Chapter 5: The Ambush

RORY POV

The Next Day

I walked into the kitchen to see my mom at the table. She was sitting quietly, sipping a cup of coffee. I headed to the coffeemaker, poured myself a cup as well, and joined her at the table. She didn’t look at me.

“I think we should go and try to find the wolves. Brian can help us. We can bring a tranquilizer gun and go looking for them.”

“You think we should?”

“Yes. I already called Brian. These wolves will die out there, Ror. Either by some hunters or by other wolves. I mean, Venus was always in captivity, and the others don’t stand a chance out there either. None of these wolves do.”

Venus had been brought in by animal control. She had spent her life chained up to a tree on a property most of her adult life. The three others, Mo, Kozra, and Junio had also been brought to us by animal control, all former pets. They had been kept in large pens on a property near Fairbanks. I wasn’t surprised they all escaped together. They tended to stay together and lived together in the same enclosure. But these wolves were not a pack. Mo, Kozra, and Junio were unrelated, as their owner had obtained them over time.

And Venus was utterly unapproachable. Despite her being one of our first wolves brought to us when we opened four years ago, she had never approached us. She paced inside her enclosure, scanning the fence for any sign of escape. But she could never be released for her own safety. She had been captive for too long, and her freedom meant she would be subjected to a cruel ending, either by wolves or by humans. I felt for her.

“We’ll find them and tranquilize them. We can go on Brian’s ATV. He can hitch his small trailer to it, and we can put the wolves in the back. We’ll bring them back and put them in their pens before they wake up. It’s worth a shot.”

“What if we don’t find them?” I asked quietly.

“We will. I doubt they got far. If we don’t, we gotta call Wildlife and Game, unfortunately. It’s not going to be good. Four years and we’ve never had an accident. I suppose it was bound to happen,” she said flatly. She stood up and walked over to the sink. “We have to prevent this from happening again. It’s not anyone’s fault, but when we get back, I’ll look at the books and see if we can get some tracking devices.” She put her cup down in the sink and stared out of the kitchen window into the side yard.

“I’ll get dressed, and I’ll meet you outside. When is Brian coming?”

“He is here already. Meet us outside. We gotta find these wolves.”

***

Later That Day

Brian stopped the ATV, and my mother jumped out. Since the ATV was a two-seater, I had been sitting in the trailer, and my rear end was sore from the constant bumps of the trail. I understood we needed all three of us, but the last hour and a half of riding in the bumpy trailer was a miserable ride. And we hadn’t seen a single wolf.

Mom got out and pointed to something in the trail. I hopped out of the trailer and feebly walked over her to since my legs had fallen asleep. Looking down and squinting, I saw paw prints in the trail.

“Wolf,” she said, pointing. I grinned. I was impressed with my mom’s abilities at times but also embarrassed my four-year degree in Wildlife Management didn’t necessarily set me up in all the ways I had hoped it would. I needed to get better at print identification for sure.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Positive. I mean, it could be a large canine too, like a husky, but I don’t see any human prints nearby, and I doubt a random husky is just wondering out here by itself miles away from town.”

I stared at the print. It was rather significant, even for a husky. I shuddered, thinking about that sizeable white wolf and how it could be lurking somewhere in the nearby forest. My poor wolves would be no match for that wolf or even the wolves that had surrounded me yesterday. They would smell captivity all over them.

“Hey Cynthia, we got a problem,” Brian said quietly. I turned around to face Brian. He was younger than me, fresh out of college. His blue eyes were darker than I had ever seen. He looked scared. I followed his gaze and turned the other way. Into the forest, I could see a pack of wolves emerging into the clearing about ten feet away. I could hear low snarling.

My mom looked up, and she quickly stood up. I could see the fear in her eyes. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see the wolves were creeping low, and I counted four of them. I watched as one black, one grey, and two brown wolves crept closer to us, all four snarling and growling in unison.

“Rory get in the trailer,” my mom snapped. I walked backward quickly and climbed back into the trailer. My mom stepped back towards the ATV, holding her hands up and maintaining eye contact in their direction. Brian had the tranquilizer gun out and aimed, but I knew if all four lunged at us, it would be a miracle for him to get all of them quickly enough for none of us to get hurt.

My mom lifted her hands over her shoulder, motioning for Brian to hand over the gun. Taking it quickly, she aimed at the closest wolf, the black one. I recognized these wolves. They were the same pack that cornered me yesterday. It was almost inevitable.

Brian turned the key to the ATV, but the ATV didn’t start. Panic filled his face as he tried over and over, but it didn’t start.

“Damn it,” Brian said with urgency. My mom still had the gun aimed at the black one. The wolves had now managed to creep all the way up to the ATV. And the brown wolves were making their way around the other side of the ATV to have us surrounded.

This made no sense. Wolves did not aggressively corner humans like this, and with Brian swearing and frantically trying to get the engine to turn over, they should have run off into the forest a long time ago or not approached us at all. It was one thing for a sick solo wolf to attack someone out of fear. It was another thing to have a pack of wolves stalk and hunt humans like prey. And twice in two days. It contradicted everything I had ever learned about wolves.

“The ATV is not starting what do we do?” Brian asked, panicking.

“SHHH!” my mother hissed. She was still aimed at the black wolf. Sitting in the trailer awkwardly, I made eye contact with the grey wolf who was now standing at the back of the trailer, licking his lips and eyeing me like prey. I regretted not bringing my bear spray, which I usually would have done, but had forgotten in a rush. What a rookie mistake.

It was almost like the grey wolf knew I was easy prey because he howled loudly and jumped up, placing his two front paws on the edge of the trailer. He was sizing up the trailer and planning on his next move. I had a minute, perhaps seconds before this wolf would jump into this trailer and rip me to shreds.