Walking Wolf Road (Wolf Road Chronicles Book 1) (41 page)

“Good metabolism?” And May’s Full Moon…

He sighed, and they loaded me into a wheelchair and rolled me down the hall. Movement led to the sensational discovery of my catheter, which was delightful in a permanently-kicked-in-the-balls, deep-in-your-gut, why-god-why-d
o-I-have-nerve-endings-there kind of way.

Mom pushed Loki’s chair and they loaded us into the wide elevator. We went up a couple floors to the intensive care unit, and I looked at Bo as they wheeled us in. Finger in clamp, blue blanket, trach tube, intravenous drip, cluster of machines either metering or assisting his body. He looked just like I had that morning.

One of his eyes was swollen purple blue, and a large bandage wrapped around his head. His parents looked at me with sunken eyes, their vitality sucked out by the endless hell of not knowing if their child would wake up or not. Forced to observe a wake for their son, whose body wasn’t even dead. I’d only met them briefly a couple times we’d gone over to Bo’s house.

“If it’s all right with you, I’d like to try something. I don’t know for sure if it’ll help or not, I just know it won’t hurt to try.”

Eyes too afraid to hope looked at me, and Bo’s father agreed. Bo had his father’s glacial blue eyes and build, but his mother’s dark olive skin. “What makes you think it could help?”

I smiled at him, “It brought me back…”

He closed his eyes a moment, his face long and somber, and took my hand between both of his. He nodded as he released my hand and took his wife’s back. “At this point, we’re willing to try anything.”

“Just promise me you won’t make a sound, and no matter what, you won’t try to interrupt.”

They nodded and Mom wheeled me over next to Bo so I could take his hand, mindful of the I.V. taped to his wrist. Since Wolf and I weren’t separate anymore, it was almost too easy to slip out of myself and down through the soil into the earth.

A great roar grew until I rose to the surface of the water and opened my eyes. A tall waterfall tapered into the distance through the mist, and I closed my eyes and smiled as the water beaded and rolled off my face.

So good to be back…

I rolled over onto my stomach and shifted smoothly into Wolf, and then paddled over to the side of the pool and shook myself dry. I put my muzzle into the air as a breeze hissed through the canopy of trees and with it—there!

I took off down the river and then climbed the hillside. There was something here that stank of human, and I sought it with all my will. My tongue lolled out of my mouth as I flew uphill. The massive trees of the waterline thinned into sagebrush and the scent grew stronger. I came upon a path of worn dirt that curled around a large rock on the side of the hill and I shifted back into human form.

Bo sat on a rock and looked out over the breathtaking valley while one hand absently rubbed the ears of a russet brindled wolf with bold black markings and a dark gray back and mane. I sat down beside him and looked out over the forest. An eagle soared in slow circles over the treetops while the sun bathed us in a warm golden aura.

“You know, I always thought that greeting-card heaven with clouds and little harp-playing angels was crap. It never made sense with the way God made his creations, the way he made the world. When the light brought me here, I never imagined heaven could be this… perfect…”

“When’d you find him?” I nodded at his wolf, who grinned with halfcocked ears as Bo scratched a good spot.

“That’s the funny part. I didn’t find him anywhere, he was already with me.”

“He’s you, Bo. He’s part of your soul.”

“You’ve got so much explaining to do, it’s not even funny.” He laughed.

“Well, I was getting around to it. Not my fault we were shot before I could tell you more.”

“But you never really trusted me, not enough to tell me the whole truth.”

“I’m sorry Bo, but I couldn’t trust anybody.
Hell, I even suspected Geri…”
Woops…

“It was Jack, wasn’t it?” he asked softly, sympathy in his eyes.

“Yeah…” I took a deep breath, “But the real bitch is that he was trying to kill me the whole time. Fen just got in the way, like you did, trying to save my life.”

“God, I should have known. Jack started acting weird after your fight, and I saw him at church just a couple days before the trial, when his dad gave this big sermon about the war on evil. He made this big hoo-rah about destroying Satan ‘by any means necessary.’” Bo fell silent for a moment, “Is Jack gone now?”

“Yes.”

Bo sighed and looked down at his feet. “Did you do it?”

“Yes.” I braced for his anger.

“Good. Mad dogs need to be put down.” Bo’s wolf sensed his agitation and looked up at him, then whined and rubbed his head against Bo’s side as he sighed and closed his eyes, “So,
I guess we’re dead then?”

“Not quite. Your body is still alive, I can try to take you back if you’d like.”

“You can do that?” as he turned and looked at me, his wolf did as well.

“I think so…” I answered, slightly less than certain.

Bo sighed and looked at me “I want to go back… But I don’t want to leave him.” He resumed rubbing his wolf’s ears and smiled.

“So bring him with you.”

“Can I do that?” he asked surprised.

“Yes, but there are consequences. You’ve always been fascinated by wolves, because you had one deep inside you. If you fully embrace it, you’ll become like me, and then there’s no going back.”

“God yes!” Bo laughed, “I don’t even have to think about it, it’s what I’ve wanted my whole life!”

“Good, let’s go. Oh, and just a warning, it’s going to hurt like a bitch and I’m not even capable of expressing the joys of catheters and tracheal tubes.”

He moaned, “Maybe I’ll just stay here after all.”

“Oh, shut up. It’s not going to be easy, but I’ll be with you and so will Loki. We’re a Pack now right?”

“Right.” He smiled and held out his fist. I hit my knuckles to his and turned to guide him back to the pool. His wolf whimpered as a shadow moved on the silhouette of the boulder.

Lupa’s pure white coat shimmered gold in the sunshine like a fiery halo. She hopped down from the rock and approached Bo’s wolf. She sniffed noses with him and rubbed her flank along his, and then turned toward the path and looked back over her shoulder at him.

“Bo, you like to run right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because you’ll need to soon…” I shifted into my wolf form and Bo’s eyes grew wide. I greeted Bo’s wolf, who stood taller than me in the shoulder, but he lowered himself in deference to me. I nudged his muzzle, and then jumped back in an invitation to play. His tail wagged as he stood.

Lupa changed into her human form and whispered something to Bo, who smiled at her and nodded, and then ran down the hill. His wolf and I chased him and Lupa caught up with us. I led them to the waterfall and then shifted back to my human form and smiled at Lupa, “Thank you, for saving my life.”

Her muzzle stretched into a wide lupine grin. “My warrior wolf, this battle is over, but the war still remains ahead of you. At least now you have a good Beta, a strong knight by your side, and I’ll always be with you, in my way.”

Bo turned pale when he came to the edge of the water. “
Uh, Jimmy? I guess this would be a bad time to mention I have aquaphobia…”

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow, “Seriously, you charged in to wrestle a sociopath with a rifle, but you’re afraid of water?”

“Um…” Bo flexed his hands open and closed, “Yep.”

“Bo, you literally
cannot
drown here. Please come with me… I don’t want to lose you too.” I held out my hand to him.

Bo
swallowed and edged his way into the water, but his wolf stayed on shore and whined. Lupa nudged him, but the unknown still terrified him. He sensed that something was about to change in a very big way, but he didn’t know how.

“Bo, lead him into the water and hold him to you.”

Bo walked toward him and held out his hands for him to come. They stood still a moment, and then Bo turned to me. “He wants me to put my hand in his mouth.”

“Then do it, he needs reassurance.”

“But what if he bites me?”

“Bo, he
is
you.” I laughed.

Reluctantly, Bo held out his hand and his wolf wrapped his jaws around Bo’s wrist. Together they walked into the water until his wolf could no longer touch bottom and had to doggy paddle.

“Now, hold him close and don’t let go, got it?” He nodded and I wrapped my arms around them. We sank below the surface while the sunlight on the water’s surface cast rippled shadows over my eyelids. I reached deep inside and felt Raven’s cool violet light within me as we flew back up through the soil, the pipes, and back into my aching, heavy body.

I felt them inside me, not as two forms, but like a single egg of vapor lodged in my chest. I summoned my shifting energy and focused it as I lifted Bo’s hand, careful not to let his parents see my eyes. I placed his hand in my mouth and bit down into the yielding flesh of his palm. My teeth sharpened just enough to break the skin and when I tasted the copper of his blood, I shoved my shifting energy into Bo’s inert body and pushed his spirit in with Raven’s power. The weight lifted from my chest and I fell back into my wheelchair, exhausted for the first time since I woke.

The room exploded. Everyone was yelling, Mom stood between me and Bo’s father as he gestured wildly, enraged. It all sounded muffled and far away, and I clenched my eyes shut while I willed the pain down.

Blip. Blip. Blip…

Everyone froze as Bo’s heart monitor sped up. Bo’s un-bruised eyelid twitched and then opened. For a moment, the only sound in the room as the clicking, wheezing, and beeping of machines, and then Bo’s mother let out a wail and lurched for his hand.

I slumped in my chair, exhausted and drained.
Loki wheeled over to me, and I took her hand while we watched a family ground down by despair be lifted completely by joy. After his parents settled down, Bo reached for me. I let go of Loki for a moment and took his hand.

A familiar tingle teased the nerve endings of my fingers as he squeezed, a silent ‘thank you’ in his eye as the image of his russet and black brindled fur flashed in my mind’ eye. He let go of me and reached out for Loki, and at his touch Loki gasped and then looked over at me and I smiled. She smiled too and let him take his hand back.

I whispered low enough that only she could hear. “In the spring everything starts over. I’d like you to meet our new Beta…” We smiled at each other and then she kissed me, long and deep. Her lips felt like satin, smooth against the raw edges of my soul.

Like Lupa said, the battle was over, but the war was just beginning. There would be more challenges and pitfalls, new joys and anguishes, but we would survive all of them. Loki and I had each other now. Our Pack would endure.

To be Wolf, is to survive…

The Wolf Road Chronicles will continue in Book 2:

Bearing Raven’s Mark

Brandon M. Herbert is an author, artist, musician, entrepreneur and voracious biblioholic. He was born a third generation Colorado native, but his heart and soul belong completely to the Pacific Northwest.

Brandon
wrote his first short story in fifth grade, and hasn't stopped since. He enjoys writing Urban Fantasy, both for Young Adults (
Walking Wolf Road
and
The Wild
) and Horror fans (
World of Shadows
and
Tales of the Underground
). He is a passionate wolf supporter, and has spent most his life researching the history, mythology, and reality of werewolves, shapeshifters, and therianthropes. Brandon also does freelance graphic design and plays guitar when he’s not kayaking Puget Sound or quaffing inhuman quantities of coffee.

Brandon is a member of the Whidbey Island Writers Association and the EPIC Writing Group.
He currently resides in the Seattle area, and welcomes contact at: