The Lycan Hunter

Chapter 3

KYRAN LOOKED OUT OVER the submissive poses of his newly formed Harem, the single female Talas that were the protected members of the pack. Many of them submitted willingly, if not gratefully, to their new lives, preferring it to the one where they lived as soldiers.

Alpha females typically left patriarchal packs after their First Shift to find favorable conditions within a matriarchal pack where their dominance would be appreciated and utilized. The same was true of Alpha males born into matriarchal packs.

The former Mikko had been trying to break with the old ways of patriarchal hierarchy by allowing the Omega females into combat. Conceptually, the Oconee Mikko’s goals were to be admired, but poor execution and lack of battle ready Alpha females doomed the Mikko’s plans to failure. After rejecting Kyran’s challenge for leadership, the now dead Mikko had chosen to engage in all-out war, thinking his greater numbers would gain him a victory.

Unfortunately, the very females he’d counted as soldiers approached combat with a dispassionate air that distracted their male pack mates. For that reason, Kyran was able to take over the Oconee pack with a much smaller group of soldiers.

A few females had given a good fight, and he hated to lose them to the confines of the Harem. However, he couldn’t risk their safety to possible challenges that they would face against the more dominant males of the pack. Dominance fights generally weren’t to the death, with the exception of leadership challenges, but a critically maimed warrior was an intolerable weakness to the pack.

The pack was gathered at the outside meeting grounds, an area in the middle of the Chattahoochee National Forest. All the seating looked natural, as a means to keep humans who may stumble through the area from paying too close attention.

In the claw cleared circle, one rough, wind and rain carved boulder served as the seat for the Mikko, the chieftain. A series of fallen trees, carved by the claws of the omegas, served as benches for the pack’s warriors.

Kyran turned his attention to the pack. “Where is Ronan?”

It had taken him six months from the initial takeover of Oconee Pack to eliminate those loyal to the now dead Mikko. In those six months, Kyran had focused on pack restructuring and answering various challenges for leadership. From the looks of it, he had one more Tala to force into compliance. Even if it was his Tepinok, his second-in-command.

“Does anybody know where Ronan is?”

“I’m right here.”

Ronan was tall with broad shoulders and lean muscles that lined his exposed forearms. He walked with an arrogant swagger that contradicted the boring, muddy water color of his long straight hair and eyes the color of dead leaves set in tanned skin.

Kyran forced himself to unclench his jaw. If he ground any harder, his molars would cease to exist. “You’re late.”

Ronan faced him and kneeled, offering his neck in submission.

“There is a valid reason, Mikko. I will explain after the meeting.”

Kyran nodded and motioned his brother to his seat at the right of the throne. He returned his attention to the rest of the pack. “Now, where were we?”

 Shayla, one of the females capable of combat, stood and faced him. “The movements, or lack thereof, regarding the local Hunter, Mikko.”

Kyran gave a curt nod to the silver-blonde female. She returned it and retreated back into the fold of the Harem.

As the daughter of the former Mikko, Shayla didn’t belong among the Harem’s rank. Though she wasn’t an Alpha female, Shayla was a fighter, trained and formidable in her own right, but in a patriarchal pack, females were for mating, not fighting. He didn’t agree with the edict, but nonetheless, the Harem was the safest place for her and those like her.