This story is fictional, I'm sorry (actually I'm jelous) if it resembles your life in any way shape or form. Constructive criticism is welcome. If gay relationships offend you, then "How did I manage to start reading this story?" is a good question to be asking yourself. However you're still welcome to read it!
This story is owned solely by Gaco and may not be copied by any means by any unlicensed individuals, groups, or organizations.
Copyright 2020 Gaco. All Rights Reserved.
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Chapter 14
Alpha Johnson was on the back porch sitting in a rocking chair. A couple other members of his pack, by their scents, were standing near by talking. Bryce had slowed down from the jog we had been at when we reached the clearing. We were now approaching at a fairly cautious pace. I noticed Bryce was watching all of Alpha Johnson's pack for a reaction to me. Other than an extremely sheepish look from Matthew, who was clothed and sitting on the porch off on his own, no one really paid us any attention. A few even pointedly turned to ignore us as we approached.
I stopped to retrieve my clothes as we passed the area where we previously shifted. After looking back and forth between my clothes and the unfamiliar shifters nearby I decided to pick them up in my jaws. Bryce looked from his own clothes to me a couple times, so I worked to pile both sets of clothes together to make carrying all of our items possible. After he was sure I was once again following, Bryce turned back and continued to walk towards the house. He stopped to shift as he got close. His beautiful, hairy, naked body was on display for all to see.
It was now nearly sundown and the shadows of the forest had already mostly covered most of the clearing. I had no urge to shift back to human and be naked in front of all these people I did not know. I walked up next to Bryce, pressing my side against his hip lightly for comfort, not trusting all of the unknown shifters.
"Have a good run?" Alpha Johnson asked Bryce, giving a nod towards us.
"It was enjoyable, for the most part." Bryce flicked his eyes towards Matthew who blushed and looked away uncomfortably.
"Hmm. Good." Alpha Johnson said, sniffing loudly before brushing his nose with his thumb. "You know that's going to be trouble with a lot of our kind. Noticed Seth didn't come with you."
Bryce got a hard look on his face for a second and growled lightly at the thought of Seth.
"He's the fool who bit him. I think he meant to kill Tom, but wasn't able to finish it before he was interrupted. I very nearly killed Seth when I found out." Bryce grunted.
"I've told you before that that man was trouble." Alpha Johnson said, sucking something through his teeth absently. "He'll want revenge, no doubt."
"He'll have to work his way back up the chain to me. He challenged me shortly after his beat down, and I kicked his ass again. He nearly bled out. I kicked his ass all the way to the bottom. It'll be six months before he has any hope of moving back up." Bryce replied.
"You're like to create rot in your pack, keeping him around. Would be best to kill him, or at least exile him before he creates discord." Alpha Johnson said emotionlessly.
"He's been a member of my pack for over ten years." Bryce looked pained. "Has always been loyal and had my back. I can't just dump him like a piece of trash. And definitely not with vampires sniffing around."
My ears perked up at that. I hadn't heard anything else about the vampires since my run in with the one at the shooting range.
"What are the vamps up to? You have more of them up in the city than we do out here, but they usually avoid wolves when possible." Alpha Johnson's eyebrows went up a fraction, but that was his only reaction.
"After Tom was bitten, before his first change, I had been following him from a distance. Making sure he'd be a good fit." Bryce paused, deliberately leaving out the fact that he'd been following me much longer than that. And it certainly was not to make sure I'd fit in the pack. "Tom had been out at the gun range one evening. Everything was quiet while I was waiting for him to come back outside. I'm not sure where the vamp came from but as soon as Tom left the range a vamp approached him while drawing a sword. Tom unloaded an entire magazine from his pistol into the vamps face before he could strike."
Alpha Johnson's eyebrows arched at that as he looked to me for a second. Matthew's face looked equally surprised.
"Enough of the brain was destroyed that the vamp turned to ash right there." Bryce said, and now I understood why there was no blood or body after I'd killed the vampire. "Another had come up behind Tom while the vamp taunted him. Had I not been there to partially shift and rip it's head off while it was focused on Tom the second vamp would have easily killed him."
"Two hunters for a wolf before his first change?" Alpha Johnson muttered before looking back to me. "What is their interest?"
"I'm not sure." Bryce grunted unhappily. "They weren't in any shape to answer questions. The three that came sniffing around the den were uncooperative as well. I didn't keep them alive long enough to try and starve them out. No one wants a starving vamp on the loose drawing attention to the neighborhood."
"You'll let me know if you find something out?" Alpha Johnson asked seeming genuinely concerned. "I've never heard of vamps going after wolves in their own den before, and certainly not like that in the open. While not at true peace with the vampires, it's always been an unspoken rule that we both keep to ourselves. Neither group wants exposure this day in age. To actually stalk your den like that means they must believe that their interest is worth the risk."
"Yeah... I'll call if anything comes up." Bryce muttered before reaching down and pulling his slightly damp clothes from my mouth.
Bryce silently got dressed as Alpha Johnson thought things over.
"We're going to head back tonight." Bryce said after he was finished. "I don't want to leave everyone alone with Seth right now, or while vamps are prowling about."
Alpha Johnson nodded understandingly and we all started walking back towards the car on the other side of the house. Justin and Alexi were already dressed again as well. I looked around and realized that I was the only one around that was still a wolf.
"You take care of your new wolf." Alpha Johnson grunted, having just rounded the corner of the house as we reached the car. "If the vamps are interested it could be important."
Bryce only nodded and Alpha Johnson turned to head back into the house, the rest of his pack following him inside. I let my wolf guide me back to being human. My wolf seemed to tell me how to shift back to human as soon as the thought of getting dressed crossed my mind.
While slightly faster this time, the shift was no less painful. The cracking sounds as my bones re-arranged themselves was just as grating and disturbing as before. My vision returned to normal and I realized I was on all fours, trying to catch my breath. Bryce helped me back up and looked me over.
"You seem to be ok." Bryce smiled to me, rubbing my arms and shoulders.
I nodded, but remembered Bryce's conversation about the vampires as soon as I saw his face.
"Why didn't you..." I didn't get the next word out as he covered my mouth with his hand and cut his eyes towards the house.
His head shook just enough to get the point across. Not here.
I glared at him, but got dressed silently and got into the car, slamming the door loudly behind myself. Alexi and Justin wouldn't meet my eyes as I looked to them for answers. They knew something, it was obvious that I was the only one that did not know.
Bryce walked around the car and got in. He buckled his seatbelt and cranked the car before putting it into reverse and turning us around towards the entrance of the clearing. The car was quiet save for the gravel under the tires until we made it to the main road.
"What goes on in our pack is no concern of Johnson's." Bryce said, breaking the silence. "They would have no doubt been able to hear every word if we had discussed it in front of the house like that."
Bryce looked at me in the rear view mirror, our eyes meeting as his expression turned from serious to apologetic.
"I didn't want to worry you." He said softly. "You've only just shifted for the first time. You're barely taking that well enough. Reminding you of the vampires and telling you that they're sniffing around would only make things worse. I don't want to scare you away."
Alexi and Justin pretended they couldn't hear us. They pretended to be engrossed in something that was suddenly more interesting on their phones.
"It's better to know and worry than be ignorant and vulnerable." I said, glaring back at him, unable to let go of my anger.
"Why do you think I've had Justin keep you armed when you went out? Without an ID, you risk getting caught up with the law. Still, that's easier to fix than dead or captured by vampires. You weren't too vulnerable. As you've proven, you're quite proficient with your pistol. Likely even more so now that you've shifted." Bryce said, looking back to the road.
I sighed, knowing he was right. I could barely keep from going off the deep end over the werewolf stuff. Had I known the vampires were still interested in me and that they knew where I lived I would have probably bolted.
"That's still not cool." I finally said more calmly, unable to come up with a better argument.
The ride back to the den was quiet. Everyone was calm and relaxed after our run and not really in the mood to talk. The radio played music quietly the entire drive back into the city. As we neared the house Bryce spoke up again.
"Tomorrow is Friday. Justin, why don't you and Tom go shopping tomorrow and start the purchases on that wish list I know you guys have. Alexi, I'm going to need you and a few of the others to start a rotation. I want at least one person awake and alert at all times for the foreseeable future. As long as the vamps are sniffing around we can't afford to be caught unaware." Bryce's voice broke the silence as we exited the freeway.
"Any particular guidelines for the wish list or should we just go wild?" Justin smirked.
"I'll give you a budget when I log in and see where our funds are tonight." Bryce replied.
"Better to use cash." I said aloud, remembering the experience from my most recent purchase. "They'll charge you extra if you make the purchase with a card."
"I'll see how much we have in the safe." Bryce grumbled unhappily.
"Depending on how much we end up spending, it might just be easier to take the hit of the extra percentage and..." Justin's voice trailed off.
Bryce and Justin seemed to be leaning forward to get a better look at something. I unbuckled my seatbelt and leaned over Justin's seat to see what was going on myself. The street ahead was blocked off by police cars, an ambulance, and even a fire truck. Even from our location half a block away we could all see the police walking in our front yard. The police had taped off the entire area around the front of the house, blocking anyone from access. There even appeared to be a vehicle turned upside down in the front of the yard. It looked a lot like my truck.
"Tom, seatbelt on and try not to draw attention to yourself. Justin, call someone at the den and ask what the fuck is going on. I'm going to pull around to the next street over and we'll approach from the rear." Bryce said as he backed into a neighbor's driveway to turn around.
After a couple minutes Bryce had reached the front of the house directly behind ours from the next street over.
"Fuck!" Justin exclaimed. "I can't reach anyone! It's like everyone has their fucking phones off."
"This isn't good." Bryce said grimly. "One of them should have called us about this. I don't like it."
As we began to get out of the car a dog bolted out of our neighbors back yard. As the figure approached I realized it was actually a small wolf.
"Zeke!" Alexi hissed, following my line of sight.
"Get him in the car and hunkered down in the floorboard." Bryce growled out quietly.
I opened the back door nearest to me, let Zeke in, and got in myself. He practically laid himself on top of me. Zeke's wolf was all black, smaller than any were I'd seen so far, and his eyes were wide and looked frightened. I noticed that several places on his body looked wet as well.
"What have you been getting into?" I asked, confused.
I pulled out my phone while putting one hand on his head to try and calm him down as I turned on the flashlight. When I pointed the phone's light down at Zeke I noticed that nearly his entire body was soaked. I brushed my hand across his back soothingly and I realized it was not just wet, but tacky as well. I turned my flashlight towards my left hand and froze.
Zeke was not wet. Zeke's body was completely covered in blood.
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