Artiface of Strength Ch. 02

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Florence's family tries to help.
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Part 2 of the 14 part series

Updated 06/07/2023
Created 08/12/2015
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Saturday morning came early for most of the pack, but not for Florence. Down at the pack community hall where most wolves took their meals, breakfast came and then passed once again. Florence had been surprisingly absent; she had never failed to show for a meal, or a sunrise for that matter. She was always up before everyone else, pushing herself to be the best and making damned sure that she worked harder than anyone.

So people talked, well... wolves communicated, even if it wasn't out loud. Most of them sent silently to one another, wondering about her absence. Generally wolves are incredibly open, even fearlessly rude creatures, but this was Florence they were dealing with, and she had very sharp claws indeed. Most of the members of the pack had scars... deep scars, scars with her name on them. Wolves being wolves though, they preferred the physical scars to the mental ones like the ones that afflicted Florence.

Back in her cabin, all alone in her bed, she was deeply asleep face down in her sheets, still dressed in her jeans and boots from last night. She was completely dead to the world when the Alpha knocked on her door. There was no answer, and after waiting a bit, he knocked again, louder the second time, but again there was no response. He knew she was home, he was a wolf; he could smell her.

Steeling himself, he took a deep breath and let himself in. Normally, John would have rather bearded a bear in her own den rather than face Flo's wrath, but he was the Alpha and it was his job when a member of his pack had a problem, even if she was exceedingly slow to admit that she did indeed have one.

He took a quick look into her sleeping area and catching sight of the fact that she was still dressed in her previous night's clothing, he headed into her small kitchen area and began to rummage around, looking for coffee. It wasn't hard to find, she didn't keep much in the way of foodstuffs in her cabin. Why should she? She took all of her meals in the main hall.

Finding the coffee, he looked at it doubtfully. It was old, really old. Do they even make Brim anymore? Not finding any better options, he blew the dust off the tin, found her prehistoric stovetop coffee percolator and began to heat the water.

Through this process, Florence never budged. John was sure of this, he'd checked, deciding that she was still breathing and didn't smell like she was hung over. Maybe she just got in really late, he thought to himself. As the water began to heat, he found himself remembering the day when she'd been brought to him. She must have been about three years old at the time, although no one really knew for sure. She had been found just outside of the Billington land, living ferally as a wolf, and even after the pack had managed to catch her, she'd refused to shift for several months. When she finally did shift for the first time, they discovered that she didn't speak a word of English or any other language for that matter, evidently she had never learned how.

As she'd grown, she'd eventually caught up with the cubs close to her own age, not that she had often spoken with any of them. She had never really fit in; nor had she ever made any close friends within her age group. Alpha John acted as her de facto father, but as his human marriage had ended badly and he'd then never found a mate in all the time that he'd been a wolf, Florence grew up without a mother figure. She had always opened up for Beth, but then again, Beth couldn't be described as maternal in any tangible manner.

For years the pack had worked to discover Florence's origin, and with the paucity of packs within North America, it should been an easy task to find a pack with a claim to her; werewolf births were so rare, especially female births- and cubs were treasured beyond measure. John had made enquiries from the tip of Baja to the straits of Newfoundland, but no one had a clue about her parents or from where they might have come.

Every pack he'd contacted had made the offer to adopt her and take her off of Billington's hands, but by the time he'd finally given up on the search, she had started to seem a little bit more comfortable. She had even begun to laugh occasionally, so he adamantly refused to send her away. She had always been a mystery, but she was his mystery, and he was determined that she'd turn out better than his own children had.

Startled out of his reverie by the sound of perking coffee, he headed back into her kitchen and began looking for a cup. Finding only an ugly dust covered mug with a yellow smiley face upon it, he washed it off, filled it to the rim, and then entered into the she bear's den with some trepidation. He considered placing the cup on her nightstand and backing out of range before noticing that it had a lot in common with everything else he'd seen here; it was disused and covered with dust.

"Florence, it's time to wake up."

"No," she grumbled back.

"C'mon Flo, you have not missed a day of work in twenty years. Wake up and talk to me. Here... I've brought you some coffee to help."

Grumbling, Florence struggled into a sitting position and took the mug from his hands. She took a quick sip before frowning in shock and saying, "Good Goddess! That is awful!"

"How long have you had that can anyway," John asked.

"I'm not sure, I don't really drink it; I only bought it in case I had friends over."

John frowned at this and said, "Here, let me try that."

Florence gratefully gave up the mug and watched John try a sip, and then just as quickly, spit it all back out, saying with a gasp, "Throw that coffee away; if you give that to friends, you will lose them."

"I'll get right on that," Florence grumbled.

"Oh, c'mon on Flo..." John started before being cut off.

"I hate that name, Alpha; you know that!"

"But it's just the two of us right now; would you prefer it if I called you daughter?"

Surprised, Florence's eyes darted up to meet her Alpha's. "You've never called me that before. Why now?"

"Because it's something I should have done a long time ago, Flo. I let you grow up mostly alone because I thought that's what you wanted. Hell, my own children were such a complete disaster. They were spoiled, vain, entitled, and a dozen other things, none of them good; I'm deeply embarrassed by how they turned out. I know it was my fault; I was a lousy father before I traveled to the new World. And then, once I got here, I was turned against my will and had to disappear for a while.

"Since everyone in the colony thought that they had successfully hung me, if I came back after being executed, they would have been sure that I was a demon of some sort; it was like that then, it was a superstitious time. So, by the time that Sam and Tom could bring me back, it was many years later and there was no one left alive who had known me. After that, centuries passed and I never found my mate. I just figured I had blown my chance. I guess that I kind of missed the fact that you were my second chance."

"All I ever wanted was to impress you," Florence replied softly.

"I finally figured that out. Hell, I should have figured it out when you started knocking off the male warriors one by one. I think Sam might have tried to get that through to me a few times, but by then I had started thinking that maybe you were one of the two-spirits and it was best to let you fight your way to the top like a male. Heck Flo, you know that I'm the only wolf in the entire pack who lacks a single drop of Native blood in my veins. I was born in Lincolnshire County surrounded by all those religious zealots. It took me years to overcome that upbringing, and when I had finally managed to do it, then I was forcibly turned and found myself fully immersed directly into the Wampanoag mysticism... and after that, into the different mysticisms of each tribe that we met as we were forced farther and farther west."

"By the time we had arrived here, I wasn't sure what I believed anymore. We had passed through so many tribes, spoken with so many shamans and continually picked up pack members as we moved west. There are bits of Wampanoag, as well as Lakota Sioux, Crow, Hopi, and even Zuni tribal lore in what we believe now. I guess our pack's beliefs are sort of like Universalism, well...the wolf equivalent anyway. Florence, I'm an honest man, I have no idea if what we believe is true or not, but our beliefs work for us. All of our wolves are happy...except for you, and maybe me."

"So Father, have you decided to bare your soul in hopes that I would bare mine?"

"Is it working," he asked with a grimace.

"Well, I'm not a two spirit; the other bitches don't appeal to me at all."

"Yeah, I got that when you started in with the men, but then that phase didn't last long, and eventually you stopped altogether."

"Alpha, you know I couldn't let them top me if I was going to pass them, and the only wolves that were left were Uncles Sam and Tom...and you. It didn't leave me much to work with, humans never much appealed to me."

"And now you are lonely."

Florence merely frowned and looked away.

"So you are just like your father?"

"Fuck you."

"I'm going to try to do better, Flo. I've never had a child that I've liked before. You said that all you wanted to do was impress me, and you've done nothing but that over and over again. Florence, you scare me with how good you are. You've beaten every male in the pack except for your Uncles, and I'm not entirely sure that you couldn't take them if you really wanted to. There's never been a bitch that's done that...in any pack...anywhere."

"But now I'm always alone."

"I know baby, believe me, I know. If there is a mate out there for you somewhere, he'll be an Alpha; there is no way that any other wolf would appeal to you."

"But then I'd have to leave our pack and leave this land. I'd never want to leave here; it's all I know. It's all I want to know."

"I did some asking around Flo, there isn't currently an unmated Alpha on this continent."

"You tried to find me a mate," she said with a gasp?

"No daughter, I just looked around for possibilities; we both know that you'd cheerfully kill anyone who you didn't respect."

"So why are you matchmaking for me? Go find your own bitch!"

"You think I haven't looked? I'm not that old yet. I'm still breathing."

This got a chuckle out of her. The idea that the oldest shifter in all of North America was now claiming to not be that old, tickled her sense of humour somehow.

"Yeah, go ahead...laugh. Your freaking coffee is older than I am," he growled.

"No way, you are older than dirt," she shot back.

"If you don't stop it right now, I won't hug you."

"You'll hug me," she said longingly?

He practically leapt forward and gathered her in the tight embrace that was long overdue, it was a reflection of a love that he had not expressed in hundreds of years, and it finally felt right. Tears ran down Florence's face as she received what she'd sought, unknowingly, for so many years.

After a few emotional minutes, John said, "Well daughter, since you were not actually hung over, would you care to tell me why you were still in bed at eleven o'clock?"

"Meeting William was a bit of a shock, I think it finally hit me how lonely I am."

"William? That Yazzie guy with the gun?"

"Yes Alpha, I did manage to have dinner with him; didn't Beth tell you?"

"I haven't seen her yet Flo. You know how she is; sometimes she sleeps here, sometimes she finds somebody in town."

"I was strangely attracted to him, Alpha, I mean...really attracted to him. When I touched him, there was a spark. We both saw it, we both felt it; it was not like any shock I'd ever experienced, it was warm—maybe even soothing. I was going to kiss him, even though I know he is only a human and there is no way it could go anywhere, but before I could do that, he got an emergency page and practically flew out the back door. I think that's when it hit me just how alone that I am. I'll probably never find my mate because I'm a warrior, and when I meet the first man in decades that I've been even remotely interested in, he's only a mere human who couldn't possibly be anything for me either. There hasn't been a Were/human mating in hundreds of years and we all know that it is why there are so few of us. So, I'm screwed right? Well, I guess it's more accurate to say that I'll never be screwed now isn't it? It seems like my life has been one long mistake; I didn't crawl into a bottle last night, but I sure felt like doing so."

John reached over and laid his hand over Florence's, remaining silent for a moment, waiting to see if she'd continue, but as her silence continued to drag, he responded, "Flo, when this fight is over, I'll contact the other packs and make arrangements for you to go visiting. They are all curious about the first Beta bitch anyway. You'll have to prove yourself over and over to them, so you'll have a chance to fight lots of wolves; we'll call it training. If you don't find your mate, at least maybe you can find a few Betas to dally with. I think that's how Samoset and his ugly blood-brother handle it. Those two are like me; they've never found their mates either."

Florence snorted. "Those two idiots are not even looking. If one of them found their mate, the other would die of boredom with nobody to play with."

John roared with laughter at her response. "Hell Flo, I always figured that those two would run into a pair of twins." Then he got a bit more serious and said, "So...do you feel good enough to tell me what you learned from your human last night?"

"Not much Alpha, William is positive that Waters has an angle; maybe some sort of legal claim to our land, or at least a way to pass through it. He seems clueless about what it might be, but he said, and I'm quoting here: That fucking Burton is positive that his plan is solid. That blood-sucker always gets what he wants!"

John pondered this for a moment before responding. "He wants to build a road to that shitty casino up above the lake?"

"Yes Alpha, evidently the only thing keeping it from being successful is that awful road that leads up to it."

John snorted and said, "Not to mention the complete lack of alcohol and hotel rooms there, and that pathetic bunch of Indian wannabes who run it. Those people are no more Native than I am. I think one of them claims to be one eighth Suquamish, but they never ranged this far south; I've always thought his claims were bullshit."

"Evidently Waters is willing to finance the costs of the casino upgrade and a new road in exchange for a large share of the profits."

John growled again before responding, "He wants to sully our land and disturb our peace for just another deal?"

"That's what William believes, Alpha."

"Was there anything else?"

"Not about that, Alpha, but I do have a question for you though. What was it that you said about having met Yazzies before? I think Tom snorted when you said it."

"That was Sam who snorted; he's the only one who got away clean."

"Keep going...father."

"Ouch! You are going to use that against me already?"

Florence just raised an eyebrow and waited.

"It's nothing really; Yazzie is just a very common Southwestern Native surname. Lots of Navaho and Apache adopted that name when surnames became more common." At this point John stopped talking, clearly hoping that this would satisfy his inquisitive adoptive daughter.

Flo just tapped her foot and waited.

"What?" John said somewhat weakly.

"Keep going. Sam snorted when the Yazzies were mentioned. Tell me why; spill it all."

"Umm...Tom and I may have dated a couple of cousins once."

"Dated? Define 'dated'. Was this more like you met them at a dance," she then paused and looked accusingly at her father, "...or was it more like you snuck them away from their family and had your way with them?"

"Yeah, more like that."

"And what happened when their fathers found out?"

"Well, they weren't happy."

"And when you say 'weren't happy', what you really mean is that they were completely furious and threatened to remove parts of your anatomy?"

"Yeah, they showed up at our camp the next day. They brought their sons, and their brothers, and their cousins, and a few who were just friends of the family, I think."

"Uh-huh...keep going."

"Florence, you have to understand that in their society, husbands were obligated to move in with their wives' fathers; it is how they built their bands; the women might not have been in charge, but they owned everything."

"So they wanted you to marry the poor girls whom you'd deflowered?"

"Yeah, they were rather insistent about that, but then again, we didn't actually deflower them, those girls were a lot of things, but they sure weren't maidens."

"So how did you get out of it?"

"The pack was moving west at the time. We'd been forced off of our land by the encroaching Europeans and we were weighed down by all of our belongings. We had all our women and cubs with us; there was no way that we could outrun them weighed down like that. Yeah I know, we could have just killed them and been done with it, but that wouldn't have been right; they hadn't really done anything to deserve that."

"You didn't marry them and then run out on them did you?"

"No, but we came close. We had to show their Diyin what we were and tell him about our mating practices. The only reason he went for it was the fact that there would be no children from a marriage with the girls."

"A Diyin is a shaman, right?"

"Yeah, and we were lucky that he knew that those girls were not virgins or I don't think we would have gotten out of there without bloodshed."

"So what did you do?"

"We had to find them husbands."

Florence began laughing. "So let me get this straight, the entire pack became stuck in the desert because you and Tom couldn't keep them in your pants, and then while everyone was stuck waiting, you had to find two dupes who'd marry girls with extremely round heels? Have I got that right?"

"You make it sound bad."

Florence just looked at her Alpha, not saying a word.

"OK, OK, we screwed up... and by the way, the pack hated the desert heat. Ultimately, it's why we ended up heading north."

"How long were you stuck there?"

John sighed before answering. "Just under a year; it took us forever to find someone gullible enough to marry those two, and the whole time, they kept sneaking away from their fathers and climbing into our bedrolls. We thought we'd never get rid of them."

Florence rolled her eyes and said, "Oh sure, you just hated that part."

"Oh that wasn't even the worst part... it was Sam. He loved every minute of our misery; we had no idea there were so many jokes about being roped into marriage. Hell, we tried to send the pack on ahead under Sam's leadership, but he wouldn't hear of it. He said that he just had to stay and watch the show to see how it came out."

"So the cousins were Yazzies?"

"No, that's the guy we found."

"You found just one man for both of them?"

"We were lucky to find him, and he didn't come cheap."

"You had to pay him to marry two oversexed cousins?"

"He wasn't happy about the whole settling down part, but the gold we gave him and the attentions of those two wildcats ultimately were enough to convince him. We bailed out of there immediately after the wedding. We've never moved so fast, we changed directions at least three times; we were not taking any chances. They were now his problem."

"So when Will said that his grandfather was probably just chasing tail, it reminded Sam of someone?"