Enraging the Alpha

Ch. 4: Bear Hunter

JEWEL

As Bear continued to improve, everything else went to shit. The addition of the low wolves ran through our supplies, and artillery ensured we couldn't steal so much as a loaf of bread from mid town.

"We should go hustle off mountain," I said, watching as the deer Huck killed was devoured raw before the animal had even had time to cool.

"No." He was sitting on the ground beside his broken gun, no longer tinkering but just staring at it.

"Are you waiting for it to speak?"

He ignored me.

"We need supplies," I said.

"We'll get supplies once we make it past the line."

"And when will that be?"

"Not now, Jewel."

I bared my teeth at him. "Not now, Jewel. Not now, Jewel. Yes now, Huck! Our people are starving! We get weaker by the day, and we were already weak to begin with!"

"You think I don't know that?" he snapped.

"Then do something about it, Alpha!"

"I am!"

"By staring at that gun?" I laughed, though it may have been a sob. "It's broken. Exploded even! There is no earthly way possible you could fix it out here. Why in the hell are you so fixated on that thing?"

"Because the goddess gave it to me!" he roared.

I froze, staring at him, but no matter how long I looked, his expression didn't change. "She gives us a lot of things, Huck. Most of them are shit."

"No. Not like that. I saw her, Jewel. She was real. She was—" His jaw clenched, and his eyes narrowed as if peering into the past. "She was made of moonlight." His words drifted, then he shook his head. "And she led me to this fucking gun."

I opened my mouth, closed it, and then swallowed hard. His features were drawn, his eyes bloodshot. We all looked rough, but he suddenly seemed so much worse than the rest of us. How had I not seen it before? I'd been so tied up in the way he was treating me, our situation, and my newly rejected mate keeping an infuriatingly respectful distance. But now that I saw it, I couldn't look away. My best friend. My first love. My family.

He'd cracked.

"Don't look at me like that!" Huck growled. "I know it's hard to believe, but it's the truth."

I took a slow breath in through my nose. We were so fucked, but arguing with him wouldn't help. At any moment, he was going to tell me to go away in a tone I couldn't ignore. "We can go to the buyer and ask for a loan."

"No." Huck turned back to his gun. "We stay on the mountain. We can't risk weakening our wolves right now."

"You mean the starving wolves, Huck? One day you'll look up and find us all already dead."

"No. I won't, because I happen to have a perfectly capable beta." He looked at me, and for the first time since he came back, it felt like I actually had his attention. "I need you now more than ever. If we need food, go hunt. Make them hunt. Everyone should be hunting." He picked up a wrench, tried to use it, then threw it back into the plastic tool box with a clatter. "Now leave me be. I'll come tell you if I figure anything out."

* * *

I weaved through camp, making moves like a player in a chess game. We had enough scrap wire to make ten traps; whatever good that shit would do. I divided them up amongst ten low wolves, telling each to place them in the woods beyond our scent range, and check it daily.