The Porch Wolf

I didn’t sleep well or sleep long, and I wasn’t the only one.

I went down to the basement gym at seven, where my father was using the treadmill. “Hey, Dad. Get any sleep?”

“No, I was making calls and watching the house all night. Donna is on patrol outside, and reinforcements are on their way.”

“Who?” I sat down on the seat of the Concept II rowing machine and started a warmup set, the program set for a 30-minute workout. The rower always kicked my ass.

“Mike and Anita will be here within the hour, and they’re bringing ten men with them. Doug and Jenny were furious when they heard about the attack; killing humans and kidnapping children is not our way. When I told them we were staying to help, they agreed to send people up here to protect us for a few days.”

Doug Winters was a good Alpha, even-keeled and respected by our kind. He’d been in power for a decade now after the retirement of Larry and Donna. “That’s good, it will give me time to build my Pack up.”

“Have you decided how? You can’t take everyone from the Winona Pack.”

I laughed at the idea; Winona was an ally, and I wouldn’t antagonize them. My brother-in-law had stepped up for me enough by letting Mike and Anita go. “There are people here who might come to me if they know I am back. I should get the word out.”

“Can you trust those in your old Pack? And would they trust you?”

“I don’t know.” I started to move faster as the program moved into the next segment. “I gave up on them. I guess I’ll find out.”

“They won’t talk to you,” he told me. “The Alpha put the gag order on them all after your exile.”

“I know, I was there,” I said.

February 10th, 2016

“Goddammit, Leo, wake up,” I heard as I felt a hand smacking my face.

“Leave… me…” I was sore, hungover, and lying on my side in the bathroom.

“Jesus, what a mess.” Todd Miller, my Beta, grabbed me under my armpits and pulled me to my feet. I looked at myself in the mirror; I had a line on my face from the tile floor and dried puke on my shirt. I must have thrown up before passing out; looking around, I could see most of it made it to the toilet. Todd pulled the shirt over my head. “Drop the shorts and get in the shower. Lucy threatened to leave the Pack if she had to clean up after another one of your benders, so I’ll see if I can find someone to clean this up. I have a couple who’ve pissed me off lately.”

I opened the glass shower door and went in, turning the water on and letting it spray my face. I spent a while in there, first to wake up, then to get clean and shave. When I got out, one of the teen boys was cleaning up the floor near the toilet. “Sorry,” I said.

“Beats four days on double patrols, barely.” I kept getting dressed.

“Alpha, are you going to be all right?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? “I don’t think so, Randy. If I hadn’t promised Catherine I wouldn’t kill myself, I’d be gone already. You can’t imagine what it is like.”

He started putting the stuff away. “Why would you take a mate if it can destroy you like that,” he asked.

“It’s not the pain that ruins you,” I said. “It’s the knowledge that you’ll never be able to close that hole in your heart. Once you’ve had the fullness of the bond, everything else is nothing.”

“You could mate another,” he said. “You’re not THAT old, and you need an heir.”

“What I need, I can never have. Learn from me, Randy. Never promise to keep going after your mate is gone. Go to Luna together.” I walked out into the bedroom, where Todd was waiting for me. Dressing quickly, I let him pull me to my office. Dropping into the chair, he took the one on the other side. “What’s going on that made you interrupt my beauty sleep, Todd?”

“The National Alpha Summit is coming up soon, Alpha.”

“Why don’t you go for me? It’s not like I want to be there.”

“You don’t want to do anything lately,” he said with a sneer. Last year, I would have had my hand around his throat for his insolence. Now? I didn’t care. I didn’t care about any of it. “You go there like this, and you’ll be challenged before you can sit down.”

“So? At least then I could go to the Moon and not break my promise to Catherine. There’s nothing dishonorable about losing a challenge.” It was actually one of my better plans; if no one forced it, I’d go looking for a fight.

“Did you stop and consider what happens to the Welch Pack then, Alpha? Your pack is the one who will suffer after they drag your carcass out of the circle. We could have anyone come in.”

Todd didn’t take a shit without a plan; he wanted something. “So, Beta, what do you suggest?”

“I challenge you before the Summit and go there as the victor.”

There it was. “If you want the Pack, I’ll give it to you. I’ll call the Pack to my house, we can have this done by lunch.” He was right; I was not cutting it as Alpha, and they’d be better off with me gone.

“There is more to consider than just your position,” Todd said. “You own 70% of Volkov Construction; I own 15%, the rest is owned by other Pack members and Catherine’s parents. If I kill you now, what happens to the company?”

“Whatever my will states,” I said. “If I remember right, half goes to Catherine’s parents and siblings, the other half to my younger brother.”

“And that leaves me with a minority stake in a company that is 90% Pack. I want the company, and I don’t want to fight six other people to get full control of it.”

I hadn’t been to a job site in months, and Todd had been running things for over a year now. “I’ll have my lawyer come up with a price, and you and whoever else wants in, you go get a loan and buy me out. One transaction, you take my whole interest for yourself.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” he said. “Here’s my offer.” He handed me a legal paper, a cash offer for my share in the company, and a certified check for 1.9 million dollars.

I handed the check back. “I’ll talk to my lawyer today. What else?”

“I have to fight you for the Pack, Alpha Leo. If I don’t fight, then I will appear weak a the Summit, and I could be challenged. I need a good fight, but a fight that you lose.”

“Kill me,” I said. “You kill a man with an Alpha mantle, and that should buy you respect, even if the Mantle can’t pass to you.”

He shook his head. “Do you think you were the only person who Catherine got a promise out of?” He shook his head. “I swore to her that I would not kill you or let you kill yourself. I swore on the Moon, Leo.”

“Then what is your big plan?”

“The sale goes through, and the challenge is set for tomorrow night. You invite your brother, your in-laws, and the surrounding Alphas. I want lots of witnesses to the fight,” he said. “You and I put on a good show, you yield to me, and I show mercy to you and let you live.”

“You’d banish me from the Pack,” I said.

“Yes. It’s the only way I can have the Pack and my honor.”

“Banishment.” It was a bitter pill to swallow. I would not be allowed contact with any Pack member; if they saw me, they would have to turn away and ignore me. I would not be allowed on their lands, and would not be welcome at runs or other events. The isolation would eventually drive my weakened wolf mad, forcing the other Alphas to put me down before I became a danger to everyone.

“You’d have money from the sale, your house and your life,” Todd said. “Retire, move south, anything. Give to charities, maybe do volunteer work. Drink yourself to death. Spend stacks of money on strippers, and snort fistfuls of cocaine. Do whatever you want, Leo, because you no longer will be responsible for this Pack.”

“Fine.” If I wanted, I could always pick a fight later and get myself killed. Lone wolves were dangerous, lone wolves with the Alpha Mantle were dangerous AND unpredictable. Most Packs were run by glorified Betas who couldn’t beat a bloodline Alpha in a fight; they’d set their whole pack upon me before I could utter the words of a challenge. “I’ll talk to my lawyer and get back to you.”

It was surprisingly easy to withdraw from Pack life. The sale of my company went through that night, and the challenge notifications were made immediately after. I called Catherine’s parents and Alpha Doug Winters, their eldest son and current Winona Pack Alpha, and informed them of the challenge. They weren’t happy with my Beta, but they would be in my corner. Larry agreed to be my second.

The challenge was held in the woods behind my house. Larry and Donna were worried about me; I’d barely talked to them since the funeral. I’d lost weight, and I looked like hell. “Don’t do this, step down,” Donna begged me. “Let me ask Doug to take you in.”

I refused. I stripped and handed my clothes to Larry, keeping up the show. “Cremate me and mix my ashes with hers if I lose,” I told him.

The LaCrosse Alpha was the referee for the challenge, which was in wolf form. The circle was lined with bales of hay, about forty feet across. Once the fight began, only the referee and the doctor would be allowed in. I shifted into my wolf, shaking out my thick grey fur. Todd waited on the other side, his wolf mostly black and not as tall. “Fight is for the Alpha position at Welch Pack. You fight to the death or submission. If you submit, your life is in the hands of the victor.” Both of us nodded our heads. “Begin.”

I moved to the middle, hackles up, a rumbling growl deep in my chest. I was an Alpha, and this was MY pack to lose. Todd attacked, faking a leap for my throat before slicing at my rear flank instead. I caught him along the back before he got clear.

The battle went on for twenty minutes; I didn’t have to fake much, because I’d trained Todd well. I just had to be a split-second late on my attacks or in my defense, and the injuries started to mount. Both of us were bloody, and I was breathing hard. I pressed an attack, overextending myself, and found myself on the ground. Todd wasted no time, grabbing me by the throat and shaking. Blood poured into his mouth as his teeth clamped over me.

I stilled, lifting my neck and exposing my stomach to him.

I submitted, and in doing so, I lost my Pack. Todd let go of my neck, then reared back and howled in triumph before shifting. I lay there, bleeding into the snow, waiting to hear my fate. Todd returned to his human form as the Pack cheered their new Alpha. “What say you regarding Leo Volkov,” the referee said.

“Leo Volkov is banished from the Welch Pack. No member may speak to or interact with him from this day forward,” he said. “Bring me the silver knife.”

I had shifted back, the doctor holding bandages over the worst of my wounds. I was helped to my feet, where Todd grabbed my hair. He used the knife to make two parallel cuts on my left cheek, the mark of a wolf banished from his Pack. It would tell any werewolf I met that I was not to be trusted.

The others all left as Larry and Donna helped me back to my house. Donna stitched me up before I asked them to leave. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I wish things had gone differently.”

“You can survive this,” Donna said. “When you need us, just call. You’re family, we won’t turn you away.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said. Both of us knew that wasn’t the case.

The good news was that as a banished former Alpha, I didn't have to attend the summit. The last thing I wanted was to be in the scratch and sniff lines.