A Cold Wind Blows (Forgotten series, #3)

Chapter 8: Part 2

I looked up from the ground, looking for my small mate and to my surprise she had stopped but wasn't breathing hard. She seemed intent on her surroundings. Her head tilted as if she had heard something. I stopped and watched as her head twitched and she moved it to the side as if she had caught a faint sound. If she would have been in wolf form her ears would have moved in the direction she had heard it.

"Patrols." It was all she said before she started moving again. I frowned and tried to focus on what she had been listening to but I heard nothing. As I followed her once again I reached out with my mind, searching for links and finding two closer to our position.

Alpha, do you have someone with you? The question was unexpected and I faltered slightly before catching myself. I moved quicker, trying to catch up to Lace, I had let her go a bit further than I was comfortable with.

I do. I slowed down when I was about ten feet behind her, giving her, her wanted space.

Okay, we caught an unfamiliar scent when the wind blew our way but your scent was also prevalent so we wanted to make sure before we took any action. It was a clipped and clinical response that showed the patrol's training. I was impressed at their reaction time almost as impressed I was at Lace spotting them or hearing them.

She is alright to be in the territory. Thank you for your concern and response time. I could feel their acknowledgement as they moved on. My patrol shifters were well trained and that act showed it. They didn't simply act without thought, they gauged situations and variables before they acted.

The sky was slowly darkening and I knew it would be dark before long. That meant we would have to stop for the night. I wondered how she would take spending the night on the side of the mountain without lowlander amenities. That was the main reason most of my potentials had failed. They weren't used to life without their usual amenities.

Some of them hadn't even been able to live in the compound. We ran on solar power, so at night all power was shut down and we moved back to oil lamps or candles. When there were cloudy days all power was shut off so that everything we could get was diverted to the pack infirmary and the freezers where it was needed most. There was the issue with the power but that wasn't even mentioning the communal bathing house.

The compound sat on a natural hot springs and one of the first Alphas the pack had created a bathing house. As time went on more was added to it, natural filtration systems, natural, bio-degradable soaps and other such items. It was essentially used as a tool to keep the pack socialized. We didn't have big monthly events like the lowlanders. We very much focused on the jobs we had and so the bathing house gave us that time for socializing that we might have missed during our week of work.

Many of my potentials had balked at the idea of it. They believed bathing to be a more personal thing than something that needed to be shared. Most of them refused or were so shy about it was nearly painful for my pack to watch. Nudity was natural for us, we didn't care about showing skin or giving ourselves a quick wash in front of others. It was normal for us. The bathing house was made for relaxing, not for tensing and hiding one's self because of a strange sort of shame.

A combination of that, mixed with their inability to cope with our way of life and the way the mountain itself was, were the reason so many of my potentials had failed. Mountain life just wasn't for those from the lowlands. They had expected too much, had grown soft from the luxuries they had been given their entire life. They weren't used to not having running water for half the day or for weeks on end. They weren't used to the fact there was no grocery stores or places to get a quick meal. They weren't used to hunting for meat or growing their own vegetables.