Serge's POV

I ran through the forest, my paws hitting the frozen ground, my claws helping me find purchase when I might have slipped on frozen puddles.

I knew the moment I was certainly out of range of Elise. I could not feel it, but I could imagine what she was experiencing. I had seen it up close when she had gotten too far from me with Karen.

And I could not remedy the attacks of the curse on her right now. All I could do was focus on what was before me.

Destroy the invaders. I pushed on. Two of my fighters, Patwin and Brock, joined me and ran in pace.

I heard the sound of static crackling in my ear and heard Sierra's voice come in over my headset. "Serge, we're falling back to buy time for reinforcements to arrive. There's more than normal."

I did not stop. My scout knew I was running and that I would not waste the time it took to respond.

It had been fortunate that my patrols had stumbled upon this new attack just as they breached my territory.

My low growl and my rhythmic footfalls were the only sounds that broke the silence around me. Though the forest was frozen, my anger at the eastern king as hot as it had ever been. His forays into my lands made the wolf in me want to bring him to his knees. The only thing that would satisfy the feral part of my nature would be to see him cowering in submission before me.

I barred my teeth as I continued pounding through the forest. That was a dream I had little hope of seeing come to fruition, but I felt new determination spark within me. There were other ways to strengthen our defenses. Surely we could install cameras, sensors, or invested in a fleet of surveillance drones?

Perhaps drones were the answer. Budgets were ever tight, especially with the downturn of the economy and fewer of my pack members working south and bringing money back to the territories, but perhaps we could manage it by pinching pennies elsewhere.

Besides, such an investment in such technology might pay off in the long run. It would give weaker members of the pack a way to contribute without putting them in the direct line of danger. Patrols would still be necessary, but perhaps some of the weight could be shifted.

Maybe I could get Nicholas and Austin on board, although it seemed unlikely. Austin might be convinced, but Nicholas had only just upgraded to a satellite phone.

He was also understandably still silently infuriated when forced to deal with me.

That was a problem for another day. We were getting closer.

The crackling sounded in my ear again. "Austin's reinforcements are here, Dan's engaging," Sierra's voice came through steadily.

I grinned wolfishly. We would make it in time to engage the enemy before Austin's forces combined with mine to finish them off.

Though it was never far from my mind that the whole mess with Elise was unforgivably my fault, there was one other villain in the scenario and if I got there fast enough I could vent my frustrations on some of his forces.

* * * * * * * * *

We passed Sierra, crouching in her human form tucked under branches of an evergreen tree. Besides her headpiece, she was wearing only leggings, a t-shirt and sandals. She was peering through a pair of binoculars with one hand and hugging her midriff as if to retain what little heat she could with the other.

She was likely freezing. I appreciated her dedication and barked appreciatively as I rushed past.

"They're up ahead," she called. "Fighting's split into three groups."

I barked my acknowledgement and rushed forward.

The howls and sounds of the battle were becoming clearer and I was eager to join. I could see one of Austin's pack wrestling an attacker to the ground, fight well in hand. I and my two fighters pushed forward into the fray.

The scent of blood was sharp in the air. I spotted an unengaged enemy and rushed him, going straight for his throat.

Iron filled my mouth and I released a growl. He had not stood a chance, but I did not care. They were trying to hurt my people and I would not stand for it.

I let the liquid drip from my mouth as I whirled and faced my next enemy, a hulking black furred brute of a wolf. He lunged at me and I barely moved in time to save myself from taking the blunt of the attack.

The man was a monster. It was seldom that a single eastern wolf could match any of my people in strength, but this one was doing a good enough job of it. I had become accustomed to cutting through the weak eastern forces, so I was surprised to find one that could match me so readily.

There was blood on his breath and I wondered who had fallen. Static crackled in my ear, but the words were meaningless to me.

He lunged again to my side and I spun to try to get my jaws on him. His teeth nicked my flesh, but there was little enough harm done. I felt my teeth clamp on air. He was fast, too.

We lunged and dodged in a furious dance that would be deadly if even one of us made the wrong move.

Then there was sharp pain on my leg as it was pulled out from under me by the teeth of a second attacker. I growled my rage at the surprise attack. I wrenched my limb from the strong jaws as the brute went for my throat again.

I moved forward unexpectedly as he closed in and got my teeth on his shoulder. A good wound, but nowhere near the kill I had been hoping for. I spun around, my leg aching, and snapped at the other attacker, warning them to stay away, keeping my attention fixed around me for signs of more threats. The smaller attacker paused, but the brute was undeterred. He rushed me and the second followed his lead.

Damn it. I met his attack and slipped to the side as I put the brute's body between me and his sidekick, buying myself a few seconds before they would be on me again.

As the second wolf circled to put me back in his range, Brock engaged him in his own battle, leaving me alone with the brute again. I disregarded the smaller wolf. Brock was a promising young fighter and could easily defeat such a weak eastern challenger.

I fixed my gaze on the brute and went towards him.

A shrieking howl sounded out from beyond the fighting, far past the edge of my territory. The large black wolf backed up, growled at me and then spun and began to run in the other direction.

All the enemy forces were giving up and fleeing.

I howled loudly to signal to my pack to give chase to the retreating enemies. I heard the leader of Austin's team echo my howl. A harmony of howls followed our cries and my forces began running forward after the escaping threat.

I ran as fast as I could, but my speed was diminished by the injury to my right leg, most of my pack outstripping me. I saw Patwin snap his teeth at one of the retreating wolves and one of Austin's wolves joined him to cut the enemy off.

Patwin was on him in a flash and between him and Austin's pack member he was brought to the ground, Patwin's teeth threateningly digging into his neck.

The enemy knew that he was a hair's breadth from death. I strolled over to the prone enemy and showed him my teeth. He went limp.

I transformed and my wound screamed in protest. The ground was freezing beneath my human soles and the cold air bit at my skin. My mouth tasted unpleasantly of metal. I crouched down before the prone wolf. "Transform back to human. Fight and you die in pain."

The wolf did nothing for a long moment, then he began to transform, revealing a sandy haired young man, perhaps a couple of years younger than me. Patwin loosened his grip slightly, but trails of blood still slipped down the young man's neck as he lay upon the frozen ground.

"Good job, Patwin. Bring him; lock him up," I ordered. I turned and walked away, ignoring the wet snow under my feet.

I pushed the button on my headset. "Sierra, have everyone clean up and return back to town."

"On it, Serge," she said.

I heard the crackling as she relayed my orders to the pack.

I transformed back into my wolf form, my leg protesting again. I ignored it. I needed to get back and rescue my thrall.

* * * * * * * * *

As I ran, my mind spun through the battle, the aftertaste of blood still marring my tongue.

When I blinked I saw the vision of my teeth ripping into flesh.

I pushed the thought away, along with the pain that kept thrumming in my leg to the beat of my heart. My mind wandered through the conflicted mess of thoughts in my head, problems that would not stop reasserting themselves.

The eastern attacks had been little more than mild harassment through my childhood, one every year or two. They had been a problem, but we had handled them easily and felt relatively secure.

Then there was the attack that took my parents and left me scrambling to figure out how I was going to manage the disaster left behind. The attacks from the eastern wolves increased in the warm months and just when I finally had thought I had everything under control, I cursed Elise and caused a myriad of new problems.

There had been two attacks in quick succession. Things were rapidly moving beyond my control. My pack needed me to lead, but trust was shaken. I was not allowed to make mistakes and I had made the biggest one imaginable.

I also worried about what state I would find her in. Another thing to—in part—blame the eastern king for.

What the hell did he want from us?

They had been trying to secure our submission since the time of the current king's father, but why did they want it? Our packs had lived quietly and peacefully until they came to us and made their demands.

We had refused, of course. We were and will ever be free people; our ultimate allegiance only to ourselves and to God and country. So far we had held them off, guerilla style.

It was hard to believe we had managed. The Rocky Mountain wolves had fallen to the eastern forces about fifteen years ago. There were rumours that a few had escaped and were living in secret, but I had no idea how to test the veracity of such accounts.

The eastern king had more resources than we could ever dream of getting our hands on. While we had the advantage of familiarity and we typically outmatched those wolves in one on one battles every time, they had at least double our population, from what we could surmise. What held him back from simply eradicating us entirely as they had done to the wolves in the Rockies?

What was the purpose of these new attacks? To wear us down? To stretch our forces? To hit our morale?

I growled to myself. There were so many unanswered questions.

* * * * * * * * *

Relief washed over me when I reached the town. Using my teeth, I grabbed the clothing I had abandoned when I first shifted as I ran by my house. I followed the road as quick as I could, my leg hurting with each footfall. I ignored the pain until I got to the shelter. I quickly transformed and my wounds stretched and reopened again. I wasted no time and pulled on my old t-shirt, track pants and well broken in runners.

I could see that my people had already heard about our victory and I heard words of relief and excitement as I strode by. They either could not see what a mess I was or they did not care. Just as apparent were the people who remained solemnly silent as I passed.

Karen walked towards m and before I could even ask, she said, "She's still downstairs."

I jogged into the building and descended the stairs in twos.

My thrall was cowering in a chair in the corner. Karen's daughter and my petite administrative assistant were beside her.

"Come on," Jodi said. "Serge will rip my head off if I order you to move, but that won't stop me."

I hoped Elise could see Jodi's exaggerations for what they were and was not getting even more scared of me. I had never actually ripped off someone's head, it would take an incredible amount of force. I would never harm one of my own people in such away and there was no time for such grand theatrics in the heat of battle.

I did not mention my annoyance to Jodi, however. She was an incorrigible tease and my complaint would be nothing more than blood in the water to the miniscule shark. She was a master of finding a person's last nerve, when she was so inclined.

Then, when she finally pushed someone too far she used her disarming five foot stature to demonstrate her helplessness. Although she would claim there were two more inches to her height, I hardly cared. It was barely a rounding error.

I knew her tricks so they did not work on me, but I had watched her in action often enough on other members of my pack. I ignored it. She was a competent worker and loyal despite her bothersome ways. I was not my job to police such small matters.

I interrupted before she could continue regaling Elise with exaggerated tales of my blood thirsty cruelty. "Thank you, Jodi."

She turned to me, "No problem, Serge. I'll be a bit late in the morning, though."

I sighed. "We all will."

She held up my rifle. "I'll put this in your truck and leave the keys behind the front tire."

I thanked her and she turned to my thrall. "Later, Elise." I could hear her boots clicking as she went up the stairs.

Karen's daughter flashed me an adorable smile and wandered up the stairs.

I did not spare that sweet expression that mercifully lacked either pity or blame more than a moment's thought. I knelt down beside my thrall's chair. "Elise? Are you okay?" It was a stupid question.

She nodded. I feared that my absence had obliterated the gains she had been making for the past week. I put my hand on hers, wondering if it would work like when I nudged her shoulder with my muzzle. I could feel her quivering, but otherwise she did not move.

It was certain that ordering her would be effective, but I did not want to. Instead I put one hand beneath her knees and the other behind her back and carried her out to my truck.

* * * * * * * * *

By the time we got back to the house, Elise had improved enough that she managed to walk on her own, although her steps were shaky and slow. I ensured she got inside and settled in her room before I returned to the truck and brought my rifle inside. Once it was safely locked away, I turned my attention to the wound on my leg that I had been ignoring.

It was a stinging mess. The shifting reopening the wound had done a number on it.

I groaned. If I did not deal with it, Doctor Fischer would probably give me a diatribe the next time I saw him. I did not have time for that, so I went to the washroom and dug out the first aid kit rather than simply ignoring it and resting as I would have preferred.

I poured hydrogen peroxide and watched as it bubbled against the open wound. I applied gauze and a bandage. Hopefully that would be enough to pacify the doctor. Then I walked to the fridge and pulled out a beer before collapsing on my couch.

My mind ran through everything that had happened and everything that was to come. There were so many problems for me to deal with and only one I had caused myself.

My life as leader of my pack was a battle that never ended; reinforcements kept coming for the enemies while my own forces were depleted.

I was so damn tired.

* * * * * * * * *