Alpha’s nose quivered as the acrid scent of disease in his prey rushed to greet him. He hesitated a moment before signaling to the rest of the pack that the old doe was to be their mark. If he was wrong, and she were healthy, it could mean death. A deer could crack the skull of a wolf with one of her hooves as easily as his jaws could crush the skull of a rabbit. This hunt was important for the pack. The pups were just about to leave the comfort of the cave for the first time. Luna was exhausted and thin caring for them in the den these past months and needed to recoup some of her strength.
A pained gurgle in his stomach overrode his hesitation, Alpha signaled and the pack moved in for the kill. They moved together as a single organism. Alpha’s only role now, was to play his part in the hunt. One small piece of a deadly puzzle.
Grazing heads snapped up as one, and the heard began to flee toward the safety of the tall firs. Alpha’s tongue lolled out the side of his mouth as he became one with the spirit of the hunt. As his senses took over, he became reborn, his conscious mind moving into the background as his body took over—moved by sheer instinct. His muscles flexing and moving in perfect synchronicity with the rest of the pack.
Three wolves broke left, cutting off the doe’s escape. The doe panicked and put on a burst of speed, hopping over a fallen branch and darting deeper into the woods. That was just fine. Wolves love to run.
The wind snapped at Alpha’s nose. It was cold. He felt a wet trickle licking the tip of his muzzle as he willed his legs to go faster and faster, paws beating the forest floor in a steady rhythm. This was the best part of the hunt. Not the feast, but the chase that comes before.
The three wolves dropped back a little, allowing the doe to tire herself out—putting on a burst of speed every time she tried to change direction so she knew that she was nowhere near safe—with each pivot she would lose enough ground that she could feel the hot breath of her relentless pursuers. She let out a fearful braying as teeth lightly raked against her leg. The leaping wolf’s teeth snapped shut on thin air.
She began to slow. The sickness that was eating away at her from the inside was fast devouring the last tendrils of her strength. Worse, every move brought her further from her herd. Further away from safety and closer to the end of her life.
Alpha saw that this doe was certainly ill and dying—she would not have seen the first falls of snow. Alpha knew he had selected his prey well today.
Glancing to his left, Alpha saw that Beta had been steadily gaining on the struggling doe’s right flank, outside her field of vision, and was about to strike. Beta struck. Alpha’s heart skipped several beats as he realized that the doe had been aware of his friend’s presence the whole time as was about to end his life. She placed a well aimed kick at his head. Alpha let out a whine as his heart sung out in panicked horror.
Beta danced aside in mid-air with the grace and dexterity of a hawk in flight, and managed to sink his teeth into the bludgeoning leg that had nearly turned his skull into an unrecognizable stain on the forest floor.The doe wriggled out of the jaws clamped on her leg, but it had been enough. She crashed into the ground, and Alpha heard a loud snap as one of her legs broke. Beta opened her throat, ending her pain quickly, the forest floor drinking away the tendrils of her life. A murder of crows descended into the trees above. The entire forest would feed this night. Her life had been spent to keep the precariously balanced wheel of the forest turning. It was a good death.