Untamed - Sample Only!

4 Blood and Flames

A/N   Who missed Alpha Jaxie-pooh? I did.

Alpha Jax

The howl makes the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up. Shivers dance down my spine. It's a sound I recognize. My wolf makes that same fucking noise every time I'm stupid enough to think about the past. It's the sound of soul-deep agony.

My feet turn before I even register where I'm going. That howl sounded like a young wolf. Real damn young. Heart pounding a staccato sound, I change direction, heading northwest, instead of north.

Fucking trappers and wilds are all that live up here, in the no-man's land between the northern packs and the mountains and RustClaw. I don't venture around here too often, but there's war sniffing around my pack. So, I ventured out. I figured I would find out more by myself than with a group.

And I don't like being with others. Sad for an alpha of a pack, but true.

I trek to the west a little more, adjusting my path, trying to pinpoint where I heard that awful echo. There's not much else to follow, all my wolf's heightened senses can pick up are the scents of the forest and... meat cooking?

I grin ferally. Interesting smell. That sure as fuck suggests some sort of settlement, doesn't it? My wolf stares into the distance. It's hard to see against the sky quickly darkening into dusk, but I think I can spot a thin trail of smoke.

I don't realize that the cabin is there until I am nearly on top of it. My boots crunch over needles as I walk under some cedar trees and into a clearing with a cabin straight out of time warp from a couple hundred years ago.

I scan the cabin, the yard, searching for any signs of life. I can smell blood from here, the smell of females and one lone male. Goddess. What the fuck did I just stumble across? Taking my time, I cautiously walk across the yard, making sure to approach the cabin on the side without windows. A little lean-to in the rear of the cabin is smoking. As night falls, I can see the wood starting to glow. Must be an untended fire. Before it all goes up in flames I had better check out the source of the blood.

I walk around the corner of the cabin and catch the soft scent of the young wolf.

Shit, she's female. A new shifter, judging by the clean scent of blood, bone, and fur. I approach the door a little faster, already hating what I know I'll find.

From the doorway I can see the male body right away, The room's so fucking small. The male is dying, his throat torn out. Nothing I can do for the poor fucker.

I see just a slim, white hand limp on the floor behind the male and it spurs me to enter the cabin incautiously. My heart drops to my feet when I see her. The delicate female form is lying crumpled in a boneless heap. Dark tresses spill over half her face, matted with her own blood. She's wearing a homespun cotton dress. Her shoes are simple woven leather. There's no scent on her, I realize. No scent of wolf; no rubber, no plastic, no synthetics.

Goddess, she's a human.

She's not the recently shifted female I heard earlier. Maybe in her early thirties? Gently I touch the bloody injuries on her chest. With quick fingers I use my claws to slice away the dress she's wearing. The wounds are deep, but they've stopped bleeding. Some of the fabric tears away when I pull it, making the female whimper softly. My wolf responds with a gentle rumble of reassurance that makes me pause. He hasn't made that noise in years.

I brush the hair from her face, gently pulling when it sticks to her skin because of the drying blood. It registers, remotely, that she's a pretty female. Like... what is the fairy tale that was a movie recently? Ah, fuck... Snow White, that's it. She looks like Snow White.