Mateo stretched his neck from side to side making it crack. His stomach growled ravenously at him, it had been days since he had put any real food in it.
Scouting missions were the worst, but at least this time he had got to take his own pack. Jacob, Jonny, Petra and Han.
They may have been more incompetent than the Betas he had been given the last time, but at least their company was bearable.
The last mission had been a bloodbath, there had been another Alpha with them, Carson. Carson had taken the Betas off one night to a human encampment they were just meant to be observing. By the time Mateo got there nearly everyone was dead, the rest were being packaged as 'meat'.
Meat, that's what humans were called when wolves decide to keep and sell them at the Meat Markets. Sometimes the name was literal and the human ended up as dinner, sometimes it was more metaphorical and they end up as 'dessert'.
Food and sex, the world practically ended but Mateo didn't see the difference, that was what it had always been about. Food, sex and power.
Mateo spat at the dirt and eyed Petra. She was the youngest of them and the most cocky, she had a lot to learn. Mateo knew she was lucky he would be the Alpha teaching her and not someone like Carson. Mateo had seen Carson 'teaching' people lessons, lessons that left them scarred and broken.
This time they were heading north to scout out the territories around the Great Forests. It was a strategic position and if the witches claimed it before they did there would be hell to pay with the Elders.
Mateo knew there were two other scouting groups descending on the plains at the same time as them. If there were any humans in the territory, he was fully prepared for another display of ruthless wolf violence. He tried to make himself care, it had been so long since he had cared.
"Up ahead," Jonny called out as the pack slowed down.
Mateo looked up, there was definitely a small settlement ahead. He could see makeshift walls and guard towers.
"Witches?" asked Jacob.
"Let's find out," growled Mateo as he quickened up the pace. The ground was hard and unyielding beneath him but it felt good to run, to really run. What felt bad was stopping, sometimes he wished he could just keep running north, away from the south, past all the territories and not stop running until he had reached...where...where else was there?
"I smell humans!" Petra cried out. What she meant was she could smell human blood being spilled, Mateo caught the scent, acrid copper and there was a lot of it.
"They should have waited for all the scouts to get there before attacking!" Jonny growled. Mateo glanced at him. It was probably better they arrived late to the carnage, Jonny still cared about humans, it still hurt him to see them ripped apart.
They arrived at the human village and were greeted by two Betas keeping watch outside the gates, they were dirty and unkempt.
"Alpha," they acknowledged Mateo in the formal manner of bending their necks back. It was very slight but Mateo nodded in recognition at the gesture. "I'm afraid you've missed the fun, we're just cleaning up and packaging."
"Just humans?" Jacob sniffed the air and pulled a disgusted face, "Doesn't smell like you left many for packaging."
The two Betas curled their lips and huffed dry laughter. Mateo was done with them, he walked towards the gates and quickly picked up the scent of another Alpha, Carson was here. Great, that was just what he needed.
"Why, Mateo, so glad you could join us." A creeping voice slid down Mateo's spine. The other werewolf appeared from behind a mound of the recently dead. He was taller than Mateo, but slightly leaner with a mop of blonde hair that looked somehow wrong atop his rough and callused features. A group of werewolves followed him, their hackles bloodied and set in satisfaction.
"Carson," Mateo paused, unsure how to continue diplomatically in front of so many onlookers, "I had thought our orders were to wait until all scouting groups had arrived before initiating any strikes?"
Carson barked a gnarled laugh, "Oh come Mateo, you can't exactly call this a strike, more of a flick, like when you want to get rid of a bug."
"Just humans?" Mateo heard Petra ask. Carson looked surprised at being directly addressed by the Beta, so Mateo answered to cover her mistake, "It smells that way, but you can never be sure."
"Oh Mateo!" Carson laughed. "It's just a small human village, surely you're not angry we didn't share?"
"It just seems strange," replied Mateo gritting his teeth, "that there would be a human village this undefended near the Great Forests."
"You think it's a trap?" hissed Jacob. Mateo could feel him pawing slightly as his back. Obviously Carson noticed as well because he raised his lips in a sneer. Mateo stiffened, annoyed at whatever mental judgement Carson was making of his pack right.
Admittedly, at first Mateo had also misjudged Jacob's constant need for touch as weakness, back when he had originally been assigned him. The tall hunched boy would always lie closer to him at night that Mateo had found comfortable, however over the last year Mateo had realised it was part of a bond of understanding and trust. Jacob would talk with his body, not just his words. Perhaps that made him more wolf than the rest of them. Whatever it signified, it wasn't weakness.
Mateo had heard from one of the Elders how Jacob had been abandoned aged five in the forest by his own father, two years later the wolves found him, a small feral child with blood dribbling down his chin and the remnants of a rabbit in his hands, he'd growled at them, growled, and he was still human.
Of course he had been turned, the Elders saw potential in him, or perhaps they were just kinder back then, less bloodthirsty.
"Why would witches set a trap unless they knew we were coming?" Petra questioned, whipping her head round as if expecting them to pop out any moment on flying broomsticks.
"Calm your cubs for god's sakes Mateo. Their whining is giving me a headache," Carson barked. "There's no damned witches here. We'll camp for the night then move on towards the forests."
Mateo nodded gruffly, "Agreed."
His pack settled on a spot near the far west wall, Jacob picked it. He justified it by saying that he couldn't stand to be anywhere near Carson's pack who were loud and obnoxious. Mateo knew he chose it for Jonny's sake, it was the furthest away from the stench of human blood.
Jonny's mother had been human, perhaps she still was.
Jonny had been predictably silent since they entered the remains of the camp, Jacob cast him a worried frown then shuffled closer. His shoulder nudged Jonny's, who seemed to relax and offered the taller boy a faint smile.
Mateo exhaled softly, the Beta's gesture conveyed everything Mateo was unable to offer, didn't know how to. Jacob's touch compensated for Mateo's own coldness. Perhaps in the same way Jonny's caring compensated for his own apathy. Mateo looked around the group, was that what his Betas were? Filling the holes left by his own failings?
Jacob - Trust
Jonny - Conscience
Han - Patience
Petra - Laughter
It had been a long time since Mateo had felt whole. It seemed like with each passing year larger holes appeared inside him, letting the grey haze of each miserable day filter right through him.
***
Mateo woke up with a start and saw that morning light was already upon them, he wished that that was what had woken him.
It was a trap.
The howls were piercing and pained. The scramble to escape was fierce and merciless. The witches were ready, the wolves were not. The fire ripped through the camp, the earth showered down on them, temporarily blinding them with clouds of stinging ash.
The last one he saw was Jacob, dragged backwards by an eruption of soot and soil. Jacob flung his arm forward towards Mateo, was it for one last touch?
Mateo followed the cries, he ran, he tracked them. His claws were burnt and cracked as they hit the black ground. He screamed in pain. There were wolves and witches everywhere and then there was no one, nothing, just blackness.
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