Who's the alpha now

The wait is unbearably tense, I don't know when they will show themselves, or for that matter where they will show themselves. The only thing I know is that there is a pack of wolves nearby, and all I can do right now is to wait on the gun. After a few more minutes I ask Bradley if there is another way other then the way we came from, " well if we head down river for about double the distance, maybe a bit more, we do have a shallow area there as well, but it's a more dangerous area where the water turns into rapids."

The idea doesn't sound the best but it will have to do, "I'll help you both out of the tree, here give me her first, then I'll get you out." We both work quickly, as we hear another howl closer by this time, "Daniel I grabbed a star shell while I was heading out, just in case we needed it." The star shell would be effective in seeing more, however I want to keep as low a profile until absolutely necessary, so I tell him to save it.

After he is down from the tree, he instantly takes the trainee up in his arms, "your the one with the most rifle experience out of the two of us, besides, I've carried heavier people then her before, so I'm good." Once he starts running, I tag along only a few feet behind him to make sure nothing goes for him first.

While running I have an urge to look behind me, I don't know why but something tells me that we are being followed. When I do take a look over my right shoulder, I can't see anything, eventhough that doesn't mean nothing is following. "Hey Daniel, I know this location in the river, we are getting close, maybe only another four hundred meters or so."

When I hear that I feel relieved, but that fades when I hear running steps coming up from behind me. The running becomes loud quickly, after another moment the steps are on top of us, so I swing and go to quickly aim, but I'm meet with teeth instead. The teeth from the wolf dig into my jacket, luckly my arm is fine thanks to the jackets thickness.

While struggling to get a bullet into the wolf's skull, I hear another gun go off, which makes the wolf jump just enough for me to take the pistol I brought with me put a bullet in it's head. Once I turn back, I see Bradley had shot The star shell, "thanks for that, but let's hurry, that was just a test of our strength, they clearly know what we are capable of now, so they might just swarm us if we don't hurry."

After saying that, we both hear multiple, maybe even twelve or more howls from all around us. "Daniel the other reason I shot that, was simply to light our destination up better, since we are here." When I look over, I see that the water level was low enough for me to see the stones on the bottom, "now hurry we don't have much time until that shell goes out."

When I hear that, it doesn't take me more then a moment to get up and across that river. Once we reach the other end I turn to look behind me, soon as that happens I see all of them, all thirteen now standing there on the other side of the river, looking at the three of us. "Quickly Daniel we must go they are clearly thinking weather to cross or not, we mustn't waste this chance."

Agreeing with him I pick my feet up, turning and sprinting away with Bradley infront of me again. However the thought of escape disappeared quickly, because from behind me I heard the sound of splashing from the river, meaning they had decided to cross the river. "Daniel why do you think they are chasing us, did we do something to disturb them, or are they just that hungry?

Every possible idea runs in my head, I can't exactly explain why they are chasing us, or for that matter know why they are chasing us, all I know is that thirteen wolf's are chasing after us, and we need to run fast. After I hear another one closing the distance, I decide to swing around again to just open fire, "Bradley cover your ears, this is about to be loud for you." Moments after saying those words, I start letting rounds fire off down range.

The shots I let off light up the area for less then a second, but that is just enough time to get a clear visual on where they are. After firing off ten rounds, I hear whimpers from some of them that I have probably severely injured, however I still hear some around us. When I check my mag it's almost gone, so I switch it out for another one as quickly as possible. "Hey Daniel let's keep it up, we only have maybe two miles until the entrance of the forest."

Two miles to far I think to myself, just then I also get a message over the radio, "this is Battle Stategist Hawk speaking, come in Daniel, do you read me, we hear faint gun fire coming from the forest, what did you encounter!?" When I reach for the radio one of the wolves came charging, fortunately I had my pistol ready in hand, so I sent a shot through the wolf's head.

"Battle Stategist Hawk this is Daniel, we have run into a pack of wolves out here on our rescue, fortunately we also found the missing trainee, unfortunately the wolves had other plans for us, so we are currently fighting our way out."

After I finished relaying the message, it goes quite for a bit, until I hear the radio buzz again, " we read you I'll send a small team to assist you out of there, you rea-." The weather started to get bad, which made our connection cut off, that also made spotting our enemies harder for me. Then I remembered something my grandfather had told me a long time ago, back when we first camped out.

"-Past memory-"

"Daniel, do you know why they don't attack us, well let me tell you, this fire here, a smart wolf will shy away from it leaving you completely alone. However if it is a pack of them, they will still challenge there fears of the flame, since they know they are strong in numbers, but they are still animals, so if you ever find yourself against them, make that fire as bright, and big as possible."

Thinking on it grandfather was right, the times we had a fire going they never attacked, however right now I don't know if that will work. Thinking it over, it really is our only shot right now, "Bradley we are heading to our right ever so slightly, we are gonna try something." When he looks at me he is confused, but he simply agrees with what I had to say with a quick nod.

The area we are in I remember it slightly, from the time I got the team of eight parts out, they had a fire going, so might as well use what they left. While we run I can see them all lagging behind us, they are more afraid now, see as I killed probably four or possibly five of them. When we reach the area, I see the fire isn't burning, but the smoke is still emanating from the pile of wood, "Daniel what is the plan here?"

I start arranging the wood quickly, taking out a lot of the burnt-out wood, quickly replacing it with some of the stuff the team had laying around. Once it was all stacked up, I took out my personal favorite fire starter, "uh Daniel what are you going to do with that bottle, wait your not going to." His thoughts lead him to the correct answer, yes I was using the bottle of alcohol as a quick means to make the fire.

When I throw the bottle with a small flame on the napkin stuffed in it onto the wood pile, it made a flame that had me and Bradley even covering our faces trying not to get burned. Once we take a look around we see thar the wolves had lost interest, except for one who just stood there, in the dark area where the light of the fire couldn't get to, until finally he turned, running off with the rest of the pack who had also taken off.

That worked well, however I was still on guard, "Daniel we have to go, trainees breathing has slowed down, we can't wait any longer." Agreeing with him he runs for the exit of the forest carrying the trainee, with me just right behind him, still thinking that tonight was a close call.

When me and Bradley both get out of the forest we are greeted with a small team of rescue members, "welcome back out you two, we have a vehicle here for us to transport you guys back to base, we also have a medical team installed ready for the trainee so she sould be fine." The moment both of us jump into the back of the truck we are greeted with praise, "you two are crazy, but I respect it, since I know I couldn't go into that forest at night, not with all the activity it has."

While we ride in the truck I hear some of the men talking, "so what's the small talk on?" They both look at me, as they smile, then repeat what they say, "both of us were just talking about how you basically became an alpha very fast Daniel, since it's been maybe about a few weeks, and your already getting respect from a lot of the higher ups."

The thought of being alpha set in, I kind of did feel it as me and the one wolf looked at one another, the respect as he left me and Bradley alone after the fire. The feeling continued to swell until I couldn't hold my words, "alpha, that has a nice ring to it, and I like it." The two rescue team members are thrilled to hear it, as we continue our drive back to base it repeats itself in my head, the one who leads through anything, those who can do that, they are alphas.