Dominant Species Ch. 07-11

Eric picked up the story. "We kind of left Doc behind when we took off to find them." He looked directly at the three girls. "We didn't mean to scare you, we didn't really notice anything except the smell of our mates. We were so happy to find them, then to find them in such bad shape; our wolves took over and did what they could to help."

Josi looked at Doc. "How did biting them help?"

Marcus looked at the fire. "When a werewolf bites like that, it works like an infection. The saliva causes the human to change into a werewolf. It is hard on them, but the change also regenerates and heals along the way."

"Does it hurt?"

"For me, it was like getting a bad flu- you know, the fever, the aches and pains. It took three days before I shifted into wolf form, after that it has been great. Werewolves are stronger, live longer and have better immune systems. As a doctor, most of what I do deals with babies and broken bones and bad cuts. Smaller things, like sunburns and small cuts, heal far more quickly than for humans."

Josi looked at him. "Wait a minute, you weren't born a werewolf?"

Marcus nodded. "Unlike these two, I spent the first twenty-four years of my life as a human. I found my mate when she was in wolf form, badly injured by a deer. It was she who recognized me as her mate, and when she healed up she found me and claimed me. I've never been happier."

Eric looked over. "Some of us find mates among humans, and we form that bond first and if they want we change them. What we did, biting them without their permission, is only done for the most extreme conditions. They are our mates, and they would not have survived without the bite."

The girls all looked at Doc, who nodded.

"We will explain it all to them later, and take all the time they need to get them used to us and their new life. We only want the best for them."

Willow snorted. "Yeah, until you get divorced. Mom talked like that right up to the point Dad came home with his new woman and divorce papers."

Marcus looked in her eyes. "Werewolves don't get divorced. They are the other part of us, when a mate is lost the survivor loses the will to live, preferring to join their mate in the next life rather than living without them. There is no other, no other person even interests us."

Derek smiled. "It's true, I've never even kissed another girl. I wanted my mate to be my first in everything, nothing else mattered except finding her and making her love me like I already love her."

It got quiet around the fire.

Marcus finally broke the silence. "It's getting late, and it isn't safe to stay out here in the open. We need to get you back to the North Fork pack shelter, it's underground and safe. There we can get the supplies I need to take care of Britney and Bethany, and you can get some rest."

Willow looked at them. "What if we don't want to go with you?"

Marcus scoffed. "You'll be dead by sundown. This stuff?" He pointed to the heavens where the aurora borealis displays were lighting up the entire sky. "This isn't going away. No one else is coming, either. None of the cars work, there are no more helicopters or aircraft, and there is no way to even call for help. Your friends are hurt, that makes them my responsibility, but they are also the mates of my friends. That makes them family to the North Fork pack, and makes you friends as well. Please, accept our hospitality."

Josi looked at the other two. "Give us a minute to talk it over?"

Marcus nodded, and moved off with the boys. When she called them back, both were shifted into their large wolves and he was carrying their backpacks. "OK, we'll go with you, but I warn you- if you hurt our friends, we'll hurt you."

"We won't hurt you." He took out a pair of T-shirts. "These should be loose enough they don't hurt them, and they boys will feel better if they are covered in their scent when they return. Let's get them loaded. Willow, you'll ride behind Bethany on Derek while Cheyenne will do the same on Eric with Britney. Josi, you can ride on me."

"Wait a minute," Josi said. "Why do we have to ride?"

"Can you see in the dark well enough to run ten miles?" She shook her head no. "Come on, let's go get the girls and get going. We don't have a lot of time until sunrise, and we need to be underground by then."

Once they were out of the canyon and back on the road, the three wolves and their five riders made good time. Willow and Cheyenne were so focused on keeping themselves and the unconscious girls upright that that they didn't get to enjoy most of the ride.

Josi was having a blast, though. She had ridden a horse, but being on Marcus' back, even with the artificial leg, was more of a thrill. She thought about how it was more of a sports car than a truck- lower to the ground, smaller but more powerful and agile. As the three wolves ran in formation, she felt freedom in a way she never had before.

She wanted it. Looking over at her friends Britney and Bethany, she was jealous. They got to be werewolves, they had found men who would love them like no other, and she got to return to her crap job at the canning plant. No future, no boyfriend, no fun.

She looked at them again, then swallowed her jealousy whole and tried to put it behind her. It wasn't important right now, her friends would need her and she would be there for them. They all would.

Leaning forward, she held lightly to the long fur on his chest and got her head down near his. Her feet were crossed just above his tail, with her knees gripping him just behind his chest so as not to interfere with his breathing. She looked ahead at the trees bathed in the moonlight, the river valley just to their left, and lost herself in the sensation of what a wolf feels.

She was really getting into it when Cheyenne screamed. "STOP! Something's wrong with Britney!"

Eric immediately stopped and lowered himself to the ground. He felt it too; his mate was fading on him, her heart was racing. As soon as Cheyenne pulled her off his back and laid her down, he was shifting.

Derek stopped and looked back, Willow was looking at them with concern as she held Bethany upright. Meanwhile, Josi had jumped off and had run over to Britney's side. She was checking her airway when Marcus crawled over and pushed her aside. "Get out the medical kit from my backpack." He put his ear down to her chest to verify what he expected. "She's in cardiac arrest, ventricular tachycardia. Do you know CPR?" Cheyenne nodded while Josi slid back in with the bag in her hand. Josi took position by her chest, using her fingers to locate her left hand just above the bottom of her sternum while beginning compressions. "I'll do two sets, then we'll switch." Cheyenne nodded as she got ready to do the rescue breaths at the end of Josi's set. Meanwhile, Marcus had pulled a needle and a vial of medicine out of his bag and was drawing it up.

At the end of the third set, when he was ready, Marcus ordered them to stop compressions. Moving his fingers over her chest to find the spot, he inserted the needle through her chest and directly into her heart. "It's epinephrine, normally I'd try to shock her into a normal rhythm but none of the electronics work."

When he was done, he listened carefully. When her heart restarted with a normal beat, he smiled. "That a girl, Britney. You're not done yet."

Eric collapsed onto the ground, shaking with emotion. His hand was gripped to hers, and he started smiling as he heard her heart start to beat strong again. "That's it, my love. Keep fighting."

It was about this time that the girls realized they were in the middle of two hot naked guys. Giggling, they looked over to where Willow was still sitting on Derek.

Josi broke the silence. "Doctor Marcus, is she going to be all right?"

He sighed as he put everything back in his bag. "They aren't out of the woods quite yet. The damage they received from the sun was pretty extensive, and the change from the bite will hurt more than help at first." He moved over to examine Bethany on top of Derek. "She is doing better already, her heart and lungs are stronger. We need to get them back to the clinic so I can get some IV's into them."

Eric stood up. "Time to load up?" When Doc nodded, he smoothly changed into his wolf and yipped at Cheyenne when he was ready. She helped Josi get Bethany back on, then moved behind her to hold her in place as the wolf rose to his feet.

While this was happening, Marcus had shifted back to wolf form and yipped for Josi to help him put his leg back on. Once she was done and had the backpack on, she hopped up and took position. Derek let out a low howl and they started out, soon reaching a good pace. It was time to get home, they could see the first signs of dawn to the east.

Miles to their south, another werewolf was watching the dawn approach with much more apprehension. Rachel was walking along the front porch of their house outside Salmon, her eyes to the north where Marcus would be coming from. She knew he wasn't close as he hadn't contacted her via their mate bond yet. She started to cry as the realization came that he wouldn't be home before daylight, and she had no idea if he was all right.

The sniffles and hiccups as she stood there were soon noticed by her brother Reggie. He was two years older than her, and they had always been close. "Hey, sis, Marcus knows what he is doing. He'll be fine. They probably needed him up at North Fork."

Rachel dropped her arms to her side and turned to him. "I know that up here, but here," she pointed to her heart, "here I'm worried."

Reggie took her in his arms and held her as she cried into his T-shirt. "I know you want to watch, but we have things to do before we close up for the day. Did you go through your house and move everything to the safe room Dad ordered?"

She nodded. "All the canned food and dry food, bottled water and medicine is down there. We did what we could to make things more comfortable. I talked to Mary, we are going to use their shelter for storage and both of our families will be staying in my shelter. Are you settled?"

"Yes, I'm staying with Mom and Dad at their shelter. We did good tonight, we got a patrol out, collected what we needed and had one hell of a barbecue." The Pack members had fired up every propane and charcoal grill and smoker they had, and the whole night was spent cooking the meat that was going to spoil soon. They were all completely full. "Are you going to be all right? I have to get back; we'll have a leadership meeting over the bond soon. We have to talk about what we saw out there on the road."

"What is going on?"

Reggie had blocked his link from the Pack most of the night as he and Louis were on patrol around their compound. "Things... they are bad out there, Rachel." He looked out at the silent road. "Nothing is moving out there. The humans, they are in bad shape. The ones on the road are all dead, or blind and about to be dead. We checked some houses, unless they stayed inside and underground they aren't going to make it. A few more days like this, and there will be hardly anyone left."

She shuddered in his arms, thinking of all the people in the town they knew who were gone or facing death. "The worst part is, I don't think we can do anything about it."

She stayed for a moment longer, taking comfort in his familiar scent. "You should be going then. I'm going to check on the pups."

He went back to where he had dropped his backpack and pulled out a half dozen boxes. "Here, for your shelter. Don't worry about it, a delivery truck broke down a few miles outside of town and they won't be missed."

She looked at the boxes, several of Twinkies while also some cupcakes and Ho Hos. "Thanks, bro. You know this isn't Zombieland, right?"

He shook his head. "Not yet, but soon." He turned and walked away as she took one last look at the horizon.

---

Marcus led the group back to the small mountain town of North Fork. Alpha Calvin and Beta Donald met them outside, and behind them Marcus could see a makeshift triage center. He sniffed; humans.

Lowering himself to the ground, he let Josi off and she removed his artificial wolf leg before he shifted. She had her back turned to him as she dug through his bag, handing him his artificial leg and a pair of shorts and T-shirt. While he was dressing, the women of the Pack had taken Britney and Bethany and carried them over to waiting blankets on the grass.

Marcus looked around, there were a dozen humans here, and all looked to be in bad shape. "Friends of yours?"

Alpha Calvin nodded. "Our Pack has been in this town for a long time, and we were about a fifth of the population of 200. The humans here are our friends, coworkers and neighbors." He looked around with a look of loss. "While we were underground, they were dying. Tonight we went through the town, these thirteen are the only ones still alive." Tears started to flow down his face. "The rest, well, that is what the pyre is about."

Josi's voice caught as she did the math. "So out of a hundred and sixty people, there are only thirteen alive?" Beta Donald nodded and pointed to the other side of town, where a large fire was burning. "Yes. We couldn't leave their bodies to rot, so we piled them up and we're burning them now. We can't stop that, but we wanted Marcus to look at the ones who are left."

Marcus grabbed his pack and went to the line of humans. "I'll need help, and supplies from the clinic."

Josi looked at him. "I'll help, just tell me what to do."

"Can you take a blood pressure?"

"Yes, they taught me in EMT training." Marcus raised an eyebrow. "I haven't taken the certification tests yet but I completed the training last week."

Marcus looked at her. "Congratulations, you're end of the world event certified. Take their pulse, BP and respirations as best as you can. Write that down as you go down the line ahead of me. Willow, Cheyenne, come with me." He knew better than to ask Eric and Derek, they were taking their mates down to the shelter with the rest of the Pack as dawn approached.

Marcus walked into the room they used as the Pack clinic. Looking around in the near darkness, he found some cardboard boxes and started emptying cabinets into them. "Take these outside for me, tell the men they are to go down into the safe room." They left as he finished restocking his travel kit.

By the time he returned to the humans, Josi was halfway down the row. This was triage; he was going to quickly evaluate each person's injuries and chances before he made a decision about who to treat first, and who treatment wouldn't matter for. Their fate would be determined in about thirty seconds, recorded at the bottom of the paper tag Josi had attached to their toe. Marcus hated it, but he was realistic; with power and electronics gone, he was very limited in what treatment he could give. Injuries like Britney's and Bethany's should be treated in a major hospital burn unit, not by the side of a building lit dimly by torches.

He was halfway through when he started to examine a young girl, maybe five years old. As he opened her eyes to check for blindness, she screamed. "Who are you? Where's Mommy?"

Marcus smiled at her. "I'm Doctor Marcus, I'm here to help you. Can you tell me your name?"

"Maggie. Where's Mom?"

"I don't know, I just got here a few minutes ago. Can you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up?"

"Three." Marcus smiled. "It's a little fuzzy but I can see better now."

"Do you hurt anywhere other than your head, arms and legs?" He had checked, she had minor burns in those areas but nothing worse than a bad sunburn.

"No."

"All right then." He waved Willow over. "Can you give her a water and some ibuprofen, then ask around for her mom?" When she took her, he moved on. By the time he was done, he had to seek out Alpha Calvin again.

The Alpha was directing men who were moving supplies from the one store and the houses in town to the building they were using as a shelter. He could see he was focused on food, medical supplies and bedding, which made a lot of sense. He looked up as Doc approached. "What's the verdict, Doc?"

Marcus leaned against the doorway. "It's not good. Two, including Maggie, are minor cases and should be fine with rest. Another three won't make it to lunch and most of the rest won't last a week. Unless..."

"What? What do you need?"

"Unless you change them." Beta Donald walked up as they talked. "Look, I know what our laws are. They can't give consent, they aren't mates like the two girls were, but the same need applies. If you want them to live, you have to turn them. Not all will survive the change, but without it... you'd be saving eight of them a long painful death by just shooting them now."

"What about the ones who aren't as bad?"

"That's up to you. They'll survive, they may have permanent scarring and blindness. Changing them now, with consent if possible, would kick start their recovery and reverse some of the damage. It would give them a chance at a more normal life."

Beta Donald looked around. "Alpha, like it or not, this is now a werewolf town. There's no hiding what we are from them, nor should we. If they are to know of us, the Law says they must be one of us."

Alpha Calvin sighed. "Marcus, how long will we have to be underground during the day?"

"I don't know. Weeks for sure, probably months until the ozone layer recovers enough to allow people to be outside during the day for any extended period. I can't measure radiation, so I'm just guessing on that, but I'd stay in the bunker and sleep during the day until further notice. If you leave these people above ground, they are dead by tomorrow night."

"And humans won't be able to function in the dark without electricity. They don't have our wolf vision to rely on." He walked towards the group of humans. "Let me talk to those who can, then I'll decide."

Only two adults and Maggie were awake. The Alpha explained what they were, what changing would involve and Marcus told them what would happen if they declined. In the end, they both agreed on what to do and Alpha Calvin decided for the rest. Maggie wasn't injured enough to need it, so she would be left alone until she was old enough to understand what it meant.

"My decision, my responsibility." Alpha Calvin had linked to the Pack what he was going to do; if there was any blowback from the Alpha Council the punishment would fall on him and him alone. He shifted to his large black wolf and walked to the line of his friends and neighbors. Moving the blanket aside with his teeth, he bit deeply into the man's shoulder then licked the wound clean. He did the same for the six women and three men who couldn't consent before he got to the two women who he had talked to. "Last chance to change your mind."

The women looked at each other, then nodded. "It's almost dawn, please. Change us."

He bit each of them, they screamed in pain when he did but it quickly faded as he licked the wound.

Maggie came up as he was finishing and started to pet the huge wolf. "You're pwetty." Calvin chuffed, then licked her face. "Is Mommy going to look like you?"

Marcus picked her up and walked towards the shelter while Calvin changed. "I guess we'll find out in the next few days. She won't shift into a wolf until her body has healed enough to be able to handle the change."

Maggie held tight to his neck. "Mommy will get better?"

"Yes, Mommy will get better. Now, let's get you fed and find you a place to sleep." Marcus was dead tired, but a long night awaited him. He would get naps in when he could.

The shelter was crowded, but quiet. The younger Pack members had been left to organize and clean while the adults were out all night getting supplies. Instead of bunks, they had filled one end of the shelter with wall to wall mattresses and blankets. The shelter was cool, and staying warm was easier in fur form. The majority of the Pack shifted and joined the rapidly forming puppy pile, sharing warmth and comfort as they slept together.