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15

Alice

The loose-fitting clothes were the least of my concern. I had just come back from the dead. I had just shifted for the first time in my life. Raw power coursed through my body. It might as well be the adrenaline after the fight we just had. It might be my new form running overtime to heal me from the toll the bullets had taken on my body. Whatever it was, I felt infinite.

The events that had just happened were all a little too rushed and fast for me to process them in their entirety. So, instead of focusing on what had happened, I chose to follow Brandon. He had more experience in this sort of thing.

Piling the corpses on top of each other was a nauseating task. I barely had any control over myself when I shifted. I remembered that I was attacking the soldiers. I did not remember that I had murdered so many in cold blood. It wasn’t as if they didn’t deserve it. I could recall the brutality with which they had pinned me, made me get down on my knees and later shot me with no regard for my life.

“What are we going to do with this mess?” I asked. My mind was barely present, despite the shocking sight of all the dead bodies and their scattered firearms. I couldn’t wait to shift back into a wolf. The power and the energy I had felt were beyond describing. When I was a wolf, I was so lithe. Everything felt so light, movement was not a matter of moving my muscles as much as it was a matter of thinking of a direction and flowing that way effortlessly. Gravity had no hold on me when I was a wolf.

And the pleasure. The pleasure of merely breathing air in my wolf form was so intense. It wasn’t as if I was breathing in air. It was as if I was replenishing every single cell of my body with each breath I took. The pleasure of putting my paws on the ground, the joy of seeing the world with my eyes, the ecstasy of being unbound in my wolf form—I felt truly infinite.

“Alice,” Brandon waved his hand in front of me. “I know you’re experiencing joy as you’ve never felt before. It’s not going to go away anytime soon. It doesn’t even get less intense either. Every time you shift, it will be like the first time. But right now, babe, we’ve got to focus. We don’t have much time,” he said.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry,” I said. I was anything but.

“As for what we’re going to do to them … we’re going to burn their bodies. Send a message,” he said gravely.

“Brandon, the smell from burning them will be unbearable. Not to mention the flames will burn down the forest. Someone from the city’s going to come and pry. They’re going to see a giant pile of dead bodies. They’re going to freak out,” I said. My brain felt sharper in the wake of my new powers. I could think more clearly.

“What do you suggest we do?” Brandon asked as he threw the last body on top of the pile. “We can’t just leave them here.”

“No one said anything about leaving them here,” I said. “They were our enemies, sure. But now they’re dead. The dead deserve some respect. The least we can do is bury them. Or better yet, ooh, Brandon, I have the best idea,” I said. Then I shared what I’d come up with.

 

   

There it was, the infinite pleasure that ran through my body. Once again, I was a wolf. This time around, after Brandon had thoroughly explained how I was supposed to remain in control, I was much more myself.

Brandon and I had climbed atop the trees in the clearing, keeping a watchful eye on the corpses. Our plan was simple. Well, my plan. Whoever had sent these men would be wanting a status report right about now. At least, that’s how they showed it in the movies. Soldiers like these were pawns being controlled by someone back at a home base. The headquarters. I had told Brandon that since these soldiers had come in so many numbers, their home base might be very near. Brandon had then given his input, which was that the DOPC operated in pure secrecy. They wouldn’t want to be discovered by someone trekking through the forest. They would come for the corpses of their fallen soldiers.

“Giving us the right opportunity to track their base down,” I finished his sentence.

And now, here we were, perched atop the firs.

Right on the mark, just as we had anticipated, a recon team appeared underneath.

“No signs of the wolves?” the captain spoke.

“Apart from all our comrades they’ve killed?” another soldier spat.

“Report to HQ immediately,” the captain said, then took out his walkie-talkie. “Requesting immediate assistance five clicks north of the location. Men down, I repeat, men down. Casualty count upwards of fifty. The alpha team has been eliminated. The wolves are still at large. Over.”

My keen senses allowed me to hear the voice coming from the walkie-talkie even from this distance.

The voice said, “Report from Teams Bravo to Delta?”

The captain responded: “Team Bravo, Team Charlie, and Team Delta are still mission-bound, engaging hostiles within the perimeter. Over.”

The voice asked, “Are there prisoners?”

The captain said, “We have taken fifteen prisoners, en route to HQ, ETA half an hour. Over.”

Brandon! Prisoners? Multiple teams? I asked.

If this means what I think it means, the Creed is in danger. Fifteen prisoners are far too many. I wonder if they got to the other packs as well, Brandon replied. Even though his voice was telepathic, I could still sense the panic in it.

What do we do? Attack? I asked.

That’ll only alert them of our presence. We have the element of surprise. Before we go back to the reservation, we should follow these soldiers back to their base, and see where it’s at.