Wolf Lord
Chapter Ten
By Mell8
--
"Hail, Hail, Hail, great wolf spirit, Hail!
A boon I ask thee, mighty shade.
Within this circle I have made.
Make me a werewolf strong and bold.
The terror alike of young and old.
Grant me a figure tall and spare;
The speed of the elk, the claws of the bear;
The poison of snakes, the wit of the fox;
The stealth of the wolf, the strength of the ox;
The jaws of the tiger, the teeth of the shark;
The eyes of a cat that sees in the dark;
Make me climb like a monkey, scent like a dog;
Swim like a fish, and eat like a hog.
Haste, Haste, Haste, lonely spirit, Haste!
Here, wan and drear, magic spell making,
Findest thou me - shaking, quaking.
Softly fan me as I lie.
And thy mystic touch apply.
Touch apply, and I swear that when I die,
When I die, I will serve thee evermore,
Evermore, in grey wolf land, cold and raw."
Unknown author, found on www dot werewolfpage dot com/myths/rituals dot htm
--
Cody was white as a sheet and shaking when Wolf walked into their room later that night. He was holding a piece of parchment that shook with his hands and the ominous crackling sound let Wolf know that danger had just dropped into their laps.
Cody wordlessly handed Wolf the letter.
Cody Greengrass,
We know what you are. We know that you're a danger to this school. We have no problem outing you to this community.
Expect to hear from us presently, werewolf.
"Shit," Wolf sighed.
Cody whimpered. "How did someone find out?"
"Good question," Wolf frowned. "Who knows that's you're a wolf?"
"Just you, Jeremy, Buddy, Molly, and Feral." Cody looked thoughtful for a second before adding, "Mike and Josh too. No one else, as far as I know."
Wolf walked over to join Cody on his bed with a groan. "We'll start with the people we know, see if any of them have something to do with this. It could be some kid who overheard a private conversation and decided to capitalize on it. We'll figure this out."
Buddy and Jeremy walked into the room then and immediately felt the tension in their roommates.
"What's up?" Buddy asked as he cautiously moved to his bed. Jeremy followed with a curious look at Wolf and Cody.
Wolf took a deep sniff of the room as Cody began to growl a warning low in his throat.
"We have a question to ask," Wolf said softly. The only scent he had picked up was human. A little apprehension, but that could be because of the tension. There certainly wasn't any fear or guilt. If these two were the culprits, they were unconscious ones.
"Ask away," Jeremy smiled, trying to break the pressure in the room.
"By any chance has either of you spoken about the werewolf situation where anyone might overhear?" Wolf looked at them piercingly, hoping to catch a facial expression that would give them away, since scent and hearing gave him nothing.
"No way!" Buddy hissed. "We're not that stupid. The only time we've ever talked about this is with both of you."
Buddy nodded emphatically. "Honest!"
Wolf could smell the truth in their words and sighed. At least that meant his two friends were clean and that his trust in them wasn't unfounded.
"They're telling the truth," Wolf said to Cody. "I'm going to go spend the night with Feral."
"You think Feral did this?" Cody gaped, incredulous that the vampire and Wolf's love would make such a mistake.
"No," Wolf laughed. "I just figured that she'd be the best person to ask for help. Besides, I want her to have a little chat with Mike and Josh, just to see if they've caused a problem."
Cody snorted at the image of what Feral would do to those younger boys. She'd probably have them pissing their pants and promising her their firstborn child within five minutes.
"You go ahead, spend some time with your girlfriend," Cody said with a smirk as he bobbed his eyebrows up and down on his forehead. "I'll explain what's going on here."
Wolf nodded and left.
He snuck down the stairs to the girls' dormitory by carefully balancing on the banister and crawling hand over hand so that the warning spell on the stairs wouldn't activate and send him flying back to the top of the steps. It wasn't difficult for a werewolf to do, but a human would have fallen after a few feet. He pushed open the door to Feral's shared room and was relieved to see that all the other girls were still in the Common Room. Feral was sitting calmly at her desk and turned when the door opened to see who it was.
"Typical male," she sighed. "Only coming to see their girl when they need something."
Wolf spluttered.
"Aw, poor little puppy," Feral laughed. "Get over here."
Wolf dove into her open arms and rubbed his cheek against her head. It had been so long since they had been together and both the human and wolf inside of him were in accord that they needed to mark her as theirs again.
"Annie," Wolf groaned and he clutched her to him tighter, getting his scent all over her.
"Yes, Tristan?" she laughed as she hugged him back just as tightly.
"Annie, this is harder than I thought it would be. All I wanted was to come here, find some werewolves, and fix the injustice against them."
"But now your cousin has been bitten, you have no idea who is changing all these wolves in the first place, and the Ministry is so deeply entrenched in corruption and human-centrism that you'll never accomplish your goal," she finished. "Your dad did warn you, Tris."
"Don't remind me," Wolf moaned. "And it's worse now. Someone's sending Cody blackmail letters. They haven't asked for anything yet, but it's only a matter of time."
Feral sighed. "How do you manage these things? Always in trouble and always needing me to get you out of it."
"It's why I love you, Annie," Wolf said with his best pout.
"That had better not be the only reason," she said with mock sternness. "I'll look into it for you, though. I'll check with Molly and those two new males you've recently started training with."
"And if it's not them?" Wolf asked sadly. "I don't want Cody to suffer for this. As the Alpha it's my problem to deal with."
"Shh. Shut up or I'll have to use you for target practice again." Feral stood and dragged Wolf over to her bed. She lay down and opened her arms for Wolf to crawl into.
"Annie, I-"
"Go to sleep, Tris. I should be strong enough to watch over you for one night, especially since I can still beat you up. Go to sleep and in the morning you'll be ready to take care of this."
"Love you," Wolf mumbled.
"I know. Shut up and go to sleep."
III
"So, so?" Cody laughed and elbowed Wolf as the tri-color haired boy finally sat down to breakfast the next morning.
"So what?" Wolf asked, already dreading the questions after dealing with the high pitched squealing from the other girls in Feral's dorm when he parted her bed hangings this morning.
"So did you have fun last night?" Jeremy snickered as he butt into the conversation with a leer at Wolf.
"You're about to have lots of fun," a cold voice answered. Jeremy looked up just in time to see a knife flash past his nose and imbed itself deep in the wood between his legs, only missing him by mere centimeters.
"Move," Feral snapped. "I want to sit there."
Jeremy gulped and shakily moved over one spot on the bench. Feral yanked the knife from the seat before sitting down next to Wolf.
"And for your information," Feral said with a cold smile as she slid the knife away and reached for breakfast. "Wolf and I did what we always do at night back home."
She waited while their listeners' eyebrows went up eagerly before continuing.
"We cuddled."
"Before or after you had sex?" Cody grinned.
"Mr. Greengrass! Watch your mouth or I'll take points."
Their grins immediately fell as Granger-Weasley made her presence known. Wolf should have figured that it would be her who would ruin their fun.
"And Miss Ano-Feral! Weapons are not allowed in this school. If any evidence is found of your harming someone with those knives, I will have you expelled."
"Yes, Ma'am," Feral said with a roll of her eyes as she turned back towards her breakfast.
"Now, Wolf. What did I tell you about wearing the school uniform? Twenty points from Slytherin and detention tonight with me."
Wolf gaped at her. Granger-Weasley hadn't come over to their table to yell at Cody or Feral; she had come over specifically to give him that detention. The old bint was planning something; he could smell it.
"Did she just-" Cody began.
"The bitch wants something from me," Wolf snarled angrily.
"Don't call me names, Wolf," Granger-Weasley called back from where she was walking down the table. "With a name like yours, you haven't got any right."
"At least my name isn't Hermione. Her-my-own-ee," he sneered. "It doesn't get any odder than that."
She spun around to glare at him but looked taken aback when she saw the disgusted sneer on his face. She absentmindedly shook her finger at him before heading off back to the staff table deep in thought.
Wolf swore. That was something his dad might have said to someone he disliked, especially with the sneer, and Granger-Weasley had been a long recipient of it during their school years together. He might have just jeopardized his mission even more.
"I'll scalp her," Feral hissed, clutching her knife under the table. "I'll rip her limbs off one by one and feed them to you next full moon."
Wolf kissed the top of her head and fell to his breakfast. She swatted at him irritably and stole his muffin.
Then the post came flying into the room.
Wolf had a letter dropped into his breakfast by a large barn owl, but Cody's sharp intake of breath took his attention from his mother's scrawl. He tucked the letter into his pocket and turned towards his whitening friend.
"It's the same writing as before," Cody said as he held the letter away from him with two fingers.
Wolf took a discrete sniff of the letter but he smelled nothing except owl and Cody. Someone had spelled the letter carefully to take away all outside scent, someone who knew the true powers a werewolf and that a sniff of the letter could have told Wolf who the culprit was in a second.
"Put it in your pocket," Feral advised as she took her own sniff and found the same conclusion as Wolf, nothing.
Cody stuffed the letter in his robes and bent his head over his plate. He wasn't eating any more. Neither was Wolf or Feral.
"We've got to do something about this!" Buddy snarled under his breath.
"We will," Wolf growled.
"We definitely will," Feral echoed.
III
Hermione Granger-Weasley looked around her classroom with a smirk on her face. Detention tonight would be very informative.
She had disgusting things to clean, anti-Slytherin dogma from the Quibblers Hermione had saved from when she was still in school, and, most importantly, a live animal to take care of.
She would prove that Draco Malfoy had returned to this school, she would! True, he was under spells to change his hair and some minor facial features, but the attitude and personality underneath was all Draco Malfoy.
If he didn't balk at mandatory labor, he would snarl and curse at the article in which Harry had fingered Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, as an evil Death Eater. If he somehow managed to stay unfazed after all that, she would give him the little wolf cub she had found in the forest to take care of, something that the Draco Malfoy she remembered would never have done; responsibility was never one of his strong suits.
She would catch him and then put him in Azkaban where he deserved to rot next to all his Death Eater friends.
She would catch that snotty little ferret if it were the last thing she ever did!
III
Past:
Ginny howled with pain. Her wolf wanted out, now, but with the baby only six months along she didn't dare.
The door was flung open and Draco rushed into the room. Her wolf instantly calmed enough that she wasn't making Ginny feel like her insides were being shredded when it felt Draco's presence.
"Ginny," Draco gasped as he reached for her hand. "It's okay. We can do this."
Ginny squeezed his hand back and groaned. Now she knew why Ben's wife had died in the sixth month. After three full moons of not being allowed to change, her wolf considered their contract broken and had decided to take control of their shared body. Ginny obviously wasn't allowing this, but it made for a painful struggle all the same.
Her wolf made another play and Ginny's back arched as she screamed and fought to stay human. She clutched at Draco's hand and felt some bones snap. Draco hissed but held on until the wolf gave up this time. Then he switched hands and waited for the bones to knit in his other one before flexing it.
A gentle knock sounded on the door and Lynx pushed it open, followed by Jessie and her newborn baby.
"Oh, Jessie," Ginny said as she saw the tiny hand clutching at the blanket wrapped around the small form.
"This is Anne," Jessie said as she held the bundle out for Ginny to see. The little girl inside had Jessie's brown hair and her father's brilliant blue eyes. Ginny gently reached forward to brush her finger against Anne's forehead.
"She's beautiful, Jessie," Ginny whispered, hoping that her son would be just as amazing.
"She can't decide if she likes blood or baby formula better, but we're coping," Jessie said as Ginny's caressing hand slid over the baby's hair.
:?:
Ginny gasped and jumped. Her wolf had just sent out a mental query, wanting to know what was going on. Ginny relinquished a little of her hold so the wolf could look out her eyes. This didn't seem like a power play. The open curiosity and wonder her wolf exuded let Ginny know that it might be a good idea to let the wolf see what was going on inside of Ginny's belly.
This time it was the wolf that gently brushed a lock of hair away from Anne's forehead.
:!:
Ginny closed her eyes and automatically began breathing in the sevens pattern as she dove inside to talk to her wolf.
"This is what we are trying to protect by not changing to wolf," Ginny tried to convey. "We will have a cub of our own to take care of."
"Want," the wolf hissed. "Want mine."
Ginny gently guided the wolf's mind to where a new mind was just beginning to form. The wolf purred as it circled the little bundle eagerly, sniffing and rubbing against it.
"Try," the wolf said. "Will try no run, no hunt. Try."
Ginny tearfully hugged her wolf. "Thank you. We will have this cub and then we will run and hunt as much as you like." The wolf licked Ginny on the face before turning away to go circle around the unborn baby protectively.
The wolf finally went to sleep and Ginny rose back to the surface with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes.
"Ginny, are you okay?" Draco asked immediately.
"I'm fine, I'm great!" Ginny laughed. "My wolf wants this baby too. She told me she'll try not to break free."
Draco laughed. "That's wonderful! Now all we have to worry about are the full moons!"
"And that is why I am here," the Coven Leader's voice called from the doorway as the robed figure walked into the room. "As promised, the Coven has found a solution. By the powers of the Goddess, we have found a spell that will hide you from the moon twice."
"Thank you," Ginny gasped. If she had her baby a month early then this was starting to look feasible.
The Coven Leader nodded and departed just as quickly as the Leader had appeared. This left an ecstatic Ginny and Draco hugging on Ginny's bed. Lynx clapped Draco on the back before hugging his wife.
Ben just looked shell shocked as he was left holding the baby.
III
Ben left the room to give Ginny, Draco, Jessie, and Caracal time together. Little Anne was cradled in his arms, asleep and happy, so Ben took her with him. He sat down at the kitchen table and sighed.
Years and years ago, back when he and Caracal had been human, they had been closer than brothers. They had grown up together, played together, and, when they were old enough, shared their girls together.
Then they had found out about the magical world.
Drunk well beyond coherency from frequenting all the pups jolly ole London had to service young drunks like them, they had wandered down a back alley just in time to see a wolf become a man.
In the morning they woke nursing aching heads and fighting away the incredulity of their shared dream. They had been drunk and strange things happened to your mind when you were drunk. They dismissed the man-wolf, said a few 'God save the King' s and went on with their lives.
When Ben had fallen in love and found out that his intended changed into a wolf once a month he was honestly surprised. But Ben loved his little Mary even when she had more teeth than he, so he asked her to change him and Caracal into what she was.
Caracal found the entire thing to be hilarious; his blood brother had fallen in love with a girl who was half wolf and half woman. He refused to be left behind and had said he was eagerly ready to become a wolf and eat rabbits without cooking them first.
The night of the full moon came and Ben was there in the clearing with his soon to be pack and with beautiful Mary holding his hand. They waited as long as possible as the moon rose in the sky, but Caracal never appeared. It seemed the fool had chickened out and was okay with Ben leaving him behind for the first time in their admittedly short lives.
Mary had changed when the call of the moon finally overcame her strength and had bitten him with all the care her sharp teeth could give. Ben became a werewolf, proud of his power and a servant to the moon and his wolf.
The morning after he went in search of Caracal, but couldn't find him. The fool must have run away in fear, Ben thought sadly. Then, as first a week, then a month, then years passed, Ben sneered at the thought of Caracal, so afraid of his blood brother and beloved wife that he wouldn't return even to apologize.
Fifty years later the werewolves had an…altercation…with the local vampire coven. A young wolf had been bitten and killed, drained dry and left to rot in a gutter. A vampire had been staked out in the sun to fry and there were claw marks all around what was left of the body.
The war that followed affected even non-magical London. The local papers had headlines saying, 'Mysterious Killer Stalks the Streets'. The local Wizarding government had even gotten involved and began its long process of capturing and killing any and all vampires and werewolves they could get their hands on, all in the name of saving lives, of course, because both werewolves and vampires were beings without control over their evil natures that killed and ate indiscriminately.
Mary and Ben had been battling one night, deep down a darkened alley, when a familiar face appeared. Caracal almost decapitated Mary with his long fangs and left a cut on Ben's stomach that took a full week for his wolf to heal. His blood brother had betrayed them for the enemy, the bastard.
The Wizarding government was powerful, very, very powerful. Alone, neither the werewolves nor the vampires could stop them from systematically exterminating their people. This was, perhaps, the only reason the war ended so smoothly. Together they were still too weak to fight off the might of the spells, but together they could escape. The New World didn't have any Wizards yet; they hadn't even bothered trying to get a foothold there, not when they had such secure homes already.
The Wicca witches, who had faced the same prosecution, had made it safely overseas. Why couldn't the vampires and werewolves? Working together they commissioned a ship and painstakingly made their way to the Americas. They made a pact with each other, and, when they safely made it, they made a pact with the Wicca as well. The yearly conclave was a main result of that.
But Ben had never forgiven Caracal for almost killing his beloved mate. They never reconciled. When Ben found out that Mary was pregnant, and then found out that she was dying, Caracal should have been the one to hold Ben's hand. Caracal should have been the shoulder to cry on, rather than being alone, as Ben had been.
Two weeks after Mary was in the ground, Caracal found Ben crying in the woods. Caracal had sneered at Ben's weakness, had laughed when the poor, helpless wolf had cried, and had turned his back on his oldest friend.
It was only thirty years later that Ben found out that for the first hundred years of their un-life, vampires were literally an extension of their maker. Caracal had merely been acting as his maker would have.
But the hurt Ben felt was real and he refused to open himself up to Caracal ever again.
The baby yawned cutely and snuggled closer to Ben's chest. He looked down at the little thing and couldn't stop his jealousy. His child had died. His wife had died. Now Caracal, uncaring Caracal, had everything Ben wanted. Caracal had a wife, a child, and a best friend in Draco. Even Draco had a wife, would have a child very soon, and a best friend in Caracal. What did Ben have?
Nothing.
"You'll be her Godfather, right?" Caracal's voice called from the doorway. Ben turned to look incredulously at the vampire.
"You're the only one I would consider," Caracal said wistfully. "I know you've never forgiven me for what happened, but I miss you, you know. I don't want my daughter to miss out just because I became a vampire instead of a werewolf."
"But your daughter's a vampire. I'm a werewolf. What do I know about raising a blood drinker?"
"That doesn't matter!" Caracal stepped quickly forward to stand in front of Ben. "You'll care for her as a human, not as a monster or a creature to be studied. I don't want to leave her to the coven. I don't want to leave her to Draco or Ginny. You, Ben. Please."
Ben felt a little of his pain wash away at Caracal's words. He wasn't alone, not really, but he was apart.
Little Anne woke up then and whimpered. Her tiny fist went to her mouth and she began sucking on it with little mewling cries.
"Bottle time!" Caracal said cheerfully. He took Anne from Ben and went to find the diaper bag before she started screaming.
"Yes, I'll gladly be her godfather," Ben said even though he couldn't look at Caracal as he said it. He felt Caracal's smile, despite the fact that it was fleeting because Anne let out an audible sniffle so he rushed to find the bottle before it got any worse.
It was a start towards rebuilding a relationship that had so many broken pieces that it seemed like an impossible task. Still, Ben felt a little better now.
He felt even better a few weeks later when Draco asked Ben the same question of his son. He was wanted, needed even, and that made him happy.
III
Draco's first description of his son would always be pink because that was the first thing he said when he held his son in his arms for the first time. The little squalling boy was pink in the face from crying. Somehow, Ginny had managed to have her son wrapped in a pink blanket, instead of the customary blue.
And his hair was… "Pink?"
Ginny's exhausted laugh informed Draco that he was neglecting her. He quickly rushed over to put their son in her arms. She had worked the hardest, after all, so she deserved his attention and their son in her arms.
Ginny's arms went around their son protectively as she cooed at him. Suddenly her eyes blazed gold and the wolf looked at Draco once with approval before rumbling something happy at the baby.
The baby yawned, turned into a baby wolf, and nuzzled his mother's breast.
Ginny's gasp told Draco that he wasn't seeing things because she was holding a human baby boy now, instead of the wolf that had been there seconds ago.
"Did he just?" Draco asked for confirmation.
"I- I think so," Ginny replied, shocked.
"We are going to have an interesting time at this parenting thing," Draco said as he climbed into bed to lie against his wife and child. He was glad that both his hands had healed already so it didn't hurt to cuddle them both to his chest.
"Our little Tristan is going to be someone someday," Ginny said with a nod.
"Tristan?" Draco asked musingly. "I like it. Our little Tristan, werewolf and boy and our little angel."
--
A.N. I hope you like the beginnings of little Tristan, aka Wolf and little Anne, aka Feral. In the next couple chapters you'll really start getting an insight into their relationship.
Did you know that there isn't a term for killing your Aunt? I wanted to make an off color joke about Feral killing Hermione being the Latin word for killing your Aunt but I couldn't find the term anywhere! Avunculicide is killing your Uncle, and there are terms for killing mothers, fathers, siblings, and children, but nothing for killing your Aunt. It was depressing. Anyway, now you can imagine the joke and if anyone knows of the term, please tell me so that I can add it in!
Mell8