Chapter 2

I paced the small clearing we have found, back and forth angrily. Alice sat watching me while eating a damn Twinkie I had got her last week.

It was a luxury that she didn’t deserve at the moment.

I stood in front of her and stomped the ground to get her attention, but the damn girl lowered her head and kept ignoring me.

I raised my arms up and screeched as silently as possible.

“You know what you have done. This entire thing was wrong, Alice. We could have died over there and for what, a human? A human who next time she sees us will try to fucking cut off our heads. We had to leave her all alone again to fend for herself, so all of this was useless.”

 Alice licked her fingers clean after finishing the damn thing and looked up at me.

‘I don’t care Alexandria. I can’t stand there and watch them rape her. This is fucked up.’ She said, clenching her fists.

I growled deeply. “Language little pup. I won’t tolerate this disrespect. Don’t fucking cuss.”

 She smirked and cocked her brow, making me growl again.

“I’m an adult. I do the fuck I want, unlike you. Besides, show me some respect. I’m your fucking Alpha.”

She whimpered and I hated this, I shouldn’t have ordered her in that way, but she needs to listen to me.

I crouched when she offered me her neck and rubbed our cheeks together.

 “You are my only family. My pack, Alice. I have been taking care of you for ten years now since that day I have found you drenched in blood and watching the stupid ones eat your parents.”

Alice closed her eyes and nodded once and I kissed her cheek and the crook of her neck. There was no need to nibble it. That was enough. I stood up and offered her my hand.

“Now, go and train your breathing. You know you can’t hold it more than two minutes and this is unacceptable.” The little pup groaned but did as I have commanded her.

I sat on the log and watched her do her exercises. Even though we argue each day, I’m so proud of her.

 As I said, it has been ten years since I found her sitting in a puddle of her parent’s blood, eyes wide and mouth open in a silent scream. 

She was watching the stupid ones, the human zombies or the infected, eating them.

And since that day, she didn’t say a word. I taught her sign language. My mother was one of those Asl teachers and she forced dad and me to learn it.

I think I should send her a pray as a thank you for this.

I was sixteen at the time and Alice was only eight. After taking her with me, I kept her safe and taught her everything my parents had taught me.

To me, Alice was like a little sister, not just a pack member.

I was one of the unlucky shifters who didn’t have a wolf. Or bloodline was so dilated that I was only a quarter wolf who can’t shift, though I have all the other perks.

The speed, endurance, and strength. I have claws and canines too, so that was a good thing, better than nothing.

But Alice was different. She wasn’t human or a shifter. No, she was something else entirely. Something all of us have heard about in old stories, but never thought it was real. 

I sighed, then cracked my neck and closed my eyes, trying to get some rest before nightfall.

It felt like I have slept for two minutes most when Alice shook me. She signed quickly.

 ‘A group of humans is coming this way. Two women, one man and four kids.’

 I sat straighter and rubbed my eyes and looked around. The night has fallen already.

‘Are you sure that they are just humans, no funny business?’ I signed and stood stretching my arms and yawned. Alice nodded her head and pointed to the east.

And like she said, the group came walking with uncertain steps, looking around them. They should be scared, no one should move this late at night.

They should have made a camp somewhere. They stopped and huddled together when they saw us.

I raised my hands in a placating gesture to show them that I’m not a threat, but the male pointed an ancient gun at us. I sighed, already tired.

“We mean you no harm, man. You and your family are safe here. Neither I nor my girl will hurt you. You can spend the night in our camp. It is secure.”

I said in a low voice and talked as if I was talking with a frightened animal.

The man kept pointing his gun at us and spoke. “You are a shifter. I can see your eyes glowing under the moonlight.”

He looked around us skeptically, now afraid that there were more of us.

I nodded my head. There is no good in lying here. He was right; I’m a shifter, sort of.

 “Yes, I’m a wolf and my friend here is human, just like you. We can share our camp with you. It is stupid and irresponsible to move this late at night. The other undead supernatural can see at night, unlike the stupid one.”

A little girl peeked around the man. She wasn’t older than six years. “The stupid ones? You mean the infected human.”

 She asked with a bright smile, happy with herself for figuring it out. I chuckled. It was very endearing.

“Yes, little pup. You are correct because, unlike shifter zombies, as you call them, human ones are stupid. Even though the supernatural gets infected too, they still keep their strength and powerful senses. Though, they aren’t that aware of their surroundings. They are smarter than human zombies.”

The girl looked at me with impressed, curious eyes. She walked toward us and stood in front of me. Her mother cried out, calling for her daughter, but the little girl ignored her. 

“Then what should we do when we meet one? Run?” I ruffled her hair and her mother gasped. I gave her a small smile to assure her that I mean no harm before talking to the little human pup.

“No, if you ever met an infected shifter no matter what, don’t run. Because if you did that you will awaken its primal instinct and it will hunt you down.”

The girl looked at me, silently debating her next question. But I kept going.

“You should wait for the last second and cut off their head. That is the only way to kill an infected, right? Humans or shifters.” The girl nodded enthusiastically and ran back to her mother.

After an hour or so, the family settled down and the man approached me. “I’m sorry about what I have done, but you know how it is now.” I smiled at him behind the ski mask.

“You did nothing wrong. You were protecting your family. But next time please, if you met any shifters just leave, not all of us are kind beings.” The man nodded and stared at his family.

“We had to leave the house we were using. There was a group of bikers who were scouring the area for supplies, so we ran. We took nothing with us. It is a blessing that we have two breastfeeding babies.”

 The man said with a frown on his face.

I pursed my lips and shut up. It wasn’t a blessing; it was a curse for so many reasons, but I didn’t tell him that.

“Look, we can’t stay together for long. This isn’t a power in numbers situation as you know, but I will go now and hunt you something to feed your family.”

I said, embarrassed for ditching him like that, but it was bound to happen.

The man shook my shoulders gratefully and almost cried. “Thank you so much for your kindness.” I extracted myself from his grasp and went to Alice.

‘Let’s go and check on the traps we have made yesterday. We might find something to eat.’ I signed to her, and she scowled at me.

‘But we said we will dry the meat. Our supplies are almost at the bottom.’ She looked at me with her green eyes, confused.

I signed. ‘I know what I have said. But these people need it more than us. We can always hunt whenever we want.’

Ok, it was a lie. Games are so scarce recently even though the entire world has become one big jungle.

After the pandemic and the chaos the world went through, Mother Nature claimed everything. Entire cities turned into green, lush forests, but it was useless.

There were no edible fruits to eat or clean animals to hunt. It was a sick and twisted joke from the gods. 

I got my backpack and sword and headed to the first trap we had made and as expected I found nothing.

The second one had a small rabbit. I caught it and cut off his head and skinned it quickly and strapped it to my backpack.

The last trap had a minor problem. It had caught a nice wild boar, but the problem was that my catch was surrounded by a few wolves.

Real ones, not the shifters. The only good thing was that the animal was still alive.

Alice put down her things and signed. ‘Let me handle this.’ I shook my head no. She smells like a human and they would attack her at the first sight.

‘Let me do it. We both have a thing in common.’ She huffed and wrapped her arms around her chest, and glared at me.

She always complained that I still treat her like a baby and yes, I do. She is my little pup. I won’t let her get hurt.

I walked towards the pack of wolves and growled, gaining their attention. The alpha came in front of me and gave me a growl of his own.

Alice snickered and I knew what she wanted to say, but I rolled my eyes and ignored her.

“Look body, I know the feeling but I really need that boar over there. It was my kill and I have mouths to feed.” The wolf stood its ground and snarled at me.

I stretched and let my pheromones seep through the air and snarled back. My canines flashed and my eyes glowed in the dark. I growled at him again.

“Leave, this is my kill, my territory wolf.” The wolf whimpered and lowered its body, showing me his belly. His five back mates did the same.

I sighed and went to it and rubbed its belly softly. “Ok, I will give you and your family half of our kill, but on one condition. You come with me and guard our camp.”

 The wolf whined again, but his tail shook jauntily.

Behind me, Alice laughed like the stupid prat that she was and signed.

‘Now we are helping poor wolves too.’

I glared at her and went to the trap. I cracked the boar neck and headed back to our camp.

The women screamed when they saw the wolves trailing behind me and I laughed a little.

“Don't worry, they are harmless. They know who the alpha here is. They won’t hurt you.”

One of the women, the mother of the little girl, shrieked at me. “Are you out of your mind? These are wild animals. They will eat us in our sleep.”

 I dropped the dead animal and glared at her.

“I’m a wild animal, too. The only difference is that I can speak and I look just like you.” The woman fisted her hands and sneered at me.

“You are hiding behind that mask. You might be one of those savages that will eat us in our sleep too with those damn wolves.”

 The male came toward her and dragged her away before I can reply.

I took the boar and went to the small lake and gutted then cleaned it, with a sour mood. The alpha wolf sat beside me and whined.

I patted his head and sighed. Humans are crueler than anything in this world and stupid, too.

Just when I was about to leave a scream broke the silence. I ran back to the camp and found a group of the undead attacking the small family.

 I searched for Alice and found her with the wolves fighting them in the back.

I snatched my double-bladed sword and separated it into two halves, then advanced on the stupid ones who were trying to get to the two women and kids.

I cut their heads off, then went to the rest.

The alpha wolf beside me herded the ones to my left towards the empty spot to my right. I killed those three and found Alice and the rest of the wolves have killed the remaining ones.

“Are you ok? Did anyone get hurt?” I checked on the pups first then the grownups and sighed in relief when I found minor cuts and some scratches.

Not a big deal. We don’t turn from stuff like that, as in movies and series. If you weren’t a zombie, then you will never be. Simple like that.

The male human hugged his family and looked back at me.

“Thank you so much, you have saved us.”

 I nodded, then went back to my kill, rethinking my decision.

I’m as stupid as Alice. We are hopeless.