Spirit Wolves : A New Path (Book 2)

5. Overkill

**Nate**

The next morning, everyone seemed to stumble out of bed.  No one greeted today with a bright and cheery way.  Most likely due to still being over excited by the time we returned back to the campsite from the tavern, still pumped at what we were able to do together as a pack.  Following that with getting to see their Beta being chewed out by one of his mates, no one actually got much sleep last night, including me.  To say that I was a little testy, would be an understatement.  I knew that this was going to be a stressful day and I was sort of kicking myself in the ass for taking everyone into town last night.  No one was hungover or anything because of how fast our metabolism is, but I was a little groggy.

I figured we had an hour before our guests arrived and I had planned for us to be in the middle of the park, in a wide open space to make everyone keep their cool.  There was no need to alarm the public and I found it a useful tactic when speaking with unruly packs.  This was their land and their territory.  At the end of the day, they did not want to bring any attention to themselves with humans.  They just wanted to be able to live their lives in peace.  We, on the other hand, were just passing through.  I did not want to bring them future problems, only speak to them as best I could and be on our way to the next pack.  Being that there were two packs coming today, we could either leave earlier than planned or stay for a couple of extra days rest, but we would decide on that later.

We made sure that we were up and had breakfast in enough time to get to the open area of the part just as it was opening up for the day.  I took in my surroundings and I had that strange feeling yet again that someone or something was watching me.  I decided to see if I could get some help on this matter once and for all.

‘Aurora, Aria.  I can sense something watching us, but it has no scent, sound-anything really.  Can you please see if you can get anything?’

‘Yes, Alpha.  We can feel it too.  That is coven magic.’  Aria replied

‘I have felt this before, is this something I should be worried about?’  I asked

‘I don’t think so.  I can tell that they are powerful, but we can not sense any dark magic.’ Aria concluded making me wonder why we were being observed by some witches.  Maybe they were just watching us to see what we are doing?  Wanting to make sure that we are not trying to meet with so many packs to move against them?  Even though that will never be my intention, I still tried to put myself in someone else’s shoes and try to think how they would react to these kinds of actions given the history.  The truth was, I didn’t know how to approach them yet.

I was brought out of my thoughts as not 1, not 2- but all 4 packs filled into the park.  Wonderment filled me that 4 packs would arrive at the same time and that they got along to do so.  We stood right in the middle of the field, patiently waiting for them to move in, wanting to send no aggressive signals.  I honestly didn’t want a repeat of last night, but that was doubtful.  When they finally came to a stop about 10 feet in front of us, I was amazed at the amount of wolves between the four packs.  There had to be at least 300 men and women standing before us.  Most looked calm, but I could feel that they were on edge.

The 4 Alpha’s stepped forward, followed by their Beta’s behind them.  Luca, Aspen, Shadow and myself stepped forward as well until we met the Alpha’s in the middle.  For an outsider to see this, I imagine that it would look like a high-school brawn ready to go down where the ‘popular kids’ had an overabundance of backup and we were about to get our asses handed to us and I am glad that is not the case.  I decided to open the communication between all of us.

“Good morning, my anime is Alpha Nate from the Spirit Wolf Pack” I opened with “I can see that you brought all packs in the area with you, that actually saves us a lot of time, so welcome.”

“Enough with the bullshit!  These two here say you are the real deal-so tell me, what the hell do you want and when are you leaving?”  The eldest looking Alpha spoke.  He was not the biggest, or the tallest, rather he was a bit shorter with olive coloured skin making me think that he migrated here or his parents did.

“We are here to discuss a few things and we wanted to do it properly, despite the impatience of some of your friends.  We are not here to just parade around and say we are back, so behave” I started with, but was rudely cut off by one of the Alpha’s from last night.

“You could’ve fooled me!  You forced your will on us last night!  That’s cowardly!  There is no honour in that!” He spat out the words with clear disdain. Personally, I think he was a little butt hurt that we were able to do that.  Every wolf pack knew of our power, but I was not sure how many actually got to see it before.

I took a deep breath, reminding myself that anger will not solve ignorance.  The lack of sleep was not helping my mood either, so I took another before I spoke.  “I apologize for my pack being stuck in between your pack and another, clearly there to send us a message.  Your plan backfired so, when you got home, you called in reinforcements thinking that we could not overpower this many.  I can assure you, last night was just the tip of the iceberg.  Now, we can continue bantering which will not end well in your favour or you can shut the hell up and just listen to what we have to say!”  I countered, but by the end of it, I was doing the one thing I didn’t want to do...yell.  

On the other hand, all four Alpha’s either put their hands on their hips or crossed their arms waiting to hear what I have to say.  I was actually surprised that they did that because I didn’t even put power behind it.  Either way, I had their attention now so I had to continue.

“There is a war coming.  An ancient vampire has risen and she is creating an army.  The Moon Goddess has sent us on a mission to gather all packs to prepare.  They were explicit in saying that if we do not all find a way to not only work together, but also get the witches on board, then we are doomed.  Being that the Alpha and Beta are generally a little hot headed- myself included, I am proposing that each pack sends their Gamma to form the council.  Once we have spoken to all of the packs, we must find a way to convince the covens to join as well.  As for us, we will still enforce the laws of our kind when called upon, but will only answer to the council.  That way, it is a majority call and not just one person making all of the decisions.  Clearly, this is each of your decisions and we will not do anything to hinder or try to change your minds.  I will only say that I do not think it is right that I have to decide what is right and what is wrong.  Having a council will not only make sure that all voices are heard, but it will bring our kind out of the dark ages and into a more civilized world.”  I concluded with the rehearsed blurb but then I remembered something I wanted to add.  “Oh, and just so you know...last night when you thought you were being smart, cornering us in….THAT was a cowards move.  You think doing that to a pack that had kept to themselves, caused absolutely no trouble and already said they came to visit and was moving along was the right thing to do?  Try that again and I will show you what herding cattle looks like!”  Now, I was done!

I walked away, not heading back towards our camp, but to the trees.  My pack followed me and just before stepping into the forest, I turned around and said one last thing. “Think about what I said, talk amongst yourselves.  We are going for a run and will be back in a couple of hours.  If you are still here and wish to actually talk and not point fingers, puff out your chests or measure your d***s, then we will be ready to listen.”  I concluded, stripped down and shifted.  My pack followed suit, clearly on edge as well from the lack of sleep. 

‘Where are we going Alpha?’  Aspen linked me

‘To find a place to have a damn nap!  We will all need a little more sleep if we need to deal with these assholes in a couple of hours.’  I replied as we charged through the brush.  We kept going, following my nose.  I was trying to find a place that didn’t have much scent to it.  Even if we were on their land, I just wanted to be some place off the beaten path and out of their way.  I don’t think I will be able to sleep, I just really needed a run and hopefully some quiet.

We arrived at a clearing that had a small pond.  The water was a blueish green and it seemed to brighten everything up around it.  The flowers were in full bloom and the humidity in the air was rather strange for this altitude.  We walked closer to the water and realized the water was a lot warmer than it should be.  I shifted back into human form and knelt down, scooped up a handful of water and smelt it before tasting it.  It was indeed clean water and the temperature was glorious!  Without another thought, I stepped right in, sat down and kicked back.  Letting the warm water soothe my skin and muscles.  I looked up to everyone just staring at me like I was sniffing glue or something and I started to laugh.

“It’s a hot spring, what are you waiting for???”  I commented lightly.  Some shifted and hopped in while others were a little more less tempted but needless to say, I was relaxing and easing my mind for the next 30 minutes or so.  Goddess, this felt so good!