Page 6 of Wolf's Mark

The sudden unrest was disturbing.

“Enough!” A second council member stood up and moved to the front of the stage. Rory was the youngest elected member of the council, only taking his seat in the last election.

Twenty-five years before.

I finally removed my sunglasses, shifting my attention to our mother. She was the only woman on the council, which had allowed other female Wolfen to shout to the trees about the mismatched numbers being a violation of women’s rights. Their demands to overhaul the council in its entirety had gone unheeded, even laughed at.

We were still a bunch of Neanderthals in my mind.

Cane held up his arms until the crowd settled down.

“There could be a fight,” Riker said quietly.

“What fun,” Chase added.

“We are losing our abilities as well,” Cane continued. “We must remain strong and in order to ensure our younger wolves maintain their abilities, we must return to our practices of training our youth.”

Chase huffed and threw up his fisted hand like so many others in the crowd. “Stop the ancient ways!”

They had been stopped two decades before by a majority vote of the Wolfen. No longer did our teenagers begin their training to easily shift and fight an enemy, honing their various abilities as they should. Now, kids spent their free time playing video games and texting their friends.

I’d never thought it was a good idea. We were weak, incapable of fighting any enemies. Granted, we didn’t have many in the wild. Humans no longer chased us with spears or weapons. The old stories had died, giving way to lore and myth, fables that created nightmares and movies.

“We must not remain complacent,” Rory shouted.

“Do you see how uncomfortable our mother is?” Riker asked.

Her face was pinched and she was antsy. “She’s not happy with the proclamation.”

“No. Do you have a feeling something is going on here that we likely don’t want to know about?”

I shot Riker a look, nodding at the same time. The council had never been forthcoming in explaining issues.

“The council has voted and believes the games and training are necessary. There will be a vote in two weeks. The council will accept a single candidate from every pack to be the new trainingadvisor to the council.” Cane was on a roll, ignoring the chants and words of anger.

“That is bullshit!”

“We won’t vote for it.”

“You need to resign.”

The insults came fast and furious.

I’d already grown weary of this, but I had a feeling there was more.

Cane seemed smug, more so than usual. Meanwhile, I could tell our mother wanted to wrap her hands around his throat, dragging him straight to hell.

She was that kind of woman, tougher than most and always refusing to accept anyone’s bullshit. I admired that about her, especially since she’d taken our father’s place on the council when he’d suddenly found a new life.

“The council will also be setting forth a referendum that is not up for vote.”

“Oh, here goes,” Chase mused. “The big, bad wolf bully.”

“Why issue a referendum?” Riker asked. The man was tenser than normal.

So was I.

Cane took a deep breath, probably because the entire audience had grown silent. I couldn’t remember the last time a new mandate had been proposed. The rules had been in place for centuries.

---