Urmi was a Hybrid Queen in their eyes, but even she was struggling to help them understand. The wolves were restless, they felt she lacked enough wolf knowledge to adequately explain it. They kept beseeching her younger brother Prateek to explain it to them. It irritates the hell out of her. Just because he was male they thought he'd have a better grasp on it. He didn't understand all the nuances of war, but still they kept looking to him, kept up with the:-
"what does she mean brother?"
"please elaborate brother,"
or the "say what now?"
Meanwhile Prateek kept paraphrasing her after every paragraph. So much so she even left a gap where she talked so she could indulge them all. God, siblings can be so very frustrating. She wanted to bite something, HARD! The cubs cowered under their mothers seeing the heat in her pale eyes. They smelled her anxiety and frustration.

Urmi was in her werewolf form, big and strong, certainly the size of their biggest pack fighters. But nowhere near the size of her brother who was half again the breadth of the stoutest wolf there. This was a clan gathering, so there were many pack leaders present. All had come to hear what the Hybrids had to say, and some even came with their own Hybrids, but they were rare. Urmi and Prateek had met a few of them out on patrol, but never in their human form. As much as werewolves liked to be part of a pack, in their human forms they remained solitary. Prateek always said that was for survival in case they got sloppy in their kills, or had a human relationship where the partner started to wonder about their strange behaviour. He always advocated one night stands, no fuss, no sentimentality and if he chose men as he was prone to sometimes do...no endless calls and texts later after a follow up or a clingy " hey, can't we make it more serious? Dude why aren't you taking my calls. Reply won't you? Dick!!"

The twins were the exception. They'd always been close. Their mum had been locked up when she gave birth to Prateek a year after Urmi was born. Neither knew their fathers. Urmi's dad had been killed in a retaliation killing when body parts were found buried in his garden. It hadn't been him, it had been their mum after a full moon change. The Bloodlust had found her woken up next to a half digested drifter from Lahore. Prateek's dad was rumoured to have been one of her prison guards. He lasted long enough to have his way with her, but not long enough to survive the angry beast he met one full moon when he sneaked into her cell two weeks later for a repeat performance. Both children were taken into care, and as luck would have it ended up in the same care facility for disturbed children. There weren't many who could cope with frustrated Hybrid children. The authorities didn't know what they were of course, but medical histories linked them to their mother held in an asylum for the criminally insane. They had them under surveillance, guessing the apple might not fall far from the tree. But the siblings found each other and shared a bond few Hybrids enjoyed. They found a certain closeness, as much in their bloodline as in their shared predicament.

Urmi hadn't known a love interest. She'd crushed on one of her care professionals once, but that was like crushing on a teacher, it felt real, it hurt like hell and was heaven too....but it was never real and she knew it. Once she'd gone with Prateek to one of his nightclubs to meet guys, but it didn't work out. She was a little too aggressive in the heat of passion, and a little too quick to anger and offend. They'd both got thrown out by twelve bouncers and half a dozen civilians in the shape of burly six footers who fancied their chances as the next Rambo. All over a half offensive compliment about her rear and a spilled drink. Love wasn't on the cards for her it seemed, but she had more important matters on the brain anyhow.

"What she means," explained Prateek, " is that the humans are warring amongst themselves for the land of another clan. Their borders are being disputed."
"But brother, she says Man wants to own that land. They come to have it for themselves, no creature has a right to claim land permanently as theirs."
Man's ways often perplexed the wolves. They didn't understand war over having more land than you can manage, certainly not land you didn't intend to occupy fully.
Urmi rolled her eyes.
"These Man foe are invaders. They come to kill Man here in India. To take their country."
"But Sister, how can you take a whole country? We have seen how Man took our lands over, but a whole country?"
"Greed." Prateek didn't wait to answer. "The foreign pale skins are enemy to our foe, but they are still Man."

The wolves of every pack were curious. "Surely the enemy of our enemy is our friend? Isn't that something humans say? Are these pale skins friends or just more foe?" BarkBreath was sincere in his question.
"Foe," both twins said emphatically at once. "We haven't told you the worst part yet." Urmi braced herself. It was a warm Spring night and she knew such a large scale gathering was very rare. But they must take action and declare their intentions.
"What news?" BarkBreath was Alpha to the Bor pack but he was scared stiff. Anything that had the two Hybrids he knew so worried was not good news.
"They didn't come alone." Urmi said.
"They brought help." Prateek confirmed.
"Then we will take the whole lot of them down." WhiteFang was an elderly Alpha from a faraway Mumbai city pack. "We will thank them for killing hundreds of other Man and burying them in secret pits. They did our work for us, but we won't let them take their place. We won't let Man surplant other Man."

Other wolves growled and nodded their approval sending a mental high five wave through the wolf ranks.
"But what they came with did the killing. Not their own ranks, well at least not the majority."
"Then how? Who killed so many of the Man?" asked BarkBreath and WhiteFang at once.
"Their own Werewolves!"
There was silence. Some wolves visibly shook off their chills and their cubs hid under their bellies for safety.
"But how can their Hybrids kill so many? And if it's only Man they kill what business is it of wolves to interfere? Hybrids are strong, and on full moon they are unstoppable. We can defend ourselves and our territories, but not on nights of the full moon."
The wolves listened to BarkBreaths words in their head. He was right, their Law had always been to give Hybrids their space and stay out of their way on full moons.
"But you don't know the truth." Urmi cut in above all their chatter. Prateek and I have found mass burial pits, more all over India. The invaders aren't burying just Man. They come to bury wolves too!!"
There were more than a few howls of frantic shock let loose into the night. Urmi and Prateek gave them time for the shock to sink in.

Urmi had gathered so many packs at this clan gathering that it had been difficult to choose a place to meet and not be noticed by Man of either side.
"The pale skins are from another country and they are working not with other wolves but with these werewolves. They are no secret in their country. They've been hunted to extinction and the last remaining are bred in captivity and trained as military fighting machines. The carnage they unleash is not just against Man, but against wolves too. They have been reared and bred and trained to destroy."
It was decided at this point that the little ones were getting too frightened by the news, and a few of the Alpha She-Wolves asked Urmi and their pack leaders if they could halt the meeting to get them away. They assigned she-wolves to look after them and they would remain in contact whilst the little ones slept. Even wolf cubs with their little ears can only mentally hear within a certain range. Urmi and the leaders readily agreed. There was an interval, during which time Urmi noticed Prateek talking with a lot of his friends in their local packs.

"Gather and be still friends." BarkBreath called out to all the wolves present. Let our own Hybrid speak, for she reveals her thoughts on this matter.
"My brothers and sisters of the wolf, there is now a common foe amongst us and it is no longer Man, but these pale skin interlopers and their Werewolves who are killing machines. We cannot sit idly by. We are wolves, some of us are part human too, but we are all Indians. We must unite with our fellow Indians in killing the invaders and forcing their retreat. They have butchered thousands of Indians, Man including their females and cubs, but worse still they have massacred hundreds of fellow wolves. They need to be stopped. You cannot fight them on full moon, but you can fight the pale skins."
"But who will fight their werewolves then if not us?" demanded WhiteFang over the chaos that ensued in the mental uproar.
"We will." Prateek and Urmi stood side by side now on the top of a rock ledge in full view of all the leaders. "We will stand against them, and we will find others like us or ask your own Hybrids to join us. You can only fight fire with fire. We will be your flame. We will fight not for Man, or even just for wolf; but for our country. We will fight. Who will join us?"

The words echoed out in the dead silence of night like a blade cutting through cloth. Within seconds unknown Hybrids chimed in "we shall" and they stood side by side with the Twins. Meanwhile a chorus of "Ayes and "Yeses" and "we will" rang out like a chime of mental bells peeling in defiant rapture at their call. But BarkBreath was dismayed at how few they were, despite the bravery in their words. They would die for their new cause.
"But do they not have more numbers than you? " asked WhiteFang. "Are they not more trained, more motivated as they're bred for destruction?"
"Yes," agreed Urmi. " They are ten times our numbers, more maybe. But they don't have what we have."
"And what is that? asked BarkBreath whilst all listened in silence.
"These!"

From the dark, seemingly out of nowhere they came. A huge white wolf and his Man. They were unnaturally quick, the both of them almost as one blur. There was shock at the man and shouts of dismay...

"Brothers and sisters," spoke the white werewolf, luminous in the dark and glowing like the moon. My name is Snow and I will stand with you against these abominations. This is my mate, and he is NOT just any Man, he is a Vampire. We will help you in your cause, we will stand by you and defeat your enemies."
And the moon seemed to shine brighter, and a great quiet came over the awed audience. They'd never seen a wolf like him before, he was huge. And the man glowed as bright with his pale skin and his sharp teeth that held fangs. He was stood with his hands running through the thick fur of this great wolf. Surely they were something from legend.

Urmi and Prateek both said together in unison.
"We will fight to the death with you every day, but on full moons we alone, us Hybrids will crush the werewolves in their Bloodlust. We fight to save us. We fight for survival. Who will join us?"
And into the night went hundreds of howls so that the very stars shook and the trees dropped leaves and needles.

This was going to be a hell of a war!




© .Garry Saunders