- February 3, 2021
The Alpha Chapter 2
II
“It should be no surprise, the capacity of a dog’s loyalty. They come from wolves; they certainly didn’t get it from us.”
The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.
My pack is large, greater than the other packs. I have many brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, I have had three mates. I have been challenged many times, and I have overcome them all.
Brothers and sisters who left and returned, they say our pack is strange. Other packs are much smaller, other packs are only father, mother, and pups. Few retain siblings.
They are not like us, not like my pack.
My pack… they trust me to protect them, to lead them. Other alphas, they think that being alpha is a reward. Be the strongest, the smartest, the bravest, and you will have the best meal, the best mate, the only children.
It is responsibility. Strength is strength, and that alone.
Brain is brain, and that alone.
Alpha is leadership, alpha is trust, alpha is protection.
An ursine wandered into our forest, our snow. Ursine know better, this one knew better, it had new scars, and we gave the ursine more.
Others were proud, my brother and my sons were proud. We defeated an ursine, and we lost no one. Smaller packs would have lost one, weaker packs would have lost and died. They thought themselves proud, they thought to challenge me.
I culled them; I beat them. They know now what I knew when I faced the ursine, when I looked in its eyes.
It did not want to be there. It was forced into our forest, onto our snow. There is only one who can force the ursine and the pack into violence.
Man.
Alpha is leadership, leadership is pack survival, so we leave our forest, we look for another. We look for better snow.
Many did not agree, many did not want to leave. My mate snapped at me, there was a fight.
I won.
We left.
The snow grows harder the closer we go to the tall rock. It is better to walk on; we do not sink beneath the cold.
My father, my mother, they lead the pack. They are slow and weak. They lead, we move as they move. Under attack, they go first, they are sacrifice. If they stay in the back, they would trail, they would be lost. None are left behind, all have purpose.
My brothers follow them with my mate. They are the strongest of the pack. They were hard for me to fight; they are the front line. They save the weak if they can, they protect the pack.
Then comes the pups, the young, the newborns, and the fools. I was a fool once, I thought I was big, that I was strong, and smart. I wasn’t. My father beat me, and my brothers were amused by my challenge. I became omega.
An old time.
They are followed by my once mates, my eldest sons, my strongest daughters. After my brothers, they are strongest. They protect their siblings; they protect the young. They are fools no more.
Last, walks I. I am behind, I am alone. I see all of the pack, I control everything, as my mother sets the pace. I miss nothing, I hear for food, for predator.
The sky furs loom over us. I have killed one before, a small one, only once. I was a fool, a larger one almost had my eye.
I watch them, they watch us, and they fly away. They head in our direction. They must know.
Man.
They will outlive us.
The snow grows better, but we grow slower.
“SQUAWK! SQUAWK!”
The sky furs rave, the dark ones, the small prey, the cowards. They rave, they escape. They fly behind us; they fly over our heads. They fly making their squawks.
Why?
Why would sky furs run?
They squawk in fear. The greater sky furs are gone, there is nothing to fear, but one.
Man.
“BARK! BARK! BARK!”
I warn them, I warn my pack.
Run.
My mother runs, she runs fast. She is not an alpha anymore more. She runs slower than my brothers. My brothers try to help her run. I must help them run.
ZIP!
“Arf!”
I have not whined in moons. I whine when my back is pierced. I growl when I feel pain.
I keep running, and I look at the attack that I feel in my back.
Tree skin?
It is long tree skin, from the trees. It is pointy, in my back. It draws my blood.
Man uses strange color, dark snow, hard snow. It is cold, it is deadly. Why use tree skin now? Tree skin doesn’t get food. Tree skin wounds. Man wants to wound.
Wounds are for sport.
Cruel Man.
“Arf!”
My mother falls. Tree skin pierces her head. Brothers cry, my mate leads them. My mate leads them for the trees, to the forest. Cover, protection, we will be killed without it. We must hurry.
I bark, I warn, I drive the pack to move faster as tree skins come down like rain.
ZIP!
I am hit again, but pain does not stop me. I drive the pack forth. Pack members are struck. The strong, the fools, they are struck and they keep going. The strong grab young by the scruffs of their necks.
I stay behind, I draw attention. I draw tree skin.
ZIP! ZIP!
Pain is temporary, the pack cannot be. I take tree skin to my back, my leg, I draw attention. The pack is reaching the forest, my mate leads my brothers, and the fools follow them. I run behind them, I follow my sons and my daughters as they carry pups, we run-
“AAFF!”
My son is struck in his head, he is dead. My son is dead.
He crumbles and I fall over him. I roll in the ground, the tree skin digging in, breaking in me, but I get up, I go back.
The pup.
I run to the pup, and I look back at Man. I can’t see them, can’t find them. They are nowhere, hidden in the forest, the pack’s forest. I see the tree skin coming. Many tree skin. I leap over the pup, I take tree skin to my arm, my neck. It hurts to turn now.
I move over the pup; I move to grab-
The pup has been struck.
There is a tree skin in his side. He lays in the snow, he makes the snow red. He breathes, he wheezes. I shall bring him to his mother.
ZIP!
I am struck as I pick him up by his scruff.
ZIP!
Another hits my back, in the center. I run for the forest.
ZIP!
There is only me left, and this pup.
ZIP!
We are the last, we are the only ones unsafe.
ZIP!
My legs grow tired.
ZIP!
But I must push on. I am alpha.
ZIP!
Alpha is leadership.
ZIP!
Alpha is protection.
ZIP!
Pup is pack.
ZIP!
The last one enters my back, and I limp into the trees. I walk into the trees, with the pup hanging from my mouth. I follow the tracks. The pack is free.
I walk further, and I set the pup down. The tree skin is still in him.
The pup is dead.
My pup is dead.
I pick him up, and I walk forward, towards the pack, but my legs grow weak.
I turn the snow red.
The pack is safe, the pack has survived.
But the lone wolf dies.
I walk, as my legs shake. I drop my pup, and I fall.
The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.
I try to lift my leg; I try to get back up.
But the lone wolf dies, and the pack survives.
I want to get up, I want no more tree skins in my back.
But the lone wolf dies, and the pack survives.
I stop moving.
The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.
The lone wolf dies, but the pack… survives.
The lone wolf dies…