Dominant Species Ch. 63-65

Brian wandered away from the gathering in front of the Missoula square, unsure of where he would go. The rest of his small pack was splitting up, already have received invites into people's homes. He had been invited but had refused so far, he was restless and didn't know why. He thought about it until his stomach started making noises; he had eaten some of the food earlier, but was still hungry. He followed his nose into the building to the kitchen where a half dozen local women were still cleaning up from the big meal.

As soon as he entered the door to the kitchen, his wolf rushed forward in his mind. There was a scent, a scent that called to his very soul... "MATE IS HERE" yelled his wolf in his head. His head tilted back, he scented the air and followed it to the sink area where a young woman with shoulder length red hair was scrubbing a large pot. "She's human," he told his wolf. "We can't just mark her." His wolf argued a little, but wolves are clever creatures and know the hunt can be spoiled by moving too quickly, so he receded and let his human side take the lead.

He moved next to her, taking a towel in his hand he started drying the pans she had already finished. She ignored him, but her intoxicating scent had him painfully aroused and the silence was difficult. "Hello, my name's Brian."

She kept her head down, not looking at him, and moved slightly away from him. He smelled a little more, and forced his wolf back as he identified the other smells- dried semen and blood. Given what had happened to the women they had rescued further south, he had no doubt what had happened to her, a beautiful young woman trapped with a bunch of hardened criminals. Finally, she spoke in a whisper. "Christine. Christine Dodge." She scrubbed harder at the pot, as if she could remove her own stain with the same effort.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Christine. If I could kill them again, I would. My wolf agrees with me, we want to kill anyone who abuses others." He noticed she froze when he said he was a wolf. "Yes, I'm a werewolf. I grew up in Wye River; we joined a number of people and werewolves to come up here and liberate this town. We couldn't let them do things like they did to you."

She didn't say anything, she just rinsed the pot and handed it to him. She finally did look at him as he dried it, and he could see her interest. Human or not, the mate bond was going to do its work the longer they were near each other. "Thank you for the help. I need to go, it's almost dawn."

Brian set the pot down and reached for her hand, which was on the edge of the sink. She jerked as his hand touched hers, the tingles going through her hand and up her arm, there was something so right about his touch and yet she had just met him. She looked down at his hand. "What was that?"

"That was a sign that confirms what my wolf already knows. You are special to me, you are the one made just for me, the one I've been searching for. You are my mate." He raised her hand in his, ignoring the shaking he gently placed a kiss on her palm, feeling her relax into the sensation. "I will never hurt you, it would be like hurting myself."

"I don't have time for a man, nor do I have interest in one." She pulled her hand loose. "I need to go." She turned and walked to the exit, the last woman was already turning out the oil lamps that had lit the small kitchen.

He followed her out the door and up the stairs to the front steps. Looking around, he could see the early rays of dawn behind the mountains in the east. "Can I escort you home? I would feel better knowing you are safe."

"I want to go back to my place, but it's at the far west end of town. I don't think we can walk there in time. We'll have to find a place closer."

He smiled at her. "I can get you home in time, if you just trust me a little. Can you do that?"

She looked at him, something told her deep down she could trust him even though her mind was telling her that no man could get close again. Finally, she nodded. "Wait here," he said. Going back inside and leaving his shirt in the door so it wouldn't latch closed, he pulled off the rest of his clothes and shifted into his large gray wolf with black spots. Picking up the clothes with his teeth, he pushed the door open and padded over to her, sitting at her side. He pushed the bundle of clothes into her hand, and she got the idea and put them in her purse. Brian dropped his legs down and yipped, moving his head back.

"You want me to get on?" She knelt down, her hand exploring his furred shoulders as she took in the huge wolf. He yipped again. "What the hell, you're almost as big as a horse." She swung a leg over and put her arms around his neck, grabbing the thick fur on his forechest. He stood up, bringing her head up close to her normal five foot two height. She settled her one-hundred-pound frame on his back. Brian's wolf luxuriated in the contact as they went down the stairs. He looked around. "Turn right and follow this road out of town." He moved off, increasing speed as she became more comfortable until he was at a steady run.

The sun was just about up when she guided him to a two-story building. She jumped off and opened the door, ignoring the sounds behind her as Brian shifted and put on the clothes she had tossed to him. She walked in, he followed behind her and from her scent he could tell she was still nervous. "Come on, my apartment is downstairs and I have all the windows covered."

She tossed her bag on the counter in her small kitchen and reached into the cabinet by the sink, pulling out a couple bottles of water. Handing one to him, she took a long drink then looked at him. "So this mate thing; do I get a choice in it?"

"Of course, there is always choice. It's not a choice I would make; I believe you are my key to happiness and I would never reject you. I just want to get to know you, so you are more comfortable with me and you make that choice as well."

She hopped up on the counter and looked at him through the soft light diffusing through the one window above the sink. "Why do I feel comfortable with you? Everything I think, especially after these past few days, would tell me to run away yet I want to cuddle up in your lap and go to sleep." He snickered, his wolf would love that. "Are you using magic? Drugs?"

"Nothing like that. We believe that each wolf has that one person made just for them, and we identify them by smell first. There is what we call the mate pull, it works to bring you together."

"And if I was a werewolf?"

"Right now we'd be in bed going at it like bunnies. I'd mark and mate you as soon as I could." He noted her expression and went into a brief explanation of marking, while mating she pretty much figured out. Finally, after many more questions and with her bottled water gone, she jumped off the counter.

"I'm going to bed. You," she pointed at the couch, "can stay there. I'm not ready for more than that right now." Brian walked over and gathered her in his arms, smiling as her small body melted into his chest. He kissed her and let her go, she looked back once before closing the door. He pulled off his shirt and pants and went to the couch, finding a throw blanket and a couple pillows. It wasn't the best result, but he could still protect her.

"Alpha Donald, it's Brian... I found my mate!" The mental message shocked Donald, as he had just reached the house where he was invited to stay for the daylight hours and was getting ready for a well-deserved sleep.

"That's fantastic, Brian, who is she?"

"Her name is Christine Dodge, and she was helping out in the kitchen. I went back to see if they had any leftover food that I could take with me and as soon as I opened the door, I smelled the most amazing scent. I tracked her down, she's human but she is feeling the pull. She brought me back to her home, we're in her basement apartment right now. I've told her I'm a werewolf and we're working through some of the questions right now." He could feel the pride coming through the bond as Terry and Barry added their congratulations. "She's taking it well, better than I expected."

"That's great," Donald said. "Just be patient and explain everything to her, the last thing you want to do is scare her away. Trust me on that."

"There's more. She won't talk about it, but I could smell she was one of the women who was raped by those bastards. She shies from contact and is fighting the pull. I'm in her apartment on the couch, she wouldn't let me into her bedroom yet."

Donald sighed; this added a whole bunch of problems to the mating for him. "Just be there for her. When and if she wants to talk about it, she will. Just be patient. Where is her place?"

"I had to shift and let her ride because her apartment is well northwest of downtown, near the airport, and otherwise we'd have to crash with others. Being alone with her was a much better choice, I think." After a few more words, he shut the link down; it was time to sleep.

He woke to her screams. The flimsy door lock on her bedroom stood no chance as he burst into the room ready to kill, only to find her rolling on her bed in the throes of a bad nightmare. Moving to the bed, he laid down and gathered her in his arms, pulling her to his chest. "Shhh... you're safe. I have you. They can't hurt you."

It took a few minutes for her to calm down and breathe normally as he rubbed her back and whispered comforting words into her ear. "Want to tell me about it?"

She looked up, her chin on his breastbone as he held her on top of him. The mate bond was helping, and when she stopped fighting it she relaxed and started to talk. "When it happened, I was sleeping. I work the night shift at a bar downtown. I woke up to the landlord screaming. When I went upstairs, he was wandering around the room, yelling he couldn't see. I led him down to my apartment and we stayed hidden there for four days. I would go out at night, but everyone around was dead. He never recovered his sight, then he got a fever and started throwing up. He died horribly."

She started crying again. "I put him on a blanket at night and pulled him outside. I heard a truck coming, it was a big Army truck, I thought I was saved. I ran into the street and flagged it down."

"It wasn't the Army, was it." Brian kept stroking her hair.

"No. They were dressed in orange and had wild eyes. They jumped out of the back and chased me down. One backhanded me, then they dragged me back and threw me in. Four men raped me on the way to the city hall." She took a minute, relaxing again into his touch before continuing. "They locked me in a room with ten other girls at night. When they returned, they would pull girls out to take to their rooms. If you were lucky, it was only one guy. For others, it was five or more. They... they did things to me I still can't think about without breaking down."

"I've got you, Christine. They can't hurt you again." He kept her close, and soon her eyes closed and she fell back into a sleep. He closed his eyes, his wolf whining in his head. Sleep was tough to achieve, but eventually he did.

Two hours later, he opened his eyes. She had left a couple windows open to get fresh air into the apartment, even if heavy blankets had to block the harsh UV light. His wolf woke him up because something wasn't right. Sitting up, he sniffed deeply and the smell of a fire came through strongly. He jumped out of bed and grabbed her sunglasses from the dinette table, then ran upstairs to the upper bedrooms. Moving the drapes aside, he looked out and froze when he saw what was coming from the mountains to the north. A line of fire was bursting forth, carried forward towards the town by gusty winds. The trees and houses were going up like kindling as the harsh sunlight had dried out and killed so many trees and all the grass.

"ALPHA DONALD, WAKE UP! ALPHA! TERRY! BARRY!" He shouted through the bonds, hoping someone would answer. It took a few seconds before he got a response.

"Jeez, Brian..."

"Alpha, we've got a huge fire building here on the northwest side of town. With the winds we have going, it's going to sweep through town like Sherman through Atlanta." He looked out again. "It's about two miles from me, I've got to bug out." In just the time he had been talking, he could see the fire line growing and advancing.

"Brian, get back to the buses, we're getting out of town. Hurry up, I'm alerting the other Packs right now." Since there were a few other wolves staying in the same home he was in, he could get the other two Alphas notified of the threat.

"What about the sunlight?"

"Do the best you can. Use sunglasses, cover exposed skin. Use a blanket over your head if you can and look down, and minimize the time you're out."

"That might be tough, boss, I've got to wolf out here to get back and she'll be riding." He ran back downstairs. "I'll see you in twenty minutes or so, Boss. I have to go." Rushing into the bedroom, he shook Christine awake. "Get dressed, honey, we've got to GO NOW. Fire is coming!"

Christine jumped up and pulled on clothes while Brian told her what the plan was. She put on jeans, a T-shirt, long sleeve flannel shirt and hiking boots. Over her head, she found a ski mask in her closet and pulled that over her head, then pulled out a pair of ski goggles and thin gloves.

"Do you have another one of those," Brian asked. "The goggles will work better on me in wolf form than sunglasses."

"I think so," she said. Digging around on the shelf, she found another. He shifted into his gray wolf, and she adjusted the strap so the goggles fit over his eyes. He went to the bed and picked up his clothes in his mouth and brought them to her, she stuffed them in her pockets and then she led him up to the back door to her apartment. Pushing the door open, she let him go up the stairs before she swung her leg over and mounted him like a small horse. "Shit, we gotta go."

He howled a warning howl as he saw what she did, the fire was much closer now and ash was starting to fly though the air in the gusty winds. He took off as fast as he could to the southeast, howling warning as he went. "Alpha, Christine found some ski goggles, they seem to work well in wolf form. We're on our way."

Donald cursed to himself, why didn't he think of that. "Thanks Brian, I'll pass the word. We're getting everyone to the city square and loading up the buses, meet you there."

The fire was gaining on them; he could see burning embers being blown ahead by the winds, setting new fires in the dry grass and wood of the town. The smoke was now heavy, blocking out most of the sunlight as he ran. It sapped his strength as he ran, he eventually had to stop and cough before taking off again. Christine had her face buried in his thick fur, breathing through it and the ski mask, but she was starting to cough as well.

He made it to the bus on fumes; Donald pulled Christie off his back and pushed her into the bus as he shifted. He was still panting hard when Donald pulled him to his feet and onto the bus. As soon as the door closed, the bus started moving.

-

Eric's wolf alerted in the middle of the day. He opened his eyes and moved his head so he could hear better. They had just gotten back to sleep after the excitement of hearing their Luna's brother, Jacob Forrest, had gained back some vision after agreeing to be turned. Looking around, all seemed calm but the wolf was still restless. He pulled off the light blanket and rolled off the couch in the basement. He moved past his brother and Jacob who were sleeping on matching leather recliners. The Luna's parents, Daniel and Ann, were on a mattress in the center of the basement room. With a last look around, went up the stairs to the main level of the house.

He opened the door, covering his eyes as the upper level drapes and windows let in a lot of light. Moving to the kitchen, he took a bottled water from the counter and gulped it down. As his nose lifted, he took a deep sniff, and that's when it hit him.

Smoke. Fire.

Before he could react, his Alpha's voice blasted through the link. "FIRE IS SPREADING THROUGH TOWN. EVERYONE GET TO THE BUSES NOW!"

Moving to the sliding door going to the patio, he moved the blinds aside and looked to the west. The smoke was moving towards them with the wind shift, and in minutes the sun was blotted out by the grey cloud. He could see the gusts in the trees; this was a worst-case situation; the sun had turned vegetation into kindling and the high mountain winds were now blowing it straight towards them. He heard Derek rushing up the stairs, and met him at the door. "Get them up," he told him, "We've got to go NOW."

They both rushed downstairs and woke up Silvia's family. Quickly explaining the situation, the three were up and getting dressed immediately. "Make sure everything is covered up, including your face," Derek directed. "We'll go in wolf form." As they were getting ready, Donald told them about the use of ski goggles. "Do you have any ski goggles or dark sunglasses?"

"In the garage," Jacob said. He lead Derek up to where his ski equipment was located, and they grabbed some ski masks and three pairs of goggles. Derek could hear the wind howling and the smell of smoke was much stronger already. There were sunglasses in the car, they took that too, before running back downstairs to join the others.

"Here, put this on," said Daniel as he tossed him a small backpack. Looking at Eric, he explained. "Bugout bag... change of clothes, water, a couple MRE's and some other handy stuff." He and his wife Ann were dressed and ready. Jacob handed them sunglasses and he put on the goggles as he led them all back upstairs.

"Change and I'll put your goggles on," Jacob said as they reached the door. Eric and Derek stripped, handing their clothes to Jacob before shifting into their wolves. Jacob stuffed the clothes in his pack before opening the door. They stepped outside into a nightmare.

Heavy smoke from the burning city choked their lungs as it blew into their neighborhood. Flaming embers set fires well ahead of the main fire line which was now just a half mile away. Their neighborhood, spared in the previous fire outbreaks, was going to be engulfed soon and fires already burned in the yards or houses around them. Daniel started to cough from the smoke, as Derek looked in the direction they needed to go to reach the buses. It wasn't possible.

"Back inside," Daniel said. They ran in and closed the door, taking deep breaths of the cool, clean air in the house.

"Alpha, we're cut off. Leave without us, we'll find another way." Eric could feel the distress in Donald's acknowledgement. "If we don't make it, take care of Britney and Bethany and tell them we loved them to the end."

"You tell them, get out of there and meet us in Corvallis." He closed the link as they looked at each other.

"Can we outrun it?" Jacob was looking out the window.

"In this wind? Probably not. You can't run fast enough, and with you riding us we aren't as fast."

Donald made the decision for them. "Everyone back downstairs, into the safe room. We'll ride this out there." They ran back downstairs and into the room, grabbing what food and water they could on the way. Donald closed and locked the vault-like door behind them. "This room is made of ten-inch-thick concrete, insulated on both sides. Only the ceiling and this wall will be exposed to the fire. Come on, we've got to seal it against the smoke." He grabbed a roll of aluminum-backed tape off the shelf, and Derek helped him use it to seal the gap around the inside of the main door. When they were done with that, they moved on to the round escape hatch that led to a trapdoor in the closet of the master bedroom.

In the meantime, Eric and Jacob had wet down moved a couple of the mattresses and placed them against the door as insulation, using paracord to tie them in place. Ann had taken the remaining mattresses and blankets and set up a tent area in the far corner. She then moved the water, bugout bags and food supplies away from the man cave wall to help protect them from the heat.