In The Beginning: Part Four Jakkon

Basjan's contented purring was getting on Jakkon's nerves. He watched with jealous eyes as his friend preened under his mate's touch, Ola's fingers stroking through his thick dark hair as she braided it with deft flicks of her fingers. He would leave if he could. But being out amongst the pups of the pack was the only thing keeping him safe. He should have been watching them, especially as his friends were paying them no mind, but while Jakkon was ready to lurch to his feet at the first cry, his gaze was locked on Sigar and Toran's den.

"We want to play in the water."

Jakkon bared his teeth at the youth using big eyes and pouting lips to sway him. "No."

"But-"

"No. Not while others are fishing. Unless you all want to go to bed with hungry bellies tonight?"

Whines and stomping feet did little to dissuade him. A good growl, however, made the pups scatter.

Ola tutted. "Why do you frighten them like that?"

"Jakkon doesn't know he's frightening them, mate mine, he thinks he's being friendly." Basjan opened his eyes to grin at him. "Don't you, Jakkon?"

"He's meant to be watching them."

"I am watching them," Jakkon retorted, returning his gaze to where Signy would hopefully appear at any moment. . .

He didn't see Ola roll her eyes, but he sensed it.

"What are you planning, Jakkon?" she asked.

He wasn't sure yet. Half of him wanted to have Signy bare her neck to him and submit after risking her life, and his to save her. The other wanted to shift to fur to remove his rival pacing outside the doorway.

Hagbard wanted to be the first to greet Signy back in skin. Sigar approved of the male's presence but the sharp fangs of a mother-wolf set Hagbard back the same distance Jakkon lingered. To get to Signy first, Jakkon might have to take Hagbard down, and Jakkon wasn't sure he was ready for that. Hagbard was a high-ranked male coming into his prime. Jakkon may have ran miles of woodland patrolling by himself, further than any other, and hunted alone because few would hunt with him, but he wasn't sure that would be enough. Day after day, he lost to his Alpha, learning and observing, because no one else saw him as worthy. Soon he would be ready. For what made him an outcast to many, also gave him an edge over them all.

Hagbard did not understand being Wulver the same way Jakkon did. Hagbard had been brought up in a pack. Jakkon had been born into and moulded by the wilderness.

"You barely escaped Sigar's claws when the healer removed you from Signy's side, are you that eager for a fight?" Basjan asked. "You best Hagbard when he wasn't expecting it but-"

"You were the one who told me I could be more," Jakkon reminded him, wondering if his friend was suddenly having doubts.

Ola reached out to touch his arm. "We all think you can be more. That's why the young high-ranked are so wary of you. However, Hagbard has trained with the fiercest of our warriors, and he is ready for you this time. Choose your battles wisely."

Jakkon could have tore his hair out. He wouldn't have to choose his battle at all if his hunt had gone to plan, brawl a little maybe to cement his place, but that he could have handled. He was beginning to wonder if Signy was toying with him; wanting to see how far he'd go to claim her, watch all the hurdles he'd jump and wolves he'd take down, see how much of his damn pride he could swallow. At least he had some left over. Hagbard was going after a female who had rejected him numerous times in front of the pack.

Only because he still stood a chance, Jakkon thought.

If he lost to Hagbard now, Signy would take the stronger male.

Ola was right. He had to chose wisdom over strength, for now.

A growl worked its way out up his chest.

Damn the healer for dragging him out. Even Toran could not stop him from being removed. They all had been. All so Signy could go through the discomfort of shifting for the first time after broken bones with no one but the half-blind, mushroom addled Madda to help her through.

"This will take some time, won't it?"

"Her shift to skin?" Ola lifted her head to peer at the den in front of them, and nodded. "Yes. Quite some time. The herbs he will use to numb pain take a while for the body to absorb."

Which meant maybe he had enough time.

The stag he'd found days ago had been young, alone, most likely kicked from a herd after challenging the leader; which meant somewhere out there could be a bigger, older stag to claim. He had to prove to Sigar that if his female belonged to him, she would never go hungry. He had to find his way into the heart of the pack who held Hagbard in high regard. Then, then he would challenge the only male who truly stood in his way.

"Where are you going?" Basjan demanded, sitting up and twisting to watch Jakkon shift to his large black and grey wolf.

Ignoring the protests of his friends, determination lifting his head, he took off to do what he should have done when Signy had first cast her smile his way.

Hagbard turned to watch too, smug and smiling, accepting Jakkon's retreat into the forest for victory.

***

Signy

Madda prodded gently at her ribs, and Signy did her best to hide her flinch of pain, holding the Healer's clouded gaze. He hummed deep in his chest, burrowing his fingers into her fur to feel the bone underneath. The ache caused her chest to constrict and still she held still. She would shift to skin today if she had to break a bone to do it. Too long injured would hurt her standing. She needed to be able to fight to keep her rank in the pack, to be seen, respected and feared, not pitied.

"Maybe that will teach you to run headfirst into a stag," he scolded lightly, hovering over to peer into grass green eyes.

Signy wasn't hiding her frustration as well as she thought. She wanted out. She wanted to make sure her father wasn't attacking Jakkon or spreading rumour around the pack that her accident was his fault. She'd promised Jakkon she would set things straight. Make things right. She could also hear a pair of feet marching past the doorway of her parent's den and knew they didn't belong to Jakkon or them. Which meant it had to be Hagbard waiting on his chance to pounce.

So where was Jakkon? He in turn had promised things to her, so why was he not chasing Hagbard from the door? Why wasn't her mother? She couldn't keep lying here immobile at a healer's words when the future of the pack hung in the balance. Although, logic told her shifting before her body was ready would be of no use either.

"You are a lucky female, Sigarsdóttir." Madda sat up and placed his hands on his knees. "You can take to skin again, but you must maintain your rest for the next few days. Not that you will listen. You young ones never do until you're left with permanent limps and aching joints. Then you all come running to me for help and advice."

If you're clear-headed enough to offer it, Signy thought. She would try to take his advice anyway.

"Slowly," he advised.

Slowly. Slowly, she closed her eyes and imagined herself in skin, the colour of her hair, the tone of her skin, wiggling fingers and toes. Slowly, fur receded in a wave of itchiness, and Signy felt the pop and crack of joints refitting and bone remoulding their shape. Slowly, because when her ribs crushed inward, the pain was excruciating. Blinding. She wished she'd shifted as she normally did, all at once, too quick to feel the very moment bruised skin shrunk in and her ribs settled into place. Choking and rasping, Signy twitched on the pelt she'd lain on the last three days, and for the very first time in her life, felt apprehensive about ever shifting forms again.

Madda chuckled as he began to pack away his things. "Maybe I am wrong. Maybe you have learned your lesson. I can give you something for the pain?"

Signy shook her head.

"Then again, maybe not," he muttered to himself, then raised his voice to add, "A binding probably wouldn't be a bad idea for a day or two."

Something to signal to every wolf in the pack where her weakness was? She didn't need that anymore than she needed to worry about what awaited her outside.

She wished she hadn't thought such a fate tempting thought.

Signy barely got her dress over her head when snarls and growls rumbled from outside, mixing with gasps and murmurs. She froze, ears pricking, nose twitching when she caught the faintest copper tang in the air.

The fight she'd been dreading must have broken out, but which one, and why?

Tearing out of her parent's den, she nearly collided with a body standing at the door. Most of the pack had gathered around something, were whispering and pointing, the smell of blood so strong in the air that it made Signy gag. With trembling hands, she pressed past her mother, gaze locked on her father's heaving form a few steps ahead, readying herself to see Jakkon near death in the grass. But it wasn't Jakkon that lay bleeding at her father's feet.

The breath she held fled from her lips.

Presented to her father lay a crown from a king few would dare challenge alone.

Smeared in a king's blood, Jakkon held himself tall, showing off bruises and cuts he'd gained in his fight, eyes blazing a bright crystalline blue. Power radiated from him. Wolves close by had no choice but to back away or risk submitting to a male who was nearly an omega. Was. Because the rest of his kill was being dragged off to be dressed, and the pack would only get the cuts he gave them. Jakkon would climb his way up the pack tonight without a single challenge. And Signy had never been surer of her choice.

Reaching out, she brushed her fingers over one of the antlers that must have boasted more than a dozen points. A crown fit for an Alpha to hang in his hall.

"I present this for Signy," Jakkon declared, loud enough for the whole pack to hear.

Her father could no longer deny Jakkon was a male who could keep her safe, and protect her, now Jakkon only had to prove he had what it took to stand at the side of an alpha as an Alpha in his own right.

"As her mother-wolf, I accept," Toran spoke, causing murmurs of surprise to circle the watching pack.

Under so much pressure, her father wilted. He didn't voice his acceptance. But he didn't chase Jakkon away either.

When Jakkon's gaze met hers, swirling and bright, dancing with too many emotions for her to read, she felt the echo of him thrum through her veins. Then he turned on his heel and marched towards where his kill was being dressed.

Jakkon was still upset with her.

He was not the only one.

Sigar took Jakkon's offering inside his den without so much as a glance her way. Next her gaze swung to Hagbard watching on near the river. Intention was clear in his fisted hands and twitching jaw. The world around him faded, Signy's face slackening as her eyes showed her through the veil of time. The challenge that would decide everything. She had seen this vision before, and its outcome often shifted. Today it showed victory.

Signy smiled.

One part had been written into stone; she would take Jakkon as her mate.

Then the real work would begin.