Alpha's wolfless Luna

Chapter 4.: Tough choice

“Did you find anything else?” Damian talked to Oleg through their mind link. Oleg ran ahead, searching for another trail which would lead them in a direction she had escaped. They had followed the scent of her blood about ten miles north, where the tracks suddenly split into two and led them to an opposite direction. It almost looked like she changed her mind in the middle of her run. But what confused Damian the most was the complexity of these signs. She wouldn’t run another few miles to the northwest, only to change her mind and suddenly come back in the same direction and run another few miles northeast. Especially since those blood stains are only about a day old. She wouldn’t get far if she would come back the same way she ran and simply choose another way.

“Nothing.” Oleg replied to him, desperation and unsureness entwined in his tone, unable to separate the feelings from his inner voice as he talked with Damian through mind-link. Damian’s sudden click of his tongue let the warriors know Oleg had found nothing. Even the dumbest but strongest warrior Damian brought with him utterly understood the wrath they would have to face upon returning to the pack the moment they would come with their hands empty.

They lost her. Once again, she escaped, preparing false tracks for them to find but making sure they could not follow her. Damian had two options now. He could send his warriors in both directions, hoping they would stumble upon other trails which would lead them to her, or he could leave here for now and report to Alpha while praying to the Moon Goddess for mercy. Neither of these two options was acceptable.

“I will report to Alpha.” Damian spoke out loud once Oleg returned to the group. Oleg’s eyes widened, knowing that returning to Alpha all by himself without a girl in his hands would most likely mean his death. Alpha would execute him on the spot, venting his anger on Damian.

“We should go with you.” Oleg argued. He loved working with Damian. Damian was someone to whom Oleg looked up to. Damian wasn’t only strong but also smart and perfectly understood the importance of a strategy in combat. Everything that Damian presented equaled perfection. Oleg should return with him and take the blame for not being able to track the girl properly. This guilt shouldn’t be placed on Damian’s shoulders only.

“We can’t afford to lose these leads. Every single time, it takes longer to track her down. She learned how to hide herself, how to conceal her presence, and I bet these tracks were to confuse us well. Longer this pursuit lasts, the higher are the chances of her getting away for good.” Damian’s reasoning gave Oleg no other air to breathe and argue about going with him. Once Damian fully explained what they should do, Oleg had no other choice but to obey and let Damian return to the pack alone.

Oleg stood there, watching his Beta giving them orders which they should follow in his absence and naming Oleg the temporary leader of them. Damian knew there were low chances of him returning to the group and continuing the pursuit. Once the Alpha would hear his report, know about his failure, he should be grateful and consider it as a blessing just to keep his life.

Damian shifts into his wolf shortly after finishing his instructions, picking up his pace and heading straight back to the pack. They hunted the girl for over a half a year, so even at his full speed, accounting the rest he needed as well, it would take a few weeks to go back to the pack.

Oleg felt every mile which separated him from Damian as a heavy stone which suddenly began crashing his chest. The icy cold which filled his mind once the connection between them broke as the Beta crossed the distance where even the mind-link couldn’t reach him. The coldness filled his entire body, making him feel abandoned, but he had no time to waste. Damian put faith in him, and he didn’t want to disappoint the person he looked up to.

Warriors had already split up into two teams exactly as Damian instructed them, split the equipment they carried with them to survive in the wilderness but as well as money, which they needed for living and surviving in cities. The two tracks the girl left behind led to different directions, and each team needed to follow one of those. Splitting was never a good idea but at this moment they had no other choice but to follow each track, hoping that eventually one group would find another lead to bring them closer to her. The only way to go back to the pack and, most likely, save Damian was to find her as soon as possible and bring her home.

Without Damian, they were missing a strong tracker. The pack didn’t have the second one like Oleg. Damian was the only one with his abilities in tracking closer to those of him. Just in case, they were carrying one of her items she left back in the pack to remind them of her scent, especially if they didn’t find any of her tracks for a long time. Oleg handed the piece of her clothing to the less experienced tracker, hoping it would help him recognize her scent once he stumbled upon it.

Oleg disliked leading. They always kept staring at him, waiting for orders, and that made him nervous. Working under Damian set him at ease, knowing he could simply follow the orders given to him and be himself.

Once the group collected their belongings, each group went their separate ways. Oleg led the one to the north-west, where he lost the scent of her. They followed the route in the woods, hoping they would find anything which would tell them she went this way. They run till evening began approaching them, as the sun slowly disappeared behind the horizon, plunging everything into darkness. Thanks to their wolves, they could see in the night the same as during the day, but Oleg knew warriors needed rest and food to keep their strength. They had several days in the woods before they would reach another civilization, giving them the freedom to hunt in their wolf bodies.

The food supplies they prepared for this hunt finished a long time ago. Neither of them expected it would take so long to catch one little girl, but in the end, they got used to hunting for their food. Money they got from Alpha as funds in case they needed to stay in the cities or among humans where they couldn’t hunt were mostly used to provide shelter in big cities or replenish their supplies of water once they couldn’t find any clean water out in nature.

“I think we run far enough. We should build a camp and catch some food before the deep night approaches.” Oleg stopped as they arrived at a nice spot which would give them space to build a temporary camp. There was a small stream of cold water nearby, so big animals should be around here as well in search of water. This had killed two birds with one stone, offering water and food at the same time.

Two warriors separated from the group, ready to hunt. They didn’t have to go far from the temporary camp before they found a group of deer. Luckily for them, they were downwind, which made it easier to surprise them. Within half an hour, they were back with a dead animal hanging around the neck of the bigger warrior. They dropped it right beside the fire before they began cleaning it so they could start grilling it.

Oleg got used to the plain taste of the grilled meat. Although they usually had a small bag with mixed spices to give a meat some taste, but after eating it for half a year, his taste buds were already dumb, making everything taste the same.

As they were preparing dinner, he discussed with his wolf the current situation. Worried about Damian and confused about the girl. He partly enjoyed the time outside of the pack, especially because he could spend the time with Damian, whom he admired the most. They camped out in the wilderness, hunted for food and slept under the sky. If he stopped thinking about the reason for them to be out like this, he honestly enjoyed the last half a year.

Oleg felt strong admiration and thankfulness towards Damian. It was he who found Oleg’s tracking abilities and reported directly to the Alpha. Only thanks to Damian, Oleg got his chance to take part during the hunt and show his amazing skills and earn his rightful place among the strongest despite his small and weak build. Damian changed his life, gave him a chance to live a proper life, enjoying the fruits of his hard work.

Oleg had no one who would wait for him back in the pack. His family gave up on him a long time ago when he showed his weakness during the tests and failed to earn his place among the warriors. He has lived alone since then. When he earned his place, they tried to get close once again, bathing in the success he suddenly got but openly, in front of the entire pack, cut the ties with them, declaring he is an orphan without a family. The only persons he acknowledged were his Alpha and Damian.

“Oleg.” He overheard his name. He turned his head in the direction from where the sound came, only to see one the warrior handing him a piece of meat, making him realize he pondered in his thoughts for quite some time. He grabbed the piece of meat, thoughtlessly chewing, as they continued grilling the deer, cutting the pieces as they were done. They caught a smaller one, which seemed to be a good choice since their group has only a few members now but was still big enough to have the food for at least another day or two.

His thoughts suddenly went to the second group. Wondering whether they found a good shelter or place to settle down. If they were lucky enough to hunt food for themselves as well. Maybe they found a track and were now on the way back to Oleg to inform him about their findings. Oleg wasn’t the person to usually worry about others, but anything seemed currently better than thinking about Damian. It would still take some time before he would get back, but he couldn’t get the thought of Damian being killed, or heavily punished, out of his mind unless he kept himself busy with thinking about something else.

Deep darkness buried them, as the light from the fire slowly faded as they let the fire die. Oleg was the only one awake except the person who was keeping the watch over them. As a leader, they would keep him out of their rotation, giving him time to rest as much as he needed since he was the one who currently led them to find the girl. It took a long time before Oleg could finally close his eyes and let his mind relax without thinking about Damian or about the girl.