Along the Trail - 4. Demonstrating The Truth

Ellis snuggles up to Ben’s body once more before opening his eyes. Lifting his head up, he looks around the room in darkness. The alarm clock in its red glowing digits says it was just after six in the morning. He looks at the dark window. The sun wouldn’t be rising for another hour. Ellis never likes this part of the year with the changing of the clocks and the daytime getting shorter.

With the combination of his stomach in need of food and his bladder needing release, Ellis pulls himself slowly away from Ben. Looking so peaceful with his mouth slightly open, he didn’t want to wake him up yet. Ellis finds a small bathroom across the hall from him and does what he needs done. Wanting to do something nice for Ben he heads out of the hall back into the living room to find the kitchen and make themselves some breakfast. It was the least Ellis could do for Ben.

Remembering where Sarah went last night, he walks through the archway beside the fireplace and TV. After finding the light switch on the wall he sees what is a surprisingly spacious kitchen. What was a separate dining room at one time, had the connecting wall removed making the two rooms into one. It wasn’t fancy to Ellis, just a bachelor’s kitchen. The bare minimum of appliances and little to nothing else in the room. With all this space and the wildest thing that probably gets cooked in here is over-done ramen noodles on the stove and hot pockets in the microwave. Ellis thanks god it was clean. One thing he always hated was a dirty kitchen.

Soon, Ellis has a pot of coffee brewing and thankfully, he finds something more than Pop Tarts and over-sweet cereal, He finds enough supplies to make French toast. As the skillet gets heated up he beats eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and other spices in a bowl. Pretty soon the smell of French toast and coffee fills the room.

Ellis always had a love of cooking and baking. He could do about anything in a kitchen now if he has the supplies. It was a great outlet to keep his hands busy and let his mind wander and think over things in his life. He’s glad that Adam is out of his life. The ideas of having a fresh start excites him. He wonders if there were any diners in little Armstrong that was hiring.

Ben walks in with bed head and sleepy smile on his face. “I need to wake up to the smell of breakfast more often. Good morning, Ellis.”

“Morning Ben.” Ellis smiles at Ben. “Want a cup of coffee? I think you need it.”

“Yes, Please. Black.”

Ellis pours two cups of coffee, one black, the other with a bit of milk. He then loads two plates with French toast and syrup. Handing Ben his cup and plate, Ellis heads to the kitchen table and sits down.

“Thank you, Ellis. You didn’t have to do this.”

Lookup up at Ben as he joins Ellis at the table, “It was the least I could do. I’m feeling better today and wanted to show my thanks.”

They both finish up with breakfast, Ellis is putting away the dirty dishes into the dishwasher while Ben refills his and Ellis’s coffee cups. Ellis is looking outside the French doors going out to the deck and backyard that is full of snow.

“Unusual this time of the year for snow.” Ben states while handing Ellis his cup.

“Yea. People like to use this as an excuse to disprove climate change, but it really reinforces the fact that the world is changing with these extremes.”

“Watch much Weather Channel, do you?”, Ben asks with a laugh.

Giving Ben an annoyed glare, “I happen to read a lot about it from several reputable scientific sources.”

Ben’s eyes widen, “Hey, I was just joking. You have a bit of fire in you.”

“I’m sorry Ben. It’s just…I always been a bit of a nerd with reading as much as I can about what goes on around me. With the way the world has been lately I get a bit defensive with my beliefs.”

“It’s ok. I can understand that all too well.” Ben smiles at Ellis.

Ellis walks back to the table and asks, “So, how about we start with this talk that was put on hold last night?”

“That’s fine.” Ben goes to sit across from Ellis. “It really starts with about the reason I and the others was there in the first place. We were scouting the land we are expanding to.”

Confused, Ellis asks, “That don’t make any sense.”

“Well, I’m the leader here. I’m a…” Ben’s head snaps, looking outside into the yard now bright with daylight.

“Ben, What…”

“Stay here. Do not come outside!” Ben interrupts Ellis.

He rushes up away from the table and runs out onto the deck, barefoot. With the door closing behind him Ellis stands up, wondering what the hell is going on. Soon, coming out from the tree line, a small group of wolves appear. There was five in all.

Ben standing tall and intimidating bellows, “You have no right, stepping foot onto my packlands. Turn around and go back home or my pack and I will kill you.

“Packs? What the hell is going on?” Ellis mentally asks himself. As almost like an answer, the wolves step forward snarling and snapping at Ben.

Ben sighs, “So be it.”

He runs into the yard and before Ellis’s eyes transformers into a wolf larger than any of the intruding wolves. Soon three of the wolves runs toward Ben and the fight begins. Ben clearly has the upper hand with superior strength. He bites one wolf by the neck and flings it several feet away back towards the trees and doesn’t get back up.

Ellis is frozen trying to compute what is going on in front of him. Not knowing what else to do he steps right to the door entranced by the scene. The other two wolves slowly circle Ben as he fends off the pair at hand. One of the circling wolves sees an apparent opening and lunges at Ben. Ben seemed to know what the wolf was doing and with an almost acrobatic move the attacking wolf is sent flying towards Ellis and lands on the deck with a trembling thud that Ellis feels inside. The three remaining wolves pounce on Ben all at once.

Ellis, fearing for Ben’s life, screams out, “Ben!”

As soon as he said it he knew it was a mistake. All the wolves trains their eyes on Ellis, including the wolf on the deck that was getting back up. Ellis backs away from the door and before he could blink his eyes the wolf lunges at him. The sound of breaking glass and splintering wood fills Ellis’s ears before he gets thrown to the ground by the wolf. The sound of a wolf letting out an almighty sound fills his ears from outside as he is pinned down by this snarling creature with strings of saliva dripping down on his face.

Feeling like time slowed down the wolf rears back to strike and Ellis tries to find anything in his reach of his hands. With luck he does at the last second and as the muddy-colored wolf strikes he swings and hits it in the head as hard as he can muster. The wolf stumbles with a yelp back giving Ellis his chance.

He scrambles up off the floor and with the first thought in Ellis’s mind he jumps onto the table, nearly toppling it in the process. Ellis sees in his hand a piece of the door with shards of the window pane still attached. Ellis raises it ready to strike at the wolf again as it paces back and forth.

The need to survive utmost in his mind and courage that fills him on the inside as Ellis yells, “I won’t go down without a fight you rabbied mutt!”

In outright rage the wolf lunges again at Ellis. Before Ellis could begin to swing Ben’s wolf leaps from outside and the enemy wolf is thrown and crashes into the wall. The force was too much as the section of drywall buckles and breaks apart. As the wolves tumble and thrash around the room hair and blood flying around the room, Ellis looks at something bigger to hit the enemy. The next moment Ellis grabs one of the kitchen chairs and raises it above his head. He jumps off the table putting his full force into landing the chair onto the wolf.

The chair cracks and falls apart from the strike. The wolf yelps and with the moment’s distraction Ben latches onto it with his jaws. A second more and a sickening snap the wolf goes limp. Ellis’s heart is beating out of his chest as he tries to process everything that happened in the past several minutes. Ben drops the dead wolf from his mouth and nuzzles against Ellis. Ellis can’t figure out why he isn’t freaking out as much as he should be.

Looking at Ben as a wolf he sees the beauty in what is in front of him. His white coat is long with varied shades of black and grey streaked from his face, down his back and ending at his tail. This powerful deadly creature is now looking at Ellis like a perfectly friendly normal canine.

Reaching tentatively out to put his hand on Ben’s head, Ellis whispers out, “I don’t know exactly what I saw but I do have to say that you are a beautiful wolf. Thanks for saving me again.”

Ben huffs and before Ellis can realize it he’s now petting the head of a very human Ben. A very naked Ben, as Ellis looks down. A feeling of warmth flushes in Ellis’s face.

“I guess we can get past proving that I’m a wolf then.” Ben deadpans.

Ellis finding the humor in it laughs, “I can say your right. So, you didn’t turn into a Hollywood type werewolf. What are you exactly?”

“You could use the term werewolf if you want to but with the meaning of that word, given how Hollywood depicts my kind, it has fallen out of favor nowadays. The best term you can use around others like me is shifter. It doesn’t really describe all that we are but it’s sufficient.”

Ben takes Ellis’s hands and helps him up off the ground. With a couple of seconds of Ben’s eyes seeming like they were somewhere else, he focuses back onto Ellis. “I’m having my Beta and the others from my pack heading inside to remove this mutt from my home. They got here to finish off the other wolves in the back yard.”

Ellis digesting what he just heard asks, “I know a bit about wolf hierarchy. So, you’re alpha of your pack and the beta is your second in command. Am I right?”

A surprised look come onto Ben’s face and Ellis chuckles, “I’m a renaissance reader. I can’t list all the subjects that I’ve read about over the years on my spare time.”

Ben, recovering from Ellis knowledge, replies, “Yes, that is correct. I am the alpha to my small pack here.”

Ellis glances and sees cuts and scratches across Ben’s stomach, but they didn’t look fresh but hours old.

“Ben seeing the question in his face says, “Shifters are fast healers. Part of the package.”

Ellis nods, impressed by that big of knowledge.

“Going back to what you said before we were interrupted. You were near me the other night because you were expanding your pack’s land?”, he asks Ben.

“Yes, I was. I wanted to expand the territory to give more breathing room for intruders to stop them before they get too close to our town like these wolves this morning. I still haven’t completed the plans on the patrols for my guards. I need to get that finished today, it seems.”

Before Ellis could ask anything more for the moment two men in nothing but sweats enter the broken doorway. The one on the left is just as tall as Ben but slim with tight compact muscles. The other man on the right is shorter, between Ben’s and Ellis’s height. He has a large football player build. Oddly enough, with the height and size differences Ellis can see a resemblance between the two that seems they are related. The only thing that Ellis could tell was they had the same blonde hair and green eyes.

“Alpha, I’m here to dispose of the mutt.”, the tall man states an almost military demeanor. The other man beside him

Ben turns to show the wolf behind him and Ellis on the floor. Yet, to the surprise of Ellis, it was no longer a wolf buy a man. The tall man picks the body up and takes it outside.

Seeing his shock Ben tells him, “It isn’t really known why we revert to our human form when we die. The best I can assume it is some way to hide our identity as shifters since we are much larger than normal wolves.”

The tall man walks back inside. Ben points his finger to the man, “Ellis, this is my beta Sam Prenter and this,” he points at the beefy man, “is his brother and my Head Pack Guard, Trent. Guys, this is Ellis.”

Proper manners kick in with Ellis and he smiles at them both, “Its nice to meet you both. I had a feeling that you both was related. There is something that was telling me you both was brothers.”

Sam with a stiff nod to Ellis answers. “Nice to meet you as well, Ellis.” Ellis can see he isn’t a man of many words.

The other hand Trent smiles wide, “Don’t mind Sam. He’s a pretty no-nonsense guy. I’d like to say it was the marines that did it, but he always was this way as far back as I can remember growing up. You’re a pretty smart guy to see that we were related. Sam has more of our mom where I took after more of our father.”

Sam, in a clear military stance to Ben like facing a superior officer, drones in his monotone voice, “Alpha we need to have a meeting about this new attack from the Trinity Pack immediately.”

Sam giving Same a slightly annoyed look, “Sam, how about you give me a few minutes to explain a few more things to Ellis before we do that? You can head to the Meeting House and gather the elders. I will be there soon.”

With another stiff nod Sam turns around and heads back outside. Ben looking at Ellis, sighs, “Sorry about that. I didn’t want to tell you about that right now.”

Giving Ben a steely stare, “If I am here, you need to tell me things like that. I figured it was just random occurrence and not a constant threat. Don’t hide shit like that from me. People that do that piss me off.”

Ben looks like someone smacked him on the nose like a puppy. “I won’t do it again. I didn’t like how my beta said it. That military training skewed most of his social skills.”

Ellis waves his hand, “Its ok. I just want you to finish your explanation of shifters to me.”

Trent perks up and asks Ben, “Can I help with that as well Alpha? I have been studying with the elders on my spare time. Also, I have a change of clothes for you.” He pulls off his backpack and opens it up and pulls out a long-sleeved shirt and sweats for Ben.

Ben smiles as Trent, “Thanks man. That’s ok on the shifter information right now. You can fill Ellis in on the more in detailed stuff later.”

Ben quickly covers himself up with the clothes and Ellis blushes again at glancing at Ben’s department.

As Trent pulls out a long-sleeved shirt for himself out to put on, Ben asks Ellis, “What else do you want to know right now?”

Thinking for a few moments, “I still need to take some time to think a lot of this over. There is something I do want to ask. It’s been at the back of my mind since this stuff began to sink in. Did you kill Adam?”

Ben with a bit of fear in his eyes says, “Yes I did. Before you get upset please understand that I couldn’t stop my wolf.”

Ellis is surprised that the news didn’t affect him as much about Adam being dead. The relief that he won’t ever be around to treat him like shit and have him trapped lifts a hidden weight. What annoys him is what Ben said at the end.

“What do you mean your wolf couldn’t be stopped? Does this happen often? It seems dangerous.”

“No, it doesn’t happen often. There are shifters that do lose themselves to the wolf in serious events but over all its very rare that it happens. Normally our minds are one. The reason I lost control was because my wolf was furious that Adam hurt you. We smelt your blood and he took over.”

“Why would that make you lose control of your wolf?” Ellis asks.

“Let me explain quickly. We as shifters have something special about us. We have what most of us wolf-shifters like to call true mates. We don’t know much as so much of our history has been long lost over the eons. There is a pull towards this other person. Its like a pheromone but that doesn’t describe it enough. It’s the person that we will want to be with for the rest of our lives. It doesn’t happen often. Many naturally fall in love with another but with true mates there is an extra pull towards each other. It is very rare for true mates to not be totally compatible for each other. The reason I killed Adam is because he harmed my true mate, which is you. The smell of your blood spilling sent my wolf over the edge. We both feared your death at that man’s hands before we even got to know your name.”

This news was more shocking than Adams death by several folds to Ellis.

“I don’t really know what to say about that. There is a pull I have noticed that makes me want to be near you, but I am not comfortable on the idea of just instantly being together forever. I have so much to digest over.”

Ben smiles and nods his head understandably, “I wouldn’t want to rush you into anything Ellis. I didn’t think I would find my true mate. I didn’t want to find someone else when there was that chance that you could come along, and I don’t want to ruin this chance. I have seen a few true mate pairings in my life and it convinced me to wait for the happiness and joy that they have for myself. I will take things at as slow at a pace as you want. You’re the leader in whatever relationship you want out of this.”

“I do want to get to know you Ben. This whole new world that has been under my nose has me interested to learn more. We can start out slow. I can get a job here and find a place to live while that happens.”

As soon as Ellis finishes he remembers that Adam is dead, and the human world is going to wonder where him and Ellis are when any more days go on.

“Shit! I need to get back there. People are going to be looking for me and Adam!” Ellis exclaims, his breathing quickening.

Ben hugs Ellis before he could spiral out of control in anxiety. “It’s ok Ellis. How about you go back there and settle things. Adam is far in the woods buried and we disposed of his car in the Ohio River. People will think he never made it home. You can use my Tacoma in the garage. Trent will drive you and help gather anything you need.” Ben pauses for a second. “Which reminds me.”

Standing straight as he lets go of Ellis except for a hand gently rubbing Ellis’s back, he looks at Trent, “Trent think of who will be the best replacement for you. Your new position in the pack is as my mate’s protector. You are to protect Ellis at any costs and be by his side always when I am not there. I am putting my full trust in you to keep my true mate safe.”

To Ellis it looked like Ben just gave Trent a brand-new Mercedes by the smile on his face. Standing tall he tells in Ben in a deeper than normal voice, “Thank you Alpha. I will honor this privilege of being your mate’s protector and will do so until my dying breath to ensure his safety. I truly don’t deserve this.”

“At ease Trent, don’t start acting like your brother. You just keep doing what you always do. You are a great guard for this pack. You keep it safe. I know this breach isn’t your fault and no hard feelings are felt. I am going to have Celia and Rick find out why the guard in this sector wasn’t at his post.”

“Why do I need a damn guard? I’m not going to go off and fall into an abandoned mine shaft or something.” Ellis grumbles.

“Sorry but this is how about all packs work, Ellis. Every Alpha keeps their mate protected, especially when their mate is human.” Ben tells Ellis, giving a look that says he will not budge on his decision.

“Fine, but I don’t have to like it.” Ellis growls back.

An icy gust of wind blows into the kitchen bringing a shiver to Ellis. “While we are out then, can this door get replaced before my nipples can carve glass?” he asks Ben.

Ben, looking at the mess in the kitchen, nods. “If you both want to. I’ll have someone in the pack come by when your back to install it. Let me give you my credit card.”

He walks back into the living room and returns several seconds later handing Ellis his card. Ben steps beside the unbroken door and picks up a pair of shoes with clean socks inside.

Ben smiles and says, “It’s a habit for a shifter on having shoes socks and the like ready to go.” Ellis nods in seeing the benefits of that. Always having to lose your clothes shifting and finding another set to make yourself a normal human in the twenty-first century when you shift back.

With Ben ready he steps up to Ellis. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Hopefully you both will be able to get everything done and be back at the same time I’m done.”

He gives Ellis a hug. Ellis, knowing he wants to take it slow, couldn’t help it with this damn werewolf being so kind and gentle to him. He reaches up and gives Ben a deep kiss that makes him forget to tell time on how good it felt. The smell and taste of him is too good to not at least continue doing this while getting to know each other.

Taking a deep breath as Ellis pulls way he gasps, “Go! You better be back! I want a date tonight. No excuses!”

Ben chuckles taking a deep breath behind Ellis’s ear and says, “Yes, dear.”

Before Ellis could think of a response to that, Ben leaves the room and out of the front door in the living room. That “Yes, dear.”, brought a tickle of butterflies forth in his stomach. Ellis looks over at Trent smiling at him with a goofy grin.

“Shut it!” he growls at Trent. Trent busts out in a deep laugh as Ellis silently thanks that he at least didn’t get to be stuck with the brother that has a broom up his ass.

Seems like Ellis may make a friend out of Trent. Look forward to what they all get into the next chapter. Please continue the likes and comments. Anything is fine. I'll even enjoy insults of my writing ability and the questioning of my parentage. Everyone have a great New Year! Here is to 2018 making us just as disappointed as 2017!