Feral

10

He could sense the obvious pain she was in, even with the arrowhead out and her wound stitched. There wasn't much he, or Jerod could do except watch over the next few weeks to make sure it healed properly.

It took the wolves, and the shewolf a good hour to warm up to Jerod. But it was helpful that it hadn't taken longer.

The shewolf was a quick learner as both he and his beta noticed. Her voice was rough and harsh, but if she kept talking perhaps her vocal chords would know and remember their purpose.

He had run through the flashcards with her like he would any young wolf. They were filled with simple words, and objects, but she had yet to understand how to make a sentence.

Damien dreaded when she would understand the word "why" for he feared that she would never stop asking questions beginning with that word.

"That was downright weird. We've only been told stories of packs like hers, you know, so it's more than strange to see one. Not to mention the ferocity of the stories, but her pack isn't like that," Damien scoffed

"When they hunt they are, I've seen it first hand, that's how I met her, don't you remember me telling you that?"

"Sort of, but with our feisty shewolves I've not really focused on remembering much," damien shook his head as his beta's words.

He had received word today that Alpha Raymond would arrive at the airport tomorrow afternoon, bringing his first four with him. Arrangements stood that he and his top warrior, Eliza would pick him up in the SUV while Jerod got the pack ready for his arrival.

A large dinner party was being planned. Damien had been in the kitchen to help with preparations. Just this morning his hunters had returned from the forest with their catches. Eight deer, twelve rabbits, nine ducks, and several large turkeys.

He had helped skin the animals and drain them of their blood. Plucking feathers was never his favorite thing to do, but the animals needed to be ready for cooking come tomorrow morning.

Damien wouldn't be able to visit the shewolf in the next few days, and hoped she fared okay from it.

"Alpha, several of us were wondering if we could go into town, may we?" A young shewolf asked. She couldn't be more than 17. The others were waiting patiently for his reply, four young males, and another female.

"Yes, but be back before dark," he didn't like keeping the young wolves separated from the outside world, but they learned much more in the pack than they would in a human school, he made sure of it.

Once wolves met the age of thirteen, they would answer to the alpha alone, they no longer were kept with their parents. It was to provide them with a sense of responsibility and mature reasoning because by the time they reached 16 they were able to look for mates.

Humans coddled their children too long. He hated it. It made them soft and vulnerable. If humans pushed their children to grow up sooner like he did with the young wolves perhaps life would be more rewarding.

Aside from being alpha to this pack, Damien owned the large construction company for which his wolves worked along side unsuspecting humans.

Most of the adult wolves worked along side the humans in town with construction, retail, and busy jobs like that. Having his wolves do that generated income for them which all shared.

This community was a peaceful place, but with the arrival of the feral pack it put his kind to the forefront. The past few weeks they'd been on high alert when hunting and doing anything in wolf form.

There had always been wolves in this area, but his pack was by far the largest. They owned a large appartment complex for time spent as their human shapes.

Their land was not big enough for the wolves anymore. The land had always been too small for his pack, but with its growth in the past 2 years if they did not acquire the land they needed before the end of the mating season, hell would break loose.