As Erik and Robin walked through the turnstile and entered the amusement park, memories long buried suddenly unearthed themselves and hit him with an almost physical force. Human beings often experience a flash of memory when confronted with a long forgotten scent from their childhood. Werewolves however, like most canine creatures, have a vastly larger capacity to retain and categorize scents…as well as the proportionately stronger ability to call up memories associated with them. As the scents of sawdust and popcorn and caramel and cotton candy and roasting meat assaulted his nose, he was suddenly transported backwards in time ten years, when a frantic Robin searched the park for his mother, unaware that she was doing the same for him. (Robin's father had dropped them off to get the car's oil changed while they were there.) Bad luck dogged mother and son several times as they just missed each other in the crowds. Instead of finding his mother, Robin was found by Carl Stucky.
"Are you lost, little boy?" he asked.
"I don't talk to strangers." Robin told him, as he had been schooled.
Carl flashed him a fake badge. "I just met someone who said they lost a little boy who sounds just like you. Do you want me to take you to…her?" Carl took a chance and guessed a pronoun, since there were far more mothers present in the park than fathers.
"You know where my Mom is?" asked Robin, eyes wide.
Carl smiled broadly. The kid was dressed in expensive clothing, and would probably fetch a pretty hefty ransom. Running a diner in a deadbeat town was not helping him pay off his gambling debts. Soon the guys whose job it was to casually break your legs and thumbs (or if you were really late with your payments, your neck), would be coming to see him.
"She's at the office, about five minutes from here. I'll take you to her."
Carl took Robin's hand and the child did not protest (though on some level he must have disbelieved, since he kept glancing around him hoping to spot his mother).
They arrived at Stucky's car, a non-descript gray van outfitted with phony license plates. Inside the back, a metal mesh effectively turned it into a cage. Stucky took a chloroform soaked handkerchief and suddenly covered the frightened boy's face with it. When he was out, Stucky put him into the back of the hot van and hid him under a tarp in the back in case he got pulled over by a nosy cop. The rear doors were padlocked from the outside. There were no windows. The van pulled out just as Mr. Stark drove up, in time to meet his frantic wife, her tear-streaked face red and swollen. Neither gave the van a second glance as it carried their son away.
Robin had a great deal of difficulty adjusting to his new life with Stucky, but he learned…eventually. Stucky was a compelling teacher. Once he abandoned ransom as a viable plan (too many of his buddies were getting caught), he just decided to keep the kid as free labor and a way to work off his ever-present aggression. The kid represented everything Stucky hated; a snot-nosed rich kid born through sheer accident into a life of privilege while he had grown up in Hell's Kitchen to a life of poverty and violence. It wasn't fair; so this was his way of balancing those scales.
Now, Robin had once again entered a new life, a life that he had never dreamed was possible. He was safe; surrounded without by a large family of people who cared for him, and an inner companion whose wrath was terrible… a wolf who suddenly roused itself to full alertness as old and frightening memories came to life with each inhaled breath. His eyes flashed bright blue, and his skin rippled like waves on a beach as new muscles swelled beneath the surface.
Erik sensed his mate's shift at once; they were holding hands when Robin's grip suddenly became crushing.
"Robin?" he said, alarmed. The Alpha wolf within him also communicated with Robin's inner companion, reacting out of pure instinct.
(Stand down NOW!) it sent.
(Danger! Enemies!) The Beta wolf responded. Robin's claws speared into Erik's palm, bringing thin blood and sending a rapid stream of images that showed his kidnapping, and the long years of torturous captivity. The Alpha reeled at the onslaught.
(That was long ago. Stand down.) The Alpha's mental voice was tinged with sadness now at the pain his mate had suffered. Something had to be done to protect him.
Neither boy was fully aware of this conversation between their inner wolves, but Robin shifted back to human. Erik let go of his mate's hand and licked his palm free of blood, the wounds already closed. It seemed that none of the crowd had noticed; only five seconds had passed from start to finish.
"I'm sorry-" Robin said, with a breaking voice and shining eyes.
"Hey, shhh…it's all right." Erik hugged him tightly, unmindful of passersby. "I didn't know. I would never have brought you here. I just thought we could have fun."
"Please. I need to get out of here."
"We are so gone. There's something I want to show you anyway." The idea just occurred to him, out of nowhere.
An hour later, they were roaming the woods each clad in similar pairs of black running shorts. At long last, they came to a stump of an incredibly huge and ancient Mountain Ash, the largest example of the tree in the entire world. It resembled a great table, and seemed to have faded lettering carved in the bark. The timeworn runes were in a language unknown to the boys…but the wolves inside them recognized the written warning at once. "Know this, O Traveler…as with Yggdrasil, the World Ash Tree…beyond Me, other Laws apply." A triskelion symbol was burned into the bark at the end of the message.
"What did you want to show me?" Robin asked, grinning. His mood improved greatly since they left the park.
"I wanted to introduce you to your Pack brothers. Want to meet them?" Erik couldn't wait to see Robin's eyes light up with wonder. He couldn't imagine why he hadn't thought of this before.
"Pack brothers? You mean Ted and Danny and all the rest?" Robin quirked his eyebrows.
"No, that's my Dad's Pack. I have my own, and you're in it, but so are a whole mess of wolves. They won't hurt you, but if you don't want to see them…" The thought that Robin might be afraid had only just occurred to him.
"Are you kidding? I'd love to! Call them right now!" Robin had never sounded so excited. He instinctually shifted, and Erik was silenced for a moment by the strength and power evident in the Beta form that seemed to wash away all of the hurt and vulnerability stamped permanently in his human features. Gods, he looked beautiful with fangs…
Erik shifted fully himself, clothing tearing from his body as the sight of his mate excited both him and the other within him. He tackled Robin to the forest floor, playfully pinning him to the ground as they nipped and scratched at each other. They did what came naturally to them and joined as beasts, but with human hearts and feeling. Erik howled from the bottom of his soul at the end, and though it was not a summoning call, they were nonetheless joined by all of their Pack mates…much more than ever before. Erik's Pack was growing by the day; and must now number close to a thousand. The forest was alive with wolves that seemingly came from nowhere, of every color and description. They gave joyful howls at the sight of their Alpha and his chosen mate, and following some buried primal signal the wolves matched themselves up with their own chosen mates and paid homage to their leaders, allowing both boys to claim dominance over them all. The wolves scented the boys, and were scented in turn so that they might always recognize each other and if need be go to each other's aid.
One and all, the wolves sat in mated pairs around the two boys, looking at them expectantly. Then they turned and walked off, looking back now and then to see if they would follow. The route they took through the trees was roundabout, as if they were not so much traveling to a location, but tracing the outline of some giant spiral sigil. They returned to their starting point at the old stump, but then continued on in a new direction, tracing a second spiral. The wolves led them down a third winding trail and back before they finally stopped in a part of the forest Erik could not remember ever being in before; the smells were different and all wrong. Instead of the stump, a small lake now lay in the center of the design. Without knowing how they got there (swimming or just walking on the surface of the water were likely guesses) they were in the middle of the small body of water where lay a tiny island no more than thirty feet across. A sense of age and timelessness permeated the place. The sun, previously bright, seemed distant and old-looking, as if it shone on a dying world. The ground was black and hard, and nothing grew here. When they stopped at last, they could see that the wolves stayed on the shore, encircling the entire lake. In a trance, Erik slowly brought his right wrist up to Robin's mouth. The Beta, in a similar trance, took the offered wrist in his jaws and bit deep. The blood dripped down to the black earth, splashing the surface of an enormous flat stone that lay buried and forgotten beneath layers of dirt.
Had someone taken the time to clear the debris from the ancient dais, they would have found it engraved with numerous pictograms predating any written language that seemed to depict wolves and men and things in between. The largest of these illustrated a gigantic wolf bound with a magic thread and buried beneath a large stone. The pictograms told the story of the imprisonment of Fenrir through the deception of the gods. A sword stuck into its mouth caused its blood to taint the water, and any men who drank from the water soon became as wolves. Those who earned the full blessing of the Wolf, either through Trial by Combat, the Need of Many, the Ritual of Mating or the Rite of Sacrifice (these pictograms showed a man offering the heart of a newly slain beast to a wolf) would be granted a more powerful form and the ability to bestow Fenrir's Gift on human men. The most worn of the pictures showed a man with the triskelion emblazoned on his body. Two children knelt at his feet, one bearing the symbol for the sun and the other the moon. Over their heads, a lunar eclipse marked the day the imprisonment of Fenrir would end…
The island began to shake beneath their feet as the blood seemed to soak into the stone. The distinct feeling that they were standing on top of some buried monster awakening from an eternal sleep flashed through their minds too quickly to recognize. The stone glowed dimly crimson, before the light suddenly gathered, pooling upward into Robin's body…even as his eyes changed from a sapphire blue to a bloody crimson.
An unknown amount of time later, they were back on the lakeshore and shortly after that in a familiar spot not far from the Hale home. Neither boy remembered the journey or the events that took place, but each recalled the wolves leaving them one by one, only awakening from the trance when the last one had vanished.
"Erik? What just happened?" Robin asked.
"I'm not sure. I think…I think the Pack just gave us their blessing." Erik knew there were better words to describe the feeling, but the memories were becoming hazy and indistinct, as if they had happened in a dream…which, in a way… they did.
"Hey, where are your shorts? And where are mine?" Robin asked, more bemused than embarrassed.
Erik burst out laughing. "I have no freaking idea! I think we must have…"
"Yeah, we did. Guess we forgot to put them on again afterward."
"Let's get into the house…we can get in through my bedroom window. Hurry, before my Dad catches…"
Robin sniffed. "Too late."
Derek ran up, having scented them from the house.
"Hey, what's up…oh, what the hell! Where are your clothes? Get in the house and get decent, right now! Aaarrgghhh! Minors having sex! Gross! I'm blind! I need therapy! There should be laws against that!"
Derek covered his eyes as the two ran for it, laughing despite themselves.
"I am in soooo much trouble!" Erik breathed once they emerged from his bedroom in the clothes they wore to the park.
"Yes, you are!" Derek agreed. "Robin, I am going to inform Ted and Danny about this! Erik, I am going to be enforcing a strict curfew, and some rules about sleepovers! No overnight guests until you are eighteen! No, I meant thirty!"
Stiles walked in from his office, attracted by all the shouting.
"Yeah, Derek. Because that worked so well for Scott and Allison…and Jackson and Lydia…and Ted and Danny…and you and me!" he said, amused and sad sounding at the same time.
"That was different!" Derek snarled.
"How so?" asked Erik, rather bravely Robin thought.
"I was an Alpha!" roared the Alpha.
Stiles looked at Derek and face-palmed himself.
"Um, I'm an Alpha." Erik stated with calm logic. He wished his father would stop raging for a moment…there was something Erik wanted to ask him about. Something that happened to them in the woods…but what was it? It seemed to be gone.
"I almost lost him!" Derek shouted, pointing at Stiles.
Erik gave him an evil Glare. "Next reason?"
"B-but…th-it's not…that's…just NO!" Derek stormed off.
"He should calm down by the time you kids get to college. Go make yourselves scarce." Stiles sighed.
Laurie and Moose walked in at that moment after parking outside.
"Hi, Pop!" Laurie chirped. She seemed way happier than usual.
"Hi, honey. Moose, Derek's in a mood and the last thing in the world he wants to see right now is a happy under-age couple. If the four of you know what's good for you, you'll disappear for a few hours. No later than eight o'clock though, at which point 'visitor's hours' will be over. Tonight's a school night." Stiles went off to find and calm his mate.
The four teenagers looked at each other, and shrugged.
"Anyone up for 'Make-Out Point'?" Laurie asked.
Three hands shot up immediately.
They took separate cars.
{}{}{}{}
About 20 miles west of Port Angeles in Washington State, there lay a mountain named Storm King, a part of the Olympic Mountain Range. Unknown even to the Park Rangers who maintained the trail system leading to the 4,537 foot summit, a concealed entranceway led deep into the Mountain. The complex rivaled NASA in terms of its military presence, technological capabilities and singularity of purpose. They owed no allegiance to any government save themselves, and in fact no ruling body even knew of their existence. It was the central headquarters of werewolf Hunters worldwide, funded privately through big business and billionaire philanthropists with some occult learning. The scale of their operations was vast, their information network second to none. Many who worked for them knew very little about them, and just did their jobs (odd as they may have seemed) without questioning their purpose; reporting animal attacks logged by the police department, sending word of miraculous recovery from injury or disease noted by hospitals and the monitoring of the wolf populations of the world. Those who were allowed into the Hunter's inner circle were not allowed to leave it breathing, lest those secrets fall into the hands of the enemy. The objective of this secret society was twofold; the first (and commonly known) purpose: keep the werewolf population in check by destroying any who were responsible for the death or unwilling 'turning' of human beings. The second objective was all but forgotten to everyone there, and survived only in the very oldest notes and records that now lay unread in their dusty vaults for hundreds of years: prevent the coming of Ragnarok.
In the Great Hall of the complex, the heads of the Hunter families the world over were seated around a great black round table. The coat of arms of each family adorned flags that hung over the seats where the patriarch and matriarch were positioned. The Argent crest was located to the right of the only seat larger than the others. The flag over this chair bore the symbol of a wolf bound by a rope with a sword stuck into its jaws.
Chris and Vivian Argent were the last to arrive in the hall, and they immediately sensed that the real meeting had actually begun long before they arrived. Chris looked grim; this was a very bad sign. Vivian noticed the expressions on the faces of the other clan leaders, and knew at once that the lofty position the Argents once held with this council was in serious jeopardy. Her face remained calm, however. Her cold eyes gave away absolutely nothing. She felt no fear…at least, not for herself.
When they were seated, Creighton Gallows stared at them from his single grey eye…the other had been covered by a patch for as long as any of them remembered. The story was that the werewolf that had done it to him had taken nine days to die.
"So good of you to join us." His cultured voice belied his grizzled exterior. He could easily have hosted Masterpiece Theatre in his spare time. The scar that zigzagged above and below the eye patch writhed hideously as he spoke.
"I hope we didn't miss anything important." Chris responded drily.
"That depends on your point of view. How important is it to you that the last miserable batch of those freaks be wiped off the face of the earth?" Gallows' one eye was fixed steadily on Chris, wanting to absorb every bit of information a facial twitch or eye blink might convey.
"Even though those 'freaks' as you call them have followed the terms of the treaty to the letter?" This from Vivian, in the tone of one discussing the weather. It would be hard to tell which of the Argents were the better poker player.
Gallows chuckled softly.
"Come on, you two. You never really thought they would follow the code…and you never believed even for a minute that we would spare them if they did…which I am not so sure about in any case."
Gallows held a small electronic remote, and clicked the largest button on it. A picture of an upside down car in the middle of a large parking lot appeared on a view screen that descended from a hidden enclosure in the ceiling. One side of the car was caved in as if hit by a wrecking ball. A body on a stretcher was being loaded into an ambulance while a young girl looked on. Chris' stomach turned as he recognized Laurie Hale.
"Interesting coincidence, don't you think? Hale's daughter at the scene of an unexplainable death? Also, the dead boy was a known antagonist of Hale's son…one of three teenagers that made a habit of tormenting him. The father of one of the other boys is dead too, shot by the ex-Sheriff Steven Stilinski right on Hale's front porch."
"I know of it. Henry 'Hank' Porlock came to their home with a loaded shotgun, and fired at Stilinski's son. More than enough reason to take him out. I certainly would have done it." Chris said pleasantly. Vivian gave her husband a light tap with her shoe under the table.
"Do you know why he did it? Porlock's boy and two others were given concussions during an encounter with Erik Hale. Strange that one should be able to take on three so…impressively." The cold grey eye never seemed to blink.
"No one ever said they weren't allowed to defend themselves. Erik Hale left the boys alive, and his father was not the one that killed Porlock."
"Anson Cooper is dead, that goes way beyond defending oneself. And as for Steven Stilinski's son, he was released from the hospital practically good as new after receiving a near fatal gunshot wound. Any idea how that happened?"
"Logic would dictate that he was turned. He is the Alpha's mate after all. No reason to think he was unwilling." Chris' voice was harder now. Gallows knew the terms of the treaty as well as anyone here, but was forcing him to defend the Hales before the Council.
"So there they are, breeding and turning right under your nose…and you saw no need to send word to this Council?"
The Argents were silent. To argue any more would alienate them from the entire Council. They looked around at the other families; many were new and much younger; replacing their own parents who had finally given up on the Hunter life. One and all they looked murderous and angry. Even some of the older ones who had Hunted along with Chris for years were looking at him in disbelief, as if he were sporting fangs and claws and holding a bloody child in his jaws.
Gallows clicked his remote. A new picture appeared on the view screen. This one showed the burned out wreck of what looked to be some kind of restaurant.
"Stucky's Eats. A quaint little hole in the wall in Red Falls. The owner, one Carl Stucky, was the only fatality. Not much of a loss, considering his police record. But the coroner told one of our men something interesting…one of the internal organs was absent from the corpse. Care to guess which one? No? Stucky had a helper, a young boy whose identity was a mystery until very recently. It appears Stucky liked to kidnap his hired help. Terrible life for the lad…but don't worry, he seems to have found friends."
Another click. A picture of Erik Hale embracing the boy at what looked like an amusement park.
Chris swallowed noisily. This was bad. Very bad. Even Vivian was pale.
Gallows continued. "The question that I can't stop asking myself is…are the two of you deliberately blind, or just utterly stupid? I guess the former, since your daughter now 'runs with the Pack', and will soon be joined by your granddaughter."
Chris stood up swiftly. In seconds, he had two dozen laser sights trained on him. He noted them, then grinned at Gallows.
"It appears you have your answer. If you want to slaughter the wolves, I can't stop you. But you do this in violation of the Code and everything this Council stood for."
"Once they are all dead, there will be no need for a Code any longer. Chris, Vivian, your family has done excellent work for this Council over the years. It is only out of that respect that you remain alive at this moment. Go. Go back to the wolves. Warn them of what's coming if you must. Tell them to cherish what time they have left."
Vivian shook her head. The venom in her voice surprised them all, and her eyes blazed with a hatred she had never had for the wolves in all her years put together. "You imbecile. This will be a war. Both sides will suffer losses, along with innocent people. We will ALL be exposed! Why now, after all these years, do you have to send everything that we've worked to create and maintain straight to hell? WHY?"
The laser sights were now trained on Vivian. She didn't bother even glancing at them.
Gallows sighed in mock sadness.
"To think that the greatest of all the families could have sunk so low. Do the two of you think you know everything about the wolves? Do you know how they came to be, or why they're here? Do you know what could possibly happen in the not-so-distant-future? To humans? To the world? No? I do. That is why I am sending everything straight to hell. Hell is where we will all be if I don't act. I would tell you more…but that information is strictly for members of this Council. Good day."
Uniformed guards approached and gestured with small handheld automatic weapons that held more punch than a magnum (all designed by Argent Armaments) that they should leave the chamber at once. Chris saw the flag with the Argent coat of arms being lowered, no doubt for removal and destruction. When they were outside once more, they both breathed in the fresh clean air.
"I…feel very worried." Vivian said quietly. It was an enormous admission for her. "How about you?"
"Oddly…I feel free."
They took hands and slowly made their way back to the car. Despite the chaotic life the two of them led, they were just as surely true mates as any of the wolves in Hale's Pack. They understood each other perfectly, and often anticipated each other's needs as if they shared a single mind. Those minds worked now in overdrive, plans within plans within plans blooming and dying within seconds. The Argents were a Council family, and always had been, but the first years of having to divide their loyalty between their daughter and her family and the ruling body of Hunters had taken a toll on them. The couple came to a decision together, around the time their granddaughter had been born. Should the Council ever threaten their family…they would be fully committed to bringing the organization down. This day had not been unexpected, and the two had begun taking precautions. Argent Armaments had come up with quite a few interesting toys in recent years. Gallows said war was coming…but it had already arrived.
They reached the car, and Chris snapped open a secret compartment inside the glove box, and pulled out a small device with an antenna and a single red button. Chris caressed the button, a look of sadness briefly crossing his face.
"Oh, darling…let me." Vivian said, her voice full of understanding and compassion.
She took the unit and pressed the button, hard. As she looked at the mountain…her blue eyes turned ice cold.
A massive explosion sounded from within the mountain. Seconds later, another followed. Then another. The ground began to shake slightly. By the time their car had left the area, Mount Storm King (no longer hollow) had lost some of its elevation. Neither noticed (or would have been surprised at) the helicopter with its single occupant that managed to escape the devastation.