Wolf & Witch III: Oracle's Path

Ch. 24

Kaiden waited in his SUV a minute, surveying the parking lot of the community center, before getting out. There was no sign of Hazel or Gabriel, but he recognized Dakota's muscle car sitting in the reserved spot right next to the front door. Rose's parking spot was vacant, but even so, Kaiden knew better than to take it. Somehow, word would get back to her. It always did in the pack. He figured gossip about his exchange with Gabriel and the girls would get around soon too, if it hadn't already. So, might as well go tell Dakota now...

The community center was a little busier than usual, and that would only get worse as the ceremony grew closer. For now, paper leaves and hand drawn turkeys, crafted by the pups, still decorated the main entry hall, along with a "Happy Birthday" banner for those who had November birthdays, and that list was short—one name, in fact—Karla.

She, like most other half-human pups, was born out of season. With the mating season lasting from December to January, and werewolf pregnancies only lasting four to five months, that meant most pups were born between May and July.

Kaiden was the exception.

His father was very traditional, and he suspected that his mother, still having been new to the pack at that time, had gone along with a lot of his wishes. But, by the time she'd left him and had Karla with his uncle, she was far less interested in traditions, and more interested in the status of her partner. Still, being born out of season wasn't all bad. At least Karla wasn't going to have to compete with a dozen other parties all planned for the same weekend.

Before he headed to the gym, in the back corner of the center, Kaiden hung an immediate left into the great hall, which was just a giant room with a stage at one end, that was utilized for as many things as the pack needed it for. On most ordinary days, like today, it was a cafeteria, and Kaiden strode to the far end where the vending machines were lined up next to the kitchen window. He got himself an energy drink, and then exited into the opposite hall from where he'd entered, bringing him right up to the workout center. It wasn't huge, nowhere near as big as the great hall, but it had several treadmills, of both wolf and human friendly verities, weights that all sported rubber grips to prevent anyone from chipping their teeth on them, and a yoga or stretching area, that had several mats with the odd medicine ball or rope tug laying around.

When Kaiden came out of the locker room, he found the gym empty except for a single wolf galloping away on a treadmill by himself. Kaiden smirked as he finished his drink and tossed it into a trashcan before shifting and jumping onto the treadmill beside the alpha, wordlessly running alongside him.

Since Kaid hadn't said anything when he first arrived, Dakota waited until the timer on his phone went off before he dismounted the treadmill. He shifted, huffing as he squatted down to retrieve his phone and the bottle of water on the floor next to it. "Sup?" he asked over his shoulder, before taking a drink.

"Yoooou, haven't heard anything about Gabe today, have you?" Kaiden wondered after he'd followed Dakota's lead and shifted back.

"No, but I had an interesting chat with Nate," Dakota replied as he led the way over towards the padded wall where a few thick pull ropes were tethered at different heights. "He let Axel claim him."

"Whoa, he what? He realizes that means he can't be alpha or any rank above Axel, right?" Kaiden remarked skeptically as he leaned over the side of one of the machines nearest to the wall.

The alpha tilted his head. It hadn't occurred to him at all that Nate would've revealed something so personal to him before Kaiden. "Yeah... Yeah, he does...and there was definitely some, um... Well, there were some emotions attached to that. But I think he's gonna be okay... He asked about getting his own place, and a job. I told him you and I would work something out with Byron." Forgoing his plan to use one of the pull ropes, Dakota did a wall squat instead, figuring they'd each have more to say.