The storm warnings had come in all day yesterday and Chris Larabee had taken them very seriously. While the weather was mostly mild throughout summer, autumn brought strong winds that easily escalated into storms. Not every year, but sometimes those storms hit a category four or five where homes were lost, power went down and whole landscapes were turned upside down.
Vin Tanner was usually one of the first to get a feeling of such a strong shift in what was a normal weather front. Chris listened to his second-in-command. He knew the man's abilities went deeper than the laid-back tracker normally liked to show. He didn't talk much about what he sensed, but when he did, Larabee knew that he had to listen.
Vin was better than any weather forecast from the cities. Those were highly unreliable out here anyway. The Territory didn't work by city expectations or standards. Out here, technology refused to cooperate. A visiting scientist had once tried to explain it to the pack leader, talking about interference and energy lines, energy pockets and leys. Ley lines were a big topic in these parts and also one the science world was fascinated, as well as stumped and baffled by. They existed, were part of the Territory, and the indigenous people were very much in tune with that energy running everywhere.
That was about all that was known, and all kinds of gear broke or malfunctioned when it came into contact with the natural energy of a Territory.
Vin might not have been born a native, but he had grown up here and his so-called 'feelings' were never wrong.
Like yesterday when Vin had announced that this was going to be bad.
Word had been sent out to the outlying homesteads, to farms and ranches, to whoever had a radio to listen to. The Protection Act allowed radios within the Four Corners Territory, though towers were sparse and had to be specially maintained. People who moved out here were aware of the strict limitations as compared to the cities, where everything was at everyone's disposal whenever they needed it.
Out here, it was the land that shaped the people, not the other way around. Some things worked, others were utterly useless. It was a matter of cooperating with nature, not using and abusing it.
And within each Territory, regulators took care of those entrusted to them. Four Corners had the Larabee pack. And the pack had Vin.
Preparations had been made and Chris watched the dark sky, gusts of wind blowing the dark blond hair around his head until he jammed his hat on.
"This'll be even worse by tomorrow," Vin muttered, clear blue eyes tracking the clouds.
JD hurried over to them and nodded at Chris that the town was taken care of. The young sheriff was doing a fine job and had learned a lot in the past two years. There had been doubt among the town's people that a kid raised in the city, with barely any instincts to speak of, could handle this job, but JD had. He was learning every day, was listening to instinct, had Buck and the others in the pack to teach him, and he was a respected sheriff.
"Anyone seen Josiah?" Nathan asked as he joined them, his dark face creased with worry.
"Last I heard he walked out of Inez's with a bottle," JD spoke up.
Chris' brows lowered. Josiah and a bottle were not a good sign. Hard liquor did something to the man. It hit him harder than others, his metabolism apparently not able to work with large volumes of alcohol, and he either became a mean drunk, holed up in his place, or disappeared in the wild until he was sober again. They all had their demons, they all needed the space sometimes, because they all had had a reason to come out here.
Chris was no exception.
"He's not in his room, nor in his chapel," Nathan added.
"Damn," Larabee cursed under his breath.
With the weather coming in, being out alone was highly unadvisable. What little technology worked in the Territory would be totally on the frizz. Right now they still had the radios, but the moment the storm was upon them, even that would be a useless.
"Vin, with me. We'll see where he went off to. The two of you stay in town. Continue preparations. When Buck comes back from his rounds, call the homesteads again before we have black-outs, see if they need help."
The two men nodded and Vin wordlessly joined the pack alpha.
X X X
They found an absolutely wasted Josiah after tracking him through the forest. He lay in a clearing, flattened bushes around him, two trees split apart by brute force. The most worrying part was the blood Chris smelled on the still shifted bear, who was unconscious and unresponsive.
Blood he knew, he realized.
Ezra's blood.
Ezra!
A snarl rose inside him as his mind came to only one conclusion and he grabbed one ear of the colossal bear, tugging hard.
"Sanchez!" he roared.
There was no reply. Whatever pain reflex the tug had sent, Josiah's brain didn't even let him twitch.
"Fuck!"
Ezra's blood! On Josiah's claws! Ezra was injured and the perpetrator was completely out of it.
The anger was a black, vicious thing. It curled in his stomach, but Chris pushed it back. He needed a clear head. Anger never helped and while he wanted nothing more than to tear into Josiah until he woke and told him where Ezra was, the alpha in him took a step back, assessed the situation and overrode the more primal instinct.
Above them, the sky was a leaden gray, the wind stronger than before, and in the distance he heard thunder roll. It would be one of those storms, Chris knew. They would be picking up the pieces for days when it was through.
Right now he needed to find his missing pack member. He needed to find Ezra. The town was in good hands. The rest of the pack was taking care of it.
Vin exchanged a look with his alpha, then nodded.
"I can backtrack," Tanner said calmly as he removed his clothes and shifted.
Chris pulled in a deep breath, feeling something primal rise inside of him that needed to be let out, but now was not the time. He quickly undressed and shifted himself, then they were off.
X X X
Clouds were churning across the sky and the wind had picked up. Vin's sure-footed gait never faltered once as he led the dark, looming shape of his alpha through the forest. Chris followed him as easily as if he was a cat himself, never once hesitating as the mountain lion took the fastest way toward their goal. He also never questioned whether the tracker knew where he was going.
Vin simply knew.
He knew Four Corners, the Territory that was his home, and he knew nature would guide him to where they needed to be. Sometimes it was too spiritual for Chris, but he didn't doubt the connection between Tanner and this land. Vin had been a protector long before becoming a regulator, a guardian of the place the Larabee pack had chosen as its home base. Like the indigenous people of the land he felt the world around him, was aware of it in a different way.
There had been long night talks between them two men, the alpha and the tracker. Vin never spoke much about his family, his background, but when he did, Chris listened. Tanner knew more about the actual land than many scientists, but he never volunteered information to them when they once again set out on their treks. He only nodded his agreement to guide them when asked directly.
"The land accepts you or it denies you," Vin had once said. "The pack is accepted. You are accepted as a strong alpha, and with you, everyone around you."
Larabee had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that the earth he walked on, the rocks and plants that made up his Territory, seemed to be sentient in Tanner's mind. At least to a degree.
"It's energy, Chris," had been the amused reply. "We all are energy. Energy recognizes energy. Good and bad, and all between. It's what clashes with technology. There are such energy nodes everywhere, and in some places they are strong, like deep wells of pure power. In others they blend into the background, shielded or dormant."
It was an as good explanation as any, even if still too spiritual. Josiah seemed to understand it better, but he was hardly more equipped to explain it in even simpler terms to their alpha.
So they went deeper into the canyon, taking narrow paths alongside dangerous drops. The weather was getting increasingly bad, the winds faster and stronger down here as they were condensed and sped up by the shape of the canyon itself. The trees were creaking, bending in the wind, and dust rose in thick plumes. Now and then a drop of rain hit his face. The sky had by now taken on an eerie, yellowish hue within the gray.
When Vin finally stopped after they had reached the bottom, his sudden tension had Chris tense in turn.
"Damn," Tanner murmured. "Shit, Ezra!"
Before them lay a fox, covered in blood, dirt and debris, clearly unconscious and very clearly their missing pack member. There was no doubt about it in their minds.
And also not just a fox. Not only because the color was completely off from what Chris knew Ezra usually looked like. He was… he had…
"There's an emergency shelter near-by," Vin said, ears flicking back and forth. "We get him there. You can take care of Ezra, I'll get help."
Chris nodded and shifted to human form, ignoring the cold. Temperatures had dropped slowly in the past hours, heralding the storm front, and soon it would be dangerous to be out here unprotected. But wolves were resilient. Tough. Hard to impress and even harder to take down, so a little cold didn't bother him.
Naked as the day he had been born, Chris knelt on the ground next to the unconscious, unresponsive fox, carefully running exploring, sure fingers along the wings. He found no breaks, but he discovered deep bruises, vicious abrasion and torn out feathers that had bled a lot. The rest of the feathers were a total mess.
But it was Ezra.
He knew it deep inside, recognized pack, and his scent was unique.
Careful fingers parted the blood-clumped fur and he looked at the deep, ugly slashes that had bled heavily.
"Fuck," he whispered and exchanged a look with Vin, who was watching silently, as he saw the depths of wounds on Ezra's side.
Josiah had caught him good, probably in human shape or he would have been eviscerated in such a small form.
"There's a shelter not far from here," Vin only said.
They would have supplies there, but first they had to secure the winged fox. Chris was glad Ezra was unconscious as he wrapped him securely, then shifted and picked up the precious cargo. While shifters rarely ever carried supplies, this time they had at least brought a backpack with them he could carry between his teeth.
Good thinking, he mused as he loped after Vin.
tbc...