Winter Wolves

Chapter 1

Colton was looking through the window in his office. It's wide frame offered a view from the clearing where the pack house was situated and the tree line where the forest begun. Small snowflakes were already falling lazily to the ground.

Without looking, Colton new the exact momento when his beta, Michael, entered the office.

-Michael- He acknowledged him without looking at the door, where Michael was standing.

-Alpha Shaw, by tomorrow morning the forest will be covered in white. We have to prepare the winter hunt before all the animals go to warmer lands. -

-I know Michael, I can already smell the cold and the humidity that's in the air- Colton turned to face his Beta: he was tall and bulky with strong features, just like all of the wolves who were a part of the Sitka Pack. Alaska had never been home for the weak.

-Gather all the trackers and hunters; I'll ask the females from the council to look after the pack while we are gone-

Michael gave a sharp nod and went out of the office. Colton remained there a little bit longer, thinking of how they needed to hunt enough meat to feed the council elders, the widows and any new family that was likely to face harsh times during the winter. Once the hunt ended, the game was skinned and cut in pieces to storage it during winter. The meat remained in large freezers inside the pack house ready to be cooked.

Nobody in Sitka pack, Colton's pack, starved during winter, even those unable to hunt. The elders contributed with their wisdom to guide the pack and in return the pack provided for them. The widows helped to keep the greenhouses and the little orchards the pack had, so they could have vegetables along with the meat they hunted for.

The Sitka Pack weren't hermits, Colton liked to think they were self-sustainable. They had solar panels on all rooftops and some hot springs provided by Edgecumbe Volcano, allowed them to have hot water.

Colton had become the alpha when his drive had been too much to hold. When he was ready, he fought his father for the alpha position and won. His father gladly stepped down and Colton's rule began. He was a fair alpha, he looked after his people and was beloved by all the pack. It had been 7 years since he had become alpha, and 4 since his father had passed away fighting a brown bear. His mother followed him a year later grief-striken by the lost of her mate. After their death, Colton only regreted that his parents weren't there to meet his future mate and pups. Now, at the age of 30, Colton was almost sure that his mate had perished in Alaska's hard weather before they got to know each other.

It still pained him a little to think that he wouldn't get to have his mate and pups. But with the passing years he had grown used to the idea enough to sometimes mingle with she-wolfs, never with his pack members though. It was usually when he got out of Sitka to attend meetings with other alphas, or when he went out to buy the supplies they couldn't get in the small city. Wolves where pretty sexual creatures and he had stopped feeling guilty after he gave up on finding his mate. Mates where usually inside the same pack or in nearby ones, and tended to find each other before the age of 23. Colton had visited almost every pack in Alaska trying to find his mate but failed each time. He spoke with the elders and they all agreed that probably Colton's mate was no longer alive. The elders had insisted for him to take a she-wolf from the pack to mate and breed, they needed an alpha female after all. Colton flatly refused such an idea and made clear that even if his mate was long dead, nobody would replace her. The alpha female duties where taken care of by some of the widows and elderly females.

After Colton realized he had been mind-wandering again, he headed to the clearing outside the pack house. Michael had already gathered all the trackers and hunters and they were waiting for him.

-Any suggestions for this winter hunt? We will be leaving tonight after the sunset and will track all night long, the newest wolves will carry saddlebags and all the necesary items to bring the meat back home.- Said Colton.

-Alpha Shaw- Said Emmet, a hunter who had run night patrol -The elk herds are further than normal, we also found some carcasses inside the pack border, it doesn't seem they were killed by a bear or cougar, it looked more like a wolf's job, but there weren't any conclusive prints or smells-

At that, Colton furrowed his brows, another pack wouldn't cross their border for a kill, and rogues weren't common.

-We will look into it after we leave for the hunt...Remember: Try to kill only the old or injured, stay away from pregnant elk or those with small calves; you're not allowed to kill calves unless they are injured or deformed. Never forget that there must be a balance, we kill to feed ourselves but just enough so the elk can return to us next year. To the new ones, those who are going on their first hunt...We don't toy with our prey, them giving their lives so we can have our bellies full is a sacred thing- All the wolves who were listening nodded their head. Colton dismissed them and went back to his office. They would need at least 12 regular sized elk to make it trough the winter. Sitka's Pack was conformed by aproximately 40 adult wolves, without counting the pups.

They didn't have that many pups. With females only going into heat once a year and females not being able to shift in the late pregnancy without hurting the pup, births were not a regular ocurrence in Sitka. The ones who did survive the birth and the first year of life were strongly treasured.

That afternoon, 25 wolves including Colton went into the forest. They divided in two groups, one would be going straight to the north and the other one would be going north-east. Each group had to kill at least 6 elk and return to the pack house within the next 4 days. One group would go with Colton and the other one would go with Michael. Colton took Emmet with him, before the hunt started they would investigate one of the carcasses Emmet had mention. The went north-east. For the next 4 days they would run in wolf form, except when they needed to skin, butcher and load the meat in the saddle bags before returning home. Colton took off his hiking boots, jeans and flannel shirt and left them in the basket someone had placed for all their clothing. He welcomed the familiar burning in his muscles and joints and soon found himself running in four legs. His paws making soft tumps each time they hit the forest's floor.

Colton followed Emmet and after running for an hour or so, they found the carcass. It was an old buck, and had a fracture on it's front leg. All the insides and the most muscular parts had already been eaten. But the head and legs were untouched. A deep gash in the animals throat was the, all so common, half moon shape of a wolf bite. Colton took deep breaths before reaching the carcass and sniffed all over it.

-It was definitely killed by a wolf, the bite proves it, but I can't smell anything and the only prints I see are the ones left by the scavengers- Said Colton over the mind link.

-It is the same way with all the other we have found, this was not made by a pack member- Said Emmet.

Colton felt a simmering rage inside him, he had long driven away all the rogues in the area, but they had the spine to return. Soon someone would be at the edge of his rage.