Arctic Pack (Living in a Pack book two)

Chapter One: The Arctic

The snow swirled violently downward, beating off my furry face as I pushed against the wind. I kept my head down and my jaws locked firmly on the prey in my mouth. I pushed through the snow one paw at a time. I opened my eyes and squinted them against the angry blowing snow. I could see my house just a few feet ahead, lights on and smoke rising steadily from the chimney. I pushed onward through the snow.

I reached my house and made my way around it and to the small shed in the back. I pushed against the door with my head and it swung open. Dropping the hare I had in my mouth I quickly shifted back into human form. Bending down I picked up the hare and walked  farther into the shed. I grabbed some rope hanging from the ceiling strung the hare up. I was not in the mood to eat it raw and furry. Grabbing a knife I began to skin and gut the hare.

Once I was finished I grabbed the good meat from the hare and headed out of the shed and towards the house. I opened the back door and stepped inside, pulling off my snow covered boots and my heavy winters jacket.

I headed into the kitchen and put the hare in the sink, washing off the excess blood. Then I chopped it up into cubes and walked over to the wood stove in the corner of the kitchen, dumping the chunks of hare into a pot of soup on the stove top. I had an actual oven too but since I didn't have any meat I had put the soup on the wood stove so it could cook slowly while in went hunting.

I stirred the soup a few times and then went and sat on the couch and stared out the window at the swirling snow. It was nice to be back here, where I belonged, but at the same time a part of me didn't want to be here. Five weeks ago my pack had been driven from our own territory. There was a battle and we lost, we had to give up our land and flee before anymore of our members could get hurt or worse. I had suggested we come here, it was a small town, it had no grocery store or anything, only one small corner store that the government had put here for basic needs, it was run by a old man who lived alone. There was a large mansion at the edge of town that we bought as pack house, but it was considerably smaller then the one we left behind. since only about five families lived here there were quite a few vacant houses that we also bought up to house the pack. I knew it wouldn't be a permanent home but for now I was just happy to be able to share my home with the people I loved again.

A knock at the door roused me from my thoughts. I got up and walked towards the door. The smell of the soup wafted across my nose. It wouldn't be much longer till it was finished, just until the hare meat was cooked. There was another knock on the door, louder and harder this time. I hurried forward and pulled the door open, causing various people to fall into the porch in a tangle of arms and legs.

"Well hello there beautiful." Dylas, my boyfriend and mate said grinning up at me from the floor. A mate was basically the soulmate of a shifter and I just so happened to get saddled with this big loser. I always had a soft spot for losers. I crossed my arms as my friends all stood up, brushing themselves off.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Welll," Dylas began, "I was coming to visit my lovely mate, since she decided to live in a totally different house then me..." He muttered slightly bitterly. "When I smelled a delicious smell of soup coming from your house and decided to text everyone so we could come and eat it all." He grinned. I shook my head and sighed.

"Alright come on." I gestured. Everyone untangled themselves from each other and stood up. All except Amber, she was the only one who didn't fall in the first place. Though she was pretty much healed she still had doctors orders to take it easy for a while and had hung back in case something like this happened. She'd almost died during the recent battle with the Dark Forest Pack, everyone was so thankful when she pulled through, we had lost two people in that fight and that's two too many.

"what kinda soup you making ?" Cameron asked eagerly jumping up and down. "I haven't eaten all day"

"Dude you literally ate like a half hour ago what are you talking about." Dan, Cameron's mate, rolled his eyes.

"Same thing, point is I'm hungry." Cameron said rubbing his hands together.

"Whatever just close the door and come in." I sighed and turned around walking into the kitchen. I stirred the soup and called out to my friends. "Get in here and help me if you want the soup because I'm not doing everything myself." Everyone filed in and began to each do something to help out. Dylas cleared the table, Cameron set the table, Sasha and Nate got extra chairs and placed around the table, Dan got the bowls out and put them on the counter so everyone could take up their soup and Amber got the glasses and the water jug, placing them on the table as well.

I grabbed a spoon and tasted the soup, it was still missing something. I added a dash of pepper and stirred it in.

"Okay it's ready." I announced grabbing a soup ladle and dropping it in the pot.

Once everyone had a bowl of soup we sat at the table and began to eat. I ate my soup slowly, savouring it's flavour as the warm liquid slipped down my throat. I smiled and watched as my friends ate the soup and laughed and talked together. It was as though the events that had happened just five weeks earlier had never happened. As though they had never lost the home they'd grown up in. I was glad they were so happy, but I couldn't help feeling that it wasn't going to last.