Rejection on the Full Moon

Chapter 16 - Training Blood Moon Wolves Part 2

With my head start, I make my way through the forest and head directly to the creek that is just ahead from the training ground, running through the water to get rid of my scent trail. Once I feel like they will have a hard time following me, I scan my surroundings until I find the low-hanging branch of a sturdy birch tree and quickly hop onto it. I continue to climb a couple of branches higher until part of me is well-hidden with the bright leaves and settle down to watch below me.

Soon, the group crashes through the bushes, stopping for a moment to stare in all directions. Some sniff the air heavily to catch my scent while others take the time to return to the creek where my scent trail ends to look up and down, their bewildered expressions amusing me.

"Where the hell did she go?" Christian’s cry of frustration reaches my ears, and I fight back laughter. Man, this brought back memories of him trying to capture me when I first started looting this pack. I see the gears moving behind Dominic’s eyes as he scans the forest, his eyes looking just under me. The sad part is many are searching the ground while some were sniffing in case the breeze brings my scent to them. Even the Trackers kept to looking at the forest floor, non bothering to search the trees.

"Remember, she’s a top Tracker." Dominic reminds the group, his eyes scanning over the Trackers before him.

"What’s the main hiding spot that you all use, the way you take when tracking rogues?" He asks. It’s a smart question to ask, and silently I do a little cheer for the Alpha. Maybe he isn’t as stupid as I thought he was. The group of Trackers stop their movement as some look around confused. They definitely need more training.

"Quick, search the trees. I remember Ashlee said Trackers use the trees since they are faster.” My eyes go to the she-wolf with pink-tipped hair. She is short, maybe five foot three inches tall, with a lithe build. I have a feeling that she would be a great Tracker with a little more training.

Eyes continue to search, this time everyone looking into the trees in hopes of spotting me. I stay still and watch them from my hiding spot, waiting to see just how sharp these wolves are. The pink-tipped wolf walks forward and comes to stand beside the green Mohawk wolf, their gazes trained on the trees above the creek. It is clear to see the gears are turning as I stare into their eyes, waiting to see which one of them would spot me first.

"There, I see her." Pink-tipped wolf says as her eyes widen with excitement, and she points at the birch tree I’m relaxing in. I lift a paw and wave before taking off, quickly hopping from branch to branch. The sounds of branches bending with the weight of a body indicate a few wolves have joined me in the trees, but their movements are slow and clumsy. I know instantly that I will have to focus on their skills in navigating through branches.

The scent of fresh water slowly fills the air, and the scene of a lake greets me. Focusing more energy into my legs, I leap off the final branch and relish being in mid air. Twisting my body to the left, I dive straight into the safety of a lake, making sure I am deep under the water. Shadows pass by in the trees above, and I roll my eyes once more. The wolves chasing me did not stop to sniff the air to make sure they are still on my trail and instead by-pass me and the lake altogether. An hour slowly passes by as I take the time to trick them by swimming to the island in the center of the lake and leaving my scent all around it. I brush against the bushes and trees, seeing some fur left behind and smirk. By the time the group decided to double back and regroup, I had already moved to the opposite side of the lake, letting the warm sun dry my fur while hidden behind large bushes.

"Anyone catch her scent yet?" The question is voiced by the pink-tipped girl, and I perk my ears up. Apparently, they are close, and I have to be ready to make a run for it at any moment. I peek under the bushes hiding me to take a look at the group. I can see some trying hard to track down my scent as others look around the trees and bushes.

“Miles, you’re our best swimmer in this group. See if she is over by that island over there.” Dominic suggests, giving the order to a wolf in the group. It turns out Miles is the green Mohawk wolf, and I smirk as he starts swimming to the island that I have left my scent all over. Another twenty minutes pass before Miles once again jumps into the water and swims back to the group, a frown on his young face as he looks at Dominic and Christian.

"She was there, but she seems to have left maybe an hour ago. She must be watching us." And he is right, I am watching them. Maybe I should throw them a bone. The wind is blowing in my favour as everyone’s scent is carried towards me, but this exercise is to test their skills as a pack. Quietly, I make my way through the forest around everyone, keeping my senses alert as I carefully observe the wolves searching for me. Finally I am down wind, letting the breeze blow my scent towards the group. With the bait now set, I wait to see who will catch my scent first, to see which wolf has the sharpest nose. It isn’t long until I hear a shout.

"I smell her!" Dominic exclaims with excitement, signalling that it is time to leave the lake quickly. With a quick jog, I continue my path through the forest. Three more hours pass by in a blink, and in those hours, I continued to trick them, wait until many were just in reach to grab me, then take off in a sprint and even manage to lose the group. At one point, Dominic, Christian, and Miles split into three groups with a mix of Trackers and Hunters, impressing me with their idea. But no one has come close to taking the scarf away from me.

The sun is beginning to set, the sky ablaze in many reds, oranges and pinks, helping to disguise my fur even better in the tree tops. I am starving, having used the majority of my energy to mess with the wolves being trained by me. They had done well—better than I expected—and I now have an idea of what needs to be done next. First thing’s first, I have to talk to Dominic and Christian about Miles and how he will make a good Head Hunter and partner-in-crime with training these wolves.

I silently crept through the treetops, keeping an eye on the wolves below me as they continue to scan through the forest. I can see the exhaustion and weariness in each wolf below me, as some soon lean against a tree to support themselves. This is probably the most training they’ve ever done, but at least they know their territory well. I knew how they feel, though. Other than my stamina being fine and my breath even, my paws are sore. I will be feeling the pain tomorrow if I decide to shift again into wolf form and go for a run.

"Is there a punishment for surrendering?" Christian asks, each word being punctuated with a gasp as he tries his best to catch his breath. I want to let out a small growl at Christian for wanting to quit. What if this pack was being attacked? Would he quit and surrender then?

Disappointment fills me as I look down at Christian and sigh. He and I will have to talk later about his attitude.

“We will not quit. Amberle is helping us to become stronger, so we will keep going until she says so.” Dominic’s strong voice rings clear, silencing many cries of exhaustion and complaints. I can’t help but admire Dominic. Even with everyone exhausted, somehow Dominic brought out their fighting spirit. Maybe there is still hope for this pack to get back into the best shape with an Alpha like Dominic leading them.

Smiling, I decide to end the training here while I carefully stand and stretch before jumping off the branch. Mid-fall, I shift back into human form, landing quietly behind Dominic and using the scarf and my hair to hide as much as my body from the group.

“You all did better than I expected.” I start, watching Dominic jump in surprise and turn towards me in a defensive stance. I catch a few of his wolves holding back snickers at their flustered Alpha while Dominic straightens and stands, his hand scratching the back of his neck while a blush creeps along his face. Christian, though, is full out howling with laughter before being quieted by a growl from Dominic, leading to me rolling my eyes.

“Like I said, you did well, but you all ultimately lost. We need to work on your stamina and endurance. I want you all to run at least five kilometres a day around the training ground before going off to do your duties. On training day, it will be a ten-kilometre run before doing this exercise again.” I look into each and every wolf’s eyes and see a spark of determination ignite within them. Their fighting spirit is something I never saw back in Forest Paw, but it makes me proud knowing that I evoked it in them.

Finally, my eyes meet Dominic’s, and something flickers behind his dark green orbs, but it is gone before I can decipher it. I turn away to look at the pink-tipped wolf and Miles. I have a feeling that these two will be great assets, and I planned to work with them one-on-one, especially since I feel strongly about Miles being the Head Hunter.

A shirt is thrust towards me, breaking me from my train of thoughts and making me turn to see Dominic shirtless. My eyes flicker to his toned body, still as well-defined as when I first saw him. I gingerly take his shirt from him with a small thanks. Quickly covering myself with the large shirt, I let the scarf loosely hang around my neck while the group begins to head back to the pack house. I use this moment to take a deep breath, inhaling Dominic’s scent and allowing it to settle around me.

“Hey, Fire Foot.” I turn to the sound of a familiar voice, seeing the pink-tipped wolf coming to walk beside me.

“You can call me Amberle.” I reply back, smiling at her. I really like this wolf and felt good about her. She could be an excellent second to me, a partner-in-crime when training the Trackers and coming up with new ways to train—and slightly torture—them.

“I’m Avery. You’re amazing.” I laugh at the energetic Tracker as she bounces beside me. Even though I can tell that little pink-tipped hair wolf is tired from the training, that didn’t stop her from being excited and prattling on like a pup. Avery begins to fill me in on how the Trackers used to be trained and what exercises they had to do in the past. It was a good foundation and explained why these Trackers had skills to begin with, but also gave me more of an idea of how to train them. Since the Hunters are also being trained by me as well, I need to learn their past training schedule in order to make a proper training regime. The goal is to fully bring out the peak potential of the Blood Moon pack.

“Dominic must really like you.” Miles comes up on the other side of me, cutting off Avery’s rant about wanting to learn how to travel through the trees properly without falling a couple of feet to the forest floor. I turn to look at the wolf with a green Mohawk.

“Why do you say that?” I ask, wondering what he meant.

“About two-and-a-half years ago, he met his mate. She rejected him because he was the Alpha of this pack and didn’t want to be with a quote-unquote ‘Bloodthirsty monster’. Before he could prove to her that he wasn’t, his father watched her run away with a rogue who was banished from our pack. As Dominic chased after them to talk it out, three Soulless attacked and mauled both the mate who rejected him and the traitor until you couldn’t even recognize them.” Miles explains. My heart wrenches at Dominic’s past, and I turn to look at him. I watch as a group of wolves joke around with Dominic, a smile on his face and laughter drifting over to the three of us. It explains why Dominic allowed me to cry in his embrace yesterday.

“In all honesty, that bitch deserved to die, Dom’s mate or not. She had a habit of harming pack members who stood in her way and had a high and mighty attitude. Dominic thought he could change her when he found out they were mates, but Christian and the majority of the pack were against her.” Avery’s voice is laced with hatred as she scoffs at the mention of Dominic’s so-called mate. I understand how she feels about dealing with someone with a high and mightier attitude—I did grow up with Mia wanting to make my life hell after all.

Avery and Miles soon change the subject while my thoughts drifted to their Alpha. Dominic has this air about him that sent butterflies through me, so I just can’t understand how someone could reject him. Hell, I understood why Leo rejected me, even though we were once best friends. But from what I can tell, Dominic’s mate grew up in this pack. She had to have known what Dominic is like.

“Penny for your thoughts?” A deep voice asks as I feel someone poke my cheek. My head swivels to see Dominic peering down at me, a gentle smile on his face.

“The Canadian government stopped making pennies years ago. I’ll take a nice, fat lump of cash, though.” I retort, bumping my shoulder into his playfully.

“Well, that will come later when you make your final decision on staying or not.” Dominic replies, winking at me as he wraps his arm around my shoulders. I blush as no wolf has ever been this intimate with me other than my friends, not since my parents’ death. I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear nervously, not bothering to remove his arm. Frankly, I liked how it felt, his arms wrapped around me gave me a sense of belonging.

“So, what are you thinking about so deeply here, Fire?” Dominic asks. I can feel his eyes on me, and it takes everything in me not to shy away.

“Plenty of things are on my mind, but I think I found your new Head Hunter and an Assistant Tracker for me right now.” I answer. I decide to shelf the mystery surrounding Dominic and his own rejected past. When the time is right, I have a feeling that he will go into more detail about it since being rejected is such a hard subject for the rejected to talk about.

The pack house comes into view finally, and the wolves cheer as many rush inside. The smell of a hearty meal reaches me from the open doors and windows, causing my stomach to growl.

“How about we grab some food. Then Christian, you and I can go to my office to discuss who you want to have as your partners-in-crime for torturing us.” Dominic chuckles, giving me a flirty smile as we head into the large building and straight into the dining room. I find myself smiling as well. For once, I feel like I was home again.