Ash: The Wolves of the World's End

Chapter 9

     Ash's scent was still fresh in Selena's mind outside of the outskirts of the forest.

     It was Bianca that had first brought her news that Ash was missing. She had heard his howl down near the base of the mountains, and had found the camp. Selena had searched the mountains in a frenzy, hoping that Ash hadn't been so reckless to wander into a human camp by himself. But he hadn't been alone; Remus and Jet were missing as well.

     "We can't risk it," Wyrden had declared when Selena had wanted to go to find them. "We can't let the hunter's know of our haven's existence. If they found it, they would destroy it."

     "Ash is my friend," she had protested. "He saved my life once; I have to help him. Besides, I'm the alpha female; it's my decision."

     "You are an alpha. And that's why we can't lose you. Why I can't lose you." She had wanted to tear his ear off with her fangs for saying that, but she restrained herself. Eventually though, she persisted to convince him to organize a search. He had agreed, but he made them take an indirect route, and stayed by her side almost the whole way down.

     "Selena! Smell this over here!" Bianca's call brought her back to the present, and she rushed over to the smaller, brown wolf. She stood in front of a circle of black, smoldering stones. Selena nudged one with her nose, and quickly drew back. They were warm. Bianca crushed a smaller piece under her paw; she lifted it up to see a fine black dust.

     Selena noticed some branches off to the side. "How did these get here? The forest is at least twenty paces away. And these marks." She lifted a branch in between her jaws. It had once had many smaller branches attached, but they had been either snapped off or completely cut off. She let the wood drop from her mouth, and sniffed the ground, noticing Ash's startled scent near his paw marks, as well as the large, clumsy footprints of a hunter. He must have found his way up here, she thought, but the hunters got him from behind, and... No. No! She felt her emotions well up in her like a fountain of water, until it escaped into a howl. She howled for Ash, whether or not he was dead, it didn't matter to her. It was fueled by grief, by her guilt for ignoring him all this time, by the wild that was within her. The birds flocked from their roosts in terror a hearing her howl, even though the sun hadn't even painted the sky grey yet.

     Her grieving soon left her with anger, with a thirst for revenge. "Pack, form up!" she barked. The others obediently hurried to her. "What have you found?"

     Bianca stepped forward, bowing her tail. "The hunters are travelling with a pack of their own wolves, about five or six of them. But I saw no signs of any of our wolves. Maybe they're being held prisoners," she quickly added.

     Samson, the beta with light brown fur, approached her, and Selena remembered all too well when she first met him. His voice was a low snarl. "Tracks, alpha. I found tracks leading southeast through the fresh snow. They aren't the hunters', but I could smell their scent. It was caused by them though, I know it."

     "Very well." Selena paced in front of the three wolves, the wild inside her growing hungry for revenge. "These hunters have taken three of our fellow pack-mates captive, maybe even dead. We have their tracks now, and we know their numbers. It's time we teach them a lesson." She glanced at Wyrden, who remained silent, though obviously displeased at his lack of control of the situation. "I am alpha female. I am leader. And we are going to hunt these beasts and show them we aren't afraid of them." She howled again, and the others joined her with their support.

     "After them!" she called, bounding after the tracks and hearing the pack behind her. Please Ash, she thought. Please be alive.