The Lure of the Pack (35 page)

With a sudden look of unease written on her face, Katy
Summerfield nimbly stepped out of the Motor-home she was becoming so accustomed
too. “What was that?” she muttered, looking back into the foliage.

“What love, what’s the matter?” Momentarily, Katy’s husband
forgot the sizzling barbeque and glanced at his wife.

“Dad, there’s something over there…there, in the trees!”

“You see, I told you we shouldn’t have parked here for the
night, the cooking is attracting the wildlife.”

As if in a distinct, lupine sneer, Otto Von Kurst’s lips
peeled back from his dark, furred snout. He growled, his ears low, his canid
body symmetrical to the forest floor. And so the hunt begins, he thought. This
will be so easy.

“Don’t worry love, here Ben, have a burger.”

“Dad, something’s growling, I can hear it!”

“What, where?”

Ben Summerfield, his eyes wide with inquisitive fascination,
pointed into the darkness of the treeline. 

Every word spoken by the prey could be heard, the foliage
being perfect cover, at least for the moment. Just a few more metres thought
Von Kurst, then, I strike. Take the adult male first, then the woman and child.
Von Kurst licked his snout, the growing sense of unease in the prey now openly
apparent to his olfactory, lupine senses.

Colin Summerfield felt a slight chill run down his spine as
he walked over to his son.

“Honestly Dad,” there was a marked hint of anxiety in Ben’s
voice, “there’s something in the trees, it’s getting closer.”

Eight metres thought Von Kurst, then you’re mine!

“Alright, get back in the van, QUICKLY! KATY, GET BACK IN
THE VAN!”

Perhaps it was a sixth sense that Colin Summerfield suddenly
experienced, or the distinct growling in the undergrowth that activated his
panic, but at the sight of the blood red eyes peering at him, Colin immediately
realised that both he and his family were in the greatest of danger. “BEN, GET
IN THE VAN, HURRY!”

Now! With an incredible burst of wild power, Otto Von Kurst
dashed from the naturally camouflaged undergrowth, his powerful Were form
leaping forward, his front claws outstretched, smashing into his prey.

As Colin tried to scream a paw slashed across his face, then
another gripped his throat. With a gut-wrenching snarl, the wolf rose up on its
hind legs and roared a terrible, fearful roar.

“OH MY GOD, NOOOOOOOOOOOO,” Katy screamed.

“DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!” Both Katy and Ben froze in fear as the
powerful beast’s razor-sharp canines tore into Colin’s cranium, then his
throat, his blood splattering across the side of the motor-home. As Colin’s
eyes began to bulge from their sockets, the wolf roared again, its teeth and
jaws up close to his torn, mutilated face, its hideous, stinking breath, making
the dying man want to vomit.

But he couldn’t.

As Colin tried to scream, to yell in agony and fear, the
beast threw him against the van with inhuman force. The force of the Were! With
his neck broken, Colin Summerfield slithered down the side of the motor-home in
a welter of blood and gore.

Swiftly, with its tail dancing excitedly, devilishly from
side to side, the smell of blood enticing the creature’s lust for human meat
even further, the wolf turned to the other two whimpering prey. It snarled, its
eyes blood red, cold, unforgiving.

 “MUUUUUUUUUUUM!”

“PLEASE GOD, NOOOOOOOOO!” With a rumbling growl, the wolf
stalked forward, the pitiful screams from Katy Summerfield suddenly abating.
Horrified, she looked across at Ben, his tearful, terrified face staring
pitifully at the fur- laden, vision from hell moving slowly towards him. “LEAVE
MY SON ALONE, YOU HIDEOUS THING,” she yelled, her body trembling with gut
ridden fear.

Perhaps it was the look on Ben’s face, or just the natural,
defensive reaction of a loving mother seeing the boy whom she had given birth
to wet himself in fear, that motivated Katy Summerfield’s courageous response
to the sinister, evil threat now confronting them. Whatever it was, Katy didn’t
have time to think as she ran to the slowly burning barbeque, grabbing the
large meat knife, turning and facing the beast in front of her. Then, in an
instant, Katy noticed Ben had seemingly vanished. Of her terrified son there
was no sign; he had panicked, fleeing into the forest.

Helga, the boy, thought Von Kurst, he’s yours, TAKE HIM! Von
Kurst’s wolf form stepped forward, its inhuman eyes boring into those of its
prey. Panic stricken, Katy looked back into the forest. Then she saw them, the
three other wolves, one running further into the undergrowth, growling,
snarling. Instinctively, Katy knew where the other wolf was heading, and what
it would do. As she glanced across at the bloody, mutilated body of her
husband, she screamed at the slavering, gore-covered animal in front of her.
“I’LL KILL YOU, DO YOU HEAR ME?” With a look of both fear and hatred in her
tearful eyes, Katy flew at the wolf in the typical ‘fight or flight’ response
present in every human being’s psyche, flailing the knife around as she did so.
As Katy slashed at the beast’s powerful, furred chest, Ben screamed in the
forest.

Savagely, Otto Von Kurst ripped his right claw across the
woman’s face, sending her reeling back into the barbeque, yelling tearfully
from the pain of the hot charcoal searing her skin, her son’s screams, now
silent. As a multitude of tears flowed from Katy’s eyes, down her battered,
clawed, bloody face, she dropped to her knees and began to cry, the fight
inside her having quickly receded. Now, only stark reality was setting in, a
reality telling her she was going to die, and brutally so! “Why has this
happened?” she sobbed, the wolf towering over her wretched form on its powerful
hind legs, growling then reaching down, it’s saliva ridden mouth, ready to
feast.  “PLEASE GOD,” she screamed, piteously, “WHY!” Just before Otto Von
Kurst’s vicious canines bit into Katy’s skull, she suddenly had an overwhelming,
numbing feeling enter her mind. As her feet left the floor, the wolf bringing
her face just inches from its snout, the only feeling Katy Summerfield felt,
was of utterly overwhelming, despair.

It was Saturday morning, 10.05 hours to be precise, not that
Ashley Piper would have known. To him it could have been a Tuesday, Thursday,
whatever, and of the time, month, it was anyone’s guess! He hadn’t slept. He
couldn’t. All he could think about during the lonely hours in the rancid,
sterile smelling operating theatre was Lana Franke, as a werewolf and himself,
facing his past and future. What future he thought? Strapped down in agony, cut
and bleeding with a great deal more pain and suffering to come. How helpless he
felt, so vulnerable, so…frightened. She could do anything she wanted to him,
for as long as she required, so easily controlling his shifting from human to,
what was it she called him? A Were! ‘You are one of the Were’…yes, that’s what
she said, the Were!

GLOSSARY

AH-6 Little Bird: Small, agile recon and attack helicopter
utilised by many of the world’s special forces and armed services

Alfa (Alpha) Group: Russian FSB controlled Counter Terrorist
Unit

BBE: Dutch Counter Terrorist Unit

CEATA: Central European Anti Terrorism Agency. A European,
top secret, highly covert agency based underneath NATO’s SHAPE Headquarters in
Casteau, near Mons in Belgium

CEATA Code Alert and Level Status explanations:

For Field Agents:

Code 1: Immediate Action required

Code 2: Immediate Stand-By Alert

Code 3: Alert Notified-Action Pending

For Senior Command and Admin:

Level 1 - Urgent-Top Secret-Eyes Only (High Command and
Field Agents)

Level 2 - Important and Urgent (High Command and Heads of
Departments)

Level 3 - General Admin-Non Urgent (All CEATA Departments)

CH:47 (Chinook): Twin engined ‘Heavy Lift’ Transport
Helicopter utilised by many of the world’s armed forces

CIA: United States Central Intelligence Agency

Das Reich: The 2
^nd
Waffen SS Division

DST: French Directorate of Territorial Security

ESI: Belgian Counter Terrorist Unit

Europol: European Union Law Enforcement Agency.

FSB: Russian Internal Intelligence Service. (Formerly known
as the KGB)

GEOS: Spanish Counter Terrorist Unit

GIGN: French Police Counter Terrorist Unit

GSG-9: German Police Counter Terrorist Unit

Interpol: The International Criminal Police Organisation

Kampfgruppen: German word for Battle Group

Leibstandarte: The 1
^st
Waffen SS Division

MP40: German Sub Machine Gun used extensively in World War
2, commonly known as the Schmeisser by Allied troops

MP44: The first modern Assault Rifle, developed in Germany during the latter stages of World War 2 for use by elite Waffen SS Grenadiers

NATO: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

NOCS: Italian Counter Terrorist Unit

SAS: Special Air Service

SHAPE: Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. NATO’s
Military Headquarters based in Casteau, near Mons in Belgium

Spetsnaz: Russian military term for elite troops
specialising in various forms of counter terrorist and general warfare
activities

SVR: Russian Foreign Intelligence Service

Totenkopf (Death’s Head): The 3
^rd
Waffen SS
Division

Waffen SS: Adolf Hitler’s ‘Armed’ branch of the SS. The
Waffen SS were quite possibly the first ‘Elite Force’ in modern warfare, being
trained for highly specialised tasks in warfare and combat in general. The
Waffen SS utilised the finest equipment available to the German armed forces
during World War 2 and had many items of weaponry and clothing manufactured
especially for their unique operational requirements

Waffen SS Ranking Structure:

Reichsfuhrer SS: Commander in Chief of all SS
Divisions/Units

Obergruppenfuhrer: General

Standartenfuhrer: Colonel

Sturmbannfuhrer: Major

Haupsturmfuhrer: Captain

Untersturmfuhrer: Second Lieutenant

Scharfuhrer: Sergeant

Rottenfuhrer: Corporal

Sturmmann: Lance Corporal

ABOUT IAN
REDMAN AND THE RED HAZE CHRONICLES

“You have to read the first three novels in the series to
understand the origins of Piper’s kind and the ongoing, brutal fight for
survival which is about to commence. Everything in these storylines is based on
fact, including the descriptive elements regarding the pack of werewolves Piper
ultimately fights against. The concept behind The Red Haze Chronicles is brand
new and totally unique within the werewolf genre as Piper begins a continuous
war against his own kind whilst fighting against modern criminal issues such as
terrorism, illegal immigration, sex trafficking and arms dealing in a violent,
brutal, intensively researched series of novels.”

Ian Redman has three key interests in his life, all of which
have helped sow the seeds for the creation of The Red Haze Chronicles. “For
many years I have been utterly fascinated with wild grey wolves, their biology,
taxonomy and behaviour. Throughout the 1990s I studied wolves intensively. As
the main researcher and speaker for British wolf conservation team Wolf HELP,
(Helping Education for Lobo Preservation) I lectured throughout the UK and on two occasions in the United States.”

Ian talks passionately about the world’s largest dogs and
the world of wolf research in general. “Considering my wolf studies were always
on an amateur basis, several of North America’s finest and most respected wolf
research biologists fully endorsed my studies and kindly helped provide me with
photographic slides of wild wolves in their natural habitat to enhance my presentations.”

Ian is very proud of the steadfast friendships he nurtured
with many of America’s and Canada’s foremost wolf researchers. Such notables as
L David Mech, Diane Boyd, Lu Carbyn and Steven H Fritts to name but a few gave
their full support to Ian’s studies and lectures throughout the 1990s.

Ian’s interest in wild wolves has taken him on two occasions
into the heart of Minnesota’s wolf range. He has also studied wolves at Wolf
Haven in Tenino, WA and lived for two weeks in Russia, studying the wolves of
the Taiga forest.

In 2000 Ian also became fascinated with the world of modern
terrorism, covert operations and hi-tech weaponry, which he has been studying
in depth ever since.

But with this new interest came another; an interest that
was to play a key part in his planning for the first three novels of The Red
Haze Chronicles. “The history, weaponry and fighting tactics of Nazi Germany’s
Waffen SS fascinate me, and have done so for several years.”

Over the last six years Ian has utilised the knowledge he
has gained from these interests and written the first three in what will be a
major series of ongoing, violent, but highly entertaining werewolf novels to be
collectively known as The Red Haze Chronicles. “I want to share the adventures
of Ash Piper with millions of readers, both male and female. I want my readers
to believe wholeheartedly in Piper and the world around him and especially in
the pack of werewolves within the storylines. I have based the behavioural
characteristics, shape and body language of these creatures on my wild wolf
studies, thus helping the reader to believe that in the world of Red Haze…werewolves
do exist. Piper’s adventures are a very realistic series of adult orientated
horror/thrillers. Everything from the werewolves themselves to the group of
terrorists who bring unholy chaos to Europe, have been thoroughly researched
and developed within the series.”

Ian writes in his free time and is currently working on the
fourth novel in the series entitled RED HAZE: Lethal Symmetry, which he hopes
to publish on the Kindle in March 2013. Further novels are also planned,
including RED HAZE: Bloodlines, RED HAZE: Kill Me Again and RED HAZE: The Sons
of Fenrir.