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Being born the runt to a pack of wolf splices should have meant an instant death sentence. It had to countless runts before Caine, but then someone had a thought. Someone had thought of finding a way to use the runts, to not waste them and write off the financial loss. They wouldn’t do with their own pack, but what about what became of lone wolves?
Of course this was based on the ideas of those that might never have dealt with a real wolf pack on their own planet, but they were certainly right in the case of splices and what they could make of the runts that otherwise would have been fodder.
Separating them from their pack, giving them a single focus. That of being a soldier. Putting them on point to study forms of fighting, weapons, every form of combat that they had heard of from any planet. Raised from a young age to do nothing but fight, to have a single minded focus that was nothing but the job, but being the best soldier they could. Relentless. Fearless. A lone wolf with nothing but their gun and their mission.
The politician, the scientists, all that had come up with this idea, none of them had expected the results though with one particular splice.
Caine was the best they’d ever had. He wasn’t just the best runt splice, he was the best wolf they’d had. He was hardened before he ever was placed with a unit, knowing nothing but those single directives. No one could have known that he would, eventually, find his way to creating a new pack. The assumption had been he would stay the loner he was, staying distant.
Instead he had formed bonds. Caine had sought his place with the other soldiers, putting himself into a position of Omega to them, finding his place as soldier and wolf. Yet it was with his commander that Caine had found his place.
Accepting him as his alpha, submitting to him as such. Caine had taken their program and twisted it on its ear. He’d made himself more than a soldier, more than a wolf. He’d become one of them.
And that had been when Stinger had submitted Caine for his wings.
Not every soldier was accepted by the Skyjackers. Not every soldier that set themselves on the path to become a Skyjacker made it. Caine though had earned his wings.
The unit had come to watch, standing above them, standing at a wall of windows, watching down over the ceremony. They had all been through this before. Each of them had stood on that same spot where Caine stood now. Each of them had undergone the pain of attachment. Every one of them had stood proud and excited for what they would gain, what they would become.
Caine stood silent, staring into Stinger’s eyes. Never once did his commander flinch, never looked away. His own sheer wings fluttered behind him, opened wide, showing them to remind Caine what he was going through. Why he was doing this.
The procedure was long, taking the time not only to attach them, but needing to careful connect the electrodes that would allow them to work not merely as wings, but as another limb upon the Skyjacker’s body. They were a sign of all a soldier could become, and they were a badge of honor. They were the pinnacle of a soldier’s life, and Caine was the first of the runts to obtain them. No one ever thought it was possible. No one at all.
Stinger had known though. From the first moment he had seen Caine stand before him, head held high and his eyes lit up with the fire of determination, Stinger had known. He’d known he would stand here one day.
The doctors stepped back and Caine flexed his wings. Downy feathers, sable colored. In one way or another, ever Skyjackers wings were different, unique. Some based on their splice. Others on the needs of the soldier. Caine’s were based on hawks and eagles, predators, the kind of wings deadly raptors had. A deadly raptor, just as Caine was.
“Congratulations, Pup,” he murmured, barely smiling as he took a step closer. “Ready for your first flight?”
Caine moved to come closer, closing that distance between them. Leaning in, he nuzzled at the strong edge of Stinger’s jaw, showing his fealty, his place in the unit.
“At your command, Sir,” he said, straightening.
Above them cheers were heard. Panels in the ceiling slid back, revealing the sky above. The unit, nearly as one, launched themselves into the sky. Stinger stepped back, gesturing to Caine.
“Show me what you can do, Pup.”
Caine nodded then, nearly smiling, and then his boots fired up and he launched himself into the air, following his unit. Following his pack.