The Howling Heart's Forgiveness

Chapter 15

“Brynlee!” Turning to the sound of someone calling my voice, I spy Quincy running towards me with a deer – a buck to be precise – over his shoulders. I laugh as the horn of the buck he caught hits him unexpectedly upside the head and he stumbles before slowing down to a walk. It seems his enthusiasm nearly caused Quincy to injure himself.

“Nice catch, the pack will enjoy the meals this buck will provide.” I praise my friend who gives me a wolfish grin. Three days has passed since Alastor visited us and the pack has finally finished with clearing away rubble from the attack.

“I know. I can’t wait for some good deer stew.” Quincy exclaims excitedly. I laugh again at his childish enthusiasm, happy to see him no longer looking so sullen and depressed from loosing many of his pack mates. He places the buck onto the pallet I have set just outside the back door that leads to the pack kitchen, the kill currently being the last item I will need to process.

With the Golden Fang wolves being directed by Miss Asteria and Gale in the restoration process, I decided to work with Quincy and Quest as well as a few of their men in organizing a hunting party to refill the food storage of the pack. Quest and Quincy will each being two men to hunt down enough prey to stock the pack freezers while I worked with the Omegas in butchering the meat the preys provided.

“Quest caught a boar and Ash and Edison found some fish in the river that they caught.” He continues as I turn back to the table I was working at. Earlier today Quest, a scrawny yet muscular Hunter, came in with a few rabbits he captured. The kills were neat with him breaking their necks and I was able to skin each animal carefully, saving the rabbit fur in case we need them in the future. It seems the previous Alpha was smart in putting him in charge of the Hunters as all the prey the Hunters bring back are top quality.

“Miss Brynlee, are you almost done with the rabbit for the stew?” A voice asks from my left.

“Just about. I have two more bones to take out then you can have this last one Savanah.” I answer the Omega with a friendly smile before quickly removing the last of the bones. She thanks me as I hand her the rabbit before she disappears back into the kitchen. Savanah has surprised me since our time working on cleaning the pack house. Our first meeting led to some tension between us, but I soon learned that this she-wolf is a jack of all trades and can step into any role if the task is too much for the others to handle.

Right now, she is helping the Omegas in charge of the kitchen by cooking for the pack with a small team of three while the rest focus on butchering prey. The day before she helped down in the laundry room, teaching the Omegas that oversaw cleaning the linens how to wash, iron and fold everything correctly. Before that, she had helped Odette in organizing the Omegas into teams after we finished cleaning the pack house, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of each Omega working in the pack house and who works best with who. In the end, she became Odette’s right-hand man in leading the Omegas.

“Its scary how good you are at handling knives.” Quincy muses as I carefully slice up the innards of the rabbit I left behind on the table before placing them in a bucket beside me.

“Even scarier when you know I learned how to butcher an animal for fun as a pup.” I tease with a grin bending down to look over the buck he brought me.

“You learned this for fun?” He asks in disbelief, taking a small step back. I grin, deciding not to answer him as I focus on the buck. I would say it is about two and a half feet tall and maybe a good one hundred and twenty pounds. After looking at the antlers, I note that this buck is three years old, making the meat a perfect toughness for consumption. Anything older and the buck would have just become stew meat.

Lifting the buck onto my butchering table, I pick up my knife ready to cut into the buck when I notice that there are some teeth marks on the neck and sigh. Shooting it in the eye with an arrow would have been better so that I can salvage all of the hide. I guess I will need to scrap the small portion around the neck.

“I know the kill is a bit sloppy, but I tried to keep it on the neck.” Quincy explains sheepishly after hearing my sigh, rubbing the back of his neck.

“It’s a good kill. You just need to learn how to keep them cleaner.” I note, getting to work with removing the hide from the meat. I ask Quincy if he wants to keep the antlers, but he declines. I shrug, deciding not to push the issue further as deer antlers could be used for medicinal purposes. As I work on butchering the buck, Quest returns from his hunt and drops the boar onto the to-be-butchered pile before saying hello. I hum a noise of acknowledgement, too focused to say anything, and he shrugs with a chuckle.

“I see our little Beta here is hard at work helping us prepare the meat.” Ash’s voice follows. I stop what I am doing for a moment to see what fish he and Edison caught and grin when I notice the trout in their hands. Each men carry six trout for a total of twelve fish. They will make for a great addition to our stock of protein.

“Ask one of the Omegas to fillet those in the kitchen. They aren’t as messy as game meat is to butcher.” I order the two, nodding in the direction of the kitchen door before looking down at the blood covered stainless steel table. Ash whistles at the mess I have made, noticing the pile of un-edible organs in a metal bin beside my table.

“Why are you saving those?” He asks and I smirk, looking down at the pile.

“To burn into ash and turn into fertilizer. The Omegas and I are making plans for a vegetable garden that will supply the pack so we don’t have to go into town frequently.” I answer, resuming my work of butchering the buck signalling that I am done talking. Quincy and Quest watch me while Edison and Ash take their catch inside. After informing me that the other two Hunters were gathering edible plants to add to our pantry, they leave me be to focus. With no one distracting me, I am able to finish processing the buck and call for a few of the Omega’s over to wrap and label everything before they put it into the pack freezers.

Putting my knives down one more, I turn to examine the boar, trying to decide how I will handle it. The skin has no fur or other use, so that will have to go. Maybe I can gut it and clean it out first and it could be used as a good roast for a celebration later. We only have four days left to decide on an Alpha for the pack and the boar would be great for the initiation part.

“Save the pigs for later. The pack and I have something we want to talk to you, Gale and Asteria about at dinner and if you haven’t noticed, it’s almost dinner time.” Quincy calls out from the boulder he sits on, Quest grinning like a child who just received a box of candy.

“I was actually thinking of using it for a pig roast.” I shrug, standing up straight and stretching. I call for Savanah, asking her to take my knives inside for me and to have a few come take away my bin of unusable organ meet and the boar while I wash and sanitize the table. She complies, careful not to cut herself with my knives as four other Omegas come outside to take away the bin and the boar. With my station cleared off, I begin to hose down the table, washing away the blood and other fluids from the game I have been butchering with the hose before using a sanitizing solution in the end so that no bacteria can grow. I have a feeling that I will be using this table more than usual and will need to keep it as clean as possible.

“I am going to have a shower and get changed. I will see you both at dinner.” I state while putting the hose away.

“Okay, we will be waiting for you.” Quest calls out with a chuckle. I turn to Quincy and Quest with a wink before heading inside the pack house. I wave to the Omegas in the kitchen as I pass by, catching the smiles on their face. The no longer feel shy around me and instead have warmed up to me in the last few days. Yesterday they had surprised me with a cake, thanking me for helping them clean the pack house and for being patient as they learned their schedules. It was a sweet moment and for once I felt like a true Beta that was appreciated by her pack.

Climbing the stairs to the third floor, I make a beeline to my temporary room and shut myself inside my little sanctuary. It has been a long four days between the cleaning, demolishing and rebuilding that I haven’t had time to breathe. As much as I hate that I have been busy for the last few days, I am also thankful that the work has kept me from thinking about Rune. I still feel him, feel the bond that sparks every so often in hopes of being rekindled. Heck, I even felt it when he fucked another woman.

That pain was one that sent me to my knees screaming in agony. It was just after dinner the day Alastor came. Quincy and I were walking around the pack to note what buildings we can have families return to when the pain came on so sudden. It felt like thousands of jagged knives were cutting my insides and I thought I was dying. He rushed me to Gale’s house, asking him to help me as I was withering and screaming from the pain.

Miss Asteria was the one to explain that Rune had bedded someone else and that until he or I mated and marked another wolf, I would feel when he was bedding another she-wolf and he would feel the same pain if I bedded another male. I already know who he was fucking that night now that I am no longer in Pine Moon – Tanya. That bitch has everything she wants including me gone from her sight so why couldn’t she wait for him to mark her before they fucked and save me from the pain.

Shaking my head to clear the thoughts of my Ex-Mate away, I remove my clothes and throw them in my hamper before making my way inside the shower. I just need to make it through the next few weeks before they are married and Rune is out of my life for good. After that, I may try to find someone that I can call my own.