User blog:CursedItemMerchent/Wolf's Run- Chapter 3 A New Pack

 Wolf’s Run- A New Pack  '''Warning there is some violence against mamono in this story. Nothing gory or permenent though'''

My stealth was perfect and totally took my prey by surprise. Draco had no clue what was going on until I lost myself to my new mamono instincts and pushed him down onto the bed. He may have wanted to scream at that point, but I had already sealed his lips with a deep, deep kiss. At that point he was totally mine and I slowly savored the sweet thing that I had caught. We made love until the early morning when Draco passed out from exhaustion. “That’s no good, after all you are a man aren’t you?” I said kissing his chest “You shouldn’t leave a woman wanting more.” Still there was nothing to be done and I reluctantly released him. My, if only the girls could see me now! Thinking of the rest of my party, I felt a little sad for them, all alone in the cold woods without a man to warm their beds. Speaking of men, looking over at Draco I was hit with an idea. A little wicked smile spread across my face. ††††

It was midday before Draco woke up, and he was not too happy about his situation.

“Would you mind telling me why I am tied up?”

He was tied head to toe with loops and loops of rope. If they were bandages he could have easily been mistaken for a mummy. Just as securely he was fastened to his horse which was tied to my horse.

“So you wouldn’t run away silly! After all we just became lovers and I can’t have you get cold feet just because I lost my humanity. I do apologize for the rope, but knots are more Airen’s thing then mine. Just thinking about you escaping made me overdo it a bit.”

Draco slowly looked me over which caused me to blush and start drooling. “You, really became a wolf didn’t you Diana?”

“My, whatever gave you that idea?” I said giggling. “Was it my hands?” which were now twice as large, fur covered, and had sprouted claws, “Or my ears?” which had moved to the top of my head and were large, furry, and pointed, “or perhaps it was the tail?” I pointed my cute round bottom towards him and wagged its newest addition: a long, luxurious, fluffy tail.

“Seriously though, you don’t hate loving me do you Draco?”

He sighed a bit. “No, but I wish it hadn’t come to this.”

“Of course you didn’t seem to mind last night in bed.” Draco just blushed. “I would never been as honest with my feelings for you if I hadn’t become a mamono. Besides there are other benefits.”

“What sort of benefits? Besides that, where the heck are you kidnapping me to anyway?”

“That is a S E C R E T.” Leaning over I playfully kissed his cheek.

††††

Before long we had arrived at our destination: a very familiar forest. After tying up our horses I let out a howl that would have terrified the me of just a day ago. In the distance several howls replied. Sitting down to wait it wasn’t long before I was rewarded with the return of my friends.

“Diana!” Yelled Airen and she launched in a flying tackle on me pushing me to the ground. “You came back girl! And I see that you brought our meat with you.” She looked over to Draco giving him a lustful look “and by meat I mean that ‘special sausage’ you always carry around with you. And it seems that you even gave Diana a taste of it.” She said sniffing me.

“Taste? I practically had a four course meal. I don’t know how many hours he lasted, but it was wonderful. Good to see you too Airen would you mind getting off of me?”

“But hugging wolfie Diana feels so good!” While she said that she did get off me and help me stand up where I got my first view of my transformed friends. Airen was the least changed as she seemed to have almost an otherworldly appeal to her, although given her idle chatter it seemed that whatever inhibitions she had for her already perverted personality were now long gone. Ceres on the other hand had received a massive upgrade. She had always been rather homely and a little bit pudgy. However, her skin had become silky and with the excess fat removed to show a sexy lady with a large rack. There was no trace of her former clumsiness with a bestial agility that seemed to ooze sexiness with every movement. I wondered how I now looked to them.

And then there was Freja. I found that I couldn’t look her in the eyes. After all she had tried to buy us time so that I could remain human, but it was useless. “Hey don’t look so glum kid!” She said slapping my back and putting me in a friendly headlock. “But Freja you tried so hard to keep me from turning into a monster and …” “No buts. What happened, happened in the past and can’t be helped. Besides as you know now it’s not so bad being a monster. Why did you come back?”

“Well after I had thoroughly ravished Draco the thought sprung into my head of my friends sleeping on the cold hard ground in the forest without a man to warm their beds. I decided to take pity on them and came back with our meat. After all we’re wolves now so it shouldn’t matter if there is one of us or four of us. I am sure Draco can handle it.”

“Wait what?” Draco blushed furiously but nobody payed him any attention.

“Actually make that six.” A wolf stepped out from behind my friends. She was tall with tanned skin and wore a small tube top and loincloth that barely covered all of her important parts. As a fellow mamono I couldn’t help but admire the sexiness of her well sculpted body. However, as soon as I saw her I felt a strange connection.

“Would you happen to be…” “The wolf that got you. I thought I felt my claws hit you when I attacked and it looks like I did. Name’s Tasha by the way.”

I ran over to her and gave her a flying hug. “Thank you so much big sister! It’s been so much fun becoming a mamono. Who else is going to be part of our pack?”

“That would be Anaya.” She said pointing to a wolf with jet black fur, who gave a playful little wave. “She turned Ceres and Airen, so according to our traditions gets to be part of the pack and have access to our man.” She turned to leer at Draco.

Draco finally snapped “NOW WAIT JUST A MINUTE! Don’t I get a say in who I get to be with?”

“Of course not silly.” Airen flicked his forehead. “Besides whose fault do you think it is we became wolves anyway?”

His face paled. “What do you mean?”

Freja sighed. “Ya know it would be nice if at times you weren’t quite so dense.”

“Don’t worry I will teach him about it.” I piped up. “Very thoroughly at that. Think hard my love. What is the one thing that monsters want above all else? Last night should give you a hint.”

You could see Draco putting the pieces together. When he got it his face fell. “Would it be a man?”

“Bingo!” I gave him a kiss on the forehead. “They didn’t attack us, they tried to capture YOU.” “and your sausage” injected Airen. “If you hadn’t joined our party they would have left us alone. So take responsibility ok.” “With your body.” Injected Airen.

While Draco did not agree to it and was grumbling rather heavily I could tell that he had given up. That’s all right. He really never stood a chance. It didn’t really matter. After all we had all the time in the world to teach him how wonderful mamnono are. “Speaking of pack issues who is going to be the Alpha?”

“According to tradition” Tasha said “That would be the one who brought in the man as they are considered the strongest. In other words that would be you. Besides you have impressive spellcasting skills which are not often found among wolves. I think you would be a fine Alpha.”

“Congrats girl!” Freja came over and playfully gave me a noogie. I could tell from my friends beaming faces that the approved. “Thank you everyone!” I was so happy that I got to be the Alpha. Alphas are the leader of the pack. Because of this they get preferential breeding rights making it more likely that I would be the first person to bear Draco’s child. The thought made me a bit giddy, but I had to hold it down inside. After all I was the Alpha. Only my fiercely wagging tail gave away my emotions.

“All right, now that that’s been decided let’s go! Tasha show the way to where the wolves live!”

“With pleasure Alpha” she said grinning.

††††

It took us another half day to make it to the wolves’ village deep in the forest. We could have made it much sooner be we had a man to worry about. After all it wouldn’t do to have him overexert himself. At first we put him on the horse still tied up but after Draco promised to not to run away we removed most of them. Of course it’s not like he could actually get away if he tried to run. Men are so slow and weak, not a match for a wolf at all!

The path opened up and showed us the village. There were many large round houses made of wood with thatched rooves. They looked snug and warm. Most of them had smoke coming from the central chimney. Telltale signs of dutiful wives preparing dinner for their husbands no doubt. The moment I saw the village I gave a sigh of relief.

Tasha came up and put her arm on my shoulder. “You thought we were going to be living out in the woods didn’t you?” She had a large grin on her face.

“The thought did cross my mind.”

“Come on now, just because we are mamono, doesn’t mean that we are beasts. Sleeping outside would be uncomfortable for us just like it would be for humans. At least that’s the case for most mamono.”

We didn’t go more than a few steps into the village when a pair of cute little wolves ran up to us. One seemed to be about 13, the other a few years younger. Both seemed to be rather excited about our arrival, or the arrival of one of the people in our party.

“It’s a man!” Squealed the older one. I couldn’t help but smile. I petted her head “He is my man. But don’t worry I promise when you get a bit older I will help you find one of your own.”

“Yeah you have to go catch your own.” Tasha grabbed the smaller wolf and put her on her shoulders. “Diana-alpha these are my little sisters. Felan it the enthusiastic on that can’t wait to go man hunting and Cana is the pup. Felan don’t do anything to upset my alpha please.”

Felan’s eyes widened “You finally got a man? Congratulations on your successful hunt!”

“Thanks. Don’t worry I am sure you will find one soon. Now let’s get our new pack settled in one of the empty houses.”

††††

And thus began our lives as wolves. It was actually quite comfortable. The houses were spacious and warm, although the inside was one giant room. Of course as we were all married to the same person it wasn’t that big of a problem. After all human modesty was a thing long in the past for us. As the alpha I got to set the rules for mating. I got the first shot each morning which would act as a wakeup call to the rest of our pack. After my meal of Draco we would have a normal breakfast which normally consisted of meat either raw or cooked. What little vegetables we had went to maintaining our husband’s vitality as we wolves are carnivorous. Although it was monotonous none of us really minded. We had had much worse in taverns and restaurants during our travels.

At night each of us was assigned a different night that we could monopolize Draco all to ourselves. Of course the person that owned Draco for the night could invite others to join in so most of the time it just ended up in a free for all orgy, which was fine too.

I became rather close to Felan, Tasha’s little sister. She was a bubbly ball of energy and was quite keen to show me the ways of the wild wolves. Which nuts and berries were good to eat, herbs to enhance our time with our husband, we even did a bit of hunting. It was so exhilarating to stalk my prey and take it down with my very own claws and fangs. Of course Draco did freak out a bit when I came back to the village carrying a dead deer and covered in blood. It was quite cute.

Most of the time we were accompanied by the littlest sister Cana. She seemed to follow her bigger sister wherever she went like a duckling following its mother. Of course since she was a wild wolf she was actually a bit more agile then me and was able to keep up with us with no problem. While I never really spoke much to her as she was so shy, it seemed that we got along just fine. She even made me a set of the wild wolves’ clothes. While they were quite flattering I just couldn’t get used to them. After all wearing them meant you were almost naked. I did modify my robes quite a bit though. I cut a slit down the side and tailored them so that they clung to my body. Draco definitely seemed to approve of my additions, although the rest of the wolves just shook their heads. Wild wolves just don’t get that clothes can be sexy!

††††

Cana was such a quiet girl that when she ran into the village screaming at the top of her lungs I knew something had gone horribly wrong. She ran into my arms burying her head into my chest. “They’ve kidnapped big sister.” She managed to tell me before breaking down and sobbing. We quickly gathered the rest of the village and listened to her story.

Cana and Felan were out running through the woods playing when they came across a group of humans. Like the good little mamono they are they tried stalking them in an attempt to get a husband, however it was a well-armed party and it didn’t seem like they could separate one of the men from them and attacking an adventurer’s party with two little wolves didn’t seem like a good idea. After the party had packed up and left our two wolves entered the clearing where they had made camp. However the moment they stepped into the clearing the telltale blue white light of a spell activating surrounded them. Felan had managed to push Cana out of the way before being immobilized. Cana then ran back to the village for help, dodging several adventurers that attempted to capture her as well.

The village was in an uproar. Adventurers did occasionally venture into the woods, but they were generally too weak to do any harm. The fact that they were successful and had taken one of our children hurt. Of course Felan’s parents were livid but no one was as pissed as Tasha. “I am going to rip their guts out and tie them up with them.” She screamed through her tears. “How dare they hurt my little sister! I am going to pound them until there are nothing left but scraps of meat. Let me go now and I swear their towns will run red with blood!”

It pained me to see the fun loving Tasha being reduced to a bloodthirsty animal. It gave me the chills. This was probably what our ancestors felt when facing the monsters of the previous demon lord. Of course I wasn’t going to let her go off the deep end and launch an attack that would end up getting her killed. I ran over and embraced her. “Calm down Tasha. They kidnapped Felan not killed her. There’s a chance we can get her back. Now is not the time to slaughter everyone.”

“But, but she’s my cute little sister.” Sniff “I love her.”

I gave her a gentle squeeze. “I love her too. I have only been here a short time but I feel as close to her as if she were my real sister.”

“Who the hell cares? It’s just a wolf. Why don’t you just make another one?”

At that point the mood in the village froze as we all turned to see the stupid ass who said that comment. Unfortunately it happened to be my Draco.

Furious I stormed over and lifted Draco up by his collar. “Can’t breathe!” “What the hell is wrong with you? Felan is just a child! She never hurt anyone and was a good kid. She doesn’t deserve this! Just because she is a mamono doesn’t make her any less of a person. Our daughters are going to be werewolves. Did you get that through your thick skull? Because if you can’t handle it I am sure we can find a mamno that just cares about mating and not about your feelings. I am sure a Slime or Devil Bug would love to have you.” I dropped him like a sack of potatoes. Coughing he rubbed his neck.

“All right, all right I get it. I’m sorry I am still getting used to this. After all I didn’t get slapped upside the head and turned into a monster like you all did. We spent years learning to fight monsters ya’know.”

“That’s all right. We are just going to have to burn how wonderful monsters are into your brain with our bodies.” I snuggled up to Draco. “However, we are not going to let Felan die.” Turning to the rest of the village “I propose for our party to go save Felan.” The town was shocked and the crowed started to murmur.

“Why? She’s not your family.”

“That’s true Tasha. However, you are a member of our pack so you can’t say she is not related to us. Besides we stand the best chance of getting her back. Up until recently we were human and adventurers at that. We have the most recent information on the towns in the area and can enter them without suspicion. Time for Felan is running out and we are the best shot we have of getting her back, before something horrible happens to her.”

Tasha ears fell and she looked quite dejected. “Fine. But you have to come back in one piece Alpha.”

I gave her my best toothy grin. “I was planning on it. Now that that’s settled lets go get our pup back. Draco you hold down the fort kay? Just don’t go getting frisky with any of the other wolves while we are away.”

“Hold it, hold it, hold it.” Draco ran over and blocked the path. “You ladies are NOT leaving me behind.”

I sighed. “Draco, we are monsters now. We are much stronger than we ever were. Heck I am sure even Ceres could beat the heck out of your run of the mill knight. By comparison men are weak and fragile. I know you might not like being protected but it is the duty of every momono to protect their husband.”

“Yes but you are forgetting something important.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes really. If you haven’t noticed I am the only one of us who is still human. If you are hoping to get Felan back by stealth then I am the only one that can do it.”

“He does have a point.” Freja said putting her armored hand on my shoulder.

I huffed a bit “Fine he can come.”

“Alright! I’ll go get the horse.”

A wicked little smile crept across my face full of sharp teeth. “We don’t have time for the horse. Our enemy already has a head start so we are going to have to travel with something faster.” I scooped Draco up into my arms. While he was quite a bit larger than I was it was no more difficult than holding a small child, part of the benefits of becoming a mamono. “All right let’s go!” I took off with the rest of my party running behind me. Draco’s screams of terror could be heard echoing throughout the forest.

††††

We made great time covering the distance in a fraction of what it would take a horse. Several times we did have to pass off Draco but none of the ladies complained. After all what mamono would complain over having to hug their man for hours at a time? Airen especially seemed to like it as every time I looked over she seemed to be sniffing Draco enthusiastically. This was totally unnecessary due to our wolf noses, but I think she just likes to get close to the source. Draco of course wasn’t too fond of this mode of travel, but after a while his screams died down to whimpers.

Draco went into the town by himself to try and find some information on our missing wolf and her kidnappers. The rest of us hid from the town guard in a nearby grove of trees. He returned a few hours later with a sour look on his face. It was clear that something had gone wrong.

Ceres was the first to comfort him. “Don’t feel bad that you couldn’t find her Draco.” She said embracing him with her ample bosom. “I know you did your best.”

Draco sighed “That’s not it. I did find out who took her and where they were going, and it’s not good, not good at all. She was taken by Frigg’s party to Wryvenmere.”

“Shit.” Freja exclaimed and the sentiment was echoed by the entire party. After all there was not one amongst us that didn’t know that name. Frigg was one of the best swordsman in our class and an eternal rival with Freja for second place in class. She also was quite notorious.

While growing up in order lands a certain hatred of monsters is instilled in you. After all monsters are “evil” and a “menace to humanity.” Complete hogwash, but you have no choice but to believe in it. In these situations sometimes fanatics are born, and Frigg was the worst of the worst. Her one goal in life seemed to be to slaughter as many monsters as she could.

Frigg’s hatred of monsters was born out a love for her elder sister. Her sister Kara was a great hero, well known through the land for protecting the people as well as being a kind and caring person. However, she had the great misfortune to meet a lilium and was turned into a dark slime. As she was an ex-hero her power was incomparable to normal monsters. After only a little time the town that she had originally been assigned to protect had been converted into a slime kingdom with Kara as the queen.

When Frigg had heard the news of her sister’s fate she rushed out to challenge her sister alone. A foolhardy thing to do especially for a swordswoman as slimes are immune to physical attacks. Only Frigg knows what truly happened that day, but she managed to stagger into town a week later covered in slime. How she had avoided becoming a monster herself was the subject of numerous rumors at school. Since then she had a burning passion for the extermination of monsters. She blamed what happened to her sister on the monsters and swore to extract vengeance from each and every one of them.

If she captured Felan alive that only meant that she had a fate worse than a simple beheading lined up for her. Frigg was known to enjoy torturing monsters before finally killing them. I shuddered to think about what she might be doing to our little wolf.

“Well we better get moving. Wryvenmere is quite a ways off and Frigg has had almost a full day ahead of us. Hopefully we can catch them before they can reach the city and teach Frigg what happens to those who threaten our wolves.”

“Hope you are ready for another nice looong hug Draco.”

“No Airen let’s get a horse. I promise I will be able to keep up, just don’t make me go through that again kay. Airen no nooooooo!”

Airen grabbed Draco and ran off with him over her shoulder while Draco screamed all the while like a little girl.

††††

We never caught up with them that night. We are wolves not centaurs, and are designed for explosive speed not long distance running. Even mamono get tired so after a few hours of pursuit we were forced to make camp for the night and have Draco recharge our energy. Besides Draco needed the rest. After all we didn’t want to break him, and there was no mamono that would ever cause their husband harm for any reason.

When the dawn came we broke camp after a quick “meal” and headed for Wryvenmere at top speed. Unfortunately, we didn’t run into them anywhere on the road, and seeing that there was only one road leading to the city that must have meant that Frigg had somehow beat us to it. Unfortunately, we definitely couldn’t just waltz into this one. While Wryvenmere was only a medium sized city it was fully garrisoned. Even worse it was the home of our Alma Mater the Rhinesfeldt Adventurer Academy so the city would be swarming with heroes so there would be a good chance that we would run into other adventurers. So we decided to hide in a grove of trees and send Draco in once again to scout the situation.

The sun had dyed the land red before Draco returned to us. He had a scowl on his face.

Ceres spoke first “What’s wrong Draco? Felan isn’t … she isn’t dead is she?”

“No she’s not dead, not yet at least, although she will be if Frigg has anything to say about it. It was rather easy to find out why then kidnapped her. The entire town was talking about it. We have been out of it for quite some time so we didn’t realize it, but tomorrow is Holy Day. Apparently Frigg brought her here as a sacrifice for the Chief God. They plan to burn her at the stake as part of the festivities.”

Holy day was the summer holiday that was the primary celebration of the Chief God. It was normally a fun time when street venders crowd the city and the streets are filled with people dancing. The culmination of the festival was a huge magic light display where all magic users in the city take part in a giant light display over the city. Even the small children are taught basic light spells so they can participate. It is an amazing time for anyone that grew up in the human kingdoms.

Needless to say although the Chief God despises Mamono slaughtering them as part of the celebrations is not the usual course. It must have been something that Frigg’s twisted and hate filled mind came up with.

Airen was especially pissed “That BITCH. Maybe we should have had Tasha come along and tear her into pieces.”

Freja had to hold her back. Not that I blame her, but getting us killed right now would accomplish nothing. We sat down and had a brainstorming session, but it got us know where. Airen kept wanting to snipe Frigg with her bow, Ceres was reduced to tears, and Freja was silently thinking so hard you could see the smoke coming from her ears. Draco did timidly try to get us to give up at the beginning, but he was shot down so hard he didn’t say a word since.

I interjected when necessary, but my brain was running at lighting speed. After all I was the mage, any plan that we would come up with would probably depend on my skills, at least any plan that wasn’t suicidal. But what could I do? Any of the normal spells I had at my disposal were all created by the Order. If I tried using them I would be found out immediately, and they would probably kill me before I could finish it. So what spell could I forge on my own could get us out of this mess. I was sure I could do it, after all I was the genius mage, but what would do? I ran down all of my past research projects in my head when I found one that just might do the trick. The more I thought about it the more perfect it seemed. A grin crept across my face. Freja was the first to notice.

“Care to enlighten the rest of us as to what you thought of?”

“It’s just an old research project of mine. However, it just might do the trick. Of course we need to go to my lab and see, but it is worth the risk.”

We managed to sneak into the city just as the gates were closing for the night, our robes and the darkness hiding our mamono features.

My lab was a stone building located next to the river. That way it would be easy to put out fires in case something happened. Of course this was never a problem for me, but it never hurts to take precautions. I went right over to my storage and started rummaging through it. Wands, unicorn horns, rune stones, all were tossed over my shoulder as I looked for the right catalyst. I didn’t really mind making a mess, after all after the stunt I was planning it was doubtful I would ever be coming back. Eventually, I found it the most powerful catalyst I owned. It was a demon crystal sphere almost the size of your head. It was perfectly clear and without a single flaw. If you looked closely you could ever so barely see that it slightly had a pink tint to it. I had spent an entire semester’s food budget on it and had to live off of rice, wild herbs, and what leftovers I could get from my friends.

“Now are you going to tell us what you are going to do with that?” Freja said a bit snarkily with her arms crossed.

“Not yet. After all it is useless as it is now.” I slide over to Draco and give him my best seductive look while running my finger down his chest. “In order for this to work we are going to have to fill this with demon energy. And we are going to need A LOT of demon energy. I hope you are up to it Draco because we are going to have a long night tonight.”

Airen wasn’t too thrilled with this. “So that’s what’s going on. You just wanted to spend the night cuddled up next to Draco.”

“Don’t be silly my dear. We are going to need far more demonic energy then I can extract on my own. We are all getting a turn tonight. I can then just take the energy from your body. Besides I am not so mean as to get lovey dovey with Draco and leave you all behind.”

Of course what followed was a hot and steamy night with our love. While it may have been done to charge up energy we certainly didn’t let that stop us from enjoying it.

We ended up in a great big pile on the floor. “Now that we have eaten I guess I can tell you all what we are going to do. The stone that has been charged will allow me to cast a spell that will allow us to steal Cana out from under Frigg’s nose.”

“I hate to bring up bad news, but the moment she sees us Felan she is going to give us away by her reaction.” Draco interjected.

“You're right. I will let you take care of that. I have some more delicate adjustments to make to the crystal to get this to work.” It took me most of the morning to fix the theoretical and semantic problems with my theory. After all what I was attempting was supposed to be impossible. I loved doing the impossible and this was going to be especially sweet doing it under everyone’s noses.

Draco returned and it was clear that he was a little upset.

Airen jumped on his back. “What’s up sugar? Did you miss us too much?”

“It was Felan. The conditions that they are keeping her in are deplorable. They haven’t fed her since they captured her and it seems that they found the darkest and dampest cell in the castle. She was covered in bruises and maybe a broken bone or two. They must have been using her as a punching bag. I hope we weren’t this bad when we were adventurers.”

“Of course not honey.” I said sliding up to him and hugging his arm. “You know how fanatical Frigg is. She would strangle a cute weresheep lamb in its sleep if she could. Monsters are the scum of the earth to her and should be eradicated at any cost.” While I could feel most of the tension drain out of him something remained.

“And?”

“And what? That’s it. I was able to inform Felan about the rescue and left.”

I gave Draco my best predatory stare imagining him to be a cute, little, delicious rabbit. I only hope my stern gaze was not ruined by me drooling.

“AND?”

Draco defeated seemed to shrink into himself. With a sigh he relented. “Fine, fine. I didn’t want to bring it up because I am not proud of it, but I had a problem talking to her. The guard wouldn’t leave me alone with her and escorted me to her cell. When she saw me she got so excited, I bet she thought I was going to rescue her right there. You should have seen her tail wagging. I kind of panicked. After all if they realized I was there to help her we both would have been burned at the stake, so I kind of. .   . kicked her. God that was awful. The look of betrayal and hurt in her eyes cut deep. But I took the opportunity while I was berating her to slip a note into her clothes explaining our plan. That sucked.”

“So let me get this straight.” Freja was pissed. “You kicked the pup and felt her up? You scum.”

“I had no choice, it was that or we both were going to burn.”

“We get that.” I said putting a bit of strength into my hands that were still wrapped around his arm. I am sure that it was going to leave a light bruise later. “But that still doesn’t mean we aren’t going to punish you later.”

Airen got a wicked glint in her eyes. “Hey guys why don’t we make him our dog for the week? Strip him down to his loincloth, slap a collar on him, and force him to do whatever we say.”

I ran over and hugged Airen. She definitely has a perverted mind and comes up with the juiciest ideas.

“Hey that’s not … fair .” Draco squeaked suddenly losing his neve facing the drooling ravenous stare of four drooling wolves.

“Don’t worry about it.” I said sauntering over to him and running a furry finger up his chest. “Besides you are going to like it.” I locked his lips in a very wet and sloppy kiss. Reluctantly I broke away from my lover. “However, that is for later. Right now we have a pup to rescue. And to do that I am going to need all of you to leave the city. I am doing this alone.”

The reaction was immediate while the rest of the girls murmured in shock, Draco had a more obvious sentiment. “No. I am not letting you go alone, I’m coming with you.”

While it did make my heart skip a beat and warm my chest to see my love acting all protective, what he wanted was impossible.

“I am sorry my love, but that’s not happening. To get this to work I am going to have to bend, break actually, several laws of magic. While I have no doubt of its working it is going to take an insane amount of energy. If Felan was any bigger it wouldn’t work. I just don’t have enough power to take another person with me.”

“That’s no excuse. What sort of man lets his woman face danger?”

That pronouncement left the rest of us in giggles seeing Draco trying desperately to act manly. Freja walked over and grabbed Draco’s armpits with her gauntleted hands and lifted him into the air like she was lifting a baby.

“Draco my boy, you forget that we are now monsters lovely, sexy and strong. If anything it should be us protecting you. You will just have to face facts that you are no longer the strongest person in the group. Oh wait you never were, that was me or Diana.” She said chuckling and putting the crestfallen Draco back on the ground. “Trust our Alpha, trust the woman you love to be back safe and sound before you know it.”

“Fine.” You could see it in his face that he was anything but “fine” with the situation, but he lacked the strength or reasoning to fight it.

Straining my shoulder I stretched with a little pop. “All righty then. Now that that’s been settled I need all of you to go to that grove of large trees we passed a couple of hours from the city. If all goes well Cana and I will be joining you shortly. And if not they are just going to get another wolf to throw on the fire.”

††††

Two hours later I was in position watching the town square where the execution would take place. From the size of the crowd it seemed that most of the town had turned out for the event. It made me sad that so many people would turn out to see the murder of a child.

Felan was led in by two rows of the town guard in their full dress armor. A large iron collar had be fastened around her neck with large heavy chains going to each guard. It was almost overkill even for a mamono. I guess they really didn’t want her escaping.

She was really in bad shape. Even from my vantage point on the far side of the courtyard you could tell that she was covered in bruises and cuts. There were even a few burns that would never fade even if she was rescued. I could feel my fur bristle. Every bit of my instincts was screaming “HOW DARE THEY DO THAT TO A PUP.” Slowly I wound those emotions down forcing them into a box deep in the recesses of my mind. After all I had a job to do and while ripping into them with my claws would be satisfying, oh so satisfying, we would both be dead. I just hoped that my acting skills were up to the task.

Giving my robe that hid my inhuman features a bit of a swish for good luck I worked my way through the crowed just as they were chaining Felan to the post to be burned alive. They had set up a small stage opposite the pyre for important persons to watch. That was my destination where Frigg was waiting.

“Hey Frigg how’s it going?” I yelled giving her a friendly wave while making sure the robe did not slide down and reveal my paw. “What’s going on?”

You could see that Frigg was a little puzzled by my arrival. While we knew of each other we really weren’t on friendly terms. To be honest no one was on friendly terms with Frigg. Her zeal for killing monsters was so extreme that even the worst monster hater found her distasteful. If it wasn’t the fact that she was able to wield a sword with almost god like abilities no one would put up with her. Yet she did not have any reason to suspect me.

“What does it look like Diana? I’m exterminating an abomination with fire. It’s probably the only thing that could cleanse it of its filth.”

“I see that’s too bad. After all I just created a new spell that I am dying to try out and she would be the perfect test candidate. Any chance you could give her to me?”

Frigg’s face clouded over like a blizzard rolling over a mountain. “I should think not. We came here today for an execution, and by the Chief God's name an EXCECUTION WE SHALL GET!” The crowd erupted into cheers.

“Well then you are in luck.” I said while strolling over to Cana. “After all my new spell is a more … efficient way to kill monsters. It is a disintegration that will slowly dissolve a monsters body layer by layer and convert it into spirit energy that be stored in a crystal. Also to enhance the energy conversion the spell maintains the monsters conscious mind until the very end. I imagine that the pain they must feel must be increasable. Being burned alive would just be a warm summer’s day compared to the pain of their body being dissolved.” Turning to face Felan I looked deep in her eyes and gave her a little wink which I hoped would get her to play along. “After all you wouldn’t mind dying for the sake of advancing magic would you?”

Felan was shockingly good at pretending to be scared. When we get back she really should consider performing at the village festival. “Nooo   No NO! Please don’t do that to me. I don’t want to dissolve! Let me die in peace. Burn me, chop me up, put me in a stew but please don’t dissolve me! You all are monsters for letting her do this to me mon…” It got so bad that a guard had to come up and gag the poor girl to stop her screaming. Even then crocodile tears continued to flow.

“So what do you say Frigg will you let me dissolve her with my magic? It’s an experimental spell so I can’t guarantee the results, who knows she might even explode, but and the end I am sure she will experience so much pain that the bonfire would feel like a warm summers day and she will be quite dead.”

You could see the gears turn in Frigg’s head. Cana was her prey and letting me kill her would give me some of the glory. On the other hand subjecting her to my spell would give her the most painful death imaginable. In the end her cruelty won out.

A small smile passed over Frigg’s lips containing neither warmth nor mercy. In a voice barley above a whisper she breathed “Do it.”

I couldn’t help but smile brighter than the noonday sun at Frigg buying my tail hook, line and sinker. “Excellent! Excellent! You won’t regret this! I am sure this is going to be quite the show. Now than I am going to get started, if you all won’t mind backing up. I am not sure what this spell would due to human flesh, but it probably wouldn’t be pretty.” All of a sudden the crowd decided that they would rather not have as close a seat to the execution as they thought they would. There was mass chaos as everyone scrambled away from me and the bound wolf. In moments the center of the courtyard was clear for my casting.

Reaching beneath my robe I produced my demon crystal sphere. Putting the slightest bit of energy into it, the sphere began to levitate between my robed hands. It really served no purpose other than to look impressive. Heck half of the things we mages do are to impress the rube that we bend the laws of the universe to our beck and call. It makes it much less likely for them to put their fingers where they don’t belong at the crucial moment.

“Then let’s get this execution started!” I yelled holding the crystal above my head. Pouring energy into the stone. A sudden windstorm erupted focusing on the stone in my hand. A dark miasma seemed to be oozing from it dripping in large viscous drops to the ground where the evaporated faster than water on a hot skillet. It was then that I started my incantation:

Oh great spirits of old

Fabric of the universe

                                                                       Tear and rend this monstrosity                                  

Return her to the darkness that birthed her

Let her sacrifice become my power

As she turns into nothingness

DISTINTIGRATION!!!

The wind roared at my cry almost becoming a tornado before instantly dropping to calm. For a fraction of a second nothing happened. Then with a loud bang a huge crack formed in my crystal and the entire world seemed to swirl and twist in the familiar pattern of the classic warp spell as Felan and I disappeared from Wryvenmere.

<p style="text-align:center;">††††

With a small thud Felan and I reappeared on a small hill far away from that hateful city. It took a few seconds for the world to stop spinning and for me to gain my bearings. Warp spells sure were useful but were hell to the inner ear. Then it hit me. We did it! We looked death straight in the face and managed to get away. I reached over to Felan to remove her gag and the pup embraced me. “Thank you Auntie Diana.” She said wile sniffling. “I knew you would come get me. I never lost hope.”

“Of course kiddo.” I said patting her head between her canine ears. “We always come for our own. You know I am quite fond of you pup.”

“DIANA!” A scream came from the other side of the hill as the rest of the pack caught our scent. I looked up and just had time to see Ceres running on all fours like a real wolf before she tackled me. “Ohmygod dianaIwassoworriedsogladtoseeyou.” I was unable to do anything for quite a bit as Ceres cried out her tension into my arms. What followed next was ten minutes of hugs, congratulations, and tail wagging as we relaxed over our successful mission. Of course there was some reckoning left to do.

“So Diana” Freja said while crushing Felan in a great big hug (“Auntie Freja it hurts”) “Are you going to explain how you pulled that stunt off?”

I couldn’t help but grin. “It sounds simple, but in reality is quite complex. Basically I used a standard warp spell, the same one that is taught any mage before they are allowed to go on adventures. Using some original works I managed to stabilize the spell and hold it in the crystal sphere. Of course I would also need an obscene amount of energy to warp many leagues away from the city instead of warping to a dungeons entrance. For that we have to thank Draco.” Draco of course blushed furiously at the mention of his ‘energy donation.’ He is sooo cute when he acts all innocent like that!

“Then to fool Frigg and buy time for the spell to activate I chanted a menacing sounding, but totally fake ‘spell.’ You should have seen her face when the warp activated! She looked so pissed. But whatever, she can go suck a roper for all I care. Serves her right for what she did to Felan. Unfortunately though I don’t think I will be doing that spell again anytime soon.” I looked at the ground and saw my precious crystal sphere slowly crumble into dust. Still I was able to save a treasure greater than all of the crystals in the world. “Anyway let’s head back home. They should be getting ready a feast for our safe return.”

“Oooh will there be deer? Yummy, yummy, deer?” Felan said jumping up and down.

“Of course there will. And the proper name for it is venison.” I scooped the young wolf up and put her on my shoulders as we began our happy trip back to our home.

<p style="text-align:center;">††††

<p style="text-align:center;">EPILOGUE

The courtyard of Wryvenmere was empty all save for one brooding figure. It was a lady tall and muscular with fine blonde hair. She would have been quite pretty had there not been a scowl planted firmly across it. She stared at a post with wood stacked beneath it. There was supposed to have been a cleansing of a monster there that afternoon, but the wolf had been spirited away using a warp spell by an interloper. Once it had been clear that there was going to be no excitement that day people slowly trickled out of the square going back to their daily lives. All save Frigg.

She stared at the post with unseeing eyes, her brain refusing to comprehend what it saw. Where was the wolf? Where was her prey? How had this happened? These thoughts ran circles around her head refusing to connect. Then finally one thought burned through the rest. Her prey had been stolen from her. DIANA had stolen her prey. HOW DARE SHE! With a snarl she leapt to the pile of wood and drew her sword and slashed at it as if she was hacking down the person that stole from her. With each slash she added a crazed scream “DIANA… YOU BITCH. HOW… DARE …. YOU TAKE … THAT ABOMINATION. FUCKING MONSTER LOVER. I SWEAR… I WILL MAKE… A RUG… OUT OF THAT BEAST… I WILL … NEVER FORGIVE… YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Her crazed howl echoed through the town as people closed their shutters and adverted their eyes from the lady that had a glint of madness in her eyes as she hacked and slashed the pole until there was only splinters left.

<p style="text-align:center;">AUTHOR’s NOTES

That took WAY longer than I thought it would. However, it is triple the length of any other chapter so I guess it evens out in the end. Next time the perspective will change to Airen our perverted half-elf turned werewolf as we learn her story. Can our wolves survive Frigg’s wraith?

However, I think I am going to take a break from this series and return to my original intentions with the Cursed Item Merchant. So next time look forward the tale of a cursed sword in A Cursed Love Story.