Cora, A Sidelines Story from Clayton

More than a wolf

The Characters of Clayton, Rya, Kennedy, Dallas, and the Valentines belong to Rachelle. The character of Cora is expanded on with Permission from Rachelle, and is written for the pleasure of the International Wildflower Pack, the WhiskeyQueenn fandom. #WildflowersUnited #iwp   

: Thanks Whiskeyqueenn Rachelle for sharing your creativity 

and inspiring this side story.: 

More than a Wolf

Mark's pov

Cora was definitely on the warpath, she was refusing to talk to me. I went over to Ms Gretchen's house to finish cutting up the dead tree I had cut down. I had at least a cord of wood to finish splitting. Ms Gretchen had come home, offered me a glass of iced tea, then chewed my ear half-off before telling me to go run around the lake. My wolf obeyed the old midwife without hesitation and here I was. He was running and I was thinking.

Everyone was telling me how to handle Cora, from their Alpha to her brother, even that strange Chinese wolf, everyone had suggestions of how I was to handle her, and I had had it with all of them. Usually, I only half-listened, Cora's behavior didn't make sense to me. I just wanted to leave, I wanted to go home to the peace of the range. To take Shotgun, ride out and stay out with the cattle 'till the first snows. I had two colts I was about ready to start training into cutting horse. Merle and Miles were working with them now but I needed to be home by summer's end. And if today was any indication, I would be going home alone. 

I longed for the openness of the Sky Pack lands and to get out of these claustrophobic trees but my wolf wouldn't let me leave. He did not care how unhappy or uncomfortable I was. He was not leaving his pup or his mate. He would let her kill us if she wanted to and she almost had. She had woken up from her coma, overhearing our conversation with Dr Dallas about taking our pup to Big Sky to have milk enough to feed her, and she thought I was trying to steal our pup from her. I had heard pregnant she-wolves were psycho-protective of their pups, but to try to kill their own mates to protect them. She had almost ripped out my throat, less than a quarter of an inch had separated her claws from my death.

When I told my father what had happened, the old wolf had laughed and said I was lucky to still have my head, that my mama was worse when she was pregnant. I couldn't remember, the only thing I remember about her being pregnant was Blessing's birth. When I got here and saw Cora dying, it was like all the horror of that day returned. The ranch house burning, the ranch hands/ pack warriors and my grandfathers fighting. I had rode in when I saw the smoke, Ironhide had bolted at the smell of unfamiliar wolves. I heard my baby brother crying, he was covered in blood, his leg was crushed. In the chaos, no one had noticed me carrying Martin around. 

Next I found Grandma Rose in her garden, throat cut with silver. Mama called me, she was leaning against the old well, she had been stabbed with silver too. There was so much blood. She dropped her claws and choked back her screams as she ripped herself open.  Mama wrapped Blessing in her sweater and told me to run. She wanted only to save her children. I looked back to see her kneeling in the puddle of her own blood before the smoke got too much.

 I ran to the old soddy and crawled inside, praying to the Goddess that we would go unnoticed, we did. Dad rallied the pack and Big Sky survived. Nearly three hundred Sky wolves died and almost twice that many of the enemy, and Blessing became a symbol for hope for us all and my source of sanity. Seventeen years and the nightmare was always the same until I left Cora. Now when I slept, each time I dream, I looked back and I see Cora kneeling in head down, covered in her own blood, just like that day in Flatirons.