Chapter 9

For anyone who cares Tahryn is pronounced 'taa-rin', with a long extended vowel at the beginning. All main and sexually active characters are over 18. I do not condone violence of any kind. Wolf rules are very different from human rules.

Degan Canon flipped through the papers on his desk and reviewed the photos that Willis had taken of the new site out at the oxbow lakes. It looked promising, the site was very large and backed onto the next part of the National Forest parkland as well as the flat protected valley of the river. And the pack could afford it. It was a stretch, buying several nearby houses would be cheaper, but this would solve so many more issues for the pack. Degan shuffled the copies and the spare photos together along with the list of pack members taken from the roster and put the lot into a large manila envelope. He wrote the address carefully in a rounded hand and put the envelope in the stack of letters on his desk to be sent up to the South Bank pack.

Things had gone from tense to great, to tense again in the pack. The mood of a group of werewolves was a fluid thing, connected to the happiness of the individuals, and tied to the strongest members of the pack. That should have been himself, Willis and Noakes, and the other members of the council. But since Kurt's fight with Phillip and Tahryn's obvious dismissal of other pack members at the council vote, the lay of emotions had changed. When the Ulrich boys were high strung the pack was nervous. And there they were taking one step forwards and two steps back.

Kurt had recovered well from his fight, broken his mind in half and then ignored the needs of his wolf soul. Noakes said that he'd been lucky as sin not to break anything else and had come out of his fall basically uninjured. Physically at least. Mentally the boy was a wreck. The big black wolf had spent the night in Degan's house, back in the sickroom where he had slept after his injury, but in one of the dog baskets from Degan's study. Tahryn had been sent home again, much to the big blond wolf's disgust, and now Kurt was back in his parent's house. Still wolf, still uncommunicative, and still feral. It was not a good situation.

No one was willing to challenge him over it, Willis had tried and come back with scratches where he hadn't moved away quickly enough. Kurt was too strong, and apparently now without any kind of control. Tahryn, big and sandy coloured, had spent the day lying, head on paws, outside the back door. Willis had basically dragged him to school. No good was going to come from pining after his mate. Kurt was talking to no one, and that wasn't helping anything. Degan needed the boys to see eye to eye properly, finally, if any of his plans were ever going to work out in any real sense.

Degan chose to focus on happier things. Mary James had gone into labour, finally, but it was a long one, the new pup was really keen to stay inside and not join them out in the big wide world. It was good for Dinah Tanner to have other things to focus her mind after the loss of her son. The new wolf Deoran was turning out to be solid and reliable. He had helped to bury the body of Philip, and had been the first to arrive to where Kurt had fallen. He'd gone from quivering wreck to showing his true colours, strong and dependable, very quickly indeed. Degan was pleased with Aliza's choice of mate. She'd chosen well, for all her fast paced method had led him to believe otherwise. A dominant female was a powerful force indeed.

And that brought the situation with his granddaughter and Chaska Spencer. Degan regretted, just for a moment, his decision to welcome the Spencer family into the pack, it seemed that the children were causing no end of trouble now. Noakes had been to Degan with his concerns.

"A split," the doctor had lain his arm across Degan's desk decisively, "In the family. I swear it was like the dining table was broken right down the middle."

"Is it that bad already?" Degan had frowned at his gamma across the desk, turning a little brass wolf paperweight over and over in his hand.

"Yes. Those five are a pack already, for all that they look like a bunch of unruly teenagers. And it looks like Tahryn could be their alpha if he can keep his mate under control."

"Five?" Degan had dropped the brass canine on his foot with a yelp. "What do you mean five?"

"Isla. The littlest one," Noakes looked at him like he was blind, "She and Kurt are like two peas in a pod."

"Oh god..." Degan put his head in his hands, "Do you think there would be any more? We'll lose a whole generation."

Noakes seemed to consider the question.

"The middle girl will stay. She's still with Whelan."

"What about Henry? Tanner's boy?" Degan spoke carefully. There was no love lost between Henry and Kurt, especially now, but the young wolf had still been seen with his former blond friend. Apparently there was a loyalty there too which was not yet broken.

"I don't know. It would kill Alex if he went." Noakes pinched his forehead, "But he might. He seems to be very loyal to Tahryn. It depends if he can forgive Kurt or not."

"They can't stay can they?" Degan asked, but knew the answer.

"No. They are already aligned differently. They'll have to go. Did you receive the communiqué back from Pincents Hill yet?"

"Yes. It's been done before."

"With one alpha?"

"Yes. I'm not sure there's ever been a double alpha before." Degan sighed, "Was it wrong of me not to see that aspect in him?"

"None of us did."

"This is going to cause problems if it's not handled right isn't it?" Degan could show worry in front of his gamma. Noakes would know what to do.

"Yes. Yes it is. You have any idea how hard it's going to be to convince Kurt to leave the territory?"

Finally out of breath, Tahryn headed off the asphalt track and headed towards the patch of grass where he had left water bottle and towel. Trying to be normal was nigh on impossible today, not after he had spent the night sitting outside Degan's house wanting to be with his mate. Willis had strong armed him into coming, and then signed him off classes for the day and sent him out of the track to go run off his anxiety. Why he couldn't just stay home and run wolf through the woods he didn't know. He'd been out here for hours, pushing his muscles way past the point of smooth easy motion and into the territory where every step hurt. It was a great distraction. Blood pounding in his ears, Tahryn put his head between his knees and panted, tongue out like a wolf. Some habits were hard to shake.

He smelt Henry before he heard him. His ears were rubbish with his pulse this hard anyway, but over the sweat his nose worked fine. Henry's usual scent was coloured with uncertainty and the grey ribbon of loss. He had not forgotten what Tahryn's mate had done to his brother. He never would, but the fact that Henry was approaching him now meant that the other teen knew, just as Degan had, that what Kurt had done had been necessary. Philip had meant to destroy Kurt, but he hadn't been strong enough to follow through on his challenge and then wouldn't back down. Expulsion or death had been Philip's only options. When you challenged a wolf like Kurt, those options were narrowed for you.

"Hey."

Tahryn looked up at the werewolf he still considered his friend. Henry smiled at him, it was such a normal gesture that Tahryn felt his breath catch in his chest all over again. Kurt had smiled like that, just once before everything had gone wrong. He nodded back and made a welcoming gesture with one arm, indicating the grass. He took a long drink as Henry sat down, trying to calm the frantic thudding of his heart, and then offered his friend the water. Henry, not even sweating, declined with a hand.

"You've out here for hours Tahryn."

"I know." Tahryn looked up at the sky. It would have been nice for it to have been overcast, cloudy, preferably black to match his mood, but no: the sun was out, the sky was watercolour blue and dotted with little fluffy clouds like sheep in summer. He looked utterly despondent, "I think I really screwed up Henry."

His friend's hand landed softly on his shoulder and Tahryn decided that he wanted the comfort from the touch, the usual werewolf instinct to have physical contact whenever things went wrong.

"Looks like none of our lives are getting easier." Henry squeezed his shoulder, "You want to talk to me about it?"

"You don't want to hear about my problems with Kurt. You hate him."

Henry shrugged and lay back on the grass, pillowing his head on his arms.

"Sure I do. It doesn't mean he was wrong though."

"What?" Tahryn twisted around to look at his friend. Henry looked unchanged, still sort of good looking, very normal for a teenage boy. Only in his eyes could you see the change, the chocolate brown distant and thoughtful whereas before he had been happy-go-lucky and dancing with life and hormones.

"We've never gotten on well. We probably never will. I hate that he killed my brother, but I'd told Philip a dozen times that he would never win against Kurt. He was dumb as fuck to try again like that. Kurt and I will never be friends, but you're my friend and he's you're mate so..." Henry managed to shrug against from his prone position, "I would rather Philip had lived, but I wouldn't have wanted Kurt to die either."

"I'm sorry, about your brother." Tahryn found that the words stuck in his throat, even though they were true.

"He was not always the nicest person to be around. Mostly I feel bad for Mum, she was devoted to him." Henry patted the grass beside him, and Tahryn relaxed his spine back into the warm earth, "Now tell me what's eating you. Kurt's not injured again is he? I thought I heard Noakes say he was somehow OK?"

"Somehow being the operative word there. I have no idea how he didn't injure himself again." Tahryn exhaled deeply and closed his eyes. It was somewhat easier to speak when he could only see with his nose. The world was growing, and everything reminded him of the scent of his mate. "I think I pushed him too hard. Calling him 'pup' in public and thinking that he was OK with it. Fucking hell, we took him shopping and treated him like he was just any other boy. I ignored that he hadn't shifted in days. I thought he was OK, that he was coping with it..." Tahryn stopped speaking, he could feel the hot tears and the sob in his throat. He did not want to cry, here, out on the sports field, in front of his friend.

"Hey..." Henry touched his shoulder again, "You didn't know."

"Sure I did. I just chose to ignore it," Tahryn swallowed the tears and kept going, "I knew he was crushing all his wolf instincts. He went from having no human side at all to giving it all his attention. He couldn't hold it together, and I pushed him to hard."

"What did you do Tay?" He could tell that Henry was leaning up on one elbow, watching him. Tahryn kept his eyes closed, almost too embarrassed to answer.

"I fucked him." Tahryn breathed shakily into the hot silence that followed his words. He half, no more than half, expected Henry to get up and walk away. Straight guys were not known for their coping ability when their best male friends wants to talk about sex with guys. Henry didn't move. "I think I sort of forced him to. I didn't mean to, but I used a command on him."

"You guys can command each other?" Henry sounded more shocked by that than anything else Tahryn had said so far.

"Yeah..." Tahryn felt his diaphragm sink as he exhaled again, "And he can hear my thoughts if I don't guard them. I can hear him when we ... have sex." Tahryn paused, then clarified, "As wolves."

"Dude, that's kind of awesome don't you think?" Henry seemed to consider something, "You mean you can't hear him all the time?"

"No. Well. We haven't ... you know," Tahryn growled inwardly, talking about sex with Henry was even harder than talking about it with Kurt, "Done it as humans yet."

"I thought you said that you..."

"We didn't exactly get very far," Tahryn rubbed the long red scratch on his arm where Kurt's fangs had laid him open. Noakes had given him stick on stitches and antiseptic for the wound, but it had healed well overnight in wolf form, "I don't know what to do."

Henry seemed to consider this. Tahryn could hear his friend fidgeting with the grass, tearing the wide blades into little strips.

"Talk to him?"

"He's a wolf. He holed himself up in his parent's house after he left Degan's and hasn't come out since. Degan thinks that 'space' will be good for us."

"So no talking?"

"I doubt it." Tahryn thumped big fists hard into the dry ground. It hurt, and that was good, so he did it again.

"Dude." Henry put a hand out to cover his own, "He doesn't want you to punish yourself."

"But it was my fault! I should have known that he wasn't coping. I should have just slowed the fuck down. Stuck to stuff he was comfortable with." Tahryn's words were hot and red with anger and self-pity.

"You can see inside his head. And you didn't mean to hurt him."

"Intentions count for nothing once someone gets hurt." Tahryn screwed up his eyes as he felt the hot salt tears finally escaping, "And now Degan's going to kick us out."

"WHAT?" Henry obviously hadn't meant to shout, because he swore softly under his breath and slapped a hand across his mouth with force. "I mean; what? Why? How did you find out?"

"Noakes let it slip. Our days are numbered." Tahryn sighed, what the doctor had said weighed heavily on him now that he and Kurt weren't talking again, "I never thought I would be, could be, an alpha."

"Really?" Tahryn opened red rimmed eyes to look at his friend. Henry was sitting cross legged, making a daisy chain aimlessly while he thought, "I figured you knew. I did."

"What? How could you know?"

Henry shook his head slowly, and Tahryn had the feeling his was about to be made to look a bit blond and stupid.

"You remember when you first moved here?" Tahryn nodded, "And you walked into our lives and just usurped the top spot in our social group?" He didn't give Tahryn time to counter him, but ploughed on, "You just did it naturally, as though there could be no other outcome. I'm surprised you didn't see it in yourself, because I certainly did."

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't be. I'm not an alpha. I'm happy where I am. But you just swept in and made the world revolve around you, I don't expect you even notice." Tahryn's gaze apparently told Henry the answer to that question, "See? All the humans and the wolves in our set all look to you to make decisions. Where we eat, what we do, where he hang out, when we run. It's all you."

"Shit."

"Well there's no way Degan would let you take over South Sea. Not with Kurt as liable as he is. Sorry." Tahryn had felt the growl in his throat overriding the tears before he'd even had time to draw breath, "But as a wolf he's stronger than you, which would make him wolf alpha. You'd have to be alpha together."

"Is that even possible?"

"Who knows." Henry shrugged.

Tahryn stared back up at the annoyingly sunny sky.

"We'd have to be on speaking terms for more than two days straight I reckon. Damn."

"Yeah. You two have a lot to work on." Henry touched his knuckles gently, then turned the gesture into a handshake, "I'm going to come with you."

"What?"

"Every good alpha needs a gamma wolf right? Chaska is so obviously beta in your pack."

"But what about..." Kurt? Philip? The hugeness of what had happened hung over both teens for the longest time imaginable which could still be contained by less than ten seconds.

"He was my brother, but he is gone," Henry's words were simple but full of a brutal honesty that hurt just to hear it, "His memory is best served by not repeating his mistakes."

David James paced nervously up and down his own living room. He'd been shut, forcefully, out of the bedroom and told to go and wait downstairs like good husbands should. The noise of his wife in pain was making his head hurt, but he did not fancy trying to win the argument with Dinah Tanner. All female wolves went very protective and strong when a new pup was arriving, and David was no match for three strong females, especially as one of them was right now swearing blue bloody murder and cursing him in many other colourful ways. Carson had come over to sit with him as he patrolled the perimeter of his longue in worry.

"Jesus it sounds like she's dying in there!" David dragged his hands through his hair, making the short thick strands stand on end for all he was messing with them, "I should go back up there."

"You wanna keep your balls? Don't do it dude."

There was another gut wrenching scream from above that made both big werewolves turn pale.

"And just think," David sounded sort of amused, "You have all this to look forwards to."

Carson blanched further.

"Remind me again why I'm your friend?" Carson got up shakily and walked to the little drinks cabinet in the corner and poured two big tumblers of bourbon. "Come on, I'm sure we're supposed to be drinking while we wait."

"Can't we go to the pub?" David whined, looking longingly at the door.

"You think you'll live long if you leave now? Jesus dude..." Carson reached out and patted his friend's shoulder as he passed, "Dude, sit down. You'll wear a hole in the carpet doing that."

David sat down heavily in the other arm chair. He was sweating, panting, obviously nervous.

"You excited?"

"Petrified. What if I'm shite at being a dad?" David's eyes were wide and worried, "What if I drop him-her-it? What if Mary thinks I'm bad at this whole fatherhood thing?"

"I'm the fact that you worry about it means you'll be fine. You'll do great Dave."

"You think?" David looked incredulous and hopeful.

"Yeah. You got any names picked out?"

"Mary likes Joseph for a boy, after her grandfather."

"What about you?" Carson smiled, "What if it's a girl?"

"Briar is nice. Mary doesn't like it though."

Carson choked on his bourbon as he tried to swallow and laugh at the same time. He thumped his chest and wiped his face on his sleeve.

"No shit? You want to call your daughter a thorny plant. You have a death wish man."

There was a long scream from above that made both men's blood run cold. When it ended there was silence. Then a whimper. The smallest softest sound. David bolted out of his seat before Carson could stop him.

"Dude wait!" Carson managed to grab his friend's fist before he pounded on the door to what had been his own bedroom, "Just wait. They'll bring her out when she's ready. Wait."

"But..." David took a deep breath and his eyes went wide, the scent of his new born child working its way into the synapses of his bran, setting all his loving protective instincts on fire. "She smells like crocuses."

Clover Willis was the first to emerge from the room, closing the door efficiently behind her before either man could see anything.

"Well?" David demanded hotly.

"A girl."

"I know."

"A wolf."

David blinked.

"Huh?"

"A wolf. A ... puppy. Like Kurt."

"But ... I mean..."

"David, there's something else." Clover's voice was firm, but soft, "You need to focus now."

"What? What's happened?" David's breath was shallow now, concern overriding all his other senses as he scented over the blood for his mate. There was a lot of blood. Too much blood.

"Mary suffered a haemorrhage during the birth. The baby was in a very complicated position. She's lost a lot of blood."

"Is she still... ?" David couldn't finish the sentence.

"Yes. But barely." Clover put a hand on his chest gently, "David she's not going to make it."

"NO!" David pushed past the older woman and burst into the room which had been his bedroom. The air was thick with the scent of blood, too thick. The paternal instinct was stronger than the desire to go to his wife. Not until now had David realised the difference between marrying someone you loved and being with your true mate. His wolf-side brain was much more interested in the whimpering bundle which had been placed in the basket on the dresser. His human side won and David sprang to the bed, clutching at his wife's hand. Dinah had half covered her with the sheet, to hide at least the sight of the worst blood, but Mary was pale, ashen, her hair lank and sweaty, her eyes glazed with pain and far away.

"Babe..." her voice was right on the edge of hearing, barely more than a breath on his skin.

"No, no, no ... Mary don't go!" David was vaguely aware that he was crying, tears and snot running down his face. He wiped his nose on his sleeve, "I need you."

"Is she beautiful?" His wife's eyes were nearly closed, unfocused.

"Mary, stay with me..."

"Is she beautiful?" Mary's breath was almost non-existent, her face lined with pain.

"Yes! Mary..."

"Call her Yulva. I love you."

"No!" David's hands gripping his wife's were white, the knuckles nearly breaking through the skin, "No! Don't say that. Don't go!" But it was too late for pleading and begging, the light was fading in her eyes and by the time David was finished his plaintive cry she was gone, the last breath drawn out and vanished. David wanted to grasp that last rattling sigh and stuff it back it, find a way of bringing her back. What did he care for a daughter when the woman he loved was gone from him, gone where he couldn't follow? David pet his head fall forwards onto the sheets, his forehead on his wife's hand and screamed.

The noise became a wail, became and sob, and a litany of tears that seemed to go on forever.

"David."

Carson's voice was intruding on his guilt and pain and David didn't want to look up. The wolf part of him was twisting though, towards the scent of the new born. Fresh and spring-like, crocus flowers in the dewy grass.

"David." Carson touched his shoulder, "Dave, look at her. She is beautiful."

David James turned to the pink blanketed bundle in Carson's huge oil stained arms and suddenly his world became very focused. The loss of his wife, the woman he had loved for a decade, was still sharp and raw, but somehow no longer overwhelming. Every nerve ending in his brain fired a pleasure and desire to protect that he had never known, never thought he could experience let along comprehend as Carson handed him the bundle.

The pup that was his daughter mewled softly, whimpering. A puppy, but perfect. A pink nose and fine fur so white it was like snow, patched and touched with a blue-grey that was almost lavender. Like all puppies, her eyes were closed, would open in a day or so, and she squirmed towards him, tiny pink tongue seeking warmth and food and love. He stroked the space between ears that were yet to unfold and found the tiny pup suckling on his finger.

"Yulva..." David knew he was still crying, but didn't care, "As lovely as her mother."

Roger Morris pinched the bridge of his nose and let his head fall back in his expensive executive office chair. The damn thing was supposed to help his back, but did nothing of the sort. Apparently lumber structure just made you ache more in different places. It didn't help much that it was his four time reading through the petition he had received this morning and it still made no sense to him. He'd opened the big manila envelope when it had first arrived, reviewed it again on the tube, then between meetings at the office and now a last time before dinner was due. The gamma of the South Bank pack barked at the ceiling in his annoyance.

It was the second time in a week he'd had to deal with issues at South Sea pack, which after years of quiet should have been seen as a blessing. There were more northerly packs that kept him busy with missives and changes nearly every month, so he should have been grateful. But it was the second time in as many communiqués that Kurt Smith's, now Kurt Ulrich's, name had come up. There were very wolves in the South Bank pack who did not know of the boy by simply by his unique history alone. Roger had phoned his counterpart over in personal files at lunch to discuss the matter.

"You have Kurt Smith's file?"

"In front of me now," Giles Troup had sounded only slightly worried to pick up the phone to his gamma without a single exchanged pleasantry, "I was just re-filing him under U."

"Right. Can you fax me over a copy of his incident history?"

"Is there much point, there's only one entry." Giles had sounded confused.

"What?" Roger had accidentally growled down the phone, "His file must be half an inch thick and you're telling me there is one incident connected to his name? Which one?"

Giles had coughed.

"'Friday 12^th of April: Was challenged by Phillip Tanner (nee, son of Alex and Dinah Tanner of South Sea pack) to a fight to the death. Won said fight with severe injuries.' That's all there is sir."

"Christ. Can you have his file on my desk for when I get home?"

"Sure thing Roger. Can I ask?" Giles had left the question open and hanging, just in case it was refused.

"Yeah. Petition from South Sea for a splinter pack. Looks like the born wolf might be moving. Joint alpha with his mate."

"Sometimes I so don't envy your job. See you at dinner." Giles had hung up, leaving Roger to fume until his next meeting.

Being head of Pack and Territory Divisions and Management was a good post, and I went very well with his human role sitting on the board of directors for both the Council of Planning and Agriculture and the National Trust. Controlling pack boarders was a hell of a lot easier when you could also help to govern the size and shape of new towns and work on increasing National parkland which had much stricter building regulations. Sometimes Roger was jealous of his people's Canadian counterparts who had far fewer worries as far as land was concerned. When the National Trust had been started by Miss Potter a the point of her death, pretty much every bright minded wolf in the country had gotten somehow involved in the cause to expand the protected land to keep their families safe. At one point there had been no human's on the board at all, just wolves who were very persuasive at buying up endangered land and property, joining big sections of the country together with wild forests and working farms where their people would be safe. Werewolves made very good farmers; they tended not to require sheepdogs.

Now Roger gathered and re-laid out all the documents on his desk. There was Kurt Ulrich's file, as thick as he remembered it, the monthly updates that had been sent about the boy when he was growing up filling it out, the set of photos of the proposed site of the splinter pack, in a wide farming valley of oxbow lakes and protected woodland, the campsite which the alpha of South Sea intended to buy outright for his new group of young wolves, and the letter than Degan Canon had sent with it containing the list of names of the wolves who were most likely to move to form the new pack.

Chalk Horse Hill; the gamma did have to admit that it had a nice ring to it but Roger didn't know what to make of it all. Two alpha wolves ... such a thing had never happened. But then, according to both records and remembered histories, no two alpha male wolves had ever become mates. And apparently these two were true mates, not just kids in love but bound up by hormones and chemical scents that drove them to be together despite all the good reasons that they shouldn't be. The dinner bell went and Roger left his papers and his office, locking it on his way out, to go to the mess hall.

Renting County Hall had been a great option when the South Bank pack had moved along the river in the late eighties, and their wing of the building houses the fifty wolves easily. Roger took his seat at the main table, at the left hand side of his alpha, and waited for the last few stragglers before the meal began. The alpha and the members of National Council ate first, and after serving himself Roger turned and smiled at Giles who sat further down the first table.

"So anything new to report?" asked the alpha, turning between his two deputies.

"The New Forest pack alpha stepped down," the beta replied, and Roger quickly remembered he had given that file to his superior; Daniel liked to handle alpha staffing's and since it gave Roger less to do, he didn't mind.

"Already? Good god. Did he hire a replacement?"

"Yeah. It's all sorted."

"Good. What about you Roger? Anything on your end?" Roger turned to his alpha. He was a good man, a strong firm leader, and he knew the South Sea pack well. He would be better equipped to make a decision.

"South Sea pack want to form a splinter pack. Too many dominant young males." He coughed, "Kurt Ulrich's name came up."

"Really?" The alpha laid down his fork, anything that stopped a wolf from eating was pretty important, "Dare I ask as what?"

"Joint alpha. He mated another alpha male."

"Dear god. I think it might be time we gave our friends on the South Coast a little visit don't you?"