packs aren't always of the same species (a WayHaught au)

lost

Your job as a ranger had taken a semi-permanent seat on the backburner as of late and you were starting to go a tad stir crazy. Dolls had written it up as temporary medical leave for the rest of the month and, considering everything went according to plan with the full moon, you were to start back up mid-January. Surprisingly enough, it was Wynonna who suggested you get back out there on patrol with the rest of the gang a little early, and you (and the wolf) eagerly accepted. What was even more surprising was Waverly volunteering to go along with you under the pretense of researching the area, to which you immediately protested against, consciously ignoring the wolf at the back of your head who was all for it. It wasn't that you didn't want her to go with you, or that you didn't think she couldn't handle herself, no matter how against the rules and unsafe it was to allow a civilian out on patrol with you without the proper write-ups and training, it was more the fact that you didn't think you could handle it. Honestly, the woods were proving to be more and more dangerous everyday and with Waverly out there patrolling with you, you'd just be distracted and if anything happened to her because of you...well, you didn't really want to think about what the consequences of that would be. But then Waverly was looking at you with her big, pleading hazel eyes and Wynonna was actively avoiding the entire conversation and you're almost positive it was the wolf who answered for you (in a moment of weakness) before you even had a chance to put your foot down.

Before you knew it, you were packing two backpacks full of essentials and emergency overnight supplies and Waverly was grabbing her camera and a notebook and her oversized winter coat, mittens, and scarf and leading you (yes, she was leading you, no matter how much you tried to deny it) down a path that had previously been marked as closed off for the winter. You figured if she was going to go with you, you would at least make your job a bit easier and focus on cleaning up the trail a bit for when you reopened it in the spring. It wouldn't take a lot of concentration on your part and you and the wolf could keep an ear out for anything unusual.

The two - three - of you walked for awhile in silence, with you occasionally bending over to move a log that was in the way, to cut down vines that were starting to grow a tad too wildly along the path, or stopping to mark trees that looked deader than a doornail. Waverly just walked alongside you, sometimes behind you if the path wasn't wide enough, jotting down things in her notebook or pausing to take a quick picture along the way. You figured Waverly was still mad at you for disappearing for an entire day and that was why she was keeping quiet, but whenever you looked to make sure she wasn't falling too far behind, you always caught her staring at the back of your head or the side of your face, almost like she wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words or bring herself to say what she wanted. Usually, you wouldn't mind the quiet while patrolling. Today, apparently it was too much.

"If you want to yell at me, can you do it already? The anticipation is killing me here." You were only half joking, a small smirk on your lips, but Waverly stopped mid-stride and turned to face you head on, the smirk immediately falling from your face. You half expected her to immediately go off on you, even the wolf backed into a corner, fully prepared to take the hit.

Except, she didn't.

She just looked at you with a furrowed brow for a couple of seconds before sighing as her features relaxed.

"Yell at you? Nicole, I didn't want to go on patrol with you so I could yell at you." You must've looked confused as all hell because she shook her head and huffed out a laugh, a small smile coming to her lips. "Sure, what you did was stupid and reckless, but you're a grown ass woman and you know these woods like the back of your hand. And I'm sure that before all this Hunter crap started, you wouldn't have thought twice about taking off like that... No, I uh-" She paused to run a hand through her hair, but realized pretty quickly that she had braided it before the two of you left and ultimately let her hand fall limply to her side before continuing. "-I actually wanted to apologize..."