Wolf of War

A Patricia Briggs werewolf fanfiction

Chapter Fifteen:

Pack Justice

Ares was, of course, the first to finish Changing back into his human form, and he was ravenous. But handling Tamara was more important in that moment; his wolf knew that her wolf would consider the matter more or less 'not a big deal' the longer he took to deal with it; he knew that Tamara would find ways to justify her actions and her anger the longer he took to straighten her out about it. His wolf growled at him about making him wait yet again for something to eat, but he calmed the wolf with thoughts of getting food as soon as they'd finished dealing with the current situation. He waited until they were all Changed back to human, waited until they were no longer writhing in the pain of the Change and could actually listen to him before he lit into Tamara.

"What the fuck do you think you were doing out there?" He snarled at her as she struggled to stand up. The other three - Diana, Darius and Penelope - looked on, also getting to their feet, looking at the tableau with concern on the face of Penelope and expectant resignation on the faces of the other two.

"I was hungry, and she could have—" she tried to yell at him; lingering pain threw off the challenge in her tone and brought a wince to her face before Ares cut her off.

"You had your chance, and you fucked it up," he shot back at her; he pointed a finger at her for emphasis. "You fucked it up. You had the entire pack ready to help you, to make sure you had something to eat, just like everyone did for everyone else, until you and your wolf decided that you didn't need anyone's help; no one took your food from you but you, and you don't get to take food from anyone else to fix your own fuck up."

"My wolf—"

"Is out of control!" He snapped back at her, glaring at her, the wolf almost blazing out from his eyes, "your wolf is writing checks that your ass can't cash!" Tamara glared back at him, her eyes hurt and angry. "You seem to think that being dominant means bullying folks, challenging folks, trying to show that you don't need to bow down to anyone— no, you don't need to bow down to any male." He shook his head for a moment. "I'd bet you don't really know what the hell being dominant is, because it certainly ain't about how tough you think you are."

"Not only that," he continued, staring her down, "you're a danger to the pack, any pack, because you're so afraid, because deep inside you see yourself as being something that needs to pretend you're this big badass and your wolf can see that you're faking it and is fighting you for the control you wish you had over either yourself or your wolf, and that is going to end up getting you killed, or worse…" He paused as if an idea had come to him though he kept his gaze locked onto hers.. "Diana, Darius, watch her, keep her here. If she moves, put her down. Don't kill her, but anything else within reason is fine."

Ares turned and strode towards the main house, taking up his clothes and putting them on as he went; he had his t-shirt, underwear and short-sleeved polo shirt on by the time he made it into the house. The smell of food, of various meats and other various items lay over top of the lingering scent of bacon and sausage from the morning, making his stomach and his wolf growl all over again. He paused to slip on his pants, and then shifted in the direction of the Marrok's office; he would need his permission for what he planned, and he hoped that the Marrok would go along with it.

He gave a relatively gentle knock on the door; he knew that if the Marrok was in, he'd hear him. He heard the elder wolf call out to him to enter, his voice clear.

He opened the door and for a brief moment his eyes locked with the elder wolf's, holding as the two men gazed at one another. He couldn't speak for the Marrok, but he knew that he felt no challenge from the other's stare. Then again, though, the Marrok was said to have well over two hundred years of life and experience, and so maybe the reason why he felt no challenge was because he wasn't a challenge to the Marrok. He shrugged and turned to close the door, breaking eye contact with the older wolf.

"So what does the God of War seek from me?" The elder smirked softly, and moved to take a seat in his office chair; he gestured for Ares to have a seat nearby, but didn't specify the chair directly in front of the desk.

Ares sat down on a leather loveseat just off to the side of the room.

"I'd like to borrow Garrak for about an hour, maybe less," he began, before telling the Marrok his plans for Garrak and Tamara. "She needs to learn, and if she doesn't learn it here and now, she's going to get herself killed…or I'll have to do it." Ares sighed softly at that.

"You sound reluctant to do that, should it be necessary," the Marrok offered in a tone that made it as much a question as a statement.

"I don't want to have to, no," Ares answered, "but if it were necessary…I think I could." He turned his gaze back to the Marrok for a moment, shrugging. "But I'm brand spanking-new myself; maybe I have good instincts, maybe I have a good wolf guide…and maybe I'm not ready yet to make the decision to put her down. But I think this might get through to her, and I think she should have at least a chance to see it for herself, that either she's not fit to be a wolf, or that she needs to learn what it means to be a wolf before it kills her."

The Marrok seemed to stare him down with a neutral expression, his face calm but his eyes blazing, searching, before he gave a brief, curt nod. "I think in time you will be a wise Alpha," he offered with a gentle smirk, "to know yourself well enough already to know not to rush into these responsibilities." He paused, and then breathed deeply. "You may use Garrak for your lesson," he offered after a few moments of silence. "And once you have finished teaching others, I have something I believe I would like to share with you."

Ares nodded and stood. "Thank you, Marrok; I will do my best to ensure Garrak's safety while he is under my supervision."

"I believe you will, God of War," the Marrok returned; Ares knew that as a dismissal, and headed out of the office.

His next stop was to find Garrak, which didn't take long seeing as the aforementioned wolf was sat in the kitchen, nearly finished with a plate of food. His stomach and his wolf roared at him, reminding him for the lack of food, and again he pushed their concerns aside as he told Garrak what he wanted from him and then gestured for him to join him outside.

Even before he reached his pack, he could hear them, most of all Tamara as she muttered somewhat under her breath. "Everyone get dressed," he called out to them, "Diana, Darius, and then let Tamara get dressed; Penelope, you wait till last, please." He paused for a moment and gestured for Garrak to head for the pole barn and waited for the other wolf to do as he'd instructed before drawing up onto his pack.

"So I heard you muttering about how you can take care of yourself," he growled softly at Tamara as he approached the foursome, "so I've decided to give you a chance to prove yourself." He leaned in close to her, making sure to put extra evidence on his words; Tamara growled at him, baring her teeth.

Ares snorted derisively. "You already tried that, baby girl, and let me put it to you this way…" He leaned in even closer, not quite close enough for her to headbutt him, but close enough for her to feel his presence, and continued, "the next time you even think about coming at me, I won't be so nice and only dislocate your shoulder." He made sure that the expression on his face conveyed how serious he was, before he pulled back. "So as I said - I've decided to give you a chance to prove yourself." He gestured towards the pole barn. "Take Garrak; prove you can handle yourself, all by yourself, and I'll tell the Marrok you're not damaged goods and you can actually lead a pack." He kept his voice light on that; he was goading her with sarcastic condescension and drawing her in with false simplicity.

Tamara snarled at him, but he could see the light of fight in her eyes as she glared at him for a moment longer, and then looked in the direction of the pole barn.

"Let her go," he instructed Darius and Diana.

Darius turned his gaze on him as they let Tamara go and she strode in the direction of the pole barn. "So what's the catch, boss?" He muttered gently. Ares simply gave him a smug look that didn't particularly reach his eyes. "There's no catch, Darius," he returned, watching Tamara walking into the fighting space where Garrak stood. "But hold that thought…"

He look a breath, and then said, loud enough to be easily heard at the pole barn, "Garrak? If you can take her, you can have her."

Tamara spun to look back at him, bewilderment writ large in her features, but Garrak grabbed her at the shoulder and spun her back towards him, and the fight was on after that.

"Ares?" Diana's voice caught his attention and drew his gaze towards her; she was quiet, almost conspiratorial. "You're not giving her to him, like I think you mean, are you?"

Ares shook his head. "Call it motivation and punishment," he said simply.

"But does she know that?"

He shrugged. "Part of learning what being a wolf means," he returned. "Part of it is that as the Alpha, I'm responsible for her, for all of you, if you're my Pack; that means that I have to make sure that you're not going to get yourself killed, or do something that's going to get everyone else in the Pack killed." He gestured towards Tamara, who was now circling with Garrak, each testing the other before lunging towards each other. "This is her lesson. And while I'm sure it seems brutal and harsh, better to have it happen here than out there," he gestured to somewhere beyond the woods surrounding the Marrok's estate. "And while it seems cruel, I don't think I'll ever be as terrible as some Alphas might be, trying to teach lessons to their Pack. I just ask you to trust me for a bit, and know that not everything is as you think it might be."

Diana gave him a bit of side-eye and a put-upon look; Darius merely nodded.

Penelope looked worriedly towards Tamara, but looked more calmly at Ares; he took that to mean that while she was concerned for Tamara, she was putting her trust in him. He could only hope he didn't screw that up.

Even from where he stood as he turned to watch Tamara and Garrak fight, he could see that Tamara was not up to the abilities of Garrak. His thoughts were that Tamara had probably taken some self-defense classes and maybe had a bit of kickboxing under her belt, but Garrak seemed to have a more formal martial arts background and seemed know how to use it. Nonetheless, Tamara was making up for her lack with ferocious tenacity, striking hard when her blows connected. Garrak, on the other hand, was more surgical with his strikes, seeming more interested in wearing Tamara down that in putting her down immediately; with his enhanced senses, he could almost see Garrak hesitating minutely, could almost tell that Garrak wasn't hitting with everything he had. It was a display of desperation and calculation, and he was pretty sure of who was going to win.

He wouldn't have chosen Garrak if he wasn't sure he would win, anyway.

Once Garrak had Tamara worn down, he then proceeded to beat her as if he were trying to turn her into raw hamburger, striking her repeatedly until she could barely move. He moved to stand over her, straddling her body as she lay prone, face down, panting raggedly, whimpering in pain.

"And now, my prize," Garrak growled in a smug and satisfied way; he pulled a pocket knife from a back pocket and leaned down to begin cutting off Tamara's pants.

That got her to move and struggle again, and Garrak calmly put down the knife to pound at her body again; then he dropped his weight, knee first, into her hip, making Tamara howl and pinning her to the ground as he finished cutting off her pants.

"I'm going to enjoy breaking you in," he chuckled darkly, cutting off her underwear as well, before he unzipped his pants and then dropped down on top of her. The feeling of his naked skin against her own must have pulled out some reserves of energy as Tamara squirmed ineffectually trying to avoid Garrak's touch.

"Garrak!" Ares called out; Garrak stiffened, and after giving a little bit more of a grind, pushed himself up and off of the prone Tamara. Ares strode over towards Tamara as Garrak was standing and putting himself back together.

"So Tamara…learn anything about being a wolf?" Ares tossed at her as he approached; she was struggling to get up from the prone position on the ground, whimpering in pain and anger.

"You….you s-set me up!" She growled at him from the ground, her voice breaking and trembling.

"Yes I did," he returned in an even tone though with a hard edge, "but I asked you if you learned anything about being a wolf."

"What do you know about being a wolf?" She shot back at him, her head and body shifting so that she could look up at him.

"I know about what being a human who has to deal with change and growth," he offered in a hard but still conversational tone, "I know that you will only fuck yourself up if you go into a life changing event like this pretending that nothing's changed. I know what my wolf has been telling me, and I know that you're fighting against your wolf, and that that kind of internal conflict is likely going to get you killed, if you don't kill yourself first. And I know what it is to be responsible for others, not just to try and have power over them.

"But that's not what I asked you; what did you learn about being a wolf, from this?"

"I learned that you're an asshole who couldn't lead me out of a wet paper bag!" Tamara snarled at him, struggling still to get up.

"First, I seriously doubt that that's all you learned," Ares tossed back casually, "and second, you do know that if you just take a few minutes, you'll heal up enough to be able to get up, right? Struggling only burns the calories you don't really have right now, and keeps you from healing up like you want right now." He turned to look back at the other three, who had trailed behind him as he'd strode to the pole barn. "What about you three? What did you learn from your wolves about this?"

"That you want your Pack to succeed," Diana offered after a moment; Ares looked at the others and saw that they were thinking about the answer. "You gave Tamara at least a couple of chances to get it together and work with the Pack." She paused for a moment. "I don't like that you almost let her get raped to teach her a lesson, but listening to my wolf says that you should have just ripped out her throat back in the woods when she tried to challenge you or when she tried to steal from the Pack."

Ares saw Tamara's head shift in his peripheral view, and he glanced at her to see her looking at Diana, an angry but concerned look to her expression.

"I learned you'll try to fix a Pack member before you punish them," Darius returned, "that's what I got from my wolf; if my wolf were the Alpha, I think he'd have broken her legs and let her starve to death to teach her about trying to not be a part of the Pack."

Ares watched Tamara turn to glance at Darius, her expression shifting- likely unconsciously- a touch more darkly, though the surprise of his words still shown on her face.

"M-my wolf says she's lucky to have an Alpha who is trying to help her see her mistakes," Penelope spoke up, her voice quiet even in the relative still of the air but still strong enough to be heard easily. "My wolf seems to be telling me that other Alphas would either just have abandoned her and let her struggle on her own, or would have punished her in ways that would have left her permanently injured."

Ares allowed himself to feel a moment of smugness; his Pack was saying all the things he thought Tamara needed to hear without any coaching from him. He chuckled inside as he watched the expression on Tamara's face as the words filtered through her ears.

"Are you listening to what your Pack members are saying?" He offered with an edge to his tone. "Are you listening to your wolf?" He paused. "Are you even paying attention to the fact that you are not the same person you were when you came here to be Changed?" He squatted down, lowering himself closer to where Tamara lay, looking back at him now, anger and some pain still writ across her expression. "Because you aren't the same person you were; you're not human anymore, not strictly speaking. You can pretend all you want that you're the same scared little girl who feels like she should hate the male gender because that's what all good little lesbians do to hide the fear you have that some man is going to rip your world to shreds and turn you into your worst nightmares, but you have a primal spirit bonded with you now, with abilities and magics and a way of thinking that if you don't get your head on straight for, it will kill you. And if it doesn't, the Marrok will.

"So you can be pissed off at me all you want, but all that will get you is dead." He stood up and towered over Tamara. "And I'm not going to have your death be my fault. Tamara Hedgeworth, I hereby banish you from my Pack."