The Eternal Avenger: Book Two

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Hunt

(Claray's POV):

While the Widows continued training and Wanda and Yelena continued their own lessons on magic and mind control that Melina insisted was a science experiment, Natasha and I decided to take a few days to ourselves to go hunting. We left that night, slipping out as Wanda and Yelena entertained the Widows and escaping before Alexei could invite himself along. Even a super soldier would have a hard time keeping up with the two of us. Natasha loved running, especially in open woods. She was notably fast – I wasn't convinced that she wasn't faster than I was, or that she was drawing on some of my strength to make herself faster. She got cocky a few times, which led to hilarious moments of crashing headlong into a tree, or sprawling over a stray root. She always picked herself up, laughing. "It helps if you watch where you're going," I teased her after a particularly funny tumble down a hill that resulted in a splash at the bottom. Natasha looked up me from where she landed on her ass in the river, an evil smile on her face.

"Gonna help me up?" She asked, holding out her hand expectantly. Instead of getting to her feet, however, Natasha pulled on my wrist, attempting to drag me into the water alongside her. Fortunately for me – not so much for her – I caught on early, resulting in another splash on her ass, and not on mine. She huffed up at me, resting her elbows on her knees chuckling lightly. "Thanks for that," she mumbled. I grinned at her, leaning forward and grabbing her under the arms to lift her gently. The sound of something large moving through the woods ahead of us had us instantly ready and on our feet. "What is it?" Natasha hissed. I shrugged my shoulders, sniffing the air lightly before looking above us at the tree line. I leapt for the nearest thick trunk, climbing effortlessly until I reached a decent height. Natasha watched me curiously. I looked through the underbrush and the sight took my breath away. Deadly, without question, but undeniably beautiful. I gestured to another tree, which Natasha climbed eagerly, excited to see what had caught my attention. On the forest floor in front of us was a mother brown bear with a cub, waddling through the woods without a care in the world. There was no way that we were going to disturb them. I leapt from tree top to tree top easily, Natasha following along, a gleeful expression shining on her face. I held a hand up to stop her when another sound caught my eye. There were wolves here. I jumped from the tree top to the ground, gesturing for Natasha to stay behind me when she landed nearby. Her eyes were moving everywhere, assessing the surroundings, no doubt scanning for potential danger. I watched as her nose scrunched up. She caught them too. I tilted my head slightly. There was something familiar about the smell. "Claray," Natasha's voice warned. I backed up slightly, blocking her with my body, just in case.

"It's okay, моя любовь, (my love)," I said smiling. She frowned, but I didn't have time to explain when a massive grey head emerged from the woods, followed by several others. They made chuffing sounds in my direction and I glanced towards my fiancé who just smiled and nodded, understanding immediately who we had run into, giving me her blessing to play.

(Natasha's POV):

Claray shifted quickly, joining the few wolves that had come out of the woods to greet her. As they postured around each other asserting their respective places – I noted that they immediately deferred to the older, bigger wolf, their former alpha. These were runners from the pack in Romania, no doubt scoping territory for the pack to move. As the wolves began to run, I was largely able to keep up with them. They would disappear down into a valley, occasionally, but will always reemerge ahead. Their stamina was impressive, but at least mine was comparable now. They stopped early, a few hours before dawn and were already in the process of shifting back to human form by the time I reached their chosen destination. The group clustered around Claray who was one of the first to shift back, finding me and gathering some clothes from the pack one of us always carries with us. As Claray glanced back over at me, we both immediately got the sense that this wasn't a simple scouting mission. A few moments later, our thoughts were confirmed when the new Beta of the pack began speaking.

"There's a clan of whitewalkers that moved in near our old territory," he explained as the rest of the group gathered around as we set up camp.

"How close?" Claray asked, frowning. She glanced over at me, seeing the confused expression on my face.

"Vampires don't usually congregate in groups, unless they're in havoc," she explained. I nodded my head. It made sense.

"They passed our borders several times. Totally ignored the markings." Claray frowned again.

"How many of them are there?" The Beta shook his head.

"We aren't sure." I rested a hand on Claray's shoulder as she thought through the information that we were being given. "at least ten." Claray's frown deepened.

"That's even more unusual, even in havoc," she murmured. "What were you guys doing running this far north?" She glanced around. "Where are we even?" She chuckled.

"We're in mid-Poland," the Beta explained, and she nodded. I was still processing the information that we had run all that way without even breaking a sweat. "And we're here actually looking for you. We heard you were nearby." Claray nodded.

"Where's the rest of the pack?" She asked.

"About two days behind us," she looked towards me and I took her hand reassuringly.

"Go ahead and tell them where to find us," I mumbled to her, giving her permission to share our family's location with the pack. She explained in detail how to find us, and we promised to speak soon. The wolves started getting to their feet, reading to walk back and find a more suitable space to bed down for the night. Claray and I exchanged glances, and made our own preparations to make our way back home. We were about to get some additional company, and it would probably be safer for everyone if the two of us were back before the pack arrived.