Moon Dancer - Hidden Wolf 1

Jagger

I rested my head on my paws in front of me, letting out a breath of contentment. Several pieces of a dandelion fluff fly up, getting caught in a tailwind blowing south, and they are carried over my head as they pass me.

"Jagger, where are you?" Ares' voice growls through our mindlink. "You were supposed to be back from patrol an hour ago." I push him out of my head and focus on the cloudless sky.

The small pond was quiet this morning, the water barely rippling in the late summer breeze. The Society had been up our asses all summer, calling us for social events and war counsels all across the states. I had barely had time to just chill.

A grumble crawled up my throat. Shaking my head, I startle a butterfly nearby. I watch its purple wings as it flies up and then settles on the dandelion, which was missing half its white fluff.

My ears twitch as my heightened senses alerted me to someone approaching from the North.

I had tried to convince myself over and over that this pond was special to me because it was peaceful, but especially in the last couple months not being able to see her, it became clear that I have no self-control.

The tall grass concealed my large wolf form, so when Grayson emerged from the tree line, she was unable to see me. Not that she looked around. She never did.

I roll my eyes. Careless.

For such a small thing, she really didn't have any survival instinct.

Long tresses of red-brown curls fell to her butt. She wore baggy ripped jeans and a tight white short-sleeved shirt. I narrowed my eyes as I saw something clutched in her hands. What was she up to? I licked my lips as her bare feet sunk into the moist ground of the pond, mud sticking between her toes.

My ears flicked again and I heard a small 'tweet'.

I watched her carefully.

Grayson knelt down despite the mud, opening up her palms, and I raised off of my paws ever so slightly to get a better look. I told myself I cared so much because she lived in the middle of the woods so close to my house and I had to know what she was up to because of it.

It was a lie. A big fat lie.

A bird rested in her small hands. So pathetically small.

It tweeted again and gave a little flap with its wings as if it was testing them.

"You're all healed. I promise." Grayson's voice barely carries into my ears and I'm leaning forward to hear it better.

The bird flaps again and turns and actually fucking tweets at her before flying away.

May the goddess help this girl, she truly is an idiot. Who in the right mind would spend their summer break looking after wounded animals? But still... something loosened in my chest seeing Grayson with her latest animal friend.

Suddenly her eyes flash toward me.

I stop breathing.

Eclipsed by black lashes, huge doe-like aquamarine eyes start directly at me through the brush. On my next heartbeat, her eyes move to scan the shoreline of the pond. I let air into my lungs. I'm too far away for this human girl to see me. "Hello?" She calls cautiously, touching her crystal necklace.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes again. If I had been a predator stalking her, the last thing she should do is call out and make her exact location known.

When she seems convinced that nothing is lurking in the shadows, she turns and walks back the way she came.

As long as I have been watching Gray, 3 years to be exact, I hadn't quite figured out the mystery that surrounds her. This tiny fragile human was walking barefoot through the middle of the woods, with more than 30 miles of trees separating her from the closest sign of civilization. We weren't that far from town, but there weren't a whole lot of explanations I could come up with by myself.