Gold Canary

Part 4

The individual food packs we'll all be carrying line the bench top and I grab mine the same time Tim makes a grab for his. The others are already packing their own away and I realize I'm the last again. At least Finn isn't saying a word about it this time, and involuntarily I sneak a peek at him from the corner of my eye. He was watching the others for signs of readiness but almost as if he senses my eyes on him, he zeroes in on my direction.

"Let's move out." Finn commands, and before I can move he's at my side clutching the top of my arm.

The familiar tingles he elicits run down my arm up to my head making me feel almost drunk. I am blind in the feeling of his touch as we move.

I can't believe it's been a year.

I can't believe he left me.

The thought has me slamming back into myself with much needed clarity.

He's been leading me out the side door, and I wrench my arm from his grip.

"Don't touch me." I snarl.

"Jeez Aria, you've been lagging behind since you got here. Don't be stupid, let's go."

I so want to extend my claws and run them down his pretty face. But instead I brush past him. If anyone's going to be late this time it's going to be him.

I'm at the edge of the woods before he can touch me again but that doesn't last long and I feel him come up behind me and lean into me until his chest touches my back. I can feel his warm breath running through my hair and I hate the brief comfort it brings from the cold.

Freddie is taking charge and before I know it we are tramping through the fresh snow in the wilderness that surrounds the majority of Finns territory.

Finn has stayed close since we left and I hate to admit it but I'm grateful for the heat radiating off his thin but muscular body.

The others around us talk quietly amongst themselves as we go, but there is only silence between Finn and I.

So desperate to talk to me it appeared, and now he has nothing to say.

I glance over my shoulder at him but he eyes are focused on scanning the area around us.

If he was worried about an attack he should just ask me. I mean what is the point of having me on this mission if he's not even going to take advantage of my abilities.

The other men obviously trust my gift, but Finn has always thought he's known better.

And because I can't stand it anymore I finally break the silence.

"There's no one out there, Finn." I say with disdain. Hoping to make him feel pathetically paranoid.

"Yeh Ari, and just how would you know princess?" I don't look back even though the nickname princess is one I've hated ever since being teased about it as a child.

"That's cute Finn, pretending like you don't believe I can sense those around me. Real cute."

"Yeh well I now don't easily trust everything I hear." He says, a smirk plain in his tone, heavy emphasis on the 'now' as if he trusted before. "Especially about you." He's voice has pitched low for that last bit and I'm not sure if I was meant to hear it, the regret in his tone confusing me.

I don't say anything in response but I notice that he has stopped scanning our surroundings with the fervor from before.

Ten minutes later and we're at the site.

Even if everyone hadn't stopped I would have halted the progression, the influx of varying scents making it evident that this was a meeting point of some type.

The scented trail of the Alpha's niece Jennifer and her boyfriend Isaac enters behind me to the left but after mingling scents with the Independents it disappears and diverging trails head in different directions off the territory. I understand the difficulty they are having.

With no clear scent anymore of the two we search for it would be foolish to follow the wrong Independent's group trail on a wild goose chase without experienced personal taking over.

This is where my skill comes in. 

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I'm writing this while on vacation so votes and comments are awesome incentives :)