Gabriel Elder book II of the Warlock Series

Apollo was tracking the faint scent left by the one who had been spying on them. It was spotty, like they were there one second and gone the next. No matter, Apollo could still follow it. His abilities had been enhanced by Zeus’s formula, but even before he was given the injections, he could have tracked this scent. That ability was a gift from his mother. She had the keenest nose in all the northern lands.

He missed her more than he wanted to admit. She was powerful and might have been able to defeat the shifters if she had not been protecting her pups. Apollo occasionally felt the urge to be the alpha male he was born to be. He could rule over all these woods if he chose to, but he would never abandon his brother. He owed his life to Gabriel and he would be with him always.

There…there was the scent, a little stronger now. It was wafting down from above him. Somewhere, high above him in the mighty oak tree was the spy he was looking for. His instincts were not warning him of danger, yet he knew he was being watched. This confused and intrigued the massive grey wolf. Then he heard a voice, loud and clear, speaking to him from the treetops.

“I am not a danger to you or your companions,” said a strong male voice. “I only wanted to make sure the young ones were safe.”

Apollo stared into the darkness above him, but he could make out nothing in the blackness. He believed what he was being told, but he wondered why the voice wouldn’t show itself. He sat down and waited. He was patient and he would wait as long as the voice was still near. The wolf trusted his ears and his nose, but he wanted to see the one who was talking to him. If he could see him, if he could look into his eyes, he would know for certain if the voice was speaking the truth.

The voice knew what the wolf wanted and after a few minutes it relented. This was going to happen eventually, so it might as well be now. He needed the wolf to trust him, to understand he was not a threat. He could shield himself from the Scythians, even the one called Yellow-mane, but not from the wolf. The truly wild animals of the deep woods had instincts which could not be fooled. He needed to be able to track Gabriel and Breena without the wolf alerting them to his presence. This was his chance to earn the wolf’s trust.

As Apollo waited, he felt the wind from the flapping of giant wings. There was no sound, but something was definitely flying toward him. Then, silently, a man dropped to the ground directly in front of him. The man knelt, then bowed to the grey wolf, arms spread wide and head lowered. It was a sign of submission. If Apollo wanted to, he could have gravely injured or even killed the man with very little effort.

The man had thick, long, black hair. He was broad-shouldered and very tall, perhaps even taller than Grandfather had been. He was strong, but not thickly muscled. No, this one was lean and would be fast, very fast. Apollo was sizing him up, as he did all humans. He was looking for his strengths and his weaknesses. He saw the way the man’s eyes moved quickly and surely around the area at the base of the tree. He knew the man was listening intently to the night sounds of the forest. He was almost a wild animal himself, and yet he was in control and ready to act if he needed to.

Apollo was impressed. It was something which rarely happened to the wolf. This human could have given him quite a fight if he chose too, but instead he was willingly submitting himself to the wolf’s inspection. It spoke of courage and intelligence, two things Apollo valued greatly.

“As I said,” the man began, “I have been keeping watch for a long time. I only wish to check on the young ones, to make sure they are okay. I am not a threat to any of you.”

Apollo stood and walked forward. The man never moved. Apollo placed his snout next to the man’s face and breathed deep. He was taking in the very essence of the man and he knew the scent coming from behind the ears was as unique to this man as his fingerprints. Once he took it in, the wolf would never forget it.

The man leaned back suddenly.

“You have the gift! How is this possible? I can feel the energy coursing through you!” exclaimed the man. “It was my understanding only a Scythian could contain the energy known as the gift. I am sure you are not a Scythian, so how is this possible?”

Apollo looked at the man’s face and the blue energy of his gift began dancing in the wolf’s eyes. As the stranger stared into them, the light grew more and more intense. It was almost as if the man was feeding off the energy. Apollo didn’t feel drained, but rather somehow linked to the stranger before him. He must learn who this man was and why he was watching Gabriel.

Without warning, there was a crash and into the small clearing came a deer. It was frightened and running all out to escape something. Apollo glanced at the deer as it sped past him and around the massive oak. As he glanced back at the man, he was gone. Listening carefully, Apollo could hear the faint beating of a massive pair of wings, high above him. Never mind, he had found out what he needed. The man was not an immediate threat.

What was important now was what had spooked the deer. Apollo could hear something running toward him, following the path of the frightened animal. Quickly, the grey wolf stepped behind the giant oak tree. He would wait to see exactly what was coming toward him. Just before it emerged, Apollo knew what he was dealing with. He had seen and heard the same thing on a hunt with his mother the night before she was killed by the shifters. This was a coastal brown bear, one of the largest of all the bear species and a massive killing machine.

As he watched from behind the tree, the bear came into the clearing. It was more than nine feet long and well over twelve-hundred pounds. It was what was hanging from its snout that caused Apollo to step forward. Hanging limply from the giant bear’s jaws was the lifeless form of a young timber-wolf. The thought of the rampaging bear feasting on one of his own kind, brought out the wild animal in Apollo.

He stepped out from behind the tree and directly into the path of the oncoming bear. The bear slid to a stop and reared up on its hind legs. It stood more than nine feet tall, with its massive paws and giant, hooked claws, waving in the air. It dropped the dead wolf and roared.

Apollo didn’t wait for the bear to decide what to do. As it was dropping the dead wolf, Apollo was already in the air. The bear weighed more than four times what the giant wolf did, but it didn’t matter to Apollo. He was going to teach this bear a lesson, wolves were not on the menu in these woods anymore.

The bear was temporarily stunned by the attacking wolf. In all his life, the bear had never had anything attack him. It had also never seen an animal move as fast as this wolf was moving. One second there was a wolf standing in front of him, the next, it was just a blur. Apollo might not realize it, but he was moving so fast, the bear couldn’t see him. Instead, he got a glimpse, a perception, of a giant wolf coming at him. He was trying to figure it out and while thinking, he hesitated. This tiny bit of hesitation would be his downfall.

Apollo sailed high into the night air aiming for the outside of the bear’s right shoulder. As he reached the bear’s neck, he turned his head and bite deep into the soft tissue just below the chin. He clamped down with all his might and while holding the bear’s neck in his jaws, the grey wolf allowed the rest of his body to whip around the side of the bear’s body. The bear was jerked backward by the force of the blow and the weight of the wolf pulling it backward. As the bear fell backward, landing flat on its back, Apollo twisted and landed on his paws, while maintaining his grip on the bear’s neck.

The bear couldn’t turn its head enough to be able to sink its fangs in to the side of the wolf. Stunned, the bear took a few seconds before trying to swipe at the wolf with its razor-sharp claws. By then, Apollo had already leaped away, out of reach. As he slowly circled the brown bear, a large chunk of the bear’s fur was still hanging from his jaws. Blood was flowing freely down onto the bear’s chest.

The bear had lost some fur and the wolf’s long fangs had torn into the muscle of his neck. He wanted nothing more to do with the grey wolf. The bear stood quickly, and while snarling and howling in pain, it ran off into the night. It was badly wounded, but it would live.

One thing Apollo was sure of, it would be some time before the bear tried to feast on wolf again. He watched and listened, making sure the bear had left the area. It had almost been too easy for the wolf to bring down the massive beast. Even when the bear swiped at him, he never really felt like the bear had a chance to land a blow. It seemed to be moving very slowly for such a powerful animal.

Once he was sure the bear was long gone, Apollo walked over to the body of the dead wolf. It was barely more than a pup, probably only a few months old. Apollo couldn’t help but be reminded of when Gabriel had saved him from just this type of fate. As he thought about it, he began to use his powerful front paws to dig. In just a few minutes he had managed to dig down almost two feet into the soft soil of the deep woods.

Once the hole was deep enough, Apollo pushed the dead wolf’s body into it, using his snout. Then he used his paws once again to throw the dirt back into the hole and cover the young wolf’s body. He wasn’t sure why he did it, but he remembered Gabriel doing the same for his family a few days after the attack and it seemed like the right thing to do. As soon as he was done, he headed back to Gabriel and Breena. He had been gone too long.

The man in the trees, far above the clearing, and with the vision of an eagle, had watched the skill of the giant grey wolf in dispatching the bear. He was more than impressed. He was glad the young ones had such an ally. The wolf appeared to have as much intelligence as it did strength, speed and skill. The man knew the gift presented itself differently in everyone who received it. Now he knew what the wolf had received… speed! Tremendous, almost unbelievable speed.

But the man wasn’t the only one watching what Apollo did. There was another set of eyes that took in the entire encounter. They were golden and they belonged to the one who had been following the bear ever since it killed the young wolf. The mighty grey one may have wounded the bear, but the golden-eyed watcher was going to track it down and make sure it never saw the light of another day. Once that was done, it would be time to learn more about the massive grey wolf.

It was too large and too powerful to be just a wolf. The speed it had generated was greater than the mighty hawk in a dive after prey. It had attacked the bear and could have killed it, but it chose not to. That spoke of a mind made to lead. An alpha among alphas. The grey wolf was sending a message, wolves would not be used as food in these woods from this day forward.

So, exactly what was this beautiful creature in wolf form? The golden-eyed watcher had seen the other ones, the humans who could take the form of animals in the deep woods. Some of them could even take the form of a giant wolf, but this was not one of them. They might be able to assume the form, but they still smelled faintly like humans and this grey one had smelled of nothing but wolf. So, what was it?

This was just one of many questions the golden-eyed watcher had about Apollo. How did a wolf learn to fight like that? Where did its size, power and enormous speed come from? The golden-eyed watcher was determined to find out, but that would be in due time. For now, it was time to find the bear and finish what the grey wolf started.

As the watcher began following the blood trail left by the wounded bear, the man in the trees could only smile. He only wished he could be there when the golden-eyed watcher and the grey wolf finally met. Yes, it would be quite a meeting.

With no friends and no desire to find another mate, the man had become an expert at watching. One day, he would have to act, but what would he do. He had sworn to never kill, but every day he was more convinced he would soon have to break his oath. He wasn’t even sure why he cared. He was all alone and those who would judge him, didn’t even know he was alive. Nor would they likely care. He was an outcast to some and a traitor to others.

He had always struggled with who he really was. What he felt and what he had been taught were two completely different things. Only two people had ever truly understood him, but they were gone now. If not for the need to keep watch, he would have flown into the sun long ago. He knew he would pass out long before he got to the upper atmosphere, but he would never know the end. He’d never wake up before hitting the ground and he would die instantly. He was fully aware of the irony that the first kill he might ever give into was likely to be his own.

As he stood on the highest branch of the mighty oak tree, he cried. How many tears had he shed over the years? Would the pain ever end? He had to trust there was a reason why he was still here, and the day would come when he could make a difference, even if it was the last thing he ever did.

The night was far from over and the things going on in the deep woods north of Vancouver were getting more complicated by the moment. For even as Apollo was making his way back to Gabriel and Breena, other events were just starting to unfold in the new Scythian village.