1. The Last Dire Wolf

**ACT I: The Markers**

The world used to bright, thriving place. Life peacefully resumed throughout the planet day by individual day. It seemed that prosperity was achieved by all species'…until the humans came. The supposed superior species of the planet, a sentient a life from capable of creating objects, machines, and weapons of mass destruction from the earth was what the hated species was known for. For years, humans waged countless wars, most of them futile battles that could have been easily avoided, but the humans' bloodlust negated that possibility. They destroyed the habitats of animals, even causing them to go extinct.

In the year 2023, two wolves, an Alpha she-wolf named Kate, and an Omega wolf named Humphrey, had been thrust into a world of the humans' war. Humphrey had mated with Kate after the unification of the Eastern and Western wolf packs of Canada's Jasper Park. Several moons after they unification, Humphrey began to be plagued with haunting visions of death and destruction, told in no uncertain terms that he was to find a place called the Dark Heart. He dismissed the nightmares as random phenomena, a side-effect of bad food, refusing to heed the warnings of the Dark Wolf that plagued his dreams.

Shortly after Kate became pregnant, a Mad Wolf had been found in the Jasper territory feeding upon the dying body of a lone wolf traveling through the territory. Humphrey and one of the Alpha wolves, Candu, came across the diseased abomination and warned the pack. After weeks of no sightings, life resumed its normal stature. The Dark Wolf, however, was persistent; he knew that if Humphrey did not travel to the Dark Heart, then every wolf in the pack would die. He devised a plan to use the Mad Wolf in a regrettable way: he sent it to attack Humphrey. In the attack, Humphrey's friend, Shakey, was killed in trying to protect his friend. Humphrey killed the Mad Wolf and held his friend as his life slipped away from his body.

Humphrey, now convinced, snuck out of the territory to find the Dark Heart. Humphrey, as he was leaving, ran into his father in law, Winston, who told him that the Dark Heart was the name of the heart of Jasper, a place of shadow and evil, but no one truly knew why it was so. When Humphrey crossed the River Border and into the old Eastern Pack Territory, he met a black-furred lone wolf that called himself Scourge. Scourge was formerly a wolf named Nicholas, but after the destruction of his pack at the paws of the humans, he had lived as a lone wolf called Scourge. He knew what was in the Dark Heart, and he knew how to get Humphrey there. When they took refuge in the old Eastern Pack Den, they came into contact with monstrous, human-made creatures called Longfangs. They were large, hideous, furless creatures with snake-like tails, muscular yet lithe bodies, pale skin, and a gaping maw of massive fangs. They had no eyes, only two large slits and large ears to find its prey. They had brought another of Humphrey's friends, Mooch, to the den and tore him to pieces. Humphrey soon discovered that Tony, the former Eastern Leader Wolf had been sacrificing wolves of his pack to feed the Longfangs, even his mate and Garth's siblings. As they traveled, the humans attacked Jasper Park, annihilating the caribou herds in the valley to set up a military instillation for their war to ensue. Marcel, Paddy, and Paddy's former lover, a crazed pintail duck named Iris, led them away from the Pack Den to the highlands deeper Jasper.

Humphrey and Scourge found the Dark Heart and were horrified to see that the remnants of the humans that made up the crippled United States Military had set up camp in the Dark Heart to wage a war against the lands of China, Russia, and several more enemy lands. In their escape, Paddy was tragically killed by a human weapon, Iris staying behind with Paddy as they made their harried escape to the highlands. Kate, in anger for Humphrey leaving her, lashed out at him and tore her claws into his face, leaving three jagged scars underneath his right eye.

When he and Scourge had tried to explain what they saw in the Dark Heart, Tony convinced them that they were insane and that they could retake the Pack Den with ease. Humphrey told them they had to leave; he was guided by the spirit of the Dark Wolf he'd seen in his nightmare, his Spirit Guide named Sam. He encouraged them to leave and seek out the legendary Pack of the Winter Mountains, noble descendants of the Dire Wolves that lived in the mythical Winter Mountains. The pack had laughed in his face for believing in the ancient pup's tale and they traveled back to the valley.

The humans had set up their base in the valley, littering the pile of caribou and hunting patrol wolves in a large pile at the bottom of the valley. When Tony had sent wolves down to retrieve the caribou and scavenge their remains, wolves began to die from a result of a human poison that they'd put in the corpses. Tony challenged his son, Garth, to a dominance battle for control of the pack. He had raped and beat Lily, but her barren nature meant that she would not become pregnant. Tony began to fight Garth, but Garth began to lose miserably, Tony ready to kill him. Humphrey, however, had joined the fray as well and took Tony's life, helping his brother in law to his paws to resume control of the pack.

That night, Kate, Winston, Eve, Humphrey, Garth, and Lily had gone to the valley to observe the humans. In a rash, bloodthirsty decision, Eve attacked one of the humans, tearing him apart as starvation tore at the vestiges of her sanity. Eve was killed and decapitated, and a funeral was held the next dawn. Kate gave Humphrey a bracelet that she had created for him to remember her by. It was made with twigs and reeds, three violet petals from her favorite flower encased in sap and embedded in the bracelet, safe from the harmful ravages of time. Then, in a fateful attack, the war began, and the humans' new weapon obliterated the earth, forcing them away. There were over one hundred and sixteen wolves in the pack; only fifteen had survived. After being separated from the rest, Humphrey and Kate tried to find another way around, but Kate's water had broken. He discovered that a metal shard had become lodged in her she-wolfhood, forcing him to cut her belly open to save the pups. Only one of them had survived, a small grey she-pup named Kala. Humphrey, through the pain and hurt, took Kate's life to spare her of a slow, painful death. That night, the survivors left, Humphrey assuming the role as Leader Wolf as he led them to the Pack of the Winter Mountains, leaving Jasper Park behind forever.

Over two moons later, Humphrey's daughter, Kala, was being cared for by her aunt and uncle Garth and Lily. Despite the torture of her cousin, Firetail, Kala was loved in the pack, but Humphrey isolated himself from her, keeping his identity secret. They traveled to the mountains and one night, Kala was attacked by Sam in her dreams as to gain Humphrey's attention. Sam told Humphrey that he had to tell Kala that he was her father, and he knew that it was time for her to hear the truth, but he was terrified that she'd hate him for neglecting her for the vast majority of her life.

When he came back, he was met with a lone she-wolf named Kacey who was also a lone survivor of a human-destroyed pack, requesting to come with them. Humphrey hesitantly and warily allowed her to do so, and he revealed to Kala who he was. She hated and loved him at the same time for doing this to her, but she was ecstatic to have her father back in her life. Through the course of their journey north, Humphrey and Kacey became close and eventually, with the blessing of Kate, became mates. Marcel had found the Jasper wolves and, to their surprise, had Iris with them. After hearing a gunshot in their escape, they assumed that Iris had died, when in truth, she had only lost her left eye. After a year and several moons of long, grueling travel, they were attacked by a strange pack of wolves called the Jagged Ice Pack. They were religious fanatics that worshipped the wolf gods Fenrir and Fenrisúlfur, but they were wrong in their beliefs, for Fenrir was the cursed God of War and Fenrisúlfur was his mate, the Goddess of Guidance.

Kala eventually began to fall in love with one of the wolves from the Jagged Ice pack, a blue-grey furred wolf named Faolan, someone that Humphrey did not trust. Humphrey impregnated Kacey and shortly after, Kala decided that she wanted to go through the ancient Trials to become what the Jagged Ice pack referred to as becoming a 'Full Wolf.'

She requested this of the Jagged Ice Leader Wolf, Saren, to take part in the Trials. As she completed each individual Trial, Kacey gave birth to three pups: Ryker, Luna, and Kate. In the final Trial, Kala was forced to fight another wolf to the death, for only one wolf was ever allowed to pass the Trials. That wolf was her own cousin, Firetail. In desperation and near-loss of her life, Kala struck down Firetail, tearing his life away in front of his horrified and distraught parents, Lily and Garth. The she-wolves of the Jagged Ice pack were whores, meant for breeding as many pups as possible to take part in the Trials and make their pack strong. Even Faolan had admitted to his killing other wolves at the end of the Trials. That night, a stone structure from the Jagged Ice Mountain rose to the sky.

Within was an alien monstrosity that infected the living and turned them into twisted life after death mutations called necromorphs. Saren had abused Humphrey's sister Narami and she became the first of the necromorphs. The stone structure known as the Marker rose into the sky and released a dark wave over the planet. The first was a tactical pulse, only meant to infect creatures in the near vicinity of the Marker with the necromorphs virus. The second, however, was meant to awake the other three Markers in the world and ready them for activation to raise the horrible Black Marker from the depths of the ocean. If that were to happen, then the planet would be doomed to the necromorphs.

Humphrey, the prophesied Great Wolf that would destroy the Markers discovered his involvement in two legends: the Great Wolf, and the Legend of the Grey, a wolf that would bring peace and prosperity to the world. He and Kala rushed to stop Saren and destroy the Marker, but Kala was impaled by an icicle thrown by Saren. At the end of the night, the Marker was destroyed as well as all of the Jagged Ice wolves save for Faolan, who, like the Jasper wolves, had survived. Kala was revived by the will of Lupus and Lupa, and Humphrey, in a vision, was told by his mate that she'd be in a type of dormant state, for the wolf gods Lupus and Lupa had granted her a second chance at life in the form of Humphrey and Kacey's pup that bore her namesake yet still possess a separate spirit. They left the lands of the mountains, knowing that Saren was still on the loose and gathering a dark army of wolves that would do anything to raise the Markers. It was time to find the Pack of the Winter Mountains, to end the darkness once and for all.

My name is Kala; my name means Wolf of the Stars. I am the daughter of the Jasper survivor Leader Wolf Humphrey.

I have failed to help my father keep the pack safe. Now, we hang precariously from vines snared around us, staring down into a dark pit that would surely be our deaths. My father was struggling next to me, trying to free himself of the vines and reach the ledge nearby that would allow us salvation from our doom, but there was nothing that he could do, nothing that anyone could do. I stared down blankly as he desperately tried to reach the ledge. The Black Blood wolves howled with laughter as they watched his feeble attempts, taunting us as we hung. The darkness below would swallow us whole whenever the Black Bloods chose to cut the vines, sending us plummeting to the ground untold miles down in the depths of the pit.

"Dad," I murmured, defeated. Immediately, he looked back to me. It took all of my willpower to resist the urge to cringe at his heavily scarred body. The right side of his face was caked in dried blood, his right ear torn, blood running down his face.

"Kala," he said, beginning to swing. "If we can swing back and forth, we can reach that ledge over there and find the others. This isn't over yet, Kala, we still-"

"Don't you get it?" I snarled at him. His eyes widened in shock from the force of my words, but I was beyond care at this moment. A year of endless, bloody war, betrayal, death, and chaos and it tends to cripple your soul and morale. "It is over; we failed, Dad. Saren won." I said the last bit with bitter hollowness in my voice. He averted his gaze but did not give up. Humphrey had always had a stubborn knack of refusing to give up; he probably got that from his first mate. As we hung so precariously, certain death greeting us with cold claws, my thoughts drifted back to the events of the past year…back to the winter after we left the Jagged Ice Mountains…

Three Hundred and Seventy-Eight Days Prior

"Kala!" Kate complained. "I'm hungry!" Kala rolled her eyes, ignoring the she-pup as they walked through the rolling hills. The long grass swayed as the wind gently carried it. It had been two days since the Jasper wolves had escaped the mountains, the autumn moons already in their peak, steadily nearing the frigid cold of winter.

"Me too!" Luna cried, nosing Kala's leg. "I'm hungry too!" Kala grinded her fangs together; the pups' complaining had become incessantly more annoying as they went on, and some reason compelled them to complain to Kala about it. What was the point of trying to talk to Kala when they were hungry? They were pups, of course; they wouldn't know that Kala was not yet old enough to supply milk for them. Kacey had already given her supply of it to the pups and Lily was barren, unable to do so anymore, for after she had fed Kala the small supply that she had, it had completely disappeared; naturally, the pups sought out the only other she-wolf in the pack, assuming that Kala would be able to feed them. Faolan constantly teased her about it, but she brushed away his teasing and tried her best to ignore the pups.

It wasn't long before she came to the realization that ignoring them wasn't, perhaps, the best idea she'd ever had. If anything, it only made them more annoying than before. Ryker, however, was the pups' secret weapon. Naturally quiet and spending most of his time with Scourge, a similarly quiet and solitary wolf in the pack, he was able to beg the best. He didn't need to say a word to get what he wanted; all he had to do was look up at a wolf with his large, puppyish eyes to convince them. Of course, Kala could not offer them milk, but whenever she was sharing prey with Kacey, Humphrey, Faolan, or any other wolf in the pack, the pups would come to her to beg for more food. Kala-being the generous she-wolf that she was-would always cave and give them meat, leaving her belly growling at her throughout the night.

This invited Faolan to embarrass her by nuzzling her belly sweetly and coo to it as though there were pups inside of her. On one occasion, however, Humphrey overheard them and thought that they actually had mated and impregnated his daughter, resulting in him almost killing the former Jagged Ice wolf until Kala was able to make him calm down and see that Faolan was only joking. She had, however, begun to sleep with Faolan rather than beside Humphrey, Kacey, and the pups. This was-of course-to Humphrey's utter dismay and disapproval, but Winston was actually the one that was able to make him see that she was a grown she-wolf and therefore had the right to be with him if she so chose. Kala was both surprised and grateful for Winston's intervention in the matter, but he'd always been a kindly, helpful grandfather to her since the time that she could talk. 'If only he could help get these pups out of my fur,' she thought hotly.

She had tried to get Marcel and Iris to do so, and they were delighted to have the chance to play with the pups. Delighted, of course, for the first few seconds before they actually played with them. 'Playing' was such a light term when it came to the pups, especially in this stage of their lives when they were still teething. On too many occasions, the pups would get a bit carried away and forget that the birds were not food. Marcel started speaking in infuriated French when he felt Kala's jaws close in around his leg. Even her small teeth, harmless as they were, could still manage to hurt him.

They decided to keep their distance since that incident, leaving Kala to deal with them. With the beaming sunlight and sources of food and water often placed at great lengths from one another, Kala's ability to remain sane and even try to provide for the pups the things they wanted was seldom existent. Kala finally stopped when Ryker sat in front of her and looked up at her with his large, dark blue eyes. He flattened his ears and made himself appear to be far smaller than he really was. Kala was overtaken by the urge to comfort him and provide for the pup despite her inability to truly do so. She gulped and took a shaky breath. He flattened his body to the ground and whimpered, staring up at her. Kala sighed and looked down at herself. It wasn't as though she had ever been pregnant or ever had any aspiration to become pregnant, much less care for pups, but she had to do something for her siblings. She told them to stay put and padded up to Humphrey. His bright, lively blue eyes met her amber eyes.

"The pups need some food," she explained to him. "I'm going to stay behind with them and try to catch them something." He nodded in understanding.

"Don't be long," he told her, nuzzling her cheek. "We'll slow down a bit and wait for you a few miles up." She nodded and thanked him, turning tail to return to the pups. She had lied to her father, however; she wasn't lying about feeding them, but she knew full well there was no prey in these hills, not for a few miles at least. Once they were out of sight, Kala laid her body on the ground and exposed her belly to the pups. She had no idea what she was doing; she was probably too young to do it, but the pups were starving, and she felt obligated to at least do something.

The pups approached her cautiously, as though now hesitant to ask their elder sister for milk. Then again, Kala had been given milk by her aunt when her mother couldn't provide for them. They slunk forward on their bellies and approached Kala, and, within moments, she felt an odd twinge as they began to suckle. Evidently, it seemed, she did have some small reserves of milk to give to the pups. She told them to keep it a secret between the four of them and they all immediately agreed. It was mere minutes before she was unable to give them anymore and they began to rambunctiously run about.

Kala rose to her paws and felt drained of energy; she was exhausted and felt as though she wouldn't be able to walk for days. She heard a rustling from the grass and looked to her left to see the blue-grey furred wolf approach her, a warm smile on his face. He had seen everything. Kala flattened her ears to her head in embarrassment, but it did not faze Faolan. He padded up to her and licked her ear, nuzzling her cheek affectionately. She smiled and couldn't resist wagging her tail slightly from his presence.

"That was nice what you did for them," he told her as they began to walk in the direction of the pack, watching as the pups played a friendly game of tag on the way there.

"What were you doing away from the rest?" She asked suspiciously, a smile creeping to her lips. "Are you spying on me now?"

"Well, it depends on your perception of 'spying,'" he replied, smiling at her wryly. "Would you rather me watch you or someone else?" She laughed and leaned against him. He smiled broadly as their tails slightly intertwined. They walked silently together for a long time until they heard the summoning howl of Humphrey from across the hills. Kala was disappointed to be forced away from the moment with Faolan, but the two complied to his call and began to run in his direction, gathering the pups with them. They heard the howl again, this time more desperate. This began to worry Kala; what was wrong with her father?

When they reached the river that the pack was staying at, she was immediately drawn to the sight of the massive creature facing the pack. At first, she was afraid that it was a Longfang, one of the hideous abominations of creatures that she had been nearly killed by on too many occasions. Upon closer examination though, she realized that it was, in fact, a wolf. He was furless, heavily scarred, and had bulging white eyes that symbolized his blindness. Kala grinned ruefully at the sight of Fenrir, the wolf God of War.

The pups were intimidated by him, as was the majority of the pack, but Kala, Faolan, Marcel, and Iris knew better, for they had all been in contact with Fenrir when Kala had undertaken the Trials of the Jagged Ice pack to become a Full Wolf. Ignoring her father's disturbed greeting, Kala ran up and pressed herself against the flesh chest of Fenrir in happiness to see her friend (though she was unsure if Fenrir saw her in the same light).

"I see that you are still alive, Star Wolf," Fenrir rumbled. She stood back from him shyly and nodded with a smile. He turned himself slightly to show his left rear leg-or what was left of it. It was now cut in half, nothing more than a pale stump. Kala's eyes widened at the sight and remembered why he had received the scars: for helping others in need. "I was hoping so; otherwise my loss of my leg to bring you back from the dead would have been in piteous vain."

"Oh, Fenrir!" Kala wailed. "You sacrificed so much already for me to survive. I can't thank you enough." He nodded gruffly as she walked back to join the others. Kala gave Humphrey and the rest of the wolves a brief introduction to Fenrir, the Jasper wolves warily accepting his true identity, though none of them went into detail just how they had managed to mistake Fenrir as the god of all wolves. Whatever the case, it no longer mattered. Fenrir walked to the water's edge-or rather limped-and closed his eyes in prayer.

They stared silently at him until suddenly, he leapt into the water and disappeared beneath the blue-green surface. The river glowed with an eerie aqua radiance and light fell from the sky. Bubbles rose from the depths where Fenrir had dove in. Then, he rose from the water as a new wolf. His leg and regenerated as though he'd never lost it at all. His scars had healed, and his flesh was covered with a thick, luxurious pelt of night black fur. All physical deformations had vanished, though his eyes were closed. When he opened them, they were greeted with bright jade-green eyes. He shook the water from his fur, and then he threw his head back in a long howl. The last dire wolf had returned to the world. Kala could not help but grin at him, Faolan smiling as well as he joined her side.

He ended the howl with a dark snarl and growled, newfound energy flowing through his veins. Although his voice was barely above a whisper, Faolan and Kala could hear a quiet thanks from the god of war: "Thank you, my love." Now, it made sense: Fenrisúlfur had healed him for the journey ahead.

"I assume that this is the Great Wolf, the Grey of legend?" He rumbled, looking at Humphrey. He walked forward, nodding.

"I am," he replied confidently. Fenrir studied him, scrutinizing him as he watched the wolves around him.

"It is an honor, Young Grey," Fenrir said, dipping his head. "Sauromak has told me much of his Life Apprentice."

"You mean Sam?" Humphrey asked him. Fenrir nodded.

"His mind seems to have been addled after ten millennia of guiding others; he doesn't seem to recall his True Name anymore," Humphrey nodded in memory of Sam telling him that in the past. "I have called upon my brothers across the Great Waters to destroy the Green Marker in the highest of the world's peaks. They had reported back successfully."

"I thought that the other Markers were Reds?" Humphrey asked, confused. Fenrir shook his head.

"No, there can only be one type of Marker: The Red, the Green, the Grey, the Blue, and the Black Marker. Two have been destroyed, now we must find the grey and blue and eradicate them before Saren finds them." Humphrey seethed at the mere mention of Saren's hated name. After what he'd done to Narami, Sweets, Firetail, and the entire Jagged Ice Pack, Humphrey wanted nothing more than to see the life bleed from his neck to the ground.

"Do you know where we can find him?" Humphrey asked Fenrir.

"No, I do not," Fenrir sighed. "But I know that he has gathered an army already. An army that is hell-bent on activating the Markers and bringing what the call 'the holy light of the Black Marker back to the earth.'"

"How did he make an army this fast?" Humphrey gasped.

"He was not as secluded from the world outside of the Jagged Ice Mountains as you were led to believe, Young Grey," Fenrir rumbled. "A storm is coming, Young Grey; I will gather the packs that will help us, though they will be few. Meet me at the Western Mountains at the time of the Winter Solstice, and we shall discuss our plans for Saren's downfall. We are at war now, whether you like it or not. There is a chance that not all of your pack mates will survive."

"No," Humphrey protested. "We have to find the Pack of the Winter Mountains first and get their assistance, then I'm keeping my pack there to be safe."

"Dad, you can't just leave us out of the fight!" Kala exclaimed.

"You'll do as I say, Kala," Humphrey growled.

"Humphrey," Kacey said, padding up to her mate. Humphrey's eyes softened when he saw his mate, but still bore much of the protective defiance for his daughter. "She has a point; we will leave those that cannot fight there, but I won't let you go to war without me by your side."

"Whatever the case," Fenrir interrupted. "You must meet us for the Winter Solstice. If you find the Winter Mountains before then, then by all means you may keep your pack there and join us alone, but I can wait no longer after that. I bid you farewell, Young Grey. May my mate and her spirits watch over you." With that, Fenrir dashed across the river, running at breakneck speeds naturally given to all dire wolves. This was not the time to be bickering amongst themselves; now, it was time to go to war…or die.

**A/N: There you have it, chapter one of Out of the Darkness! Sorry, I was going to update and put this up Friday, but I was just too excited to put this up! I'm really excited to share this story with all of you because it'll be going back to the roots of this series and be much like Into the Darkness, though with a more personal war-theme to it, something I hope you'll all enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing! You will also see two new OCs from another writer on this archive, Crowwolf, appear within the next few chapters! In terms of length, the chapters will most likely be longer in terms of words, but for chapters, the story will probably be shorter than Wolves of the Darkness and closer to Into the Darkness. Anyway, thanks for reading Chapter One! Until next time!**

**-The Dishonored Wolf**