Brother Wolf

Ch 10 The Queen's Decree

"I wonder what the rest of those kidnapped boys are like?" Cherokee asked rhetorically. He was driving us back to the hospital. His younger brother, whom he had introduced only as Waya, which meant Wolf in their language, was in the cab with us. Waya had brought Cherokee's son Josh to visit with Sister. Josh was a year older than Sister and had been claimed by her as her boyfriend. Josh and Jax were riding in the truck bed.

I shrugged, trying not to bump Waya in the crowded cab. Cherokee knew I had no answer. Watching Jax out in 'the wild' had opened the man's eyes. The teen had so easily gone feral.

The small pack that we met were shocked, both by Jax's instability and his skill at shifting. None of them could change form as fast, and none could partially change the way the young teen had as he leaped around. Jax had done handstands with wolf back-paws waving in the air, a backflip with his legs becoming mostly human, and he had briefly run on two legs as a short howl came from his wolf's snout.

Jax reminded me of Lone Wolf the first time the big man had sounded out as a wolf, making howls, yowls, barks, and a myriad of sounds in between. The sounds Jax made just flowed from him like his movement. The men who had stood around me in the overgrown field hadn't realized how instinctual the boy's shifting was. I was betting he had very little purposeful control.

The teen had started following his nose, pouncing at people. It had been so hard not to laugh out loud at Jax when he had pounced at me, wrapping his paws around my ankle. He had crouched down, mortified, and probably terrified by his actions. It was at that point I had asked Lobo to keep Jax occupied. There were times while he tried to follow Lobo that Jax would shift back to man-form, staying on all fours, as if he needed a man's brain to reason things out. He would quickly and smoothly go back to being a wolf. He would try whatever new tactic he had come up with to try and track the skillful older wolf. It had been odd watching the mostly-feral teen as it happened again and again.

The leader of the pack we met introduced himself as Daniel. Two of his pack had joined the gathering at the mountain and learned of me. When Daniel asked if Jax was alright, I quickly reassured him. We spoke at length about how some packs operate. I spoke of Thomas' pack, who believed in killing those who had gotten stuck as a wolf.

Next, I told the story of Maximus' pack. The old alpha had the belief that killing the former leader was necessary for someone new to take over the pack. I talked to the small gathering about leaders who used abuse and bullying to control their packs.

Daniel's pack was quick to reassure me they didn't operate that way. I had the impression they had escaped from a leader who had. They had more sympathy for Jax when they heard how the kid dealt with the madness those ways had caused in his old alpha. All of them vowed to follow my laws. They wanted to help in whatever way possible, beginning by joining my virtual nation.

It was a few miles before Cherokee spoke again. "He learned fast, seemed fascinated with how you move."

"Do I move any different than any other wolf?" I asked.

Cherokee's brother choked back a laugh, while Cherokee merely humphed.

I had to grin and chuckle a bit myself. Young Jax was eager to learn how I did everything I did as a wolf, from talking to moving, trying his hardest to emulate me. He had been wholly focused on his feet as he ghosted next to me, to the exclusion of almost everything else. The teen had easily kept the loping pace I'd set. "Jax might have a desire to learn, but he has no control. He can only focus on what's in front of his nose and not his whole surroundings. How do you teach someone the things we were doing as small children?"

"I never spoke human words as a wolf," Cherokee said dryly.

"Had trouble howling as one though," his brother snickered.