I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING YOU RECOGNISE!!!!

Paw Print

Chapter 5: Starting with the Wrong Foot... ugh....

By: Anaea

I was crouched in front of three of the pups –the males to be precise- while the girl, in human form, sobbed in my arms, whimpering, softly. On the other side of the room stood Leah; holding her face with her hands, as blood dripped down to the end of her chin and down to the floor.

"What happened here?" demanded Bran, going to his mate.

"She attempted to take Felan." I growled.

Finally prying Leah's hand from her face, Bran, and everyone else, saw the claw marks running diagonally across the whole of her face. I put Felan down right on time, because next thing I knew, Bran had me pinned to the wall, three feet off the ground, by the neck, and he was growling.

"What did you do to her?" he snarled, but each word was perfectly clear: unfortunately, his rage was too.

I didn't answer, I couldn't. A bit more pressure and he would crush my windpipe. Just as I'd begun to pass out from lack of oxygen, Bran was shoved off of me by Samuel. Anna moved quickly and grabbed Bran around the middle in an embrace. Seconds later, the rage left his eyes.

Meanwhile I fell to my knees, and almost on my face but Samuel grabbed me before I could.

'Will you heal me?' I asked him telepathically, it hurt to breathe so I decided to not push my luck by actually speaking. I couldn't see him nod, my eyes were shut, but I heard the soft 'yes' that passed through the surface of his mind. And though I could not see it, I knew that as soon as he'd said it a Ray of Moonlight had connected my throat to his.

Once I was healed I opened my eyes, only to see that I was laying down on a brown couch, with Samuel kneeling beside me, head thrown back as if howling. With my right hand I touched his cheek, to bring him out of the trance the Pack had left him in.

But instead of blinking, or jumping, he leaned into my hand until I was cupping his cheek.

I stood up leaving him where he was, he'd snap out of it eventually.

Looking at Bran, where he sat on the other side of a wooden coffee table, on a couch identical to the one I'd been laying on.

"What your mate suffered is called Magic Backlash, it happens when someone attempts to penetrate offensive shields. In this case, when I brought this Little Ones to this room, I left most of the Pack with them. It set up a shield that could not be penetrated by anyone intending to harm the pups in anyway."

"Liar!" Leah yelled from next to her mate, I saw that the wounds on her face had stopped bleeding, but in their place there were now four silver, linear scars. "I wouldn't have hurt them!"

"Not intentionally. But you aren't a Wolfling, nor are you a wolf, being in the presence of ones with no true harmony between Beast and Soul will make them fall ill. Did you think of that?" by the way her glare intensified I guessed not. "Did you know that the most painful way for a Wolfling to die is alone? Why do you think werewolves stay together? Even the Curse could not tear the longing for family, for a home, away from you!" only when I heard the pups whimper did I notice my voice had begun rising, so I stopped and took a few deep breaths.

"I think you're making that up!" she screamed again and the pups began cowering, whimpering more loudly from where they were next to me.

Finally Samuel came back to reality, and, with the pups being between us, he began petting them, scratching their ears; until they became less and less afraid.

"As you can see, he," I nodded towards the White Wolf after a few moments, "he is able to get past the barrier, and now that you've tried to hurt them, the shield is stronger. And you won't be able to touch them at all."

"I wasn't going to hurt them." Leah used one breath for each word, each one dripping more anger and hatred than the last.

"The Pack believes different. And the Pack does not lie. Whether you meant to or not is not the issue, harm would have befallen them one way or another if you'd taken them."

Obviously knowing that she was going to get no where by arguing with me, once I had calmed down after making the pups jump slightly; remaining completely apathetic in tone, my voice completely unwavering, Leah growled out, "whatever, when will my wounds heal?"

"They will heal when the Pack and the Moon decide you've become a proper werewolf."

With that I turned my attention away from her and back to the pups… who were playing with Samuel –now sitting cross-legged on the floor- trying to catch his hand, which he kept moving around.

The look in his eye though was one I had seen in many old wolves. I vaguely wondered it he'd ever had offspring of his own, but I put that thought out of my head with minimal effort. I was here for soldiers, for help. And honestly, I wasn't expecting to survive this war.

The pups and I needed to rest, as soon as they stopped playing they'd drop and I'd have to carry them. But I was standing on my last leg, and it too would soon give out.

Just like I'd predicted, Cu- Convel, soon climbed onto Samuel's leg, curled up and was asleep within seconds.

Carefully I knelt and picked him up together with the other three. "You mentioned something about a motel, what are your rates?" I asked Samuel.

We turned to Leah when we heard a snort, "do honestly think we'll just give you a room? We don't do charity work."

"No, I didn't ever mistake you," I nodded at her, "for a charitable person."

Before she could get started, Samuel stood up, patted the non-existent dust from his pants, and spoke, "I'll take you if you want, I'd like to talk to you about something. And some people would most likely not let you have any peace." He led me to the door, closing the door behind us.

The wind blew after we were a few feet from the door and I instantly yelped; it was quite cold. I turned to Samuel, "Would you mind holding them?"

He smiled, "not at all." He took them and I immediately shifted to my furry, warm form.

Shaking the remaining chills away, I began walking again. 'So, what did you wish to speak to me about?' I watched him as I spoke, but to my disappointment he didn't jump, or yelp, and give any sign that this was strange… darn! But then he simply turned his head in my direction, one brow quirked.

"I'd rather not be overheard."

'Think of a color,' I told him.

'43,' he thought.

I almost rolled my eyes, '43 was not a color, last time I checked.'

He turned his head towards me so fast his neck popped, I gave him a grin.

'Right, well that's freaky,' he thought.

'What is?'

'You, reading my mind.'

'Oh? And what do you call knowing what I'm thinking?'

'I can only here thoughts that you try to project. In my clan, our consciousness, or spirit, can travel from mind to mind. If our Alpha had been a Mother, like the one who birthed me, or her granmum, and the whole clan except for her had been killed, her body would have created Hosts, and the pack would come alive again. So you are sadly mistaken if you think this is as 'freaky' as we get.'

By the time I'd finished we had arrived at the place. It was old, nothing fancy, so I didn't hate it. When we walked in I shifted again, still wearing nothing but a T-shirt that hung to my knees, and the sleeves past my elbows. Once Samuel got a key for a room, I placed about five gold coins on the counter where the human, Matthew seemed to be manning everything.

The coins were not big, not too small; they had a head of a woman, Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, carved on one side.

The human gawked at the coins and Samuel spoke, "are these authentic?" I guess he'd seen these before, though I seriously doubted that he'd been alive where these were around.

"Yes, the Moon stores the rest of my family's treasures."

Samuel took all but one of the coins and placed them in my hand, "then one is more than enough."

I nodded, and held the coins to my chest chanted a bit in a language I knew no one save the pups would understand. A silver glow enveloped the coins and when it faded, so did they.

We stepped into the small room, and Samuel walked to the bed, setting the pups on it. We watched them for a few seconds until they rearranged themselves into a big ball of fluff, then he and I sat on the chairs at the small table.

'Best if we speak like this,' I said.

He nodded and thought, 'firstly, judging by the difference in size when they,' he nodded toward the pups, 'shift and yours I would've thought you were two, maybe three years old, the way you walk, the way to speak, you mannerisms, they all seem like those of an old woman. Do you age differently than they do? Or does the aging process slow down after a while?'

'I am a Mother; we need much, much more time to mature –physically- than others. The pups will reach maturity in about two years; then they'll stop aging completely. I on the other hand, have aged much more slowly, and if I don't find a proper mate within ten years of having reached maturity, I will begin to age twice as fast as humans, and I will die.'

'At what age do Mothers reach maturity?'

'At about three thousand, we mature one year, for every thousand we've lived.'

'So how old are you exactly?'

I shrugged, 'ask a vet, I honestly don't know. I'll know when I turn three thousand, but I don't know when that'll be.'

'What're your earliest memories?'

'I remember my brother taking me to see the first Olympic games.'

He nodded, took out a handheld contraption and was about to flips it open when I put my hand over his, 'if you're trying to contact one of the wolves I've met, I can let you contact them telepathically, I don't like this century's technology. '

He nodded again, 'Charles, then.'

I closed my eyes and an image the enormous cinnamon-colored wolf took shape behind my eyelids; his eyes, golden, with the predator always lurking behind them, not in control, but not concealed either. 'Charles, Witch-Wolf?'

'Adalwolfa?' his voice came back.

I stood, walked around the table and stood in front of him. I placed the tips of my fingers on the sides of his head. Closing my eyes again I focused on pulling his mind into mine. After a few seconds I felt a cool breeze blow past my mind's barriers and I knew he was in. While they spoke, I hung back and let myself be distracted, letting them have a bit of privacy.

To my relief, their conversation only lasted about a minute. But when I pulled my hands away from Samuel, after putting his mind back in his body, I swayed, and almost fell, but the next moment, his hands were wrapped around my arms, steadying me.

He walked me to the bed and sat me down, 'you should go to sleep.' He said.

I shook my head, 'no, I have to keep watch.' If there were more people like Leah around here, I wouldn't be sleeping any time soon.

He stood up and began undressing, shifting slowly to his wolf form afterwards. He simply lay there on the floor for a while, huffing and puffing.

I rolled my eyes and got down on my knees beside him. I knew it was painful when a werewolf shifted; it left their skin feeling raw, and the pain only intensified when they came into contact with something, so I really wasn't surprised that he began growling when my hand got too close for comfort to his side.

"Oh hush," I chided him, "I couldn't interfere once you'd begun shifting, I could've helped you make it faster and relatively painless." I used the Pack to envelope my hands in a moonlight-colored light and began petting him, getting rid of as much of the pain as I could.

'I'll keep watch, you sleep,' he said… right before he passed out.

I rolled my eyes at the very, very big fur ball, 'yeah, you do that, kid.'

I let the four –ugh… five- pups sleep for a couple of hours before reaching out for another mind, 'Anna? Treasure?'

'Uhm, hello, is this the Wolfling? Hello?'

I couldn't help but smile, 'yes, it's me, listen, I'm at the motel-place, in room uhhh, fourteen I believe, Samuel and the pups are asleep, and I'm not exactly comfortable leaving them—'

'Alright, I'll go over right now, be there in five. Do you guys need food, or something else?'

'I think we'll just need food,' I said.

'Alright, mind if Charles comes too?'

'No, he may come if he wishes.'

And true to her word, Anna did indeed arrive –Charles in tow- no more than five minutes later; carrying two gallons of water, while her Mate lugged in four grocery bags filled with steak and other edibles.

Good thing too, because both the pups and Samuel had begun rousing from their sleep. While Samuel yawned and stretched, the four began jumping on each other; starting to play again.

After a few minutes, we'd put most of everything away, so I grabbed a piece of steak and began tearing off chunks and giving them to the pups when they asked for some. Anna and Charles were now sitting at the table, Samuel was sitting next to the best, I was on the bed and the pups were playing on it.

Samuel, still in fur-ball form, stared at me for a few seconds so I opened the link between us, 'yes?'

'Mind if I try?'

If I hadn't been certain before, I was now; he really was beginning to think of these young ones as his own. 'Sure,' I gave him a piece of the steak I was holding, which he proceeded to chew more than was really necessary. When the pups looked at me, asking for more I pointed at Samuel, and they began licking his muzzle. And the steak fell out of his mouth with a splurch.

With little hesitation, the pups began fighting amongst themselves, trying to assert their dominance. Once Felan had pinned all of them down, she went and ate, roughly, one fourth of the steak, leaving the rest for the other three; and once again the fought. In the end Convel was the most dominant of the boys, and Maccon was the least. But regardless of that, they all ate more-or-less equal shares of the food.

"Remember how you mentioned that there were different kinds of Wolflings? What kind are they?" asked Anna, motioning towards the pups.

"Felan is a Fang, or a soldier. Maccon is a Howler, or a Singer; Convel is a Runner, and Faolan if a Tracker. Faolan was the one who tracked you." I replied, not once looking away from the pups.

"Are they born differently? Or, how do you determine what they are?" asked Charles.

"When they are born, the Moon tells the one who birthed them. They relay the message."

We spent several hours there, just talking, we ended up agreeing that I was most likely around twenty-seven hundred years old… not that it would really matter, I'd know when I was three-thousand and that was good enough for me.