Chapter 4: Owl Post
Angela felt the strength pulse through her legs as she whipped through the trees at a full tilt sprint. She could feel the earth all the way from her bare feet to her gut. She scented the other younglings of her pack in the July heat as they joined her for their last sunset run as humans before the full moon. That night they'd be in the forest again but potion bound and in fur. Jacob Canagan, the youngest of them, at nine, crashed clumsily through the underbrush about a hundred feet behind her. This was the first run he'd ever been allowed on and he was a little overzealous about keeping up with the others despite his shorter legs. It was his turning moon so in truth it was his first and final skin run. Over the din of Jacob behind her she heard a twig snap off to her left and with a feral agility sprang into a large oak as Caleb Canagan, a 15-year-old boy with sandy hair in cargo shorts and nothing else leapt out of the bushes and landed in the spot that, seconds before, she had occupied.
He looked up at her, Angela had grown a great deal in the nine years she'd spent in the pack. She'd gone from a chubby baby to the lean wild haired nearly eleven year old that was perched on a tree limb. Her hair wafted around her tanned face in a wavy blue-black cloud studded with twigs and leaves. She stared down at him with large grey eyes like full moons over a constellation of freckles that stretched over her cheeks and across the bridge of her nose. She had the beginnings of great beauty but she still carried the oddly disproportionate look of a gangly limbed foal.
"You're not supposed to be here," she snarled down at him. Caleb chuckled. He'd tattled on her about an owl she'd been hiding and she clearly had yet to forgive him. She'd even gone so far as banning him from the youngling run on pain of mauling.
He raised both hands in a pacifying gesture. "Mom sent me. She said that an owl's here with letters for you, Felan, and Reylyn. Looks official."
She eyed him warily for a moment then sprang lightly from the tree branch. She was a solid two heads shorter than he, small for her age. She craned her neck and let out a howl. Around them lean waifs emerged from the underbrush. The children ranged in age from Jacob, the youngest at nine to two or three tall lean boys who were about Caleb's age. She looked around at them, there were nearly twenty in all, searching out the faces of her fellow eleven year olds, Felan and Reylyn.
"Felan, Reylyn. We're wanted back at the house," she turned to one of the older boys, "Maccon, you're in charge." The tall dark hair boy stepped out and nodded. The others followed him as he disappeared into the woods.
The three boys and Angela fell into step as they began the four mile trudge back to camp.
Tasha Canagan gave her cauldron one final stir, it hung over a fire pit just outside of the tragic little two room shack that she, her husband, and four children called home. It had been three years since a band of aurors, in search of the Lestranges, had run the pack off Frostmoore farm and burned it to the ground. This little shanty town in the woods had been an emergency plan b. As she scooped the finished wolfsbane potion into a slew of conjured mugs, she looked out at the little village of tents and lean-tos that now housed her pack.
She carried a little flame of resentment for Rodolphus and Rabastan. She'd known that horror was in store when they'd appeared on the porch of her farmhouse breathless and covered in blood saying that the Dark Lord had fallen and Fenrir was dead. They begged for shelter and even after their patience with her children she and Rafe intended to leaving them in the cold but when little Angie ran to them with joy all over her face at her cousins' return she knew there was no avoiding it. They had to stay. They were the only blood family Angie had left. Greyback may have changed her last name but with him dead and the packs in turmoil, as far as Tasha was concerned that girl was a Black.
She finished ladling out the potion. She'd distribute the final dose at their pack meeting and midday meal. It was the turning ceremony for her youngest, Jacob, along with several other pack members children. Wolfsbane in hand, she was forcibly reminded of what made the pack families possible. When she was turned at eight, the St. Mungo's healers told her she would never be able to have children, that the change was too violent for her to carry a baby and when she married Rafe, they'd agreed that it was too dangerous to try. Up until wolfsbane was invented, the pack grew through kidnap and attacks. The only children in the pack had been stolen and so were filled with fear and hate.
Before wolfsbane there were no families in the packs, there were werewolf couples and occasionally the rare witch who'd marry a were but no children. Wolfsbane smoothed the shift and allowed the wolves to keep their minds under the full moon. It made everyone's lives easier. It even had a shocking side effect. She still remembered the day she'd told Rafe she was pregnant. She hadn't told him until she was four months in, until she managed to keep it for four shifts aided by wolfsbane. She didn't want to get him excited over nothing. She'd managed to keep a pregnancy for two months without the aid of wolfsbane only a year into their marriage and then she'd been foolish enough to to tell Rafe the second she knew. His eyes had gone wide. He'd been filled with hope and joy at the thought of being a father. Then she'd miscarried after the next full moon. They'd been devastated. This time she'd made sure and when their son Caleb was born it was gift to every were woman alive. It proved that their condition wouldn't stop them from having a family.
She looked over the shanty town. The pack was nothing but families now. Were couples had gotten married and settled down. Many had turned their children, when the time came. For the first time all the young wolves were related to the older wolves, not kidnapped from surrounding villages.
With a wave of her wand, a mug of Wolfsbane flew to each seat at the great table where the pack meeting would be held. She finally turned to the three fat envelopes resting conspicuously on a porch table. They were from Hogwarts. Her first instinct was to rip them apart. When she'd first seen the look in Caleb's eye, inexpressible hurt, she wanted to destroy any trace of those letters. The year Caleb turned eleven he spent every day of the summer pacing. He kept asking everyone in the pack if they'd seen any owls because he was expecting a letter. He'd presented signs of magic very early, when he was only eighteen months old. Tasha had seen the hope in Rafe's eyes when Caleb first picked up a stray kitten that wandered onto the farmhouse porch and turned it from ginger to periwinkle. Rafe had put on a brave face the summer Caleb should have received his Hogwarts letter but Tasha could see the hurt and disappointment in his eyes when he told Caleb that any son of his was too good for that school. Neither Fen nor Rafe had gone to Hogwarts. All their magic was won the hard way, through fights and relentless unaided study, not spoon fed to them by a teacher. Rafe had told Caleb that school was for those too stupid to learn things on their own.
At the time Rodolphus and Rabastan had been teaching Angie magic with a hand-me-down wand from some fallen comrade. They'd told her it was the best wand in the world and had belonged to a great and powerful man. Tasha was certain they'd just robbed a body. Rafe had put money aside for Caleb's school supplies and even when Hogwarts refused the boy, Rafe had doggedly bought his supplies anyway. He then informed the two interlopers that if they intended to stay with the pack they'd have to teach the pack children as well as their little cousin. In the years before their death they managed to bequeath a horrifying variety of dark and defensive spells. They taught them "with intent" by which they meant non-verbal. Almost all they wanted to teach were the kinds of spells duelists kept up their sleeves. No charms, no transfiguration, no potions. Watching the lessons, she couldn't help but think that Rodolphus and Rabastan were breeding warriors, silent and deadly.
Holding the Hogwarts letters, she could feel the time stretching between this moment and those lessons. Four years of hard living and hiding separated this August from those lessons. Four years, a fire, and Rodolphus and Rabastan's deaths. In that time Caleb had taken to teaching himself out of books he stole whenever the pack raided a wizarding village. He and Angie had taken to dueling to keep their skills up to the Lestranges' high standard of excellence.
As though called called by her thoughts, Caleb stalked out of the woods with Angie, his brother Felan, Reylyn Connor and the most palpably foul attitude that had ever wafted off an angsty teen. With a glower for the ages, he walked the three younger children to the porch before slouching over to one of vacant chairs by the empty cauldron. Angela cocked an eyebrow at this odd behavior but only received a harumph from the book Caleb had hidden behind. Angela turned to Tasha with the same cocked eyebrow. "Caleb said we had some official looking envelopes?"
Felan and Reylyn turned as one watching Tasha with hope on their faces. She smiled and produced three fat envelopes, Hogwarts crest clearly visible on each. Angie reached for her envelope with dumbfounded shock while the two boys on either side of her let out high pitched squeals and danced around the cauldron like the witches from Macbeth, Hogwarts letters clenched in their fists.
Tasha felt calm fall over the camp like a mist. She knew without having to look that Rafe was coming. She could feel his presence to her bones. He'd described it as a power of pack magic. When he united the packs under central leadership, he'd used an ancient blood magic ritual to make himself alpha. It gave him power over all the wolves in any allied packs. Tasha knew that he never used the power of alpha to the extent he could but she always wondered how much he could really do if he wanted.
Rafe strode up and planted a kiss on his wife's cheek. She smiled under his lips and said, "Rafe, Angie, Reylyn, and your son have something to show you." He gently wrapped Tasha in a hug and turned to see both boys still dancing around the cauldron. "What have you got for me boys?" he laughed. Both of them raced forward brandishing their Hogwarts letters. Rafe's face lit up like Las Vegas at night and soon he was dancing around with the boys. Tasha laughed, "Rafe, Angie got one too." The little girl squealed as Rafe whipped around, picking her up, and whisking her into the dance as well. His face fell slightly when he saw the book list but he perked up again saying, "We can get most of this second hand and we'll only need two wands instead of three 'cause Angie's already got one." Angie beamed. Tasha gently squeezed Rafe's arm and said, "We'll manage it." The children let out another jubilant whoop, and Tasha called Angie before she could lead the charge in news spreading. If the boys had anything to do with it, there wouldn't be a wolf in the tri-county area that didn't know about those letters.
Tasha gave Rafe a look and he went into their shack and started rummaging through their trunk. Tasha turned to Angela, "Now dear, your Uncles left you something that you were to get when your letter came." Rafe came out holding a small silver locket engraved with an ornate B. "They said it belonged to the most powerful witch they knew and that they thought only you could wear it with the pride she did." Angela took it from Rafe as though she was worried it would evaporate if not treated with respect. She quietly fastened it around her neck so that it rested a good five inches below her collar bone. Rafe gestured out to the camp, "Now, sweetheart, gather the pack for our afternoon meeting. I want to go over the Turning procedure again." And off she ran, preparing to overtake the boys despite Caleb's moody gaze.
The pack stood shoulder to shoulder, forming a circle that ringed the clearing. Tasha stoked the bonfire that illuminated the gathered Wolves. Rafe glanced at his watch, it was ten minutes till moonrise. Marcus Connor, Rafe's beta, led the turning group into the center of the circle. It was a big turning year with five pack children being turned. Rafe smiled at his youngest, Jacob, who'd sidled up next to the oldest of the turning group, Reylyn, Marcus's son. Next to them was a group of ten year olds, two girls and a boy.
Rafe spread his hands and all the whispered conversations died away. "We are gathered tonight to reaffirm the bonds of pack and to welcome five new members into our midst. We as Central Pack of the Julii, masters of all the United Packs of the Isles, unite in blood and kinship. Through bonds of blood we unite and are strong." A chorus of the wolves forming the outer circle chanted back, "Through the blood and through the pack we are strong" and linked hands forming closing the circle and leaving only Rafe and the children in the middle by the bonfire. Rafe pulled out a small ceremonial knife. "Jacob Canagan, step forth and face your alpha." The boy stepped forward and faced his father. Rafe and Jacob clasped right hands around the knife blade.
"Do you, Jacob Canagan, willingly and with no form of coercion wish to join with the Pack of the Julii?" Jacob answered, "I do." Rafe continued, "Do you, Jacob Canagan, swear to follow your alpha and submit to his or her wishes?" Again Jacob answered affirmatively. "Furthermore do you accept me, Rafe Canagan, as your alpha? And do you bind yourself to the pack of the Julii and to its alpha so that, through blood, we are all stronger?" Jacob answered once more with an "I do." In one swift motion Rafe pulled the knife from their clasped hands leaving a long slash in each palm, allowing the blood to mix. As the blood dripped from their clenched hands Rafe threw his head back and sang.
Binda innan blóð, Binda við saman
Skuldalið byggva valdyr skinn
Ásamt blóð kveykva frjáls framan
Enda bani sœri brjóta einn
The blood glowed and Rafe released Jacob's hand and said, "In blood we're bound, united as pack. Welcome Jacob Canagan of the Julii." The gathered wolves roared their approval. Rafe repeated the process calling forth first Reylyn then the other three in alphabetical order. By the time he finished with Ulcan Svennson, he could feel the electric prickle of the shift start through his skin. He pulled off his clothes and as the other wolves followed his example he told the children to hold out their left arms. He tells them not to fear because all the gathered wolves are on wolfsbane and even if the potion doesn't take, he, as alpha can protect them. Out of the corner of his eye he sees the flash of white fur that means that Angie has taken her Arctic Wolf form in preparation for moonrise.
The whole pack doubled over in pain as full moon crested the trees. The air was rent with the sounds of grinding bones and ripping muscle as the circle took their Wolf forms. Rafe feels the change rip his body, rearranging bones and muscles.
He stood before the children in his greyblack fur. He gently sank his teeth into the exposed left arms of each waiting child. The bite had to be deep, to ensure the curse took, but he wanted to be careful and not cause undue pain. Each child hissed in pain but didn't cry out, he was silently proud of their strength. Once he reached the end of the line, he rocked back on his haunches and howled. The answering howls of the pack filled the woods with an odd haunting symphony.
They took to the woods at an all out sprint, running through the woods as a pack. Off to his left he could see Angela's white streak with a taupe Caleb and Russet Felan hot on her tail. Had he been human, he'd have laughed. If she wasn't headed to Hogwarts, he'd have to watch his tail or he'd be kneeling to a new alpha.
A/N: Sorry if the grammar or flow isn't up to par. I wanted to get this chapter out before I went on vacation and that means the editing process for this got cut a little short.
The binding spell Rafe sang during the turning is one of my own creation. It's written in old Norse and translates roughly to "Bound in blood, bound together/Family wearing wolves skin/ Together blood lights freedoms leading forward/ Oath breakers end alone in death". I have no idea if the verbs are right I did it with a dictionary so, sorry if my old norse is a little rusty.