Wolf & Witch III: Oracle's Path

Ch. 2

The buzzing of Nate's cell was muffled by his pocket and the wind as he wandered down the dirt path between the pines. He couldn't hear his phone, but he felt it, and without even bothering to see who it was from, he shifted, taking the form of a black wolf with frosted toes.

The stretch of woods he was in cut through the southern end of the ranch all the way to the lake. Most of his summers, when he was a pup, were spent playing here with his friends. They dug out little dirt caves in the side of the hill to avoid the summer heat, harassed the local squirrels and other wildlife, and cut trails to each other's houses, which was always faster than going around along the road.

The younger pups seemed to have picked up where he and his friends left off, and there was even a new little dugout in the side of the hill—someone's summer project was going well. But for now, they were all abandoned until spring. While he nosed around, he noticed a charm dangling from a tree root near the opening of what used to be his favorite hole. The glittery bead letters spelled out the name "Karla" with some other random charms that looked distinctly witchy. Somehow, Sean always managed to force his way into Nate's thoughts. There was no doubt in his mind who Karla had obtained the little charms from.

Sean had to be at the ranch by now, but Nate wasn't going to go running to greet him—he wasn't Sean's pet. In fact, he wasn't even sure what they were anymore. Sean had completely ghosted him after the Halloween party and not just him, Kaiden too. Nate could handle that, but he certainly wasn't going to forget it. If that was how Sean wanted things between them to be, then that's how it was going to be.

Nate shifted back, trading his wolf form for his human one and sitting down on a sandstone boulder, near the bottom of the hill, and finally retrieved his phone from his pocket. His missed messages were a long list of the usual suspects. Dakota, Kaiden, and even Slade, all likely trying to tell him the same thing—Sean was back—as if he wasn't smart enough to know it already. But nothing from Sean, which only further proved that Sean knew better than to—

Before he could finish that thought, a new text popped up on his screen, from Sean.

Making a face, Nate shoved the phone back into his pocket while he got back to his feet and continued walking. The trail he picked was an older one, one that hadn't seen much use in the past few years by how overgrown it had become. It was nearly a straight line cutting through the woods, with one end at the field behind Slade's trailer and the other finishing right at the edge of the trees alongside a proper road. Across the road, was the giant house belonging to the late alpha and his family.

After surveying the driveway and the three-car garage from the tree line for a long moment, he concluded that it was safe to continue. The garage was closed, and he didn't see any cars sitting out, which didn't tell him if anyone of the family were home, but it was a clear indication that they didn't appear to have any visitors. The wind picked up as Nate stepped out of the protection of the woods and onto the open surface of the road, making him pick up his pace as he jogged across and to the front door. 

After three hard knocks, the rocker was overcome by the weirdest mix of nostalgia and awkwardness. It'd been years since he'd come over alone and uninvited like this. His gaze fixed on his black combat boots as he tapped the toe of one against the heel of the other until he heard the door, and his gaze snapped to attention.

It was clear by the range of expressions that flashed across Rose's face, that Nate wasn't at all who she'd expected to see, but she opened the door a little wider anyway. "Nate? Was there something you needed?" she asked, making an attempt to look passed him for perhaps Kaiden or maybe even Dakota.

"No, not really. Is Axel around?" Nate tried not to sound awkward, but he couldn't remember ever feeling this out of place in the house. The last time he'd been there was when Travis was still alive and—he stopped that train of thought there.