The Shadow Alpha

Chapter 19: Careful Stepping

Chapter 19: Careful Stepping

Holly

My paws pad soundlessly against the forest floor, easily finding my way along the outer tree line of what used to be my home: Half-Moon. River is on my right flank, Desiree my left, while Drake, Tyler, and Clark stay in formation behind us.

We decided it was time for us to come back to Half-Moon and scout things out. It took two days to convince River (again) that I should be the one to lead this, and another day to arrange meetings with everyone and organize ourselves.

We could have made it happen sooner, yes. But River and I knew everyone was still reeling from Lucas's funeral, and it didn't feel right to dismiss their grief so quickly.

We're about a half-mile out, stay sharp.

I say to them through our mind-link, and I feel a tension prick the air, our fur starting to stand just ever so slightly on end. All of us are now ten times more alert than we'd been on our way out here, anticipating a Striker, or several, to appear.

I lead them along the trees, and I have the most unsettling sensation of not feeling at all like I'm at home here. I used to be, back before the attack of course, but now...Now this land feels foreign, the trees and shrubbery looking familiar to me but only in a dream-like sense. As though I have seen them once, long ago, as if almost having had lived another life.

In a sense, I suppose that's all true. I really was living a whole other life before the attack and meeting River. I've done the unthinkable and joined the Shadows. Hell, I'm going to be Luna of the pack: lead them, protect them, and maybe even kill for them.

          All of it really is so far removed from the simple life I used to have, yet somehow, I can't picture my life any other way now.

A gust of wind from the north carries forward several scents: pine, squirrel, sweet grass, and...

Wait.

I warn suddenly, stopping in my tracks as a new defined scent reaches me. It's a scent consisting of wet dog and something almost metallic.

          Everyone else halts behind me, stiff, poised for attack. My fur bristles, standing on end instinctually.

That's wolf all right. The bastards reek.

Drake grumbles telepathically.

Stay low, the trees will conceal us for maybe another twenty feet, but after that, it's shrubs. If we can make it past there, I know a lookout that'll take us up above them, out of sight. They'll have no clue. Stay downwind and follow me.

I explain, casting a glance over my left haunch. I catch all their gazes for just a moment, but I need no further confirmation from them before we resume our stealthy trek.

As we move further towards the ridge, staying low behind the shrubs, the smell grows stronger and we begin to hear a collection of sounds: growling, yipping, snarling, and barks. They're distant enough we know there's no immediate danger, but the reality that our small group of six is approaching this vicious pack of unknown size starts to sink in.

As I trot silently behind the shrubs, I see the pathway to the lookout come into view. Carmen is the one who showed me, so many years ago now. Telling me of how she would go there to clear her mind, to remind herself of that which was truly important.

She meant the pack, of course, given that the lookout offers an unobstructed view onto the main area of Half-Moon. At some point in middle school, I began to go there too when I needed time alone.