What kind of wolf am I? - 7. Chapter 7

Sasha

I jerked up from where I’d been studying. The text on modern literature in front of me: completely forgotten. Something was wrong. My stomach plummeted.

“Sasha?” Connor asked, looking up.

“Pack up my stuff, yeah?” I asked and broke into a run. Outside, I heard the distant sound of a wolf howling. It wasn’t the pack howl, but even so, I felt the pull of the howl in every nerve of my body, a cry for help. Goosebumps raised along my arms, I had never felt so drawn to answer a howl. As soon as I was off the neutral grounds, I shifted — my long-legged, white wolf form able to move a lot faster than my human one. The lone wolf continued to howl, and I followed the general direction of the call until it stopped. Until now it had sounded with a good five minutes in between. I slowed and stopped, waiting, but the howl didn’t sound again. I sniffed the air but didn’t smell anything but the markings of my own pack. I needed to call for them. After a few huffs to clear my airway, I howled but broke off. My wolf form didn’t perform the pack howl very well, the deep pitch always made my throat itch. Because of this, I usually didn’t like sharing my howl, but this was an emergency, and I tried again, this time managing a call for aid. At first, it wasn’t answered, and I raised my muzzle howled again, this time more urgent. After a moment, a distant response sounded from the direction of the city. I went running again, knowing they’d be coming.

The lonely wolf didn’t howl again and worry twisted my stomach. I wasn’t close enough that I could pick up any smell and hadn’t been close enough that I could downsize the area from where the call had come from. For a time, I track back and forth, trying to pick something up, anything. My mind went 180 miles an hour. Then I something struck me – I had identified the call. Something had seemed… familiar somehow, not because I had heard it before, it was more like an instinctive familiarity. Maybe I could… yes, the pitch had been higher, more like my own howl when I wasn’t using pack howl. I stopped my pacing and howled like I would when on my own. No response. Maybe the pitch hadn’t been quite right? Perhaps the pitch should be higher? Like how my own howl had always wanted but hadn’t dared? I raised my muzzled and howled again. The sound escaping my throat felt so right it had the hairs along my spine prickle. When I silenced a second went by and then, an answering howl, reasonably close by. I jumped up and began running again. It didn’t take long before I picked up the scent of unfamiliar wolfs, but also… my alpha? No, that couldn’t be right. Then…

Blood.

I ran faster.

I found him in a clearing, laying motionless on his side, and blood spattered all over the ground around him. A distressed whine escaping my throat as I darted across the clearing to his side. I whined and poked at him with my snout, there was no reaction. I started to panic. What should I do, what should I do?

A fearful whine sounded from the bushes to my right. My first instinct was to defend, and I sneered. Then a white snout emerged from the shadows and two large blue eyes stared at me, huge with apprehension. Slowly the wolf stood and came into the clearing fully facing me, her head held low. Two pups shuffled unsurely after her. Clearly, she didn’t mean any harm, it had most likely been her calling. I regarded her for a while, then the wind shifted, and her scent hit me.

Pack.

I was pulled out of my stupor by the sound of rustling in the bushes and in the next instant five wolves stood in the clearing. Only one thought ran through my head in that second.

Protect.