Wolf's Blood

-Chapter Two-

They were sleeping in the woods, chewing on the bones of a breakfast turkey when Maggie spoke up.

"Made a new friend today," she commented.

"Werewolf?" Their mother asked, a delicate pale-golden wolf. "Or human?"

"Very wolf," Maggie replied, looking up from her rib bone.

"Male or female?" their father asked, dark grey fur looking like ash had once come together and created a being.

"Female," Maggie said in annoyance. "Her name is Maybelle."

"That's a cute name," Their mother said, sounding charmed as Paige chased after her thumping, wagging tail. "Has she been nice to you?"

"Very nice," Maggie said, standing and giving a catlike stretch. "She's pretty, too. She's tall and tough with thick black hair. She smells like an alpha."

Merle flattened his ears and felt the fur on the ridge of his back raise a bit. "I met her. She's a bitch."

"What?" Maggie flinched. "Why would you say that?"

"She threatened me the other day!" Merle complained, standing up. He was barely ears-to-chin with his sister but his fur was bushed out so he at least looked beefier. "She brought me to the back of the school and told me if I crossed her she'd rip my throat out!"

"That's just how alphas are!" Maggie snapped, baring her teeth.

"We have two alphas!" Merle said, gesturing to their parents, who were calmly watching the fight pan out. They trusted this would resolve itself. "Two! Maybe three, when Paige is older, and none of them are like that!"

"Not to us," Maggie said, "Because we're their kids. They wouldn't threaten their kids because they know we won't try to overthrow them. But outside of the family, alphas are threatening, they're angry, they're demanding of people who try to fuck with 'em."

"But I didn't," Merle wailed. "It's not fair. It's mean and I hate it and I hate her!"

"Maybe you're just a dumb omega who wants to be an alpha," Maggie said, but before she could replenish her breath Merle jumped at her and chomped hard into her ear. Sour wax and blood dug into his teeth before his mother let out a canine scream and knocked him away, barreling him into the grass.

"Enough," his mother snapped, the fur around her neck bristling like a mane. "We won't have tooth-and-nail fights in this pack. So maybe you don't like Maggie's new friend, who cares?"

Merle wrinkled his muzzle and snapped at the air near Maggie's whiskers. "I hate school," he growled.

"Better start getting ready," their father sighed, heaving himself to his paws and lifting Paige by her scruff. She'd been hiding, terrified, behind a yew bush. "Back to the house we go."

And so they did.