BOOK TWO
Chaos In College
Chapter 1 - Stolen
POV - Chaos
The cargo hold. I'm flying to Montana in the cargo hold of a plane. In a dog crate. Labeled "wild animal", that seriously has a "don't feed the bears" sticker on it. Above me, passengers are getting tray tables, mini-liquor bottles, in-flight movies and peanuts, while my in-flight entertainment is to watch two chihuahuas lose their shit over the wild animal in the next crate.
I check the attendant, in the jumper seat down here. He seems comfortable, but is he asleep yet? Come on, buddy, give Chaos a good snore… He snorted. Does that count? Does a snort mean the same as a snore? Best wait. I promised to be a "good boy" until we got there, but those little fart sniffers in that crate need to remember their place on the food chain. They haven't shut up for the whole flight yet, including the forty-five minutes it took passengers to load after we were.
A test. I stand up and shake, rattling the dog tag on my collar. I haven't worn this thing since we turned fifteen, but it's part of the appearance needed. The attendant doesn't move. Excellent… I fix the fart sniffers with a look and go full menace, hackles raised, lips full snarl, snap! They yip and retreat. I think they both peed. Run my little one bite morsels, and shut up! The attendant wakes up, but I'm all innocent puppy here. No idea what frightened the poor darling babies in tutus. They're probably just being high-strung.
I'm actually not in a bad mood right now. For the first time since late spring, when we turned seventeen and discovered it, the bond is quiet. Still very red, slightly irritated, but no longer the fire hot poker it's been for four months. Alpha was right, distance is helping. Hopefully with the yappers quiet and the bond subdued, I can actually get a good nap. Kyas had long since been asleep.
Just as I curl up and tuck my nose under my tail, the plane heaves a violent bump. What's this? How are their bumps in the sky? And just like that, my first experience on air travel was ruined. The rest of the flight was filled with unknown bumps, some mild, some pretty violent, so violent I was thrown around in my crate numerous times and feared something was about to rip the plane apart on many occasions. Never again! If I survive this, I'll run across the continent to get home, I'll take months on my own four feet, but I'm not getting on another plane ever! Kyas agreed.
When we finally heard the sound of rubber screeching on pavement I collapsed in exhaustion we made it. I looked over at the fart sniffers. We made it brothers. We're survivors! They looked back at me. I think they were still more scared of me. Safe on the ground, I gave an inward grin. It took about twenty minutes after landing for the plane to taxi to a stop and forklifts started unloading the cargo, with me and the tutu boys one of the first items off. We were taken to a holding bay for pick up. There were more crates from other flights here, some containing other big animals with "wild animal" labels. I wondered if any of these are my new classmates?
A man with a clipboard came around, issuing orders on where to put various things.
"Ok, guys, we have to be careful with the wolves here, there's two different breeding programs up state and we've got wolves going to each of them so we don't want to mix them up. Let's put Trailcreek over here, and Rexford over there." he said. I was Trailcreek. I looked to see if any of the other crates were going my way, other shifters going in wolf form perhaps? There were not. Three were Rexford, I was the only Trailcreek.
Idiots sat us facing each other. Eye contact was a challenge for wolves and they pretty much set us all up for trouble. Lucky for them, I'm not stupid, and I laid down with my back to all of them, so the only ones they could squabble with was each other. After about an hour, the keepers from Rexford appeared to show up. A lady and a man in classic zoo keeper khakis walked right up to the three crates.
"Ok, we've got Lobo, Remus, and Sirius… I swear since that wizard series came out they're either all named after that one or the vampire ones. Let's get these load- Oh my God!" she said as she spotted me. She startled me, I was just watching stuff.
"Frank! Come look at this guy!" she said, stalking toward my crate, a man breaking away from the other wolf crates to follow her. She she bent down to see directly into the dog crate. "Hello, handsome! Chaos is it? Aren't you just the most beautiful thing? I bet you live up to that, huh?"
Why… Thank you. Eat your heart out. Look but don't touch. I just stare back at her. She stood up, and looked around. I… did not like that look. It looked… sneaky. "Frank, let's load him too." Wait, what? That's a theft lady! Frank put his hand on my crate, and I lunged for it, shocking him. I couldn't get to him, but maybe I could scare him into leaving me be.
"Susan, he's not on our manifest, what if his program comes looking for him?" Frank said.
"They probably don't know what he looks like. Once we get one of our trackers on him, they'll have a hard time proving which wolf is theirs, we can give them one of the underachievers, if they figure out it was us. Load him first." she said. He went for my crate again and I went for his hand again, but this time he didn't let go. They were seriously going to do it! I'm… not sure how I feel about being stolen for… wolf stud? Ok, ego check, but still.
Airport security! Hello! I started barking, but no one came. They actually put me in the van! They quickly loaded the other three and drove away. I couldn't see where we were going! They stopped, apparently at a security gate. They handed the guard some paperwork. He shone a flashlight into the back.
"This says three, but I count four. Explain that." he said. Yes! I barked some more, to tell him something was wrong. Good security guard, get me out!
"Previous pick up from Kalispell on the way up." Susan lied.
"Ok, have a good day." he said. What?? That's it? Bad security guard. Ask for the paperwork! And just like that, they pulled off a wolf heist! I panicked a little bit, I didn't know what to do. This was NOT on the itinerary!
'Relax, Chaos, the school will find us. We're not exactly a normal wolf, and airport records will show what other places picked up from there today.' Kyas said.
'So… what do we do?' I asked.
'Nothing to do, might as well settle in for the ride. Get that nap we missed on the plane.' he said.
I sighed and lay down, noticing the other wolves had done the same, and soon the gentle movements of the moving vehicle had me remembering when Alpha took us home from Cedar River, our first pack. I drifted off to sleep.