He grunted again.
“Your company was nice today, I think I would have been a lot more anxious had you not tagged along.” I hoped that helped smooth out his wounded pride.
His eyebrow quirked up slightly. I barely caught it. “Tracey cares about you a lot and she wants you to pledge into the pack.”
I snickered. “Apparently I’ll die if I don’t find a pack soon.”
Mav’s face went slack. “I don’t thinkyouwill die if you don’t pledge to an Alpha, but I guess we will all see tonight. You will feel a pull to Rafe if he’s supposed to be your commanding officer.”
I scoffed. “I would like to think that no one is.”
Mav’s lip rose in a smirk. “I have a feeling you’re definitely a sigma or maybe,” he grinned. “You’re an Alpha and you’ll put Rafe in his place.”
All I could do was stare straight as I drove but there was a tad bit of satisfaction that rolled through me. It felt a little like relief.
Naked.
I was going to be naked in front of the rest of the pack. It was the one thing that was holding me back from jogging through the woods to the pack lands. It was the last thing I wanted to do. I could go the rest of my existence without showing my tits to a little community. Tracey walked out from the darkness of the trees and smiled at me.
“Don’t try to talk yourself out of it.”
I took a deep breath. She was wearing jogger sweatpants and a zip-up jacket. Her hair was pulled back away from her face and her eyes were glowing. The sun had gone down just a short while before she had stepped away from the tree line and I could feel the moon pulling me. Pulling my wolf to the surface.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” I chewed on my lip.
Tracey took my hand in hers and smiled. “I remember my first shift under the full moon. It was one of the best nights of my life.”
“Really?”
“Really,” She pulled me in for a bone-crushing hug and I felt a little better. “The rest of the pack will be gone by the time we get there. No one will see you naked. I don’t like to shift in front of the others yet either. They don’t expect me to shift with them.”
That helped ease some of the anxiety. I held her hand tightly and we walked into the woods together. The smell of blood was gone, thankfully but I still couldn’t get the memory of what happened to disappear from my thoughts. Tonight would also be the night that Knox took a walk through Carden’s memories as a wolf. The thought didn’t sit well with me.
Almost time.My wolf purred in my mind. I was somewhat excited for her. She was a quiet wolf, at least for now, and I didn’t exactly know what to expect. Changed wolves went through things a little differently than the ones born with their wolves. They grew with their wolves, whereas I was just kind of forced to be with mine. Vivian had mentioned the story of the first werewolf but I had forgotten to ask about it again until now.
I stopped walking halfway to the pack lands. “Can you tell me the story of the first werewolf?”
Tracey’s teeth were blinding as she smiled. “Thousands of years ago there was a boy who was valiant and courageous. His name was Ramadon. He was abandoned as a child on the full moon. A pack of wolves spared his life that night instead of eating him like they should have. There were hunters in the woods that night and they heard the howling of the wolves. The wolves led the hunters to the small child, in hopes that they would save the baby. The hunters took the baby home where the village raised him. He was truly one of a kind and loved by all. As he grew older he felt a pull to the woods. He would often run through the forest with the hunters and sometimes slip away through the night to feel the forest beneath his feet. One night the wolves ran beside him. They recognized the child they had rescued and accepted him into their pack. Secretly Ramadon ran with the wolves and hunted with them as much as he could. Ramadon befriended one wolf in particular. They would bring each other meals and fur pelts. They were practically inseparable.
One full moon there were hunters from another village prowling through the forest. Ramadon and the other wolves didn’t see them until it was too late. The arrow blazed through the air but before it could pierce Ramadon in the chest, the black wolf dove in front of it to save his life. As his friend’s life spilled from his body, Ramadon prayed to the gods. He swore that he would do what it took to protect the wolves, as much as the wolves had protected him. No one knows what happened after that but it was said that the goddess of life came down and merged their souls. They would be the guardians of the wolves and the humans. Ramadon would protect the humans from the wolves and eventually, the other nightmarish creatures that would come to be, and his other half would protect the wolves from the humans. That’s how it has been since the beginning.”
“What about his true mate?”
Tracey’s eyes twinkled. “They say there was another human that had been blessed with a wolf spirit in another village.”
“Are you going to tell me the story of her?” My heart swelled. I didn’t know why but the legend had opened something up inside of me. It had made me feel connected to my wolf in a new way. It gave me a connection to her that I knew I needed.
Tracey tugged on my hand and dragged me through the rest of the forest. “Maybe another time. My wolf is itching for a good run and I know she is dying to meet yours.”
“Best friends for life,” I muttered.
“We are going to be best friends for a lot longer than life, don’t you know that we are immortal?”
She took off running and a laugh burst from my chest as I chased after her. Maybe the answers could wait. Maybe all that mattered was living in the moment tonight. My wolf surely liked that idea. Tracey unzipped her jacket as I peeled my shirt from my body and before I could blink her massive honey-colored wolf was standing in front of me. I took a deep breath again and closed my eyes as I shimmied my pants down. Before my pants hit the forest floor my wolf was surging forward. I gasped as the pops and cracks echoed off of the trees. It was different than before. Nothing hurt this time as my wolf took over and then we ran.
There were no words to describe what happened next. The feeling of my wolf taking over was interesting. She pushed forward in my consciousness and as much as I tried to hold onto the reigns, it wasn’t possible.
Sorry. She muttered into my mind and I felt my worries ease away. I didn’t fade completely but I let her call all the shots. It was easier, comfortable even.
