Chapter 46: It begins

A/n: Hi everyone. Here is another chapter. Uploads are going to remain sporadic at best so please remain patient.

P.S Fair warning, this chapter follows a darker theme than most other parts of the story. But read, enjoy and let me know what you think.

"… RR"

"…ake…u…. Ka…"

"UGH"

"KARR!"

Karr awoke to see the world as a blur as voices rung in his head. He groaned audibly, shaking his head as to clear the cobwebs. "What happened?" he groaned out, his head hurting as if it had been stamped on by a caribou. He had never once felt this bad in his life and as his senses returned to him so did the feeling of pain from various parts on his body.

"Brother! Get a healer over here right now!" shouted Marron, though Karr could only see his brother as a hazy figure and his brain barely recognised his voice.

Karr shook his head again in hopes of clearing his senses. It seemed to work as his blurry vision seemed to clear and the fog that had descended on his brain cleared.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice gravelly but more audible.

"Brother, rest you need….." Marron spoke up only to be interrupted. "What happened?" Karr growled out louder and more authoritatively.

Marron sighed as he looked over his shoulder before turning back to Karr. It was then that Karr realised that his brother was the only wolf in his vicinity. He looked around in confusion, what had happened, where was his pack, why wasn't there a healer here if he was hurt. He looked to his brother, "where is my pack?"

Marron's eyes dimmed as he looked over his brother's injured form, "I'm sorry brother, but you don't have a pack anymore."

Immediately images flashed through Karr's head, a flash of red fur, piercing red eyes, snapping jaws, a blur of red, white and brown and then nothing. "Wha…. What happened?" Karr gasped out as his head throbbed again.

Just then a red furred she-wolf strode up to the duo, her glowing red eyes fixed on his prone form, a grin on her face. She approached the down wolf only to have Marron block her away. "It's over…. Leave him be. You got what you wanted Jenna."

Jenna growled but only uttered a single word, "Move!"

Marron held fast in defiance, he would protect his brother no matter what. Even if it meant going against the new pack alpha.

As the two wolves faced each other, more images and voices flared to life within Karr's head.

'The alpha challenge'.

Siku stood across from him with the pack surrounding them

'Does anyone have anything to say?'

'Siku will not be the one fighting, you will be fighting me!'

Jenna approached Siku from behind, landing a blow to the back of the she-wolf's head knocking her out.

'you dare interfere with an alpha's challenge. This is an outrage.'

'she will pay for her insolence'.

Jenna stood across from him, a smug smile tugging at her lips.

'and when I win, I'm going to drag your sorry ass by the tail through each and every den and in front of every wolf'.

Jenna announced to the whole pack never breaking eye contact with him.

The last statement accompanied by the face of the very wolf that now faced off in front of her brother.

Karr felt the blood drain from his face. He'd lost the Alpha's Challenge; the pack was no longer his to control and neither he nor his brother could ever rise to his former rank with her in charge.

"Step aside now, or you will join your brother," Jenna spoke authoritatively, behind her, wolves of the pack stood unsure of how to proceed. The Alpha's Challenge was over, but the winner had interfered with the original challenge.

"No!" Marron spoke as he looked Jenna in the eye. Jenna growled in irritation. "Seize him!" and some of the wolves moved forward surrounding Marron. Jenna looked him in the eye as she growled "Congratulations, you are now promoted to a scout. If you want your brother to survive the winter you will get your ass out of this den site and lead any hunters in the region away from us….. even at the cost of your life."

Marron felt his blood run cold, this wasn't the she-wolf he had partially trained, nor was she the one that had returned to the pack. He looked towards his brother, then at the wolves surrounding the both of them, before turning to face Jenna with defiance in his eyes.

Jenna felt her irritation rise as she looked the defiant Marron in the eyes. "Hold him down, she growled out and the wolves complied, out of loyalty to the alpha or fear of her, Marron did not know but they did, and he found himself pressed into the ground unable to move. Jenna turned to face the wolves that hadn't moved and growled.

"Pick him up," she said pointing at Karr, "take him to the top of the cliff above the den…. And throw him over." Both brothers felt their blood run cold at the command.

Marron instantly struggled to break free. "NO….. stay away from him….. I went let you," he shouted in anguish as he tried and failed to get to his brother. The wolves looked at each other unsure of what to do, Karr had been their leader for years, he'd lead them through many situations, they couldn't bring themselves to do this.

"Either you pick him up and do as instructed or I will personally make sure you join him," Jenna snarled at the wolves causing some to back up, but one stood his ground.

Marron recognised him, he had been with the pack for nearly three winters and was one of the toughest wolves in the pack. Scar, if he remembered his name correctly. The wolf had been a loner that had taken sanctuary in the pack and had over the years become sort of a pseudo-leader to the pack when neither he nor his brother was present.

"Stop this at once…. This is not how a leader behaves. You defeated him and that is that! This behavior is unbecoming of a pack leader and I won't stand for this! Nor will the rest of the pack," he spoke as he walked right up to the new alpha.

What followed would leave a sour taste in the mouths of everyone who stood as a witness to their new alpha.

Snarl. Crunch. Shake. Snap. Thud.

Scar fell to the ground unmoving while the rest of the pack gasped and stepped back in fear, tails between their legs.

"Listen up and listen up good. I don't care who you are, what you are or what position you may have held, question my decision again and you will not live to regret it," she announced, her eyes glowing with rage to drive the point home. "Now I think I said to pick him up and throw him off the cliff," she continued pointing to Karr.

The wolves surged forward towards his brother as Marron howled and struggled in desperation. "Please…. Please no….. No….. let him go….."

Before he knew it, he found Jenna standing over him. "You can only blame yourself for what is to come, but I'm feeling forgiving…. So, you can either take the job or you can have a nice front row seat to watch the fall of your brother," Jenna almost purred out as she slowly traced her paw along Marron's muzzle.

A whimper escaped Marron's muzzle as his eyelids and ears drooped in defeat, "I….." he hesitated "…accept."

"Good boy! Was that so hard?" Jenna spoke rubbing her paw atop Marron's head before turning to face the wolves dragging Karr, "take Karr to the healer's den."

(Meanwhile)

Mara sat in the den looking after her son while also keeping an eye on the now bonding Hugo and Lana. She felt happy as she saw the two interact with each other, sneaking in licks and nuzzles when they though she wasn't paying them any attention.

'I remember when I used to be like that,' she told herself mentally before suppressing a sigh as her thoughts wandered to her deceased mate.

She turned her attention back to her son. She watched as his chest rose and fell along with an occasional twitch of his paws or ears. He was coming back to them and it renewed hope within her. It wouldn't be long now before he would be back with them and then they could continue their journey to find a new home. She only hoped that either Siku or Karr, whoever leads the pack after the challenge, would support her.

"MARA!" "MARA!" two shouts flooded the cave causing everyone's ears to fall flat against their heads. Into the den bound Samson and Mason, Sasha close on their heels.

"What's going on? What's with the ruckus?" Mara asked, quickly rising to her feet as her two bruisers skidded to a stop inches away from her, Sasha, unfortunately, crashing into their backs having been unable to control her momentum.

"It's…. the Alpha…. Challenge….," Samson panted out as all three wolves tried to catch their breaths.

"Calm down, slow deep breaths. Breath in….. now breath out…. Good. Now tell me."

"You need to come at once. Jenna's taken leadership of the pack…. She's out for blood…. She wants Karr thrown from the top of this very cliff," Mason spoke causing Mara and everyone in the den to stop cold.

"What?" a shout came from the mouth of the den drawing everyone's attention. All eyes turned to the source of the sound only to see a patch of white shift and rise to its feet.

Fire had been enjoying a nap when the shouting had awakened him. He knew of the Alpha challenge but had not bothered with it. What did he have to lose, he had a ready den and ample food waiting for him so even if Siku did win he wouldn't lose much more than some company. However, what he had heard after awakening had instantly caught his attention. Jenna was the pack leader? When? How?

He rose to his feet, shaking any snow from his fur as he turned to face the inside of the den. "What?"

Sasha took her chance to interject before either Mason or Samson could speak.

"Jenna interfered in the challenge before it could start. She KO'ed Siku and Karr let her take her place in the challenge on the pretext that she and Siku would be banished if she lost. Something is wrong with her….. she was injured yesterday and couldn't walk right… today she tore through Karr as if he was just a pup."

Mara, Lana and Hugo's eyes widened at the news. It was not possible, the girl had been as soft spoken as they came, just what was going on.

"But it gets worse….," Sasha spoke as a shiver ran through her body, "She told Karr that after she won she would drag his broken form through the pack as an example. When Marron protected him, she ordered the pack to have his brother thrown from atop this very cliff."

Jaws dropped in horror at this. Mara instantly felt hope leave her. If this was how things were progressing, it wouldn't be safe for her pack to remain, especially Balto with all things considered. They needed to leave but with her son out cold it wasn't feasible. Even if he awoke they had no idea to the extent of his injuries especially with the knock to his head.

"One of ours, Scar, voiced his refusal and stood up to her…," Sasha continued but trailed off.

"He won't see the light of day again," added in Mason with his head lowering. "She's got the whole pack too terrified to challenge her, Karr is on lockdown in the healer den and Marron has been awarded a suicide mission for his disobedience."

Mara quickly interjected, "What about a rematch?".

"They can't. One of the terms Karr agreed to was that neither he nor his brother could ever challenge her again," Sasha butted in.

Mara sighed, before turning to look at all her pack members in the eye one at a time, "look sharp and be on guard. We can't leave, not with Balto out cold and Hugo being in the condition he is. We have weathered one storm, we can weather another."

"Wise words Mara. You wouldn't want to be evicted from the pack grounds, not yet atleast."

All eyes instantly whirled to the person speaking only to land on Jenna who stood at the entrance of the den.

"Can I help you with something?" Mara asked, showing a professional front used in formal meets between pack leaders.

"Yes, you could. I would like to invite you, your daughter and him," she spoke indicating to Balto, "to have a meal at the leader's den tonight in celebration of my accession to leadership and to set our priorities straight. After all, it's best to get to know your potential enemies 'giggle' or allies – whichever you decide applies - before they decide to strike. 'giggle'."

Everyone froze at Jenna's last comment, all eyes glancing between each other unable to utter a word as she slowly turned to leave only to stop and look back pointedly at Fire.

"And Fire, be a sweety and clean up before you come to dinner. It will give me time to see how you stack up in a political environment. After all, I don't want a possible mate to be all muscle and no brains."

With that, she was gone.

"UGH…. My head"

(Healer den)

Having been deposited in the healer's den, the first thing Karr had noticed was the lack of the pack healer. Where was she? She hadn't been in the clearing, in-fact he hadn't seen her since last night.

As he spoke a low groan from further within the den caught his attention. Gingerly climbing to his feet, Karr hobbled over to the back of the den only to discover the missing healer laid out behind a protrusion from the ground – hidden from view – trying to regain her bearings.

"Are you alright? What happened here? Who did this?" he asked as he slowly approached the downed wolf to not startle her.

The she-wolf took a minute as she regained her bearings before looking to the source of the voice only for her eyes to widen.

"Sir, I have to warn you. The red she-wolf there's something off about her…. She… she was perfectly healed from a badly injured paw overnight and….. and….. her eyes….. they were red this morning when last night they were brown."

Karr looked to the pack healer as he suddenly started to feel nauseous. It had all been there, her red eyes, darker coat and her dispatching of Siku. He had missed all the signs and it had cost him his pack. With a sigh, he turned his attention back to the healer.

"It's just Karr now. I'm no longer the pack leader… the red she-wolf is."