Inevitable Conclusions

Chapter- Nine

Chapter- Nine

Considering how cold the previous couple of nights had been, the snowfall that followed the morning after seemed to be long time coming. It’s a beautiful sight to behold, the earth kissed white by pure untouched layer and layers of cotton soft snow, sun breaking through the foggy skies and the crystal shards hanging by the leaf barren trees autumn left behind, even the very air felt different, purer, that it was almost easy to pretend there was nothing wrong when she watched the snow fall in a moon lit midnight under layers of her bed through the large window in the camps.

Oh it was beautiful alright, but what sucked was the biting cold and specifically having to walk through the biting cold and ass O’clock in the morning because the wolves wanted berries in their breakfast. Mrs. Reynolds said that the said berries were something that bloomed only in the first snowfall of the year, but the demanding commands the wolves issued made it sound as though all the berries they’ve been eating prior were made out of cheap plastic.

“- I mean it’s so unfair- They are the ones who basically go frolicking around the woods for fun, but we have to go pick their berries and s**t before the sun is even up because it’s ‘work’ and they can’t get of their butts- It’s so f*****g stupid and ridiculous. It makes me so mad sometimes and nobody ever cares” For once, she isn’t the one complaining and bitching but rather her young companion.

Astrid had been one of the unfortunate ones who got picked for berry plucking duty, Jeremy had surprisingly volunteered when no one else wanted to pair up with her and since the werewolf master was around his parents hadn’t been able to hold him back from doing stupid s**t like that.

“No swearing” she thinks that would be the responsible thing to say to the kid, well the responsible thing would be to tell him to shut up in fear of someone overhearing him, but she figures that would be kind of hypocritical of her, so ‘no swearing’ seemed like a fair compromise.

“Well, you swear” he seems really worked up after that rant.

“I am not ten” she retorts back holding her sack of berries tighter, and no that is not a euphemism, she and Jeremy literally have small jute bag with the berries they’ve collected.

“Well, I am not ten either, I turned eleven last week”

“Oh really? Well that makes a world of difference doesn’t it, Jeremiah? We should nominate you for Head Of Household since you are so old and wise, you could give Carl a good run for his money I bet. Take down Jonah a notch or two?” she replies back sarcastically and it gets her a smile in return.

“You are so lame sometimes. That wasn’t even funny” he rolls his eyes at her, proving that he indeed was a preteen in his prime.

“You are particularly chatty today. I was barely able to get a word in edgewise. And you know how good of a talker I am, so that’s a pretty big deal” she notes as she leans upward when she notes the similar reddish pink color of the berries she’s been told to pick as if she was saving a werewolf family from starvation, no seriously that was Mrs. Reynolds advice to her at the prospect of the shitty job in the shitty time.

“I guess I am just angry, and I can’t even tell anyone, and even if I do they all get so worried and scared. Mom started crying this one time, So I just always had to be quiet until you came along- I just –I want to do something, like I swear if I saw a werewolf right now I would kick it’s ass out of the planet”

Astrid laughs a little at the picture that paints, feeling a little fond of the kid despite her best attempts to alienate him away from her like she probably should.

“Maybe your mom’s right, Jer. Well, not the crying part because tears are gross and icky and a very powerful tool for emotional manipulation. But she has the right to be worried. s**t talking the wolves isn’t a smart thing to do bud. I mean I am a professional at it, but if you look at me you’ll realize I haven’t exactly been making smart decisions” she says pointing to her over all beat up state with a prominent wound on her shoulder.

“I am tired Astrid. I clean the house most days and every day I have to hear them complaint about us and insult us, about how we are all bad and useless and worthless. They talk about you, and Jonah, and Mrs. Reynold and my mom- They talk about my mom like- And I have to pretend, I have to pretend not to hear them, I have to pretend to be a good little slave while I watch them hurt my friends and family. I got so tired of all those grown up assholes that I sighed up for babysitting the cubs” he murmurs angrily, forcibly breaking all the lone branches her stepped on.

“I wish I could say it gets better, but it doesn’t – But the cubs? Why would you do that?” Astrid is surprised.

“It’s just the babies and Mrs. Reynolds said I’ll have someone with me to teach me and stuff- I just needed to get away from those assholes, babies can’t be much worse right?” he asks, looking a little worried after her question.

“Depends on whether you would like to spend the rest of your life in slavery looking after the Cubs” she answers as she leans forward after a vine full of berries twisted on a branch a little higher up, not very good for her shoulder but the sooner they have the berries the sooner they can get out of the cold.

“What? It’s just one day” he claims, walking over to help her cut the vines.

“Not with the babies it’s not. Why do you think I always get stuck with the cubs despite having the biggest warning signs ever? Well- mostly because the wolves are insane and don’t actually care about their kids – but also because I was used as a playmate when I was a baby” she finds herself opening up.

“What’s that?” Jeremy, is as expected, confused at the term.

“It means a squishy human toy for the werecubs to learn to bite and chew. It’s a good thing you don’t have that here, it’s used when the wolves have children without kids in similar age in the pack, like when they have no friends or siblings or whatever which- let’s be honest, is seemingly never going to happen around here. It’s usually just with babies. Basically, what happens is the first werecub tags you as a toy for them, so the next wolf baby you meet will see that and will see you as a toy too- and then it goes on like that in a long torturous cycle of werecubs thinking you are their personal chew toy no matter how old you get or what you do” she recalls, her mind flashing to the first time she heard that particular theory explained to her.

“- They tag you as safe, so the next baby that comes around can see that you are safe for them to play with- That’s why they love you so much, pixie-“

It didn’t seem very fair to the speaker of the words to replace the word ‘safe’ with ‘toy’, not with the way the information it was passed onto her, but these days safe wasn’t a concept many humans understood.

“That’s not a thing, you are just making that up” Jeremy doesn’t seem to believe her regardless.

“It is- It’s the earlier signs of wolves forming pack bonds, and pack bonds can be easily understood by other wolves” Astrid presumes it’s worn off on her by time, especially since she started taking up other jobs and stopped spending time around the were cubs as she got older, so it didn’t make much of a difference anyway regardless of what others had to say.

“Pack bonds with humans?” Jeremy seems marveled.

“Mmm-hmm” Astrid simply hums along, keeping the air of mystery around as they walk on forward, Jeremy following a few steps behind her due to his omnipresent curiousness and disbelief at her words.

“Well who told you that then? Bella?” Jeremy asks out of the blue.

It surprises her enough that she stops in her tracks and turns around to face the boy, who to be fair does look to be a little guilty for using the name.

“How do you know that name?” Astrid wonders, she doesn’t recall asking anyone about Bella while Jeremy and the others were around in fear of getting caught again, and she sure as hell isn’t the type to go talking about her sister to the people she meets.

“You talk in you sleep sometimes. I took the bunk beside you the other day- Anyway, who is it? Your girlfriend?” well, he doesn’t feel guilty about asking that.

“What makes you think Bella would be my girlfriend?” Astrid finds herself chuckling at the question, finally putting the boy at ease as he walks over to her and they start walking together again, this time side by side.

“Well, Mom said anybody who dresses like you probably isn’t the type to like boys, and you don’t even look at Jonah when he walks around shirtless and stuff- Every other girl in the camp looks at Jonah, it’s so annoying” is the observant reply that Astrid can’t help but smile at.

“That’s because Jonah is dumber than a goldfish- Just because he looks good doesn’t change the fact he is any less of a moron. And he has a face that just asks to be punched, especially when he opens his mouth- Trust me, it’s a good thing I don’t look at him” she tells the boy as she takes out her knife to cut off a particularly thick vine full of berries,“- And there is nothing wrong with the way I dress, it’s agile, it’s comfortable and most importantly it doesn’t attract douches like Jonah” and it also helps her run and hide when the time comes, the layers of jacket helps her cover her scent and is easy to lose if someone does track it, but she probably shouldn’t say all that to the budding radical human rights activist.

“Who is Bella then if she is not your girlfriend?” Jeremy is adamant on the topic, as he extends the bag further for her to chop the berries into.

“Bella is my sister” she admits at last, it’s a little weird saying it out loud, she asked around a million times for the name, but never used the word sister in so long that it’s refreshing and terrifying at the same time.

“Well, where is she? Is she dead?”

Astrid freezes at the question, almost losing her grip on the vine with how fast her breath whooshes past her and eyes go foggy. For a moment, anger surges but it’s blinded by a rage of panic too that she doesn’t react.

“Astrid?” Jeremy looks like he understood his mistake after he takes another look at her.

“No she is not, she is alive- Bella is here- somewhere” she is quick to reassure. Astrid is saved from having to say anything more because there is a ruffle of fallen leaves coming from their right. Jeremy tenses instantly as Astrid climbs down from the tree. A second later there is growl, it’s low and almost goes unheard but Astrid’s heard enough growls in her life to miss those.

“It’s probably just one of Vikram Wolves, out frolicking like you said” she assures Jeremy regardless of the fact her mind flashes to the wolf she saw last time she was in the woods. She is woman enough to admit that the large wolf terrified the s**t out of her, and the thought of facing down that again had her panicking too regardless of knowing who or what it was.

“I think we have enough berries. We should head back” Astrid decides as she tightens the hold on the sack after closing it up and putting the weight on her good arm. She pockets the knife instead of locking it with the sack of berries. She is quick to keep a hand over Jeremy’s shoulder as they turn back and start walking as fast as they can.

Regardless of how fast they walk she could still hear the noises, the night’s snow was starting to melt which made their steps even slippery, Astrid couldn’t hear the growls anymore but she could feel it following them, through the shadows almost taunting them. And a second later she notes the familiar shade of grey passing through the shades of the trees, previously hidden by the snow that covered the inner core of the forest. The wolf wasn’t even running or chasing, it was stalking, as if it knew there is no way they were escaping.

Astrid drops the sack of berries and pushes of Jeremy’s too. Making sure the knife is safely secured before she starts walking even faster.

“Jer, Run” she commands just as she herself sprints forwards, the boy is afraid but she can feel his footsteps echo behind her. They just needed to get within pack territory and this time around maybe one of the Vikram werewolves would note a strange Alpha in their territory, she was praying that the Vikram pack was smart enough be a little more vigilant after the last time.

She runs, for once the cold not biting into her skin as adrenaline has her heart rabbiting, one eye on Jeremy and one eye on the path ahead. It all goes to hell once Jeremy slips and falls on something, Astrid is quick to pause, but the second she bends down to help him up a blur of grey and red unfurls and falls right ahead of them. Eyes the color of deep blood glowing red and body massive as he looms over them, Astrid falls right beside Jeremy at the sight of the familiar beast.

“f**k- f**k- Jeremy, get up- GET UP, JER” she shouts, but the boy is simply frozen in place. She jumps in front of Jeremy to hide the terrified boy, walking forward to divert the attention of the massive wolf to her rather than him.

But the Wolf seems to know exactly what he is doing because his eyes turn to Jeremy laying on the forest floor. Astrid throws a rock at it, fixating the eyes back on her. It opens its mouth and regardless of seeing it before the sight of the fangs have Astrid shaking once again. The wolf jumps and Astrid stops breathing and her eyes shut close waiting for the impact, but once she opens her eyes she notes that it has went right past her and she could hear Jeremy scream’s echo.

Jeremy is crawling back, screaming along as the wolf stalks after him. There is blood on the patches of snow still left behind and Astrid traces it back to his leg that is clawed now, the wolf growling all the while. Jeremy’s screams get louder as he crawls on his elbows, the wolf walking right over him.

Astrid doesn’t have time to think, so she doesn’t, she takes the knife in her pocket with shaky fingers and surges towards the large grey beast. The knife goes in with a crack to the back of the wolf, right below its neck to which Astrid grabs on desperately. The wolf doesn’t make a noise, but it turns its head with bright red eyes and Astrid falls to the ground after losing her grip, her wrist aching from the impact of shoving the knife that seemed to barely pass through the fur.

This time around it’s Astrid’s turn to crawl away from the beast because the wolf is focused on her; the knife still at its back, now red staining its grey fur where it made the impact. But after an inch or two she can’t seem to move, the notion of just what she did finally dawning on her. The knife wasn’t very sharp; there is no way the wolves would hand something potentially seriously dangerous to them. The wolf was strong. The stab wouldn’t even have breached its skin at all if it weren’t for the force of the jump it took for her to stab at it. But it’s still a stab, it’s still an attack on an Alpha werewolf by a human, the punishment is even worse than death, for her and every other slave in the whole f*****g city maybe.

The wolf’s front legs come down to the side of her head and Astrid falls easily, her head hitting the quickly melting snow and rocks below. Astrid doesn’t try to move, not when she can’t even breathe. The wolf’s nose comes down on to her head, jaws slowly extending but instead of the teeth that she expected it’s the tongue that passes over her face, covering her face with slobber before it starts licking frantically all over her.

“What –What is wrong with you?!” she asks almost hysterically, her voice cracking at the edge of panicked tears. The wolf reacts by biting at her jacket, causing Astrid once again to lose her breath when she could almost feel the sharp fangs tearing through the clothing, and then it rips the jacket away in one swift motion until the cold hits her with a sudden force.

“Oh- God-” Astrid panics and tries to wiggle away from the fangs and paws probing at her skin, but the wolf growls at her face until she stills.

The wolf doesn’t rip her shirt away, so at least her death won’t be of its sick s****l fantasies. But the beast doesn’t stop sniffing and licking, not until it gets to her trackered wrist.

“No-No- Not this again- This is f*****g insane, just s***h at me if you are going to kill me you asshole” she tries to push away from the beast.

Astrid eventually stops screaming when all of a sudden she feels the trackers loosening around her wrist, and then in a mere second she feels the thing fall off her wrist. Astrid is so shocked that she doesn’t even raise her arms up to see whether she is making it all up in her head or not.

Mostly because she is pretty sure she is making it up, like some kind of sick day dream before she is eventually eaten by those angry fangs and red eyes. But then she feels the other wrist loosen just as the other one until eventually it falls away too. The Beast doesn’t even have to touch her ankles before she feels the tracker in her legs fall onto her now soggy socks.

“W-What?” she chokes out at last as the wolf is still staring at her, and then out of nowhere it’s head literally falls into her chest, Astrid’s lungs almost constraining at the sudden weight as its head covered most of her chest and abdomen.

She almost think it’s because of the knife until she notes that it is still sniffing, licking and now making happy purring sounds on her f*****g chest as it rubs it’s head all over her stomach and ribs, now adding a paw into pressing her down.

Astrid is so shocked that a good few second passes before she sees the knife still stabbed to the back of the wolf’s neck, she could probably reach forward and take it, but she is afraid to move her arm. She takes a deep breath before she forces herself to raise her arm; there is a sickly pale patch of circle skin where the trackers used to be, contrasting the tan skin besides it vividly. This time when tears spring to her eyes, it’s echoed by a hysteric laugh at the sight of her free hands.

“You have magic spit, Okay” she realizes as she tries to choke back her tears, “That’s real cool”

She reaches the shaking hand towards the knife cautiously, but the wolf doesn’t seem to give a f**k where she touches that it doesn’t even react when she finally gets a hold of the knife. When she pulls it back, the blade is bent, and it takes a total of two second before the wound heals and only a patch of red blooded fur is left as proof.

The wolf stares at her again when she take out the knife, licks at her nose and goes back to laying its head on her now seemingly crushed stomach.

Astrid has no idea what to do now, if the wolf hadn’t taken of her god damn indestructible trackers with its magical spit and isn’t currently cuddling on her stomach like she was some kind of catnip- ‘wolfnip’ laced pillow, she would probably try and stab the knife back into its neck. She wouldn’t succeed because the f*****g blade is bent for god’s sake, but she would probably get killed anyway. But the earlier mentioned circumstances do apply, so she takes in a deep breath and drops the knife and her hand to the ground.

She only moves when the wolf’ snout gets to her bandaged shoulders again, where the wound that the wolf created was barely starting to heel as it is, magic spit or not she wasn’t interested in opening it up again and with the way the thing pawed at it, Astrid would bet good money on the fact the wolf wanted just that. Luckily it moves back when she pushes at its face again. But it stays there circling and licking for a few more paranoid and shocked minutes before it finally retreats. Astrid almost falls to the ground again simply just to lie there, but she is reminded of Jeremy at the last minute before she can pass out or wonder about just what the f**k was happening around her.

She gets to her feet shakily before walking over to Jeremy who has crawled to the shade of a large birch tree, seemingly hiding his face in a nook; his right leg is bleeding and shaking where he sits. Astrid notes that he is crying only after she smells the scent of urine on the ground.

“Oh, Jer- Hey, It’s okay- It’s me, It’s gone alright? That thing is gone” she crouches beside him and takes his face in her hands, letting the boy hang his weight to hers.

It takes a few minutes but she gets him back up to his feet, his leg messily tied in her ripped off jacket. The wound is not bad, nothing deep from what she could see and all the major nerves and muscles were still seemingly intact, but there was still some bleeding and maybe a risk of infection because it was probably the first time Jeremy was getting hurt this way, he was going to be alright and at the moment Astrid focused on that, the one thing she could ensure and did make sense of instead of everything else.

“It doesn’t look too deep, so it’s fine- but I am sure you mom or Mrs. R can bandage it up” she assures the boy, trying not to show just how bad her own voice was shaking.

“No” Jeremy protests surprisingly, “We –We shouldn’t tell them, they’ll know about your wrist” he says, obviously noting her missing trackers after witnessing the whole ordeal.

“Oh, Buddy- That’s not- You don’t have to protect me-” She tries saying.

“No- Astrid, No- they’ll tell the wolves, My mom will tell the werewolves - we should grab the berries and go back- Don’t tell them Astrid, they’ll put it back or sell you again- Please don’t-“ He begs this time. Astrid is already too shocked to be further surprised at the unexpected insistence of the boy.

“Hey, okay- okay- I wasn’t going to- I-I’ll bandage your leg okay, as soon as we get back we are taking a shower and I’ll take care of your leg” She decides.

Astrid has to go back for the sack but Jeremy is seemingly too spooked to be left alone despite his brave words. Astrid has to assure him that the distance isn’t too far; that he will see her if he looks and even then they take a couple more minutes to just stay there. Once Jeremy is assured Astrid does get the berries.

They set their journey forward again, this time together, both equally shaken for various reasons, Jeremy for his first actual dangerous encounter with a werewolf and Astrid at the shock of being granted her freedom by the same dangerous werewolf.