Wolven: Chapter 1: Alpha

Chapter 1: Alpha

         Logan matched pace with that of a bat making its great escape out of Hell's darkest confines. The forest flew by so fast, only animals mind could keep up with it. Which, fortunately for Logan, he was gifted with. A blur of green and brown streaked past him, as the aches from his tired body swept through him in a strange sort of pleasure that could only come from the release of so much pure energy. Thorns grazed his underbelly as he swiftly maneuvered over them in one stretched leap. Some of which matted into the long shag of his gray fur to serve a reminder of where he was, but fell out again after a few more moments of running.
         The silence in the forest was deafening. There wasn't anything within a ten-mile radius that would be so bold as to consider Logan as prey. Therefore, out of fear and respect for the predator, they hid within their dens and underground burrows, their nests and hideaway's. As if that would hamper Logan's hunt for them if he had decided to look. Every smell, every scent, every motion and movement was picked up by his enhanced nose and eyes. But today wasn't for hunting, today was simply for pleasure. To cease the long overdue call that the forest had been singing to him as of late.
         Logan was within a mile of his backyard now, and he slowed his pace to that of a brisk walk, savoring each last step before he was to go back to a more suitable form, letting each paw smash down on the damp, moist soil.
         On many occasions, Logan was awed at the sheer simplicity of a animals life. Other than the hardships that nature sends to you, it is the most peaceful, harmonious place one could imagine. Logan thought it was incredible, how things in nature coexisted so well. Everything knew its purpose and understood its place, and was born with the knowledge of how to fulfill that purpose. I'd love to have such an innate wisdom like that. To be born with the knowledge of  how to fulfill my supposed 'destiny'. Logan cringed at the word.
         Logan gazed at the large backyard spanning the space between a small house and the Nature Preserve, that met it at its nonexistent gates. The house Logan's parents had owned and stayed in, apart from the Lycan Mansion. It was empty now, except for him. Logan didn't mind, by any means, he'd been living by himself since he was sixteen. He was a loner, a lone wolf , as he liked to joke and thrived on the privacy and independence of living alone.
         It was small, one story with a large basement built beneath the earth, and a high sloping roof. The outside was dark brown with a chestnut brown trim lining it all. Of course, if you looked close enough you could tell apart the worn, lighter gray spots on the roof, that Logan had repaired with his own handy work, and the loose railings that made up the porch. As always, the grass was in need of its weekly trim. For the most part, Logan had done his best to upkeep the house and keep it just as his parents had left it: a home. It may have not been the sturdiest built house or the most extravagant, but it was once filled with a loving atmosphere, and Logan did his best to retain that within his abode. 
         Beyond the house, in the edge of the forest, Logan went behind a grouping of trees and after a lengthy check around him, he determined it was time to go back to a more humane form.
         His bones began to snap and realign themselves, organs shifting and morphing into different shapes and sizes. All the while, Logan shook in pain from the drastic transformation of it. He had done it so much, it didn't really bother him anymore. But the pain was always there, every time he phased. The pain became part of his subconscious that tried not to register it but it was, and always would, be there. His vision shifted back to what he considered 'normal', still well above average human eyesight, and the sense of smell and hearing followed suit. Logan could hear twice the distance a normal person could, and hear decibels that were reserved only for a more, canine set of ear drums. His sense of smell could pick up and identify whatever the wind carried past his nostrils, this not always being something of benefit, though.
         Logan quickly found the old worn pair of shorts he had stashed away behind some bushes, slipped them on and made his way to the house, for the first time feeling the weariness settling in from his three hour run that stretched over the entire county.
         The old screen door with its chipping paint around the frame creaked as he opened it. Easy access since he hardly ever bothered locking it. Logan strolled in and took a quick survey of the interior around him, which according to his keen senses, seemed to be in order. He made his way down to what would normally be a basement, and finally into the bathroom that adjoined his disorderly bedroom and rinsed off in the shower.
         The basement had long ago been done away with and transformed into Logan's bedroom. Of course Logan could have moved upstairs, or had the choice of any room in the house, being its only occupant, but he remained here, where it was cool, dark and close to the earth.
         Throwing on a pair of worn and faded jeans, but not taking the time to grab a shirt, Logan stood in front of the mirror running a towel through his already messy hair.
         Logan couldn't help but smile as he caught notice of the assorted pictures that lined the mirror on his medicine cabinet. It was lost to memory, when he had first started tucking the most meaningful pictures in the crevices of his mirror frame, but he had been doing it for long enough so that the entire mirror was lined with them. Logan assumed that if he put the pictures there that meant the most, and of the people that meant the most, he would see them each day, and in turn, he would try to be the person that they thought he was, expected him to be, rather than the person that he saw himself as and knew he was.
         The one that always caught his attention first was a very old one. He had to have been only eight or nine when it was taken, not too long before.....
         He stood alongside his father, Matthew Siberious Von Lycan, and an assortment of other Council members and Elders from the pack. They all stood there, looking stern and authoritative, dressed in their professional looking suits. Even young Logan was dressed nicely, something that was hard for his mother to manage, since he had a strong desire to play outdoors as much as he possibly could, and in as much dirt as he could possibly find. It was fitting, little Logan standing next to his father, the Alpha, and all those he would someday lead. Sooner than he could realize then, he would become Alpha himself, and even sooner the expectations of the Council members and Elders from the pack would weigh down hard upon him. 
         Brushing off old memories, Logan put on his favorite green shirt with the white trim around the edges of the sleeves and neck, and that proudly read 'Bad Moon Rising Bar & Grill'. It was a local bar that Logan tended to haunt, and it was strictly Lycan only on the weekends, not that anyone but a Lycan actually knew that. Logan didn't actually drink, he didn't care much for drinking, but he did like the bar. Something about the atmosphere of it was relaxing and intriguing to him, although he was never quite able to determine why that was. Crossing his messy bedroom and back up into the kitchen, he made it in the room just in time to greet Rachael as she came through the screen door.
         Rachael wasn't from Logan's pack technically, her father was a diplomat for the pack on the East Coast, and had been sent across the country to work with Logan's pack and increase ties between the two. She had once told Logan that she had never been able to stay in one place for over a couple of years because of her father's occupation, but how she felt about this she did not say.
         Rachael was nearly three years younger than Logan, and seemed to be infatuated with him in every way. Logan had done all he could, in the nicest way he knew how, to try and persuade her differently but it was obvious that she still carried a lot of affection for him. She was a very sweet girl, but Logan was already in love, and he hoped she understood that.
         “Jeez, Logan, aren't you afraid someone is gonna break in?” Rachael laughed, letting the unlocked screen door shut behind her. Her light brown hair was sprinkled with streaks of blonde and fell in her face as she laughed. Instinctively she put it back in a ponytail.
         “I'm still using a TV that's older than I am, I don't see what they would find to steal.” Logan took out two cans of pop from the fridge and slid one down the counter to her. “Besides I have my own personal watch dog always hanging around here.”
         “Yeah, well, its better than that stuffy mansion. I wish I could have my own place like you.”
         “I know exactly what you mean about the mansion, but having your own place isn't all its cracked up to be.” Logan tried to explain. Rachael didn't seem to buy it, and mumbled something Logan couldn't quite make out.
         “Going to the fights this Friday?” she asked with sudden enthusiasm. Logan took a drink from the can and nodded. “I'm thinking about entering.”
         Logan forced the mental image of Rachael, with her small and fragile East coast frame, fighting against a twice as big and muscular opponent out of his mind. “Maybe you should hold off for a year or two.”
         “I can probably take half the prize fighters there.” Rachael scoffed at his hesitance.
         Prize fighters were the Lycan who fought consistently every week, and even more consistently, won. Logan himself, was considered a prize fighter among the pack, but he, personally, didn't like to think of himself as one. Despite the tough act that Rachael put on and tried so very hard to keep, Logan knew that most of it was just talk to impress him. He knew she kept up defenses, but wasn't sure why.
         The phone announced its presence and need for urgent attention in the next room while Rachael continued to boast about her fighting skills as a Lycan. “Do me a favor and don't try and get yourself killed.” Logan said with a mixture of laughter and sternness as he picked up the cordless phone underneath yesterday's newspaper.
         “Logan?” spoke the voice on the other end of the phone. It was a voice that Logan could listen to for the rest of his life and never grow weary of hearing. If anyone believed in soul mates, Logan would proudly boast that Emily was his. The other half of his soul, the better half of himself. Ironically enough though, she hadn't a clue of Logan's self proclaimed darker side. Specifically him being a Lycan.  “Are you busy?”
         Her voice broke into his thoughts of her and brought him back to the conversation. “Never too busy for you.”
         Logan took the phone into the den, which lay adjacent to the hallway in which he stood, and shut the door behind him, to increase the privacy of the conversation. No one knew that he was, and had been seeing Emily Bellamy outside of himself and those that knew her. There was a grave reason for this: Emily was not, in any way, shape or form, a Lycan. That would make their relationship null and void, if anyone in the pack had discovered it.
         It was by, what Logan considered, divine intervention that they had not already been found out. Emily lived in the next town over, Northfield, about ten minutes from Logan's home. It was, however, a larger town that not many Lycan from the pack ever visited. Most were pleasantly committed to staying within the confines of Grisham, or would drive out to Parkersburg. It was nearly forty-five minute drive but was the largest city within sixty miles. Were it not for this small fact, they would have been surely discovered a long time ago. Logan had been utterly thankful and absurdly grateful they hadn't yet, but he knew it was a fight against Father Time himself.
         Logan's impending fears were brushed aside for the moment, as Emily continued to explain to him. “My car broke down, again.” Emily spoke the last word with slight aggravation. “I can't get it to start.”
         Instantly protective flares spiked and shot up through Logan's bloodstream. “Are you okay? You didn't wreck, did you?”
         “No, no. Nothing like that.” she spoke before he worried himself to a stroke. “I just parked on the corner of Main, and now it won't start.”
         “I'll be there in a few minutes.”
         “Thanks, Logan.” Emily said with relief pouring from her voice.
         “Don't mention it. I'll see you in a little bit.”
         “Kay. Love you.”
         Just like that the conversation ended and Logan found himself with an unrelenting priority to be taken care of. He only vaguely noticed Rachael, who was sitting at the counter, listening to whatever kind of music she had on her iPod, and faintly humming along with it. She glanced up and jumped in her seat, unaware that Logan had again entered the room.
         “Rachael?” Logan asked her loudly enough so that she would be able to hear over the blaring of the music pulsing out of her earphones. She popped one of them out and let it dangle down to the counter. “Would you care giving me a ride to Northfield?”
         “Nope.” she suddenly grinned. It had been only recently that Rachael had gotten her driver's license and when Logan had offered to give her some tips on driving, he hadn't had ridden with her since. Logan had chalked the entire experience up as a near death experience, one that he wouldn't soon forget. Rachael, on the other hand, was enthralled to have Logan ride with her, especially since she had just purchased a car of her own.
         Even before she had started the ignition of the very rusted, 1966 Mercedes 250, Logan was beginning to think that he should have taken his car instead, but knowing it was too late to change his mind. It was by some type of miracle that the thing was together in one piece. He couldn't tell Rachael this of course, due to the fact she had sunk every dime of her hard-earned money into purchasing it, and since then it had become her most prized possession.
         Rusted from bumper to bumper, you would be hard pressed to find anyone able to determine the original color of the car. With its long front end, and small grill, it was inevitably at one time, a very nice looking Mercedes. But like all things, time takes its toll, and it was especially hard on Rachael's car. The engine, however, seemed to be in the best shape of its life as it roared to life and Rachael backed out, haphazardly, of Logan's driveway. She sped dangerously towards the interstate that would connect the mediocre town of Grisham and the slightly bigger city of Northfield together.
         It was a straight stretch, once you had gotten onto the interstate, to Northfield. Just a long winding road with forest on either side. Logan had always thought that it looked like the kind of road that would be seen on some low budget horror movie. The trees sprawled upward on either side, just past the feeble looking guardrails, as Rachael fumbled with the CD player with one hand and steered with the other. Logan felt as though he was going to have a heart attack, especially when she would take the sharp, breakneck curves without letting up on the gas pedal. Every muscle in his body was tensed and waiting for the disastrous car wreck that seemed inevitable. After growing tired of his constant suggestions to slow down, Rachael finally did, but not by much. She seemed perfectly at ease and comfortable, while Logan was more frightened than he had ever been in his life.
         When she finally put the car in park, unevenly aligned with the parking space, Logan realized he had never been more grateful to be alive than he was at that moment.
         “See, that wasn't so bad.” Rachael beamed at him, not even noticing how pale his face had became.
         “It..was.. improved, since last time.” Logan compromised, after a lengthy debate the choice of words. The memory's from their first driving lesson, flashed in his mind and sent a shiver down his spine. Rachael seemed to take the compliment without noticing Logan's hesitance, and he made a mental reminder to never ride with her again.
         Logan thanked her for the ride, and stepped out of the Mercedes on weak legs.
         “Do you need a ride home?”
         “No.” Logan said, more quickly than he intended. “Thanks, though. I probably won't be home 'till late tonight, so I'll just catch a ride with a friend.”
         Rachael rolled her eyes and smiled. “Always so secretive.”
         
         Logan watched Rachael drive off into the distance, back to Grisham. He felt a sting of guilt for lying to her but he just couldn't afford the risk of letting her in on the secret. He was slowly starting to forget his most recent near death driving experience when he crossed the street and started walking up Main.
         The town itself had its own sort of beauty, in a small town kind of way. All the buildings on Main Street were part of the minuscule business district that had been around since the Northfield was founded. Everything about the town was picturesque, cute and quaint, down to even the little signs that hung over the entrances to the shops that lined the streets. It was different from Grisham, and that was what Logan liked most about it. Grisham was filled with secrets, too many secrets. It had an air about it that seeped with more than its fair share of legends and mythology that lay just beneath the surface. Northfield was open and airy. What you seen was what you got, nothing to hide or be afraid of. In a way, that was almost the same difference between Emily and Logan, as well. Logan had often wondered if that was why they were so hopelessly drawn to one other.
         Parked beside the curb at the very end of the street, sat a little red Honda Civic. Emily's car. And who other than Emily herself, was sitting on the hood of the car, looking lazily through a magazine. For that moment, when Logan's eyes locked onto her, he forgot everything else in the world. A twenty one gun salute could be going off beside him and he wouldn't have heard it. Emily's chestnut brown hair lay across her back, except for a solitary strand that she twirled with her finger. Logan instantly recognized that she was wearing her favorite shirt, a snug pink one.
         Logan casually walked up alongside of the car that was facing away from him and leaned against the hood where she sat, oblivious to him being there.
         “I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long.” Logan said quietly, leaning against the car. Emily looked up, surprised anyone was there and flashed the most affectionate smile when she realized who that someone was. It took her a split second to embrace him in a hug. “I tried to get here as soon as I could.”
         Logan silently chuckled at thinking of how fast he did get there. Not forgetting the frightening experience he had underwent to get there so fast.
         “I'm just glad you're here. I can't get it to start.” Emily explained. Logan nodded and lifted the hood and started his inspection. “I was just about ready to come over too.”
         Logan started by checking the battery, just out of pure curiosity, and was surprised to find the problem there, staring him in the face. “Em, do you have and old rag in the car?”
         Emily went to dig one out from underneath the front seat of the Civic. Logan took it and started wiping away the corrosion and grime from around the terminals in the battery. Replacing the cables back on the battery, Logan asked Emily to try and start the car. To both their relief and amazement, the engine fired up and purred like a little kitten.
         Logan flashed a quick grin, put the hood back down, and jumped in the passengers side of Emily's car. “You're amazing.” she smiled, giving a quick kiss to serve as a temporary thank you.
         Emily drove them back to her home, which was only a few streets off from where she had broken down at. Emily's house wasn't at all different from the others that sat on her street, that made up her neighborhood. They were all eerily similar in build, make and model, all but different painting schemes.  Emily's little blue and white house, with its tall, high pointed roof, sturdy white painted porch, and patriotic American flag, sat neatly on the corner of the street. It was partially hidden behind a tall oak, that had long since carried a swing on its thick branches. It was on nights when the darkness would have fallen over the town and Logan would always be hesitant of leaving, that he would stand in the darken yard, saying prolonged goodbyes to Emily as she sat on the swing.
         They walked inside the home, which was as well kept as its outside counterpart. The home was modest, but had a nice warmth about it. It was in places like these that you would learn to understand the difference between a house and a home. This was defiantly a home. Emily took his hand and walked beside him in through house. They had made it a habit of going into her backyard and spending most of their time together, and were heading towards the backdoor when they walked into the kitchen.          Emily's mother, Dana, struggled to push a too large box on top of a too high oak cabinet and was barely managing to keep it teetering on the edge like it was.
         “Hi, kids.” she called over her shoulder as she struggled with the box.
         Logan's hand left Emily's for only a second to walk over and push the box back, to where it sat securely on the cabinet. He found her hand again, when he stepped back to her side.
         “Thank you, Logan.” she paused for a second and then her sharp golden eyes seemed to register a fact that she had forgotten. “I thought Emily was going over to your house today?”
         “That was before her car broke down.”
         “Oh dear, what happened to it? Did you have to get a tow? I told your grandfather that any car that cheap had to have something wrong with it.” she huffed.
         “Logan fixed it, Mom.” Emily said with pride. Her mother's face seemed to relax then, knowing that Logan had taken care of it. She put a lot of faith and trust into him. More than he thought he deserved.
         “Nothing more than cleaning off the battery cable. It wasn't really anything.” Logan tried to say, but Dana nor Emily wouldn't hear any of it.
         “Always modest.” she smiled at him. “I was just trying to get some old recipes down for your Aunt, before I left for work.”
         “Shouldn't you be at work already, Mom?” Emily asked, glancing down at the cherished silver watch Logan had bought her for her last birthday. Her mother then found the wall clock in the kitchen, after getting down from the small stepping stool, and her eyes went wide.
         “I am late, aren't I?” she muttered to herself. It wasn't unusual for Dana Bellamy to be running late for something, especially her shift at the pediatrics's office. Not drastically late, but always a few minutes behind the clock. She threw her short blazing red hair up into a ponytail and started to gather her purse and keys from the kitchen table.
         “What would I do without you?” she said, hugging Emily goodbye and then turning to Logan as well. “I swear you get taller every time I see you, Logan.”
         She gave him a half hug, with the top of her head only coming up halfway to his chest. His body was too thick with muscle for her to wrap both arms around. “I'll see you both later. Logan I hope you'll stay for dinner tonight. Emily, Gary called this morning, tell him he needs to come home for the holidays this year.”
         When they had finally made it to the backyard, and took their familiar places on the old picnic table that sat there, Emily rested her head on Logan's shoulder while they listened and watched some neighborhood kids pass a football back to one another in the next yard over. An air of peacefulness seemed to settle over them and neither one had to say anything aloud to know what the other was thinking or feeling at that moment.
         “I really hope Gary comes back for Christmas this year.” Emily confessed quietly. Gary was her older brother who had left for college two years ago, only shortly before Logan and Emily had started dating. “I think he'd like you.”
         “I'd like to meet him.” Logan said, watching the midday sun echo off her soft face.
         “Really? I'd love for you to meet him.” she said, wrapping her arm around his and intertwining their fingers. “That is, if I can convince him to come home this year.”
         “Surely he'd come back just this once. I'm sure it wouldn't be that bad.” Logan said gently.
         As if summoned but some unseen cue, Emily's grandfather, Thomas B. Dole, stepped out the back door and into the yard. He was a short man, as far as short men go. But most men standing next to Logan would be considered of a shorter stature and Thomas stood a whole head below Logan. Even in his sixties, Thomas still wore the same neatly pressed white shirt and hunter green pants that he had kept in style since his service in the U.S. Army. His fading snow white hair was still cropped the same way it had been since the day he entered boot camp.
         Emily had told Logan before that she thought that her grandfather sometimes still believed he was in the Army. She had also told him that her grandfather was the main and only reason that Gary wouldn't come home. He was unrelenting when it came to trying to recruit anyone and everyone into the military, and he thought a lot less of any man who didn't serve. It was a daily ritual when Logan came over to Emily's, that he would ask if he had enlisted yet.
         Thomas turned on the old hose and started watering the bright flower pots sitting on the concrete behind the picnic table. He seemed to be thinking on something, debating on whether to speak or not.
         “How old are you, Hicks?” he finally asked, refusing to call Logan by anything other than his last name.
         “Eighteen.” Logan said. Both him and Emily knew what was coming and she closed her eyes and leaned against Logan.
         “Logan's going to be turning nineteen in a few months, Grandpa. Any reason for wanting to know?” she forced the words out, hoping to get this over with as quickly as possible.
         Thomas turned to face them and thought absentmindedly while splashing water everywhere but on the flowers. “Well, the best time to join the military is when your young. The Army could use more boys like you, Hicks. Hell, your already bigger than most them fellers they got now. Probably whoop half of 'em.”
         “Grandpa, Logan's not joining the Army.” Emily attempted to explain. Thomas huffed and turned his attention back to watering the flowers.
         “I don't think my family would approve of it.” he said.
         Emily knew that when he spoke of his 'family', Logan didn't mean a mother and father. Both his parents had died when he was young. When he said family, he meant the pack in general, but Emily understood it only as his extended family. She was aware he had a lot of cousins. Emily could relate to loosing family. Her father had died along with her grandmother, Thomas' wife, in a plane crash when she was only three. They had been flying down to Fort Sam Houston, outside San Antonio, to meet Thomas. Even after retiring, Thomas still worked with the military and would occasionally travel to different bases lecturing at basic training camps. Emily's father and her grandmother were going to meet Thomas in Texas, when a fuel line ruptured, sending the plane down over Texas in flames.
         They endured a few minutes more of Thomas' military praise until he wandered over and debated politics with a neighbor, through the chain link fence they shared.

         Logan had always enjoyed having dinner at Emily's. It was the only time he ever ate a decently cooked meal. He wouldn't let Emily know this trivial fact, of course, or she would insist on cooking for him every day. They had finished dinner some time ago and were reluctantly listening to another one of Thomas's war stories.
         “My daddy fought in World War Two.” he said, directing the statement to Logan. “'Course I was to young to enlist then. Me and my brothers had to stay home and tend to the farm. Buried him in Arlington, they did.”
         “Dad, we've all heard this story a thousand times.” Dana said, setting some dishes into the sink.
         “Hicks hasn't. I'm telling you, every girl loves a military man. That should make you reconsider enlisting.”
         “Grandpa!” Emily exclaimed. Thomas just laughed and shrugged his shoulders. Logan chuckled.
         “Okay, were going to leave now.” Emily declared, before the conversation could grow any stranger.
         “Drive safe.” Emily's mother called after telling Logan goodbye.
         They listened to music on the ride home, keeping it low enough to be in the background. Emily drove slow, not only because it was nighttime, but she wanted to prolong being with Logan. The full moon was casting light into the car, and Logan's skin started to tingle as it absorbed the lunar energy. It cast a strange light on the both of them, filling the atmosphere of the Civic with a strange glow. Trees would block out the moon for small increments, but Emily couldn't help but notice how Logan's skin would react abnormally to the moon's glow, how small chill bumps would form on his arm when it hit him. Especially as it poured down on him in great ocean waves, as the car sat in his driveway. She brushed these thought aside, of course, thinking of how ridiculous they sounded within her mind.
         They said their nightly goodbyes, reluctantly, and Logan waited until she was far down the road to give into the urges plaguing him. He set off for the woods behind his home, basking in the powerful, tempting light of the moon and then phased.
---------------------------------------------END CHAPTER 1--------------------------------------------------------


*Note to Readers*: This is Chapter 1, of a ongoing book. Some things (i.e. certain places, people and events) may not seem clear in this chapter because the book builds upon itself. Everything is explained in later chapters. I just wanted to explain this in case there was any confusion. I'm not sure if there will be, but I wasn't sure how well I hinted this in my writing so I wanted to post this, just in case =)

Thanks for taking the time and reading, and please comment and review. Keep checking back for Chapter 2: First Encounters.