Author's Note: This story is my attempt to get back into writing. Essentially, for the past six months, I have been stuck with my writing, so it was suggested to me to get back to why I write in the first place so I thought to go back to the format that got me writing in the first place: fanfiction. Kira and Thurin kind of jumped into my head this afternoon and after several hours of writing, I have this chapter. I'll be posting chapter two before the night is through, but I thought to just jump in now with the first chapter before I lost my nerve. I DO NOT know where this story is leading me. All I know is that I am working with characters and a place, and that there is a focus on where it might go.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or places or themes of the world of Mercy Thompson and Charles/Anna which is created by Patricia Briggs. I only own my original characters as well as anything you do not recognize from the books Patricia Briggs wrote. I am making no money off of writing this fanfiction story.
Chapter One
Kira ran through the woods. It was her usual path just outside of her small town in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, Canada. The pine trees along with the aspen created a blanket that protected the path from harsh sun overhead. Summer only lasted for maybe two to three months here, so usually the sun wasn't usually the issue; the snow was. The path was made from all the animals that had already ran through the trees on migratory paths or on the hunt. She should know, after all, she was one of them.
She was a werewolf in a town made mostly of werewolves with very few humans in town so hiding what she was never was an issue. The secret that the entire world didn't know did not apply to the town of Beacon Lake, which nestled itself in secret just a bit south west of Jasper by Beacon Peak. It was ideal for a town hiding from the world with no worries that the world might visit, just an overly ambitious back trails hiker once every five years. With one dirt road which was snowed in during the winter and a mud puddle the rest of the time, the town didn't exactly advertise itself as a tourist spot.
Kira pushed on, trying to make her way around the lake. She went on this run to clear her head, but anyone who knew her knew that she only ran the entire way if she had just received a phone call that put her in a bad mood, and most times, those phone calls came from Montana. Unlike the werewolf packs to the south, the Beacon Peak Pack was one of three in Canada which the male hierarchy did not apply. Anyone could be Alpha, as long as they were able to earn it. And earn it, Kira did.
Most of the men in her pack had backed down easily once she had Changed and started to make her way through the ranks. Some even tried to bring her down in a physical fight, but her speed and endurance had made her tough to catch, let alone get a hit in. She was trained as a child of a werewolf father and human mother pairing in the art of protecting herself when the odds are stacked highly against her, as most times they were. Just standing at a little over five feet nothing and having a petite body type did not scream physical strength, so Kira had been taught strategy and endurance. Most fights lasting over five minutes would end in a lucky shot. Fights lasting over ten, it was all about who was still standing and not dying from exertion. And that is what she specialized in. The other women in her pack had allowed her to simply dominate over them as they recognized a true leader whether it held a male form or female. It was not about the body, it was about the spirit and the mind.
The phone call that led to this particular run was from Bran, the Marrok, the Alpha of all Alphas across North America, and one of four people who were more dominant that she was, three of which were his sons. He was insisting that she and her Beta, Thurin Greenleaf, a man who was thirty years her senior and had watched her grow up and make the Change for the first time six years ago, make a trip to Aspen Creek to visit him, a request which is a hidden demand which in turn is also code for she is in trouble for one reason or another. Or that he was going to ask her to do something for him which, once again, is a not so well hidden command. By the time she finishes the usual loop around the lake, just over a two hour run, she would be able to look at everyone and have a reasonable answer of what they were going to do.
Kira knew that she was nearing the end of her procrastinating run when her legs started to feel the usual burn that signalled an uphill incline was happening on the path. It was the last leg that was always the most challenging as it was long and climbed up around fifty meters in a span of five minutes of running, a killer for anyone's legs, including the healing ones of a werewolf. She still did not have a way out of meeting Bran, something she disliked doing from the first time she met him when he was the one who Changed her, to the times she's had to meet him for the annual meeting of the Alphas, which was still another six months, three weeks, and four days away, not that she was counting.
Thurin was standing at the top of the crest with a bottle of water in his hand by his waist. The other was on his hip as he waited for her to reach him, his usual position for when they needed to chat after her runs. He handed her the bottle once Kira had reached him but walked with her down to the village and through it to her house by the lake. They walked in silence while Kira drank half of the water in one go before pouring the rest on her head to help cool her down.
"Any ideas?" he asked, keeping his voice low, but also knowing that the majority of people in town could still hear them if they were paying attention.
"Besides ideas of how to get back at Bran from whatever he is going to tell us, I have nothing. I am going to talk with Mercy again soon though if I am to actually get him back without him immediately kicking our butts back here black and blue." She responded, keeping her eyes forward. To anyone who didn't know them, they looked similar in age, both appearing around eighteen and nineteen, but with Thurin being well into his fifties and Kira only being twenty four, they treated each other more like father and daughter. In a way, they were, as Thurin is still Kira's father's best friend and her godfather.
"Did you ask why he wanted to see us with such urgency?" Thurin asked patiently.
"What do you think? I did, but Bran only responded with his usual 'I will tell you when you get here' line." Kira said with a slight bitter grit to her voice. It wasn't that she disliked Bran, it was just that Bran thought of her not as an Alpha but a rather petulant child with a too modern day idealistic view on how things should be run in a pack. Compared to him, she was.
"Then we should go see him. More than likely, he just wants your help with something, and he doesn't want to just yell at you for promoting gender equality." Thurin said.
Kira shrugged. "He wants us to leave tomorrow morning, meaning we'll get there right around supper time if we drive all day."
"It's not completely unreasonable for him to ask us to come out of the blue. You are among the top five Alphas in North America. He knows we keep our passports up to date and with the full moon still three weeks away and no new wolves that need to learn control in our pack, we can easily go to see him for a week at most." Thurin tried to reason out.
Kira smiled at him as they neared her home which sat overlooking the town and the lake. It was a grand log home with lots of windows and pine trees around it to make it look like it had jumped out of a painting. "Good try. I prefer to keep thinking that he is a jerk who likes to see if I still jump when he says to." She climbed up the stairs and opened the door that was never locked. Who needs locks when you have claws and teeth to defend yourself?
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SOPROL
