Chapter 2

It had not taken long for help to arrive. Charles used the word "help" with extreme effort as a dominant wolf like him was not particularly keen on letting other wolves see him injured. This time around, it was clear that his father had taken that fact into consideration when deciding who to send after Charles.

The first wolf to arrive was his mate. She was in human form. Her root beer color hair was tied back into a ponytail to keep it out of her face. She also donned a thin jacket even though most werewolves would not have felt cold even this late in Fall.

Brother Wolf, who had been quiet for most of the day, perked up at the sight of the woman. Mate.

Before Brother Wolf could force Charles to stand, Anna's Omega magic eased out of her body and wrapped up Charles like a warm blanket and calmed both him and his wolf spirit. She crouched beside him and placed a hand on his chest.

"I told you you should have brought me."

Charles groaned.

Anna's hands brushed down his sides, spreading a wave of calm throughout his body. "You're hurt pretty badly. Just what kind of rogue did you fight up here?"

"I'll tell you later," Charles said through their bond. He closed his eyes and focused on absorbing the Omega wolf's waves of peace. He felt Brother Wolf settle down inside of him with a contented sigh. He listened quietly as Anna looked him over and scolded him for letting himself get hurt. Apparently, one of his shoulders was torn up pretty badly, but thankfully the rogue wolf hadn't damaged anything important. Anna's hands helped to sooth the pain in the sore shoulder. Charles's attention was so absorbed by his mate that he almost didn't notice the other wolves arriving.

The first wolf he smelled was Colin Taggart. Tag was a long-time resident of Aspen Creek as well as a werewolf. If Bran didn't send Charles searching in the Cabinets, he probably would have sent Tag instead. Tag was as familiar with the mountains as Charles was and one of the more dominant wolves in his pack. This time around, the giant man had his red hair pulled back into a ponytail and wore a green jacket that looked thick compared to Anna's.

Behind Tag was a smaller woman. It took Charles a moment to remember her name. Ashlyn. She was a recent addition to the Marrok pack, having been changed mere months ago. She was a bit on the short side, just over five feet tall, and kept her eyes down as she followed Tag towards Charles.

"You look like you got run over by a school bus," Tag deadpanned as he stopped beside Charles's prone form.

Charles rolled his eyes. Tag had an endearing sense of humor. Although Charles admitted that his humor did help to calm Brother Wolf who was currently protesting at having the other wolves near him.

"We found your car and bag on the way here. I can have Ashlyn drive your car back home if you would like to ride with me and Anna instead."

Charles turned towards Ashlyn. The young woman glanced up at Charles with big brown eyes, then quickly looked away.

"I promise not to damage it on the way back," the woman nearly squeaked. "I promise." Her hands fiddled with her light brown hair nervously.

She was a submissive wolf, Charles remembered. She was technically stable enough to be allowed to join a new pack, but Charles' father was worried that her flightiness would give another werewolf the wrong idea. Better to keep her in Aspen Creek until she got used to being around other werewolves.

Charles nodded hesitantly. It wouldn't bother him to have a submissive female driving his car. As long as she didn't drive the same way she talked. Last thing he wanted was for her to get rear-ended while driving back. Maybe he should bundle her up and drive her back home instead.

Charles clamped down on Brother Wolf as he fought the urge to protect Ashlyn. Something about having both an Omega wolf and a submissive wolf next to him at the same time made the more protective side of his sibling spirit emerge. Dominant wolves were naturally driven to protect weaker wolves in his pack, and the nervous wolf was making him feel overprotective.

Anna sensed the tension in his mind and started rubbing slow circles on his back. "That will be alright," she said to Ashlyn. "Tag and I will help walk Charles back to Tag's car. You can drive the car back to Aspen Creek and leave the car in our driveway. You remember where we live, right?"

Ashlyn nodded stiffly and walked away, ostensibly to find Charles's car. Anna pat Charles's head and sighed.

"I need you to shift out of wolf form. Tag and I are strong enough to carry you, but it will be easier if you walk."

Brother Wolf griped with Charles inside their head. Charles wasn't too eager to change back into human form with the rogue still potentially lurking around. But Brother Wolf would rather walk back on their own two feet than have to be carried. It worried Charles that he wasn't sure which of them was the more reasonable one at that moment.

In the end, Charles's heeded Anna's advice and shifted back into human form. His wounds itched as the Change caused the still open and bleeding cuts to scab over. As a final step of the Change, a fresh set of clothes materialized on his now human body and left him as well dressed as the two werewolves waiting for him to finish changing. This time around, he found himself wearing a T-shirt and shorts that were completely inappropriate for the cold weather. Good thing he was a werewolf instead of a regular human. He could have been in serious danger of freezing otherwise.

Anna helped Charles to his feet. Tag tried to lend Charles a hand, but the werewolf waved him off.

"I got it," Charles grunted with effort.

Anna glanced at him with half-lidded eyes. "Sure, you do."

Charles hissed when the first step yanked on a healing wound on his leg. "How far away did you park?"

"Not far," Tag responded. "We tried to park as close to where Anna thought you were as possible."

Thank you, mating bond, Charles thought. With experience, a mating bond could be used like a compass to help a werewolf find their mate. It looked like all of those lessons Asil gave Anna regarding mating bonds paid off.

Tag looked at Charles up and down. "What happened? Even if it was a bear, you usually come out of a fight in better shape than this."

Charles bit down on the urge to tell Tag to stop staring and forced himself to think of something more polite to say. "I'll tell you later."

Tag frowned but didn't press further.

Anna nudged his shoulder as they walked back to Tag's car. "How are you feeling?" She asked through the bond they shared.

Brother Wolf who had been antsy before calmed at the sound of their mate's voice. "We are fine," the wolf spirit responded. "Just a little scratched up."

Anna's eyes narrowed unrepentantly. "You are downplaying your injuries. That means you are really badly hurt."

Oops.

They reached the car towards the end of Anna's mental scolding. Though Anna and Charles tried to load Charles carefully into the back row, Charles was still panting heavily by the time he was laying across the row of seats. Anna glanced back at him worriedly as she sat down in the front passenger seat. Despite the cold, Charles sweated with effort as he tried to reassure her with a smile.

Tag took the driver's seat and turned on the ignition. Charles let himself sink into the seat as the air conditioning turned on and blew hot air over his body. Now that he was finally laying down inside a warm car, he could feel exhaustion setting in. He could have sworn that either Tag or Anna said something to him, but he drifted off to sleep before his brain could translate what they said.

Charles woke up on his back with a thin blanket covering his chest. He smelled the scent of alcohol and iodine, but his mind was still too foggy to understand where the scent was coming from. He tried to sit up but groaned when the motion sent a fiery sensation running through the half-healed wounds covering his body. A hand placed itself on his chest and stopped him from trying to sit up a second time.

"Be still," a voice murmured. "You're still healing."

His father's soft, yet commanding voice forced Charles to lay back down. As his vision cleared, his father's face began to come back into focus. As usual, Bran looked rather unassuming. Today, the old werewolf had chosen to dress up like a young man fresh out of high school. To anyone who didn't know Bran, the werewolf looked like an average American teenager still caught between childhood and adulthood. He wore modern clothes that should have made him look older, but instead emphasized his boyish facial features. Even the faint smile on Bran's face made him look significantly younger than he actually was. Sometimes, it disturbed Charles how good of an actor his father was.

From the design of the room, Charles guessed that he had been brought to the holding room in the basement of Bran's house. Anna and Tag must have known that it was the only place where Charles would feel secure without having to worry about being harassed by the other wolves in the pack. Charles's own home would have worked too. But then he would have felt a need to further secure the house to make sure there were no intruders. This way, Charles could relax knowing that his father would not let anyone disturb him.

"When I sent you to catch the rogue, I did so with the expectation that you would come back in one piece." Bran's voice held a worried edge despite his humorous tone. Charles couldn't blame him. Practice and experience had turned Charles into a good fighter. To be beat by a single rogue wolf meant that either the other wolf was a better fighter or wasn't a normal werewolf at all.

"Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Charles recounted the events leading up to and including the attack. He remembered that the attack had happened suddenly, like he had been struck by lightning. He had seen the wolf before it had attacked him, yet it had still managed to catch him off-guard with how fast it moved. Not only that, it was small for a werewolf, yet significantly stronger than it looked.

Besides the speed of the wolf's movement, Charles also recalled flashes of white and blue in a pattern unlike any wolf he had ever seen. Its fur had been snow-white. Yet patches of its fur seemed to have nearly invisible blue lines crossing over it.

In Charles's experience, werewolves came with a large range of coat colors. His own wolf form had reddish fur with patches of white. Yet he had also seen werewolves with coat patterns that would be more appropriate on a dog than a wolf. Some werewolves even looked like giant versions of household pets, including the rogue wolf he had hunted a few years ago.

This wolf, however, did not look like any wild wolf or dog Charles had ever seen. In fact, it appeared to only be lupine in shape rather than color.

Bran frowned when Charles shared this piece. "So, it resembled a wolf, but did not move or quite look like one?" Bran hummed thoughtfully. "What about its scent? What did it smell like?"

Charles tried to recall what he had smelled. As far as he could remember, the wolf had been nearly odorless. It had also left no scent trail when it had left. Tag had checked before they left. It was only during the attack that the wolf had any discernible scent.

"It had smelled a bit like ozone and… milk?"

Bran blinked. "Milk? As if it were female?"

"Yes?" Charles frowned in thought. "Yes."

"And you said that it had taken the werewolf pup after attacking you?"

"Yes."

Bran leaned back in his chair. He tapped his chin as a small smile lit his face. "So, our rogue wolf is female and appears to have a cub of her own. But that does not tell us what she is, or how she was able to give birth to a werewolf."

"You think the werewolf cub is hers?" Charles asked incredulously.

His Da looked at him as if he was dumb. "We have a rogue female wolf who is lactating and nearly mauled you to death because you touched an infant werewolf, and you are wondering if she is the mother?"

On second thought, he did sound kind of dumb for doubting his Da's words. But if the rogue wolf had given birth to the werewolf cub, then….

"I thought it was impossible to give birth to a werewolf unless the mother was a werewolf too. In which case, the mother would end up dying in the process anyway."

Charles was sure that he had gotten that right because he and his mate had done their research. As much as Anna pretended not to care, it was obvious to Charles that she had wanted to have children of her own. She had spoken to both him and his brother, Samuel, extensively on the topic. And Charles never missed the way her eyes had lit up at the sight of any children they came across when they went out together. After ruling out the possibility of her giving birth herself, Anna had started exploring the possibility of hiring a surrogate. A female werewolf couldn't carry offspring to term, not without losing their lives or their sanity in the process, so a surrogate would have provided a way around this. Unfortunately, according to Samuel, a surrogate carried its own risks.

The surrogate would have to be a human. No other race would work. Second, a human surrogate would only be able to carry human offspring to term. All non-human offspring would end in a miscarriage. Anna had still considered going through with a surrogacy plan, even though it would mean that their child would be born human instead of a werewolf like them. However, Charles had talked her out of it. He had lived long enough to know that watching their child grow old and die before them would be too painful an experience for both of them. He only had to look at Samuel to find a perfect example.

If this rogue wolf had found a way to give birth to werewolf offspring without dying or going insane, that could change everything. Anna's desire to have children could finally come true. Speaking of Anna -

"Where's Anna?" Charles asked. His mate bond told him that she was nearby, but he couldn't see her in the room.

Bran smiled. "She's upstairs watching tv with Leah. Yes, I know. It surprised me too. Apparently, their relationship has changed as of late."

The image of the two werewolves sitting on a couch enjoying tv shows together hurt Charles's brain enough that he forced himself to think of something else. "Well, now that you've heard my story, do you have any idea who or what this female wolf could be?"

Bran gave a small smile that could have been an affirmative or a negative response.

"Okay," Charles said slowly. "Do you at least have some idea of what we are going to do about her? If someone else is unfortunate enough to run into her like I did, they might not escape with their lives."

"Well," Bran stretched with a yawn. "The part of the Cabinets she was spotted in is rather remote this time of year. Most of the hiking done in that region takes place during the summer months when the terrain is cleaner. This late in the year, there's always a risk of getting snowed in and getting stranded for a couple days. I don't expect any humans to run into her at least for a couple months. Still….

"If she is, in fact, a mother with werewolf offspring, I cannot be expected to leave them to fend for themselves with winter fast approaching. I would much rather they be brought to live in Aspen Creek where I can keep a closer eye on them."

"She didn't seem too eager to talk," Charles said dryly. "And if she is not a werewolf, she might not respond kindly to you ordering her around. She might even fight back."

"That's why we are not making her move to Aspen Creek by force." Bran continued when Charles rose a querying eyebrow at him. "We will make coming to Aspen Creek her idea."

"How do you intend to do that?"

Bran's eyes lit up cheerfully. "I have my ways."

"Really?" Charles gave him a wary look.

Bran glanced back at Charles and smiled plainly. "Really. A good Alpha knows how to get his wolves to obey without having to use force. We will just have to show her that joining the pack would not only benefit her but would also be good for her pup. The rest will take care of itself."

"Okay." Charles still had his doubts but knew that he would just have to trust his father.

Bran shut the door behind himself silently as he stepped out of the room where his son would be kept safe. He ascended the stairs slowly, a million thoughts rushing through his mind.

"A female who can birth werewolves," Bran murmured to himself. "Just imagine all the good such a person could bring to our pack with her gift."

He reached the top of the stairs and entered the living room where Anna and Leah were still seated on the couch. Pirates danced across the television screen locked in a sword fight. Leah had her back to him, but Anna saw him as soon as he entered and immediately hopped off the couch.

"How's Charles?" Anna asked without a hint of hesitation.

Bran gave the Omega wolf his mildest smile. "He will be fine. Just need some rest."

Anna let out a sigh of relief and rushed past him to see to her mate. If it had been any other wolf, Bran might have been offended by her lack of etiquette, but it was easier to toe the line between respect and disrespect when one was an Omega wolf.

Leah, who was still seated on the couch, gave him a bored but expecting look.

Bran gave her a mild smile too. "Looks like we will be calling a pack meeting tonight."

Leah raised an eyebrow at him but did not bother to ask further. Being Bran's mate, she knew that he would only tell her what she needed to know and wouldn't respond to further questioning. Instead, she got up and went to change clothes in her dressing room without a word.

In a normal relationship, her silence would have bothered Bran. But Bran and Leah did not have a normal relationship. So, Bran ignored his mate's moodiness and focused on contacting his wolves.

He closed his eyes and reached out for his pack bonds. For Bran, he heard rather than saw the bonds for each of his wolves and he swept them all up easily with a quick motion of his hand. When he could feel the weight of his pack resting in his hand, he reached out with his 'otherness' and spoke to his wolves.

Meeting tonight in the pole barn, he said mentally. Everyone must attend. No exceptions.

Then he released the bonds, letting them settle back into place. He opened his eyes to see Leah leaving the dressing room in a clean set of clothes. The clothes were stylish, yet plain enough for a meeting in a pole barn. Bran nodded to Leah and they left the house together.

The pole barn was a short distance from their house, so they chose to jog there rather than drive. Even with the short distance, they were not the first to arrive at the meeting. Already, several cars were parked in front of the pole barn the pack used as a frequent meeting place. Bran ignored the wolves who lowered their eyes respectfully at the sight of him and made his way into the barn. He went to the small stage at the center of the barn while Leah sat off to the side. He stood on the makeshift wooden platform with his arms crossed and his eyes closed as he waited as the other wolves arrived.

It took mere minutes for the entire pack to arrive, Bran's mental message effectively reaching everyone instantly. Some came alone while others brought a few family members. Most of them looked like they came straight to the pole barn, not bothering to stop at home for more appropriate clothing. One of the wolves even arrived in a baseball T-shirt and cap, no doubt preparing to attend a game in Missoula.

When all of the pack's werewolves were in attendance, Bran dropped his arms and opened his eyes. The room immediately fell silent.

"I have gathered you all here to discuss a matter of utmost importance," Bran said slowly, his voice echoing in the silent room. "Earlier today, a rogue wolf was found roaming the Cabinet Mountains near Aspen Creek. This wolf was found in the company of a young werewolf cub."

Though no one spoke. Bran could feel a wave of excitement and anxiety pass through the gathered wolves like an ocean wave. A werewolf cub was exciting news indeed.

"This new development was neither expected nor planned. Therefore, we must proceed with caution."

Bran let his cool gaze sweep over the assembled wolves. They gazed back at him obediently, ready to obey his every order.

"Find the female wolf and her pup. But do not interact with them without my permission. We are trying to locate them not frighten them. Anyone who so much as harms either of them will be punished by me personally. Understood?"

The wolves bowed their heads. They would take heed of his warning and would steer clear of the female wolf.

Bran gave the slightest of smiles. "Good. That will be all for now. All of you may leave." He paused. "Except for you, Ashlyn. I have something that I would like you to do for me."

All of the wolves, excluding Bran and Ashlyn, slowly got up and left the pole barn. Bran stayed on the platform while Ashlyn stood in the corner sweating bullets. When the pair were left alone in the pole barn, Bran stepped off the platform and approached Ashlyn.

Ashlyn, the inexperienced submissive wolf that she was, continued to stand in the corner trying to make herself look as small as possible.

Bran sighed. He would have to break her of that habit. Submissive wolves brought stability to a pack, but there was no place for fear and weakness in a werewolf pack.

"You have nothing to fear, child," Bran said softly. "I have a very important job that only you can take care of."

Ashlyn glanced up at him warily. "A job? What kind of job?"

Bran smiled to himself as he explained the submissive wolf's new role. The pieces of his plan were starting to come together. Soon, this mystery wolf would be his.

Somewhere in the Cabinets…

Raina climbed the steps to the abandoned cabin, the wet and half-rotten wood squelching underneath her weight. Her son was still grasped gently between her jaws. Despite getting upset during the fight with the rogue werewolf, the little pup had calmed down enough to fall asleep.

Her eyes softened when the pup's gentle snores reached her ears.

She entered the slightly dilapidated cabin with a sigh of relief. She had been lucky when she had stumbled across the site. It had clearly been a long time since the cabin had been cleaned, but the smell bothered her not at all as she closed the door behind her. She was simply pleased that she had a roof over her head for once.

She paced her way to the back of the cabin and placed her child in his spot inside a makeshift crib. It was not particularly sturdy, made from pieces of wood and grass that Raina had collected after moving in, but it would do for now.

Raina let out a shaky breath. She'd been reckless when she had been relocating the pup. Her child had been close to getting killed when she had finally tracked him down. She could have kept him with her if she had stayed in human form, but her wolf form left her magic stronger, and she was better able to hide her tracks from any would-be pursuers.

The tiny werewolf yawned and stretched inside of the makeshift crib. Raina rocked the crib until he settled down and went back to sleep.

Raina would do better next time. She would keep her little family safe even if it cost her her life. Anything to prevent them from living the life that was handed to her. They would be safe.

She let the thought settle her as she continued to rock the crib slowly. They will be safe, she whispered in her mind as she gazed down lovingly at her two sweet cubs.