Chapter 11
Nicole woke up when Rua told her someone was approaching the small cottage so she quickly shook off her sleepiness and jumped out of the bed, grabbed her knife from the table.
If there was someone coming to attack her she wouldn’t be able to shift in the tiny one room dwelling. Years of living alone and trying to protect herself on the road had made both she and her wolf hyper vigilant and incredibly stressed.
She caught the scent of the person coming her way at the same time she recognised the clomping, drunken steps of her visitor crunching in the snow and flicked her knife at the small wooden table, embedding it deep into the wood.
“Fucking Wynonna.” She muttered as she opened the door and saw the beta was swaying drunkenly, her arm raised and poised to knock. The raven haired woman grinned at her. “The hell, Earp?”
Wynonna raised both hands in the air. “Haught To Trot, my favourite ginger! Shit, don’t let Mercedes know I said that!” the woman dramatically whispered the last part.
“What are you doing here?” Nicole growled in annoyance as she looked up at the sky. “it’s 3 am!”
“Is it?” the drunk woman asked before hiccupping. “Julian asked me to ask you HIC something last night but HIC alcohol...” the beta swayed again as Nicole pinched the bridge of her nose before Wynonna pushed past her and got into her bed.
“What- Wynonna, get out! And what the Julian want me to do?” Nicole asked, frustrated.
“He wants you HIC to hunt something for the Win-HIC-ter festival. If you come across something on HIC patrol.” The woman mumbled and passed out, immediately beginning to snore.
“Fucking nuisance.” The Alpha growled and walked out of the house Into the cold night. No way was she listening to that and wondered how Doc did. She walked into the forest and stripped, barely feeling the cold before she Shifted to Rua’s form, shaking out her thick, shaggy coat and trotted deeper into the trees.
The winter solstice was the following day and the Pack was preparing for a huge celebration. The day would be spent making the fire pits to roast the game they had been hunting for this occasion. The biggest catch would be gifted to the gods in hopes the coming year would be a good one. Julian hadn’t asked her to hunt before but she didn’t mind, she would be in the forest anyway and she knew he wanted to ensure all of his pack members were fed and happy after the celebrations.
Nicole wouldn’t participate in the festival because she wasn’t a pack member but she didn’t mind. She would grab some food and ring in the new year relaxing in her temporary home.
She patrolled for a few hours, ignoring the scents of deer and boar. She wanted to catch something more substantial until she found what she was looking for and carefully moved downwind of her quarry until she found somewhere to look at the heard of buffalo grazing in the early morning light. She knew she could take any of them alone but she had many miles to drag it home so she picked a smaller adult female.
She calculated her jump and leapt out of her position onto the unsuspecting cow on the edge of the herd and tore out its throat as the rest of the herd took off in fear, bellowing as the ground trembled. When the Buffalo was dead at her paws she spent an embarrassingly long time awkwardly trying to get the slightly smaller than her bovine over her shoulders so she could carry it rather than drag it but it’s bulk, thick woolly coat, it’s bulky frame of fat and muscles made it incredibly difficult so with a huff she shifted back to human.
Over the next hour she fashioned a sleigh of sorts out of standing dead wood and lashings she made from near by plant materials before she used the animal onto it, slipping her head through the wooden harness she had made for her wolf form and wagged her tail when she began to pull it with minimal effort over the snow covered forest.
Her elation died however when she caught the scent of Rogues. Male, some Alpha, some beta and there was a lot of them she discovered when she abandoned the sleigh and followed the scent. There were ten of them gathered at the mouth of cave and they looked like they were getting ready for a fight, tearing off their clothes to shift or preparing weapons.
She was surprised by this. Rogues didn’t move in this number unless they were printing to attack and it was obviously that that was their plan. However she could deal with them easily.
She approached them while letting out a low snarl. They all gawped at her in shock. She shifted to human and glared at them.
“You are trespassing.” She growled dangerously.
“smells like you are too, Bitch!” One of the men sharpening a knife spat at her. His hair was limp and filthy, he wore an eye patch and gave her a sinister sneer. “fuck off and mind your own business.” His sneer slipped when she let out the most terrifying snarl, causing all of them to expose their throats.
“I guard these lands for Alpha Charles. If you do not leave immediately I will be forced to dispatched you all.” She said but the men all laughed or wheezingly chuckled in their wolf forms.
“so you’re the guard dog?” the eye patch man laughed. Nicole’s ears perked up. He made that sound like he was aware of her. “You can’t take us all.”
Nicole instantly shifted back to her gigantic animal form and attacked them. They put up as best a fight as they could but other than one of them biting into her face she killed all of them in minutes. She had wanted to keep one alive to bring them to the village to let Julian question him but Rua decided it was better to just dispatch them quickly and bring the Buffalo back.
She shifted to human when they were all dead and wiped the blood of her face and hissed at the pain it cause. The wolf who bit her had slashed through her eyebrow and cheek and she knew she had been lucky he hadn’t caught her eye. She searched through their belongings. Something was niggling at her about the man with the eye patch; he definitely seemed to know about her position in the pack. It was crude but essentially she was indeed a ‘Guard dog’.
When she found nothing of value or to give her any answers so she went back to the slay and pulled her prize back to where she had left her clothes and dressed before pulling the carcass into the village with some effort. She ignored the impressed sounds people made as she pulled the animal towards where the fire pits were being prepared and the cooking was underway. Some people gasped when they saw the blood splattered all over her from the fight.
“Alpha Haught?!” Dolls barked in shock when her saw her but she shook her head and waved off his concern.
“Where is Alpha Charles?” she asked him and he pointed to the Long house so she trotted towards it, the guards letting her enter and she hurried past those who where preparing for the party, decorating or making other foods for the following day. Some of them saw her and gasped or shared looks of confusion as the Alpha ran to the family’s private quarters and ordered the guard to get the Pack Alpha. The beta woman didn’t hesitate when she saw the gore covered woman.
“Nicole, what’s going on?” The Alpha turned see Waverly had come up behind her but the omega looked at her with horror before rushing to her. “What happened to you? Is this your blood? Oh your face. Sit down, I’ll get my things.”
Nicole stopped her before Julian came out and had a similar reaction before having her follow him into the small living area between the bedrooms and made her sit.
“A Party of Rogues.” She said before Waverly returned with a basin of hot water and a pile of rags. Nicole explained what had happened as Waverly began to gently wash the blood off her face but when the omega gently took hold of her chin to move Nicole’s chin, the Alpha felt like she was on fire and she blinked up at Waverly who was also frozen momentarily.
“Sorry, this will sting.” The omega muttered as she began to wash the wound. Julian missed the way both women had gotten awkward as Nicole finished her story.
“One of them seemed to know about me, about the fact you hired a Rogue Guard Dog.” The redhead muttered before she winched in pain. “You don’t need to do anything, Omega Charles, it will be mostly healed by morning.” The Alpha added.
“Is she ok?” Julian asked his daughter. “ are you ok?” she asked the Alpha
“This is really deep. Even you couldn’t heal something like this in less than a week.” Waverly huffed, thinking the Alpha was just bragging like most Alphas. Nicole didnt answer her, the omega would see for herself. She would likely have a scar but scars were nothing to her.
“Did you find anything on them?” Julian growled
“No. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have killed them all.” The female Alpha apologised.
“No, you did what you were hired to do. Maybe they came across a trader or something who spoke about you but we will need to increase the patrols for a couple of weeks. This isn’t the first time we have had poachers or thieves come on our land and it won’t be the last.” The man said kindly as Waverly put a thick layer of one of her salves and wrapped a lining strap across her eyes and around her head to keep it in place.
“Have you any other injuries?” Waverly asked softly and the Alpha gave her a stiff shake of her head
“I don’t think so.”
“Then go wash and change. Rest. I’ll send out patrol teams. Don’t worry about today’s training. Waverly, good girl.” Julian said, getting a small nod from his pup for the first time in a couple of weeks. They had been tiptoeing around each other since the man had given his daughter the ultimatum and had barely spoken. He patted the Alpha woman’s should. “Thank you for protecting this pack.” He whispered and left.
He was heart broken but he knew he had had to do what he did for the sake of the Pack and he hoped Waverly would make the right choice for her. He wanted his daughter to be happy and loved no matter what and Champ was not the man to do it.
Unbeknownst to him Waverly had been thinking long and hard about her relationship with Champ. She had told no-one about her encounter with the female Alpha in the forest a fortnight ago. Nicole’s words had cut her deeply but somehow the outsiders perspective on her relationship made her begin to doubt it, much to Angel’s glee.
She had stopped going to him and the Alpha man had barely paid her any attention since except when he wanted sex but she had always brushed him off with some excuse. He never wanted to just talk to her. She had also begun to study him when he looked at her. He didn’t look at her with love or care. He always looked angry when he saw her. She could see the contempt Nicole spoke of and she wondered what else she had missed?
When Julian left, leaving Nicole alone with Waverly, the room filled with a heavy tension. Neither knew what to say now they were alone. They hadn’t spoken since that day on the mountain other than Nicole giving her corrections during training. The redhead wouldn’t look her in the eye since.
“Uh... thank you, Omega Charles.” Nicole stood up awkwardly and looked down at herself. Her whole body was covered in dried blood under her clothes. “I better go clean myself off.” Nicole added and Waverly let out a huff of agreement.
“The rest of you is as red as your hair.” Waverly joked and Nicole chuckled a little before bowing her head and turning to leave.
“I am sorry for how I spoke to you that day.” Nicole said before ducking from the room.
“Me too.” Waverly said, not knowing the Alpha heard her as she walked from the Pack House.