The attack

“I do not condone such horrible behavior, Jonas. You should be ashamed of yourself.” Thomas, Sophia’s grandfather said, shaking his head in disappointment. Sophia’s mother rushed over to where she lay broken and whimpering on the ground, trying her best to comfort her.

“Father, you know this girl is going to bring us utter disgrace. There is no reason why she should be alive.”

“Why do you say that?” His father asked patiently.

“She does not possess any of our traits. You know this as well as we all do. The…”

“She just turned eighteen two weeks ago. Give her time.” Thomas said dismissively, turning to address the rest of the pack, who had gathered and were listening to him obediently. The man commanded an air of respect and looked distinguished with his snow-white hair. He was a man who had seen a lot and had garnered a lot of respect, both from his pack and other ones over the years.

“I’m afraid we have some trouble. All hands will have to be on deck. There’s news that our enemies, the Codaks have invaded the territory, or are about to invade it.” He continued. At this, there was a collective gasp of surprise from the pack members, of which there were about twenty-two. It was only then that Sophia noticed that the pack soldiers were nowhere to be found. The pack soldiers were nowhere to be found, so she knew that they were out scoping the boundaries of the territory or something like that.

“Oh, please. The Codaks are nothing to worry about. If they are the trouble you’re talking about, then I wonder what that says about us as a pack … one of the best in these territories for that matter.” Jonas said derisively and dismissively, while the rest of the pack members looked on, shocked at his audacity, no doubt, before looking away. Tension was steadily mounting in the clearing in which they had gathered. The moonlight shone through the spaces between the trees, illuminating all of them. The light, together with the orange blaze that shone from the fire that they had lit in the clearing clearly showed the unease within the werewolves. The cause of the tension was not hard to see. Something was definitely going to happen soon, and had in fact, been brewing for a while.

“It does not matter that we are one of the strongest and most protected packs in these territories. When there is a potential threat, there is every need for us to be cautious. I’m sure that grandpa over there would agree with me.” Thomas said, glancing at where his father, who was the gamma of the pack, sat atop a rock in dignified silence, watching the ongoing activity with alert eyes. At first glance, he seemed to be sleeping and not so aware of the ongoing in his surroundings, but on closer inspection, one could see that he was anything but asleep. His shrewd and wise gaze was observing. The old man was aware of everything that was going on, including the tension between his son, who was the alpha of the pack, and his grandson, who was the beta of the pack.

“I don’t care about what anyone thinks. The truth is that we are not going to seem so brave to other packs if we go scurrying at the first sight of trouble from a pack as small and useless as the Codaks.” Jonas insisted, growling low in his throat.

“No one is scurrying away. Is there something you would like to say to the hearing of everyone, Jonas?” Thomas asked at last, after a silence of about a minute or so.

“No, there’s nothing,” Jonas mumbled, finally standing down to the relief of the entire pack. Maybe today was not the day then, but they all knew what was coming regardless.

“So, as I was saying, we need to be prepared for them. That’s all I wanted to say.”

The pack members nodded their agreements, with each member going immediately to their duty posts, while Sophia still lay on the ground, trying to be as still as possible as her body tried to heal, but considering the fact that she was so different from her pack, her body was going to heal at a much slower rate than theirs would have done. She healed at only a slightly faster rate than humans did.

“Just lay still for a bit, Sophia.” Her mother urged tearfully, looking surreptitiously at where Jonas stood and was staring daggers at them. He was not preparing for any battle, like his father had told them to do, but was pacing about in agitation, making it evident that something was clearly on his mind.

“Move that useless child out of the way. I’ll be damned if I let anything happen to this pack all because of that whiny little human!” Jonas said, at last, causing Maria to jump. As usual, the word ‘human’ was dripping with condescension.

“Don’t worry. Of course, I’ll move her right away. She won’t be a disturbance to anyone at all.” Maria said hurriedly, babbling in her nervousness. Without waiting to give Jonas something else to talk about, she picked her wounded daughter up, eliciting another series of pain-filled moans from Sophia. Trying to be as fast as possible, Maria hurried towards the lair to hide Sophia. The lair was a huge house deep in this forest that the pack had lived in for centuries. This area was their territory and they had defended and lived in it for centuries, as they would keep on doing.

Once they got to the living room, Maria placed Sophia on the big couch, and smoothed a hand over her hair tenderly, trying to get her to be as comfortable as possible.

“I’m sorry, baby. But I have to go now. You just lay here and try to be comfortable. I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?”

“Mom … why am I so different from the rest of you?” Sophia asked, grabbing her mother’s sleeves as she turned to leave. Maria turned and looked at her sadly.

“This is not the time for such discussion, Sophia. I promise that we’ll talk about all of this tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay, mom,” Sophia said wearily. She could feel herself healing, albeit very slowly. If it had been any of the other members of the pack who had been injured like this, they would have since healed. Within minutes, she could hear shouts and grunts as the pack was attacked and they fought back. It seemed that this fight was a tough one because it lasted for quite a while, while Sophia lay in the dark and listened to the growls and grunts as the fight went on This was not the first time that she had witnessed such, but as always, she was hidden away when the fight started. What wouldn’t she have given to be able to join in the fight? Even the members of the pack who were younger than her were able to fight, but not her, because she was too weak, more human than wolf.

It was a long time before everything was a bit quiet again, and by this time, Sophia was already getting herself back, but she was still in so much pain. She could hear moans as wounded members of the pack waited for their injuries to heal. It seemed that as usual, her people had done a very good job of eliminating the threat, which was a good thing. However, as the time passed and no one, or rather, her mother, came looking for her, she began to panic a little. Dragging herself out of the couch, she struggled out of the living room, her body protesting the movement the whole way. Peeping around the door to the entrance of the house to see what was going on, she saw that more of the pack members were injured than she had initially thought, and it was taking a longer time than usual for them to heal. The ones who were better off were tending to the wounded and trying their best to make them as comfortable as possible. Sophia stood where she was, trying to decide if she should go to help them, but deciding against it in the end, knowing that she was not going to be any help in the state that she was in.

Her mother, who incidentally was one of the pack doctors, was tending to one of the wounded, a teenage boy who was one of the few pack members who was nice to an extent to Sophia and sometimes took her deep into the forest, trying his best to train her and futilely trying to help her develop her werewolf instincts. Sophia was just about to make her way slowly towards them when Jonas’s voice rang out, clear as day.

“You know what?” Jonas said out loud, drawing the attention of the pack, both the wounded and the ones who were tending to them. “I don’t think that my father is fit to rule this pack any longer.”