Lone Wolf

  Lone Wolf

  Copyright © 2005 by Edo van Belkom

  All rights reserved.

  Published as an ebook in 2022 by Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.

  Originally published in 2005 by Tundra Books in Canada and Tundra Books of Northern New York in the United States.

  Cover Art by Ashley Ruggirello // www.cardboardmonet.com

  ISBN 978-1-625675-64-4

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Edo van Belkom

  To Dr. Sheldon Katz, family physician and friend.

  Chapter 1

  The morning mist hung heavily in the air like smoke. As the pack ran through the forest, their fur netted the moisture, wetting them, but never soaking them to the skin. The ground was soft and damp, smelling of nature and new life, as if the earth itself were a living thing.

  As the pack ran, Tora led the way for her three brothers, never venturing far from the trail. Harlan followed her closely, struggling only slightly to keep up. He’d always been the runt of the litter, but he’d been enjoying a growth spurt the past few months and now was just an inch shorter than Tora in human form and only a few pounds lighter as a wolf. By spring he’d be bigger than her, and stronger too, or at least that was his hope. Behind Harlan, Noble kept a comfortable pace, nipping at Harlan’s heels every so often to ensure his smaller brother kept up with the others. Noble could easily have been out front, the lead being his usual position among the pack, but he was happy to follow every so often, relieving himself of the burden of responsibility for his three siblings.

  Bringing up the rear was Argus, by far the largest and strongest member of the pack. Argus too, could have been up front if he’d wanted, and even Noble knew enough not to challenge such a thing if Argus had his mind set on it. But today Argus was content to be last. He’d been similarly content with the position all week, and it didn’t look like his feelings would be changing any time soon.

  The truth was that Argus had seen this part of the forest many times before, and he’d become bored with it. For weeks he’d been wondering what lay beyond the pack’s usual hangouts, beyond the familiar part of the forest. What, for example, was the ground like farther up the mountains? And at the top, or perhaps even over them? What was there for him to discover? He was nearly sixteen years old, and he’d yet to see the ocean in anything other than pictures or on TV.

  Argus hung back, keeping his siblings within sight through the mist and fog, doing little to close the gap between them. Who cared if he fell behind or even found himself alone in unfamiliar forest? Argus would welcome some new territory to explore. What challenges awaited him beyond the town of Redstone? Strange beasts, perhaps ready to be hunted and felled, torn apart by talons and teeth, their blood rich and red and tasting like…

  Argus did his best to concentrate on the pack and what had become a boring run through the forest. It wasn’t a good idea to dwell on such things as making meals of the other animals in the woods. Too much thought on the subject, a single taste of fresh hot blood, and he’d develop a liking for it. Then, almost like a drug addict, he’d want more and more, never satisfied until the bloodlust overtook him, or he was finished off by another beast that was bigger, stronger, or smarter than he was. There were countless animals that he could kill, and only a few that might be able to kill him, but that didn’t mean they weren’t out there. If he preyed on the smaller animals, the bigger ones would find him, of that he had no doubt.

  Argus raised his head and looked up the trail for the other members of the pack. He could see the branches and grass along the sides of the trail moving slightly to denote their passing, but other than that there were no signs of his siblings anywhere. He slowed and bent to sniff the ground. Their scent was fresh, and the flicking and bending of the blades of grass told Argus that they were no more than a few seconds ahead.

  He slowed yet again, allowing himself to fall even farther behind. Argus preferred to be alone more often of late. He wasn’t sure why, but there was a feeling within him—almost a certainty—that he would be leaving the pack before long.

  Just then, the hair along the back of Argus’s head stood up. There was something on the trail ahead that wasn’t a member of the pack. He sensed something about the presence that made him wary.

  Argus stopped in his tracks, moving off the trail and finding cover behind a stout redwood that would conceal his position no matter which form he was in. And then he waited. He couldn’t see anything through the mist or between the trees, but there was something there, he was sure of it. He could hear it rustling through the brush and padding lightly over the humus. It was a faint sound like that of a small deer, or perhaps even a dog leading a hunter. The thought of a hunter on the pack’s trail caused Argus’s fur to bristle with fury.

  And then he saw it shrouded in fog, or at least he thought he saw it. At that moment, Argus had been sure that what he had seen was real. But later, upon discussing it with Ranger Brock and his brothers and sister, he would become uncertain of himself; doubting his own eyes and wondering if the madness he feared wasn’t already creeping inside his head.

  But all that came later. Right now he saw a naked man move between the trees in the distance, almost like a ghost walking after midnight. He saw flashes and glimpses of the being for several moments before it moved out into the open and stepped across the path, allowing him to discern the thing’s faint outline.

  Argus didn’t know what to make of the sight. He’d seen people in the forest often enough, hikers usually, or the occasional ranger doing some survey or patrol, even television journalists and their crews taping things they weren’t supposed to. But while intrusive, those humans were to be expected. Furthermore, they were, more often than not, fully clothed when they walked through the woods. This man—he could tell that much from the outline—was completely naked. Not only that, but his hair was long, thick, and matted, and his beard was equally thick and tangled. He looked dirty too, with dark patches staining his skin like camouflage. But even his nakedness wasn’t the strangest thing about the man. What really struck Argus as unnatural was the way he walked, with his head held high and his chest thrust out as if there was an air of confidence about him.

  It was as if…he belonged in the forest.

  And then, just as quickly as he’d appeared, the man was gone. Argus blinked several times, trying to decide if what he’d seen was real or just a trick of the light. Already there was a seed of doubt in his mind.

  Argus’s body was jostled slightly and he turned to see Noble beside him. No doubt the pack had noticed that he’d fallen behind and Noble had come back to get him. The group stayed together, no matter how much one of them felt like breaking away.

  Noble gestured up the path with his head, suggesting that Argus needed to get moving. Argus nodded, then started up the trail. He slowed at the spot where he thought he’d seen th
e man, but all he could detect was the scent of wolves on the ground.

  Noble gave Argus a second push, and together the two of them hurried to catch up to the others.

  * * *

  Their run finished, the pack returned to Ranger Brock’s home in plenty of time for breakfast. The bus that took them to school wouldn’t arrive for another half hour and the ranger’s wife, Phyllis, would insist that they have a full meal before beginning their day as humans.

  That morning’s meal consisted of Ranger Brock’s favorite breakfast sausages, which they’d already had three times that week. Among the pack, Tora and Harlan liked sausages best. Noble seemed not to care much about them either way, but Argus had had his fill. Not only were sausages made in some factory from scraps of leftover and discarded meat, these particular sausages had been flavored with maple sugar and honey. Argus found the combination disgustingly gross, but was too respectful of Phyllis to say so.

  “Don’t you want any sausages?” she asked, noticing that Argus hadn’t spooned any onto his plate.

  “No, thank you,” Argus said. “I guess I’m not hungry.” That much was true. While he normally ate heartily, the incident out on the trail had taken away much of his appetite.

  “More for me!” Harlan said, scooping four sausages out of the pan before Argus changed his mind.

  “Are you sick?” Ranger Brock asked, taking a gulp from his big black BC Lions coffee mug. Phyllis placed the palm of her right hand on Argus’s forehead.

  Although her hand felt cool against his skin, Argus doubted there was anything physically wrong with him. “I’m fine.”

  “You’re a little warm,” she said, rubbing her fingers together to feel for any moisture. Then she placed the back of her hand against Argus’s cheek.

  “Really, I’m fine!” Argus repeated.

  “Are you sure? I could get the ranger to take you into town to see Doctor Katz.”

  “Wouldn’t be a problem,” said the ranger. “It’s on my way.”

  Doctor Katz was new in town and was as eager as he was young. Every time Argus or one of the others paid him a visit, he was always asking them questions about their hair and skin, curious as to how the four of them were brothers and sister all the same age, but as unalike from each other as the four seasons. He obviously suspected they were somehow different, and seemed determined to find out one way or another. It was probably best to avoid visits to the doctor unless they were absolutely necessary.

  So instead of answering with another “I’m fine,” Argus simply grabbed two sausages off Harlan’s plate and slid them into his mouth.

  “Hey!”

  Phyllis’s face brightened and her lips curled into a smile.

  The sausages didn’t taste all that bad, Argus concluded, grabbing the last of them out of the pan for himself.

  “That’s better,” Phyllis said, giving Argus an approving rub on the head.

  The ranger finished his coffee and slid his chair away from the table. “Well, I’ve got to go,” he said.

  “Already?”

  “They want the survey finished by the end of the week. I think they’ve even got Sergeant Martin and a couple of his officers pitching in to get it done.” Ranger Brock had been helping with a land survey being conducted by the Forestry Service, and had been putting in a string of twelve-hour days the last week or so. He hadn’t said much about the survey, but it was obvious to everyone there was something about it that concerned him. “Have a good day at school,” he said. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  Phyllis filled the ranger’s thermos with coffee, then followed him out the door to see him off.

  “Are you okay?” Noble asked Argus the moment Phyllis and Ranger Brock were gone.

  “I’m fine,” Argus snapped. Then he sighed and said, “I don’t know.”

  Noble, Tora, and Harlan all stopped eating for the moment and looked at their brother.

  “Did any of you notice anything strange out on the trail this morning?”

  “It was wet,” Harlan stated. “Lots of rain and fog, even for that time of day.”

  Argus shook his head. “That’s not what I mean.”

  “Then what do you mean?” Tora asked.

  “Did you see anything strange out there?”

  Noble pressed him. “Strange like what?”

  Argus gave the question some thought. He wanted to tell them what he’d seen, but the truth was that he wasn’t sure anymore. None of the others had noticed anything odd this morning, or even sensed anything unusual out on the trail. Should he tell them that he’d seen some sort of ghost or phantom? If he had to put a name to it, that’s what he’d call it, but telling them that would only get him laughed at, especially by Harlan who was always up for anything that made his big brother look foolish.

  In the end, Argus cracked a smile and said, “Strange…like Harlan being able to keep up with Tora the entire way.”

  Tora chuckled. Noble laughed out loud. Harlan’s brow furrowed and his lips turned down in a frown. He gave Argus a punch in the arm and said, “Not funny!”

  Argus returned the punch, catching Harlan’s right bicep with the point of a knuckle.

  “Ow!” Harlan cried.

  “C’mon, I didn’t hit you that hard,” Argus reasoned.

  “You did too,” Harlan said, raising his fist to return the blow.

  Just then, Phyllis stepped back into the kitchen. “That’s enough, Harlan. Stop picking on your brother.”

  “But I didn’t do anything!”

  Argus took the opportunity to wince and rub his shoulder, making it look as though Harlan had already hit him with a hard blow that would leave him sore for days.

  “Sorry, Argus,” Phyllis said, “but Tora’s the actor in the family.”

  Argus straightened his body, the pain in his arm suddenly gone.

  “Now get going, all of you. And try to stay out of trouble if you can.”

  They all nodded as they went out. Phyllis said that last bit every day before they left the house, but it didn’t seem to help any. Trouble had a knack of finding the four, no matter how they tried to avoid it.

  Chapter 2

  Redstone Secondary was bustling with more students than the town had residents. Busloads of teenagers trucked to school each morning from the surrounding towns, making it the place to be if you were between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. A fairly modern building, it consolidated all of the smaller schools into one super educational facility, funded with a large enough budget to acquire everything the kids needed to compete in the world outside Redstone. This was especially important, since few students hung around Redstone after graduation, opting instead to spread their wings and give Vancouver, Edmonton, or Calgary a try. Some of them even ventured as far as Toronto, pursuing careers in music or acting or one of the other arts. The pack had sometimes wondered what they might do after they’d finished high school. Harlan had his sights set on some sort of computer science degree, or information technology as they called it these days. Tora was a venturesome spirit and often talked about stage acting in Toronto, or perhaps in Stratford. Argus would likely stay put, or at least remain as close to the forest as possible. He’d often talked with Ranger Brock about becoming a ranger himself and the ranger had never said a word to discourage him. And Noble, well, nobody worried too much about his plans, because they all knew that he’d be a success at whatever he decided to do with his life. But before they could really worry about such things, the pack still had to make it through high school. Considering their genetics and unique physical attributes, that was a task that was best tackled on a day-to-day basis.

  Like today for example. Harlan had briefly stopped by his locker after entering the school, and then had quickly set off for his homeroom. In the past, he’d found that if he lingered chatting in the hallway, or by anyone else’s locker chatting, some students would consider such loitering an invitation to tease and abuse him. Still, as careful as he was, that didn’t mean he was safe.
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  “There he is,” said a voice behind him.

  Harlan didn’t turn around to see who’d identified him, because he already knew. There was only one person in all of Redstone Secondary who cared where Harlan Brock was at any time during the school day, and that person was Jake MacKinnon.

  The name alone had Harlan feeling sick to his stomach.

  Jake MacKinnon was a throwback to the days when high-school bullies were a dime a dozen, and nobody gave them a second thought. These days there was plenty of talk about the problem of bullying, but not a lot of that talk managed to filter down into the hallways in the form of action. Or if it did, Jake MacKinnon wasn’t listening. He’d been suspended from school twice by Principal Terashita, but being told to stay home from school wasn’t much of a punishment for someone who was counting the days before he could quit school altogether and join a logging crew farther north. Knowing MacKinnon’s luck, he’d probably be a foreman, terrorizing the workmen in his crew in less than five years. Either that or he’d be dead, killed in a bar fight or perhaps by one of his own crew in a logging “accident.”

  “Hold on a minute,” MacKinnon said. “I just wanna talk, that’s all.”

  Harlan felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end. MacKinnon’s talks usually drew a crowd, and taking a quick glance up and down the hall, this talk would be no different.

  Jake MacKinnon began his harassment of Harlan in their first year of high school. Harlan had been on his way to math class when his books suddenly flew out from under his arms, thanks to a well-placed kick. Everyone had laughed at him. Harlan was tempted to tear Jake’s throat out, but that very morning, Ranger Brock had warned the pack that they were not to use their wolfen powers on any of the students. So, instead of fighting, or even standing up to the bully, Harlan had simply picked up his books and moved on. MacKinnon had taken Harlan’s passivity as a sign of fear, and he’d bullied him off and on ever since.

  “Don’tcha want to talk to me?” MacKinnon said, moving his body in front of Harlan to block his way.