40Kitty went into the cabin and zoomed for the fridge. She promised John to go out and hunt with him, but only after she had something to drink to prevent the dehydration that usually came after changing, running around, and then changing back.
She'd told him that, but what she really wanted was a talk with Larry. She may have offered John the chance he desired, but that by no means excused Larry for blabbing her dirty little secret to everyone he wanted.
She grabbed a bottled water and went on the hunt, sniffing him out until she found him outside, speaking to Bill on the patio facing the lake. They were discussing the property, but she wasn't interested in that.
"Hello daddy," She said sweetly.
He turned to her, noticed the angry animal look in her eyes behind the smile of innocence, and his face was that of a deer caught in the head lights.
Bill noticed this as well. "Is there something wrong?" He asked. As Pack Master, Bill tended to know everything that went on in his Pack, and Kitty's face fell when she realized that he must know as well. How pathetic.
"Not really," She said quickly, her voice high pitched before she cleared her throat. "But can I speak with my dad alone?"
"Sure you can." Bill agreed, deciding to put off whatever he and Larry had been discussing until later. He took a wicker chair that had been propped against the rail and positioned it in the shade before making himself comfortable to watch the ducks and pups on the lake. He did this very gracefully considering he was missing his left leg. It had been years since he lost it, but had since mastered walking without it. Most people who met him for the first time were usually surprised to discover that he had a prosthetic leg since he walked as though he'd been born with it attached to his hip.
Both Kitty and Larry took the silent message that Bill wasn't the one who was going to leave for them to have their privacy. Which Kitty thought was fair, even if it wasn't his cabin, as Pack Master he could sit wherever he pleased and not have to move no matter what was going on around him.
Kitty couldn't bring Larry into the kitchen since people kept running in and out of it for plates, spices and drinks for the barbeque, instead she brought him into a spare room that hadn't been taken yet.
She closed the door behind her.
"Is this is about Johnathan?" He asked, preparing himself for his daughter's wrath.
Kitty crossed her arms, willing herself to be as angry as possible. "That was really embarrassing." She said, but without the anger she'd intended. It was impossible to be angry with him, he was her father. A fact that made it difficult to show any small amount of disrespect no matter what the reason. But she wanted him to know that she didn't need him to set her up on dates. There comes a time when a father's over protectiveness is cute in its own way, but as she got older Kitty began to see it more and more as meddlesome.
Larry took a step forward and put his arms around her shoulders. "I'm sorry baby girl, you know I worry."
Kitty wanted to shove him away, if only to show him that what he did wasn't alright, but she hugged him back instead and willed the rest of her anger away. "It wasn't that bad." She mumbled
"You tried phoning him enough."
"That was days ago."
"You didn't leave your apartment for a week."
"I wasn't feeling well."
Larry made a disbelieving face before shrugging. "So I guess since you know what I said that meant Johnathan spoke with you?" He had an expectant grin on his face and he leaned in to sniff. "I can smell him on you."
"Daddy …" Kitty flushed miserably and pulled away, folding her arms again.
"So …?"
She bit her bottom lip to keep from smiling, and even then it was a losing battle. Her father's happiness was contagious. "I said I'd give us a chance."
"There you go!"
Kitty found her stomach in her feet as she was thrust in the air by her armpits, swung around and dropped back on the floor to be hugged again like a ten year old girl.
"See? It wasn't so bad now was it?" Larry was grinning from ear to ear at his victory.
Kitty shook her head. "You know, most fathers hate the idea of their daughters dating anyone at all."
"I'm not like most fathers, and better Johnathan then some heartless halfbreed—"
"Dad!"
"Right, sorry. Where is Johnathan anyway?"
Kitty shrugged. "Waiting for me in the woods, I guess. We're gonna go hunting."
"Then don't you let me keep you." Larry said, shoving her towards the door. "Just don't fill up too much before dinner, and don't spend all your time chasing each other's tails, you two should talk a little bit."
"Daddy!"
"Bye!" Kitty jerked back before the door could slam on her nose, and as she turned away to find a place to change and hunt with John, she wondered what had happened to her plan of being angry with Larry.
0000000000
A wolf song howled in the air, and Kitty shook herself off, her entire body a flurry of fur, then snorted. John had caught another rabbit. Meaning he had one more then she did, and if she did not catch at least another two, he would win their game.
It was strange how simple her mind became when she was in her wolf form. She didn't know much about the intelligence of real Arctic wolves, but when she became one her human thoughts seemed but a distant haze. As a person she would never consider murdering an innocent bunny for the sake of quick meal or game. But as Kitty the white wolf, she wanted nothing more then to sink her jaws into their fat bellies to feast.
She put her snout to the ground and inhaled, shaking away a spider that had crawled onto her nose, searching for another prize, her pride willing to do nearly anything to keep him from winning. She could hear the squirrels and birds in the trees, rustling the leaves and scratching around in the dirt for food. She ignored these scents and sounds until her nose found what it was looking for, but she refrained from howling until she actually caught the rabbit, not wanting to give away her discovery and give John the chance to steal it from her.
She gave silent chase, tracking the scent back to the rabbit hole, past trees and down a hill of dead leaves and pine needles. She stopped abruptly when she saw it.
It was sitting on its hind legs, ears stiff, staring straight at her in frozen alarm.
Kitty's paw was hanging in the air in mid step, eager eyes fixed on her prey.
The long ears twitched, and the rabbit dropped back to all fours, and Kitty simultaneously dropped her paw to the ground. The rabbit kept its eyes still on her. Kitty could see its hole not fifteen feet behind it, and it was contemplating whether it could make it in time.
Kitty pounced unexpectedly, not offering the rabbit the chance to think over the possibilities of escape, making no sound or growl to warn it, and the rabbit dashed for safety. His paws kicking up pine needles and dirt in his haste.
It dived for the hole just as her teeth clamped down on the fluff of its tail, but that was all she could get. The rabbit was intent on living and pulled hard enough that the fur ripped from its tail, some blood on the tips where the flesh had torn, but otherwise her prey had escaped unfazed, and she was left with bunny fluff in her mouth.
Kitty whined at her lost snack, the scent of blood making the loss all the more personally insulting to her hunting skills, and she dug at the hole in vein. Clogging it up with more earth then actually digging it up.
The sound of wolf laughter halted her actions, and she whipped her head to see a Mexican Grey wolf watching her with sparkling interest.
John was snickering at her, looking thoroughly entertained from where he stood.
She growled at him, an angry noise deep in her throat, but he was not intimidated. Instead he dipped his head and picked up the rabbit he'd caught while she was busy digging for the one she'd lost.
I win.
Kitty growled again, slinking towards him. And if I take your rabbit from you?
John snorted his laughter. Then that makes you a cheater. but that didn't stop him from dangling the rabbit in front of her, the scent of its blood teasing her nose and watering her mouth.
She was about to lunge at him with their new game when a piercing howl tore through the woods. Both of their ears perked as they turned towards the sound. It was not a howl of fun or laughter, but one of excruciating loss and pain. Several whines followed it, and the mental thought waves from the other Were's at the cabin became disoriented with mindless rage.
John dropped the rabbit and went to dash towards the problem when a red Manned Wolf jumped into his path, forcing him to awkwardly skid to a halt.
Dianna was panting hard, looking as though she'd been running as fast as her long legs would carry her to find them.
Kitty trotter towards her and looked up at her. What's happening? She asked.
Her thoughts were in a panic, and Kitty could barely understand her until John bit down on her ear, making her yelp.
Calm down! What happened?
Dianna's head was whipping from them to the direction of the painful sounds and back again, still panicked, but this time they could understand her. Humans! Vampires! Everywhere! They're attacking us!
That was all John and Kitty needed to understand before they took off around Dianna and ran towards the scene. She followed, but was lagging some feet behind them, purposely since she was so much faster with her longer legs, but they didn't blame her for being afraid. She'd never so much as been in a pack scuffle before, let alone a full fledged fight with armed humans and Vampires.
But Kitty wasn't thinking of Dianna's fear, she was thinking of her own fear for her father and Bill, trying to fight off the threat and keep the Pack in order to protect the pups, if they were still alive.
The trees blurred passed them as they ran, and all Kitty could think of were her father, Bill, fighting at a disadvantage with his left leg missing, and how on earth did a pack of humans find their haven? Did the Vampire lead the way?
That's probably it. John said, startling Kitty since she was sure she'd been thinking to herself. Dianna said nothing and continued to run, tired and panting.
Vampires are great trackers, almost as good as Werewolves. He said, and Kitty had to mentally agree, it was strange that any Vampire could find them so far away and with how careful everyone had been, but not unheard of. Someone must have been careless, and now they would all pay for it.
The three of them burst through the trees and into the clearing in immediate snarling anger, all ready to fight aside from Dianna, who was more or less putting on a show of bravery in case an attacker might be frightened away by her snarl.
They immediately broke apart when gunfire sounded and shot towards them, hitting the grass harmlessly when they dodged. Kitty could see four men still in their human forms, down and not moving; their wives were either crying beside them or trying to move their bodies to safety in case they should be alive and in need of medical attention.
Kitty perked her ears and looked around, searching for Larry and Bill. She could see Elaine, the Werefox had knocked down a human who was advancing on a crying pup and tearing at his throat, giving the boy a chance to escape to his mother.
Kitty had to force herself to forget bother her father and Bill. The pups were the main concern. All of them were under the age of eleven and none had the ability to transform into wolves yet since such a skill was only accomplished during puberty. Without the ability to protect themselves they were in the most danger, and as the future of the Pack they were top priority.
Elaine was thrown from the back of the dead human by a man dressed in muddy clothes. He wore a ski mask, gloves and dark sunglasses. The Vampire.
Kitty was torn between helping Elaine and going after the boy, the Vampire couldn't bring out his fangs as long as the sun was up, but he still made for a strong opponent. She wasn't satisfied with the decision to leave until she saw Larry come to join in the fight with a snarling fury. Bill was behind the Vampire, slinking up in a sneak attack while he was being distracted. The missing left leg no hindrance to his stealth.
Kitty didn't watch to see the outcome, she dashed off with the escaped boy and his mother, staying close until they made it to their car.
Another man appeared and pulled a hand gun on them and the mother shrieked and ducked to protect her son. And Kitty realized why she didn't change to better protect him, she was human.
Kitty launched herself at the attacker and clamped down hard on his wrist, puncturing an artery and spilling blood everywhere.
Go! She screamed mentally, knowing that while the mother couldn't hear her, the boy would understand. He nodded and pulled his sobbing mother to her feet, and she unlocked the car and got in while Kitty was being thrown around by human who was busy screaming and thrashing his arm about in an attempt to jarr her loose.
Kitty didn't loosen her jaws until she could see through all the thrashing that the car had driven off with the mother and boy in tow. They would be safe.
When she let go of the man's wrist, she crouched, preparing for an attack. she was surprised to see the man drop to his knees and pull a machete out from his belt and begin hacking just above the area where she'd bitten him.
She couldn't believe her eyes, so shocked that she stopped to stare despite the chaos around her. The only "cure" to lycanthrope was to immediately cut away the limb that had been bitten, but most preferred the change to performing a self amputation, and very rarely did those who try it survive. The man would surely die if he continued to cut himself.
When Kitty moved to stop him, he looked up and slashed at her, slicing just above her nose, and she yelped her pain and jerked back.
He held the machete up as if to protect himself from her, his eyes mad and glazed. "Stay away from me, you freak!" As the word left his lips the last of the colour drained from his eyes and he fell lifelessly into the dirt.
For a minute Kitty didn't move. She was torn between feeling glad that he was dead and sorrow that he died so blind of the terrible things he'd been doing.
The world returned to her when Kitty found herself beneath a yet, and she yelped and struggled to get out but it only seemed to tangle her about until she fell over and was unable to move.
A shadow loomed over her, and she struggled with fresh enthusiasm to escape the threat. A hand came down to caress her fur beneath the thick netting, and she forced herself to remain calm. So much as barking loudly could prompt the man to slit her throat before any of her Pack mates even noticed she was in trouble.
She turned her eyes towards him, unable to see a face with the sun directly behind his head. The petting continued, and unable to stop herself, she growled at him, and the hand jerked away.
That was good, she didn't appreciate being stroked like a dog.
"Strange … you're so beautiful." The stranger muttered, along with a few other things, but Kitty's heart was beating so wildly that she couldn't understand them or place the voice. It sounded familiar to her.
For a moment she thought he was going to let her go, but then a large piece of cloth with a queer smell to it was placed over her entire muzzle. Hands keeping her jaws shut to prevent her from biting her attacker.
Despite her struggles, they quickly became weak and lax until she could no longer move. Kitty fought against the dark haze that began to consume her. She looked up one last time as the light began to dim, and her attacker suddenly had a face.
David.
To Be Continued...
A.N: Thanks for the review Kirsten, I appreciate it. I'll try and keep updates regular to once a week. There are two other chapters that are done, but I like to get ahead of myself in case I need to go back and change something for the story, but it doesn't look like I'll be needing to do that.