One
RIVER
“You are in luck Joey boy,” I said to the man lying on the table, not expecting him to answer. It’s a shame really, death can render you quite speechless. I walked towards the body and smiled at him. “We are out of shampoo, so you get to use mine.” I waved the green bottle at him before putting it next to him. “I hope you like the scent of lemons,” I said as I poured some water over a bowl. I looked at the wall clock and sighed, it was fifteen past nine PM and I spent the entire day at the clinic. “Time moves too fast” I complained to Joe.
Joe was the third out of three bodies I prepared today, and he was the worst. He had too many scars and cleaning all the blood had been a pain. The marks on his body were consistent with the other two bodies I prepared today. Joe was the youngest one and couldn’t be over twenty-six. I felt sad for them, nobody should die this horribly. While I was washing Joe’s hair, I looked at the scratches in his face, they looked like the marks on my face, except mine were already scars and his will never heal. I felt my chest constrict thinking about it, thinking about the life I had before I had the scars. A life before magic, before I could turn into a wolf. Splashing water into Joe’s hair I focused on the present, not letting myself go there. “I guess neither of us is easy to look at now buddy,” I told him as I rinsed his hair.
Rogues are shifters that get disconnected to the link they share with their land, they slowly went insane overtime and ended up torturing and killing themselves. I looked at Joe, nothing seemed right with his case, he showed all the symptoms of a rogue, but his scars all seemed recent. The others were the same; as if the insanity had come over them in days rather than the months and years of torture it took. After I was done with his hair, I began to dress him. Dressing a body by myself always took time even when I can manage the weight (dead bodies don’t cooperate), but I managed to finish before eleven.
After I was done, I stretched and ran upstairs for some coffee. I looked at the couch sitting in front of my desk. It was an atrocity compared to the big and comfortable bed that waited for me in my apartment. But my apartment was three hours away by car and I needed to be back here by 9 o’clock. I walked to the window and looked at the red Toyota, considering my options. I could feel the cold from the autumn night through the glass.
When was the last time that I shifted? It seemed ages ago. I tried to imagine myself running through the land and the hairs in the back of my neck stood up, a sense of freedom rose to my chest, followed by a sense of doom. Turned wolves like me suffer the pain of each bone cracking and breaking every time we shift, we also heal slowly compared to natural shifters. Which means that there is always the threat of death involved. I still had to do it every month, with the help of my pack healer, but some wild part of me wished I could do it every day. Luckily my thoughts were interrupted by my cell phone ringing. I ran towards it to answer it. The caller had no ID, but I knew the number was from the main packhouse. I answered quickly.
“River Daniels speaking,” I said answering the phone.
“Daniels this is your Alpha,” the caller identified himself and my body instantly tensed. While my Alpha is very involved with his pack it’s very unusual for him to call any of his members at eleven-thirty at night. The last time he called was because a cub had died of premature shifting, that day made it to the top ten most horrible days of my life.
“Yes, sir?” I asked worriedly, I opened the pack link in my mind, but I didn’t sense the communal grief I would feel if someone from the pack was dead. I was almost relaxed, almost. It was still not a good sign to have my Alpha in the line.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“I am in my clinic, sir” I answered. With my wolf hearing, I heard as he repeated the information to someone else. Then I heard that someone let out a breath as if they were relieved.
“Daniels, get to my office now” he ordered. And I had to resist shifting and running over to him. Alphas have the power to command, weak wolves like myself often follow their orders by instinct.
“Alpha...” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “Do I need to bring my equipment?” I asked. Maybe they found another rogue, maybe someone visited from another pack and died or maybe a human found their way into the forest, saw too much, and had to be killed to keep our secret. As the only mortician in the pack, it was my duty to take care of any deaths. I was also called to assist with open wounds that were healing too slowly or other medical-related issues whenever the pack doctor was not available.
“No, just get here now” With that said, I put my phone in my pocket and drove to the packhouse.
It was quiet in the packhouse compared with the other times I entered, there was usually a lot of commotion since it was populated by at least twenty wolves. Now I could only hear the faint voices coming out TVs and a couple of snores from one of the rooms. I walked to the office feeling a little more relaxed than before. Surely if something bad happened more wolves would be awake.
Alpha St. Claire was a young man, with dark skin, dark hair and piercing grey eyes that looked at me as if he could see through my soul. And maybe he could, I don’t know. The pack link works in mysterious ways. Pack members could do different things with it depending on rank. Beside him there was Beta Davis, contrasting Alpha St. Claire in every single way, he was a thin man with big glasses and shaggy blonde hair. His eyes were dark brown and unlike the Alpha, he seemed to be pretty relaxed.
“You may sit,” he said and I sat in an armchair close to his desk.
“Alpha St. Claire, Beta Davies” I addressed them with respect.
“Is there something wrong with your phone Daniels?” the Alpha asked in a hostile tone. A shiver went down my spine, I’ve never seen him so angry. Alpha St. Claire always seemed so gentle and firm, but I have never underestimated him. There was always something that I noticed when he spoke to me, especially when his mood was not the best. Self Control. I was scared, but this nervousness and stirring reaction weren’t the usual twinges of fear. It was all mixed up with the edgy, unfamiliar awareness I felt for Alpha St. Claire. An awareness that I’ve never wanted to explore.
“No sir,” I said reaching out of my phone. It was an old flip phone and it had been with me for almost five years, it was a gift from the pack in my first year here. I hadn’t been allowed to have one before then, out of fear I would reach out to the outside world and tell them the truth about werewolves and the magical world. I opened it and saw what he meant, there were sixty-seven missed calls from the last two hours.
“I... I’m so sorry sir, the basement is soundproof and I leave my phone in my office when I wor...”
“That is fucking irresponsible River!” he said furiously and I didn’t know how to answer.
“Please don’t yell Jones, you’ll wake everyone up,” said Beta Davies gently. I was glad for his interruption, I wasn’t scared, deep within me I knew the Alpha would never be cruel to me, but I was blind-sighted by his anger. Alpha St. Claire rubbed his hand on his face as an act of desperation then he looked at Beta Davies. I could sense they were having a conversation through the pack link, an ability that is available to the highest-ranking members of the pack. There was a moment of silence before they both turned to me.
“We are glad you are safe River, we were worried about you” I looked up to meet their eyes, I took a moment examining Alpha St. Claire’s eyes and for the first time I noticed a bit of fear on them. Al I could think was Shit, shit, shit, shit
“I’m really sorry about my phone,” I said slowly finding my voice. “It won’t happen again, sir”.
“Actually,” Beta Davies interrupted me. “We are just glad you were safe in the pack lands, we thought you went home at the usual hours, and we were looking for you” Beta Davies explained. I was listening to him and looking down again because Alpha St. Claire was looking at me.
“Did you identify the bodies Brayan gave you this morning?” he said
“Only one sir,” I responded. “Joe Lurken, I found his wallet, I think he was from the Idaho Pack, he must have run here sir” Beta Davis grabbed a bunch of files from the desk and he handed one to me. I looked at it and it was the file of one Joe Lurken, 24 years old. I read it in silence for a while until I read one line that left me cold.
“He went missing two weeks ago” I repeated, taking in the meaning of those words. Then I took the other files from Beta Davies’s hands. And found the other two bodies I worked with today. Allan Dayle, 39 years old. New Mexico Pack, he went missing from his pack five weeks ago and then Fay Lorde, 50 years old, she went missing a week ago, also from the Idaho Pack.
“This is... not possible,” but I knew it was, hell, I was just thinking about that in the clinic.
“Exactly, these wolves did not abandon their packs nor they were thrown out, nothing happened to them to make them behave the way they did. Mrs. Lorde has a mate and two kids waiting at home. Mr. Dayle just celebrated his son’s graduation. “Joe was about to propose to his girlfriend, a human.”
“What happened to them?” I asked, not really wanting the answer.
“We don’t know” Answered Beta Davies, “All we know is they turned into rogues way quicker than they should. Mrs. Fey left her packlands because she was craving her favorite human restaurant. She was later found in ours, attacking one of the patrol guards.”
“The other two had similar stories.” continued the Alpha. “What brings us to why we were trying to reach you. We were in a summit in the Idaho Packlands with the other Alpha’s and Beta’s, they are experiencing the same problem. Not just the wolves shifters, we’ve heard of other species having the same problem, no one is safe. We were trying to tell you to get to the packlands as soon as possible, luckily for us, you were already here.”
I tried to analyze what he said, in other words, I wasn’t allowed out. No one was.
“How are we supposed to survive, when we can’t go outside these forests? We are roughly four hundred wolves in this pack”
“We’ll manage” Alpha St. Claire replied. I felt a pulse of his Alpha power in his voice and another shiver went up in my spine. I would never underestimate him if he said we’ll manage I was sure we would.
“Was I called here for a special reason?” I asked them, Beta Davies looked at Alpha St. Claire, no doubt telling him something with his mind. The Alpha looked at me.
“You are the only wolf who actually doesn’t live here in the packlands. We... I.” He cleared his throat. “I was worried about you,” he said. Another chill went through me. I felt speechless. I heard Beta Davies sigh, but I wasn’t looking at him.
“There is an extra room on the third floor, 301, you will stay there for the time being. I’ll arrange for some of your stuff to be brought in tomorrow,” Alpha St. Claire said.
“Thank you, sir” I finally replied. And left the room. My heart was still beating when I laid in bed. I wondered how long it would take for me to sleep.
