Velka slammed her paws into the table, looking at the wolf hags before herself with a heavy gaze, trying, desperately, to imitate bravery that she simply did not feel. Six wolf hags were before her, all snarling and itching to dominate each other. Aside from herself, only one more scout was in the room, a wolf hag, whose pack had become too small to the point that she had to be incorporated into another pack.

They were gathered in a temporary empty warehouse. She asked the engineers to give them some privacy while timing her request for the presence of the wolf hags with a mandatory checkup from Svetlana. Velka knew full well how humiliating these checkups were for the wolf hags, she herself hated being stripped down before the medic, while Svetlana was checking her body for any signs of damage and making her do stretching to see if Velka regained her freedom of movement. And sometimes the damned medic also forced the pack to consume vitamins and bland-tasting pills. Every single wolfkin in the pack tried their best to evade a medical checkup, females went as far as to willingly work with males for the sake of this goal.

"Why are we here?" Hine, a sole wolf hag in power armor, demanded to know. Her head was bare, showing a snout covered with scars. Her left cheek was torn asunder and badly stitched together, drops of blood still visible on her skin. A brow over her right eye was missing, torn away by a bullet. A patch of tanned flesh now covered her brow, not even fur grew in this place. Hine was the weakest wolf hag in the Martyshkina’s pack, one who was always dominated by others. So she cheated by wearing power armor everywhere she went. When any wolf hag challenged her, Hine would instantly attack the other female, without allowing rules to be established. Olesya used to kick her ass several times after Siri’s death, before stopping abruptly after her minor brawl with Aranea, "Where is Olesya? How dare she be late?"

"About that…" Velka let out a breath, "I summoned you here on her behalf, but without her knowledge…"

"You mean you lied to us about the declaration." Danulka snapped at Velka. The wolf hag threw up a hooked knife, catching the blade on the tip of her finger without allowing the blade to cut her skin. She threw the knife up again, leaving a slash on the steel ceiling of the warehouse. Danulka was the oldest wolf hag in the warlord’s pack, but few could tell this from her appearance. Martyshkina paid for a rejuvenation shot for Danulka, and now the wolf hag looked even younger than Velka, her thick black fur was glistering in the light, despite the harsh battle yesterday. Like all the others, save for Hine, she was wearing camouflage trousers and a shirt.

"Hardly, we all know that Martyshkina will appoint Olesya in charge of her pack once she wakes up…" Velka tried to say, but Hine cut her off.

"You dare to presume what the warlord thinks?"

"Martyshkina was always spending the most time with her," One of the wolf hags said, and Velka felt a tingle of relief at the support, "She clearly wanted the girl to lead one day. Even if Olesya chooses not to push for the position, the pack needs a leader right now. I say we kick her into position and bare our throats."

"You said it yourself. One day. Doesn’t mean right now." Hine glanced at the wolf hag.

"Listen, we can argue all day," Velka let out her claws, allowing them to bite into the wooden table. Her wolf hag called for Aranea. This undoubtedly means that she no longer trusts her own pack and doesn’t feel confident proceeding on her own. Olesya saved their lives by stalling the Huntsman and they failed her. I must find a way to convince them, Olesya is not in shape to fight now, "But at the end of the day, will any of you dare to challenge her?"

"Nope," Danulka caught the knife, putting it behind her belt, and Velka felt a brief relief. Up until recently, Danulka was the strongest wolf hag in the pack, bar none. If she was backing down, then everything might just work out, "She is about to become the size of a shaman. I ain’t touching that. ‘sides, she did rescue the warlord’s bacon. You made your point, and the pack must have a leader. I will bare my neck for her. Anybody who wants to refuse to bare her neck to Olesya is free to say this to me first." The other wolf hags threw glances at her, licking their lips.

Velka could almost hear what they were thinking. All the changes in Martyshkina’s pack used to be sealed with blood and through brawls to let out negative emotions. As Martyshkina often said, blood and pain are the favorite currency of change. Now the wolf hags start to wonder how to seal this change without overly harming themselves.

"That’s not why I called you!" Velka shouted in worry, retracting the claws. No, I can’t let this end up in a brawl. Not right now! She straightened up, "Listen, Olesya is going through a lot of shit right now."

"She is becoming a skinwalker, you mean." Hine said, scratching her wounded chin, tearing at stitches.

Yeah, and I am freaking out about this as well. Velka thought and shook her head, "That’s beside the point! But we need to support her. So…" She took a deep breath, "I say we extend Olesya’s rules over the entire pack."

"I'm not stopping domination," Danulka frowned, quickly catching to the point of the issue, "It is a natural way for us to live."

"Don’t stop, just…" Velka desperately tried to think of something, "Be considerable! Yeah, that’s it! If both opponents agree to a domination round, approve it. If it is a ranking match, sure, go ahead. But don’t allow domination for the sake of domination! At least until the war is over."

"Are we to become soft as normies, then?" Hine growled, "Abandon the teachings of the blessed mother?"

"Aranea and her pack don’t beat the shit out of each other," Velka pointed, "Anyone here feel stronger than Leila? Olesya decided to adapt Aranea’s ideas and look where she is now."

"She is becoming a skinwalker," Danulka objected, and the other wolf hags nodded, "She never takes off her armor, she no longer drinks with us, her visor hides her face, and only the warlord ever saw her without armor…"

"The wolf hag is not becoming a skinwalker," Velka lied and slapped her paws against the table, drawing the attention of all. She could feel the bloodlust coming from them, none of them were used to allowing a mere scout to tell a wolf hag what to do. Being here already was an insult to them, they tolerated her this long only because she was a scout of the strongest wolf hag in the pack. But she strained the limits of their patience, "She is… I think that she is still bearing the injuries from her fight with Huntsman. She will come around in time. In the meantime, wolf hag Olesya is to fulfill the duty of our warlord, and for this she needs our full support. And we are to provide one." Velka finished with a hint of steel in her voice.

"A little scout issues a command to us?" Hine hissed softly, releasing a single claw the size of a knife and looking lovably at it for a while, before gently taking the table, "Make me," Hine said, throwing the table to the wall. The wood shattered into pieces while the wolf hag advanced on Velka, releasing her claws, "To the first blood."

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"Agreed." Velka half-whimpered, half-whispered, coming to face the wolf hag, while others formed a circle around them.

I am so screwed. Velka panicked, cursing this stupid idea, cursing this idiotic man, and cursing herself for trusting him. Above all, Kayleen and Andrea, she should never, ever have listened to them!

Velka walked to the circle of the wolf hags, looking at her opponent in full power armor. Hine was known for her little restraint in combat, but now she was leaving Velka no chances at all, not with the working power armor covering her body. Still, her duty demanded her to try. Velka ducked low, ready to charge. Her back hurt. Despite the medicine, her superior body and the overbearing care of Svetlana, the strain of the passing day caused her fingers to twitch and sudden pain to lash her from time to time. Her bones healed, but it will take weeks, if not months, before any and all side effects of her injury will be gone.

Velka blinked when Danulka threw the hooked knife to her. Scared to near death, Velka caught the knife for the handle, noticing that it was still in its sheath.

The scout took out the knife the moment Hine was on her. Velka didn’t think, she forced herself to ignore the cruel looking claws of her foe that moved toward her snout. She struck with the knife, aiming for Hine’s face. Just a cut. A single cut. Her torn snout will heal. If Velka loses an eye, so be it. She was never one to shy away from augmetics. A cut. Just be first. The scout had to have the back of her wolf hag. For the pack. For the…

Both fighters charged past each other, and blood fell on the floor. Velka felt how her blood turned to ice, she was expecting tearing pain to hit her at any second, that horrible sensation of burn, when your muscles and flesh lay bared to the air. She blinked when the wolf hags around her started laughing and turned around.

Hine stood, laughing with a suddenly oversized mouth. Her right cheek had been slashed all the way to her jawbone, and a piece of it was hanging from her snout, filling her armor with blood traces. Her claws were retracted, and the wolf hag walked toward Velka, patting her on the shoulder:

"Gotta see what sort of pups Olesya was breeding. Ain’t a bad lot, lemme tell ya that, but ya skills are lacking," Hine spoke with a strange thick accent, mangling half of the world from the blood that was filling her throat. The wolf hag swallowed the blood and continued, "Blood and pain were paid in full. Count us in, we won’t cause any problems for the would-be skinwalker. Find me tomorrow."

"Why?" Velka asked weakly, still hardly believing that she was whole.

As I read in a book once, "A good spirit needs a good body. If Oleska becomes a warlord, we need to kick you up a level as well," The snout of Hine appeared before Velka’s eyes, her jaws snapped, spraying blood, "I will see you be a wolf hag yet."

I am not fit to be a wolf hag! Back when Siri was still alive and was still the wolf hag, she and Olesya always fought, marking the hides of each other with claws and bites, eager to show who was the dominating one. But now… Olesya was so far ahead of her by now, Velka simply wasn’t chosen by the Spirits to become a wolf hag, so what’s the point in even trying to become someone you weren’t meant to be? Her duty now was to support the growth of her wolf hag for the sake of the tribe.

Before Velka could say anything, a door leading to a warehouse flung open and a shrieking voice said:

"What do you think you are doing, hiding from the checkup?" Svetlana, dressed in the uniform of a field medic, stormed inside, her coat swirling behind her, "You damn well know the ru… What in the freaking abyss is this!" She shrieked like a harpy, pointing at Hine’s wound, "We just survived a fucking battle! Haven’t you spilled enough blood by now?!"

"Velka did it." Hine quickly said, pointing at the knife in Velka’s paw.

Great. Sveta is going to murder me. Velka smiled weakly when the medic looked furiously at her before grabbing Hine by the arm and dragging the wolf hag after herself. Olesya and Martyshkina both forbade harming the medic, but the wolf hags quickly discovered how tenacious Svetlana can be when it comes to the pack's well-being. Sometimes it was better to let her have her way.

****

"… And that’s the entire problem." Aranea drunkenly hiccupped, reaching for another bottle of booze. She, Olesya, and Annie were sitting at the table, listening to her tale of how Ivar set her up for the interview. Just like Annie, Olesya was drinking booze and was busy crushing fried ribs of a cusack between her fangs, swallowing both meat and bone alike. Annie only drank juice, mixing the meat with vegetables and spitting out the bones on the table.

"Bah, barely worth a worry," Annie laughed, and the duo looked at her. The wolf hag closed her eye and tapped upon the eyelid, "Just wear a damned eyepatch. Aranea is a common name, and ice boys should have no idea how you look. There, problem solved," Annie said quietly as she poured more juice for herself, "just do me a solid and don't lower yourself on your knees in front of the reporters."

"Why would I even do this!?"

"This sounds awfully personal." Olesya noted.

"You have no idea," Annie replied darkly, "but it's time for me to get back to the barracks and sleep off forever. Or at least until my bones are fixed." She stood up with a groan, holding her injured side.

Aranea stayed with Olesya for a while, remembering the past days, sharing gossip about their packs and drinking themselves to oblivion. Finally, Aranea excused herself, leaving Olesya’s room and finding her way to the barracks and her bed, one hour prior to sunrise. She fell like a dead person and slipped into a deep sleep.

Aranea opened her eyes to the sound of raging waves and smiled upon seeing the storm clouds above her. The wolf hag could feel the raging cold wind even through her fur, and finally, after all this time, she understood where she felt this cold before. The ice cave. Aranea stretched her arms and legs, noticing that her body moved around with ease in this dream world, her mind was clear and unclouded, despite the impressive amount of alcohol that now circled in her veins.

Ravager\Aranea stood where she left her, at the cliff, with a roaring ocean of dark water behind her, imprisoned in a hunched position. The waves crashed against the stone, covering both of them with droplets of water. The chains were deeply buried into the body of the creature, reaching all the way to the bones, ensuring that the mighty beast couldn’t ever escape.

With a snap of her claws, Aranea made the chains disappear, giving back freedom to her darker self.

"Are you ready then?" Ravager\Aranea smiled fiercely, straightening herself up and creating a wet popping sound with each movement of her joints. The wounds on her hide disappeared, the blood was gone, and for the first time, Aranea saw her own features in the distorted image of the beast before her, "A road of blood and dea…"

"Be silent for a second," Following her will, the surroundings changed and both she and Ravager\Aranea fell face down in the snow near the house where Twins lived. Aranea stood up, shaking the snow off her fur, while Ravager\Aranea looked around warily, retreating to a black forest behind her, "Stop being stubborn, moron. Go into the house, friends are waiting for you," She looked into eyes filled with rage, "The fault is with me and me alone. Not with my cursed blood, not with my other half, I was curious and disobeyed my mom and dad. And they paid for it." Aranea felt silent for a moment.

"Don’t you dare to deny me the punis…"

"You have done nothing," Aranea cut her off standing up and growing to be larger than Ravager\Aranea, "We were all just a victim of the ambitions of others. And I am done hurting others for my mistake," She lowered herself, gently grabbing the beast before her by the shoulders and holding her in place, not allowing Ravager\Aranea to slither back into the darkness, "I will never become you. And never will fully accept you. But I will no longer harm or deny you. You are part of me." The dream world around Aranea disappeared when she felt a touch.

Aranea woke up to Sonya’s confused face. The scout pointed at the clock, indicating that the interview was soon to start. Aranea jumped off the bed, intending to run toward the shower when she heard a tearing sound. Her pants and t-shirt were suddenly too small for her body, and looking over herself, Aranea understood the scout’s confusion. She grew anew, and not by a little. When Aranea looked in the mirror, she noticed that she was at least fifteen centimeters taller, that all traces of hangover were gone from her body, and that her head was as clear as crystal. Lack of sleep no longer bothered her, and bruises and cuts were all gone from her body. But most shockingly of all was a new set of claws on her left paw, the broken remains of her ruined ones were lying near her bed.

Looking in the mirror one more time, Aranea saw that her eyes were glowing slightly. Upon closing an eye, she could see an ember of light even through her eyelid.

Definitely gonna need an eyepatch. The wolf hag decided, upon seeing how a dim crimson light was showing from underneath her closed eye.