Tatum and Henry
6. Recon

I scan the immediate crowd. I know I’m not the only human and non-wolf in this pack, but at the moment I feel very out of place. Behind me stand my friends, Bianca, Liam, Jude, and Dylan, but in front of me are several angry wolves.

“Stop!” I order, trying my best to use an authoritative tone. Surprisingly the wolves in front of me stop moving towards me.

“I am raising two wolves, and I may be human, but I will do everything in my power to protect them, so they can live in a free and safe society, where they are accepted!” I state.

“That may be so, but I will not stand by and let my sons fight in a war that does not affect them!” the woman yells, her face flushed red in anger.

“Yeah!” another wolf cries out. I look around the room. Everyone is looking in our direction.

“Now listen,” I order again. I feel a sense of power as people stop what they’re doing or saying and turn to listen to me.

“This war is about race. About not being equal. This pack has a history of taking in wolves who have been degraded and rejected for their differences, for not being the same. If we turn away from this war, we turn away from who we are as a pack. Anyone who is over eighteen and has their wolf are considered an adult under pack law. You cannot make their decision to defend this pack’s ideals for them. You can only decide what you want for yourself,” I say, turning and looking at the people in the room.

“If you don’t agree with this, maybe you’re on the wrong side,” I growl. I look back at the man and the woman, who look down at their feet, rightfully ashamed.

“What she said!” Crystal yells out.

“Hear hear,” another wolf calls out. Soon more wolves are calling out and agreeing with my statement. The mother looks at me, and I shake my head at her, disappointed.

Liam, Jude, and Dylan walk up to me and tap my shoulder.

“Well done,” all three say, before walking away. A few more wolves walk up to me too and say similar things. I nod in response. I’m not joining this war just for me, but for the people I love, all of them.

“That was amazing,” Bianca breathes as people walk away and the line moves forward.

“Well, my family has already been directly affected by this,” I shrug, “I’m not going to let them continue to hurt my family’s chances of a happy life,” I say.

“Tatum,” Beta Connor says when we approach his table.

“Beta Connor,” I greet.

“Thank you for handling that earlier,” he says. I just nod.

“Tatum,” he then says, looking at me.

“Your mate has beta or alpha blood, doesn’t he?” Beta Connor asks.

“He does,” I reply.

~***~

I’m surprised at how quickly the pack readied itself for battle. I was enlisted as a sharp-shooter, thanks to my archery and knife-throwing skills, and was given a uniform; army-coloured camouflaged pants, shirt, and jacket – a patchwork of greens and browns. Bianca enlisted as a warrior, and because chances were that she would eventually shift into her wolf, she was given green athletic wear.

A whole town sprung up in one of the fields owned by Waning Moon, with tents and buildings built for all the incoming soldiers from the surrounding packs. It had been as few week since Alpha Quade announced the war, and when you looked around at the people in this tent town, there were many new faces. I smiled as I’m now not the only non-wolf here.

Because I taught most of the soldiers in Waning Moon their weaponry skills, I was put in charge of a small team and made a Captain. I felt a little hesitant accepting this position, but I had Jude and some members from other packs who were just as good, if not better than me in my team.

I walk into the hall for our daily briefing and replace a seat near the back. Unlike the other captains, a rank I can’t get over being given, I don’t like to sit at the front. Jude walks in, late as well and sits next to me. He greets me and I nod in acknowledgement.

“Thank you all for coming today. Today we have will be briefed via zoom,” Captain Johnson says from the front. Captain Johnson, or Albie, as he tells us to call him, is an older delta from Genesis pack, and most of his team is made from Genesis deltas. He goes over to his laptop and turns the projector screen on so we can all see who is briefing us today.

I gulp as a face appears on the screen, slowly sliding down in my chair as I do. Jude looks at me and raises an eyebrow, but I don’t say anything, shaking my head a little.

“Beta Henrik,” Captain Johnson greets.

“Albert,” Henry greets back. I hear some giggles from females behind me as Henry begins to speak. But I don’t listen. He still looks good, tired, but good. My heart leaps out for him as I look into his light blue eyes.

Jude nudges me when Henry mentions a reconnaissance job.

“Team Sully will be doing that,” Captain Johnson states. Suddenly I’m glad for Albie’s nicknames for our teams- his is Team Alby, and mine is Team Sully.

“Yes, Beta Henrik,” Jude answers for me as I slide further down my chair. Henry nods and thanks us before leaving the meeting.

“What was that all about?” Jude asks, laughing as my team and I file out and head for the war room.

“He’s my mate,” I say softly, looking forward.

“Bullshit,” Jude laughs. I don’t respond and he grabs my arm.

“No shit? Really?” he asks. I just look at him before he lets me go.

“Don’t say anything, I left for a reason,” I say. I look over at Jude who nods. Waning Moon is full of members who left their mates and previous packs for reasons.

“Okay, so what’s the deal?” I ask Albie as my team gather round him. There is six in my team, including me. Jude, from my pack, Jennine, a she-wolf from Genesis, Julie, a human from one of the smaller packs nearby, and Clayton and Holly, witches from Leaf Coven.

“This is where General Erstad’s intel says there is an enemy base. Your job is to go in unnoticed,” Captain Johnson states. I nod, looking over at Clayton and Holly, who nod at me back. This must be one of the reasons my team was chosen.

“Try to work out how many they have there and what they are doing. This is only one of Andre Aubert’s armies. We want to squash them if we can,” he says.

“When?” Jude asks.

“Tomorrow night,” Captain Johnson states. I nod.

~***~

My team meet again the next day in the board room. I point out some trees from the aerial printout we got from google maps around the base.

“What do you think, Jude?” I ask. He nods.

“I think we need to park off here, and walk,” Jude says.

“Yeah, Jude and I can run ahead and scope the best trees, if Clay and Holly can weave a spell?” Jennine asks.

“Easy, we can mask your smell, but it won’t last, I suggest we also use other means,” Clayton says.

“Okay then. That’s a plan. We need to go to services and collect our packs and weapons. I want each of you to have double of what they give us,” I say, “we might need it.”

I follow my team down to the service room where we collect our bags and tech equipment. Because we’re one of the few teams that have mixed races, we need earpieces to communicate, unlike wolves who can mind-link each other.

“Keys,” the delta at the desk says after passing us our bags. We take the keys to the van and walk out to the car park, passing other soldiers along the way.

“Which is ours?” I ask Clayton, our team technician.

“This one,” Clayton says, indicating a navy-blue van. He unlocks the car and slides the door open. On one side of the van is floor to ceiling computer console and on the other side are bench seats.

“Wow,” Julie says as she walks in.

“Yeah, we witches have the best gear,” Holly smiles. Clayton throws me the keys and I pass them on to Jude, and we walk into the front two seats.

We drive for a few hours, stopping for petrol and food until we hit the outskirts of a small town. It’s dark by now and the temperature has dropped. Jude and I step out of the front seats and scan the area around us.

“Clear?” I ask.

“Clear,” Jude says. Holly, Jennine and Julie step out of the van and Holly passes two vials of green liquid over to Jude and Jennine.

“Oh my goddess, that tastes the worst,” Jennine coughs as she drinks her vial. Julie gets out her body spray and sprays them both down.

“European shower,” she smiles as they splutter from the smell. Jude and Jennine then begin to undress so they can shift, and I swat Julie’s arm as she stands there stunned and watches before joining Holly and I in turning around to give them their privacy. Holly giggles.

After the popping and crunching of bones finish, we turn around again and nod at the two wolves in front of us.

“Any sign of danger,” I warn. Both wolves nod, understanding. We need them back. They sprint off and we join Clayton in the back of the van.

While we wait, we get our earpieces on and start putting our knives in their sheaths on our pants. I put my katana scabbard and quiver on my back, climbing up a nearby tree to take watch.

We only need to rotate the watch once before Jude and Jennine come back, shifting into their skins and changing into their uniforms.

“Well?” I ask.

“We’re good. They don’t have anyone on guard duty, so I think if we go in and observe, see what happens and then we can report back.

“Clayton?” I ask. He nods.

“I’m all set here, I’ll pull the van into the side bush, and keep in contact with you while you’re gone,” he says.

“Okay, Jude, you’re with me, Julie with Holly, and Jennine. Jennine, once they’re settled, branch off nearby,” I order. They nod.

“We have about three hours of daylight left, let’s get a move on and set up,” I state. My team nods and we set off.

We walk off together for twenty minutes until we hit the dirt road that leads to their camp. Holly passes Jude two more vials, and he nods, before leading me around the other side of the camp. The plan is to have Holly near the road camp entrance, with the other two spread out metres apart. Jude and I will do the same in the other direction.

“This tree,” Jude points. I look up it. It’s tall with some good branches and trees nearby with their branches close together, just in case I need to jump from one tree to the next. I nod and begin climbing. Jude walks off and replaces his own tree.

I climb to the top of the tree and can now see the camp before me. It doesn’t look as big as our base, but I know that this is one of many. There are about six tents around a large, cleared area. I don’t see anyone around and assume they are all asleep. Jude and Jennine are right, there are no guards patrolling the camp and they look vulnerable. I hope the intel was good.

I replace two branches close together and make myself comfortable, pulling out equipment that I may need, binoculars, rope and a thin blanket to keep me warm.

“Check in,” I call through my earpiece. One by one my team checks in, and then, we wait.