Runt In The Wild

Chapter Five

Weeks passed, and I was doing great in class. As long as I could keep up with the other wolves, I was going to be fine, which was pretty easy.

Also, lately I've noticed that a lot of wolves have been staring at me, but one that really stood out to me was this male wolf with black fur, and he had deep ocean blue eyes that shined against his dark fur.

I found out his name was Leo, and he has two friends named Leonardo and Brian.

But that's not all I've noticed. I also caught Lucy looking at Leonardo, and Molly looking at Brian. I can tell that they like them, and I think that the boys like them back.

Suddenly, a howl echoed throughout the caves, waking me from my thoughts. School was over. The swarm of wolves came out onto the path back to the village.

But Lucy, Molly, and I weren't going that way. We slowly sneaked away from the crowd of students, and we went on our way through the forest.

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A little while later, we were deep in the forest. The canopy of green leaves provided some shade from the smoldering heat, but it was also beautiful to see the small patches of sunshine through the leaves.

But something was wrong.

I stopped and sniffed around as Lucy and Molly turned around to look at me. "What's up?" Lucy asked. I kept sniffing until I finally looked back at her. I knew that smell all too well.

"A wolf." Lucy and Molly sniffed around as well.

"I don't smell anything. It's probably nothing," Molly replied. And with a shake of her head, we continued on our way.

We finally made it to the Hot Springs a little bit later. I looked at each of the girls and screamed, "Last one in the water is a pile of bones!" We all took off, doing flips and somersaults into the water. I went limp for a moment as the heat threatened to take over my now relaxed body, but then I started kicking my legs, propelling myself towards the surface. I burst out of the water, leaping into the air.

We all crawled out of the hot spring soaking wet. I laughed and dropped down to the ground to roll around in the soft, sweet grass. The girls followed my example as we enjoyed each other's company.

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Later on that evening, we watched the sunset as we always did. A light breeze blew over the land, and I leaned my head onto Molly's shoulder.

After a minute or so, I was almost asleep when a faint smell drifted towards my nose.

I jerked my head up immediately as I held back a growl deep in my throat. The girls looked at me with concerned expressions printed into their faces. They knew that I could sense a lot of things better than them.

"Kate, what's wrong?" Lucy asked me. I didn't answer her immediately. I looked around with my ears twitching back and forth and listened for any movement.

Then I heard it.

A small rustling coming from a bush at the edge of the clearing. I tilted my head towards it to answer Lucy and Molly. They finally smelled it, too. And now we could figure this out.

We walked down the trail on the back of the cliff as silently as heavenly possible. The three of us stalked through the trees as we headed towards the bushes. As we drew nearer, I could smell that there wasn't only one wolf, but...

The wind changed direction, and the bush went still as we went stiff. We were all looking into the clearing at a young pure black rabbit sniffing and walking around until it spotted us. Nobody moved as the scent of tension and fear drifted from both us and the rabbit.

Suddenly, Molly dashed off after the rabbit barking madly. Two wolves from the bushes jumped and ran after her. Lucy followed them as she called Molly's name out. I sighed, and ran after the four run away wolves. But a third wolf leaped out of the bushes and into the air as he fell right on top of me!

We untangled our limbs from each other with a lot of grunting and apologizing. When we finally got out from under each other, we sat down.

We looked into each other's eyes, spacing out. His deep blue eyes mesmerized me as they were soft and gentle while being as cold as ice.

We suddenly looked away from each other, and he mumbled, "Um...sorry. I didn't see you there when I jumped out."

I glanced at him and said, "It's okay." There was something so familiar about this wolf. I know I've seen him before. I just can't place who he is.

We were silent for a few more moments until we heard laughing echoing throughout the clearing.

We both turned to see it was Molly and Lucy with the other two wolves from the bushes. Molly trotted forward in front of the others with the black rabbit in her mouth. She set it down and grinned at me.

"Kate, this is Leonardo and Brian. They go to Alpha school with us." She said as her tail wagged wildly.

"Hi," they each replied in unison. The wolf next to me spoke next.

"Um...I'm Leo." So that's where I've seen him! He's the wolf that's been staring at me a lot in Alpha school!

We all sat there in perfect silence for what seemed like hours. I suddenly came to my senses and jumped around to face Leo with bared fangs, startling everyone. I growled at him fiercely as I let all the anger I had trapped inside of me out and into my voice.

Everyone stayed where they were, and the only noise was my snarls and growls. Lucy trotted forward and sat next to me.

"Kate, what's wrong with you?" she asked me. I stopped abruptly to turn and look at her. Was she serious? This wolf and his two friends just happened to be watching us from some bushes in our secret hideaway.

"They just followed us and were watching what we were doing. I mean, come on, Lucy! They now know about the Hot Springs!" I said not trying to control my temper. I waited for her to answer while still snarling viciously. But Leo spoke before she did.

"I'm sorry we followed you. It's just that we noticed you sneaking away from the rest of the wolves, and that's just kinda strange. So we followed you. You are really good in school, and if you're getting some kind of help to train, then maybe they could teach us, too."

Another silence followed. I was getting really tired of these silences. "Look, this place is really special to us, and now you're here. You shouldn't be here at all. But now that you know about this place, you will never ever tell anyone about it. Or you will have to answer to me. Got it?" I said with the coldest tone I have ever used in my life. He nodded, and I backed up, relaxing. "Well, if you're going to be coming here, you might as well know everything about this place." I gave him a reassuring smile, and we started the tour.

We told them everything and showed them everything. It seemed like things were going to turn out okay, but when I went home that night, I couldn't stop thinking about what Lonnie would say after she found out about the newcomers at the Hot Springs.

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Hey, guys! What's going on? So what do you guys think of Leo and his friends? Hope you liked the chapter. Ask questions and comment! :)