Rogue Wolf

Chapter Three - Framed

Caedes screws up everything. That Pack is just plain awful. They're a wolf pack, but they're vicious. They love to kill, and they're just as bad as - if not worse - than WraithPack, the stallion-sized wolves of the night. I am the only non-Caedes wolf that knows that they exist. You see, they never leave survivors. Nobody lives to tell the tale. The deaths are usually blamed on WraithPack. But I know the truth. It is a truth I have tried so hard to forget.

My brother is the Alpha of Caedes. It all happened many years ago, after Ragged and I had set out on our own to find a Pack. What we found was a nightmare. We scented blood, so we ran to investigate. We stumbled upon the devastated remains of a wolf pack. It was the most horrifying thing I've ever seen.

One of the wolves approached us, and Ragged and I were surrounded before we could even think to turn and flee. He lunged at Ragged, aiming to kill him. I had leapt at the beast, brought him to the ground and held him there. A second later, my rage swelled up, and his neck snapped beneath my paws. I had been furious, wrathful at his attempt to kill my brother. He was the first wolf I'd ever killed.

The rest of them leaped backwards, shocked that I had taken down one of their own so easily. My anger fueled me, and I turned a searing gaze to the wolves, my red and yellow eyes seething with an intense fire, every ounce of hatred fixed on those murdering wolves.

The smallest of the monsters crept forward, a terrible grin spread across his face, black lips curling to reveal the sides of his red-tinged teeth. He said that I had impressed him. He asked if I would like to join his Pack. He told me how strong I would become, that I could slaughter anything I pleased, that I could rule the world with power and fear. Not one wolf grieved the death of their Packmate. It sickened me.

I was utterly disgusted. I lashed out, catching him on the jaw with my paw, and he reeled backwards and landed on his side, yelping from the stinging blow. At the very moment that I had so blatantly turned them down, I felt something leap on my back, a crushing weight that pushed my to the ground. I could hear Ragged's stinking breath in my ear as he snarled at me.

He told me that I was too weak and scared to join Caedes. That I was weak, and that I would die a powerless fool. He said that he would go to them, join them and climb to the top. He was going to become their Alpha and rule the world with a savage army at his beck and call. It was a startling revelation of a side I never knew he had. It frightened me and infuriated me all at once.

I tried to rise, reaching to tear at Ragged, take out my anger and shock and hurt on him - the wolf I had always counted on, the one I had always trusted more than anybody else. But he simply grinned horribly and brought his paw down on my head. When I awoke, Ragged and Caedes were gone, and my flank was torn wide open, a terrible gash to remind me how weak I truly was.

That day, I turned down power, rejected bloodshed, refused to join that Pack with Ragged. We had seen what they could do, how they could kill. The violence had excited Ragged, but disgusted and horrified me. He saw an opportunity for power. I saw a nightmare. I am ashamed that that wolf is my brother.

The last thing I wanted was to smell him again. specially not in Pack territory, on my way to meet Wing. He must have been scouting the area to prepare for one of Caedes's deadly attacks. And I wasn't about to let that happen.

I was walking in the forest when I smelled it - the scent I had never thought I'd smell again. The one thing I dreaded and feared above all else. The scent was drowned in the stench or Caedes - the reek of blood and fear - but I was able to identify the vaguely familiar odor beneath. Ragged.

I wasn't valiant. I wasn't noble. But I had someone to protect. I felt braver than I'd ever been before. I was going to stop Ragged.

I was always the smaller one. I was the weak pup, the cowardly pup. I had never - not even once- beat Ragged in a fight. He'd always been bigger, tougher, and meaner. But all that was about to change.