• This is a pure work of fiction and all aspects are from my own imagination though some parts will probably sound similar depending on how much fantasy reading you have done.

    If you have any problems with what I am typing let me know but if you are only going to give crappy feedback as in ‘it sucks’ then go frost yourself and hope you need a new wanker… Now if you have some positive feedback please let me know.

    Oh and a few things you might notice, most of the characters are not going to be some hot rockin’ stud who looks like Adonis. Can you say over used and over played? Also if I ever have a set of dueling tongues I might just shoot myself. Every time I come across that I can’t help but see them facing off at 20 paces with guns and that is just wrong…
    ***
    It seemed like he had been running forever but no matter how long he ran and how fast he never seemed to be able to outrun the pain that was residing in his heart. It hadn’t even been a week since his family had been destroyed by that damn drunk driver and if he hadn’t died as well Dan would have torn him into shreds for what he had done. Nang and their children were on the way to drop them off at school and preschool when a b*****d who had been celebrating a promotion had run a red light and side swiped the car they were in.

    ~A week earlier~

    Nang had packed the girls into the car and made sure their booster seats were securely fastened and couldn’t help but smile at the girls and gave both of them a hug. “I hope you have a good day at school and I or one of the pack will pick you up at noon.” Allie was six and in Kindergarten and Ana was for and going to preschool.

    Both girls had gotten their looks from their mother who was from Malaysia. Allie had gotten some of her size from her husband and her brow skin was quite as dark as hers and Ana’s was. She still had the black hair and black eyes but was a bit more on the taller side. Ana was more like her mother and was a petite little girl.

    Allie wrinkled her nose at her mother. “You say that everyday mommy.” It was a routine for them and for some reason it made Allie giggle as she returned the hug before grabbing her cup of water and taking a sip.

    Ana simply returned the hug and sort of played with the extra bit of seat belt. She was pretty shy which was one reason she was going to preschool, to see if she would interact a bit more with other children.

    Once Nang was sure they were secured in the seats she climbed in and after a quick check to make sure everything was working she left the house and headed towards town. The pack house was on a large piece of land that backed on a national forest so they didn’t have to worry about it being turned into tract housing in the near future. The actual den was completely separate from the house.

    As far as the pack house any of the pack could come by and relax in the pack side whenever being around human’s got to be too much or they simply wanted to relax. Dan’s side of the house was off limits unless they needed to talk to him or his mate and he always had an open door policy. The rest of the pack lived in the city where they worked. Several worked for him, several in private security, others in banks, and whatever else might tickle them and their submissive even worked in a flower shop which was actually sort of nice since he would occasionally bring home some lovely arrangements for the table.

    As Nang was approaching town she came to the first of a number of stoplights and smiled when it was green since she was running a bit late. If she hadn’t been in such a hurry she might have seen the black Suburban that was coming down the cross street but it probably wouldn’t have mattered. As she was going through the light something made her look and the last thing she saw was a massive grill and then everything went dark.
    ***
    About that time Dan was at the house with his Beta and one of the other senior wolves discussing the next moon night and what they were going to do for breakfast the following morning. As was the habit in his pack the morning after a moon night he would sit down with his Beta and one or two other senior pack members and discuss any issues or problems that might have come up since the last moon night. Today they were talking about one of the pack, George, who was getting a bit uppity and there was probably going to be a challenge.

    It was about then that it happened. “…Well if he is feeling that froggy he is close enough to the top that it wouldn’t be untoward for me to convince him to challenge me and beat him into the ground again…” Dan never got the chance to finish that statement when he felt the bonds with his wife and children snap and his head snapped back and a wild keening came from his mouth as both he and his wolf reacted to the loss of their family.

    The ones in the room froze for a moment as she died and they keened as well. The loss of one pack member was bad but when it was an Alpha be it the Alpha or his mate impacted on all of them. They were frozen long enough that when Dan went down nobody was able to catch him.

    “Oh god, get Mary as soon as possible before he wakes. If she is holding him his wolf should recognize her scent and do what is needed to keep from hurting her.” The others were still sort of frozen and he had to bellow. “Get her!” With all the command in his voice and they scattered.

    Dan was still passed out but no way in hell was he going near a wolf that just lost his family till either a submissive or omega was available and they didn’t have an omega. Now that he had given orders he could feel the shock and grief through the pack and a low keening from the ones that were in the house and knew that the rest of the pack would be there in short order to take care of Dan.

    Thankfully Mary had been at the house still since she didn’t have to work today and was relaxing. When she scurried into the room she froze at the sight of her Pack Leader on the floor and looking old she froze in shock.

    Ben looked at her. “Go to him girl, let him smell your scent and curl up next to him. When he wakes he will know you aren’t a danger and hopefully that will give us time to bring him back from the edge.” His voice was hoarse with stress and keening.

    She immediately lowered herself to the floor and crawled over. “Pack Leader it is Mary and I am coming closer.” When he didn’t respond she kept repeating that and finally was close enough that she could curl up around him and tucked his head against her chest.

    She was much smaller than Dan though that didn’t really mean much since she was a bit over 5’ tall and Dan was just a bit of 6’ tall. Normally she would look maybe 100lbs wet but she weighted close to 140lbs and swimming was not a good idea since she would sink like a stone and she was female.

    When Dan did eventually start to rise from the trauma of what had happened at first he started growling and snarling since the person curled up to him was not his mate and he knew that. While he was growling and snarling he scented her odor and knew it wasn’t his wife or children but recognized her for who she was.

    She was one of the two pack submissives and that alone did keep him from hurting her, or too much, since his fingers were barely keeping from curling into her skin and pulling her closer. At this point it didn’t really matter if the submissive had been male or female since what was important was that they weren’t a challenge to him even as far as he was gone.

    “Get away Mary.” His voice was guttural as he struggled to resist the changing but it was going to be a very close thing.

    “Can’t Pack leader. You need me and my wolf recognizes that and we can’t leave you this way. I can take you to your rooms or to the secure rooms till time for the service for your family.” She almost curled around his head and held him as close as she could. She couldn’t stop the tears that were flowing or the slight sobs.

    It wasn’t just the loss of the alpha female or the children that she was crying for but the loss of a good friend and possibly their alpha since many lycan’s who lost mates tended to suicide.
    “Come Dan, come with me and let me take care of you.” She felt him struggle in her arms but also knew that as lost feeling as he was his wolf simply wouldn’t let him hurt her which was why she had been called for. She stood up and gently picked him up, which if she had been human couldn’t have, and wrapped her arms around him.

    For a moment she considered his rooms but that would be a bad idea since it would have Nang’s scent all over it which might help to calm him down or might make it worse. If his reaction got worse and he really lost control he might not realize he had hurt her till later and he would feel horrible for that so she headed towards the secure rooms. Once inside one she helped him strip down and got him to lie down before curling her small body around him and made sure his nose was tucked in her neck so he could scent her. It would help him maintain control since it would tell his wolf that he was as safe as possible and there was someone there for him.
    ~Present~
    The lack of skill in his movements due to his mental state was shown a moment later when he had to twist very hard to miss hitting a tree head on and slammed his side into it. Dan felt the impact and a rib breaking but the pain didn’t register at all and he kept moving. If someone had a watch going he would have been running for over 12 hours and didn’t show any slowing down.
    ~Evening one week before~
    Mary had finally gotten him to sleep though she had a feeling his wolf had forced it on him. Many times the wolf was a pain in the a** since it didn’t understand humans and their silly antics but other times their mental strength was a boon. Right now as much as the wolf was hurting as much as his human he had the strength to help his other half and right now that meant sleeping.

    As she was sitting there the door opened and Ben stood there and she could see how haggard he was looking. “We have convinced the coroner to give us the bodies and you will need to bring him to the circle at moon rise for the ceremony.” For a lycan he looked old and sounded very tired which definitely wasn’t Ben.

    She nodded at him and curled up a bit closer to Dan and was slowly stroking his hair while ensuring his nose was resting on her neck. She could have spoken or used the pack bonds but didn’t want to chance waking Dan after finally getting him to sleep. Even when Ben closed the door it was done very quietly.
    ***
    She could feel the moon starting to rise and someone had left some food in the room incase Dan wanted it though she wasn’t going to expect him to eat. “Wake my Alpha, wake up. It is time for the ceremony. We need to get ready to go.” She was still stroking his hair when he finally woke up and she wanted to cry for how broken her wonderful Alpha was.

    When he opened his eyes and sat up they were empty of everything except pain. His face was drawn and haggard and somehow his neatly trimmed beard looked ragged and his hair was a mess as well. He only moved when she told him to and only when she nudged him in a direction.
    She moved him over to another cell that someone had setup for her and urged him into a chair after having him strip down and started on his hair. She carefully combed it and worked it into a tasteful braid and tied off with a black ribbon. Once that was done she dressed him in a black suit and tidied up his beard. “Come my Alpha, we have to show your mate how you loved them by sending them on to their next life.”

    She ended up having to wrap an arm around him and leading him to the circle and they arrived just before the moon was up. She was very pleased that it was the night after the full moon and Nang and their children would be sent off on a full moon. “Come Dan, follow me and I will take care of you my Alpha.”

    Mary led him to the head of the pyres and kept her arm around him while Ben looked over the pack. It wasn’t a huge pack but it was a very well taken care of pack and everyone knew that Dan cared for all of them even if he didn’t always get along and or didn’t even like each other.
    “As everyone knows we are here to mourn the loss of a pack mate and even worse precious children. To even make it worse it is the family of our Alpha and that is going to impact on the entire pack for the foreseeable future. Our Alpha is going to need all of our support for the next few months and by his wish I am going to be dealing with the day to day workings of the pack. Now to the important part.”

    He lowered his head and a low keening came out of his mouth and was slowly picked up by the rest of the pack one by one. They didn’t have any stupid eulogy since a heartfelt howl and keening was far more important. As he was keening Dan finally stood up tall and lifted his head and howled.

    It was a very torn howl and all the faces in the pack were streaked with tears as he cried out his loss and pain to the skies and their mistress. The moon looked down at them and they could feel her sympathy for the loss but also a calm sense of fate happens and you had to move on. Dan almost tore his throat out as he cried for his wife and children that had been lost and finally picked up a torch and tried to walked forward and staggered.

    Mary didn’t even think twice before she moved forward and wrapped an arm around him and they slowly walked over. She had to help him stick the torch into the byer in several places before taking him to the other two and starting them as well. There wasn’t any real reason for burning the bodies though some believed they were returned to their mistress but mostly it was to keep the bodies from being taken by the government for testing.

    Once she helped him back to the head of the pyres he lowered his head and let the tears flow as the pack keep up the keening. It did help but not a great deal since his soul was still raw and torn from losing his mate.

    Eventually the fires burned lower and finally went out and he was still standing there till Mary urged him away. He tried to resist but she leaned into him. “It is time for you to go back to your house and need to sleep some more. I have had to deal with a number of people who have lost their mates and sleep will help as will your wolf.”

    Dan finally let her lead him away from the ceremony and back to the Pack house and led him inside. She knew that the Alpha quarters had been cleaned out of most things related to Nang and the children to try and reduce the impact but the bed had been left the same since he was going to need her scent to help him go to sleep.

    Once they were inside she slowly led him to their rooms and inside and he froze and closed his eyes and slowly inhaled the scent of his former mate and tears slowly leaked out. Almost without thinking he walked to her dresser and opened her jewelry box and pulled out a heavy white gold bracelet he had given her and with Mary’s help he put it on before slowly walking over to the bed and settled down in it before sort of passing out.

    Mary crawled in next to him and wrapped her arms around him again making sure that his nose was tucked in her neck and eventually fell asleep.
    ~Present~
    He had eaten whatever they had given him but didn’t have any idea what it was but it was helping him in his running even if he couldn’t out run what had happened. At the end of the day he was totally exhausted and could barely limp back to the house before being stuffed and tucked into bed and the next day he would end up running again. Dan knew that he needed to try and get a grip but he simply couldn’t handle it and the pack mostly understood.

    There were one or two individuals who considered this a chance to advance in the pack but they had to wait for the mourning period to be over before they could challenge those they didn’t like or even Dan himself since he wouldn’t be at his best. All of that Dan didn’t even think about at the moment, he didn’t even consider that with all the running he was actually increasing who he was, or a better way of putting it his strength and endurance since he was being stuffed with food every time he even slowed down.

    On the day in question Dan had started out slightly after sun rise and now it was almost dinner time and he wasn’t near slowing down and it would be a while. To challenge himself he headed for a very steep hill and once at the top he howled and howled before turning and starting back down.

    It would have been better for him to have chosen another way but very little really mattered to him as he ran and on his way down he increased speed till he noticed a sort of road in hot sun look and tried to avoid it but he hit it and felt a burning sensation through his body.

    The sensation slowly consumed him and it felt like his entire body was being pulled apart piece by piece and then incinerated. The last thing he remembered was he and his wolf howling at the pain that was almost worse than losing his mate.
    ***
    Several lycan’s were running through their territory and had to stop when they felt a surge of something. It wasn’t something they had ever felt before but they could sense where it was coming from and altered their course in that direction and started really running.

    When they finally arrived they had to pause since all they saw was a man, nude, with a silver colored bracelet on his wrist. *What is going on? Who is he and where did he come from?* One asked as they slowly moved forward.

    Another who was slowly moving forward sniffed in his direction and if he had been human he would have frowned. The scent was definitely lycan but had something else as well. It wasn’t a scent he had ever scented before and looked at the other two before they split up. *He is a lycan but there is something else as well.*

    They slowly approached him and finally realized he was totally unconscious. *What should we do?* The junior most wolf asked and danced back when one of the others slashed at him with their teeth.

    *We take him back to the Alpha and let him deal with him.* He shifted to human and frowned.
    The man wasn’t all that tall but he was obviously heavily muscled which usually indicated someone who is more dominant. At the moment he had no idea how dominant but he wouldn’t be able to get out of the safe rooms unless released. *Change.*

    Once they changed they picked him up and actually grunted since he weighed more than they had expected and started heading back to the den.