Wind

What Blizzard’s Hide

– Amy Hodges-Laurenzo

Outside…

The Shadow Wolf spy watched the scenario play out.

He watched her stripped and dressed semi-public in the shop and noticed her uncomfortable with it. He witnessed the abuse of the girl and watched her posture and anxious appearance now. The Shadow Wolf had been reading lips and knew that the conversation looked fearful for her now.

It seemed that the girl knew that killing her would most likely awaken her Ghost Wolf. Reign seemed to be…walking on egg shells around this man she sat with. Almost like she knew that he could lose it in a split second.

When time to report in…

*“Alpha Pharaoh, I believe that Reign is in the company of the Alpha Apparent of the Ryder Pack and that alone makes her feel threatened. She is extremely cautious around Victor Myles. He even had her stripped naked and redressed at a shop here in town.”*

A low level growl could be heard over the Tumma Pack link.

The scout felt the anger surge from his Alpha. He began to wonder…Could this girl actually be fated to our Alpha, Pharaoh King.

The Alpha calmed down it seemed after a few minutes. *“Watch her close for an opportunity. I am talking to the Witch, Miltaya.”*

*“The Storm Witch?”*

*“Yes. When you see the sky go dark with the super cell storm she makes, Shadow Step in and grab Reign. Bring her to the northern point of Stone. If you have to sooner than that, do it. We will adjust to compensate.”*

*“It will be done, my Alpha.”*

The link went quiet once again.

The scout had a name. He had been called Allan Martin. This one had the expert level ability at Shadow Step. He would be capable of getting Reign to that location in question without much effort, but he may have to get Victor away from her first. The Tumma Pack would back them from that point when they got there.

His eyes went up to the sky.

There happened to be a change to the atmosphere. A charged feeling had begun to churn in the ionosphere. Allan Shadow Stepped into the restaurant, but stayed in the shadows.

The low lighting made it easy for him…that and Shadow Wolves in shadows cast no presence.

The small talk continued to go on, though Reign stayed careful. She kept the questions basic and casual.

Reign tried to stay with in Victor’s rules, but a waiter did accidentally bump into her.

Victor got up and kicked him into a table for his trouble.

That table shattered, the candle went out, and the waiter didn’t move…knocked unconscious and with a head injury.

That only made Reign more nervous. “I don’t think that he meant it.”

Victor growled at her, “Touching you in any way is off limits and DON’T DEFEND HIM!”

She winced almost in pain.

He moved around the table faster than Reign could comprehend.

Victor caught her in a sleeper style head lock and cranked just hard enough to make her scream in pain. “Enough of this last meal for you. I am just going to kill you now and get it over with.”

She screamed.

Shadows arched from one side of the room and wrapped around Victor. They forced him transparent, releasing Reign. They yanked him hard across the room and through the hallway wall near the door.

Other patrons and staff pulled away from the coughing Reign. None dared to help her…so who did.

A man appeared from nothing near the girl.

He stood about six feet and five inches. He had brown hair and eyes, a pair of pants only sat on his body.

He knelt beside the chair that Reign sat in. “Reign Hartly, I am Allan Martin. I am a Shadow Wolf and scout of the Tumma Pack. I need you to trust me now and I swear, I will get you out of here and protect you.” He held his left hand out to her.

“REIGN!” Victor got up…his shirt torn.

She slapped her right hand into Allan’s quickly.

Victor ran at them.

However, the shadows had already swallowed pair.

Victor missed them by inches.

Allan successfully Shadow Stepped away with Reign.

*“Attention Ryder Pack! This is Victor Myles! The Tumma Pack has been sighted in Stone! Their Agent has kidnapped MY Reign Hartly! Find her NOW! Get Here Back and kill the agent!”*

Moments Later…

*“This is Alpha Sargent Myles! You heard my son! Your Next Alpha! Seek to rescue Reign and destroy the Tumma Pack!”*

With the Alpha’s backing, the Pack Ryder mobilized into action.

Victor stepped outside to one of the seamstress girl’s running up with a plastic bag with Reign’s old underwear in it. “Thanks, Tilly.”

A small group of wolves ran up. Victor recognized them as Kevin and three of his boys. He spoke out loud to them. “Listen up! A Shadow Wolf took my girl!” He smelled the contents of the bag. Then he tossed it in the middle of the four Wolves and they started to sniff it as well. “Find her! The first to do so becomes my Beta, the second my Gamma!”

With that, Victor stripped out of her clothes and shifted. A dark colored Wolf ran with the small pack of four Wolves to the north.

Over head, the sky darkened down and the wind kicked up something fierce. With a large bolt across the sky and the loud rumble, large snow flakes began to fall…commonly called Thunder Snow…with blizzard like conditions.

A super cell snow storm came out of no where. Shadows grew all over as day became night in Stone.

As the Enforcers of the Ryder Pack fanned out to hunt, the storm’s shadows came to life. The Tumma Pack began hit and run strikes on the Ryder Pack.

To the North…

At the interior street of Koozma about five blocks from the city’s edge…

Allan rose out of the shadows with Reign. All clear at the moment, he gave her time to acclimate to the Shadow Step.

When they vanished in the shadows, back at the restaurant, all went black for Reign. Allan kept her hand in his and moved them from shadow to shadow at a rapid pace. Disoriented, she felt vertigo level dizzy.

Allan stood guard in human form but kept his eyes on a swivel for opposition. His Wolf eyes made it easy to see in the storm. He didn’t have a smooth Shadow Step due to Victor recovering too quickly and he didn’t get her where they needed to be. The scout had to act to protect Reign sooner than intended.

*“Alpha Pharaoh, we are on Koozma street near the intersection of Merkins. The northern most section of the town is about five blocks from us.”*

*“Is she alright?”*

*“Victor was going to break her neck. I had no choice, I had to act to save her.”*

*“I’m coming to you.”*

The call went quiet in that moment.

A few minutes passed, but there happened to be and arrival of a different sort.

The small pack under Victor had arrived.

Reign backed up to the wall of a building out of fear.

Allan moved into position in front of her.

The dark colored Wolf of Victor ran up and shifted back. The four who found them, including Kevin and a guy named Kurt, remained as Wolves…snarling at Allan.

Victor stood naked, “Come here, Reign. Let’s get this over with.”

She shook her head, “NO, I don’t want to die.”

“Bitch, you don’t have a say in this matter.”

“Sure she does”, commented Allan…he saw something that they did not.

Then they appeared…

A handful of Shadow Wolves slammed into the four wolves with Victor.

At the same time, someone rose from the ground directly behind Victor. In a split second, he caught hold of the Alpha’s son and ripped him from his feet.

Pharaoh took hold of Victor in a type of headlock with both hands, twisting his head to the breaking point to the right, lifted him, and held him there. “Is this what you intended to do to her?” He shook him slightly.

Though the Alpha Apparent struggle against the more season Alpha, he couldn’t break the older Shadow Wolf’s grip. “Who the fuck are you”, he demanded?

“ME”, he pulled him close and whispered in his right ear, “I Am Alpha Pharaoh King Of The Tumma.” He jerked Victor’s head hard to the right.

The neck broke in a sickening snap.

Victor got dropped.

His didn’t move.

Pharaoh turned his attention toward Reign. His eyes flashed to his wolf a moment. A set of blue wolf eyes glimpsed at her a moment.

A scent came to Reign over that short distance. To her, this man carried the scent of Sandalwood. “Pharaoh King…it is you…”

The scent of a fine bourbon came to him from her. Yeah, she’s mine. He stepped over to her and took her face in his hands, angling it up to look in her light green eyes. “Are you alright?”

She nodded, “I know that everyone wants my Ghost Wolf awake, but do I have to die to do it?”

Pharaoh shook his head, “You don’t have to die. I can help you awaken and not die to do it. We need to get out of here though.”

She nodded, “Trust you?”

“Yes.”

“We’re fated, so I do.”

Suddenly, shadows kicked up once again.

The Shadow Wolves vanished with Reign, leaving five dead behind them.

The Storm lightened and began to blow over.

---

I have been writing since my early teens and have used it as an outlet for my emotions during the roughest of times. Now I seem to lean toward the horror genres as well as the Paranormal fantasy side of things, but I lean more toward the shadow side of things. I don’t promise a happy ending because life does not always offer up happy endings and some times in my books I could play devil’s advocate and let the bad guy win. In it all a matter of what I choose for the people involved at the time.

This is of a story under construction…Ghost Shadow, coming soon