Hammered

throat and broke eye contact.
    » As you wish, alpha, « I said.
    The next week I met a werewolf from another pack. His name was Hallbjörn Hauk. » I am the second in Reykjavík, « he said, » under the leadership of Ketill Grímsson. You are the second for Úlfur Dalsgaard, are you not? «
    » I am. «
    » I wonder if we may speak privately for a time? « he asked.
    » There are few places we could go without the Pack knowing about it, « I said. We were a small pack, but Húsavík was also a very small town.
    Hallbjörn smiled. » I understand. I will be brief, then. Were you aware that Úlfur Dalsgaard used to be a part of the Reykjavík Pack and was cast out a little more than two years ago? «
    » No, I was not. Why was he cast out? «
    » He had ideas about racial purity that Ketill and others found distasteful. He would constantly denigrate or taunt pack members of differing backgrounds, including myself. I’m Anglo–Saxon on my father’s side. Ketill told him to take his racial crusade elsewhere and banished him from Reykjavík. «
    » Why are you here? «
    » To let you and the rest of your wolves know there is another pack in Iceland if you ever feel like moving elsewhere. You’re welcome so long as you leave Úlfur’s ideas behind. We are a motley crew. «
    » That’s it? You came all the way here for that? «
    » No. I’m also curious what you know about pack law. «
    » Úlfur makes it. The alpha’s word is law. «
    » Of course. But what mechanism exists for a change of leadership? «
    » I … what? «
    » Say that someone in your pack disagrees with the alpha’s word. It may be someone lower in the Pack, or it might be you. There might even be a majority of the Pack that agrees there should be a new alpha. What happens next? «
    » I don’t know. «
    Hauk snorted and shook his head, as if he’d expected such an answer. » Anyone may challenge the alpha for leadership at anytime. There’s a fight. The winner is the alpha. «
    » What kind of fight? «
    » The bloody kind. One wolf either yields or is wounded past the ability to heal. «
    » Interesting. Úlfur neglected to mention this particular pack dynamic to me. «
    » Guard your thoughts, « Hauk warned. » If he hears what you’re thinking through the pack link, you’ll have a fight before you’re ready. «
    » He can hear it now, « I said. I called everyone except Úlfur to my house immediately for a meeting. He’d figure it out sooner rather than later, and either he’d show up to accept my challenge or he wouldn’t. There were still people in Húsavík who could be saved from the plague.
    Though it was the dark of the moon and our wolves were at their weakest, I announced my challenge to Úlfur through the pack link, then made the painful transformation of my own will and waited for Úlfur to arrive.
    I will not dwell on the duel; it was short and brutal and I killed him in less than a minute. I did not realize my own strength until circumstances made it necessary for me to reach for it. But as he died, there was a small chill in the air that I did not remember or have an explanation for until many years later. I became alpha of the Húsavík Pack and then, later, alpha of all Iceland, after a dispute with Ketill Grímsson that has no bearing on this tale. My first act as alpha was to change pack law.
    » When we recruit, ethnic heritage will not be a criterion determining a candidate’s worthiness, « I said. » Does anyone wish to question that decision or challenge my leadership? « No one did. They had supported Úlfur’s replacement from the start.
    My pack was twenty wolves strong when I moved us out of Iceland after the eruption of the Laki volcano in 1783. We came to the New World, and slowly we added to our numbers with wolves from many different backgrounds. Some of these left my pack and joined others, but many remained. Our largest jump in population occurred during the Spanish influenza outbreak of 1918. Until that time, I had not had many occasions to save lives through the gift of lycanthropy—which, as I was well aware, thanks to Rannveig, not everyone considered a gift. But during that time of terrible disease, I was reminded of the plague in Iceland and of our failure to save lives when we could. I was determined not to repeat that mistake this time. And so on the days immediately prior to the full moon that year, I instructed the Pack to keep their ears open for word of possible recruits. I wanted