Chapter Seven – Travel in Packs

Denahi could smell food, well he could smell blood that had the potential to become food. He turned to Kenai who was staring at him, having obviously smelled the same thing. "So, shall we?" Denahi asked with a cock of his head and Kenai smiled finding this a little funnier than Denahi had expected.

"I…" he said slowly before shaking his head, "I don't really think that you're ready for the chase," he admitted and Denahi stared at him. When they had both been human, Kenai had always seemed impressed by his tactics and his knowledge. However now it seemed that all of those skills that Denahi had honed as a human were being disrespected.

"Come on," Denahi said with a cocky smile, "Wolf or not. I'm pretty sure…"

"There are risks," Kenai told him. "I had trouble surviving on four legs at first too but I know how to do it now. I'll bring something back for us," he told him and Denahi sighed. Maybe Kenai had a point. When you were used to fighting one way and hunting on two feet, it was most likely too difficult to take the position of an animal and even moose fought back. He still wanted to do something to help though. Maybe if he went where humans were, he could scavenge.

"I'll be back," Kenai told him, "You stay right here."

Denahi nodded before slowly settling down on his paws. Maybe he wasn't the eldest brother but he was older than Kenai and now he felt as if there was a role-reversal taking place. He didn't want to be the one taken care of, he wanted to make sure that Kenai was well cared for.

That made Denahi question what had led Kenai to not visit him any longer. There was the idea of disrespecting the bear and of finding bear as a wild animal to hunt but he had tried to spread the story and he doubted that Kenai would have attacked anyone. He whined softly before finding another wolf to approach him.

"Hey there, cutie," he heard a female voice as the wolf rubbed against his side and Denahi stood up in shock. There was a female wolf hitting on him. Knowing that he was actually human, it was too weird and too different that this female was attracted to him. If he was in his real form then this would be counted as bestiality.

"Hi, I'm….I'm not looking for companionship," he said quickly.

In this form, Denahi knew that he couldn't have physical relations with a human because that would be wrong but from a mental point of view, having any kind of attraction to a wolf was inappropriate. These were animals. He couldn't be attracted to an animal despite his younger brother's place in this world.

"Aww, you're shy," the female wolf commented. "What's your name anyway?" she asked and he backed away from her. She moved forward, nuzzling him with her nose.

"You don't need to be afraid," she said before bowing her head, "My name is Reina. I'm not from around these parts either," she licked his cheek and Denahi flinched internally. How could this wolf be approaching him in this manner? His eyes widened and he shook his head, taking a few steps backwards.

"You don't need to be shy, I can get you to know this land. This is near where our community is anyway," she said and Denahi looked around. He wanted to wait for Kenai. He wasn't really a wolf and so a wolf community wasn't appealing to him, spending more time with his younger brother was what interested him.

"Thank you, Reina," Denahi shook his head. "I'll be okay."

Those were the sentiments that Denahi had in his heart for that moment at least but the next thing that he heard caused ice cold waves to ripple through his body. A bear was roaring and it wasn't in a good way. Denahi looked at Reina and shook his head.

"I can't stay," he told her.

"A bear died," Reina said and Denahi felt his eyes widen. That couldn't be the sound of Kenai's death, if it was that sound then there was no way that Denahi would ever forgive himself. He didn't want to imagine that Kenai had died just because he had listened to him and stayed in hiding. "It's no big deal, in fact if the humans leave the carcass it should give us good food."

"I don't eat bear," Denahi said as his mind started to get foggy and the only thing he knew was that he needed to get to Kenai's side as soon as possible. His little brother was suffering, it was his responsibility to take care of him just as when they had all been human.

"And yet you'll risk your life," Reina commented and Denahi looked at her.

"There are some things that you will never be able to understand," he tried to tell her. He hadn't meant those words to come out in that manner but this was too important. Bounding across the land, he saw blood and that made his eyes widen as he turned from side to side to get a better view of the situation. He then saw what he was hoping not to see. Kenai unable to move and facing the end of a musket. He saw the same woman who had claimed to hate bears and want to murder them and he tackled her, pushing her down.

He didn't want to hurt anyone but protecting his younger brother was more important than anything this hunter wanted from him. Denahi growled, snapping his teeth as the woman looked frightened. He had to get help. He saw the gun pointed towards his forehead but Kenai swiped at her arm, making sure not to scrape her and attack her and the musket fell down.

Just as she was reaching to grab it, Denahi felt that they weren't alone and he saw wolves from each side approaching her. He backed away, checking the bloody wounds that Kenai had sustained. His eyes snapped open. He couldn't be dead. Kenai couldn't die, these wounds couldn't be fatal.

Denahi shook his head. He couldn't afford to think this way. He had to come up with a plan to save him.

"Get lost," one of the wolves snapped to the woman who was having a hard time understanding them. Another one just continued to growl at her to frighten her off and with her leaving, the wolves turned to look at Kenai. Denahi steadied himself, taking them all in. If they were to try to kill Kenai then they would have to kill him as well. He stood with his paws firmly on the ground.

"The bear is mine," he said as he stood protectively beside him. "This bear won't hurt any of you. He's my friend, he's my family," he said and the leader looked at him seeing how serious he was about this. He looked to the wound before shaking his head. If the bear did survive he would soon die from the injuries. It wasn't worth starting things off on a bad foot with this wolf who had the guts to become part of his pack.

"So," he said as he turned his head, "The bear is yours."

"Pacha," one of the lesser wolves in the pack said and Pacha shook his head telling his underlings to remain silent. He was the alpha male and as the alpha, he was to be listened to. Many wolves didn't have the guts to face down a gun but this one might make an excellent body guard for him.

"The bear is his, what's your name?" Pacha asked as he studied Denahi more carefully.

"Denahi," Denahi told them as he still stood protectively in front of Kenai. Had this been the reason for Kenai's isolation? Had he been wounded before? Had humans scared him off, he had said something of that manner, hadn't he?

"Well, come see me tomorrow night," Pacha said before turning to where the moon was casting a glimmer on a nearby lake, "Over there," he said and Denahi nodded slowly. He would promise anything if they allowed him to make sure that Kenai was all right. Kenai's protection came first.

"Excellent," Pacha said, "Let's go guys," he said before turning away and Denahi nudged Kenai with his forehead.

"Are you okay?" he asked. The cave that Kenai shared with Koda wasn't too far away and maybe Koda would be there. Koda would be more help than him anyway.

…..

…..

"Steady," Denahi said as he brought Kenai back home, it had been a fair walk with some stops in between but Kenai had seemed to improve with every rest period. He saw the bear starting to fall asleep and hoped that he would wake up this time. Denahi heard the sound of someone enter the cave and turned to see Koda who was shock at his appearance before he saw his brother.

"Kenai!" he yelled alarmed, "Get away from him! What did you do to him!?" he asked and Denahi backed away.

"Koda, it's me…it's Denahi, I brought Kenai here to get some help," he said before looking at the cub. "Do you think that you could help us?"

End of Chapter Seven

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Guest (x2), Writer65