The Lone Wolf

Chapter 25: Taylor

It's odd, seeing him. I've never been the conscious one. I've never met Peeta anywhere but in dreams. I know him, considering the situations we've been in. But I'm just the wolf spirit, that little voice in the back of Katniss' mind. Peeta and I are strangers as far as we are really concerned.

How strange we must look now, twin black pelts trotting across the frozen hills of soft snowy crystals. My Beta, Darkstorm, follows close behind with Katniss' brother, Cato, and the rest of the small patrol of pure wolves I was leading around the boarder. It is obvious that I'm going to have trouble now that Katniss' mate and brother have shown up. There will be others like Duskfoot who will not trust them. I can only hope that my loyal Beta and his mate, Owleyes, will be able to ease there fears. Just as we are about to reach these wolves' camp, the burned ruins of the Miner's Seem, Darkstorm runs up next to me and I look at him.

"Are we taking them to your den?" he asks. I look at his green eyes and shake my head.

"Hollyberry should look at them first," I say. "The territory they come from, where I come from, is far from here. I want to make sure they aren't injured." He dips his head respectfully.

"I'll send Blackear ahead so she can prepare," he says. I nod to him.

"Thank you," I say and he falls back before I watch the young sliver she-wolf that I had been the first warrior I named as Alpha sprint ahead towards the ashy hollow. As she does, Peeta casts me a strange look.

"Where is she going?" he asks.

"She's alerting our medicine wolf of you two so she can prepare for injuries such as wrenched claws or cracked pads," I say.

"Medicine dog?" he asks.

"Our healer," I say. "Like Delly back home, although her circumstances are a little different." We stop just below the hill that hides the camp. I turn to my patrol. "Go on ahead to camp. Darkstorm, tell the pack of our visitors. I will wait with them for Hollyberry."

"Are you sure that is a good idea?" Duskfoot asks. "I can stay with you." I lift my lips to show him I'm not happy to be questioned.

"These two are my mate and my brother!" I growl. "They mean no harm to me! I can take care of myself." He flinches slightly before bounding after Darkstorm and Owleyes. After they disappear, I sit and the two boys join me. Peeta stares at me, his eyes asking a million questions.

"How?" he asks and I sigh.

"She ran after we killed Snow and when she was too weak to keep control, I took over. We've reversed. She's where I was. I came here because I knew she didn't intend to come home. I was welcomed with an open mind and heart by their former Alpha and he chose me to take his place when he died three moonrises ago."

"So you aren't coming home?" Cato asks and Peeta looks at me with pain in his eyes. I move closer to him and press my pelt to his.

"It's not my choice," I say. "Only Katniss can decide to come home and she isn't strong enough to be in charge yet."

"Is she even still there?" he asks.

"She's silent," I say. "But she's here." He opens his mouth, as though to say more, when Hollyberry's red brown pelt appears over the rise followed by her apprentice, Treepad.

"Greetings," Hollyberry says dipping her head to me. "Are these the visitors Darkstorm spoke of?"

"They are," I say."This is my mate Peeta and my brother, Cato."

"Treepad, why don't you see to Cato while I look at Nightmoon and Peeta," The small tan wolf dipped his head to Peeta and I before trotting to Cato's side and inspecting his feet. Hollyberry sets down her bundle of herbs and studies Peeta and I.

"He is like you, isn't he?" she says.

"Yes," I say. "He is the Alpha of The Twelfth Star. I am his Luna."

"It is nice to finally meet you Peeta," she says gently. "I've learned much about you through Nightmoon."

"It is nice to meet you too," he says steadily. "Taylor, I mean Nightmoon says you are a medicine wolf."

"Yes, I am," she says.

"We have a healer too," he says. "But Nightmoon says that you are not like her."

"We do not follow the same path as the Goddess," she replies. "The rules of medicine wolf is different than that of a Selenian healer."

"How so?" Peeta asks curiously as she rubs some sort of herb into his pads.

"I'm forbidden to take a mate," she says."A mate and pups would take my concentration from my work as a healer and as the interpreter of the Pack That Walks the Stars."

"Pack That Walks the Stars?" Peeta asks.

"Their ancestors," I explain. "Hollyberry is the one who explains what they tell us in the weather and through the stars."

"That sounds very important," Peeta says.

"It is," I say. "Which is why she can never have what we have. She will never bare pups of her own because if the path laid out for her in the starry river that flows across the sky." Peeta nods and the three of us rise. I look over to see Cato and Treepad doing the same.

"Darkstorm had Owleyes and Rivernose lay out nests for Cato in the Warrior's den and Peeta in yours," Hollyberry says.

"Thank you," the three of us say in unison. She nods and she and her apprentice lead the way into camp. Peeta and Cato stay close to me, That is until Darkstorm and Owleyes offer to help Cato settle into the Warrior's den. Peeta follows me silently to the broken rock that forms my cave like den. As I settle down, he just stares at me.

"Why isn't she strong enough yet?" he asks.

"I don't know," I say. "She just isn't."

"Doesn't she miss Rain?" he asks.

"Of course she does," I say rising. "But it would kill her to let you and our daughter see her so weak."

"I miss her," he says and I nod.

"She misses you too," I say. "But right now, we need rest. We will see what we can do with that stubborn voice in the back of my mind in the morning. Perhaps, now that you are here, she will see some reason." I settle down into the soft elk hide that makes my best and after some hesitation, Peeta lays down next to me, curling around as though to protect me.

As I'm falling asleep, content with being so close to Peeta and my mate, Troyal, I hear a voice that hasn't spoken to me in weeks whisper through the back of my mind.

"Let him know I love him."