Ashridge Pack - werewolf story, Chapter Four (sfw) (Patreon)

Last time Luke and Harry attended the Lunar Gathering together - a celebration where all the local packs join the Ashridge Pack to cement their bonds and where the alphas discuss the movements of the hunters guild. 

This time: Luke continues to admire a certain true alpha wolf from afar, and then finds himself in a spot of trouble... 

Info post (general)Character 'bio' for Sol and Luke (artwork) Chapters: One, Two, Three

Luke took much longer than necessary in the bathroom, and, as he had hoped, the hallway was empty when he reemerged, with no sign of Sol or Rose anywhere. The sounds of the gathering had changed too; the music had been dimmed, and the sound of chatter had died to almost nothing. Curious, Luke made his way back to the fancy kitchen and paused on the threshold of the bi-fold doors. Outside on the terrace, with their backs to the long, sloping lawn bordered with softly fragrant flowers, Max and Laura were standing side by side and had clearly just called the gathering to attention. 

Laura, as the pack’s lead female and Max’ mate, appeared to be doing the official introductions, indicating various members of the other packs by their status as ‘Alpha Harrow’ or ‘Alpha duLac’ and reassuring everyone, stressing how welcome they were and how glad she was that all the packs were on such good terms these days. 

“After all,” she said with a slight flicker in her amber eyes, “It wasn’t so many generations ago that we were at war amongst ourselves, scrapping for territory while hunters closed in on all sides. I’m sure I speak for all of you when I say that we are stronger together, as a series of united and peaceful packs, vigilant against the attempts of those who would do us harm. Let us celebrate tonight, let us howl as one voice against the dark.”

Luke wasn’t sure who began it, but suddenly a chorus of voices rose to fill the night like paper lanterns, surrounding him in a choir of rich and varied voices, and it made every hair on his body stand on end. The wolves had all partly shifted, their features sharpening, jaws and brows widening, fur rippling along some of their bare arms in a few cases, and a hundred yellow and red eyes surrounded him. 

And the only human amongst them remained still and silent, heart pounding. 

He hung back in the shadows with a racing heartbeat, and watched them. The spectacle was haunting and beautiful, frightening and alluring all at once, and he stood there at the periphery of it all, frozen like a hare in the gaze of a predator. 

He noticed Rose just to the right of Max and Laura, and, looming behind her chair like the shadow of some Goliath was Sol. His throat was bared as he tipped his head back and howled with the rest of them, but his hands remained fondly, protectively, on Rose’s shoulders. She brought one hand up and clutched his fingers in her own and there was something oddly touching about the gesture. Sol always seemed so closed off, so distant, and so to see him being quietly, privately affectionate with someone was… almost endearing and definitely unusual. 

To his surprise, Sol lowered his head a second or two before the gathered wolves ceased their howling, and his dark red-gold eyes landed straight on Luke’s face. Luke, who was standing alone inside the kitchen while the wolves gathered around the alphas, shivered visibly and offered a nervous smile at him. In response, Sol gave the barest incline of his head; it was the faintest acknowledgement that he could openly give, but Luke’s lips curved up into a strangely goofy smile. He might not be pack by wolf-blood, but he was part of it somehow, and with that tiny gesture, Sol had just included him. 

Cheeks flushing, Luke looked away and found a few other eyes on him in a less than friendly glare. Refusing to retreat, however, he stood his ground and watched the leaders speak. 

It would be Rose’s turn to talk after Max had relayed to them what was essentially the edited minutes of the alpha meeting from earlier. Hunters seemed to be strangely quiet; be vigilant; keep playing nice - yes, even the Stag’s Quarry pack. 

The Stag’s Quarry pack were rowdier, altogether more… well, Luke hesitated to think of them as ‘feral’, knowing what the true meaning of the term for werewolves, but they were definitely wilder and less restrained. Max encouraged them all to be open with one another and to continue meeting at the borders of their territories more regularly to exchange information and reinforce their loyalties. 

Luke found it odd that he was stressing this, and made a mental note to ask Harry about it later. He knew that the packs hadn’t always got along the way they did now, but the way Max spoke made it sound as if recent efforts at diplomacy had been doubled or something. 

Rose held the wolves’ attention as much through her alpha command and strong voice as she did by her looks, but he caught glimpses of the expressions on more than one werewolf’s face that clearly said they thought her as beautiful as he had. While his sister spoke, Sol positioned himself at Max’ side - every bit his alpha’s second in command and a glowering presence lurking in the background. There was something ready, coiled, expectant about him all the time, Luke realised, as if he were constantly waiting for someone to spring out of the shadows. That thought suddenly struck him as inexpressibly sad. Though with Sol’s history of loss and violence, perhaps he was. 

Once the speeches were over, the crowd began to mill again, and once more Luke found too many eyes on hump; too many people leaning in to catch his scent and, presumably, to see if it were mingled with anyone else’s… to see if he were claimed. The thought disgusted him, and, shuddering, he followed Rose’s advice and took himself off to the walled garden when their attention had somewhat slid away. If anyone from the Ashridge Pack noticed him leaving, they didn’t call after him. 

The path was dark, barely illuminated by dim solar lights staked into the ground which were starting to fade at this time of night, but he discovered the rounded archway soon enough. It was unmistakably Romanesque, with its chevrons zigzagging over the round arc of stonework which stretched between the open maws of two carved werewolf capitals. It was also blatantly obvious to him that these were stone werewolves and not ordinary wolves, the preference in Romanesque and Gothic sculptures for the monstrous and distorted not withstanding.

He paused there a moment, running his fingers over the brows and snarling lips, tracing the triangles of the sharp ears and feeling the rain-worn lines of the thick fur. For some reason, his brief relationship with Onita flashed in his mind. She was the only werewolf he’d ever been in a relationship with, and he’d only seen her in her full wolf’s form once, but it had stuck with him. Anyone lower than a true alpha shifted into what was essentially a big wolf, while a true alpha’s form was something more akin to the movies: largely bipedal, colossal, upright, but with lupine features. The only wolf he’d ever seen in full, true alpha shift was Sol, and only once; on his run to the train station. Harry had shown him illustrations from an old family bestiary meant originally for hunters, but Luke had only ever seen Onita, Harry, and once or twice Max and Laura in their full shifts. These stone wolves were not like those wolves. These were true alpha wolves, and they spoke of Sol’s family legacy of true alpha genes. 

He shrugged off a sudden, unpleasant prickling on the back of his neck and headed onwards into the dark rose garden. 

At this time of year, in late autumn, there weren’t many roses still blooming. Most had been meticulously dead headed and pruned, and Luke wondered if they had a gardener. They must do. He couldn’t picture Sol out here with a straw hat and delicate secateurs. 

Amused by the image, he gazed around and glimpsed the occasional spots of pale colour lingering here and there along the old, softly-crumbling walls of the secluded space. He smiled. It was easy to see why Rose enjoyed this ordered, calming garden, with its small, even quarters of smooth lawn, divided into four by a stone path which led to a bench on the side opposite the wolf-headed archway, welcoming visitors and inviting them to sit a while among the fading roses. 

Another arched entrance sat in the wall to his left, leading out into the more rambling gardens beyond. A stone fountain splashed away gently in the centre of the wall opposite the other exit, filling the soft confines of the eight foot high walls with gentle music. Reaching its branches over the wall, like a forbidden lover seeking out a hidden touch, a massive oak tree sheltered one corner of the garden, its trunk on the other side of the wall. 

Luke meandered idly round the borders, scuffing his nice shoes on the damp lawn, pausing at the fountain to dip his fingertips into the icy water, and then he went still, hairs prickling on the back of his neck. He was no longer alone. 

Spinning round with the scrape of gravel beneath his soles, he found that the female wolf who had been harassing Sol earlier was now standing on the path behind him, and beside her, a younger man about his own age who also looked familiar. Luke didn’t focus on him though, since the woman was closer and very clearly in charge. Her long, wavy brown hair fell loose about her shoulders, framing an attractive but stern face and dark eyes which flashed bright yellow she parted her lips in a smile that was all teeth and no warmth. 

“Hello, little puppy,” she crooned and he swallowed thickly. 

“Er… hi,” he breathed. “Uh…”

“Shh…” she purred, putting her finger across his lips. A claw began to lengthen and he felt the prick of its point against the soft skin beneath his nose and above his lips. “Shh. Now… tell me something, little puppy…” she said, clearly enjoying the way her glossy lips articulated last word and emphasised its plosive consonant. 

“Uh… sure?” he said, swallowing nervously again, Adam’s apple lurching. “Why not? What do you want to know?” If his rabbiting heartbeat seemed loud in his own ears, he knew she could hear it like a drum. 

Her eyes flickered down to the motion of his throat, and she laughed, raking a claw-tip down his carotid before withdrawing. “You run with the Ashridge pack, don’t you?” 

“Well, I wouldn’t put it that way,” he blurted, his chest tightening unnervingly. One hand reached instinctively to the pocket where his inhaler sat, but her eyes flashed and he stilled. “I mean… They could run rings around me… you know… being werewolves and all…”

She glanced back over her shoulder at her friend and giggled. “Isn’t he adorable?”

“Mmm,” he hummed, stepping a little closer, hemming Luke in completely against the fountain’s cold stone basin behind him. As he uttered his next words, Luke recognised him as the wolf from the party. “Delicious.” He rolled his head a little, letting his eyes half-close as he inhaled conspicuously and added, “He’s frightened, Camilla… He’s frightened of you.”

“Like a precious little rabbit,” Camilla said gripping both his cheeks in one hand and squishing them together painfully. Every instinct yelled at him to get out of there but he knew that the moment he bolted, they would give chase, and he couldn’t outrun a werewolf. “They should have had the manners to mark you as theirs though,” she said in a baby voice, as if admonishing a toddler. “I saw the way you looked at Rose earlier… You think she’s pretty, don’t you?”

Something in her eyes told him that answering ‘yes’ wouldn’t help, but he didn’t know what to say. 

Camilla chuckled with her lips pressed closed in a sharp, nasty smile. “It’s alright, darling. You can admit that she’s pretty. I think she is too, but her big brother is…” she broke off with a soft, deep-throated growl and her eyelashes fluttered for a moment. “Well, he’s a real alpha, that’s for sure. He inherited all his mummy’s strength. Too bad he’s not the alpha of the Ashridge pack though,” she whined. “It’s such a shame. Really, it is. He could be so much more powerful, and then he goes and hands it all to that pair of horny, loved-up… dogs…”

Luke desperately wanted to get away. He had no idea why they were here, picking on him, but he had never felt more threatened by wolves than he did then, with her fingers now trailing down his neck again, leaving raised, red tracks where her claws raked his pale skin. 

“What do you want?” he finally asked, his voice cracking a little halfway through his question. 

“You think you know this pack?” she said, her voice turning hard, her grip suddenly tightening until Luke wasn’t sure if the wheeze in his throat was from her or his worsening asthma. “You think they care for you, little rabbit? They brought you along - or maybe you thought yourself brave enough to attend anyway, and they gave into their little pet’s wishes… is that it?” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “Regardless, they brought you here and let you run loose amid a hundred wolves, and didn’t even mark you. There’s nothing to stop me taking you, you know?” And with that, she leaned in and licked a stripe up the side of his neck, right over where his pulse was jumping wildly. 

A deep, guttural growl sounded behind them, filling the air like the thrum of a thousand bees, and she jumped, pricking his skin with her claws as she wheeled around to reveal Sol standing on the path behind them. 

“Let him go.” His voice was soft, deadly as claws on silk. His eyes flashed a dark red-gold, like whisky in firelight, and she faltered visibly. 

“Why?” she pouted. “He’s not claimed.”

“It’s not for you to claim him,” Sol said, his dark voice still quiet, but even Luke heard - felt - the authority in it. It settled around the other two like a tangible weight and they turned their heads slightly to the side, showing their necks in a display of reluctant submission. “Let him go.”

She did, he swayed, and she stalked past Sol with the male at her side. “Think about it though, alpha,” she said as she lingered in the archway. “He’s easy prey now, and I’ve got his scent,” she added with a wicked glint in her eye, running her tongue along the bottom of her upper canines. 

Sol’s deafening roar, more lion than wolf and with fangs very much on show, drained her face of blood and she left a heartbeat later, suddenly unsteady on her heels and with the other male in tow.

The true alpha stood there with his fists clenched, breathing heavily through his nose, his jaw clenched, his face partially shifted to show those animalistic features and heavy brow, the pointed ears and the heavy jaw that Luke had noticed when they’d all lifted their heads together to howl in unity. Except now he looked dangerous even to Luke. 

Despite that, Luke’s heartbeat finally slowed and his chest loosened, the tension starting to ebb away. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. 

Sol turned to look at him with an incredulous scowl on his face. “What?”

“Sorry,” he said again, staring at the blades of grass that nudged against Sol’s fancy black shoes. “The entire party will have heard you roaring like that.”

He didn’t mean to flinch when Sol made a half-step towards him, but he did, and Sol stopped dead with a growl. When Luke looked up, Sol looked like he was employing every anger management trick in the book to keep from shifting and eating him. 

“Jeez, I mean it!” Luke blurted, flapping his hands in front of him, palms forward in a vain attempt to placate him. He wasn’t a wolf, but the idea of bearing his throat at him crossed his mind. “I’m sorry I caused trouble…” He frowned and added, “Somehow… I’m not sure why she picked on me though - probably just because I’m a skinny human. Yeah, that’s probably it. I mean, I told Harry it wasn’t a good idea for me to come along tonight, but he wanted me to be here, so here I am, and I fucked up somehow and pissed off another wolf, and now you’re pissed off too, and -”

“Would you shut up for a second?” Sol snapped, eyes flashing. Luke closed his mouth so quickly his teeth clacked. “You… That… That wasn’t your fault, Luke.”

“It wasn’t?”

“No,” he growled, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Fuck. Luke, you… You’re not to blame here. She was way out of line.”

“Oh.”

“Oh,” Sol repeated exasperatedly, rolling his eyes and moving away towards the archway with a sigh. 

Luke licked his lips and twitched a quick smile. “So… Uh… How did you know, by the way? I mean, to show up? Weren’t you busy with… all that… uh… mingling…?”

He watched Sol take a deep breath and then he turned back to look at him over his shoulder. “Rose saw them follow you and sent me after them.”

“Right.” Disappointment suddenly and unexpectedly filled his chest, as if somehow Sol himself would even have noticed Luke was gone, let alone in a spot of trouble. He wondered if Sol would smell the disappointment on him. Probably, but it wasn’t likely that he’d care. 

The faintest twitch of Sol’s dark brows made him question his assumptions for a nanosecond, but then Sol growled, “You should get back to the party. Or go home.”

“You know what, I think I’ll go home,” Luke mumbled dejectedly, straightening out his jacket a little. “Too much wolf for me for one night.”

“You need someone to drive you?” Sol asked and Luke’s eyes widened. 

He looked around as if Sol was about to summon some creepy butler from the bushes to do just that, and then blurted, “Don’t you have to stay here? I mean… It is your house…?”

Sol’s half-smile made Luke’s insides flip-flop around strangely for a second and he was sure that he would hear his heartbeat going haywire. If he did, again, he didn’t let on. “It’s as much Rose’s house as mine, and the party is Max’s.”

“You won’t miss some formal closing ritual or something?”

“I can get someone else to drive you,” he said flatly, turning and walking towards the arch. 

“No,” Luke said quietly. “Shit. No, that’s ok. I’ll need to find Harry first though and tell him I’m heading back.”

The alpha’s only response was a single nod before he stalked up the path back towards the gathering. Following behind a moment or two later, Luke noticed him leaning down to whisper in Rose’s ear, and her eyes flickered orange, before Luke decided not to linger. 

It didn’t take long to find Harry, sitting once again with Onita and the twins Chris and Jack inside. When he looked up and caught the expression on Luke’s face as he approached, Harry did an almost comical double-take and shot to his feet, abandoning his drink on the glass-topped, wicker table nearby. “Dude, you ok?” he hissed. He inhaled and added, “You stink…”

With a snort, Luke said, “You’re the only person who can still pull off the word ‘dude’ in actual conversation, you know that?”

“I’m serious,” Harry said, inhaling more subtly. “Did… Did something happen? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “But I’m gonna head home.”

“I’ll come with you,” he said immediately, but Luke held up a hand. 

“Sol’s gonna give me a lift.” 

That shut him up for a moment. Actually, that shut him up for several moments, which was probably something of a record, but finally he gulped like a fish out of water and said, “You sure? I thought he gave you the creeps?”

“Eh… he kind of does,” Luke admitted, “But he’s not going to do anything, is he? It’s just a ride home, Harry. I’ll be fine.” He patted Harry’s arm reassuringly and then turned to find Sol glaring at him from the other side of the terrace. “I’ll be fine,” he repeated to himself. I’ll be fine. 

...to be continued during the Monday 'longer stories' releases, along with A Door to the Past (vampire) and Winter Solstice (Fae). All links can be found in my Patreon Masterlist. 

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