Howl

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Lukas knew he had completely lost his mind. Instead of going to meet with the wolf pack as he originally intended, he spent the entire day downtown in hopes of running into Emma again. As far as he could tell, she hadn't been there since the day before when she accidentally bumped into him. Even her scent was stuck in his mind - he had to be going insane.

His whole day wasted, he decided he needed to at least get something done, and since he was in town for only one thing, that meant going to the pack. Slowly, he made his way back to his borrowed car, hoping that just maybe, he could catch Emma's scent, but he had no such luck.

Traffic was light, as rush hour had ended two hours ago, but it still took Lukas twenty minutes to drive to the unsuspecting house in the suburb of Arvada. As with most urban packs, the Denver pack did their best to simply blend in with their human neighbors and had one main house where the pack usually gathered. When Lukas was driving down the street towards the house, he realized he didn't know that the same house was still the pack's main house, but when he noticed several cars parked in the driveway and on the street in front of it, he was sure it was.

Either that or someone else was just having a party.

Unlike in California, Lukas knocked on the front door. Having hardly spoken to any of the pack in the ten years he'd been gone, he didn't quite know how he'd be accepted. Not wanting to make matters any worse for himself, he decided to be polite, at least for a little while.

As soon as the door opened, a tall man was growling at him, and Lukas was glad he thought to knock. Judging by the reaction when he simply came to the door, he guessed he likely would have been attacked, which, by wolf standards, was perfectly normal. As far as the pack was concerned, he was a complete stranger, and although the different packs tried to get along, they still had their more primitive instincts.

Under normal conditions, a strange wolf would act submissive towards the pack members when he intruded on their territory, but Lukas had been invited. Having received the letter so long ago, the thought that he was no longer welcome crossed his mind, but they had failed to inform him of that. He stepped a bit closer to the man who answered the door, hoping he would be able to identify his scent.

"Colton?" he asked, unsure if he remembered correctly. The scent was definitely familiar, and he appeared to be about his own age, meaning if he had been born in the pack, Lukas had likely met him before. He did look about what he imagined a grown up Talon Colton would look like.

"Arden?" Talon cut his growl off. Although there was a hint of familiarity in the stranger's scent, it wasn't enough for him to trust the man in front of him. No pack member would have bothered knocking, anyway, which was how he knew it was either a human or a strange wolf at the door. Only after identifying the scent of another wolf had he growled. "You're late."

"Maybe because I didn't want to listen to you renaming me," Lukas grumbled as he pushed pass him into the house.

"Sorry. Vanarden."

Lukas wanted to remain in control of himself while meeting his former pack, but as soon as Talon ran his last name into a single word and used it as if it were an insult, his control vanished. Before he could even think to stop himself, his fist hit Talon in the face. The other was quick to retaliate, slamming the door as he did so.

Lukas knew exactly why Talon closed the door and was not surprised at all when he shifted into his wolf form. Lukas almost followed suit, but not only did he feel confident in his ability to fight the wolf, but he didn't want to experience the pain associated with shifting. When it came to shifting, there were two general options - shift quickly and painfully or slowly and a little less painfully.