Chapter 26:

Wolf's Time

Let it be known. I hate Portkeys. I really, really do. Even the longest Portkey trip takes no more than a scant few seconds, but that time is no picnic. Travel by Portkey is like a roller coaster. That makes it sound like something you could get used to and perhaps come to enjoy, but it really isn't. You're thrown this way and that and, unlike a roller coaster, no matter how hard you try you cannot brace yourself. Worst of all, from the second you activate the Portkey you are frozen in place, unable to move as you shoot through space at speeds best left to fighter jets. No matter how many times I use one I can never quite escape the feeling that I'm going to slam, head first, into the ground.

Aunt Petunia apparently had much the same reaction as I did. Except that she had already been through the wringer today so instead of simply disorienting her it caused her to lurch away as soon as we landed to be violently sick on her prizewinning azaleas.

"Are you okay, Aunty?" I asked once she finished.

"Fine, just dizzy," Aunt Petunia said as she stood. "Thank you, Severus."

"It was no problem." Snape nodded. "But I need to be going. Take care of yourself, Petunia. Miss Potter." He gripped the rope and muttered something under his breath and he was gone.

The moment Snape disappeared a pair of extremely large wolves came out from behind the garden shed. One of them I recognized right away, Joel, his casual arrogance was obvious no matter what shape he was in.

The other wolf caught my eye for a moment before she fell to the ground, her neck stretched out and her belly exposed in a show of submission that even the most obtuse of individuals could recognize.

Elsa.

My Bitch.

I didn't even realize I was walking towards her until Joel placed himself between us. His head was lowered slightly, lips pulled back to expose his teeth, and his eyes locked on me. His body language said it all. Ready to attack, but doesn't want to, will if necessary to protect pack mate.

I felt my lips pull back in a smile that showed far too many teeth. If he thought he could keep me from one of mine he was sorely mistaken. I may not be Wolf now but I had my magic stick and sliver claws. I could win.

I would win.

"Enough." Alpha, dominant, command. I turned to look at the speaker already knowing who I would find. Rachel Jensen, pack alpha, not a fight I could win. Not yet. I narrowed my eyes at her. "Enough." She did not raise her voice but she put enough command into it that I rocked back.

I caught her eye just long enough to let her know that I was only stopping because I wanted to. Not because she was commanding it. Then I deliberately slid my gaze to the left. Not down, down signified submission and I was not submissive to her. Left just meant that I did not want to challenge for dominance just yet.

I came back to myself suddenly. I immediately figured out what had happened.

Wolf, what the hell?! I didn't actually expect a response but I got one. It wasn't in words but a close translation would be grumbling discontent. I sighed, I had a dragon that was bipolar and a primadonna wolf.

Why am I the only sane person in my head?

"Alex? What's wrong?" Aunt Petunia asked. I was about to respond with something reassuring when Rachel interrupted.

"I think Alex's encounter with the Hexenwolf talisman left something behind." Rachel nodded to me. "Isn't that right, Alex?"

"Something like that," I replied reluctantly. Honestly, did we have to do this in front of Aunt Petunia?

"Are you in control?" Rachel asked. At my nod she continued. "Then perhaps we can speak inside?"

888

The living room was silent, save for the quiet droning sound of the air conditioner. Rachel Jensen, Alpha of the White Cliffs Pack, usually kept her presence under control. Rarely was there a need to let everyone in the room know who was in charge in such an overwhelming manner. Certainly in her many visits to my home I had never felt it.

Today she clearly felt the need.

I suppose I could hardly blame her. She was a Dominant wolf, the most dominant wolf in her pack—else she would not be Alpha—and Dominant wolves protected. It was hardwired into their very DNA; protect the Pack. An Alpha would give their lives to protect their pack, but today, instead of protecting her pack, two of them died. And given the mystical tethers—the pack bonds—that bound a pack together, she was no doubt feeling their deaths in a visceral way. One that cannot be easily imagined.

To tell the truth I was probably lucky she didn't put me down when I threatened Joel.

"I am glad to see that all of you are in good health," Rachel said, her gaze going from Aunt Petunia to me. Uncle Vernon had taken Dudley to his room and was still up there with him in case he woke up disoriented. "But two of my wolves died today. I would like it if you could walk me through what happened." Behind her Ellie Jensen, Rachel's oldest child, nodded in unconscious agreement.

I glanced up at Aunt Petunia, whose lap I was sitting on, and she nodded encouragingly. "We were at the movies and someone started pumping gas into the theater. I was only up long enough to notice the ghouls kill the wolf in the front row."

"Gas? Nothing magical?" Rachel asked, a thoughtful frown on her face.

"I didn't feel anything magical," I said.

"That doesn't make any sense. We heal too fast for normal drugs to affect us," Rachel said. I didn't even realize I was shaking my head until she looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I cursed internally. I had not meant to do that. Revealing that I knew about an anti-werewolf drug was not something I wanted anyone to know. "Unless you know something I don't, Alex?"

How do I say this? "The gas didn't put them down. It just needed to slow them down enough for the ghouls to be able to, ah, take care of them." I fought the urge to face-palm. That sounded far too adult-ish for a normal eleven-year-old. Let alone one who was just kidnapped.

Rachel frowned, "How many ghouls?"

"There was only one with us when I woke up, and when we were flying away there was a group of them heading for the warehouse. Maybe ten?" I shook my head. "Sorry."

Ellie started to say something but Rachel glanced at her and she stayed quiet. "Was there anyone else there besides the ghouls?" Rachel asked.

I nodded. "Bellatrix Lestrange, or at least someone who looks like her."

Rachel's frown deepened, "Are you sure? I was under the impression she was dead."

"It may have been someone else but I don't think it was. When I described her to Professor Snape he seemed to think it was Bellatrix," I said. More to the point, he sounded like he really didn't want it to be her. As if he was accepting the possibility only hesitantly.

"Alright, for now we operate under the assumption that Bellatrix is behind this." Rachel paused to glance at her daughter. "Call your father, let him know."

"Yes Mother," Ellie said before heading outside to, presumably, call Mr. Jensen.

"Alex, I need you to be honest with me. Have you been feeling irritable? Maybe you feel like there are threats around every corner? As if you have to avenge any insult, no matter how small?" Rachel asked, her voice serious as her gaze bored into me. It had nothing on Ferrovax's merest glance, but it was potent no the less.

"Rachel, what's this about?" Aunt Petunia asked.

"I promise you Petunia, I will answer your questions, but first I need Alex to answer mine," Rachel said, not taking her eyes off me.

"Yes, but only for a few weeks after I got back to Hogwarts. After that, things got better," I said.

"These kinds of things don't just get better, Alex," Rachel said calmly. I hesitated. It wasn't that I didn't trust Rachel, but that didn't mean I wanted to tell her about learning Occlumency.

"Professor Dumbledore knows mind healers," I said. I'm a horrible liar so when I need to keep the truth from someone its best if I use the truth to do so.

Rachel nodded. "He does, but you didn't use one." Sadly even lying with the truth doesn't work on Werewolves. Something that I managed to forget. "I need you to be honest with me, Alex. This is important." Dammit.

"I-I have been studying Occlumency," I said.

"Occlumency?" Rachel asked.

"It's a way to defend your mind," I said. "I had already started studying it in October. So when I realized that the Hexenwolf necklace had left something behind I was able to find my mindscape and fight her. After that I didn't have any problems."

"Until now," Rachel said.

I nodded in reluctant agreement. "Until now."

"Her? In your head? Alex, what are you talking about?" Aunt Petunia asked concerned. I winced, this was why I didn't want to talk about this in front of her. I loved Aunt Petunia, but that didn't change the fact that when it came to magical problems she couldn't really help.

"Remember how I explained our condition, Petunia?" Rachel asked.

"Yes, but what does that have to do with Alex?" Aunt Petunia asked.

"When Alex was exposed to the Hexenwolf talisman it left something behind. So now, like us, Alex has a wolf in her head," Rachel said.

"Oh," Aunt Petunia said. There was a moment of quiet as she absorbed that before her head whipped around to stare at me. A frown on her face. "You have a wolf in your head?" I nodded. "You've had it since Christmas?" Hesitant nod. "And you didn't tell me?!"

Oh boy.

888

It took a lot of convincing on her part but Rachel was able to talk both Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon into letting me go with her. They had been reluctant, especially after what had just happened, but when Rachel explained what would happen if Wolf took over they agreed to let me go with her.

"It is rare for a former Hexenwolf to fully manifest a wolf spirit, but it has been known to happen. For Alex to manifest one after being exposed to one after only a few minutes either means that she is especially vulnerable or that the spirit the wizard used to make the talisman was very strong. Either way, chances are good that she will lose control, and if she does the wolf takes over. If it's a smart one, and this one seems smart, it will start slow. Pets will go missing, one or two at first, and before long that won't be enough. She will move on to more challenging targets."

I felt she may have been overstating the danger in my case. After all I hadn't had any problems with Wolf since I proved my dominance. And Wolf had helped me in my fight with Dragon, but…

"If it's a smart one, and this one seems smart, it will start slow."

How smart? Smart enough to realize she couldn't beat Dragon on her own? Smart enough to earn my trust? Smart enough to wait until I was hurt too badly to stop her from taking over?

I shivered.

It seemed best to at least try it Rachel's way.

Which is how I found myself in her office waiting for her to finish with whatever she was doing. It was a nice office, dark wood paneling and comfortable furniture, none of which looked expensive. Which meant that they probably cost twice as much.

I glanced at the grandfather clock, a very expensive antique, and frowned. I had been waiting for over thirty minutes. It seemed unlikely that whatever Rachel had to do would take this long. Unless she was having a pack meeting. Entirely possible as they had lost two members today, but that didn't feel right.

The second hand ticked by as I thought it over.

If she was deliberately making me wait, the question was why. What did making me wait achieve? It could be a dominance play, show me that as long as I made time for her she would fit me in if, and when, she chose. I gave her desk a considering look, if she was playing dominance games then so could I.

The desk was hers in a way the rest of the room wasn't. It was where Rachel spent most of her time. The desk was in great shape but obviously well used, and everything was arranged just so. Everything was arranged with a surgical precision. I didn't even have to make a mess, if I just moved things enough to put my feet up as I laid back in her chair it would send a message. Even when she came in and forced me to move—and she would have to make me move, it was a challenge just blatant enough for her to have to respond—it would be a victory in and of itself.

I started for the desk before stopping abruptly.

Dominance games? Challenging an Alpha in their home? Just to prove a point? That wasn't me. I knew how to lose. I knew when to lose. Even if it just meant going along with whatever the 'victor' wanted until I did what I wanted anyway.

Challenging authority was stupid, I learned that in my first childhood. Give in and, if you were smart, you could still probably get what you wanted. Maybe not right then, but later. Fight authority and it would smack you down and you wouldn't get what you wanted.

I knew that. Or I used to. So why was I…?

Wolf?

The urge to challenge Rachel left and I nearly tripped over my suddenly shaky legs. I took a moment to catch my balance before I made my way to the fireplace. I dropped to the floor and closed my eyes.

Breath. Focus. Sense.

888

I opened my eyes to the house of my first childhood. It utterly failed to calm my nerves. I sighed and made my way outside to find Wolf waiting for me just outside the gate separating her forest from my piece of suburbia. I just stared at her for a long moment, taking in her posture. Defiant. Challenging.

Did she look more real, more solid, than before or was I just imagining it?

"I thought we had an agreement?" I said. Wolf just kept staring at me. Challenge. "Do you want another fight? The last one didn't end to well for you." Wolf crouched and bared her teeth. Fight. "Fine."

I focused and the earth at my feet shot out like a spear at Wolf. I expected her to doge the first one, and was already preparing the next spear when the first one stopped scant inches from her face.

I froze before narrowing my eyes at her and focusing on the spear, trying to force it at her, but it wouldn't move.

I looked at Wolf and she caught my eyes before her form started blurring. Her body shifted, going from four legs to two, her paws stretched out into toes and fingers, her muzzle pulled in and formed a mouth. What was most disconcerting, though, was that her eyes never left mine. Daring me to look away.

After a few short moments Wolf stood facing me, looking like me at eighteen. A me who had had all the trappings of civilization stripped away. Her hair looked wild, not dirty, just untamed. Her muscles looked like steel cords without being bulky, as if she spent every day fighting.

She took a small step towards me and, before I could stop myself, I took a much larger one back.

Wolf grinned, showing off teeth that looked very sharp indeed. She reached up and gripped the collar that still rested on her throat, yanked it off, and threw it at me.

"Soon you wear my mark."