The Alpha's Game

Chapter Nine

He finished licking my wound and stood, signaling me to follow as he started walking away without wasting another minute. I sprung up and went after him, making sure to keep good distance between us trotting through the snow.

He started to quicken his pace and I copied, the two of us weaving through trees until we came up on top of a hill, looking down at a perfect maze of deep, untouched snow and rows of mid-sized leafless bushes.

I looked at him expectantly, my wolf jumping joyously, and he scanned my excitement, signaling down with his head. That's all I needed to bolt down the hill, pouncing my way through the chest-high snow.

Snowflakes were already falling from the sky lightly and I lifted my gaze, charging through the maze feeling the happiest I have in a long time. All the pain from last night was nowhere to be found and I was perfectly okay with that.

I came to a stop after hearing him howl and looked back at the hill, seeing he was no longer standing at the top and my ears stood straight up in alarm.

The snow was high and the branches of the bushes acted like walls, leaving little cracks to see through, so it would be quite easy to hide, but his fur is black. He should stick out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately, he was trained for situations just like this.

Looking ahead, I picked my paws up and took stealthy steps to avoid any noise. I only made it six steps before realizing by doing that, I'm leaving a trail of paw prints.

Shit!

Panicking, I dashed through by jumping and listening to the crunches with each pounce. That's when I heard another noise that didn't correspond with my movements, so I quickly plopped to my stomach just as he flew over me, clearly not expecting to miss. He crashed into the snow a few feet ahead, flattening a huge patch and covering himself in white flakes.

While he was down and still recovering from his unexpected failure, I pushed myself up and sprinted off.

Ha! Not so stealthy, are you, Kayden?

My amusement faltered when I slowed to a stop, noticing I had no idea where the exit to this place was, especially with the reduced visibility distance from the snowfall that's beginning to worsen.

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have ran away from him.

I barked, twirling in a circle to look for any movement and listen for any noises, except I received nothing, only the loud whistling wind cutting through the ice covered bushes. The breeze soaked into my fur and I shivered, feeling my legs start to tremble from the abrupt drop in temperature. The weather is getting worse and fast.

I whimpered, hardly able to walk due to how cold I suddenly felt. My body consumed with chills and I lowered my head, squinting into the blizzard with watery eyes.

I've decided... I'm never coming outside with Kayden ever again.

I closed my eyes and curled up, my body quaking from the cold, then I heard a distant bark and hope formed within me.

I lifted my head and barked back, hearing him respond with another and I ran in that direction.

We continued barking back and forth until I saw him by the exit, standing as tall as he could with wandering eyes in full alert. I felt my heartbeat fasten, and sprinted at him full speed, accidentally knocking him off his feet in my spur of panic.

He recovered quickly, shaking off the snow and analyzing my shivering figure, his eyes darting around us immediately after. I curled up again, watching him begin digging into the snow in the corner between three bushes. He flattened a spot on the ground by stomping his paws, stepping out of his little man made nest and signaling for me to get in.