Dwell With the Lamb - The Cattlemen

[This scene is only half finished, but I think you can figure out where it is going]

 The pack was assembled and heading out to a busy meadow where it was normally easy to catch a dear and the occasional elk. The day was unusually warm and gnats were swarming around them causing the less patient of them to snap their teeth at the harmless and elusive insects. The father just let the gnats fly around his head. He could see quite well in spite of the dodging pests.

When they reached the edge of the meadow the first thing that was visible was black floating blobs of millions of gnats taking advantage of the warm fall day. But it was the lingering smell that got the attention of the pack. They could smell the fear coming from a doe near the middle of the glen. The pack silently spread out to surround the animal who was in apparent distress.

As they encompassed the deer the reason for the fear was evident. The deer was struggling to get loose from a snare that had entrapped both of its forelegs.

Rarely did the pack get such an ideal opportunity. A healthy animal trapped with no way to defend its self. Father stayed back, and hunkered down in the tall grasses and allowed his children to make the kill.

A loud crack sounded from above and one of his sons fell to the ground and didn’t make another move. The father looked up at a helicopter with men hanging out of either side aiming rifles at his pack. The father barked commands to run but his pack was in such confusion they failed to heed his warning. The father barked once again and heard a bullet pass within inches of his head. He began crawling low as fast as he could through the high grass toward the safety of the trees. Once he made it to safety he turned around at view the scene. It was a carnage. His mate and one daughter were wounded and trying to escape hopping and dragging wounded legs. The rest of his family was immobile. Two more shots rang out and his mate and daughter both fell to the ground.

As he helplessly watched the helicopter landed and several men with cowboy hats left the helicopter and took knives to his family removing their ears in quick swipes of their blades. It seemed like seconds and they returned to the machine and it took off and flew out of sight.

The deer was still struggling, but the father ignored it and approached each of his family members and stopped to smell them. Everyone was dead. The smell of blood was overwhelming. The father had never smelled so much wolf blood. He raised his snout to the heavens and began howling the most mournful sound ever heard in that area in all of time. It was just past noon when he began. It was well past midnight when he fell next to his dead mate out of sheer exhaustion and fell into a deep sleep. 
 When he awoke he was met with the same macabre scene only now buzzards were hopping among them and coyotes surrounded the group waiting for the live wolf to move on before they began their feast.

The wolf took his time sniffing the ground around the whole area until he had picked out each individual human scent. His mourning would begin this morning, but his vengeance would soon follow and he wanted to know exactly who the culprits were.

He trotted away leaving his family’s bodies to follow nature’s course. There were no rituals to perform or burials to attend. The scavengers would dispose of them just as they did the remainder of a pack’s kill.

He returned to their normal rendezvous point and climbed atop the huge boulder that dominated the area and laid down and closed his eyes.