Forever Luna

connections

noun ~ the state of being related to someone or something else

NOVA

The forest feels wrong, and I don't like it. I can't explain it, because even I'm unsure what it is, but every piece of me is alive with awareness. My skin prickles, my ears twitching with every distant breath or crack of earth.

The pack moves as one around me, silent and controlled, paws barely making a sound against the damp earth, but beneath it all, there's a hum. Like the ground itself is waiting. Phoenix leads at the front, his presence a constant anchor in the shifting unease. Sean flanks the right, sharp-eyed and alert, while the others spread out behind us in careful formation.

No one speaks. No one needs to. We all know what to do; we all feel the shared tension and uncertainty. But we also feel the distinct urge to get back what was ours. And that was Pollux.

We may have been on this trek for over twenty-four hours now, but we were getting closer with very step.

The odd feeling grows stronger, and I dip my head, nose to the earth, as I concentrate. Phoenix slows, his head swinging to watch me.

They're close. I murmured.

He huffs, his eyes flicking around the forest. 'Go steady.'

His voice is quiet, but it carries enough meaning. We slowed our approach because although none of us could smell them, I could feel them. Coming our way, a bathing sickness of anger and wrath. Their energy is... something else. I've never noticed such ferocity.

We slow our advance the closer to no-man's-land we get, waiting for the moment it all becomes clear. And it comes sooner than I expected. Because as the wind changes and shifts, new scents come in our direction.

Wolves, dozens if not hundreds of them, but they don't smell... Right.

Phoenix... I muttered. That... What is that?

He growls, baring his teeth. 'It smells like iron.'

My nostrils flare, because not only does it smell like iron, it smells like Pollux. But... he can't be in more than one place. He can't be multiple people, unless...

My eyes widened, my head snapping towards their direction. They've stolen his blood. They're all using it to heal faster!

Layered over each other, thick and overwhelming, the scent of rogues and wolves mixes with Pollux's sweeter scent. It stops me dead in my tracks, my breath catching as instinct claws its way forward.

This isn't a pack; this is something else. Something built from silver and pain; something entirely too full of warfare.

A ripple moves through our wolves behind us, not panic, but awareness. Phoenix cautions them to settle, that we need to figure out what it is before we make a move. Despite that, muscles tightened, stances lowered, and wolves bared their teeth.

We continued forward, slower, more carefully. They had stopped in their tracks, I could tell by the stalemate of their scent, so they drew us further from home.

'We don't advance blindly,' Phoenix announced through the pack link.

He slows down, his head lifting as he scours the area. The entire pack halts at his command, controlled in their approach. They listened to his desire, despite the frustratingly annoying need to stop every few hundred yards and judge our surrounding.

My heart pounds against my ribs, loud enough that I'm certain everyone can hear it. I step closer to Phoenix, my senses stretching outward despite the resistance, despite the strain of whatever voodoo they seemed to hold within their blood.