POV - Kyas/Chaos
Kyas
I don't think I ever stripped faster in my life! My body was not my own, the obedience immediate and absolute.
I had known Papa was the Alpha of this pack from the first day, and seen the deference and respect showed to him from all members of the pack, but not being part of the pack, his power had never touched me. His status had, his rank known, but not the true meaning of what Alpha meant. I definitely saw him with new eyes, and so did Chaos.
That's when I knew it. I was in SO much trouble when we got home... Elias had asked for the promise, but I'm the one that did it to him. Shit!
"Shift!" Papa shouted, this time not using his command.
This was new too. I had never, in all the time with Chaos, actually surrendered control to him. I never needed to. He always gave it over to me when the barrier went down, and the barrier always pulled me back at the end of the allowed time.
'Just visualize stepping back, like I do.' He instructed. So I did, and initiated my first ever voluntary shift.
Chaos
I had wanted to do this since the very first time I saw it. Elias and I, and then Ethos and I had been practicing for a while, trying to ensure that when the time came, we could keep up. The excitement of my first pack run was intense. I peed a little.
'New pups,' Alpha's voice said in my head, in a serious, no nonsense tone, 'you will run at the back of the pack. Every single other wolf here outranks you. Your job is to observe and do as you're told. You do NOT mark scent!'
'Yes, Alpha.' I said back.
'When the pack splits, Ethos and Brody will follow Beta Scott. Chaos and Emily will follow Delta Sam.' Alpha instructed.
I stood waiting for the Alpha's howl. Instead Papa's wolf, Carma, came through the crowd, a big black wolf, tall and menacing, directly to me, his full alpha command in force. I dropped to the ground instantly.
'Chaos,' he commanded, 'you will HEEL to Dean, the next ranked wolf up from you. You will NOT fall behind. You will NOT break from the pack. When the pack splits, you will STAY at heel to Dean. When the pack rejoins, you will HEEL to me and STAY there until we shift back. Do you understand me?'
'Yes, Alpha.' I said, shaking under the weight of his command. He just made sure I couldn't get lost or run off.
He turned and headed back to the head of the pack. I immediately scrambled to find Dean, Declan's wolf. He was a dark gray wolf just a little bit older than me, and I dropped into position at his heel. My heart was racing, but once in position, I actually felt tingles all over my body. It felt nice, almost like scratching behind my ears.
Now the Alpha howled, and we all howled back. And then we were off, running through the trees, a lethal force of teeth and claws. We ran as a pack straight to the eastern boundary, about five miles from the pack house, and then the pack separated into three smaller groups. Alpha took a small group of high ranked wolves straight, across the boundary, Beta Scott took his wolves to the right and Delta Sam took us to the left.
I stayed heeled up to Dean as commanded, and got another wave of tingles. They surprised me and I missed my footing, tripping over an exposed root. Suddenly, and all at once, it felt like hundreds of bumblebees were stinging me under my skin! I had fallen behind and out of heel to Dean. The stinging intensified every second I was outside of the command.
I bolted after them, trying desperately to catch up. Luckily, the pack had slowed down to a brisk trot, so it wasn't hard to return to Dean's heel position. No reward of tingles this time, just the fading of the stings. That was awful.
Our group was headed to the northern border, but they had slowed down to smell for evidence of intruders and rescent the markers of our territory. After tripping, I did Not want the beestings to return, so instead I kept my head up, watching my step and ensuring I was right where I was supposed to be.
That's how I spotted the mountain lion tracking a middle of the pack wolf named Neil from the tree Neil was under. I tried to alert him, but he didn't answer my push. I tried to reach someone else by pushing but everyone had me blocked, probably due to rank.
After a few minutes, Dean pushed at me, and I opened right away.
'I've been told to tell you to stop pushing people, it's outside the chain of command, you're not ranked high enough to talk to anyone but wolves of my rank.' He said.
'But there's a lion about to get Neil!' I shouted. 'Up in the tree!'
Dean looked over sharply, and I could see a ripple effect go through the ranks, as they all started looking over. The lion jumped down on Neil's back and sunk it's claws into his shoulders but five wolves made it to them and pulled the cat off him. They mauled the cat until it ran for it's life. Straight at Dean. It leaped for him, claws out, but Dean ducked under it and got it by its throat. They rolled together as they fought, but it knocked me out of heel position again. This time it wasn't bee stings, it was stabbing like knives, causing me to whine.
I chased after the fighting pair, and it seemed like Dean had caught too low on its neck, so he wasn't strangling it, just trying to hang on and stay away from the claws. Desperate to end the knives I attacked the cat, sinking my fangs into the meat of the lion's flank, bracing, and then pulling as hard as I could, distracting it, and then shook that leg with all my might. This let Dean get a better grip on the throat as other wolves arrived to assist and I got out of their way. This time, the cat didn't get up.
I didn't care, I didn't even realize I was low key yelping until Dean separated from the animal, and I was able to get back to where I was supposed to be, and the knives stopped. My next thought was to check on Neil and Dean. I wasn't moving, but I could see them. They seemed to be hurt, but healing and moving ok. I checked the others from where I stood, too. They were scratched a bit but also ok.
The pack moved on and there were no further trespassers found. I stayed in position obsessively now. I didn't want to know what came after knives. Midway through the the western border, the groups met back up, and I moved swiftly to obey the next instruction, falling into heel with Alpha. Ethos at heel on his other side. I got the tingles. I understood. It was like "good boy" or "bad dog", instant feedback. I didn't like it. Alpha command sucks.
'Chaos,' Alpha's push said. 'Why are you covered in blood?'
'None of it's mine, I swear. Mountain lion went after Neil and Dean. I had to help stop it.' I explained.
We were almost back to the packhouse. Alpha led us all the way back to our clothes on the stage.
'Shift and get dressed.' He said.
Kyas spoke for the first time since we shifted. 'This is gonna be bad...'
'Better you than me.' I said, and shifted.