Chapter 80: Survivor

Nick had taken cell phone shots of the mutts from the house, then some of Tesler before they buried him. He figured the Shifters might demand proof before returning Noah. Buffy and Dawn were sure pictures from a cell phone weren't what they'd have in mind, but they didn't stop Nick.

Buffy and Dawn knew what the pictures were really for. The pictures would ensure to any mutts that did not like the idea of a woman as Alpha, that Buffy was indeed Alpha and that the same would happen to them if they tried to challenge her.

The Russian Pack might expect proof, too, and this would be what they wanted. Plus, having pictures showing an entire upstart pack wiped out by them in a few hours might be something to have on hand if there were any questions about the Pack's power after Buffy's ascension was announced. So, they let Nick take photos, and just warned him to upload them and get them wiped off his camera before they went through airport security.

Clay and Nick buried Tesler, while they were doing that, Savannah, Buffy and Dawn took his clothing and ID back to the cottage where Antonio was burning everything in the fireplace. They got about halfway there when Buffy and Dawn picked a familiar scent that wafted past. Dawn took the stuff inside as Savannah and Buffy turned to see a shape hidden in a thick patch of trees, silently watching her. Our wolf friends.

"Come by to make sure we kept up our end of the deal?" Buffy called as she and Savannah walked over. "We did. They're all dead except one, and he won't be coming back. Thanks for helping find the others. I appreciate that."

"You're welcome."

The voice startled Buffy. She'd figured he was still in wolf form. As the figure rose, she had to sniff again, making sure it was the same werewolf. "Not what you expected?" he said as he noticed Buffy giving him a once over.

"No," Buffy lied. "I'm just trying to place the accent. Newfoundland or Labrador?"

That made him smile, if briefly. "Both, now and again," he said. "They both have their charms."

"I'll bet. I've only been out there once, but—" Buffy said.

A low growl cut her short. Savannah and Buffy glanced over to see a gray wolf peering around a tree. It was the one they'd seen earlier with him. She growled again, lips fluttering over sharp white teeth.

"I'm okay," he said, drawing it out, more reassuring growl than words. "Go on now."

She backed up, but only to sit down, death stare fixed on Buffy.

"She thinks you're checking out a new mate," Savannah said with a laugh.

"New…?" He stared, then sputtered a laugh. "Exactly how native do you think I've gone? Or maybe you just answered my question."

"I think Savannah meant, if you prefer wolf form… Anyway, I think she considers you her mate," Buffy said.

"That she does, but I've not been encouraging her. She's a very nice girl, but it just wouldn't work out."

"That's a relief." Buffy extended a hand. "Buffy Summers."

"Oh, I know who you are. I ran across you once before. Back when you were still human."

"When?" Savannah asked.

"I think I know, honey," Buffy said. "It was during my original lifetime. I was thirteen, it would have been about three years ago from his perspective. Dawn, Faith, and I along with Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Hank came to Alaska on vacation. Before I had even been called as a Slayer." She looked at him. "Which means you're probably curious how I've seemingly aged in three years from thirteen to my mid-twenties."

"Nah," he said. "I know magic exists. I figured there had to be a complicated explanation."

"Anyways are there more of you out there? More werewolves?" Buffy asked.

He shook Buffy's hand. "Morgan Walsh."

"In other words, if you do have family there, you aren't telling me. If they've been living there awhile and the Pack doesn't know it, then they're flying far enough below the radar that we'll keep pretending we don't know. So, to change the subject, how long have you been…?" Buffy glanced at the gray wolf.

"Running with the wolves? Well, it was the strangest thing. One day I came out to Alaska on a trip, I went for a run and totally forgot I could Change back. Luckily this wolf pack took pity on the poor dumb Newbie and took him in."

"Uh-huh," Buffy said.

He smiled. "All right, then. What do you think I'm doing out here? No, wait, let me guess. Wounded and scarred by life, I've decided to turn my back on the world and retreat into the forest, embracing my purer, simpler half."

"You don't look particularly scarred to me," Buffy said.

"Oh, I have my share. I'd show you, but with the fact your daughter is a Slayer, I'd better not be taking off my clothes or she might take offense."

"Actually, I'm more worried about her taking offense." Buffy nodded to the wolf, who growled as their eyes met. "So, are you going to tell me why you're running with the wolves? Or was that another polite brush-off?"

He leaned back against a tree, hands going into his pockets, looking out at the forest before answering. "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to switch? Live as wolf, change to human only when you need to?"

"Sure," Buffy said.

"I finished college a few years ago. Got a job. Hated it. Quit. I'm young. No ties. Other guys, they'd backpack through Asia, bum around for a while until they got their shit together."

"Instead, you did this. How long have you been out here?" Buffy said.

"Since just after I saw you and your family in Anchorage. I figure I'll give it maybe another year."

"And how did you get the wolves to take you in?" Savannah wondered. "Let me guess, food?"

Morgan smiled, if only a small one. "It was. I'm a good hunter. It took some time, but if you leave enough offerings, they'll overcome their prejudices. There weren't many prejudices to be overcome before those knuckle-draggers set up camp. And I don't mean the beast-shifters. Yeah, that young one has been throwing his weight around this winter, but we just stay out of his way. Things got a lot worse when they showed up." He pointed at the clothing in Buffy's hands. "Before them, the only werewolves the wolves knew were the old guy and his grandson, and neither of them ever caused any problems. I didn't know the old guy myself, but he seemed a decent guy. And, before you ask, no, I didn't know they'd gone to kill him. I was off hunting at the time. When I came back, the rest of the pack had found him—you probably saw their tracks at the cabin."

"We did," Buffy said.

"They…" He rubbed his chin. "It upset them. Confused them. It was as if they'd known him, even if they never made contact. They mourned for him. Anyway, I wasn't around at the time or—well, as you can tell, I don't like getting involved. I've learned not to. But I'd have done something. And probably gotten myself killed. I'm a whiz at catching dinner, but I don't do so well with the predators." He glanced at Buffy. "I mentioned the scars?"

"You did, and I appreciate what you did do, bringing the others to us," Buffy said.

"Tracking and hunting, those are my specialties. That means, though, that I usually arrive after the damage is done, like with your friend. But there's a reason I Changed back, and it's not just to say hello. I found something the other day you'll want to take care of before you leave. The beast-shifters buried the two girls that big son-of-a-bitch killed. Only I kept finding traces of a third."

Buffy's head jerked up. "There was a third missing girl. You found her body?"

"No, I found her."

"What? She's alive?" Buffy looked at Savannah. "Travis must have been keeping her locked up. We need to—"

"Whoa, slow down," Morgan said. "He wasn't the one keeping her. The way I figure it, he left her for dead. Someone else found her. She's recovering. But … Well, I think you'd better just come along and have a look. It's … a bit of a situation."

Buffy handed Savannah the clothes. "Go get rid of these then you or Dawn teleport to me."

The first half of the walk was nearly silent before Savannah and Dawn had teleported in. He gave a small gasp and then fell silent again. After they'd walked for a while, with no sign of the others, he relaxed.

So, he finally started to talk again. Buffy told Dawn that Morgan knew them from their original lifetimes. She told her sister that Morgan had met them when they had come up to Alaska on vacation during the summer after Faith and Buffy's thirteenth birthday. Dawn nodded as she remembered the trip.

Wherever they were going, it was a long trudge through difficult landscape. But Morgan didn't have a problem traversing it, a fact he liked to point out every time he had to slow for Savannah, Buffy or Dawn.

"Do you hear that?" Buffy asked when she heard a low moan.

"Wind."

"No, we've heard wind, and that's not—" Dawn said.

"Trust me, up here, the wind does things you've never heard before. Sometimes I swear I hear voices. Entire conversations. I go to check it out, and there's no one there. I tell myself it's the wind, but…" He shrugged.

"There's something out here, isn't there?" Buffy asked.

He hopped a fallen log buried under the snow. "There are a lot of somethings out here. Those beast-shifters are just the beginning. Voices, lights…"

"Mom and I have seen the lights," Savannah said.

"They led us onto a frozen river last night—one that wasn't frozen nearly well enough," Buffy added.

"I don't doubt it. I've had them lead me nearly over a cliff, and I've had them light my way back to the wolf pack. Capricious little buggers. I find tracks I don't recognize, scents I can't place, catch glimpses of shadows. Alaska's the last frontier—for man, beast and spirit alike. Now we'd better pipe down. The cabin's just ahead."

"Are you going to tell us who's responsible?" Dawn asked.

A flashed grin. "No, I'll leave that up to your noses. See how long it takes you to figure it out."

As trustworthy as Morgan seemed, they couldn't help feeling those niggling pricks of paranoia. But now it took only one strong sniff to know he was playing them fair.

"Eli," Buffy said.

"Is that his name? The young beast-shifter?"

Buffy nodded. She glanced quickly at Morgan. "The girl. He didn't—"

"Rape her? No. Nothing like that, or I would have interfered. He found her and took care of her. She's not his prisoner, though she's probably not in any shape yet to think about leaving. But I suspect teenage infatuation—and teenage hormones—are at the root of this particular act of altruism."

"Damn." Buffy sighed as she glanced at Savannah and Dawn then back at Morgan. "You were right then. This is a situation. I guess the first thing to do is get a look at the girl." She and Dawn checked the wind. "No sign that Eli's still here."

"I've got your backs."

"Thanks," Savannah, Buffy and Dawn said as they moved forward, straining to see a building in the distance, and suddenly there it was right in front of them—a tiny wood log cabin, nestled among the trees.

Savannah, Buffy and Dawn pulled back and the sisters took a good sniff. Still no sign of Eli. The scent of wood smoke lingered in the air, but none came from the chimney. All the windows were dark. They crept forward, Morgan at their heels. As quietly as they moved, though, he was quieter.

They took no more than a half-dozen steps before they stopped, Morgan swore and strode forward.

"Wait!" Dawn called. "If you spook her—"

"Can't spook her when she's not here." He wrenched open the cabin door.

Savannah, Buffy and Dawn peered around him into the dark, dank depths of the cottage. The empty depths.

Morgan swore again. They joined him. "If she escaped and she's out here alone…" He was already crouched, checking out the trail. He brushed past them and hunkered down outside, moving about until he'd covered the area. "She's not alone," he said. "Eli relocated her. In the last hour, too. I tried not to get too close, but I wanted to get a look at her, make sure she hadn't been bitten."

"Had she?" Dawn asked.

"Nah. That guy used his fists, not his teeth, thankfully. But Eli must have found my trail, and knew I was coming around, checking up on her."

Snow crunched in the distance. Morgan wheeled, straightening and stiffening as he lifted his head to catch the breeze.

"Did our situation turn into a problem?" Clay called as he and Nick stepped from the thick trees with Antonio and Reese close behind.

"A small one, I hope," Buffy said.

As Savannah, Buffy and Dawn explained, Morgan followed the trail, then came back to say it led into the nearest creek… and disappeared.

"He waded through it. So, what I'd suggest…" Morgan began, then looked at the faces of the others, all turned toward Buffy. "Or maybe not…"

"We split into pairs," Buffy said. "If anyone other than me finds him, call for backup. I've talked to him, so I know how to handle it. If you bump into the other Shifters, tell them you're with me and Savannah and we've done as they asked. Now, for pairings…" She turned to Reese. "How's your tracking?"

He opened his mouth, chin lifting a fraction, clearly ready to say his tracking skills were top-notch. Then he glanced at Nick, and said, "Not bad."

"All right then, you come with me and Savannah," Buffy said. "Nick and Dawn goes with Antonio. Clay? You and Morgan?"

Clay nodded. Morgan slanted a wary look his way.

"Um, I'd really rather pair up with…" Morgan began, then glanced around at everyone else getting ready to go. "Or, I suppose it doesn't really matter what I want, does it?"

"Sorry," Buffy said. "This works best. You concentrate on tracking; he'll have your back."

And they split up.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"How are your fingers?" Buffy asked as she, Savannah and Reese walked along the creek-bank, trying to pick up Eli's trail.

"Still gone," he said. "Jeremy stitched me up good and gave me painkillers, so it's just a matter of getting used to not having them. I keep fumbling stuff. It'd be worse if I'd lost the whole fingers, though. And if I have to lose part of two, better those ones than the thumb and index. And better fingers than my hand. Better part of my hand than my life…" A wry smile. "I'm trying to look on the bright side."

"I'm sorry it happened," Buffy said. "If we'd known there were other mutts in Anchorage—"

"And if I had stopped long enough to hear you two out … Or if I'd tried to contact the Pack and explain instead of running … Or if I hadn't hooked up with those losers in the first place … I'm pretty sure the blame falls squarely at my feet on this one. You guys have been great to me." He looked over, meeting Buffy and Savannah's gaze. "Really."

Buffy bent to sniff a scent, but it was only a bear. "Nick tells me you still don't want to go back to Australia," she said.

Reese stiffened, and Buffy knew she wasn't getting anything more out of him on that count. Not for a while, she suspected. "No," he said. "I'm staying."

"Any thoughts on the future?" Savannah wondered.

"Antonio offered me a job." He bent to sniff something, then wrinkled his nose and shook his head. "It's student work—the kind of thing he hires college kids for during the summer. I'm thinking of taking it."

"Sounds good," Buffy said.

"It's temporary," he added. "Antonio said I can stay with them, take over some yard work, maybe move into the guest house. They've been great. Antonio's fair, and Nick's—" He smiled. "Nick's cool. It's not what I expected. The Pack."

"That's good," Buffy said. And it was. She had already started thinking Reese fit in well—obeyed orders, pulled his weight, was still young enough to assimilate. The kind of recruit the Pack could use.

When they found the trail, Savannah sent out a telepathic call to the others. Sure, Buffy had said they could handle this alone, but that only meant they wouldn't waste time hunting for them and then set out on the trail.

They hadn't gone far when a blast of icy air whipped past, laden with that thick musky scent.

"What the hell is that?" Reese asked, rubbing his nose.

Before Buffy or Savannah could answer, a massive form lumbered from the woods, stopping twenty feet away and turning to look at them.

"What the hell—?" Reese said.

The beast reared up, casting a shadow that reached to our boots. It dropped and charged. Reese grabbed Buffy and Savannah's sleeves and tried to yank them to safety. When they wouldn't budge, he gave them a shove off the trail and raced past them into the forest. They calmly walked back to the path.

The beast roared… and ran around Buffy.

Then he turned, pawing the path, breath streaming from his nostrils.

Buffy nodded to Savannah.

"Eli," Savannah projected to not only Eli, but Buffy and Reese as well. "Cut it out."

Reese wasn't surprised to hear Savannah's voice in his head. After all, when everyone got to Alaska Dawn had used the telepathy spell a time or two. He understood that Dawn and Savannah were witches on top of being werewolf or Slayer.

"That's—" Reese said from his spot in the woods. "That's Eli? The Shifter guy?"

"Shifter teen. He's about my age," Savannah said as she remembered when she and Noah had been captured.

"I don't care how young he is. He's fucking huge. And fucking pissed off."

"No, he's just putting on a show, trying to warn us off. Do you want us to leave, Eli?" Buffy said.

He snorted, still pawing the ground like a bull, head down, eyes blazing.

"Okay, we'll do that," Buffy said. "We'll go pick up Noah, and let your Alpha and your father handle this."

Eli growled. He lunged. When Buffy stood her ground, he stopped short, snow flying from his massive paws.

"Go Change back so we can talk about this," Buffy said and Eli headed into a thicket.

"Shit, that was fast," Reese said as Eli lumbered out of the thicket a moment later.

"That's one advantage they get," Buffy murmured.

"Nice, but I don't think I'd trade," Reese said as he took a better look at Eli.

Reese quickly hid his reaction to the young Shifter, but Eli couldn't disguise his own response to the young werewolf, shoulders and jaw lifting as he drew nearer, eyeing Reese with the barely disguised envy of an awkward sophomore in the presence of the high school quarterback. Buffy and Dawn felt sorry for Eli, then. He wasn't an ugly kid, but at that age, no one—supernatural or human—needed to be reminded of his shortcomings.

He turned his back on Reese and talked to Buffy. "She doesn't want to go back."

"Good. Then she can tell us that."

He hesitated, big jaw working. Then he pushed back his hair and scanned the forest, and they thought he was working on an excuse, but instead he said, "Fine. She won't like it, though."

He led them along the path. "She does want to stay. She asked me to move her."

"All right," Buffy said.

"You don't believe me."

Buffy glanced over at him. "Do you really expect me to take your word for it?"

He didn't answer, and they walked the rest of the way in silence. They reached cabin, another small backwoods, off-the-grid one probably used by anyone needing shelter.

When they arrived, Eli insisted Reese stay outside—apparently, he didn't want the cute, blond Aussie getting too close to his girl. That was fine, but Buffy and Savannah made Eli wait, too. If this girl was as set on staying as he said, then they needed to tell that themselves.

Buffy opened the door. Inside, it was dark, the light having flicked off the moment they drew within sight of the cottage.

"I won't go," said a voice from deep in the shadows. "You can turn around right now. I'm eighteen, so I can make my own decisions."

Of the three missing girls, two had been twenty, which gave them a good idea who they were talking to. The one who'd been living on the streets, trying to escape a life of abuse and neglect.

"You're just a year older than I am, Adine," Savannah said.

"If your sixteen, then I will be two years older next month. Better off saving yourselves the paperwork and pretending you never found me."

"We're not from social services," Buffy said. "We're just someone who wants to make sure you're okay."

Savannah turned on the nearest lantern. A wavering light filled the cabin. Adine sat on a cot in the corner, her face set, her expression saying if they were going to take her out of here, they'd damned well better have brought an army to do it.

"I know what happened to you," Buffy said.

"Yeah? Same shit, different day."

Buffy met her gaze and recognized that haunted, hunted animal look. "What happened to you is—" she began.

"Going to leave scars. Scars no one can see. Yeah, I've done the sessions. If you're expecting me to say I'm fine, you're wrong. But I'm sure as hell going to get back to fine. And Eli's going to help me."

"He—" Savannah said.

"He's just a kid, I know. And something… something's not quite right about him. I know that, too. But I don't care. He rescued me and he took care of me, and he doesn't want anything in return, just to be with me, talk to me." She met Buffy and Savannah's gaze. "You know what that's like?"

"I do," Savannah said. "A couple years ago. I was in your situation. A bunch of people captured me and my adoptive mom, they killed her. It was my birth mom…" she motioned toward Buffy, "…who got me out of that. Just as Eli got you away from Tesler."

As Buffy and Savannah looked in her face, they knew she wasn't kidding herself. Eli wasn't her knight in shining armor. She didn't expect happily ever after. But whatever it was, it's what she wanted. What she needed. Just as a couple years ago what Savannah had needed was Buffy.

"If she wants to join us, she may," rumbled a voice behind them.

Buffy and Savannah turned to see the Shifter Alpha in the doorway. Behind him, Eli's father had his son by the scruff of the neck. The Alpha stepped in and shut the door.

"This is not our way," he said. "But if the girl wants to come…" He looked at the sisters. "We should not argue." He turned to Adine. "We live far away. You will not be able to visit your people."

"Fine by me," she said, chin lifted, defiant.

"We have a village, but we are hunters. We do not come to the city."

"I can hunt and I can fish, and I'm a damned fine cook—though I like the hunting and fishing part better. I've had enough of the city. It wasn't…" A look passed over her face, disappointment and regret. "It wasn't what I thought it would be. I'm ready to go back inland." She straightened and met his gaze. "I'll do my share. You won't regret it."

The Alpha's expression said he was pretty sure he would, but he only nodded.

Buffy turned to him. "She might want to go now, but after a while…"

"She may change her mind," he murmured. "If she does, we will bring her back. You have our word."

Buffy and Savannah gave them their blessings. If this was the life she chose, if it made her happy, that was what mattered.