The Lycan Queen

Chapter 6

Mortem huffed, still panting. Desperate to detect any sort of sound, his ears swiveled in all directions, as tears welled in his eyes. There was heard no answer. Cleaving the earth with his claws Mortem heaved heavily before much to his surprise he broke into a fit of quiet, uncontrolled grieving, accompanied by seemingly endless torrents of tears. He slapped a paw over his face in a desperate and failed attempt to make them stop as he knelt with his face pointing towards the ground. The last thing he said to her was a threat to force her out of a place she'd called home for ten years, and a pack she served well for every day of it. That would be her last memory of him; all because, for the first time in years, a woman hadn't given him his way. Maybe that was the reason she gone off to face the madness and retrieve Urende alone. Live or die, she had no intention of staying; she'd given up on the pack already. All he had the strength to do afterwards was lift his head and bawl out a deep mournful howl that echoed for miles throughout the surrounding forest as the last of the sun went down.

Somewhere in a clearing during Mortem's lament, the pack was in a confused and startled state. Lycan cubs cried as they were hushed, or cuddled by scared mothers, while the able bodied lycans brought prey for the pregnant females and elders. Khufu in particular was extremely stressed, and pressed though the crowd looking for Lunar. He stopped as Udara quieted the crowd.

"What are we going to do?" Ask one elder male.

"Where's Mortem?" One of the harem females asked, this question in particular causing the pack to grow more anxious.

Kumarr whined looking at the growling crowd of lycans. "Just stay calm and stay together everyone." He said, having nothing better to say.

Daichii looked up at Udara, holding Urende. "It's winter Udara, there are no dens here, and the pups haven't grown their permanent coats as yet." She began. "The adults will be fine, but without that vital protection the pack's cubs could be in danger."

"But the humans may have made it to the densite by now. We can't go back." Alexander added. "That leaves us between a rock and a hard place!" He barked, growing impatient.

"I know, I know. Mortem went back for Lunar.." She added quietly. "He told me to keep all of you safe until he could locate us. That means either he and Lunar will find us, or he'll call us all back." She said with some degree of certainty. "But for now I need everyone to sit and be as calm as possible. Please."

"Wait wait wait!" Khufu demanded pressing his way through the pack of irritated frightened lycans and to the front of the crowd. "What do you mean he went back for Lunar?" He questioned. "Why isn't she here?"

"She went out to rescue one of the pack's... my, cub." Udara adjusted her verbiage, regretfully pinning her ears backwards. "And she hasn't returned as yet. Now, I cannot confirm this, but..."

Khufu took a step closer. "But?" He repeated after her, urging the female to continue.

"Some of us, Uhm... we think she may have been shot." Udara said pulling her head into her shoulders in a sort of cringe, unsure of the reaction she'd get from Khufu. A gasp tore through the crowd, and lycans began to panic.

"WHAT!?" Khufu barked.

"But.." A teenaged male began. "If Lunar of all people was shot... What's gonna happen to the rest of our asses?" He barked.

An elderly male grunted, stomping the ground with a paw. "They'll be mounted above a fireplace that's what!" He answered the much younger male bitterly in his aged raspy voice.

"S-so that's it then..." A hysterical female yelped as she sat at the foot of a tree, curled in the fetal position and rocking. "We're dead. If Lunar's dead, We're ALL dead. Dead I say!" She squealed in her thick British accent before receiving a harsh slap from one of the other females.