CHAPTER 1
I got up and limped off. I pressed my paw into the soft, damp earth and water swirled around it. I lapped at it. I wanted to let my instincts take over but I was afraid to, because if someone got in my way... Ugh! No, I couldn't take that chance. I limped into the bushes to lie down again.
"Alice, Alice!" Oh, no. My brother, Seth, the only other shifter that knew about my hiding area.
"Alice!" He was relentless!
"What Seth?" I asked him, channeling my thoughts toward him. Our pack, the Trailend pack, has the ability to hear what the other members of the pack are thinking, regardless of whether that person was in human or wolf form. We could direct our thoughts to one wolf and we could also shield our thoughts from one another.
"Everone wants to know what happened to you."
"Go away." I mumbled lazily. He growled and lifted his lip clear of his fangs.
"Seth, I'm warning you." I growled menacingly. His lip decended quickly.
"Okay, okay. Calm down. Sheesh!" He rolled his eyes.
"Humph" I slumped to the ground and Seth danced over. His lithe, graceful movements were the bane of my existance. Why was I the clumbsy one? Why couldn't I be the graceful one? Was that really too much to ask for?
"Uh, earth to Alice?" He interrupted my internal rant.
"What?" I snapped.
"I already told you! Everyone wants you home!" Oh boy... I really didn't want to go back to the pack compound, Leafhaven. We all lived there. The main pack house was a four storey house in the middle of the forest, miles away from anything else. A bunch of us lived in the main house but the rest of the pack lived in small houses and cottages around the main house.
"I don't really wanna go back yet..." I didn't feel like dealing with my brother showing off and annoying me. I also didn't feel like confronting Paul, my kinda boyfriend, who I'd been ignoring for a while now. I was out of range of my packs thought-communication. I had let down my shield and relaxed my mind.
Suddenly I felt Sam's distinct alpha presence in my mind and at the same time I heard his soft footfalls along the path that lead to my hidden space.
"Dammit Seth! I asked you not to tell anyone about this place!" I had been hiding here, in mourning for quite a while, after my mother had been killed a month or two after the guy I loved.
"Its not my fault Ali! I swear!" Seth pleaded.
"We followed him." Sam muttered in my mind. Wait, we? I sniffed the air and caught a second scent. Crap. Paul.
Sam's brindled wolf trotted through the opening in the bushes followed by Paul in human form. Seth glanced at my with pleading eyes, turned around and loped away.
I needed to hunt. Paul tapped into my mind just in time to hear me wondering if my leg was healed enough to hunt bigger prey now.
"No, Alice! Thats not safe yet." Paul said sternly.
"I have to." I pleaded in thought. "Come with me guys?"
"Hmm... okay." Paul agreed.
"Of course Ali." Sam replied, using the stupid nickname he and Seth called me. Paul wondered off behind a bush to change forms. Sam trained his amber eyes on me taking in my grey body that almost looked silver in the late afternoon light, I met his eyes with my electric blue ones and winked. Paul's black wolf padded into the clearing with his head down, sulking. We turned and set off. We ran in easy, comfortable silence.
