Chapter 10

The sun struck his aching eyes with a piercing fury. Sitting up slowly, weary to the soul, he squinted at the beam that aligned perfectly to assault his vision. His nose quivered with a myriad of other animals that were already eating and milling about. The barn doors were wide open and there was activity outside.

The face of a teenage boy suddenly popped into view around the corner. “Oh! Uh, hi! G-Good-good mornin’. Uh, m-my name’s D-Denver. Uh, ha, I-I know J-Jack told me t-t-ta, uh, ta wake ye up first thin’ b-b-but, um, ye know, I-I-I kinda, kinda got thi-this thin’ where I figure I-I shouldn’t poke s-s-someone a-a whole lot bigger than m-me when they’re sleepin’ an’, uh-uh, ha-ha, i-i-it’s a philosophy that’s served me real well, so, uh, I-I-I hope ye feel real rested cuz I finished allll m-my other chores first so, uh, hope that were ‘nough!” He held up a hesitant two thumbs up. Anubis peered at him curiously and tilted his head.

“Uh, oh! R-Right! Breakfast! Um, s-sorry that it might be cold now, s-since ye slept in ... uh, a bit.” The wiry boy, a plain brown and white with no outstanding features and an omega’s braid, set down a large bowl of savory porridge with several eggs and a side of meat before backing away nervously. “O-Oh, uh, right. The muzzle. Um, g-guess I could, uh, help with that. J-J-Jist don’t, um, jist don’t eat me, ‘kay?”

Anubis frowned deeply, giving the boy a “really?” glare that was enough to cause his hackles to rise all the way up his shoulders. Stuttering unintelligibly for a moment, he fiddled helplessly with the thick buckle.

“Hey, Denver! Ye done yet? Oh...” A long grey face with a snaggletoothed scowl peeked around the corner. His eyes grew wide as he took in just how big Anubis was. The braid that swayed in the doorway was only a sigma, the rank above omega.

“Uh, c-could use some help, m-m-may-maybe?”

Approaching cautiously, he helped with the buckle. They both backed away nervously once it was released, letting him eat. It was surprisingly good considering it was made from a plant. As he licked the bowl clean, he heard a familiar voice from when he had arrived.

“Long Fang! Denver! What’s takin’ so long? Ye two’re s’posed to have ‘im out two hours ago!”

Both boys stuttered with varying degrees of severity before Fern cut them off, coming around the corner. “Well, yeah, he’s really big, but he’s a slaver, not a cannibal, he ain’t gonna eat ye, ‘kay? Ain’t that right, big fella?” He thrust his thumb over his shoulder. “C’mon, hot stuff. Time to get saddled up. Jack’ll ride Denver’s ass fer not gettin’ ye ‘wake on time an’ that’s my job.” The boy’s ears laid to the sides in a deep, hot blush, his tail wagging a little. Fern smirked at his reaction and ruffled him affectionately between the ears. “Who’s my good boy?”

Denver all but melted. “I-I is, Fern, sir!”

Long Fang rolled his eyes bitterly. “Right here?”

Also rolling his eyes, Fern slipped the muzzle back on Anubis. “Jack says this gotta stay. Yer mouth looks like it could suck dick really well, but also rip all our throats out and that’s the part we’d like to avoid. Never know, be a good dog, we might leave it off.

“Now, I’ll help ye two get that harness on ‘im an’ get ‘im out to the patch field. If we get it all planted today, we might get lucky with a late frost, an’ I don’t think I need to tell ya winter’s gonna be lean without it.”

He was led to the animal supply barn. The once yellow paint above the ground had faded and peeled away, leaving weathered wood exposed. As the three debated how to get the oxen harness on him, a crowd of pups gathered to gawk at him. One little boy, missing a foot, used his crutch like a sword and swiped it in his direction, hopping about on his good foot with his teeth bared. The other kids laughed, drawing the attention of Cloud. Storming over, she shooed them off, glaring at Anubis with bared teeth. All the while, he stared at the hard packed ground beneath his paws until they were done.

With the sun shining brilliantly in his eyes, he was made to pull a large hoe up and down a field of dark, loamy soil that smelled rich with decay, uprooting the many natural plants that had grown up over the spring. As they went, some low ranking females and some older children walked along far behind them, tossing handfuls of seeds.

By the time the sun had reached its zenith and the men called for a break, Anubis could feel his skin chafing where the thick leather harness rubbed him. His legs up to his belly were covered in filth. The men dusted off their overalls and cheered as the women came through the fields with platters stacked high with some sort of steaming leaf covered food. Anubis watched them peel the large leaves off to reveal a bread and meat mixture.

It surprised him when one of the women hesitantly approached him, offering him food before hurriedly retreating. Slaves at home were fed at most once a day from whatever scraps were left from the meals of the Dires. It was certainly not like that here he would come to discover.

While he ate, he watched the pack interact around him. Several pairs were not exactly subtle as to why they were wandering off to find a semi private corner. Some ... didn’t even bother.

Fern was bounding down a street of the haphazard hamlet singing loud enough to echo “ye’ll never touch this ass!” while White Toe chased after him covered in bubbles, yelling threats of vengeance to be wrought upon his ass. In a far field, Jack was also watching the affair from atop the large mismatched tractor and shaking his head.

The pups of varied ages played games that did not involve battles for dominance but instead favored the younger and the slower. The boy with the missing foot hurried to keep up as best he could, but the rest never got too far ahead, always slowing down or circling back to ensure he could keep up with their game.

His nose quivered. A whiff of the familiar. Squinting, he saw Nova pushing Veka in her chair over the bumpy road towards another building that had been painted with a mural of blooming flowers, a campfire creating smoke that flowed into running wolves, and the full moon as an eye.

Fern went streaking by, now naked with hay sticking out of his fur. “Hi, Nova! Glad yer back, Nova!” he yelled as he fled around another building with White Toe still in pursuit with threats of neutering.

After losing sight of them, he peered around when he heard the rattle of an old engine. Down the road some distance bumped a rusted old truck. It was heading to the gate of the property and soon had Jack’s attention when several warning howls echoed through the fields. Anubis did not get to know what it was about as the truck vanished behind some buildings, and so did the Alpha.

The sun was not yet down when he was released from his harness and again fed from the same warm, fresh meal the rest of the pack ate from. Again, it was mostly vegetables with freshly baked bread, but it tasted pretty good. While the pack ate in the great hall, he could hear them laughing and shouting guesses at some game, but he was simply too exhausted to be curious.

He was dozing, in that hazy phase just before the depth of slumber, when he was brought back by many voices joining together, lifting into a wild song that filled the night. Instincts tickled his throat, but he let them out in a long sigh and listened. Far in the distance was a response, more voices rising to answer. There were more responses further in other directions, until it seemed the entire prairie hummed with it. In the resonance of so many howls, there was one small, hesitant yip. With another somber sigh, he curled up a little tighter on his bed of hay and fell into a fitful sleep.

It only took 2 days for Denver and Long Fang to feel a little more relaxed around Anubis. He did nothing he was not told to do, spending any free time just standing and waiting for them to tell him to do something, staring at the ground. They had commented on finding it strange to command him, but were told that it should make them feel empowered that someone was below them in rank. It really didn’t.

While he worked, Denver helpfully pointed out all 61 other members of the pack, including the pups that constantly came near, only to be shooed away by a higher ranking member, giving him a cautious glare as they hurried off.

He learned Iron Gale, younger brother to the old Alpha, was Denver’s father while Winter Lace, Cloud’s youngest sister, was his mother, and they were a dedicated pair. Not a rare occurrence but unusual enough. Through the many conversations he heard, he learned the old Alpha had been beloved by them all, even by the neighoring packs. The pack had prospered under him, but his waning years, the drought, the tractor breaking down, and the war had all taken their toll, dwindling their power in the area rapidly. With 7 other packs sharing their borders, it was a struggle to keep them out of the fields, which could change hands quite suddenly if there was not enough push back, and the pack just didn’t have enough resources to chance a fight with the larger neighbors.

He found that he didn’t mind the muzzle that was attached to his thick leather collar behind his head. It allowed him to pant in the heat that they told him wasn’t so bad, and stick his snout into the water barrels and drink. It was even padded where it pressed his face. The muzzles at home had been designed for torture. This muzzle was just so they felt safe enough to be around him, and he didn’t blame them. He was, indeed, as big as the ox that would have been latched in this harness, but it didn’t fit quite right.

At least the food was delicious. Though, despite the fact that they fed him a larger portion than they would eat, it was never near enough, but it wasn’t his place to expect much less request seconds.

Early in the morning, as he waited outside for his harness, Jack strode over to watch. He was covered in grease with a large wrench in his hand. Leaning against the corner of the barn, he crossed his arms and just quietly observed. Silver, a middle aged delta who had been adopted from a far away pack and was often left in charge of the lower ranks, tugged the buckle over a sore spot and Anubis involuntarily winced. “Oh, sorry, big guy,” he murmured, running his hand under the leather to smooth down his fur.

Jack rolled his eyes and growled under his breath. “None o’ this feels like justice. It feels like corruption.” Striding over, hardly a head taller than the Dire in his feral form, he reached his fingers through the cage of the muzzle and forced Anubis to look at him. “Ye know, slaver, we ain’t like yer kind. We don’t find pleasure in the pain o’ others. Ain’t that lucky fer ye?” Anubis scowled back at him, and Jack’s eyes narrowed. “Nova an’ Veka keep talkin’ ‘bout ye like ye was some sort o’ hero. But it don’t make ye a hero ta refrain from hurtin’ people who’re helpless to ye.”

When Anubis turned his eyes down in deference, Jack nodded knowingly. “Yeah, that’s what ye thought o’ yerself, ain’t it? Some kind o’ savior? Well, maybe there, maybe ye seemed that way to those women surrounded by all that torture. But, let me tell ye ‘xactly what ye are ‘ere, in this pack. Yer a blight. Yer corruptin’ what we are. We don’t even treat our food the way ye treated those women, an’ we sure as hell ain’t gonna start treatin’ anythin’ like that. Not even a slaver.

“Go find somethin’ to pad the harness. I gotta get back to work.”

Honestly, even if he had a rebuttal, Anubis was just too tired to argue, and his feral form did not allow him to speak. Once the last shackle was bolted, he began his task of clearing the irrigation troughs, ignoring the sores that still rubbed even under the extra padding. After all, if the countless women his people had forced to wear such harnesses could suffer so silently, it was only fair that he suffer in silence as well.

When midday rolled by, Anubis was left sitting out on the edge of a field full of tall, waving stalks of some pungent plant, while Denver was plucking at weeds, waiting for the rest of the group to come back with food. Anubis had discovered early on that his stutter was constant and sometimes made it difficult to stay focused on what he was trying to say, but no one ever showed him any impatience, at least not about that. Such a boy would have been torn apart among the Wogtal, but Anubis found it endearing, sometimes. It could be a bit frustrating when it took the boy nearly a minute just to give him permission to go relieve himself.

Squatting unceremoniously by some rocks out of sight, he heard Denver gasp excitedly. “Oh! A shark beetle! I love these guys. Th-Th-They’re so helpful. They eat the aphids!”

“Oh, kind of like the way yer cousin eats yer ass?”

Startled, Denver let out a yip. He attempted to stutter out that the owner of the voice wasn’t supposed to be there, but he was interrupted. “An’ what’d’ye even gonna do ‘bout it? Ye can’t even finish a s-s-s-sentence!” Several other boys chuckled maliciously near him.

“I’ll bet it’s cuz his cousin fucked his mouth so hard, his brain got soft.”

“Nah, he’s been smooth brained from birth. Gotta be to be a nut nibbler.”

The boys snickered at that, repeating him with cruel cackles. Again, Denver nervously attempted to tell them he would call for help but there was a scuffle and a muffled yelp.

“Ye won’t be sayin’ nothin’ ‘round my dick, sausage sucker.”

“Yeah, cuz fuckin yer ass would be just like fuckin a bitch.”

Denver whimpered in a pleading panic, trapped under a chubby sigma that had his muzzle in one hand and a wrist pinned down with the other while 3 others stood over them. None of the teenagers noticed the predatory abyss that stalked up behind them. It even took them a couple heart beats to realize it wasn’t thunder in the distance they were hearing, but a deep rumbling much closer. Anubis almost laughed when all 4 boys practically leapt out of their pelts upon noticing him looming beside them, an amused grin baring a glittering line from ear to ear. Tripping over themselves to escape, they scrambled back over the crumbling stone wall and disappeared into the woods, caterwauling the whole way.

Getting to his feet, Denver clutched at his chest and panted as he watched them take off. “W-W-Wow, A-Anubis! Thanks! I-I were r-r-real scared.”

“The hell was that?” A group of his pack came out of the vegetation, peering around cautiously.

More of the stalks rustled and parted as Fern burst into view. “The fuck just happened? Denver! Are ya alright?”

Lowering himself, the boy swallowed hard. Rather than answering directly, he asked if he could go lie down. Brow furrowed deeply with concern, Fern glanced from him to Anubis and back before gently dismissing him.

Though Anubis was put back to work with Fern taking Denver’s place, it wasn’t a full two hours before they were summoned by howl and led to the receiving building at the entrance of town. He was no fool. Glancing around, he knew a trial when he saw one. Both alphas and several betas stood around, quieting when he came around the corner with Fern. Facing them was a much older, muddy brown alpha, an eye permanently sealed shut with scar tissue. His head beta stood beside him, clearly a brother and closer to Iron Gale’s age. In front of them were two of the boys from earlier.

“Oh, good. Fern. I was just tellin’ Stone Paw an’ Mountain that I ain’t been told o’ any kind o’ attack earlier. Weren’t anyone there with ‘im?”

Fern’s muzzle wrinkled deeply, and he stalked through the crowd with murderous intent in his eyes straight at the boys, his tail stiff. Tucking their tails, they backed away, but Fern snagged the front of the nearest boy’s coveralls and jerked him close. “Was ye harassin’ Denver?” he demanded. The boy tried denying any wrongdoing, but shut his mouth and cringed at the beta’s bare tooth snarl. “Was-- you-- harassin’-- Denver?” he growled each word slowly.

Whimpering, the omega glanced around as if hoping someone would rescue him before lowering himself in defeat. “W-We was only messin’! We wasn’t gonna hurt ‘im! Honest!”

With a final growl, Fern shoved the boy back at his alpha. “With all due respect, Alpha, take yer li’l shits home, an’ if I see ‘em again, it won’t be the dog they’ll be cryin’ ‘bout.” Turning on his paw pad, he fumed away.

The Alpha glanced at Jack, who shrugged nonchalantly, arms crossed. “Well, yer welcome ta send that letter ta Khade’grr, but the man strikes me as awfully intelligent. Ye’ll need to pick yer words real careful.”

Glancing at each other, they scowled at the boys in unison, giving their respects before departing in their truck. Rolling his eyes as the rest dispersed, Jack turned to glare at Anubis. Scratching behind his ear, he seemed to struggle with what to say while Anubis stared bitterly at the ground. After a few false starts, he let out an aggravated sigh.

“Look. I ain’t gonna chastise ye over defendin’ anyone in this pack. But, ye put me in a real weird spot. This whole ‘slave’ thing. It might make sense to ye, but I’ve jist gotta wing it. So, ye ever threaten anyone, ye better be damned sure it’s worth it. I can’t afford to sour relations with our neighbors.” Pausing, he pursed his lips and rubbed his temple. “I knew ye was gonna be trouble, but I didn’t think like this. Alright, well, ye’ve spent too much time standing around, off with ya.”

After storming away, Fern slipped quietly into the small cabin he shared with Denver. He could hear Denver’s sniffles before he even pushed the door open. Curled up on the bed and facing the wall, he softly whined to himself until Fern gently tapped on the wall. With a quick sniff, it took him longer than usual to mutter he was fine. Kneeling beside the bed, Fern gently nuzzled his shoulder, slowly making his way along the curve of his neck to behind his ear. It made Denver shudder, his fur fluffing up with the bumps on his skin.

“Yer not foolin’ me with that tough guy act,” he murmured lovingly. “But I’ll bet ye had those boys on the run with that attitude.”