Were in the City Ch. 10

Jessie interjected, "Why didn't you just steal a car? Surely no pack can run 90 km an hour."

Jacob and Liam looked at each other. Liam shrugged, "... the whole truth Jacob, all of it ..."

Jacob looked at Jessie, "Because there were no cars, there were no highways ... Because it was the fall of 1888."

Jessie's eyes went wide and she stuttered, "You've got to be kidding me! ... 1888 ... that's ... 132 years ago! How old are you?!"

Liam sighed. "We are not exactly sure how old we are. We were born in the wild, no records, no certainty of the year. We guess we were born in the early 1850's, so we'd be around 165 to 170 years old now."

Jessie was now standing, pacing back and forth across the room. "How long do you live? ... Oh my god ... how old was my mother? ... How long will I live? ... You don't look much older than me right now, in your late 30's at most ... How is that possible?"

Liam laughed, though it sounded a bit strangled. "Jessie, sit down, breathe, please. Do you want some more tea? Or something stronger?"

Jessie turned to stare at them both. "Holy shit! You mean to tell me that whatever you did to have "very unpleasant people" want you dead, you did it 132 years ago?! They are still after you after all that time?"

Jacob nodded. "Well, members of the Richard family and their pack from that time are still alive too. And they don't forget or forgive some things, not ever ... and we've done things to them since so the animosity has continued to build up."

Jessie took a deep breath. "I have to pee, but I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere. You have a lot more to explain ... and yes Liam, I want more tea please. I'll save the stronger stuff for later, something tells me I'm going to need it after I hear the rest of this."

Jessie was back in record time and sat down on the couch. "Ok, before you keep going with your story I have a couple of questions. Can you answer them first?" Both brothers nodded. "First question - how long do you live?"

Liam answered, "I'll take this one. The answer is "It depends". Few of us live out our entire natural lifespan, there are so many things that can end our lives and the longer we live the more chances we have to meet with disease or injury, accidental or otherwise. We are probably middle-aged right now, so maybe we'd live another 150 years if nothing happens to affect that. Other Were have different lifespans, but most are quite a bit longer than normal humans."

Jessie sighed. "Wow. I'd love to know what the means for me. If I'm only half-Were do I live only half as long, which would still be way longer than normal, or if I'm not full-Were do I get no longer a life than a normal human. I guess it's just going to be a wait-and-see thing."

"Second question - you've been alive through a lot of change in the world in the last 170 years. How come you sound and act so modern right now? Every once in a while you speak a bit "old-timey" but otherwise you seem perfectly at home here and now."

Jacob laughed, "I'll take this one. To survive and thrive we have to rise to new challenges and adapt to new things. Many don't, and they either don't survive or they are lost in the shadows, barely existing. We've struggled, it hasn't been easy, but we've never wanted to give up. Our enemies have actually made it easier to survive in some ways, they've given us reasons and purpose to adapt - we have never wanted them to win, we'll do anything to stay ahead of them. We are here, living in this city, because we wanted more, we wanted to change."

Jessie nodded. "That makes sense. I am going to be watching you more carefully from now on though, I'll bet there are things you say or do that will be little tells about your age. Ok, please go on with your story. Did you get Silvie out? Did you get away?"

Jacob continued with his story ...

"As I thought about getting away I realized there was one option that might work. It was November but the rivers didn't freeze until late December so the pack was still getting building materials brought in by boat. There had been a delivery the previous day so the boat had to be ready to go back downstream for another load. I asked Helen to find out when they intended to leave and to ask the two other rogue workers to meet me at our bunkhouse. I'd finished packing when those two showed up. I warned them I was escaping and might be taking Silvie with me, telling them how we intended to go. If those two stayed they could be killed just because they were like me, so they both decided to leave with me. Helen came in to tell us the boat intended to leave in about an hour which was perfect timing.

I just had to get to Silvie and convince her to come with me. Helen helped again, distracting the guard at the back of the house long enough so I could get in and I found Silvie in her room. I could tell she was very scared of what her father would do but it took a long time to convince her that coming with me was her best option. Looking back now I feel ashamed of how much I promised her that I had no way of providing. I meant well, and would have done all I could to fulfill my promises, but I wasn't yet capable of a lot of what I promised then. She dressed warmly and we went out the back. I managed to surprise the guard, knocking him out, and we ran to the boat, getting there just as they were untying the docking ropes to get underway. Silvie broke her bond to the pack as we moved away downriver.

It took almost four hours on the river before I started to relax a little. We'd left mid-afternoon and it would take at least 24 hours before the boat arrived at the town it was headed for. Even if the pack ran all the way there, the land route was longer and more difficult so we'd have at least another day to find a way to move on from town before they arrived. What I had no way of knowing was that Silvie's father had returned early, at almost the same time as we left, and had felt Silvie break the pack bond. I'd been seen getting on the boat - they knew where we were.

I had come upriver to the pack lands by boat so I thought I knew the route but I'd forgotten that there was a spot where the river got very narrow, so narrow that a determined wolf with a running start could leap from shore to a boat. Richard and a few of his elite warriors made an incredible run and got to the narrows only a few minutes before we did. It was dark when they made it on board.

Every shapeshifter but Silvie changed and it was soon bloody mayhem on the deck. The crew, 3 of them, were human and were killed - no witnesses left behind. The other two rogues who'd come with us put up a good fight and killed at least two of Richard's pack but didn't survive. I was torn up and pinned down, forced to watch as Silvie was dragged on deck to her father.

She begged for her life, blaming me for everything, which I understood and have never condemned her for. She made a mistake by telling her father about our bond and claiming she'd rejected it. I could see his fury, and he called her a traitorous bitch for not telling him immediately. He really felt he owned her but more than that, there was something that wasn't proper in how he thought of his daughter. She told him she was his, only his, but Richard didn't care ... he tore her throat out and tossed her body overboard. I felt her die, felt the bond break. I'd failed her."

Jacob looked at Jessie with a haunted eyes. "The arrogance and stupidity of my youth cost her life. I swore to her that I could protect her but I couldn't. I should have left her behind, she would have had a better chance to convince her father that everything was my fault and that she'd wanted nothing from me. By convincing her to come with me I sealed her fate, her father would kill her."

Jessie looked puzzled. "Jacob, surely you don't think it's all your fault? Given what you've said about her I'd say she was using you to get away. I'll bet if you'd make a successful escape she would not have stayed with you. She wasn't stupid, she wanted freedom and she couldn't run on her own - you were her way out. I wouldn't be a good history professor's daughter if I didn't also point out that it was 1888. The suffragette movement was gaining momentum, women were starting to get the right to own property. Silvie must have read newspapers and seen that women were gaining the right to be independent. She probably thought she could survive outside a pack."

Liam nodded. "Yes, I've told him that many times over the years ... Jacob punishes himself far too much for this, even now ..."

"I'm sorry that you do that. I don't know what a mate bond feels like but I do know what our bond is and it would torment me to think I was responsible for something bad happening to either of you. Go on with your story Jacob." Jessie said.

Jacob continued. "Her father came for me, the others who were holding me let go and backed off. I knew I couldn't defeat him, but I was determined that he would remember me forever. I attacked, surprising him because I didn't go for his throat. I went for his left leg, thinking I could damage it so badly that he'd be crippled for life. By some amazing stroke of luck my teeth sank in at just the right spot and my momentum tore his leg almost completely off. Another pack wolf launched himself at me and as we struggled I didn't realize how close to the edge I was. A few more steps and I was falling into the ice cold water. It was dark and I was under water more than I was on top, they lost sight of me as the current took me. I'm sure they were more interested in beaching the boat and looking after their Alpha than trying to find me.

I was a mess and it was winter. I was lucky to survive. A human family helped me after they found me naked and freezing in their barn. It took until mid-January to get back to the town where I'd left Liam. When I got there I found a message from Richard that he had my brother and he would exchange him for me if I presented myself at his pack boundary any time before the end of February 1889. If I didn't make it by then, Liam would be killed. I'm not sure Richard knew I was still alive but he was covering all the angles - either I was alive and would come for my brother, or I wasn't alive and Liam would be killed before he could try to take revenge."

Liam interrupted, "I knew he was still alive but said nothing. They came for me, dragged me back to their pack lands, left me in a cellar for weeks where my coywolf half went crazy unable to run free. The only things that kept me sane were knowing Jacob would come for me, and Helen, who brought my food and gave me a few words of encouragement whenever she could."

Jacob continued, "I prepared to go back to the Richard Pack settlement very carefully. I had a big advantage as I'd lived there for months and had found every hidden spot there to meet with Silvie - I knew my way around. I also knew that I couldn't follow any werewolf customs when I got there. To save my brother I would have to kill Alpha Jacques Richard because he would never let either of us go and at that point in time I had no chance defeat an alpha or a beta in a traditional wolf challenge. So I was going in ready to do whatever it took, with whatever weaponry I could get, and accepting that I wasn't going to make it out alive.

I made up a sack with clothes and weapons, tied up with a rope loop I could slip over my head in my coywolf form. I got close to the pack lands riding on a supply wagon that was headed elsewhere, then changed and worked my way to the boundary. Again I got lucky. A bad snowstorm came through the area and I managed to use it to get across the boundary not far from the pack house without being detected. As the storm continued I found where Liam was being held - the same cellar where they'd put me - disabled the guard and got him out. I tried to get Liam to leave but he wouldn't go. So together we went to that monstrous castle and lit it on fire. Richard drove his pack out into the storm to fight the fire. He was yelling at everyone, moving around slowly on crutches as he was missing a leg. I took the revolver I'd packed in, walked right up to him and shot him between the eyes.

I had expected that the Alpha mantle would transfer quickly on Jacques Richard's death to one of his sons who would tell the pack to attack us. Liam and I couldn't see where Mark or Stephen were, so there was no way to take them out fast. For some reason, the Alpha command didn't transfer - it broke. Every member of that pack was suddenly a free agent and, no surprise, a whole lot of them decided it was time to leave. It was perfect chaos. Helen and some of her friends found us and together we all made our way out of the pack lands. Behind us, all the pack buildings were on fire - others had continued what we'd started."

Jessie asked "What is an Alpha mantle? Why would one of Richard's sons get it?"

Liam explained. "In theory, an Alpha's children have the potential to be alphas as well, and on the death of their alpha parent the eldest receives the ability to bond with the pack and continue as its new Alpha - with the ability to command the pack, for good or bad. Sometimes it isn't the eldest child that receives the mantle but if there are children, one of them usually gets the mantle."

Jacob summed up. "So, Jacob and Liam De Vries are wanted rogues, dishonourable killers of the Roi Alpha Jacques Richard and responsible for the destruction of the Richard Pack. It changed everything for all the packs in Quebec, causing numerous battles between packs as everyone jockeyed for power. It was almost 40 years after Jacques Richard's death before things settled down and it became less dangerous for pack-wolves to live in that province. Mark and Stephen Richard tried to rebuild the Richard pack but neither of them is an alpha. Even if they were, few wolves wanted to be under their thumb after former pack members got to talking. They are betas in the Algonquin Pack, and have the accumulated wealth of their family, which means they are still powerful. They have sons and grandsons, many allies in that pack and other packs that support them. They are not good men and they want us, very badly. It is incredibly frustrating for them that we still exist. It shows others how weak they are, that they can't seem to finish off two rogues after all this time."

Jessie thought for a second, saying "So the curse came true in a way ... Jacques Richard allows his daughter to live and she grew up to have a mate bond with someone who destroyed the Richard Pack."

"In a way, I suppose" said Jacob.

Liam sighed. "However you think of it Jessie ... curse or whatever ... your life is now wrapped up with ours, quite literally. And now you are being hunted too. Darren was acting on a search request, probably from the Western Cedars Pack, to find you. These days that kind of thing goes wide - to other packs and any humans who would hunt someone for profit. Helen is looking into it, but for now you can't go back to work. We all must be very careful."

Jessie shivered. She was starting to understand her mother's actions and fears - something she never thought would happen.