We made it back into the cave, first thing that hit me was the smell. Blood. My blood, Sam's blood, Coyote's, Oliver's, Roy's. The stench, thanks to the wolf senses, was having the unnerving effect of being both sickening and making my mouth water because of how hungry I was.

There was just so damn much of it, Mairyn's pack had gone to town on our human forms. I understood Fenris' comment about using our blood to link us together. My paws were sticky with it, the cave floor looked like a serial killer's modern art piece since we'd been fighting in it. Streaks, puddles and blotches covered the floor. If it wasn't for Fenris' gift, all of us would be dead. There was no way around that.

Roy whimpered and Oliver felt pretty shaky through the pack bond. I looked over at Roy, his ears were down and his tail low, not in the about to attack kind of way but in the scared shitless way. Sam padded over and leaned against him. For some reason Sam was a lot more comfortable with the physical part of this, wolves being more into physical displays of affection than most people. Oliver was standing pretty stiffly. He didn't seem to be leaking blood anymore, it was the reality of the situation that was causing the problem. The whole standing in pools of their own blood and by all rights should be dead part reality, it's never an easy one to deal with.

Lined up along the wall, laying down, with their heads resting on their paws, were the remaining living wolves from Mairyn's pack. There were four left, a grey one, a light brown one, a reddish brown one and one that was black and silver. I could see dried blood where they'd been injured but they didn't seem to be bleeding at all now. The black and silver one was positioned oddly. Then I remembered that was the one Sam had plowed through to clear my path so I could go after Mairyn. It, or rather he, was panting and seemed to be in a lot of pain. I could faintly hear bones shifting and healing under his skin. That sound made my skin crawl, it just wasn't normal.

None of them seemed all that keen on attacking or getting revenge for us going after Mariyn. There was a story here, had to be. I was about to start asking questions when Coyote stepped forward and I found myself giving in to her taking the lead. The four wolves offered their throats up to her and closed their eyes.

"What the hell?"

"She is Alpha," The black and silver one answered, I didn't think he could hear me. Guess I was wrong. "She is more dominant than Mairyn. She decides our fate."

It's a good thing I'm a pretty secure guy. Coyote didn't say anything, at least with words, her tail did wag a few times though. I decided to withhold remarks until after the question and answer session. Sam shot me a wolfy smile over Roy's back. Jerk. On the bright side, that comment seemed to help even Oliver's mood out and Roy felt a little less panicky. Tonight was going to be filled with interesting conversations, that I was sure of. I stepped back and let Coyote handle things, it was kind of nice actually. I just had to stand there and look mildly scary, that was easy enough.

"Now that we're all here," She started out, "How about you tell me your names and what exactly is going on here? How can you hear us? You're not part of this pack."

The black and silver one opened his eyes. They were golden yellow and he carried a lot of years on his shoulders. It was sort of the same feel I got when I'd chatted with Death or Cas, ageless, immortal. "Fenris' gift binds us all together. There's never been that many of us. I am Audun, the light brown wolf is Raelyn, the reddish one is Dabria and the grey one is Einar. Raelyn and Einar are brother and sister to Mairyn, myself and Dabria were reborn many years after they were."

"How old are you?" Sam asked.

"That is a rather complicated question." Audun said as he sat up on his haunches. "Do you wish to know how old we were when we died or when we were first created? Seeing as how we are alive again I am not sure if we should count the current time or not?"

"Good point." Sam replied, "Time runs differently in Purgatory too. How about when you were originally born, human, not wolf."

Audun nodded, "Around the end of Charlemagne's war against the Saxons. We did not keep calendars back then. Mairyn and her family are older than I though."

Roy's jaw dropped, "That's almost two thousand years ago!"

"Yes. I was killed by some hunters in the early twelve hundreds." Audun continued.

"How?" I asked, "Fenris said that only other wolves can kill you, or I guess us now.

"Drowned. We still need to breathe air. They tied me up with heavy chains and threw me into a lake. Raelyn was caught by some Inquisitors and also drowned. Dabria and Einar were killed in a landslide. Crushed. We may be immune to weapons but we are not unkillable."

"Good to know. How exactly did you get out of Purgatory?" I really wanted to confirm what we'd heard about Reapers and humans. I was pretty sure Gordon hadn't been lying but since these wolves had no grudge against us, I figured they'd be neutral parties and give us the real story as to what was going on. If they knew it.

"You are Dean, correct?" Audun asked.

"Yeah."

He nodded, "I thought so. Gordon described you and your brother. May I explain how Purgatory works first before answering Alpha?"

"Sure," Coyote answered, "Although I don't understand why you need to ask."

"Because it is an indirect answer. If I may also explain something about how packs work," He paused. Coyote nodded. "You will start feeling it soon enough I imagine. She," he pointed his paw at Coyote, "is Alpha, I can feel Fenris very strongly coming from her as well. You, Sam and you Dean, will rank close to each other. I would say Sam will rank slightly higher, although with Dean and the Alpha being mates, that brings Dean almost equal to the Alpha. The black one with blue eyes will be next and that leaves the one Sam is assisting at the bottom of the structure. Your wolf sides will start responding to and requiring structure within the pack fairly soon. Of the four of us here," he waved his paw at the wolves next to him, "I am the most dominant, then Raelyn, Einar and Dabria. I sense that I and your black wolf will be close to the same rank. The rest will be lower ranking. I am not sure if you, Alpha, outrank Mairyn because Fenris is guiding you or if you are that strong on your own. Either way, when a more dominant wolf asks a question, it is expected that the question is answered immediately. Dean asked a question, Dean is more dominant than I, therefore I had to ask permission to answer indirectly. It keeps from triggering the wolf side into a dominance battle if we ask instead of assume. Especially with wolves we don't know. There may not have been that many of us but there was still conflict until we figured all these behaviors out."

"That seems rather highly regimented," Oliver said, "Are we to assume then that a pack is pretty much a dictatorship."

Audun dropped his eyes and we all heard his soft growl. "Yes and no. The Alpha is responsible for caring for the pack, his or her word will be law in the end. However Alpha's can be challenged, by one that is strong enough. Unfortunately, when Mairyn lost her way she killed any one who could challenge her. The ones that remained, we could not resist her. For years we were forced to do her bidding, right or wrong. Then Fenris freed us by killing her. We broke into smaller packs but with no truly strong Alpha left there was chaos. You see, Alphas help the others control the wolf side. Weaker, less dominant wolves have less control. It was bad enough Mairyn was having us hunt things we should not be, but after she was gone, resisting the hunt was that much harder. Wolves started slaughtering humans by the village full, drawing attention to us, making it harder for us to resist being wolves. When we are threatened or hurt the wolf side tries to protect us and take control. Over time we died, one by one."

Everything about him, the lowered eyes and ears, the dropped head, every inch of him showed how much loss he'd been through, same with the other three.

"Purgatory is nothing but being threatened. You fight every minute, there is strength in numbers as Dean knows. When we managed to find pack again we came together. There are no innocents in Purgatory. I don't think any of us have resumed human form since we died until Mariyn brought us here. Claws and fangs are deadlier there than weapons. When the angel pulled the Leviathans out of Purgatory all the monsters took notice. The Leviathans are the strongest beings down there. They had been ruling Purgatory, as much as it can be. Once they were gone things became confused. Then they returned as mysteriously as they had left and they were enraged. We heard them speak of an angel and a human in Purgatory then that portal opened. The Leviathans were on a killing spree, most of the monsters started looking for Dean. Shortly after Dean escaped Purgatory angels invaded, laid waste to the place, pulled the angel out and in doing so threw everything into chaos. All the monsters wanted out, that portal was there, mocking us. One day Gordon, undead filth that he is, approached Mairyn."

Audun's hackles were sky high and all of them snarled at the sound of Gordon's name. Guess he was even less popular with the monsters than he was with us. Shocking.

"Mairyn had become even more twisted in Purgatory, the killing, she yearns for it. She didn't start out that way. She hates humans and despises Fenris because she feels he chose humans over her when he killed her. Her story is long and complex but believe me when I tell you that this pack was formed out of love, not what you see of us now. Gordon played upon her need for revenge over the humans, promised her that he would help her destroy the hunters that would be her only true threat. He explained his plan of getting monsters to work together, how we could escape Purgatory. He had somehow discovered the ritual Dean had used to escape and got in touch with some rogue Reapers. It took many humans to get the pack and the vampires that Gordon had convinced to join him out. Much of the pack had become twisted like Mariyn, some of us hadn't but we couldn't break from the ranks. Not until you came. By fighting Mairyn, being more powerful, you have broken the pack bonds enough that we can leave her. You can either accept us into your pack, kill us or let us form our own pack."

And that's when things got all twisted up. By all rights we should kill these four, problem was that a pretty serious surge of protectiveness came from Coyote backed by Fenris, these were his people after all. I got the feeling that the Alpha urge to protect things was starting to assert itself. That wasn't all though, they knew everything about Mariyn and it sounded like they'd have to answer every single thing Coyote asked.

Audun seemed to pick up on our dilemma and looked at the other three. They all looked away from him, but there was more to it than that. They were scared and not of us. "You came here to eliminate a threat to hunters, your friends. Yet the wolf side wishes to protect us since we are defenseless. To be honest Alpha, this world is overwhelming. All the smells, the amount of humans, the sounds, the lack of open spaces to run. We are not of this time, this place. If you do not wish to make us pack, then we will tell you about Mariyn and you can send us back to Purgatory. I am not dominant enough to keep the four of us from turning into ravaging beasts. None of us wish to become that. In Purgatory, if we lose control, there is no harm in it. Here, there will be."

"What about us turning into beasts?" Roy asked. "Oliver and I don't live with Dean and Coyote, the Alpha."

Audun shrugged, "You are of this time, perhaps you can resist. The wolf needs to protect, to mate and to feed. This time, this place, everything about it seems a threat to us, and there are so many people, so many scents. The wolf responds to danger, to stimulation. That is all I can say."

And all of our lives are so calm and peaceful. Great.