Howl

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Lukas found himself in a great mood on Sunday morning. He had scheduled a training session with the wolves that volunteered to work with him in finding and eliminating hunters in the area, as he planned on taking out any anger he had on them. With his mood far better than expected, he found himself learning the names of the members of his team instead of making them run five miles.

His roommate, Bryan, was the only one he was already familiar with. Although they had not spent much time together, Lukas at least recognized him and knew that he played lacrosse and his only cooking skills involved macaroni and cheese and Hamburger Helper.

Cory was only 17 years old, but he was strong, fast, and willing to follow orders, making Lukas like him almost instantly.  He also had a black belt in taekwondo, although Lukas didn’t plan on putting the young man in any situation where he’d need to put that to use for a long time – Lukas knew he needed more experience first.

Patrick was the oldest member of the group at 46 years of age, but he was also in great shape. When Lukas first met him, he had been skeptical about him, but when he picked up Cory and threw him halfway across the room, Lukas had been glad to accept him.

Amber was the lone female of the group, and Lukas had no idea what to expect from her. She didn’t speak much and didn’t mention having any skills that might be useful. In fact, she seemed rather disinterested in the entire thing, making Lukas wonder about her motivations in joining them. He had spoken to Bryan about her, but she was apparently rather new to the pack and hadn’t socialized much with anyone besides her mate and his close friends.

Keith was the final member of the group and happened to be Patrick’s nephew. Like Amber, Lukas wasn’t sure about his intentions, but he suspected he wanted to impress his uncle. He seemed likeable enough, although Lukas doubted he’d work with them very long. Lukas knew that if his heart wasn’t truly into it, he wouldn’t last.

Once he spoke with his new team for a few minutes, Lukas started warming them up for training. He needed to see exactly what he had to work with before doing too much in the way of training. If his people couldn’t run very well, they needed to work on their speed and endurance. If they weren’t strong enough, they needed to start lifting weights. At some point, he also needed to take them to the mountains to see how they operated as wolves, but it was easier to start off in their human forms.

After a stretching and warming up, Lukas had them run to see how long they would last. He already marked out a five mile loop for his original plan of making them run that as soon as they got up. He changed his plan slightly to have them run as far as they could before heading back to his house.

Although Keith was very enthusiastic, he only made it a little more than a mile before getting too tired to continue. He tried pushing himself, but Lukas made him go back home. Bryan was the next to go, making it nearly two and a half miles. Cory, Patrick, and Amber were more impressive. Cory exhausted after four miles, but Patrick and Amber both made it the full five miles.

Once everyone arrived back at home, Lukas decided to let them rest and used the time to talk about identifying and tracking hunters, as well as the methods the hunters used to identify them. While they knew that their eyes could easily give them away, as could panting if they were unable to sweat, they weren’t aware that they would attempt to touch silver to them in a normal situation. Normally, they did this by shaking hands while wearing a silver ring.

Lukas had a small box from which he took out a small bag containing rings he had taken from hunters in the past. When he dumped them on the table, Keith and Bryan jumped backwards, which amused Lukas.