The deer had gotten caught up on a large boulder. Three of its four legs appeared broken and the birds had already taken the eyes.
Grabbing it by the legs, Sam used her strength to pull the deer free from the rock and into the water's current. Letting the water do most of the work, she guided the carcass to the beach, pulling it up on to the rocks before heading back into the water and making her way to the next one.
She had four carcasses lined up on the beach by the time Nafarius arrived.
"Jesus Christ," Nafarius waded in, helping Sam haul a small doe onto the beach.
"There's more," Sam said, brushing the hair back from her face. "Where's Maddie?"
"I sent her to get Roland." He'd met Maddie on the path leading to the water. More confused than afraid, Maddie had told him what happened, heading on when he ordered her after Roland.
They worked in silence, pulling another five carcasses from the water. They had just pulled up the last one when Roland arrived, Natasha and Maddie hurrying behind him.
Roland, back in human form, scanned the bloated bodies, the air growing thick with decay. "Disease?"
Nafarius knelt down beside a small doe, examining the animal without touching it. Shifting on his haunches, he turned to a couple of the smaller animals. "I don't think so."
"Don't - " Sam started to object when Nafarius reached out to touch one of the dead deer.
"It's not disease," Nafarius said, unfolding to his feet. "Their necks are broken."
Sam blinked, watching as Roland and Nafarius circled the display of death. There were a couple of deer, a young elk, a fox, a couple of rabbits and something she thought was a badger.
"All of them," Roland confirmed.
"How is that possible?" Sam asked.
"And how did they all end up in the stream?" Maddie asked.
"Somebody dropped them there," Nafarius said, sharing a look with Roland.
"My father," Natasha said, her stomach sinking. She'd follow Roland and Maddie, drawn by the young woman's urgency.
"But why?" Maddie asked. "What's the point of this?"
"Poison our water supply?" Sam asked. "Maybe he didn't intend for the bodies to get loose. If he left them to decompose upstream it would infect the water down here."
"Maybe," Nafarius said. "But that wouldn't be enough to kill us. A werewolf with a bad case of what amounts to food poisoning would be unpleasant for everyone, but it's not fatal."
"Nafarius! Nafarius! You need to..." Marcus broke from the trees, skidding to a stop at the sight of the bodies. "Holy shit."
"Whatever it is, it will have to wait," Nafarius growled, rubbing at his forehead. He did not need another crisis right now.
"You're going to want to see this," Marcus said.
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be out hunting." Nafarius hadn't expected Marcus back for another two days.
"I was." Marcus said, locking eyes with his alpha. "Nafarius. It's bad."
"Worse than this?" Nafarius asked, indicating the dead bodies at his feet.
"Yes." Marcus insisted.
Nafarius looked at Marcus, a sense of foreboding creeping up the back of his neck. Nodding, he turned and waved Marcus on, Sam and the others stepping in line and following behind.
Marcus circled around the pack's den and headed south.
"I couldn't bring it back," he said as they passed their second mile, his way of explaining the distance.
Nafarius was just about to demand answers when he smelled it. Urine. Blood. Decay. Hackles rising, his lips pulled back in a snarl. "Where?" he demanded.
"Everywhere," Marcus said quietly.
Sam pressed the back of her hand to her nose. Stepping up to walk beside Nafarius, she slipped her other hand into his.
Nafarius gripped his mate's hand and clenched his teeth, cutting of the rage rising up his throat like bile.
"Son of a..." Roland pulled up short, swallowing convulsively to keep from gagging. Beside him, Natasha's hands flew to her face, covering her mouth and nose.
Marcus had led the small group to the pack's southern hunting grounds. A wide expanse of fields, the surrounding trees, burrows and bushes combined with a nearby water source led to an abundance of wildlife.
But all that remained was death.
Animals had been slaughtered, their throats ripped out, chest cavities torn open, spilling their intestines. A tornado of death had touched down, tearing through every living thing, leaving bits and pieces behind in a macabre debris field.
"There's more," Marcus said softly. He'd had time to adjust to what he was seeing and the sight still left him horrified.
"Tell me," Nafarius fixed his eyes on the scene before him.
"It's the same throughout most of our hunting grounds," Marcus said. "I found the first a day's run from here, I was on my way back to report when I found this one."
"And the others?" Nafarius asked.
"I tracked down Jack and Declan," Marcus said. "They found some of the same. From what I can tell this is the worst of it but I haven't heard from everyone."
"The urine?" Nafarius' lip curled. "Whose is it?"
Marcus shook his head, he didn't recognize the mark. "I don't know but as far as I can tell there was only one of them."
"One werewolf?" Sam asked, her voice rising in surprise.
Marcus nodded.
"He marked my fucking territory," Nafarius snarled, his eyes glowing gold.
"Dimitri," Roland supplied.
"One man couldn't do all of this," Sam said.
"He's not a man," Nafarius bit out. "He's a goddamn animal!!"
"Why?" Sam asked. "Why this? Why the ones in the stream? Why not come after us directly."
"This is an attack," Nafarius said. "Make no mistake. He went after our water, cut off our food supply. It will take months, a year maybe before game will come back to these woods. Dimitri knew we would be preparing for winter. He'd see us starving and weak."
Sam looked out at the carnage. She could feel it now, the absolute lack of life. There were no birds signing, no bushes rustling. Everything was just...dead.
Nafarius uncurled his fingers, letting Sam's hand slip from his grasp as he stepped forward. Walking into the center of all that carnage, Nafarius unclenched his teeth and roared out his fury.
Crippling rage boiled up through the pack bond, echoing along the mate bond, cowing the small group and dropping them to their knees.
Helpless, Sam watched as her mate shifted, his wolf bursting through his clothes, shaking off the remnants before dashing off into the woods.
"No," Roland said, putting a restraining hand on Sam's arm. "Let him go."
Sam looked up at Roland, searching his face, she understood that in this, he knew Nafarius better.
Nodding, she turned to Marcus. "Find out the affected areas as the others check in, we'll need to clean up as much as we can. Burn...everything," she said. "Starting with the ones by the stream."
Marcus nodded.
Sam stood with the others, silently looking out over a field of death.
****
Natasha worked alongside Sam and the others moving the carcasses away from the den and setting them to burn. She listened as more and more of the males returned, all of them reporting more of the same - hunting grounds spoiled by death and decay.
A few had managed to snag small game on their way back, but she knew it wouldn't be enough to feed a pack the size of Nafarius'.
The alpha male returned a short time later. Still in wolf form, he slipped into the den, returning a few minutes later dressed in jeans and pulling a t-shirt over his head.
"Thank you," Nafarius said, reaching for his mate and running his hand down her arm. "For taking care of this."
"They're my pack, too," Sam said. Nafarius' touch was light on her arm, a stark contrast to the riot of emotions swirling along the mate bond.
"I know, but you shouldn't have had to deal with this alone." Nafarius had run through part of his territory, following the scent of death and decay from one field of carnage to another. Eventually, the trail had led out of his territory and straight to Dimitri.
"I'm not alone," Sam said, casting a quick glance at Natasha.
Nafarius turned to the red headed female. She was covered in dirt, sweat and other things he hated to guess at, and she refused to look at him. Reaching out, Nafarius snagged her wrist, waiting until she raised her eyes to say, "This isn't your fault."
"I know," Natasha said, grateful for the kindness in his eyes. "But I still feel responsible."
"This all started because of me," Nafarius said. "Because of choices I made. If anyone is responsible, it's me."
Natasha shook her head. "Maybe if I had gone home after - "
"You'd be dead," Roland said, his voice hard. He'd been working nearby, keeping an eye on Natasha. It wasn't hard to guess at her thoughts as she worked quietly.
"My father wasn't in his right mind," Natasha said, needing to speak up for him, for the male he used to be even as he became more of a stranger.
"You're right," Sam said. "Which means he could have just as easily fixated on you, your pack or any number of things. There is no predicting a twisted mind."
"Dimitri has to be dealt with," Nafarius said softly, his eyes full of regret.
Natasha nodded. "When?"
Nafarius sighed, he was bone weary and there was still so much to do. "Soon," he said. "But first we need supplies, meat for the pack. The snow line is dropping and we don't have enough to see us through even half of a decent season."
Sam shaded her eyes and looked up at the surrounding mountains. The rich green of summer was slowly giving ground to an advancing blanket of white, the peaks already buried in snow.
"What are we going to do?" Sam asked.
"There's a butcher in Roslyn," Nafarius said. "I'll call in an order, most of it will have to be brought in frozen and we'll still have to make another trip." Hiking out would be the easy part, hauling back meat and supplies in waist deep snow was the part he wasn't looking forward to.
"Will it be enough?" This was Sam's first winter with the pack, for someone used to living on coffee and frozen dinners, preparing for an entire season of feeding sixty-three people, sixty-four if Natasha stayed, was considerably harder.
"It won't be easy," Nafarius said. Winters were hard, less fresh meat in the beginning meant digging into stores earlier. He could only hope for a mild winter. Too bad his instincts were warning him that they were in for a rough one.
"When do you want to head into Roslyn?" Sam asked, excited by the idea of getting back into town, even one as small as Roslyn. She hadn't been away that long, only a couple of months had passed since she'd made her way to Wolf Lake and discovered Nafarius and his pack. But she would be going back an entirely different person. Actually, she'd be going back an entirely different species.
"I'll place the order tomorrow," Nafarius said. "It's a two day hike out," he added, thinking that it would give the butcher time to fill the large order and Nafarius time to figure out how to haul it all in.
"It took me three days to hike in," Sam said, and that wasn't including the three hour drive from Roslyn.
"You were human," Nafarius reminded her. "Besides, as wolves we can travel as the crow flies and take a more direct route."
"I'd like to go," Natasha said quietly, fidgeting as all eyes turned to her. "I could use a few things, everything that I own got left behind."
"Make a list - " Nafarius started, thinking that Sam could bring back whatever the female needed.
"I'd like to help," Natasha said, her eyes asking him to understand.
"And I'd like to bring Maddie," Sam said, thinking back to one of her earlier conversations with the female. Roslyn wasn't a big city, but it was quaint, and she would enjoy showing it to her. "We could take care of running errands for the females while you work on the rest of the supplies."
Nafarius considered. It made sense, already he'd received a number of requests from pack members in preparation for his annual trip. There was a lot to do and he could use the help.
"Alright," Nafarius agreed. He actually preferred having Sam with him. He didn't like the idea of splitting up the pack while Dimitri was still on the loose, but if they were going to survive the winter they needed to be prepared. "We'll leave first thing in the morning. Roland, divide up the males. I want half of our strongest to remain behind, guarding the pack. The rest are with us."
Roland nodded. Catching Natasha's hand, he drew her to the side. "I'll find you later," he promised. "We'll pick up where we left off."
Natasha nodded, a flutter of excitement settling in her stomach. They had barely begun their run when they'd met Maddie, her orders for Roland leading them down to the stream.
Roland squeezed Natasha's hand and gave in to the impulse to press a quick kiss to the corner of her mouth. She looked absolutely delicious, despite the layer of grime, and his wolf was eager to finish their run.
Natasha watched Roland striding away, her fingers pressed to where her lips still tingled from his kiss. Casting a quick look around, she noted a few blank faces of surprise, each one turning to a smile as they caught her looking at them.
****
"You can't!" Kate whispered furiously, looking around to make sure she and William were alone.
"We have to do something!" William's whispers were just as furious. "After what he did to Carter - to his own daughter."
"You're not strong enough," Kate said, not unkindly. Worry darkened her brown eyes as she searched her pack mate's face. Her son was gone, his death leaving a hole next to her heart. "He'll kill you."
"Maybe," William said. Definitely. Kate was right, he wasn't strong enough to take on Dimitri. Already pushing three hundred years, William had never wanted to be alpha. His position in the pack was secure - safe in the middle along with Kate and a few of the others.