Wolves: Book One - A Tide Receeding

19.

Cassandra paced around her human's home, frustration and confusion poking at her heart. She and Tilda had gone to the area that they met with Eric and Keion, but neither one of them showed. In fact, now that Tilda thought about it, she hadn't seen them since the day they had to leave suddenly. Something weird was going on in the forest, and her concern for her mate was at its peak.

Tilda was not free of this feeling. After all, she had been without Keion for longer than Cassandra had been without Eric, and the last time she had been with him, he seemed distant, almost like he wasn't sure if he was supposed to even be there.

Never before had Eric failed to meet her at the pines until recently. "Pines," she thought to herself, remembering the day she had given their favorite place that name. Eric had dismissed it and believed that he could laugh the idea out of her head, but it stayed. She had told him it was going to eventually stick, and he denied. Their relationship started out being combative, but their rough ends rounded out and they eventually came to. Well, Eric did. He just had to learn to listen sometimes and stop being so bossy.

When they had left earlier that day, the forest had been as quiet as ever. In fact, the loudest thing they could hear were their humans back home as they used some weird object that shortened the fields of grass around their home. She remembered that the strange sounds near her home had made Eric uneasy, and he could hardly pay her any attention whenever he visited her.

Cassandra could make out a bundle of small brownish-red fur padding it's way toward the wall of wood that led to the outside.

"What's the matter, Tilda?" Cassandra asked. "Do you have to go? Want me to call for the humans?"

Tilda turned to face her sister. "I want to go back."

Cassandra cocked her head to one side. "Back where?"

"Back to our secret place."

"What? We just came from there!"

"I know, but what if they're there now, and are just waiting for us?" Cassandra could tell hope was beginning to blossom in Tilda's heart, but she knew it was fickle.

"Tilda," she sighed in sympathy, "I don't mean to sweep away any hope you have, but you know just as well as I do that they're probably not waiting for us."

"They could be."

"Tilda...they're not..." Cassandra hopped off their human's soft object to be closer to her sibling. She wanted to comfort her, but Tilda just gave her some strange incredulous look.

Tilda was silent for a moment, but suddenly she began to bark.

"What are you doing, Tilda?" She asked, noticing that she had gone over to the wall of wood. "Did you really have to go after all?"

Tilda didn't answer her question. "I know you won't let me go, but the humans will let me out."

It took a few seconds for Cassandra to pick up on what her sister just told her, and in that time one of their humans came stepping down the light brown steps that lead up to another level. She had been up there a couple of times, but only when more humans came to visit.

The human padded over to the wall of wood, and opened it just so that Tilda could run out.

"Tilda wait!" Cassandra barked after her, just narrowly making it through before her human shut the wall after her.

Tilda had a head start, but she was not very fast. In fact, Cassandra was able to catch up to her in a short amount of time. Now they were running side by side.

"Tilda, why do you want to come out here so bad? What's the matter with you?" She asked, though she already knew the answer.

"I have to check to make sure he's not there after all," she panted, "I have to at least hope he's there waiting for me!"