Home -- Wolv book 3

Three - Breaking Machk

For the most part, everything that Machk told us, I'd already surmised over the winter months.

Peyên wasn't in the community to maintain it physically; no, he was only there to maintain it's existence on paper. Only there to keep up appearances, Peyên greeted any government officials or RCMP that dared approach the reserve, none of which ever ended up actually seeing the community. Both parties, by law, had to obtain permission before entering onto reserve land; permission that Peyên dutifully denied.

And so, the true nature of Kinwaw First Nation had remained hidden from the prying eyes of the outside world. Peyên would collect the reserve's Treaty entitlement each year, and the governing bodies would turn away, all too happy to be done dealing with the incredibly reclusive community--at least, until the next year rolled around. No one was any wiser, and the fact that Kinwaw Lake was little more than a pile of sticks remained buried.

Until two years ago.

Despite the fact the Kinwaw Lake was equipped with a fully functional radio station capable of communicating with its northern counterpart, Peyên had fallen abruptly silent, missing his annual check-in. When the next year came around, he still remained silent, and when the Treaty entitlement failed to come in, red flags had been raised. The money that it provided was small to begin with; so when it failed to come in at all, Minikwakunis Lake had been suddenly put into a dire financial situation.

"We needed that money to make it through the winter," Machk finished. "If we don't buy enough diesel and our heaters die, a lot of things can go wrong." He was sitting up now; his injuries had begun to close and even some of the swelling on his muzzle had gone down. That said, Daanis kept a close, silent eye on him.

I scratched the back of my neck. "Yeah? Like what? I though all of you shifted in the winter anyways. Why would you need to heat the place if you're all furred?"

"Because if the place froze, all of the pipes would burst come spring. It happened once before, years ago. We had to gut five of the buildings, what with all of the mold and water damage."

I smirked, picking absent-mindedly at the dried mud and blood on my hands. "So is that what has happened up there now?" I couldn't wish homelessness on anyone, not after suffering it for so long...but it would be a bit of a beautiful irony if the town that had hurt me so badly ended up ruined.

"No." Machk averted his eyes. "No, we came into enough money to make it through."

"Yeah? An' how'd you do that?"

His ears flattened. "We, uh...we found you guys."

What?

"That doctor was willing to pay a lot for you, Humfrey, and we needed the money badly. Elizabeth didn't know just how screwed we were; Norm was always the one who took care of the community's money--"

Oh. Right.

"So you sold me," I said bluntly. Logically, it made sense--they needed money to keep their town from literally freezing to death, and my friends and I had been unfortunate enough to stumble upon their community when they needed us the most.

"I'm sorry, it wasn't my choice. You're my enemy, an' I know that, but I wasn't the one who made the call, Norman was. He took a huge gamble, he coulda ended up exposing our kind to the rest of the world...but the town was gonna wreck if he didn't. The pack was worth the risk."

I turned away, scowling angrily. I swallowed down the cold anger inside, and spoke through clenched teeth. "You'll have to forgive me if I don't see things your way."

"You asked me to do so! You tortured me, ma'iingan, and then you asked me to understand why!"

"You sold me," I growled. I knew he was right, but try as I might, I was beyond sympathizing with the timberwolves. "That doctor already knew about our kind." I turned to see Machk's face blanking.