King of Wolves Read online

  I couldn’t help the huff that came out. I was sure to be scolded later by Red, but she was frustrating me. She didn’t have time not to help them. If the wolves were starving and running out of food, they would come south to get it. Her tree people would be on the list of their next meals.

  “I didn’t believe them at first either, but I saw it. They are sick, and I don’t think between Micco and me that we can protect the tree people much longer. What will happen to your peace then? Festivals can wait, but the wolves can’t. They need help.”

  It was beyond frustrating. Red still didn’t look persuaded. Anger built up inside of me. Why couldn’t she see they were asking for help? Was she not hearing what I was saying?

  “The curse is gone.” The finality told me it was the end of discussion on that. She wasn’t sending help, and she wasn’t going to go see for herself. I kept my frustration bottled up as I wanted to yell or maybe hit something. Red was dooming everyone by being stubborn.

  I wanted to be able to change her mind, but it was impossible. The Red was in charge, and she always let me know that. She didn’t take orders like the rest of us. I could get down on my knees and grovel at her feet, but she wasn’t going to change her mind.

  “Fine,” I told her as I stood and stalked out of the room.

  Just before the door closed, she called to me.

  “I expect to see you at the festival, and you should have at least one wolf with you.”

  I shook my head as the door slammed shut. She was impossible. Unless she decided something needed to be done, she wasn’t doing it. Why couldn’t she listen to me for once? She sent me to the wolves to invite them but then didn’t trust what I reported. Why send me? Just because she said they weren’t sick, wouldn’t make them better. Sometimes she drove me nuts.

  The trip back down to the ground was as quick as going up. I needed to get out of Azren and the trees. My urge to hit something was growing stronger, and if I did that in the city, I’d just get reprimanded by Red for scaring the poor defenseless tree-dwellers. What about the poor defenseless wolves that needed to be protected? What about the women and children? Not a single person living there chose to be a wolf, but no, Red wasn’t sending them help. Wolves couldn’t get sick. That was a lie, and I knew it.

  Touching the ground brought me an immediate relief at getting away from Red. I needed out of the trees and a run to clear my mind. I had a long run back to my home, and plenty of time to think once my frustration with Red passed. I’d have to find a solution to help Micco without her.

  “If you think too hard you might pass out,” a sing-song voice said to me as I passed my childhood home, Red’s cottage.

  “Not today, Sera,” I told the dark-haired girl leaning against the cottage as if she was waiting for me.

  “What, did dear ol’ mommy hurt your feelings?” Sera continued to mock me.

  Three winters ago, when I moved out of Red’s cottage, Sera moved in. I had known her since she was little as we were only a few moon cycles apart in age, and Red liked to visit Sera and her parents at least once a season. I never knew why Red was always helping them out until Sera moved in. I had suspicions, but now that I could see Red aging, I knew what Sera was to her. She was the next Red.

  “There are problems bigger in this world than you and me not getting along,” I told her. And really, that was it.

  Sera and I saw eye to eye about as much as I did with Red. If that was any indication, Sera was going to make a good Red someday. I just wasn’t going to stick around to see it. Right now, I still needed some supplies from Red, so I worked for her and the tree dwellers, but I was slowly getting my own little patch of land and plants going. It would only take a few more winters, and the tree-dwellers would be my past.

  “How about a round?” Sera tossed a staff to me. I caught it with one hand and threw it back to her.

  “I don’t have time.”

  Sera caught the staff with one hand and tossed it back to me. This time she didn’t wait for me to say no and moved forward to attack. I caught it in midstride and had it up to protect my face as Sera swiped down at me. The crack of the two wooden staffs hitting each other sounded through the woods around us.

  “I don’t…” I started to say as she swung again.

  Crack. Another hit I parried away from my legs this time.

  “Have….” I tried to speak again, and yet again, she kept swinging at me.

  I stopped a hit to my midsection and decided instead of talking to hit back. Two quick hits in a row, and she dodged them. As I raised my staff for the third blow, she was countering with her own. I rolled out of the way and let her hit the dirt, knowing the hard ground would vibrate up into her hands. If I didn’t know better, I would guess the slight wetness at the corner of her eyes were tears, but that would mean she hit the ground harder than I was expecting. With a couple more jabs to keep her moving, I made my own signature move, not something Red taught me, to knock the staff from her hand. Sera fought exactly like Red. I’d had to make up my own moves to stand eye to eye with my mother, and it made me a stronger fighter. Sera quickly placed both of her hands on the top of her head.

  “I surrender,” she called out before I could land a hit on her. Not that I was planning to hit an unarmed girl.

  I tossed my staff beside hers as I huffed a bit. I hadn’t practiced in several moon cycles. Nikkan wasn’t a fan of fighting with weapons. He preferred to rip people apart with his wolf teeth. And it didn’t help that not too long ago I had run all the way to Azren either.

  Sera sat down and leaned against the cottage she now called home.

  “Feel better?” she asked.

  I slid down the wall to sit beside her.

  “A little,” I admitted. I actually did. My anger to punch something was gone, but my motivation to help the wolves wasn’t. I was going to go home and get some sleep before heading off to see Micco and figure out what I could do to help him, even if Red wouldn’t.

  “Good,” Sera replied and smiled at me. “I’d hate for you to have to take out your anger on any poor innocent trees on your run home.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” I responded quickly, though actually, I would.

  Sera raised an eyebrow at me but didn’t call my bluff.

  “How is it possible that you two always fight?” Sera pondered.

  I pushed myself back up. That was my cue to leave. Sera and I had known each other most of our lives, but I found we could only tolerate each other in little bursts. Basically, she was the annoying little sister I never had nor wanted. But as irritating as she got, she had a good heart. She would make a good Red someday.

  “I gotta get back to Nikkan.”

  Sera rolled her eyes at me.

  “Someday, we’re going to have a real conversation,” she called to me as I began to run.

  I didn’t look back as she spoke but upped my pace so she couldn’t get out anything more. She was always ready to give me advice I didn’t need. Not Red yet, but playing the role perfectly. As I ran deeper into the trees, I turned to give her one last look. She was still sitting against the house, staring at me. I nodded before I turned back and disappeared from her view.

  Sera was a complicated person. We didn’t always see eye to eye; that was more than an understatement. Most of the time, we fought over everything. But we both understood each other. She didn’t choose her future. Red said she was moving into her cottage, so that’s what Sera did. Red said we train, so Sera trained. Red told her to do everything. Her life was chosen for her, just as mine was chosen for me. It would’ve been easier to be just a tree person or a wolf. But I was stuck outside of it all and always would be. She could understand that feeling more than ever as the next Red; she was never just an ordinary tree person. She would always be different.

  The trees brushed past me as I picked up my pace to a full run. It would take a while to get home, but it was quicker at the pace I was going. I was just a kid when I realized I could run faster and lo
nger than most my age, but I didn’t understand why. Now I was thankful I could so that I didn’t have to ride a horse like the others in Elders when they had a far distance to travel. I knew how to ride a horse, but riding another animal just felt odd to me.

  Usually, I would’ve taken my time and enjoyed the run. If I hadn’t run into Sera, I probably would have been targeting unsuspecting trees to hit, but I didn’t need to let out any anger now. I was past that and moving onto helping the wolves. Even if Red didn’t want to send help, I was going back to the wolf village tomorrow to see what I could do.

  The sun began to dip in the sky, and I knew night was coming. I made my run loop a bit east to cover my typical afternoon path I’d run to keep the safe zone safe. Unlike the day before, I kept a closer eye on the woods around me. Micco said they were transforming with the moon, but I didn’t want to take any chances. A stray, sick wolf was nothing to mess around with.

  As darkness descended on the woods, I kept up my pace to finish my loop and make it home. Nothing was out of the ordinary for the forest. It was still full of life. I couldn’t understand how the sick wolves could be so hungry, but it did mean one thing. They would start traveling more if there was food here and not by their home. I didn’t want them closer to me as that meant closer to the tree villages.

  It wasn’t my job to keep the tree people safe, even if Red had ordered the patrols. What I was doing was keeping the wolves safe as I knew the first time a wolf bit a tree human, they would be back at war. Tree people against wolves. Innocent people got killed in wars, and my best friend happened to look just like what could be attacking the tree villages. I didn’t want to lose the only family I had.

  As the last of the sun faded and the moon shone in the sky, I could hear the howls. One….two….three….four…. It wasn’t good. They were closer than I would’ve liked. Nikkan threw open the door to my hut as I got closer.

  “Get inside man before you attract the wolves.”

  I would have laughed at his statement being that he was a wolf himself, but I knew better than he did that they were closer than they had been in weeks. Without complaint, I ran straight into my hut, and he closed the door behind me. Scraping on the floor told me without turning around that he had pulled the couch in front of the door. Nikkan was scared, which meant this was a bigger problem than even I knew.

  29th February

  The sun was barely up when I woke the next morning, ready to go help the wolves. I didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news that Red wasn’t going to help, but there wasn’t anything I could do to change that. Red had made her choice, and I’d have to find another way. If she wasn’t going to protect the wolves from whatever disease was spreading through them, I was. They weren’t just monsters like the tree people still remembered them. They were men, women, and children. They were families. And most importantly, they were human.

  “You should move back with Red,” Nikkan said from where he sat on the floor. He had spent the night in his human form, waiting to have to fight the pack of crazy wolves he was sure was coming. He would fight in his wolf form, but the wolf couldn’t open doors or windows.

  “Not going to happen,” I replied as I searched for a shirt.

  “The trees are the safest place,” Nikkan continued. “The wolves will come closer each night. We both know that. They will go wherever they need to go to find food. It isn’t safe for you to stay here.”

  I smiled at him. “I’ll be fine. I always have Essie.”

  Nikkan shook his head. My mother had brought back new guns from one of her trips to another kingdom. I had no idea what she'd traded, but the tree people had a stock of firearms and ammunition. She’d insisted I take one with me when I moved out, but it was so pointless. The thing was tucked away and never came out of the box it was in. I spent most of my time running through the woods or doing chores outside. I didn’t have time to carry and load a gun. The wolves weren’t given guns, so to keep it a secret, Nikkan and I named my gun Essie.

  After finally finding my shirt, I went over to the lone cupboard in my house and pulled out two bowls. There was breakfast on the stove. I could smell that Nikkan had already been cooking before I woke.

  “Did you get any sleep at all?” I asked. I had slept. If a wolf did get close to the house, they weren’t getting in without making enough noise to wake us, so I didn’t see the point in staying up as Nikkan most likely did.

  Nikkan shrugged as he stood to help me dish up the eggs that were cooking on the stovetop.

  “Their howls make my wolf side restless. It was better to be human. And I would’ve slept if someone wasn’t snoring so much.” Nikkan pushed me out of the way as I filled the two bowls. He took one from me and went over to my small table to set his food down.

  “Snoring? I don’t snore.”

  Nikkan rolled his eyes at me.

  “At least, not as loud as your wolf.” And that much had to be true. I couldn’t imagine anything snoring as loud as my golden wolf friend.

  “Wolves don’t snore.” Nikkan grabbed a spoon and tossed it to me. I caught it before it hit the stove.

  “I assure you, they do.”

  Nikkan was too busy scarfing down his food to respond. Half his eggs were already gone.

  “You know,” I continued since he was too busy to talk. “If you’d stop upsetting the farmers around here, I might be able to trade and get chickens of our own sometimes, and you wouldn’t have to steal eggs.”

  I knew precisely where breakfast came from. Now, Nikkan pretended like his mouth being too full was the reason he couldn’t respond. He seemed to keep our cupboards stocked with food, but less than half of that came from Red as a trade for my service of keeping track of the woods. Nikkan seemed to bring home as much as Red did. I asked once where he got the food, but since I figured he was never going to tell me the truth, I quit asking.

  As I scarfed down my own eggs, Nikkan was completely done with his and already cleaning up the last of the ones in the pan on the stove.

  “So, what’s the plan for today?”

  I took the last bite. We weren’t slow eaters. It was probably unhealthy or something, but we had stuff to get done.

  “I’m hoping to go to the wolves and see what Micco has planned. You know how he is. He doesn’t wait for help but starts by helping himself. There’s got to be something we can do.”

  Nikkan nodded.

  “But I still don’t like you going to the wolves. Right now, you don’t have to live with feeling the call of the moon or having a split personality because there’s a wolf inside you that wants out. No matter if Red stopped the curse, the real curse is being a wolf in the first place. You can’t undo that. I don’t know a single person that wishes to be a wolf, and you’re putting yourself at risk being around rogue wolves. I think you should go back and talk to Red some more and see if you can convince her by staying there. It isn’t safe in the woods.”

  It never was, but for some reason, I knew it was the place for me. The last few moon cycles that feeling had been growing. Every plant and animal in the woods was familiar. I could hear animals far away or smell a plant that was hidden from anyone’s view. I could picture each animal in the forest down to the pattern on their fingers or toes. Everything was clearer in nature, and I couldn’t imagine moving back into the trees. Nature was speaking to me, and I knew what it was saying. The wolves never fully accepted me, but they still felt like home.

  “How about I promise that we don’t stay there unless there’s a safe place for me to be. Otherwise, we come back here and block the door again.” It was the only deal I could offer.

  Nikkan looked like he was debating it, but I knew he’d agree. The wolves were his family, and he knew we needed to help them any way we could.

  “On your word?”

  “On my word,” I promised him.

  “Fine,” Nikkan conceded.

  I grinned at him. I knew he’d give in as I stood at the door and waited for him to join me in mov
ing the couch back to the middle of the room. Nikkan came over and picked up the opposite end of the couch, and we got it back in its place easily.

  With the morning light shining on the windows to our little home’s doorway, I opened the door. The glare kept me from seeing as I stepped out and tripped over something on the ground.

  “Micco?” Nikkan said from inside the house.

  I turned on the ground and found the older man was sprawled in front of my doorway, not moving. I pushed to my feet and hurried back to where Nikkan was slowly turning the wolf leader over.

  Dried blood covered his body. I was too busy smelling the eggs to have recognized the scent of blood earlier, but there was enough that both Nikkan and I should have opened the door as soon as we were awake.

  “Micco?” I asked as I reached for a pulse. It was strong, and he was alive, just not awake.

  “I’ll fetch more water,” Nikkan said as he left me alone with the older man.

  Slowly, I looked the wolf leader over from head to toe. His clothing was torn, but not like he shifted with clothing on, more like someone attacked him while he was human. Micco, just like any other shifter, was stronger as a wolf. There was no way I was going to find a wolf attacked in human form unless he had been surprised. His exposed arms and legs were coated with blood, and flecks were in his graying hair. The scent smelled more like a wolf than human, so I suspected he fought back, giving as good as he got from whatever attacked him.

  Nikkan returned with a fresh bucket of water. He took a rag and handed one to me as we started to wipe away the blood. I started with his leg closest to me. There was more red than flesh, but as I cleaned and dipped the cloth back in the water, I could see there wasn’t much of an injury. I had no idea why he wasn’t stirring.

  “What happened last night?” I asked. Had I slept through all this? Micco must have either used up all his energy and was passed out, or he had to have hit his head. The water was cold enough to wake anyone.

  “I don’t know,” Nikkan replied as he wiped more blood away. So far, I only found minor scratches that were already healing under all the blood. “I was awake most of the night, but I never heard any fighting going on.”