Mate Detector

The snow fell heavily from the sky this day, the giant flakes almost the size of her fist. Alexis Darling laid low, her stomach flat against the sheet of ice covering the frozen ground, and willed herself to blend into the white hills. The scent of a nearby buck had her nose sniffing the air. Still, she waited. It was too alert, and if she neared him now, he would be gone before she even had time to blink. She needed to be patient and steel her racing heart as it beat too loudly in her small chest.

The call of a vulture sung in the air, and overhead it flew as if to signal her whereabouts to its friends. The forest was too nosy this time of the year, every animal around peering their beady eyes to trespassers that entered their sacred woods.

Alex knew she should not have been there. It was forbidden to hunt in the forest of the Alpha’s, but times were getting harder, and she had no choice. It was either risk getting caught hunting on these lands or let her family starve. Alex would rather die first than to have to go home empty-handed and see their disappointed faces. For the last few months, she had taken to hunting in the sacred forest. It was the only place left that still had any life to it. Everywhere else around the village, the animals had been long hunted to extinction by the pack members.

Her village was under the control of the Northern Alpha Lord. Centuries ago, the strongest four Alphas seized power over the country and split it into four regions; North, East, West, and South. Each was taken over by one of the four Lords. Those Lords then broke down their lands into stations. The Alpha’s took over the fertile areas, while the Beta’s were left in the outskirts to scavenge. It was rumored that each of the Alpha Lords possessed unique gifts bestowed upon them from ancient druids.

The Northern Alpha named his region Tartarean. It fit well, for this place was the abyss of hell.

A calm silence came over the forest, and Alex narrowed her eyes against the flurry of snow. It would become too difficult to see if she did not hurry, even with her sharp vision. Small puffs of air could be seen coming from her nostrils as a chill raked down her spine; still, she waited. The buck’s ears were straight in the air, they twitched slightly, and he did a double-take at his surroundings. Smart. She thought to herself but not smart enough.

Quiet…Quiet…Quiet.

At last, the time had come. Alex shot out, fast, her speed the quickest out of any other Beta she knew. She pounced on the deer, and with horror in his eyes, she tore out his throat. Alex felt the warmth of the blood pour down her esophagus, and she groaned from the contact. Doing quick work, she hefted it over her slender shoulders and made her way home. Alex needed to get out of the woods quickly; the sun was starting to set.

The swirl of white was steadily flowing around her, and she had to rely purely on instinct to get herself on the right path to her tiny little hovel. None the less she was smiling slightly. This buck would be enough to feed her family for a least a week, if not longer if they rationed it right. The skin she might be able to trade in town for some of the essential household items they needed.

Walking through the threshold, she grimaced, looking at the run-down state of her once beautiful home. Over nearly ten years now, there had been no hired help, no one to assist them in maintenance, and upkeep was vital in a place like this. The harsh winter storms rotted roofs within no time, but repairs like that could not be taken care of without coin. The world revolved around it, and at present, they had none. There was no smoke from the chimney, which meant that no one had seen fit to chop any wood. As Alex walked through the door, she shivered; why must she do everything?

“Alex?” came a soft voice from the chair next to the hearth.

Alex set the deer onto the little wooden table and winced as its weight made the surface creak.

“Virginia, where is everyone, and why has the fire not been kept up?” she snapped.

Her sister was wrapped in a light shawl gazing at the dying embers in the firepit. Alex was taken back by just how genuinely frail her sister looked at that moment. Her usually luscious golden hair was brittle and lacked its vitality. Her body was sunken in from lack of nourishment, not too unlike Alex’s own, the fire in her topaz eyes gone, extinguished by the harsh circumstances that had now become their reality.

“Jamie went into the village to beg for work, and Claire is no doubt out with the baker’s son,” she said loftily.

“Mother?” she asked bitterly.

Virginia tisked, “In the bed, of course.”

Alex cursed under her breath as she hurried to stack up what logs were left. She built back up the fire and turned towards her sister. Grabbing Virginia’s hands, Alex gently started rubbing them. Unease at how cold she was beginning to set in. If they had been human, she would have died long ago from the cold, but as it were, her inner wolf kept her just warm enough to stay alive. Virginia was the youngest of the Darlings, only twelve years of age. Then, Jamie, the only boy, was now fourteen. Claire was sixteen, and then there was Alexis, who had just had her eighteenth year.

“Pitiful, that wretched woman,” she fumed, staring down at Virginia’s pale hands.

“Don’t speak ill of Mother, Alex. You know she has had it rough the last few years; she needs time,” her sister spoke softly, always the defender.

Alex stood, “The last ten years, Gin? Time has come and gone. This place is falling apart, and we have little food. The well has long dried up…there are literal holes in the ceiling,” she could have gone on forever listing the reasons why they needed help now.

“The Alpha will provide,” she said with a small smile.

Alex walked over to the table and started skinning the deer.

“Your childish naivety will be your undoing. If the Alpha Lord cared at all, do you think we would still be living like this?” she peeled back fur, “The only people that we can count on are each other, and I do not have much stock in the others.”

“You will see, Alex,” was all she said.