When a Pack Dies Read Free

sudden itchiness and realized there were tears on her face. Fina stopped letting them bother her and simply let them fall as she unlocked the door to her pack’s primary business, turned off the security system and headed for her father’s office.
    Her hand was trembling and she shook it, making it obey before turning the tumbler on his wall safe. The tumbler clicked one last time and the bolts pulled back. Fina turned the handle and her hand went straight for the papers bundled in the back. She checked them with numb deliberation...her father’s will, deeds to the pack’s land, investment statements. There was a tidy stack of twenty and hundred dollar bills and Fina took those too, closed up the safe and left the office. Her next stop was one building over—the refrigeration drawers. The secure drawers holding the company’s trademark stock of rare, exotic and antique fruit and decorative plant seeds were small and unassuming and unless you knew what they were, you’d overlook them completely. She opened up one of the computer terminals nearby, keyed in new access codes and wiped the old ones out. Fina made sure the refrigeration units were locked into a hibernation setting and headed for the exit. She moved to one of the few windows that opened, cranked it and breathed in the outside air. She didn’t scent the rogue wolves. She closed it up again and returned to the main office, re-armed the security system, locked the door and stepped outside.
    She breathed in again but as fully as she could this time, letting the humid air pass over her tongue and into her nose. There was blood in the air, lingering traces of it. With the dawn, the wind had died down and Fina detected traces of the slaughter of her pack, overlaid with the scents of other werewolves. She knew who they were because each one of them had left his stench on her body.
    Back in her little SUV, Fina bundled up the papers and money, shoved them under the seat and drove away. It was going to be another scorcher and when the wind picked up in a few minutes from now, it would come out of the south-east. At the next intersection, she turned north, heading upwind. The windows were shut and the air conditioning was on...much of her scent would be contained in the vehicle but she wasn’t going to take any chances.
    The road took her through their little hamlet. The automatic streetlights switched off, making Fina start. She gripped the steering wheel tighter and kept driving. The little general-store-slash-post-office marked the northern boundary of her pack’s lands. Humans lived beyond that and, in the quiet, empty, dawning light, Fina drove past their sleeping homes. She drove past the high school...they’d finished writing their final exams last week. She and Helen were going back to college in the fall. Fina was studying business administration and would come back to work full time in her family’s business after she graduated—work with her father and older brother and the other members of her pack. Fina lacked the ability to question the sanity of her deep-seated denial. She and Helen were best friends even though Helen was human and had no idea she’d lived amongst werewolves her entire life. Fina’s hand was already reaching for her cell phone before she yanked it back. She wanted to go to Helen’s home—knock on the door and collapse in Helen’s mother’s arms and weep and scream and—and Fina kept driving, obeying the speed limit. She rubbed her sore eyes impatiently. Humans and human law enforcement couldn’t help her. She couldn’t send them into a den of rogue werewolves. The death count was too high already.
    Fina exhaled shakily. She was alone, barely out of her teens and her pack was dead. She had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. She could ask another pack for sanctuary but after the rogues, she had no stomach to trust other wolves. She couldn’t be sure of her welcome, despite the fact that she was female. She would appear weak