Wolv

19 - Searching

I told him everything.

Everything from Mingan's experience with Abrams, to Abrams' own daughter being bitten and later dying, to my own encounter with the man. All the while, the four of us ran along the Bloodvein river until the sun had long slipped beneath the horizon. Hutch found a nook in the granite that ran along the river, and we made a den for the night.

We still had at least another days' run before we would reach the reserve, but we were all exhausted; Spike and I being much more spent than Hutch and Kémé.

I curled up in a corner and wrapped my tail around me, shivering. Hutch plodded alongside me and set himself down. He hadn't spoken a word to me as of yet.

He stared stoically out of the cave, starlight glistening off of his eyes. Spike and Kémé were both asleep already, their chests rising and falling rhythmically.

I inched away from Hutch and yawned, letting a whine escape from my throat as I did.

"You really didn't plan out this escapade, did you?" Hutch spoke to me, but kept his eyes on the cave's entrance.

"No, I guess not," I admitted, feeling my joints cramp up from a full day of running. I wasn't ready for such a long excursion yet, and I knew it.

"You're honest. Well, that's something." He continued staring straight ahead. His ears twitched momentarily as something moved outside. I felt him tense next to me, then relax slightly. "Just a bear."

"Just a bear?!?" I whispered between clenched teeth, frightened by the concept of having an encounter with an angry bear. "Should we do something?"

Hutch suppressed a laugh and snorted. "No, we shouldn't do anything. It's keeping its distance; we'll be fine if we do the same."

I squinted my eyes, following Hutch's line of sight, but I couldn't see anything in the darkness. I couldn't even smell anything out of the ordinary.

I lowered my head and looked over at the large, grey wolf beside me. A scar cut its way across the left side of his face, missing his eye by mere millimeters. His right ear didn't stand straight up like his left ear did; instead, its tip was folded over, with yet another hairless scar running along the fold line. Obviously, he'd had his fair share of cuts and scrapes.

"You guys were ahead of us when we met," I observed quietly, waiting for him to turn and look at me.

Instead, he held his gaze outward, but answered me anyway. "That's right."

"If you guys were ahead of us, why didn't you stop us?"

"We were going to. I was only a few feet behind you when you and Spike were arguing, just outside of the den, you know."

I marveled at his words. I hadn't seen him, heard him, or smelled him. "How? How didn't I know?"

His chest puffed out briefly, and a proud smile tugged at his lips. "I'm an Alpha. I'm good at that kind of stuff."

Ha. Arrogant you'll never be! I smirked at him, and his eyes darted over to mine before returning to watch the outside world, remaining ever-alert.

"So why didn't you do something? I mean, I knew that I was being followed."

"I was going to, until you started talking about that girl that was bitten." For a second, he looked down at his paws and twitched his legs uncomfortably. "When you said you loved her, I had to stop myself."

"Why's that?"

"Because," he muttered gruffly. I eyed him expectantly, and strangely, his stoic presentation faltered for a moment. "Well...look, I've never had a mate, and at the rate I'm going, I never will. But I know from experience that it is wrong to stop someone from helping their mate."