Stella beamed at me. “Wow, look at your beautiful fur! So rare to see such a pure white color. I can tell you’ve only shifted a few times. Don’t worry, it’ll get easier and faster the more you do it. Never as fast as an alpha, though. They’re the only ones who can do it instantly.”
I’d seen how fast the alphas could shift, including Kaden, and I envied the ease with which they did it. Even so, my wolf form was pretty damn amazing. In fact, it was just about the best thing in the world, especially when I wasn't running for my life. I crouched down and sprang into action, sprinting around the trees. I wove through them as easily as if I’d trained for it for years, my wolf body responding much quicker than my human one would have. The clumsiness I’d felt with Kaden disappeared. Stella’s laugh followed me as I circled her and then dove into the grass, rolling around. My body moved so easily, so quickly. It was incredible.
“You’re like a three-year-old pup,” Stella said, still laughing. I looked up at her and grinned as well as I could, still on my back in the grass. She shook her head at me and let me roll around for a few more minutes before she called me back over to her. “Time to start training,” she said, and I cocked my head at her. “We’re going to test those wolf senses of yours.”
She pulled a few objects from their house from her bag and waved them in front of me. “I’m going to hide these, and you’re going to track them by smell. Now close your eyes."
I dipped my head in acknowledgment and closed my eyes. I heard Stella walk away, and focused my ears on other things. It wasn’t hard, since there were so many things to listen to all around me, enhanced by my wolf's hearing to the point it almost became overwhelming. I couldn’t imagine being in a city in wolf form.
The wind whispered through the trees, shaking the leaves. I heard small animals skittering through the branches and along the ground, and larger ones plodding along further away. They must have smelled us and ran away, but the birds and squirrels paid us no mind as we traipsed through their forest. I twitched my ears backward, trying to see if I could hear anything from town. With glee, I detected a few voices and the sound of cars.
Stella’s light footsteps sounded close to me. “You can open your eyes now,” she said, and I blinked up at her. She had one hand on her hip and was smiling down at me. “I hid ten objects from the house. See if you can find them all.”
I lifted my nose to the air. The previous concentration I’d had on the sounds of the forest vanished now that I was actively using my nose and eyes again. I caught a whiff of something familiar, something like bread, and followed it. My nose led me through the brush in the direction I’d heard Stella walking when she first left me. I tried to only focus on the familiar scent, but I kept getting distracted. I could smell other animals and plants, and when the wind shifted, I lost the correct trail for a second. I had to backtrack, and suddenly I caught scent of another object. I looked between the two, trying to decide which one to follow. The second one was stronger, as if Stella had gone black and forth several times, rather than the fainter, less pronounced first one.
As I tried to decide, a squirrel skittered across the ground before me, and my wolf instincts made me chase after it up a tree for a few seconds before I realized what I was doing. I put my nose to the ground and inhaled deeply, and decided to follow the second path. Food, my nose told me. Meat. The trail ended abruptly just a few feet later, and I looked around, swiveling my head to try to find the object she’d hidden. Nothing.
I back-tracked and tried to find the first scent again, but it seemed to have disappeared. Frustrated, I made my way back to Stella and sniffed around to catch another scent. She stood, watching me with that twinkle in her eyes.
“It’s overwhelming, isn’t it?" she asked. "You’ll get used to separating smells the longer you do it. Trust me, everyone is overwhelmed at first.”
I shook my head at her, my tongue hanging out, and kept searching. Every time I smelled food, I went after it, growing more and more hungry. I always thought I was close to getting something but then I’d come up empty, the scent disappearing and no object in sight. I only managed to successfully track one thing, an old running shoe that looked like it belonged to Kaden. That stinky thing had been easy to track with my nose.
When I brought it back to Stella, she called a halt. “Good job. You can shift back now.”
I felt weak, like I had after training with Kaden, and sat down on the forest floor. I barely managed to shift back and get dressed, and then I regretted it. My human senses seemed dull in comparison to the time I’d spent as a wolf, and I was even more hungry now.
"You used food for some of the objects, didn't you?" I asked. "But when I got there, they were already gone."
Stella laughed again, and it was almost a cackle. “I knew you'd go after the food first because that's what every wolf pup does. What fun would it be to make it easy?” She helped me up off the forest floor. “You did good, for a beginner.”
I shook my head. “I only found one thing. I think you’re just buttering me up because you’re stuck with me.”
She grinned. “You’ll do just fine. Come on, let’s go get some dinner.”
Underneath the bone-deep tiredness, I felt gratitude. I was so thankful to be receiving this training, no matter how hard it was. If I’d still been with the Cancer pack, I wouldn't have learned any of this. It was up to family and close packmates to show others how to be a wolf, but Dad wouldn’t have bothered. He’d left me to figure everything out by myself up to this point in life, so it wouldn’t have been any different this time. And the Leo pack? I couldn't imagine they'd be much better to me.
I’d take this knowledge any way I could get it.
I felt something else stirring inside of me as we walked back to the house. I hadn’t felt it for years, since I was a child. It took me a few moments to understand what it was. I wanted to make a good impression, to have Stella look at me and say good job. It was odd, feeling it after all this time. I used to feel that way with Dad before I realized that nothing I did would be good enough for him, and I’d stopped trying.
To a lesser degree, I even wanted that from Kaden. I still didn’t like his shitty attitude or his harsh methods, but I could at least respect him as an alpha. It came down to one simple fact: he could help me get stronger. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t the kindest teacher, or that he seemed incapable of giving out praise. He could help me get revenge for Wesley, and that was all I cared about. I had no problem putting up with his cocky, arrogant attitude if it meant I’d get the satisfaction of seeing the Leo pack on their knees, begging for their lives. Knowing this rejected wolf was the one to help bring them to their ruin.
I couldn’t wait.
Chapter Sixteen
It surprised me more than anything when Kaden sat down with us at the large dining room table. When we’d come in and he’d been in the house, I'd half expected him to glare at me and go upstairs, but he’d sat at the island and cut vegetables for the pasta dish we were having. They sent me up to shower off the dirt and sweat from my training, while Stella ran an almost entirely one-sided conversation with Kaden as they cooked.
When the food was ready, Kaden took a seat at the head of the table. I stood, plate in hand, wondering if I was allowed to sit with them. Stella nudged me with her elbow and jerked her chin toward one of the middle chairs. I expected her to take the other end seat, but she sat across from me.
We ate in silence for a few minutes before Stella broke the quiet. “So, Ayla, tell me what it was like to grow up in the Cancer pack?”
I stopped, a bite halfway to my mouth. “It was…” I paused. I wouldn’t lie. I’d been lying through my teeth about my treatment for years. “Awful,” I finally said. Stella blinked as if it wasn’t the answer she was expecting. “I was always shunned for being an outcast, and treated poorly by many of the other pack members.”
“Weren’t you the alpha’s daughter?” She tried to share a look with Kaden, but he had his gaze
focused on his plate, eating slowly but methodically.
“I was, but that didn’t matter." I fingered a strand of my red hair. “My father had an affair with a human, and I looked too much like her for him to ever forget it. He made it clear that despite sharing blood, I was no daughter of his. Wesley, my brother and the alpha heir, he was the golden child. He was the only one who treated me kindly.”
“Was?" Stella asked softly.
"He's dead now, thanks to the Leo pack and their allies.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness and pain out of my voice, but I did manage to blink back the rush of tears.
For a moment, I thought I’d killed the mood, as the quiet blanketed us once more. The clink of forks against plates was the only sound in the dining room. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything.
“The Leo pack killed our parents too,” Stella said, and I glanced up at her. She looked sad, but the kind of sad that said that it had happened a long time ago. When I glanced over at Kaden, his hand had tightened around the fork, his knuckles bone-white.
That must be why he hates them so much, I thought. That explained why he wanted to go after the Leo pack first. I nodded and ducked my head again, going back to eating. It was an excellent pasta dish, made with linguine in some kind of white sauce with vegetables and chicken. Stella clearly knew how to cook beyond basic survival skills.
Stella took a long sip of water before she continued. “Our parents were trying to meet with the other alphas to see if any of them would be willing to take our case to the rest of the packs and help us rejoin the Zodiac Wolves. But the other packs wouldn’t have anything to do with us, and for a while, we thought nothing would ever change. Then our parents got an invitation to meet with the Leo pack. It was suspicious, but our father was so excited to finally meet with one of the packs that he didn’t listen to anyone else’s advice."
I sucked in a deep breath at the pain in Stella’s voice. “And they betrayed you. Didn’t they?”
Stella nodded. “The Leo alpha killed our parents and some of their closest friends and advisors. That was when Kaden became alpha.”
I'd never heard about anything like this, even from the boastful Leos. Then again, they'd probably wanted to keep the truth about the Ophiuchus pack a secret. If anyone knew they were real, and not the monsters of myth, the lost pack might gain some sympathy among the Zodiac Wolves. “How long ago was this?”
“Ten years ago. Sometimes it seems like it happened just yesterday. It feels like it, in here.” She put a hand over her heart. Her eyes burned with the same mix of rage and grief I felt, and suddenly I knew that ten years from now, I’d feel the same as I was right now. I didn’t know if I could bear it. “Since then we've been waiting to get our revenge.”
“Ten years is a long time to wait for revenge,” I said. “The Leo pack has only grown bigger and stronger over the last ten years. Why wait until now?”
Kaden put his fork down, a little too hard. I jumped at the sudden noise. He looked up, eyes burning with hatred. “I spent every day of the last ten years preparing my pack for war, ever since I became alpha. Training all pack members to fight. Gathering weapons and resources. Studying the other packs' weaknesses. And now we're finally ready." He leaned forward, his voice low. "As long as you do what I say, we’ll both get our revenge on the Leos.”
I looked into those hate-filled eyes and believed it. He must have been young when he became alpha, and it was impressive that he'd been able to take control of a pack and prepare them for battle. I certainly wouldn't want to stand against him.
After that, the mood was well and truly killed, and we spent the rest of the dinner in silence. Kaden was the first to finish, and he washed his plate and put it in the dishwasher, before stalking upstairs. That was more of the dramatic exit I’d expected him to make before dinner.
“Don’t mind him,” Stella said as she stood up. “He had to grow up fast after he became alpha. He really does care about us under all of that grumpiness.”
I believed it, for her at least. Me? I was still an outcast here.
I washed up and ran the dishwasher, before heading upstairs to spend the rest of my evening resting. Training had really taken it out of me, but as I laid in bed, I found that I couldn’t relax. Last night I’d fallen asleep easily, between my exhaustion and grief, but it wasn’t so easy tonight.
There were too many questions that needed answering. I glanced out my window and found puddles of moonlight on the ground outside. For one, I needed to understand the strange power I’d used to get away from Jordan back at the Convergence.
I got up and padded to my door, listening. The house was quiet. I opened it and stepped out into the hall. Kaden wasn’t there, snarling at me, so I figured it was safe.
I crept down the hall and down the stairs. Still nothing. I relaxed as I made it to the back door and stepped out, relieved to be leaving the house without any of my guards. I made my way into the forest as quietly as I could. Not too far, but just far enough that if Kaden or Stella happened to look outside they wouldn’t see me.
I stepped into a patch of moonlight and tilted my face up to the moon. It just seemed like light, nothing special about it. I didn’t feel the strange tug in my gut or the way the world had shifted. I closed my eyes and concentrated.
Still nothing.
Had it been only a one-time thing? Some strange survival instinct that shifters had?
Then I remembered that I’d felt as if I was going to die, and tried to conjure up the same feeling of fear and panic. I need to escape, I thought. I need to get away. The urgency grew within me easily enough. It hadn’t been too long ago that I’d been hunted like an animal, and the feeling was all too familiar.
I drew in a sharp breath and opened my eyes. I was ten feet away from where I’d been before. I nearly laughed, though it contained no humor. Whatever power I'd used before was still inside of me.
I closed my eyes and tried again. It was like shifting. The more I did it, the easier it became, like working out a muscle. I made a circle around a copse of trees using only patches of moonlight and then tried to skip over a patch. That didn’t work so well, but at least I was beginning to know the limits of this strange power. When I paused to take a breath, I felt tired, like I’d been training or running.
Suddenly the feeling of being watched raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I swiveled my head around, trying to see who it was. Kaden leaned against a tree about twenty feet away, completely in shadow, but there was no mistaking him for anyone else. I'd know those broad shoulders anywhere.
“What are you doing?” I asked, hands on my hips. “How long have you been watching?"
He uncrossed his arms and stepped into the moonlight, letting it illuminate his way-too-handsome face. “I need to make sure you’re not going to escape, since you decided to leave the house in the middle of the night, acting like you were sneaking out."
“I just wanted to figure out how this weird power works,” I said. “I didn’t have it before the Convergence, and I haven’t exactly had time to practice yet. You know, being locked in a cage and all.”
I expected Kaden to snarl something at me, but he simply ignored my jab and stepped closer. I took an involuntary step back, but then stood my ground, lifting my chin. I wouldn’t let him intimidate me.
"I know what you are," Kaden said. "I suspected it before, but after seeing you move in the moonlight, it's obvious now. You’re Moon Touched."
“I'm what?” I’d never heard the term before.
“You’ve been given a special gift by the moon goddess, Selene,” he elaborated, which didn’t really clear anything up at all.
"Why would the moon goddess give me gifts?" I snorted. "I’ve never been anything special in my life." Dad had made it exceptionally clear that I wasn’t anything to write home about.
Kaden's eyes raked up and down my body in a way that made me shiver. Instantly, I flushed with heat, but I shoved the feeling away. It irritated me to no end that my body
responded to him like this.
“I have a theory," he said.
“Mind sharing with the class?” I asked.
He smirked at that. “Yes, I do. I think I’ll hang onto it for a bit.”
Asshole, I thought.
“How much do you know about the Ophiuchus pack and why we’re outcasts from the rest of the Zodiac Wolves?” he asked before I could snipe back at him.
I shrugged. “About the same as any other shifter, I’d expect. We were raised on ghost stories about you. I didn’t think your pack was real until I saw you." I tilted my head as I recalled some of the things I'd heard. "The legends say your pack interbred with the Moon Witches long ago to try to gain extra powers. They also say that you tried to take over once before, and all it got you was being kicked out of the Zodiac Packs.”
“Partially true,” Kaden said. “Long ago, the Moon and Sun Witches were allied, and they enslaved all wolf shifters to fight a war against the vampires."
I held up a hand to stop him. "Wait, hang on. Vampires? They're real?"
"Yes, although there are very few of them left, from what I've heard. They tend to live in Europe."
"How stereotypical," I muttered.
He shot me a look as he continued. “As I was saying... After the witches won the war, the shifters revolted and earned their freedom, with the help of the Moon Witches. The Sun Witches didn’t take kindly to this betrayal, and the two groups became separate. The Ophiuchus pack remained on good terms with the Moon Witches and sometimes mated with them, but the other Zodiac packs didn’t like our pack's growing power, and cast us out." He paused as if waiting for me to interrupt him, but I was just shocked by all this new information—and because I'd never heard him say so many words at once before. “The other twelve packs allied with the Sun Witches instead, which was a big mistake. The Sun Witches manipulated the twelve packs into thinking they were allies, but in reality, they're controlling them."
Moon Touched (Zodiac Wolves: The Lost Pack Book 1) Page 12