Marcel Conway is fresh on the market for a new year of the Mating Season: a sex auction masquerading as a Peace Trade to keep the packs from going to war. But she's gritting her teeth and digging her heels in, determined to come home to her small bu...
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☽☾☽☾☽☾
(T/W: mentions of domestic abuse, violence, and sexual coercion)
Though no one else had caught a glimpse, a smell, or a sound of the copper-haired woman in the mountains, I couldn't shake the memory. She moved like a phantom, her striking white dress like a beacon in the dark woods. The very thought of her ghosting through the forest was haunting.
The trail eventually forked and Inez and I decided to scout ahead to secure our route.
The path stretched through the woods about five miles before bleeding into the yellow trail. Stepping out of the heavily shrouded path, I motioned Inez to stand her ground as I ventured forth.
My glacier eyes swept along the ricky path, studying for signs of tracks or disturbance. I closed my eyes, allowing myself to relyon my other senses. With the valley a few miles south, I listened intently for any sound of other wolves, trying not to let the woman in the woods cloud my judgement.
The scent in the air was nothing out of the ordinary, save for the females a few miles back we'd left in the ward of Tekiera.
"What do you hear?" I asked Inez who shot me a bewildered look. "Anything?"
Her face strained as she tried to focus on the sounds aorund us.
"The girls a few miles back...some of them are laughing," She stated, grimacing. "Nothing new down in the valley...maybe some deer?"
"Boar," I corrected her and her face fell. I snickered, patting her shoulder. "It's an easy mistake. Even a squirrel can sound like it's a mammoth. Wild boar have a thick odor. Deer is much more earthy and light. But when you're hungry, they both smell the same."
"I'm not-!" She began to object when he stomach suddenly gave a ravenous growl. I bit my lip and her face fell as she turned away curtly. "So do we go back for the girls?"
"Nah, no need to exhaust ourselves," I shook my head before sticking two fingers in my mouth. As I blew, a piercing whistle filled the mountains and I removed my fingers, waiting a moment.
"Can they hear that?" Inez asked worriedly. A split second later there was another resounding whistle and I smiled.
"If we can hear them, they can hear us. Here, have some jerky," I offered her, reaching into my pack for the snack. "We ought to rest while we wait on them. They've had their break and we need to be ready to move when they get here."
Inez nodded and took a seat on a nearby boulder formation and I collapsed against the base of of a leafy pine tree and closed my eyes with a sigh. I blindly began to sip at my water canteen as I waited for the women, wondering what Donovan was doing.
Probably drowning in paperwork, or tending his flowers... I chuckled fondly, thinking of Donovan fussing over his weeping daffodils. It had only been a few hours and i was already feeling an aching hole in my chest from his absence.
