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The Supernatural characters belong to Kripke Enterprises and the CW. No money is being made from this story. It is for entertainment only.

Sliding Off the Edge of the World

Chapter Seven

White Fish Wolf

The soft fall sunlight trailed over the rumpled bed. Sam lay on his back with an arm curling over his head and Dean laid face down almost completely exposed. Sam was a famous covers thief. Dean was barely in possession of a small scrap. The blonde hunter woke and curled into Sam's side, searching for warmth.

Sam relented and pulled the smaller man into his arms and graciously allowed a share of the blanket. He kissed Dean's cold flesh as much as he could reach without opening his eyes and then tried to go back to sleep.

It was far too early for the night prowling Hunters to roll out of their cocoon and they curled together like a box of kittens; warm, relaxed and too comfortable to move.

Outside the advancing sunrise highlighted the glories of White Fish Dunes. Clean sand and sparkling waves frolicked in the cool fall air. The empty tourist cabins sat still and peaceful, waiting to be filled with laughing children the following spring.

The lycanthrope denned up deep in the cedar wood. He was safe. This entire area had been his hunting ground for years. He denned here, hunted here and his mate had pupped here. This was home. Only lately had he been making these dangerous excursions into the human territories. The noxious blue flowers irritated his nose and dampened his sense of smell, one of his very best defensive weapons. He only ventured close to the cabins because of the geese. He loved the taste of their flesh.

His mate had gone off with his adult pups, helping them to find their own territories. He had no idea when she would be back. It was not in his nature to probe the future; only the present made sense to him. He walked here sometimes among the humans, trying to understand when it was safe to take their young. He was aware enough to know that such action had caused some of the humans to hunt him and his kind. One of his pups had taken a child and now he was alone as the den mother was trying to disperse their young elsewhere, away from the danger of Hunters.

The male couple in the cabin bothered him. They had that feeling of fellow predators. The Alpha of the pair was large enough to be vaguely threatening. He wondered if he could get the Alpha's mate away from him. If he killed the Alpha the mate would have no choice but to submit. The lycanthrope licked his lips in anticipation. Tonight he would go back and watch and try to come up with a plan.

Sam was doing some research on the lycanthropes. There sure had a different feel to them. They might look like werewolves but they certainly were not.

"Dean, listen to this." Sam said, turning to look at Dean on the bed. Dean's eyes were glued to the T.V. Sam did not want to know what was so entrancing. The cabins came equipped with cable. Sam assumed that Dean had figured out how to get the pay channels in less than three minutes.

Sam shook his head. For a guy who claimed to be technologically ignorant when it was something Dean really wanted technology barriers fell like cards in the face of an angry sea.

"Dean!" Sam snapped. "Turn that off and pay attention."

"I'm sorry," Dean answered without taking his eyes off the screen. "When was the funeral? I didn't know the boss had died and left the kingdom to you."

Sam stood up and in two long strides reached the bed, snatched up the remote and turned off the T.V.

"Hey, we paid for that." Dean yelled.

"Lycanthropes are born, not made." Sam started off in his lecture voice. "They claim territory and live in the territory year round, just like a wolf pack. There is usually an Alpha male and an Alpha female who are the only pair allowed to breed. There may be other adults in the pack but they are subordinate to the Alphas and will sometimes even be killed if they try to breed. A subordinate breeding pair would have to leave the pack and find their own territory to keep from being killed. "

"What does that have to do with our current problem?" Dean asked, trying to show that he was paying attention even as he was trying to twist the remote out of Sam's hands.

"I need to make another call to Garth to confirm it but it sounds like we are dealing with a solitary male. That would be very unusual." Sam said as he tried to peel Dean's fingers back from his wrist.

"Fine, then go call Garth." Dean grumped. "Just give me the damn remote. I'll be here when you want me."

Sam tuned over the remote and, rubbing the marks on his wrist, went outside to find out what had put this particular monster on Garth's radar.

Sam was back inside in a few minutes. Once again he sat down on Dan's bed and bounced then wrestled the remote out of Dean's hands once more, even after Dean tried to protect it by pushing it under his pillow. Sam flipped him like a pancake and sat on him. "Now, listen."

"Get off me Sam." Dean bucked like an earthquake. "You weigh a frigging ton."

"Are you going to behave like a grown-up?"

"Fine, are you going to continuing beings a complete bitch?" Dean huffed and wiggled. "The answer is yes."

Finally both brothers were sitting at the table, the T.V. was off and Dean was paying attention.

"Alright," Sam said. "Garth says that about a month ago a nine year old boy disappeared from this Park. No one has seen the kid since but there was a report of a "big, hairy monster" turned in by one of the families that rented a cabin. They said that the monster was watching their cabin from the woods. That's what set Garth off.

"He sent a couple of Hunters over here who said they chased a werewolf into the woods but it disappeared. Those two guys gave up after a week and left. Garth decided he needed better Hunters."

"And that's us?" Dean asked. "How nice and we didn't even send him a card on his birthday."

Deep in the cedar woods the lycanthrope came to a decision. He knew he wasn't the smart one in the pack. Lydia came up with all the ideas and then told him and then he would tell the pack. He looked around and no Lydia charged out of the bushes to tell him what to do. And there was no pack either.

He had an option for hiding from the Hunters. He didn't like it but It had worked before. He changed into his human form, went into the den and got those smelly clothes. There was a ragged pair of pants, nasty, stained jacket and gloves with no fingers. There was also this tight hat that made his head itch. It was cold without his fur and he slid into the human clothes.

Far back in the den he found those things people wore on their feet and he was done. He stood up and his spine popped from the unaccustomed posture. With the freedom of his four legged speed gone he started to trudge away from the den.

Once he was at the little town outside the park gates he sat down on the sidewalk, folded his legs and put out the hat on the sidewalk. Lydia had showed him how to do this. He knew it would keep him safe until his mate came back and told him what to do. Until she came back to get him he could use the hard stones people put in the hat to trade for human food.

Now all he had to do was wait. Wait for the Hunters to get tired and leave. Wait for Lydia to come back and find him. It was alright. He could wait for better days.