Canis Lupus

   With the Change completed, everyone stood still for a moment, each taking a moment to get used to their new bodies. I was the first to move, picking up blankets for everyone and passing them around, while Ayasha and Tate began to cry. Kaya hurried to console them, her tongue wrapping awkwardly around foreign syllables. I wrapped a towel around my waist before I took her and her children blankets, throwing one over Kaya first, then around each of the two children. At the side of the room, the owner stood, slightly dumbstruck, staring at us, humans who just a few seconds ago had been Wolves.

   At Kaya’s distress I pulled the two children into a hug, clutching them to my chest and murmuring to them in my deep and scratchy human voice.

   “I feel horrible,” Kaya murmured, watching her children slowly calm down in my arms. “They cry and yet I know not what to do.”

   “They’re only crying because they don’t understand,” I explained. “All they need is comfort. You’ll get the hang of it soon enough.” I made a motion to her and she wrapped her arms around the children and turned them to herself, kissing both their foreheads and then clutching them close. I smiled and nodded and then stood again. The lady of the house was still watching in shock. I walked to her side and held out a hand.

   “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name last night,” I said, even though she’d never actually mentioned it, just something that slipped her mind. Her eyes immediately snapped to mine and she took my hand with a smile, recognising my eyes undoubtedly.

   “I’m so sorry, my name is Alison,” she said. “This is just… Unbelievable… Sorry, your name? I didn’t quite catch it last night.” I smiled wryly. I liked her already.

   “The name’s Mikasi, but everyone calls me Mika,” I said, gesturing to the pack when I said everyone. “Most of us have shortened names. The one there by the mirror looking pleased and cranky at the same time is Meoquanee, but call her Meo, it’s much easier. The one checking out his muscles, that’s Nikan, but call him Nick, it’s more common among humans, he’s Kaya’s brother. The alpha male is Micco, no shortening. And the guy staring at his hands is Lonan, Micco’s brother. And Kaya is the mother of the two kids, Ayasha and Tate. Call Ayasha Aya though, bit easier and again, more common.”

   “There’s so many of you…” Alison murmured. A few postures in the room tensed.

   “We’ve lost three. That’s why we’re here,” Micco said suddenly, his voice a deep vibrato. Everyone looked at him when he spoke. He still held a commanding tone even as a human. Alison looked around the room, taking in our faces staring up at Micco. “We need to find them.”

   “I’ve never heard of Wolves searching for lost members of a pack before, especially not in human form,” Alison said, raising an eyebrow.

   “It is highly irregular,” Meo interjected suddenly, making a few people jump slightly in surprise. Her previous gratitude toward me seemed to have all but disappeared and she was now glaring at me. “I can only suppose that someone made a fuss over the matter.” If we’d had hackles at this moment they would be raised, teeth bared. As it was, we were no longer Wolves but humans. No hackles to raise, though both our teeth were bared in a grimace.

   “I’d like to remind you, Meo, that this was by my order to come here, no one else’s,” said Micco, turning on the tall, mahogany haired woman. For a moment the environment in the room was tense, the rest of the pack members and Alison, watched as our two Alphas’ stood opposite one another, each glaring the other down. After a moment Meo took a step back and lowered her head, breaking the standoff. There was a collective sigh of relief around the room. Giving a slight nod of thanks to Micco, I turned to Alison again.

   “I think next on the list is, er… clothes,” I said, indicating our blanketed forms.

   “I don’t have enough sizes for everyone, but I can probably dress you and Micco out of everyone. We can head to the mall and buy you all clothes.”

   “Sounds like a good idea,” Micco said, joining our conversation. I nodded in agreement and Alison showed us to a room upstairs, before laying two outfits out on the bed and leaving us to dress. We dressed in silence, admired each others outfits, and then left the room, descending the stairs to the lounge.

   There was an admiring gasp as we entered the room, our outfits made us look quite attractive I suppose. Mine included tan jeans, maroon Vans, and a checker shirt under a knitted jumper. Micco’s was made up of jeans and a t-shirt under a leather jacket, a pair of boots on his feet. After casting our eye over the pack again to determine what size they might be, Micco and I followed Alison out to her ute. Micco took the front passenger seat, while I took the middle-back.

   It wasn’t a long drive to the mall, and it felt like it took longer to find a car park than it had taken to get there in the first place. Inside, the mall was bursting with energy. I tucked my hands into the pockets of my pants and followed Alison through the shops to a clothing store, Micco at my side. Once in the store we set out to find clothes that would fit and suit the rest of the pack. The kids were the easiest to find clothes for; Aya got a purple dress, blue jacket, dark blue leggings and black shoes while Tate got a pair of denim shorts, a red shirt and some runners. The adults were harder to find clothes for. I found a button down tee for Kaya, a jacket and a pair of shorts as well as some boots – but she was the easiest of them all. We had no idea what Lonan and Nick would want, and none of us could dare to choose for Meo without fear of being ripped apart when we got home. In the end for the boys we chose something between the two styles that Micco and myself were wearing. I ended up pulling a pair of shorts off a rack for Meo, Micco grabbed a black shirt and Alison topped it off with a soft leather jacket and boots. It was hardly likely that she’d love the ensemble but that was all she was going to get.

   “She can get what she’d given,” I muttered to Micco.

   “And she can be happy about it,” he replied.

   “At least it’s better than having to be wrapped in a blanket all the time,” Alison added. I raised a brow at her.

   “She’d just drop the blanket. No one wants that,” I told her, shaking my head. “Well. Actually, Lonan might.” Micco made a noise in his throat that sounded like laughter and then frowned at me.

   “No jokes at my brothers expense.”

   “Sorry,” I said, taking the now paid for clothes from the cashier. “Didn’t mean to be disrespectful, Micco.”

There are a lot of legends surrounding wolves. Not a lot of them are true. But there are a few that are. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that these ones are completely true, but they hold some truth within their stories. Namely, the stories surrounding wolf and man. Maybe werewolves weren’t real; man certainly couldn’t change into wolf during a full moon. But there were such things as wolfmen. Wolves that evolved into humans, or it happened the other way around. It was hard to tell anymore. Taima, the Wolf of Many Names, was probably the only one who knew the true story. Among wolves he held a certain ambivalence, and even among some humans he was admired. He was believed to be the original Wolf, the first man who turned wolf, or the other way around. But he had never told anyone which had come first, for he rarely ever spoke and if he did it was largely riddles or warnings, and it had become a bit of a chicken and egg argument among Wolves.

   My pack and I were Wolves of this nature. It’s hard to describe the complexities of a change in form. For one, you have to be with your alpha if he is making a pack change in order for it to affect you as well. If you are not with him then you will not experience the change. This way the captured members of my pack would not change form while we did. Secondly, while it was commonly said that Taima could change form as often as he liked, an average Wolf, if not an alpha, could only change around three times per lifetime. And an odd thing that occurred were the rare occurrences of Wolves Inducing the Change in a human. The werewolf myth stemmed from these happenings as only a bite on a full moon could have the power to Induce the Change. Mia and my mother was so Induced by my father. She, however, had been killed when were only a few months old and our father had raised and nurtured us before finding an alpha he trusted and having him take us to join his pack. It had taken him a long time to find an alpha he thought he could entrust our care to, and it had been Micco who was lucky enough to take us on. Mia and I had only been a part of our pack for a few months before the birth of the pups Ayasha and Tate. To the pups we’d been a part of the pack since the beginning, and Micco encouraged this acceptance of us, however there were a few Wolves in our pack who did not still trust us completely yet.

   Micco, Mia and myself were the only ones who knew who our father was. Most of the pack did not care who we were born of, nor who fathered us, and though curious, had given up asking. The only Wolf who still wanted to find out where we were from was none other than the infamous Meo. Unsurprisingly, I think she found our presence in her pack unsettling in the least, I think she thought our presence threatened her rank in the pack. Unlike us she was not mothered or fathered by a Human-Turned-Wolf. She was pure Wolf for several generations before humans came into her lineage. In my opinion this is what made her a little more bloodthirsty and fierce than the others in her pack. Kaya and Nikan, however, had had a Human-Turned-Wolf father. They, along with Honey and Nadie were quick to accept us into the pack. Lonan had been a little more wary, but it hadn’t been long before he forgot how suddenly we’d joined the pack, and he trusted his brother’s opinion of us more than Meo did even though she was undoubtedly devoted to Micco.

   This power is how on one bright morning the remaining pack members ended up waiting on the fringe of the sloping gardens of a large house on the outskirts of the nearest town. I had slept comfortably on a couch in the living room, a warning of the arrival of my pack to the owner of the house, a human who knew of the Wolves. In the morning I woke to the sounds of her clattering down the stairs and slid from the couch to the backdoor of the house, looking to her to let me out. She gasped when she opened the door to see a big black Wolf on the edge of the forest. To be honest, Micco was quite a sight to see. I trotted down the steps and barked, my tail wagging. Micco stepped further out of the trees and walked warily across the clear lawn to my side, sniffing along my jaw and side to my tail. I lead him to the bottom of the porch and sat, cocking my head and rolling my tongue from my mouth, inviting the owner down the steps so that Micco could assess her himself. She wiped her palms nervously on the legs of her jeans and clung to the rail as she descended the five or so steps off of the porch and to the grass of the garden.

   Micco sniffed her carefully, walking a few circles around her before he was satisfied. He trotted to the centre of the garden and barked loudly. Meo was first to rise to the challenge of stepping out of the underbrush, Lonan and Nikan close behind her, behind them Kaya followed, last to leave the shelter of the forest because of her pups who trailed behind her. The woman gave me a sideways look and I met it with my same goofy look and a wagging tail. She smiled then, before looking back to the Wolves.

   “Such a strange thought to think that you’re all about to become completely different beings,” she murmured to the Wolves standing in her garden. “Come into the house before you Change, we can’t risk you being seen.” She walked up the steps and opened the door for the Wolves to pass through. I stood but waited for Micco and Meo to pass, for whom I displayed my submission by lowering my head and hindquarters a little and wagging my tail slowly. Meo gave me a quick lick on the nose, possibly to show her gratitude at my bravery for being the one to go ahead. From what I knew Meo had never undertaken the Change. I was sure she’d be both pleased and displeased with her human appearance. I waited for Kaya to reach my side and assisted her in getting the pups of the steps and inside.

The field was wide and clear – just as it should be. I lay panting in the shade next to my sister, Mia, watching the rest of the pack frolic. Honey lay near the centre of the field and was of course being harassed by the puppies bounding about. There were two of them, an average number for a pack like this, and they were both sandy in colour, easily distinguishable against Honey’s chocolate brown fur. I saw her visibly sigh as the puppies climbed on and over her, but something told me it was slightly sarcastic as her tail wagged gently against the ground.

   My ears swivelled as I heard the pups mother, Kaya, bark from the opposite side of the field, and suddenly everyone was on alert until one by one a familiar scent reached our nostrils. I stood with a yawn and a stretch and then trotted out into the field a little more, stopping once to scratch my ear. After a moment my sister bounded to her feet behind me and raced past me, turning a metre away and bowing playfully. I stopped where I was and cocked my head to one side before rejecting her playful advances in favour of the food that would soon be arriving. Mia lowered her head and tail, her eyes downcast as I passed her, and she playfully nipped at the end of my tail as it brushed past her. I let a soft growl roll forth and turned on her, my muzzle wrinkling. She lowered herself ashamedly and licked at my jaw for forgiveness. I gave it willingly and continued across the field to Honey’s side, the pups immediately abandoning her to leap at me, yapping in their tiny puppy voices.

   A few metres away the pups father, Nadie, bounded out of the trees, signalling the return of the hunting party. Usually everyone in the pack, minus Kaya, would go out for a hunt, but today had been more of a pleasure kill than anything. The hunt had been lead out by Meo, who always did like to get her paws dirty. I sat again and scratched my neck, the pups pushing against my side, trying to force me to roll over. I complied and rolled onto my back while they joyfully pretended to pin me down. From my position on my back I could look directly at Honey, who wagged her tail and gave me a thankful look. I allowed my tongue to roll out of my mouth and wagged my tail in response.

   At that moment the rest of the hunting party returned, Meo proudly pulling a goat into the field by its neck, Micco helping by pulling one of its legs. Micco’s brother, Lonan, trotted into the field behind them, his muzzle bloodied. It was unusual for a pack to bring their kill back to the rendezvous site, but then we weren’t a normal pack. The two alpha’s lay the kill down, Meo holding her head high and proud as if commanding us to admire her hard work, before she lowered her head and began to eat the goat, Micco beside her. As a matter of respect they were given a fair few moments to eat before the beta wolves joined them, Kaya and Nadie stepping up to the kill. Soon after this the subordinates began to eat, Nikan finding his way out of the nearby creek to join the meal, my teeth tearing away the best pieces of flesh it could find before someone else got them. The pups joined when we did. Finally, after sitting and watching for a fair while, Honey approached the meal site, only to have a still overly proud Meo snap at her. Honey immediately rolled onto her back and tucked her tail up, a small whimper escaping her mouth. She was, after all, the omega and therefore the lowest ranking member of the pack. I stopped eating as soon as Meo snapped at her and stood still, staring at the red she-wolf across from me for a moment, wondering if it’d be worth it to challenge her in this matter.  Next to her, Mia raised her gaze to me, blood staining her silver-white fur. Her eyes definitely held a warning not to challenge the alpha female. Next to me a sensed Nikan’s hackles raising. It always bothered him when someone picked on Honey, even though it was basic pack workings. Instead of letting him take this fight I let out a low warning growl at Meo, her pale brown eyes meeting my golden ones with a defiant glare. In this small space of time Honey was able to gain access to the goat and take a large chunk of meat from its abdomen. I held Meo’s glare for a little longer than necessary and felt the tension growing in the pack. Everyone shifted uneasily and I dropped my gaze, taking another bite of the goat before turning my back on the meal and trotting away to the creek to drink some water and wash my muzzle.

   As I turned the wind changed and I caught a strange scent. I was immediately alert, facing the wind, my ears forward and straining for a sound. I knew the smell, and if I were correct in my assumption the pack was not safe here. I raised my nose to the wind and sniffed. There was no mistaking that scent. I let out a warning bark and ran to the rest of the pack, my body language suggesting that a quick escape was necessary. From the look on her face and the way she held herself I could tell that Meo wanted to stay and fight off the threat. Mia, catching the scent, immediately picked up a pup in her mouth and took off into the trees, Kaya following suit with the second pup, trusting in our judgement of the situation. Nikan took off after his sister, Honey hot on his tail. Lonan awaited his brother’s orders, and Micco sniffed the air nervously. Beside him Nadie whined lowly, shifting his weight toward the safety of the forest. Meo growled at him, clearly showing her disdain of the idea of running. I danced nervously on the spot, these days our enemies didn’t just want to catch us, they liked to take us captive and experiment on us.

   I spun toward the forest when I heard a yelp and without waiting to see what the others did, I shot off toward the sound. Initially I heard three sets of paws running through the forest behind me and felt a stab of anger at Meo’s blind stupidity, before I heard her familiar run join ours. I let the two alphas and the remaining beta take the lead and ran abreast with Lonan, who whined nervously every now and then. Ahead of us I could hear a commotion. Suddenly the pups sprinted past us in the opposite direction and I paused for a moment, long enough to direct them to safety. Their appearance alone and without Kaya caused Nadie to slow and whine. Micco let out a howl as we ran forward through the forest toward a small clearing and the commotion, the rest of us followed suit. As we broke the tree-line, it was hard to see what was going on.

   There were large machines, and standing by these were several humans, attempting to capture the pack members who had run ahead of us not long ago. Mia was ferociously defending a wounded Honey, it looked as if a human had accidentally caught her leg in one of the pole-ropes they were carrying instead of her neck and the force had snapped the bone. I had a moment to be thankful for the fact that it hadn’t in fact been her neck. Kaya and her brother Nikan fought side-by-side both trying to fend off the humans. Meo immediately leapt into the fray, pouncing on the nearest human. Micco glanced at me before giving a sharp bark, a clear order not to kill. The bark said to flee, not to fight. Meo let out a short howl, and then growled at the human she had taken down, her incisors mere inches from his neck. Intelligently he stayed still as she jumped off him and nipped Honey on the ear for getting herself into trouble. In an instant Meo was back at Micco’s side and the two were leading the pack from the clearing. Nadie had flown to his mates side and was attempting to nudge her backwards towards the rest of the pack while keeping out of the humans reach. Nikan took over the steering of his sister and directed her to the gap in the trees that Meo, Micco and Lonan had disappeared through. Five were out of the fight, plus the two pups. There were only four of us left in the clearing.

   I bounded to Honey’s side and nudged her broken leg. She whined at me and tried to stand, but the leg gave out, and she’d never be able to run fast enough with it broken. I whined lowly, and licked her nose, barking to the other two. Honey would stay behind. We had no choice but to leave her to the mercy of the humans. To my left, Nadie yelped, the yelp dissolving to a low growl. He was pulling back with his legs while the humans held him on three rope-poles by his neck. I started towards him, unsure of how to assist, just as another human managed to snare Mia. I stood hopelessly in the space between the two. Nadie barked at me, short and sharp. An order to leave the three of them behind. My tail curled up under my abdomen and I whined long and low, my head down and ears back, staring at Mia. Her eyes were sad but she glanced at Honey and Nadie and her thoughts were clear. She had to look after the two of them. After a moments hesitation I had no choice but to follow Nadie’s orders, he was, after all, the beta.

   I streaked out of the clearing, a flash of pure white fur disappearing into the trees. I knew where the pack would be heading and took the quickest course to meet them, at some stage I saw a white figure bounding to my right, only just visible through the trees – Taima, or Thunder, the Wolf of Many Names. He parted from my course before I reached the meeting point. It was a particularly thick and overgrown section of the forest. A tunnel had been formed through the brambles and I crawled through it, my stomach grazing the ground in some places. In the small clearing under the brambles was the rest of the pack. Furthest from me, closest to one of the many exits from the thicket stood Kaya, her two pups huddled underneath her. Then there was Nikan, guarding her. Lonan stood at the centre of the clearing, panting nervously. The two alphas stood closest to me, shoulder to shoulder, hackles raised and teeth bared. When they saw it was me, they relaxed slightly. Micco walked forward and sniffed along my jaw down my side and to my tail, while I sniffed along his length. Satisfied he turned back to the remainder of the pack and sat down.

   At this point it became obvious to the other pack members which of us had been lost. Kaya sat back on her haunches and began to howl, followed by the shrill and puppyish voices of her children. As her howl continued more voices slowly joined hers, until a haunting choir of voices filled the air, howling in mourning.

   Hours later, after the mourning howls had died down and the rest of the pack had fallen asleep, I joined Micco outside and sat by his side on the soft ground.

   I think you know what this means, I said softly, the first time I’d found it necessary to use words in something close to months. He turned his green eyes on me, the edge of his black shape barely visible in the shadows under the dense forest. I could sense his surprise at my choice to use words, then he sighed.

   I was hoping you wouldn’t think it necessary, he started carefully, his words coming slower and more laboured than mine. It was a hard task, talking. We were so used to using simple sounds, body language and scents to communicate and talking was always a strenuous activity. He saw my muzzle pull back over my teeth and copied the expression. I shook my head, and turned it into a full body shake before reseating myself.