Trophy Cub - 13. Operation Kindred

Gunnar and Thomas pulled the Jeep off to the side of the road along the eastern edge of the State Wildlife Area. It was a few minutes before sundown, and they were right on schedule. Gunnar pulled out the bag that Susie had made for them. It was a messenger bag that had been covered in fake fur that matched Gunnar’s own bear fur color. They stripped down and stashed their t-shirts, pants, and sneakers in the bag. Gunnar fastened his wristwatch around the strap, and then hung the bag around his neck. He and Thomas shifted into their bear forms, and the bag hung around Gunnar’s neck like a collar, blending in seamlessly with the thick fur on his neck.

The watch on the bag beeped to indicate the exact time of sundown, and Gunnar and Thomas began running through the darkening woods in the direction of the compound and the pack house.

****

On the western edge of the Wildlife Area, Tim had maneuvered the flatbed stage off-road for a few hundred yards into a field and had parked with the stage parallel to the edge of the woods a dozen yards to the east.

“This is perfect,” Dixie confirmed. “The pack won’t be able to leave the tree-line and step foot into this field. They’ll all have to line up right along there, and we’ll be visible to everyone.”

An alarm beeped inside the cab of the truck.

“That’s sundown,” Tim called out in a stage whisper, “Let’s get it all set up!”

The She-Wolves and the Special-Ops team worked like a well-oiled machine. They each had a job to do, and twenty minutes later, the stage was set, the speakers and lights were hooked up to the control panel in the cab, and the curtains were raised and secured.

“Everything is going perfect so far,” Lupita whispered to Susie.

“Shh, bitch. Don’t jinx us,” Susie joked as she adjusted the straps of her dress one more time, pushing her chest up a little farther.

****

In the sacred clearing, Kane stood atop his rock, speaking to his pack. All the male members of the pack were there, looking up at him with the appropriate level of reverence. The female pack members were trickling in two and three at a time, not really giving much attention to his speech. Damn the Goddess of the Moon, he wished there were some way that he could force the females to show him the respect he deserved.

****

Gunnar and Thomas reached the edge of the woods and looked out across the grassy field at the eastern side of the pack house. There were two doors that they could see, one large set of glass double-doors on a big brick patio, and a smaller single door which was slightly closer to their position. They quietly discussed and agreed to go through the smaller door just to make sure that they were being as discreet as possible.

There were just a few minutes left before showtime. They shifted from their bear forms back into human and dressed in their clothing again for the assault on the pack house.

Gunnar kneeled and placed his right fist against his forehead and recited a prayer…

“Odin, langt vandrende, gi meg visdom,

Mot og seier.

Venn Thor, gi meg din styrke.

Og begge være med meg.”

(Odin, far-wanderer, grant me wisdom,

Courage, and victory.

Friend Thor, grant me your strength.

And both be with me.)

****

“Everybody ready?” Tim stage-whispered out of the driver’s side cab window, “Ten seconds to moonrise.”

“Ready” Susie whispered back.

“Ready” Roger replied.

The alarm in the cab beeped at exactly 6:31 pm, and Tim pushed the button on the control panel to start the music.

****

Kane finished his speech in the sacred clearing.

“It is now time to shed our human clothing and shift into our wolf forms to run with the moon!”

He jumped down from the rock and stripped his clothing, he shifted to his wolf and was immediately flanked by his Beta on his right and his Enforcer on his left. The rest completed their shifts as well, and a wolf pack, one-hundred strong, stood waiting at attention for their Alpha to howl and start the run.

Kane’s chest swelled with pride. He tipped his head back, and…

The sound of violins drifted across the sacred clearing. The violins built to a crescendo and a full orchestra joined in playing a hauntingly beautiful melody.

The wolves looked around at each other in confusion, and suddenly the orchestra was replaced by the voice of Lady Gaga…

“My name isn't Alice

But I'll keep looking, I'll keep looking for Wonderland

My name isn't Alice

But I'll keep looking, I'll keep looking for Wonderland, Wonderland”

Kane snarled and shouted to the pack in the wolf-language, “Find it my wolves! Find it and kill it!”

Kane howled, and one hundred wolves moved as one toward the western woods in search of the source of the abomination disrupting their holy full moon night.

****

Gunnar and Thomas heard the music and began running across the grass field. They reached the smaller door in the building and finding it unlocked, they quickly pulled it open and entered.

They were standing in a short hallway that was lined with a half-dozen numbered doors spaced out like apartments. They ran along the hall reaching an intersection of a much longer hallway. Turning left at random they continued running, desperately looking for a sign or even a “You are here” map on the wall that might show them where the stairs to the basement were.

They ran into a much wider hallway that seemed to be a central corridor from which the smaller hallways all branched. They turned right and headed toward a set of double doors at the end of the hall.

Bursting through the doors, they found themselves in a grand dining room of some kind. There were about twenty round tables in this room, covered with white tablecloths and surrounded by sturdy upholstered chairs. Sitting at the table in the corner nearest the doors was a lone lycan, very small, sitting by himself with a plate of peanut butter cookies and a glass of milk. Seeing him, the bears immediately ran in his direction to neutralize the possible threat.

Seeing two huge, bearded men burst through the dining room doors, Pip scented the air quickly and finding that they were not human but were instead bears, Pip leapt up from the table knocking over his glass of milk and threw himself on the floor on his back in submission.

Gunnar ran up and lifted the small wolf from the floor by the collar of his shirt.

“What are you doing in here?” Gunnar whispered at the wolf, “Why aren’t you out with the rest of the pack?”

“I’m the Omega,” Pip cried, “I’m being punished by the Enforcer and not allowed to run with the pack tonight. Tell me what you want, and I’ll give it to you, but please don’t kill me!”

“We’re looking for the human that you’re keeping here as a slave,” Gunnar growled, “He is bear kindred and he’s coming with us. Now.”

“I know where he is!” Pip cried with excitement, “I can take you there, but I want one thing in return… please!”

“You’re in no position to strike a bargain,” Thomas growled from Pip’s side, “But, name your terms.”

“Take me with you!” Pip begged.

 ****

The pack arrived at the western border of their territory. It appeared that the intruder was just outside of their reach, in a field just beyond the tree line.

A rainbow painted semi-truck was parked in the field. The flatbed in back was hidden by a tall panel of fabric, and the panel was awash in colored lights. As each of the pack individually arrived at the tree line, they stopped and stood staring, their wolves mesmerized by the combination of the thudding beat of the music and the swirling lights coming from the back of the truck.

Kane’s wolf stood, flanked by his Beta and Enforcer and snarled. He looked to his left and right and saw all his pack standing at the edge of the field as if hypnotized.

“We must attack and kill them,” Kane growled in the wolf-language to his officers.

“We cannot!” the Beta replied, stomping his paw. “The God of the Moon does not allow it. Unless they challenge or provoke us directly, we cannot cross the boundary line. It is one of the oldest of our laws. This is annoying and it is ruining our full moon run, but whoever they are, they haven’t done anything to justify crossing the boundary…yet.”

Kane snarled and snapped at his Beta.

“Fine,” Kane replied, “We will wait. They will eventually have to show themselves, and then intentionally or unintentionally they will provoke us to attack.”

****

Susie tiptoed to the front corner of the flatbed so that she could whisper to Tim, who was able to see the tree line through the tinted passenger window of the cab.

“Tim,” she called just loudly enough so that he could hear her over the music, “Are the wolves there?”

“Yeah,” Tim called back with a shaky voice, “They sure as fuck are. If I had to guess I’d say about a hundred of them, and they look pissed.”

“Well, it’s almost showtime,” Susie replied. “I’m getting into position. Listen for the cue and get ready to drop the curtain.”

The final intro song ended and was replaced by the orchestra again as the melody of Chromatica II swelled through the speakers. Tim hit the button on the control panel to release the curtains from the top of the frame.

The wolves watched, wide eyed and unbelieving as the fabric of the panels dropped to reveal a colorful backdrop, human figures in head-to-toe sequined outfits frozen in poses like living mannequins, and four lycans dressed in outlandish makeup, comically large wigs, and tight sparkling gowns. They were presenting themselves as if they were four caricatures of human females, but Kane could tell that they were, in fact, male wolves.

Kane growled and stared as he recognized one of the four as a male wolf who had been banished from the pack for same-sex attraction several years ago.

The orchestral music stopped, and the tall wolf in the middle of the stage raised a microphone and began to sing…

“Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh, oh-oh-oh

Caught in a bad romance

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh, oh-oh-oh

Caught in a bad romance”

The stage came alive with singing and dancing, music blaring and colored lights flashing. The sequined backup dancers were on point, and the She-Wolves’ singing voices were exceptional.

The wolves hopped back and forth among themselves agitated at the performance and snapping their jaws at each other as they fought for the best positions to watch the atrocity unfolding before them, but none daring to step across the boundary and attack lest they incur the wrath of the God of the Moon.

****

The small Omega wolf led Gunnar and Thomas through the hallways and to a set of stairs to the basement. Reaching the basement level, they followed him again through another maze of corridors past what appeared to be doors to offices.

“The stairs to the sub-basement aren’t connected to any of the other stairwells” the wolf explained as he ran along in front of the bears. “There is only one set that goes down there and it is at the end of the next hallway.”

“If we hadn’t run into this guy, I don’t think we would have found the sub-basement in time,” Thomas whispered to Gunnar as they ran. “I think your prayer to Odin and Thor brought us the luck that we needed.”

They reached the end of the corridor and found the staircase leading down. Running after the small wolf, they continued through a few more hallways in the sub-basement before coming to a halt in front of a door marked “Pet Kennel 1.”

“This is it,” the small wolf said with his head bowed. “Your human is inside. Please promise that you will take me with you, and I will lead you back outside as quickly as I can.”

“You have my word,” Gunnar replied, “Now, how do I unlock this door?”

The small wolf pressed his left palm against a panel above the doorknob, but there was just a buzzing sound and the panel turned red. He pressed his palm against the panel again, but with the same result.

“That’s supposed to turn green and open the lock,” the Omega said, “The Enforcer must have locked me out of the system.”

“Well, there’s more than one way to open a locked door,” Gunnar said, and he raised both fists in the air, and brought them down against the door with all of his force, breaking the hinges and knocking the door inward.

Gunnar peered into the room. The human was laying on a bed wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and he turned his head to look at the man standing in his doorway over the broken door. His eyes were sunken, and his face was pale. He weakly lifted his hand in Gunnar’s direction.

“It’s Mr. Bear!” Mike said straining through his dry throat. “Are you really here this time or is this another hunger and thirst hallucination?”

“I’m really here,” Gunnar replied kneeling down next to the bed and sniffing him, “Oh God, they’ve starved him half to death.”

“Water… please,” Mike said.

“Hang on,” the Omega wolf said and ran down the hall into another room, coming back with a bottle of water and tossing it to Gunnar from the doorway.

Gunnar opened the water and carefully poured it half of it into Mike’s mouth.

“Better?” Gunnar asked.

“A little,” Mike croaked. “Are you here to rescue me Mr. Bear?”

“Yes,” Gunnar replied.

“Then let’s get the fuck out of here!” Mike said, attempting to stand up.

“Agreed,” Gunnar replied, catching the frail human before he could fall down and picking him up in his arms to carry him out. “Omega wolf, let’s go.”

The small wolf led them back through the corridors to the stairs, and then along a different path through the basement offices and up another set of stairs until they emerged into a fancy foyer that they had not seen before and out of a set of glass double doors onto the brick patio they had observed from the trees earlier.

“We’re going to shift into our bear forms so that we can run through the woods quickly,” Gunnar explained to Mike, setting him down on the patio and starting to take his clothing off. “Once I’m a bear, you need to climb on my back and hold on tight, OK?”

“Yes, Mr. Bear,” Mike said, watching in a daze the two big men plus Pip removed their clothes and stuffed them into a furry messenger bag.

“We need to go through the woods that way a couple miles,” Gunnar explained to the Omega wolf as they finished packing their clothes, “We have a Jeep waiting at the side of the road. We’re going to rendezvous with the rest of our team near the freeway at the park with the caves.”

“I knew Mr. Bear was going to drag me off to his cave to fuck me,” Mike mumbled in his starvation delirium.

“What?” Gunnar asked in surprise.

“Ask him later,” Thomas interrupted with urgency, “The music just stopped. Our time is up. Let’s go!”

The three shifted into their bears and wolf. Gunnar crouched on the patio, and Mike climbed onto his back and grabbed big handfuls of neck fur. They stood and ran across the grassy field and into the woods.

****

The She-Wolves were nearing the end of their final Lady Gaga song, “Born This Way.”

“I was born this way, hey

I was born this way, hey

I'm on the right track, baby,

I was born this way, hey”

All four She-Wolves sang in perfect harmony holding their final poses as the six backup dancers hit their final spots crouched in front of the drag queens.

The music stopped, and Susie shouted into her microphone, “Hit it, Tim!”

The engine of the flatbed truck roared to life and the whole production began to move forward.

The six glittery backup dancers grabbed the front of their jumpsuits pulling them forward and off, revealing black tactical unforms, helmets, face shields and body armor. They reached behind their backs and pulled out semiautomatic rifles.

The drag queens slipped off their gowns and wigs and shifted quickly into four slender black wolves crouched behind their heavily armed backup dancers. The truck made a quick left turn and then headed across the field toward the road picking up speed.

The wolves along the tree line jumped and snarled as the object of their aggression began to escape, and there was nothing that they could do about it, since the God of the Moon would not allow them to leave their territorial boundary during the full moon.

One of the microphones rolled in front of Dixie’s wolf as they neared the road. Dixie shifted back into her human form and grabbed the mike to get the last word in with her old pack as they left.

“Suck on that, bitches!” she yelled into the microphone, “Bite my hairy ass!”

“Dixie, no!” screamed Susie shifting to human quickly, “Don’t provoke them!”

It was too late; the challenge to “bite Dixie’s hairy ass” had been given. Kane gave the “Attack!” howl as one hundred wolves crossed their territorial boundary and sprinted across the field in pursuit of the fleeing truck.

Susie stumbled forward, grabbed the back of the truck cab and screamed to Tim, “Floor it, we’ve got company!” before shifting back to her wolf again, prepared to fight.

The Special-Ops team opened fire spraying bullets across the field. A direct hit from a bullet would slow down a wolf for a few seconds, but then they would be right back on their feet running again. The truck hit a big bump, which knocked everyone on the flatbed temporarily off their feet and scattered the stage equipment everywhere, but it was the welcome bump of the truck getting back onto the paved road. As soon as he hit the asphalt, Tim floored it and the truck began picking up speed.

The wolf pack followed, running about ten to twenty yards behind the back of the truck and keeping pace for now. Special-Ops continued the constant gunfire, but there were too many and it wasn’t slowing them down nearly enough. With the additional speed on the road, the white curtain pooled along the back edge of the flatbed since the start of the performance began to fall off and flutter in the wind behind the truck. Before anyone could catch it, it was pulled completely off the end and was stretched out twenty feet, flapping behind the flatbed like an enormous white flag.

One of the wolves leading the pack gave an extra burst of speed and leaped forward, catching the edge of the curtain with his front claws as it waved behind the truck. The Special-Ops team opened fire and the wolf’s back feet went out from under him, but his front claws stayed hooked in the curtain as it dragged him behind. Other wolves used the opportunity to catch the curtain as it was dragging their packmate, and soon there were a dozen wolves with all four feet latched onto the curtain material being dragged behind the truck and within striking distance of the humans and She-Wolves.

The wolves slowly crawled their way up the curtain as it was dragged along, inching closer and closer to the back of the truck.

“Cut it,” Susie screamed, shifting back to human again so she could yell to the Special-Ops team, “Somebody cut the curtain!”

There were now at least thirty wolves packed shoulder-to-shoulder crawling up the long curtain being dragged behind the truck and the wolves in the lead were just a few feet from reaching the flatbed. Roger pulled a large hunting knife from a sheath at his side and leaped to the back left corner of the truck. He began crawling along the back edge of the flatbed slicing the curtain material as he went. Just as he reached the right corner, one of the wolves had finally climbed within striking distance and slashed his claws at Roger’s face knocking his face shield and helmet away. Roger cut the last bit of the curtain away, and all of the wolves tumbled onto the road behind the truck, falling over themselves and getting tangled up in twenty feet of loose curtain fabric.

Freed from the load being dragged behind it, the truck lurched forward and quickly pulled away from the remaining wolves still in pursuit who weren’t tangled up in the curtain. After a minute they were speeding down the dark road all alone with no wolves in sight.

Roger lay on his back on the flatbed, holding his hands to his face and gritting his teeth to keep himself from screaming. Susie, Dixie, and a couple of the Special-Ops guys ran to his side to assist him, pulling his hands away to assess the damage. The wolf who had slashed at his face had made contact. It had clawed completely through the face shield and left three very deep and bloody scratches on the left side of Roger’s face starting at his forehead and extending all the way to his jawline. Miraculously, Roger’s left eye was spared, but he would surely bear the three scars on his face for the rest of his life. Susie tore the cotton lining out of her discarded dress into a long strip of cloth and wrapped it around Roger’s face and head as a makeshift bandage.

“How bad is it?” Roger asked, “Give me the truth.”

“Truth is,” Susie replied, “Those scars are going to make you look like one hot and sexy bad-boy motherfucker. You’re going to get so much pussy after this, you’ll be swimming in it.”

****

Thomas turned right into the Cherney Maribel Caves Park drive. The gate was still closed and locked, so Thomas jumped out and broke the lock off with his bare hands. He pushed the gates open and then got back behind the wheel of the Jeep to finish driving to the rendezvous spot in the parking lot.

Pip had taken time to introduce himself to the bears on the drive from the pack compound and sat in the front passenger seat next to Thomas. Gunnar and Mike were in the back seat; Mike was still in starvation delirium, laying in Gunnar’s lap clutching handfuls of his shirt in terror, afraid to let go.

“Mr. Bear?” Mike began to ask.

“Please cub, call me Gunnar.”

“Mr. Gunnar,” Mike started again, “Are you going to drag me into your bear cave and fuck me now?”

“What’s your name, cub?” Gunnar asked.

“My name is Mike, Mr. Gunnar sir,” Mike replied.

“Mike, why would you think that I’m going to drag you into a cave and fuck you?”

“Well, because you’re lycan and you’re a male. All male lycans want to dominate me and fuck me. It’s just the way things are. The God of the Moon says so. Since you’re a bear and we’re now at your bear cave, I figure that you’re going to want to fuck me now.

“It’s OK, Mr. Gunnar. There’s only the two of you and not a whole pack of bears in the cave waiting to fuck me, right? If it’s just two bears, I figure that’s a whole lot better than forty or fifty wolves. If you could just please get me something to eat and drink before you start, I’ll do the best that I can to make you feel good.”

Gunnar’s heart broke for this kid. He reached behind the seat into the cooler that they’d packed for a pre-invasion dinnertime snack and pulled out a bottle of water and a leftover cheeseburger. He opened the bottle and handed it to Mike.

“Here Mike, drink.”

Mike chugged the bottle without stopping and then gasped to catch his breath.

“Do you want to eat a hamburger? It’s cold, but I just made it today.”

“Is it cooked?” Mike asked.

“Well of course it’s cooked,” Gunnar replied, “Just cold.”

Mike burst into tears and grabbed the burger out of Gunnar’s hand, wolfing it down in four bites.

“I never thought I’d get to eat a cooked hamburger again in my life,” Mike said, wiping the tears and burger grease from his face.

“Mike,” Gunnar said, “I want you to know that we did this tonight to rescue you, not to rape you or make you our slave. You’ll never be raped or forced to do anything sexually against your will again. Not as long as I’m around to protect you. I don’t live in a cave, I live in a normal house just like regular people, and I’m going to take you home with me to protect you till you’re feeling better and can think straight again. Do you understand?”

“Yes Mr. Gunnar, I understand, but I’m gay so I can’t think straight,” Mike replied in a daze before falling asleep with his belly full for the first time in over a week.

“That makes two of us, Mike.” Gunnar said with a soft chuckle.

At that moment, the truck hauling the She-Wolves and the Special-Ops team pulled into the parking lot. They appeared to all be accounted for, but Tim looked like he was in shock, the equipment was fallen over and scattered all around the flatbed, the back curtain was torn off and missing, and Roger had a bloody bandage wrapped around his head.

Gunnar detached Mike’s hands from his shirt, laid him carefully on the backseat without waking him up, and ran over to check on Roger.

“I’ll be OK, old bear,” Roger assured him. “Just a few scratches. Susie says that the scars are going to make me a hot, sexy, bad-boy who’s swimming in pussy, so I’m actually looking forward to my golden years for a change.”

“Were you followed?” Gunnar asked.

“We were at first, but we lost them when they got tangled up in twenty feet of loose curtain. Haven’t seen or heard them for miles. They’re probably back at the pack house now, licking their wounds and picking our bullets out of their hides like a couple thousand irritating bee stingers.”

“All right,” Gunnar replied. “Let’s get the stage stuff broken down properly and packed up. Susie, once we’re done you and the She-Wolves and Tim head on back to Chicago. I owe you a debt of gratitude that I’ll never be able to repay.”

Just then, Pip walked around the side of the truck and saw Dixie.

“Pip!” Dixie screamed, “Pip, I thought I’d never see you again!” She began to cry and ran over to hug Pip tightly. “How did you get here?”

“Those two bears were running around lost inside the pack house,” Pip replied softly, hugging Dixie back. “I led them to Mike’s room in the sub-basement but only after I made them promise to take me with them.”

“Oh Gunnar,” Dixie cried, “Consider the debt paid! It was a double rescue! Pip was my best and only friend in that terrible pack. I’m so glad to have him back. Susie, we’re taking this one home with us!”

Susie nodded at Dixie and then looked over at Gunnar with tears and gratitude in her eyes.

“Papi Bear,” she said, “You did good. Nils would be proud.”