Chapter Two

-A brief history of the pack-
Cody was the first to join the pack, Elizabeth rescued him from a werewolf camp along with several others, though he was the only one to stay by Elizabeth’s side, helping her to free others like them and acting as a sort of bodyguard for Elizabeth while she was in her human form. Over the years other’s joined them, Alsander was the second to join Elizabeth.

Cody had gone out hunting when he smelt the hunters, fallowing the scent he found Alsander cornered and seconds from being shot. In his human form he could not defend himself and he had nowhere else to run. Cody took down the guards, not killing them, and took Alsander to safety.

Anastasia was the third to join them, she had heard of Elizabeth from other werewolves who had been freed by her. In do time she found them and joined the pack.
Duke came last, Cody and the others came across him half starved in what was left of Chicago. The remaining humans had hunted the place out long ago leaving Dike with nothing to eat, not even the birds chirped in the trees

---

Cody was ready to Leap out and take the man by surprise; he didn’t want to harm the girl or her father but he would not go down without a fight either. Cody had only just crouched ready to leap when Prue spoke again “If there was a werewolf, don’t ya think it would have attacked? And besides they only change at night right?” The girl asked innocently. Her father could not argue with her logic.
“Well, alright, but lets head home now I don’t like it out here” he said, then began to walk away. Prue lingered behind, waited until she was certain her father would not turn back, then popped her head around the edge of the fallen building. “You should be more careful” she said then hurried after her father, skipping as she went. She gave no explanation to her actions.
Cody remained crouched frozen where he was, he couldn’t believe what had just transpired, a human had saved him, or was it the other way around. Had she only wanted to save her own neck and her fathers? This thought somehow comforted Cody, he stood. Despite the possibility that Prue might have just wanted to saver herself Cody could not forget her eyes, her eyes could not lie, she was not afraid of him. Cody looked over the water again, in the distance he could still see the statue standing fall for all to see. Cody decided then to head home, he had allot to think about now.
Cody took his time walking back to the cave taking detours to fallow new or interesting scents. Mostly he hoped to find the trail of an unsuspecting deer or elk but he found nothing. IT had been a long time since there had been any large game, only small animals remained in the woods, the humans saw to that. “Greedy humans steeling our food” Cody growled to himself. “They take our food, our lives, why can’t they just let us be?” Cody asked himself.
--
Cody waited at the cave entrance in the same place he had been that morning. His eyes were distant as he thought about the events of his day. It had been a rather interesting day.
His white ears twitched as voices came from still afar off. The sources had not yet appeared. He could smell the whiskey and smoke drifting in with the breeze.
“Ah, come on Liz, it weren’t as bad as all that” a male voice was saying in a thick Irish accent.
“You should not have gone into that bar, just look at yourself” Liz’s voice rang out, her voice clear as a bell. Her English accent was not as noticeable as Alasander’s Irish.
“I zought it vas very interesting” another voice pitched in with a Russian accent.
“Of course you would Ana” Liz answered exasperated.
The four figures finally came into Cody’s line if vision. Liz was walking in front, her arms folded tight across her chest. Ana was not far behind her. A red head pranced along behind in a good mood. Even further back followed Duke, seeming disinterested in the present conversation.
“Vell , ‘e es fine now anyvay, zat is ze important theenk” Ana said. Cody, like Duke became disinterested and blocked the conversation from his mind and concentrated instead, on Prue. She had stumped him: Why had she helped him? Why wasn’t she afraid? These were questions Cody could not answer himself, only Prue could. That was out of the question, Prue would never be allowed outside the city alone and Cody would not go in.
--
It only seemed moments to Cody’s troubled mind before the other four had reached the cave. He pushed his current thoughts aside for later.
“Alsander reeks of whiskey.” Was the first thing Cody put into Liz’s mind.
“Yes, He does, and he is going to bathe before the nights end” Liz said shooting a look at the redhead. He could not have been over sixteen. His wild red hair stuck out in every imaginable direction. Alsander grinned as broadly as if he had just received a compliment.
“Did he get in another fight?” Cody questioned, judging by the previous conversation and the black and purple rings around Alsander’s swollen left eye. Alsander hardly seemed bothered by the injury.
“Yes he did, and nearly gave us away too. If Ana hadn’t of been there, there would have been more trouble then we could handle” Liz answered moodily. Cody didn’t seem to have a problem speaking with Liz; it was all the others he rarely spoke to. He had known her the longest and she had gained his full trust.
“Just doing my job” Ana commented guessing that Cody was speaking to Liz.
Liz turned to her “And I appreciate it very much too”
“Elizabeth, can I teach him his lesson yet?” Cody asked, he had asked this on more then one occasion, he always got the same answer. It was hard to say weather he was being serious or not when it came to Alsander.
“No, you would mangle him too much” she replied, shaking her head as she came to sit beside him. Ana smirked as she sat near Liz “ven don’t you vant to mangle him?” Ana asked glancing at Cody though she knew he wouldn’t answer her. To her surprise Cody did answer.
“True, I should have just let him die” Cody cast a glance at Alsander, he had saved his life once and wished sometimes he had not.
“You could ask Anastasia to stop me when I got too far” Cody suggested, hopefully.
“No Cody, I don’t think she could stop you either” She elbowed his side, in a friendly way, as she spoke. Cody for the first time looked over at her.
“It was just a suggestion” he defended. His eyes shifted up slightly as Alsander came over, Cody let a warning growl escape.
“What’s the matter Cod, I didn’t do nothin” Alsander defended with a smirk, unafraid of the large wolf.
“Call me that again and I will relieve you of you’re arm!” Cody growled into Alsander’s mind, the threat was not an empty one.
“Oh come on Cod, it’s just a name” Alsander said, a foolish response. Cody jumped to his feet baring his white sharp teeth, a deep threatening growl echoed through the cave. Cody’s ears flattened down. His gold eyes meeting Alsander’s but only briefly before Alsander put his hands up and stepped back. Alsander probably would have taken him on in his wolf form but knew better then to fight in his human form with nothing to defend himself.
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry Cody.” A look of fear passed quickly over his face as he realized Cody would have gladly ripped his arm off. Elizabeth put a hand on Cody’s neck gently brushing the soft hair.
“Calm down Cody, we don’t want a death on our hands” she said soothing his anger. Cody did not speak again for the rest of the day. He simply watched the others for the last two hours of daylight.
When the sun began to sink; he stood again at the entrance of the cave, lifting his head to the sky, he howled the same resounding howl as that morning.
Elizabeth and Ana looked up. With a sigh, they stood and headed for the trees. Unlike Cody they could not remain in their wolf forms all the time, but they could not stay in their human forms either.
It wasn’t long before two wolves returned. Duke and Alsander then departed, they too returned as wolves. The five wolves settled down for the night. Cody remained awake far longer then the others, watching the moon travel across the sky. Finally, sleep came.
--
Cody’s sleep was not restful; he almost immediately fell into a nightmare.
It was late, the moon had long disappeared, yet there was light from an unknown source. His hackles were raised and his teeth bared. Cody stared fixedly ahead at a shadowed man standing just beneath the canopy of trees. Even in his dream Cody smelled the human scent as clearly as if he had been awake.
“Let me handle this, Elizabeth” he heard himself saying. His eyes did not shift to the wolf standing to his right. “Not a chance, he’s mine” He heard the words in her mind, though she could not speak them. Before Cody could stop her, Elizabeth bolted forward running in zigzags to confuse the hunter that loomed before them. “ELIZABETH, NO!” he cried as he heard the crack of the gun. The words had hardly reached her mind before she rolled over herself and fell to the ground unmoving.
Cody wanted to run, wanted to tear the hunter apart, but his legs would not move. He could only watch as Ana and Duke both went for the hunter. Ana went down after two shots, Duke reached the hunter leaping on him and throwing him to the ground. Alsander followed his lead, attacking the hunter. Cody still could not move, he watched in horror as Duke was thrown aside, slamming into a tree and falling to the ground.
Cody could move again, he bolted not bothering to zigzag as the others had but ran straight for the hunter. Cody could feel the adrenaline pumping through him as he ran but he could not run fast enough. He felt as though he were running on a treadmill, running and running but never getting anywhere. His heart stopped as he skidded to a halt in front of the hunter, a gun pointed at his head. Cody didn’t know if he wanted to shred the man to pieces for killing his friends, or let him shoot him so he wouldn’t have to live alone, knowing he couldn’t protect them. Everything that happened next seemed in slow motion. A ten year old girl jumped between Cody and the gun. “Don’t!” Cody heard Prue’s voice as clear as a bell.
The scene faded and changed to something Cody knew all to well. The smell of death and decay hovered over the camp like smog. Cody looked at his hands, human hands. They were calloused and cut from hard work. He could see dried blood beneath his cracked and broken nails.
Cody woke with a start, jumping to his feet, he could feel eyes one him. Cody looked around the cave, the pack was staring at him, all of them alive and well. Cody didn’t look back as he ran from the cave, he didn’t want to confront them now, he wanted peace and quiet as he tried to figure out why Prue had been in his dream, why had she saved him when he wanted death to come? Why hadn’t she saved the others? Cody puzzled over these questions as he ran, not paying much attention to where he went.
--
Cody stopped running when he reached the end of the trees to his surprise he found himself staring at crops of corn, wheat and all manner of vegetables even a few orchards. Beyond that was the tall iron walls of the human city, the humans could not grow anything within the walls of their protected city, something about the enhanced iron they used caused plants to die. A breeze blew the scent of human to Cody but it was old enough that Cody was not worried about being seen. Taking another sniff he caught a better, fresh scent. Cody took another look around but it was to early for humans to be out yet Lazy creatures he thought as he slowly crept out of the cover of trees, then stopped, waiting. Nothing happened, Cody smelt nor heard anything so he took off into the nearest corn field. He wound his way expertly through the tall stalks of corn.
Cody soon reached the edge of the corn field, there he stopped again his eyes fixed on what he was looking for. There in a large fenced in area was about a hundred dear grazing unaware of Cody standing just outside the fence. “This is why game is so scares this year” Cody thought darkly to himself “First the humans disown us and then steel our source of food I have all the right in the world to take back what’s ours” Cody moved slowly and silently around to the gate, a simple pad lock and chain bared the way. Without a second thought Cody took the lock in his mouth and yanked, the chain strained unwilling to break but the wood it encircled cracked and snapped. Cody stumbled back a couple steps the lock and chain dangling from his jaws. Dropping it there he stepped forward again and nudged the gate open with his nose.
Rather then going in that way he went around to the opposite end, taking a running start he cleared the fence landing on his feet amongst the dear who bolted for the open gat, Cody took chase. The deer didn’t care what they trampled as they ran from Cody, Cody didn’t seem to care either, until he caught the scent of a human and heard the child crying. Looking ahead Cody saw to his horror a young boy standing in an orchard deer running all around him it was only a mater of time before he would be trampled under hooves. Cody sped up heading straight for the child, he saw not far off the mother screaming in terror the father making his way closer to the screaming child. “He won’t get there in time” Cody thought to himself. In moment he reached the child, whirling around he stood over him and faced the oncoming deer. Without hesitation he gave a deafening howl, the deer promptly changed course bolting off into the forest.
Cody’s head jerked as he heard the cock of a gun, he stared at the father who held a riffle up aiming at Cody ungrateful human he thought bitterly. Slowly Cody stepped back away from the still crying boy, the man did not lower his gun. Cody hesitated the scent of the man was so familiar. It wasn’t until the girl emerged from the corn field that it hit him. The ten year old girl, Prue he remembered her name was. The mother went to her husband and gently put a hand over his pushing the barrel of the gun down “Relax dear, he saved our baby” she said gently. He jerked the gun back up “He’s still one of them” he retorted. Cody didn’t hesitate now to make a run for it, he heard the gun fire and whistle of the bullet as it flew close past him.
--
Cody soon picked up the scent again, he wasn’t worried about Prue’s father chasing him, any good husband and father wouldn’t leave them unprotected.
Cody slowed as he grew closer to his prey. The deer had calmed considerably and had stopped by the river. Slowly and silently Cody moved closer, selecting a deer he kept his eye on it. The deer had hardly twitched its ears before Cody was on top of it his powerful jaws clamped around its neck, easily he snapped the neck. The deer around him scattered in all directions, Cody let them go he had all he needed. Cody half dragged half carried the deer back to the cave where the others waited.
“Cody? You ok?” Liz was the first to speak as Cody returned, by then the others had taken human form. Dropping the dead animal, he simply nodded.