Alpha Queen [1]

xxxii

Ares and I walked hand in hand as we hiked up to the freshwater spring. It wasn't even noon but it was so hot that I was tempted to dunk myself in the swampy water and swim with the fish.

On our way there, we found a few footprints that Ares could tell were squirrel and rabbit. He showed me how to track and we even found the rabbit's burrow not too far away. Yet no matter how much he taught me, I quickly realized that I wasn't a hunter. My eyesight wasn't as good as his and I had no desire to kill animals even if it was for food.

When we got to the spring, I dipped my toes in the water and was happy to find that it was the perfect temperature. I stood on a flat rock as I pointed out the tiny tadpoles in the water. I told Ares of the time my first grade class spent our Friday afternoons going down to a pond named Cattail Corner and watching tadpoles slowly become frogs.

"Did you do that too when you were in first grade?" I asked absentmindedly as I tried skipping some rocks. They all sank to the bottom.

"I never went to human school."

"Oh yeah." I kept forgetting that the pack had taught him everything he knew. We were on different paths back then. "I guess you would've been six or seven."

"I was learning how to phase when I was six." Ares walked away from me to look for shade.

I put my shoes back on and followed him. He stopped to lean on a big oak tree with thick roots and I suddenly had an idea. I grabbed one of the branches and hoisted myself up.

"What are you doing?"

"Climbing a tree, what does it look like I'm doing?" My backyard had a lot of big trees so I was used to climbing them all of the time. My parents were scared I'd fall and crack my head open so they always yelled at me to come down.

But Ares just watched me.

I managed to get several feet up in the air before I found a good spot to stand in. It was a refreshing view since I was always the one to be looked down on, especially by Ares, and now I was above the world.

"See anything interesting?" His eyes were steady on me. I did a full three-sixty and looked around.

"I think there's a bird's nest in that tree over there." I lifted one of my hands from the trunk and pointed to the right. "And if I go right on my tip toes, I can see the castle."

"What? That's impossible."

"Are you calling me a liar?" I teased. "Why don't you come up here and see for yourself?"

"Maybe I will." He was bluffing. He wasn't a big fan of heights.

"I'll wait as long as I have to, even if I. . ."

I suddenly became light-headed and my vision blurred. There was a tingling in my entire body which made me falter.

Gravity pulled me and I lost my balance.

"Alex!" Luckily Ares was ready to catch me and I was in his arms in a second. "Are you okay? What happened?" He demanded and looked at my face. I blinked and the feeling went away.

"Yeah, I'm okay now," I nodded as my blood pressure steadied, "That was weird. I felt kind of faint there for a second."

"Maybe you're hungry. You should eat something."

He carried me over to where he set down our picnic basket and gently put me back on the grass. He started handing me everything we had so I started strong with the apple pie. I ate more than usual but it was probably because I needed food to stabilize my blood sugar. The light-headed feeling didn't come back.