fight, wanted to meet him head-on, but something in his posture triggered memories of every bully in my past. The wolf made me faster, made me stronger, but he couldn’t make me forget my childhood. When Fen attacked again I faked right, and pushed off the ground with my hands in the opposite direction. Fen missed me, and it was the opening I needed to slip past him and run.  

I heard his steps right behind me and somewhere behind, Loki and Geri called after us. Wolf shredded my guts, his disgust and frustration palpable in the thick metallic taste in the back of my throat, but I just wasn’t strong enough to face him. Them. In my mind Fen had become every demon I’d ever had, he was John’s every scorn, every black eye I’d carried home, every bruise and shame I’d endured. Every threat I’d ever run away from; my weakness, my fear, my uncertainty, pursued me in Fen’s shadow, and the gate opened.