Chapter 3: Defeat From Victory

It was a move beyond belief, beyond what anyone thought would be possible, but there was no turning back now. In the space of less than a minute, Mayak had let his brother die. It wasn't a planned move, even though Mayak had been thinking of ways to punish his brother for this humiliation. It was a crime of opportunity, provoked by the news that he would be taking Sami away from him. Even though she had made it obvious that she was more interested in Mias, Mayak had entertained the thought of taking her back for himself... and now that Mias was out of the way...

'But you can't just waltz in and get away with murder,' he thought. 'You're going to have to cover your tracks.'

He broke into a run, putting a panicked expression on his face. As far as anyone else knew, he didn't have anything to do with Mias' death, and he wanted it to stay that way. He found a group sitting together and darted in front of them, his eyes wild with shock. The group noticed his fearful look, and knew that anything that could scare their alpha must be bad.

"Mayak, what's wrong?" one of the wolves asked.

"They - they got him!" he cried out. "The humans got my brother!"

Everyone gasped. "What do you mean they got him? What happened?"

"We were out in the woods talking when he stepped on this… this thing, some sort of trap. I tried to help him, but we heard the humans coming," he gasped. "I tried my best, but Mias wanted me to run. I couldn't leave him, but there was nothing else I could do for him," he lied, making sure his voice cracked at the right moment. "I ran, and I heard him growling at them before… before… they-" he stuttered before collapsing on the ground, wailing in anguish. "They killed my brother!"

As he pulled off his stunning reproduction of real sobbing, some of the wolves went to find the rest of the pack to give them the grave news. Outwardly, Mayak seemed consumed by grief, but that was one of the abilities of his cunning mind. He was not above lying to get what he wanted; indeed, that was part of how he was able to depose the previous alpha of the pack. He was a skillful manipulator, and right now, he wanted the pack's sympathy for his brother's death.

Finally, the one he was waiting for arrived. "Tell me it isn't true. Tell me Mias is alive!" Sami cried at him.

"I'm sorry, but I can't," Mayak replied. "There was nothing I could do for him."

"No, he could be alive," she said, before dashing away from the pack. Mayak quickly got up to follow her, except this time his concern was genuine. He didn't want Sami to get caught by the humans as well.

"Sami, no! It's too dangerous!"

"I can't leave him behind, not after all we did together," she cried.

Mayak dashed in front of her, blocking all her attempts to go around him. "I know you want to be with him, but the humans are still out there. I don't want anyone else to get hurt!"

"Get out of my way!" she said as tears streamed down her muzzle.

"Look, I know we may not be on the best of terms, but right now I don't want anyone else getting hurt," he said. "I don't think Mias would want you to get hurt either."

"Why would you care? I thought you'd disowned him because we were together," she said. "You don't know what he means to me."

"No, but he was my brother and that still means a lot to me," Mayak said, making sure to have his voice sound like it was going to crack again. Sami looked down in defeat as she believed him. "Look, this is a tragic day for us all… and I know you don't like me much… but I can still be there for you. His last wish... was that I'd take care of you." he finished, putting his paw on hers. She let it hold there for a moment, but something inside her didn't like it. She didn't like how he was suddenly so willing to try to get on her good side after this tragedy.

"I… I can't," she replied, pulling her paw away. "I just can't."

At this, Mayak's act faltered a little, causing some of his ambitious self to leak through. "Don't be so quick to say that. Without him, you don't have anyone else to turn to," he said. She stepped back in shock, noticing his menacing demeanour.

"How could you say something like that? You… you're lying," she said. "All this time, you still wouldn't let it go. You still want me and… you did something to him."

The earlier sympathy may have been fake, but his surprise here was real; she was way too good. "Don't be ridiculous Sami; even if you were to tell them, who would believe you?"

"Oh my… you did do something! You killed your own brother!" she cried. "You killed him!"

"NO!" Mayak replied, but before Sami could run off to tell everyone her suspicions, they heard a thundering crack ring through the woods, followed by the fearful cries from several wolves.

Immediately, she turned to him. "What did you do?" she accused, before rushing off towards the source of the noise. Mayak followed, and the frequency of the bangs increased, along with the pitch of the pack's cries.

When he left his brother behind, Mayak had no idea that the humans would decide to follow his trail back to the source. He didn't know that the hate for wolves in these humans was so great that they would actively seek out and hunt the rest of the pack. Some would see it as simply bad luck, but it could be argued that this was some sort of retribution for the crime Mayak had committed. He and Sami rushed back, hoping to help the fight, but this fight would be like nothing they had ever expected. When wolves fight other wolves, the chances are always dependent on numbers, but when wolves go against humans, the wolves have lost before the fight even begins.

Mayak soon saw a human point a long, stick-like object at one of the wolves. He heard another of the loud bangs from before, and from the end erupted a brief flash of smoke. Several yards away, a wolf collapsed with a wound made it its side. He stopped in shock when he saw that his pack was being killed without anyone touching them. These humans were more than just ordinary predators; they had power that rivaled the spirits of old. For the first time, he felt true fear, and it kept him rooted to the ground while Sami rushed ahead to try to help. She saw that fighting was no use, so she tried to help the wounded. She tried to drag an older female with a wound in its leg away, but she would encounter another one of the human's tricks, one that even Mias hadn't seen before.

In a flash, a grey and white creature was on her, biting into her neck. It was very wolf-like, but it was not one from the pack. It was a dog; a descendant of the wolves, but an ally of the humans. Sami screamed in terror as the dog tried to finish her off, and that broke Mayak out of his fearful daze. He rushed towards her, ready to destroy the dog when a sudden impact slammed into the side of his head and stopped his charge. Through the stars in his vision, he could see a human wielding a club, whacking away with it. He rolled and turned his attention back to Sami, but the attack from the club cost him the time he needed. She was trying to pull herself free from the dog's grasp, so the dog used a trick that had made him famous among his friends. He rapidly twisted his entire body, yanking her so violently that her neck snapped.

That was it; just a small crack and she collapsed, eyes still open. She was dead before she even hit the ground. Everything Mayak had hoped and worked for with her was gone in an instant – all because of this dog. It looked up at him with a devilish grin and started to approach, while the human with the club saw that the wolf he had hit earlier wasn't finished yet. Mayak was torn between fighting and running. However, someone would soon make that decision for him.

To the left of him was the man, and to the right of him was the dog, but straight ahead, he saw something charging at him. It was strange, as most of the wolves were dead or dying, but this one was perfectly fine, seeming to materialize out of nowhere. The wolf caught up to him before either adversary did and with surprising strength, grabbed Mayak and gave him a hard shove, pushing him over the embankment behind him. The two rolled down the hill, with Mayak hitting the ground hard. He could see his vision darken at the edges, but it remained long enough for him to see his savior.

"You... it… can't be... impossible," he gasped weakly.

The wolf above him smiled. "That's what I thought too little brother, but I guess I still had some things to discover," he replied and leaned down to whisper in his ear. "You're lucky I'm willing to give you one last chance, but if you don't change… then this will catch up with you," he warned before vanishing just as Mayak blacked out.

Fortunately, the humans thought that Mayak had already been killed, so he was spared the fate of most of his pack. Those that could run fled, but very few escaped the bullets. Out of a pack almost two dozen strong, only four survived. They survived by running or hiding, and they were all that was left. After the humans retreated with their prizes, they surveyed the scene. They couldn't find any survivors until they caught their leader's scent, finding him alone and crumpled in a heap at the bottom of a steep hill.

"Mayak, can you hear me? Are you okay?" The alpha wolf could hear the voice, but in his daze, he misinterpreted who it was.

"Mias…"

"Mayak, wake up. We have to get out of here," the voice above him urged. He opened his eyes and saw three of the wolves from his pack.

"Atka? What happened?" he asked as he got up.

"I'm sorry, but they're all gone," he replied. "Faro, Salin and I were the only ones to get away from them. It's a miracle that you survived too."

"But… Mias-"

"Mias is gone, remember? You said yourself he had fallen into a trap," Faro cut in. "You were right, they did get him. I found him with his throat slashed clean open."

"But I…" Mayak wanted to explain who had pushed him the ledge, probably saving his life, but even he was having a hard time believing it. "Never mind, I must have been seeing things after that human hit me," he finished. Knowing that this territory would be dangerous with humans around, the four decided to set off for a new range, one free from the humans and their devices. As they departed, they failed to notice that there was a fifth set of prints in the area, leading away before stopping suddenly. It was as though the owner had simply vanished into thin air…

For a whole year afterward, they lived a meager existence, hunting what they could for themselves before settling into a smaller range. Once the shock of the attack wore off, it was replaced in them with intense anger. The humans had come and destroyed all of their friends and families, and the dogs had been their co-conspirators. Mayak in particular developed a pathological hatred of those canines. They took Sami, the one thing that mattered most to him, away. He vowed that if he ever met another dog, he would kill it on sight as retribution for what they did to him.

In that time, he never saw his brother again. He wasn't sure if what'd he seen was real, but whatever it was did save his life… and allowed him to have a new beginning. It had warned him to change or else this would catch up with him, but Mayak was hesitant to follow the advice of what could have been nothing more than a hallucination. 'Besides, I don't see any way how my actions could return to haunt me. I got away with murder, and no one can refute that now!'

After almost a year as a quartet, his pack would come across another wolf. This one was a very young female, obviously fresh from leaving her parents. Her name was Aniu, and her pure-white fur reminded him so much of Sami that it made his hardened heart soften a little. He may not have succeeded with her, but he could have another chance with this newcomer. He graciously let her join their pack, and while she seemed a little reluctant to his advances at first, he remained confident about her. His subordinates knew their place, and became no more than friends with her. 'After all, there's no one like Mias around, so what could possibly go wrong?' he thought. 'There's no one or nothing that will ever stop Aniu from becoming my mate…'

Mayak, Mias, Atka, Faro, Salin and Sami all belong to iWolf231 and may not be used in any way without my direct permission.

Aniu belongs to Universal Studios and Amblimation.