The Pack

Irma had expected the transformation to hurt. That was the impression that Gaude had left her with. Instead, it had felt like stretching after sleeping on an uncomfortable bed.

She had felt like her body was stiff all over when she had entered meditation, yet the moment she opened her eyes again, energy surged forth inside her and she knew exactly what to do, as if by instinct.

As soon as she and her wolf were joined in both body and mind, she was alarmed by the scents of two very different beings in the room.

She soon discovered that they belonged to Gaude and the elf Laly.

After the explanation, she was left dumbfounded. She hadn't known any of it, only what she had been told before about her own condition, and as it turned out, even that hadn't been quite accurate.

After a slight discomfort of going through some sort of a whirpool-like thing and getting squeezed to the size of a mosquito, they had ended up in the forest.

The air was different, it smelled so exhilarating. The moment she smelled the moss, the detritus, the trees and the wind, she felt like she had finally returned home after a long trip abroad.

It felt even better to run in the forest than it had in her mindscape. Now she felt the dampness of the soil, the crispy dry leaves, the wind in her fur. She felt like she could do anything.

Irma knew that she had to keep tight reigns on her thoughts – Gaude had warned her that if she slipped up, the wolf would take over completely and she might end up regretting what she had done.

She ran until she had enough. She felt her instincts calling out to her and she howled at the moon.

A while later, she heard another howl responding to her.

Irma started running in the direction of that howl.

Half an hour later, she heard the sound of running feet and breaking branches.

She was met with a Werewolf much bigger than her and smaller ones following it.

The other wolf sniffed the air and walked closer to her. She was curious about the other as well and did the same. She noticed that the rest of the Werewolves had stopped moving forward.

Suddenly, the bigger wolf tried to place its paw on her neck and make her bend down.

She felt defiance swelling up in her. She wouldn't submit to some neighborhood mutt. Only the truly strong, like Gaude were worthy of her submission. She knew Gaude was strong – he had magic and Captain Ross was working for him. She had experienced first-hand how strong Captain Ross was. Gaude had to be even stronger to have made Captain Ross submit.

Irma wasn't aware of it, but her wolf side was subtly influencing the way of her thinking, bringing the logic of the wild with it. Of course, being more cunning than your opponent could also be considered a strength. As for the way Irma thought about submitting, it was purely on a hierarchical level, being willing to listen to Gaude's orders.

She felt her heartbeat quickening and her muscles swelling. A primal growl made its way to her throat. The world turned into shades of red.

Irma lowered her body into a steadier stance, rotated from the hips, supported all her weight on her left leg and punched into the other wolf's left side straightening her right leg, hips and right arm with all the force and speed each could muster. She heard a resounding crack ringing out.

Her opponent yelped and was sent flying through the air but as soon as it landed it scrambled back to all fours, rushed at her as if trying to take a low bite.

She waited for the right timing, then performed a sweeping kick with her heel. She had missed the opponent's head, but the strike found purchase on its neck.

Her opponent rolled on the ground a few times before it managed to steady itself. The Werewolf shook its head to clear it and came in for another attack. Irma prepared for another strike but slipped on a pile of wet foliage. She tried to get out of the way of the opponent's teeth while simultaneously throwing a handful of leaves at its face as a distraction.

That last move had saved her from getting bitten, but her opponent's body rammed into her like a freight train, knocking the wind out of her.

She got back on her feet, still panting for air, her sternum on fire while her opponent regained its balance. She realized that she was in no condition to continue and should find a place to recover. Her wolf wanted her to use her claws and teeth to fight instead.

She took a fast swipe at her opponent's approaching snout. Her claws tore through its fur, skin and flesh, leaving bloody gashes in their wake. She instantly felt a pang of regret over what she had done. It wasn't too long ago that she had been afflicted by similar scars.

The one she was fighting didn't seem to mind at all, instead, it started growling and rushed at her again with renewed vigor. She side-stepped, revealing the thick trunk of a tree, forcing her opponent to change direction at the last moment.

While her opponent was breaking its momentum, she side-stepped again, disappearing behind the tree.

She noticed a low-hanging thick branch on that tree. She quickly swiped with her claws and cut through almost half of it. She swiped a few more times and she suddenly had a wooden club in her hand.

She came out of cover as if taunting the other to come at her. Her opponent noticed her and rushed at her, then suddenly jumped, ready to tear at her with both her claws and teeth. She started a long backhand strike from the club's hiding place behind her back and struck hard and true, the hit landing on her opponent's head with a loud crack.

Her opponent's body sailed through the air and dragged a clean path through the foliage. It tried to heave itself up once more but fell down on the ground and went limp.

Irma was panting from the exertion and felt that she had accomplished something great. She suddenly felt the urge to place her foot-paw on the defeated opponent's neck.

Once she had done it, she let out another howl at the moon.

The rest of the werewolves came closer to her, then they lowered their chests and throats against the ground. She went to each of them and placed her hand-paw onto their necks and pressed her claws against their skin.

Once she was done, the one she had defeated showed signs of recovering and started getting up. She walked closer to it with a growl to show that she wasn't done with it yet.

The bigger Werewolf looked at her for a bit before getting on it's knees, then lowered itself like its brethren had done before.

Irma used her hand-paw once again, but this time she squeezed quite a bit harder, drawing some blood.

It wouldn't have taken too much effort to break its spine or tear through its arteries.

Once she removed her paw, she felt that she had been truly victorious.

Irma raised her snout at the moon once more and howled. Everyone else followed her lead.

Then she looked back at them once and started running. She knew they would follow her for she was now the leader of the pack.

Irma ran with the pack. They ran to the edge of the forest where a village could be seen in the distance, then they ran back into the thicket. She gave occasional glances to the moon to know when she should start making her way back.

Too soon, it was time to return. She ran in the direction that she felt the clearing would be. Half an hour later, she found it.

###

Gaude had been waiting for twenty or so minutes in the forest. Suddenly, he heard a dry branch breaking. He squeezed his hand, making sure that Laly was still by his side. Gaude couldn't be sure that there weren't any other Werewolves in the forest, he was just confident that Irma would survive the encounter with one.

Gaude heard low growling emitting from the area hidden by some bushes, then a louder, somewhat familiar growl followed and seemingly silenced the rest.

A dark-snouted werewolf with a white diamond shape on her forehead walked out of the bushes. There couldn't be another Werewolf like her.

She came in front of Gaude, before lowering her head slightly.

He was puzzled, so he asked: "Do you want me to scratch your head?"

She nodded.

"Have you been a good girl?", Gaude asked seriously.

She nodded vigorously.

Gaude did as she had asked. He gently scratched her head. She soon sat down on the ground. He continued scratching and moved to the base of her ear. he continued his gentle ministrations as she drooped closer and closer to the ground.

Slowly her size decreased and the hair on her body seemed to retract into her skin, then her snout and claws disappeared, and the rest of the changes reverted. She had returned to her appearance before the transformation. She adjusted the clothing on her body that had gotten rather dirty and was torn in a few places, leaving patches of skin exposed.

Seeing her move, Gaude asked: "Did you have fun?"

"Yes, Master.", She replied. Gaude was quite certain that she was only mimicking Laly to get a reaction out of him.

"I met a pack of Werewolves in the forest.", she confessed, looking for his reaction.

It looked like things had gone down peacefully, judging by her unharmed state. Gaude still asked, just in case: "Are you alright?"

She puffed her chest and stated proudly: "I'm better than alright, I defeated their leader in a fight and became the leader of the pack!"

"You've worked hard, big sis! Do you think we could add your pack to our ranks? I mean, it would be a lot easier to hunt down monsters like Greyback if we had more on our side."

She took only a moment to think before enthusiastically replying: "I think it could be an excellent idea."

"Very well, can you call them here?"

"I'll try. Alright you mutts, get your asses over here!", she yelled, doing her best expression of Captain Ross.

'Whoa! She's become even scarier! Looks like sending her to be trained by Carter might have been a big mistake!', Gaude thought, cold sweat trailing down his back. If this continued, Irma would make the Veela shy away from her.

After some rustling, seven half-transformed Werewolves dragged themselves into the clearing on shaky hands and knees.

"This here is Gaude, and different from his appearance, he's the owner of a large-scale organization. He's offered to take your sorry asses in, so you better pay your respects!", she shouted, even though normal talking would've gotten the message across just fine.

All the de-transforming Werewolves lowered their heads and muttered: "Thank you, Master Vywin."

Turned out Irma had found a pack of kindred spirits, or perhaps her previous choice of words had been to set an example to her pack. It didn't matter, Gaude would just give them to Carter for training. He had decided to have a Werewolf elite squad. Perhaps he could even take in more packs and use them whenever he needed normal-looking workers.

Irma pointed to one of them and spoke coldly: "This one might need some medical attention."

"Gather around the House-Elf and grab onto her.", Gaude instructed.

Once they had done just that, he followed up: "Laly, take us to the army base's break room."

"Yes, Master."

A moment later, they had arrived. They went downstairs and found Carter already waiting.

"Mr. Ross. It seems you'll get a raise soon, seeing as I've found more rookies for you to train. Same training schedule as Irma but start with the stretches from day one. They'll be Irma's unit on any field ops, so treat them as such."

However, for the time being, it was a rest day for the new pack, and Irma, since she had enough exercise during the night. Once they were alone, Gaude spoke to Irma: "Do you think you could track down more packs and bring them into the fold?"

"Sure thing, I don't want them out there doing who knows what.", what she didn't say, was that she had actually felt quite good about herself when she had defeated the alpha and become the leader of a pack. She hoped that she would experience something similar again each time.

Soon, they had apparated to Gaude's mansion. They were greeted by a certain loli.

"Oh, so you came back, Irma?", Amanda spoke in a tone that said 'you could've taken a few days, maybe even a few weeks'.

Suddenly, however, she took a few steps back.

"Eww, what's that disgusting smell? Were you sleeping with dogs tonight? You smell disgusting!"

Irma wasn't slow to respond either: "What about yourself, have you been bathing in blood while I was away?"

Irma's teeth were already sharpening and Amanda's fangs elongating. Gaude had to stop it before things got out of hand.

"Both of you, calm down. Mandy, remember when I told you about an important person that was attacked? Well, Irma was attacked by a Werewolf, and it took. She just turned for the first time last night.

Irma, I understand that your sense of smell has gotten stronger, but please don't take it out on Mandy, it's not her fault she was born a vampire. You're both my sisters, so try to get along, alright?"

Once Irma had taken a long bath, her natural scent didn't seem to be as threatening to Amanda, and it seemed that the little loli had done the same as Irma wasn't as high-strung around her.

However, as bedtime arrived, Gaude found himself in the middle of a deathly glaring contest, tightly gripped from both sides. If his draconic blood hadn't made his body sturdier, he would've had bruises the next morning – both girls, knowing their own restraint but not that of the other, wanted to protect him from the other. Gaude felt helpless and mentally prepared himself for a rough night.

###

Next morning, military base's hidden training grounds

With tired eyes, Irma looked at her pack struggling through the physical testing. Had she really been so weak just a month ago? She'd have to make sure to use any means necessary to get them into proper physical condition. She had a feeling she alone wouldn't be enough to protect Gaude, especially if he kept picking up strays.

Of course, Irma wasn't aware that the pack she had picked up was in fact weakened after going through the transformation like any run of the mill Werewolf would be, unless of course they were put through much greater suffering on a daily basis and managed to make a full recovery an hour after the transformation ended.

After the assessment, she walked up to her pack that were resting on the ground, except the previous alpha.

"You're all so weak! Doc, put them back on their feet, we're going back on the track. Keep your meds ready because we'll be doing a whole day of running to get their stamina up. Mutts! If you can't keep running, stop by the doc. Once she's got you back on track, you better catch up to the rest or I'll mark you for each lap you fall behind!"

That was exactly what they did. They ran for the entire day. While for Irma, it felt like a medium jog, each of the Werewolves in the pack felt as if their lungs were on fire and their throats were bleeding, not to mention that their legs felt like they were constantly being flayed.

In other words, Irma kept them running at the very edge of their abilities, gradually increasing the tempo. She continued running until they had reached the point she had gotten to after the first week. She wasn't aware of it herself, but the only reason why the growth of the Werewolves had been so rapid was due to the combination of the potions and the fact that they had all already transformed at least once.

Once the 'warm-ups' were done, she started stretching them up. She seemed to have forgotten about the painkillers when she started with the previous alpha. The resounding cracks and screams of pain made the rest of the pack wince.

Ross had been giving an occasional glance at what Irma was doing. He started to develop an inkling of respect for her method of motivating others, even if he didn't know what she meant by marking them.

Ross wasn't aware of the fact that even with the miraculous medicines that seemed to never leave a scar behind, any wound caused by a werewolf would always leave one. As for the marking that Irma spoke of, it was naturally leaving a gash on their back, marking them as cowards. While it wasn't quite appropriate for the situation, it certainly motivated her pack a whole lot.

"Stop being such a pussy, I was stretched just the same. It was my first time turning last night but I hardly felt a thing while it happened. Think of it as making a small sacrifice to have fast and painless transformations in the future.", Irma said while she nearly shattered the back of the pack's previous alpha.

There was a dangerous gleam in her eyes and a sadistic smile on her face. It felt so much better to be in the role of the 'helper' rather than the one that was being 'helped'. Irma finally understood why the other trainees had been so eager to assist her in stretching.

The doctor ran to her, two bottles in hand and said: "You forgot to give him painkillers!"

She responded with a smirk: "Did I? My bad."

The next day, while the pack was learning CQC techniques under the instruction of one of the better trainees, Irma's life got more difficult once again.

"I've been told that your hearing has greatly improved recently. I think it would be a good idea to incorporate it into your training. From now on, for the first half an hour, you'll be sparring against me blindfolded, after that you'll get to use your eyes again."

She did exactly that. She wasn't able to even find out where the hit was coming from at first, she could only tell the general direction. She kept leaping backwards and to the sides to dodge, but often she wasn't successful. She ended up with a lot more bruises than she did in the first sparring practice.

After the blindfold was removed, she managed to dodge most of Captain Ross' strikes with room to spare.

That day, it was all her sparring against the Captain. Some of it blindfolded and some without it.

While she wasn't blindfolded, she managed to predict a few hits before the instructor started moving but wasn't fast enough to counterattack.

On the next day, she put her pack through another round of stamina training and stretching.

Once they were all resting on the sinfully lush indoors lawn, she spoke: "Raise your hand if you have family you want to visit."

Four out of the seven raised their hands.

"Alright. Usually, there's a simple rule. Only the top three in sparring get to go home for Sunday. However, I'll ask Mr. Vywin to make an exception so that you'll be able to let your families know that you might not be coming back for a long time since you're all so weak.

Mr. Vywin is a generous man, so you'll be getting paid for the time you spend in training."

Captain Ross who had overheard her, stated from the side: "Actually, the top three was true only for the other unit. They are your unit, so you'll make the rules."

Irma didn't seem to react at all to the statement. She repeated: "As I said, the top three will get to go home, so you better get your bony asses in better shape than the other team!"

The pack was trained by Irma and the other trainees alternately from that point on. They considered the time when Irma wasn't training them a rest day.