Fang

I shiver with anticipation sitting silently in theback of my wolf pack’s den. I keep my head down between my paws trying hard not to be noticed, afraid I might be send away from the den at any moment. I need to be here where I can keep a sharp ear out for every movement my pack Alpha LongFang makes. His every breath is the sole focus of my undivided attention.

He has to live (inhale) …please let him live (exhale).

My thoughts run away from me repeatedly going back over all that had happened on this long miserable day.Today for the first time ever I don’t know who I am . . . No, I shake my head at my own thoughts … I don’t know WHAT I am . . . that is more honest.

My DenMother keeps me under her watchful eye not allowing me any closer to the rest of the pack. She is as shaken up as I am. My heart ache seeing the uncertainly in her every move. Somehow I caused this and I don’t know how to fix it. Our Alpha might die and it would be on my head.

A couple of hours ago we were out hunting as is our norm most evenings and everything in my world was right and wonderful as it should be. On our way back to the den my nose picked up a confusing scent, a part of me recognized it as if in a dream but it made me uneasy seeing as my mind was unable to place it.

Looking back I can see now that that was the instant everything changed. My body became my enemy; from that moment on I was not in complete control of my actions.

I felt the tension in the pack mind as they too caught the scent adding to my own strain. The scent was familiar to them but caused uncertainty among them. The images they conjured with the scent were fascinating and for some reason coupled with that of my mother which peeked my curiosity.

LongFang catching up from behind stopped at my side and his Alpha voice echoed in the pack mind. “Run into the woods and hide PaleFang.” He ordered and for the first time ever I hesitate on his command. “What is that scent?” I question him unthinkably. “Go Now!” He growled before bounding away with the rest of the hunting party.

I feltanxiety and something like fear that I had never felt before from anything but our pray rolling off of him. For a moment only I hesitated then turned and ran as he asked, my milk brother WindChaseras always on my heals. We don’t go far though; I can’t make my legs carry me further knowing my Alpha might have need of us.

As soon as LongFang and the hunting party reaches the clearing in front of our den an unknown female wolf mind merges with the pack mind and the sheer aggression in her thoughts has me running back headless of my Alpha’s orders.

The female seems impatient and very inquisitive. “LongFang, about time someone with authority shows up. I have been questioning these others.” In LongFangs mind I see her indicating DenMother and other females sitting close by looking very uncomfortable. “I wonder if you could sate my curiosity.” She focuses her attention fully on LongFang and does not look pleased at all. “I decided to pay a little visit to your pack today seeing as you are considered a‘cousin’ pack of my . . . of Michaels pack and then Isurprisingly stumble unto the unexpected.” She is obviously familiar with the pack though I had never met her. “What have you been hiding, Long Fang? I am not blind to my senses you are harbouring something I have not come across before?” I do not understand what she means and stop just behind a boulder where I can watch this stranger.

She show’s my Alpha disrespect that makes the hackles on my neck stand up circling him like pray. Something is wrong with me my body screams at me but my mind suppresses the burning sensation running over my muscles as I focus tense, ready to attack.

Suddenly without warning her body convulses and she changes into a strange white beast. The beast grabs hold of LongFangs head between her clawless paws. Her change startles me but not as much as the fact that the rest of the pack seems un-phased by it.

I am stunned, rooted to the spot. She is doing something to the pack mind and its causing my pack pain as a whole, images start bombarding my brain I recognize the image of my mother and LongFang, the same image he had shown me as a pup when I would ask after her.

My mother is clearly in agony and when her face contorts in pain I grimace. This was notan image I had seen before. The vision shifts then to a creature not unlike the one holding LongFang only much smaller. It’s lying on the ground crying out in a strange way and then my DenMother is there licking it and later another image of her feeding it. The image’s whirls and I see myself sound asleep next to my milk brother as small pups.

For the first time because the female is concentrating on it I notice something that I hadn’t before really payed attention to. I watch the rest of the pack in that image draw near. They are all of the same colour and build. I am not. I stand out as snow in the mud. Bigger than most even at my young age and the colour of milk as my milk brother jokingly likes to remind me.

I shake my head it does not matter I knew I was not born to this pack that my mother had come from another pack different from ours. Besides LongFang promised me he would explain some day.

“One of us?” The woman asks as confuse as I am. Does she mean me? “Bring him to me now!” she orders in an imitation of an Alpha command. Her mind is strong almost as strong as LongFangs but different.

LongFang hesitates. “Jenny…” He thinks, the word is strange but I assume it’s some kind of name and belongs to the female. “He is part of my pack and I made a promise to his mother to...”

At the time I did not understand but now I realize that they had been discussing me. Was I one of them the kind of creature the woman was?A creature able to change forms? What promise had LongFang made my mother?

He’s words are cut short as the female changes back into the more familiar form of a wolf, bigger than any wolf I know but to my mind more normal. “When I command you obey!” She growls and launches herself at LongFang so unexpectedly that he doesn’t have time to defend himself properly. I watch in utter dismay as my pack Alpha goes down obviously injured badly from various bite and claw wounds. I can smell his blood it makes my blood boil with rage.

After the female’s attack watching my Alpha lying their helplessly bleeding everything went horribly wrong. I unthinkable leapt into the air and landed on her with the full force of my body. Her legs gave out and she went down beneath me putting the back of her neckin perfect reach for a killing bite. Instead I bit down only hard enough to penetrate skin then moving off of her I picked her up like a pup and threw her aside with force.

As soon as her blood pulsed into my mouth my skin turned to fire and my bones started moving and changing but I only noticed once she was out of my reach.Even now thinking about changing makes me wince. The pain was unbearable. I was sure I would die. When I could think again I felt like I was a mere passenger in my own mind. I looked down at myself and what I saw did not make sense. I looked the same as she had before when she had changed the first time only I was bigger and whiter and I cut my tongue on two unexpectedly long fangs in my mouth.

I only attacked her to stop her attack on my Alpha. After changing I was too stunned to do more than stare at her. She was crouched on the ground blood slowly dripping from the wound in her neck. When I could finally move I backed up slowly towards LongFang my only concern his life.

It caught me by surprise when she suddenly howled. “Vampire!”And attacked me. My body automatically took me through motions I could not fathom. This was not me; I was not this thing that was ripping her throat out with two weird fangs. I was not the one that drank her blood and felt exhilarated by it.

When it was over I somewhat reclaimed my new body and sought out LongFang. Though he had been hurt and was bleeding he was still alive. I cautiously moved to his side and laid down next to his big head. He hadn’t moved since the attack and he only opened his eyes when I bumped my nose to his. When he opened his eyes at first he looked at me fearfully but it only lasted a moment before an image of my normal self-played between us. I whimpered in recognition wanting him to know the image was right that, that wasthe me I knew. We laid side by side for a long time my heart slowed and I calmed as I watched him watching me. There was nothing but acceptance in those dark eyes and I clung to it desperately.

My thoughts are interrupted as the whole pack around me freezes. I search frantically for the source then notice WildHunt enter the den. We all tense. As Beta he has the right to step up and take over now that LongFang lay’s injured. To keep everyone calm he does not linger in the den but keeps to the woods lately with the hunting party. I know my pack we will abide by pack law and follow him as loyally as we do LongFang but they don’t want to make that choice while LongFang still breaths. He is a good Beta and would make a great Alpha but he concedes to their wishes heading back out with the hunters in toe.

I settle back down only after checking to make sure nothing about LongFang has changed in the least. His breathing is still the same, he is still unconscious, he has yet to move. My mind shying away from my anxiety about him picks up on my thoughts again where I had left off before.

I longed to see that acceptance again now. LongFang’s unconscious form and the silence from his otherwise omnipresent mind were worse than not knowing who or what I was. Somehow I knew that everything would be okay once he was back to his old self again until then there were just too many uncertainties not just for me but for our whole pack.

I wait while watching the moon ray’s dance across the ground then recede to allow the sun’s access.

LongFang’s laboured breathing makes me think of the pain I felt changing back from the white creature to my normal self.

My body caught fire again and my bones moved under my skin in an unnatural way. I tried to howl in pain but no sound escaped my muzzle. When darkness blissfully claimed me I was close to wishing for death. The last thing I remembered was a fleeting image from my milk brother thinking. “Thank the god’she’s back.”

At the time I did not fully understand his thought but finding myself back to normal on awakening was a relieve for me as well. I’m not sure how I ended up in the back of the den with my DenMother keeping watch. The only thing that mattered was that LongFang was there as well; being tended to by the elders of our pack. He was opposite me on his special spot inside the den.

As long as he was here, there was hope. Hope that he could explain what had happened. Hope of his forgiveness. Hope for our pack. Hope for me.