Alpha of the Shack

ALPHA OF THE SHACK - I

"C'MON, kiddo, up and at 'em."

My eyes slowly fluttered open. I gingerly sat up in bed, wondering exactly what I'd just dreamt about. Something about Hardir, a woman and a baby. An Alpha baby.

Which begged the question: what was an Alpha?

I made a mental note to myself to ask Hardir what an Alpha was.

I groggily rubbed my eyes with the backs of my hands. I looked around. My room was not very big, but it was nice and snug. At one end of the room I had a shelf full of books. Hardir says that he read them when he was little, when he lived in the city. I take them out to read them myself all the time. They range from the little fairy tales Hardir read to me when I was two, like The Three Little Cubs and the Big Bad Boar, to the classics I'm now old enough to understand, for example, Dracula. That one scared me a bit. It left me wondering whether vampires actually existed or not. Seeing as we were werewolves, I dismissed the thought, but it'd resurface every now and then.

At the other side of my room was my closet. There were lots of clothes in there, many hand-me-downs from Hardir's childhood, and some made by Hardir himself.

We were a very self-sufficient pair, Hardir and I. Everyday, we went hunting together. I hadn't learnt how to shift yet, but Hardir could, so he did and hunted using his claws and his teeth while I resorted to human weapons like my bow and arrow. Once we'd caught a few rabbits or what have you, we walked back home and he cooked the meat over the fireplace and I chopped up some vegetables pulled up from the garden earlier so that we could have a balanced meal. After breakfast — which would fill us up for the entire day — Hardir would spend a couple of hours teaching me arithmetic and science before we went out again to practice shooting. Then we hunted again for the evening meal.

Today was no different. Once I'd brushed my teeth and changed into fresh clothing, I slung my bow across my shoulders and we were off into the woods. Hardir turned back for a few seconds to bolt the door, so that nothing - or no-one, no matter how unlikely - could get in. He slid the key into my pocket. We started to walk towards our favourite hunting spot.

On the way, I could hear birds chirping merrily as they fluttered about in the air. Flashes of colour erupted all around me as they whizzed about, completely carefree. The wind rustled my usually flat red hair as it rushed through the trees, and soon enough my hair was going all over the place. I forced myself to focus, and my eyes darted left, then right, then up, then down. I looked behind me. I had to keep a close look-out for anything that moved. A predator, prey, any—

"CEDRIC!" I heard Hardir call my name. My head started to turn back to face him, but I was too late, and a flash of black hurtled towards me. Before I knew it, I was on the ground, gasping for air as a gargantuan bear held its hard front paw on my chest. I could feel the blood draining from my face in sheer terror.

This thing was going to eat me instead.

Then the weight was lifted. I could feel my heart rate reach new heights, possibly breaking all-time records. I looked up to see Hardir, shifted, throwing the comparatively large bear about as if it were a chew toy. His jaws were clamped firmly on the bear's neck, and his claws dug into its fur on its back. Blood began to seep from the fresh wounds. The bear howled in pain. Hardir showed the animal no mercy. In his rage, his claws dug deeper, and his bite became firmer.

Suddenly, I heard a violent snap before the bear cried out once more and fell to the ground in defeat.

Hardir jumped off the bear's carcass. He had already begun shifting back. He spat out the bear's blood.

"No one messes with my son," he growled flatly. He turned to me and smiled, instantly brightening. I was used to his momentary bursts of bipolarity. "Breakfast?"

~~~

When I was little, before I started hunting with him, Hardir would often leave me alone at home for hours at a time while he hunted for the two of us. I'd ask to go with him, he'd refuse, saying that it was too dangerous. Then he'd leave, bolting the door firmly. Nothing could get in; nothing could get out.

But at night, when he finished doing everything he needed to do, he'd sit on my bed as I lay there. Then he'd get out one of the many books on the shelves and start reading it to me. Every night, it was sort of father-and-son bonding time as I lay in bed and he read to me picture books. They gradually became small children's novellas, and then he started on the classics that I love so much. My personal favourite is Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne. I didn't think — nor do I now — that it was physically possible to travel to the planet's core, let alone have life there, but it fascinated me all the same.

Sometimes, he'd tell me his own stories, starring myself and him. We would go on all sorts of adventures together, like to another land on a boat, or to outer space on a rocket. The tales of exploration that Hardir loved reading to me echoed my own lust for knowledge. I longed to see what was there beyond the forests. Hardir, however, always said no. "It's not safe out there," he'd say. "I don't want to see you hurt."

Still, though, my perpetual itchy feet refused to relent, and I yearned to go outside the forest, just once, to satisfy my curiosity.

I also wanted to know what it was like to shift. But Hardir had never agreed to teach me. He said that I'd learn in my own time. I wished I could've just learnt right then, so that I could hunt with tooth and claw alongside him. But for some reason, he never seemed to like the idea of teaching me how to shift, or taking me out of the forest. I guessed he was just being protective, so I said no more of it after I was nine, secretly in the hope that one day he'd change his mind and teach me.

But my eleventh birthday had come and gone and nothing had happened.

It was now getting close to my twelfth. Hardir was being more secretive than usual. When we got back home, he quickly dealt with the bear, skinning it and leaving the skin to dry out in the sun. I stayed outside to read, because I was never able to deal with that kind of thing. All the blood and...stuff...going everywhere made me feel like I was going to throw up over and over again. The first time I went hunting with him, we'd caught some boars. Then when we got back he skinned all of them right in front of me.

I vomited at the sight of that horrific image and then fainted. When I came to, he said he couldn't believe how sensitive I was. In my defence, I was only four at the time. But since then I'd stayed out of the house for at least an hour while Hardir did his thing with the kill.

Once he'd finished chopping up the bear meat and preserving it, and then cooking a last bit before eating it with me, he upped and left for the workshop without a word.

Sometimes, Hardir locked himself in the workshop for reasons unknown to me. The first few times I saw him go to his workshop was to build my bow and arrow. He gave it to me on my eighth birthday, and he started to teach me how to shoot. Before then, I had to use a spear, which never worked out well for me. After I mastered the bow, my shots were far more accurate.

This time, I had no idea what he was doing. Was he building something? Was he looking for something? I didn't know.

I had no clue.

Author's note: Hello again! Welcome back to Alpha of the Shack! (I'm assuming you've read the prologue.) I hope you've enjoyed the story thus far! As always, constructive criticism is welcome. The next chapter will be up as soon as possible. I used this chapter to develop the relationship between Cedric and Hardir. Sometimes while writing I made a mistake by calling Hardir "Dad." Haha! XD But seriously though, I think the two share a very deep bond and understanding for each other. I hope I'm conveying that well through the story! Thanks for reading, and please vote for this story if you haven't already! I'd appreciate it very much if you showed this little here fledgling story some much-needed love <3. Next up: maybe a little history lesson? ;)

Tim