The bad feeling curdles in my stomach as Sir Rey’s grin grows even more distinct.

So, I do the smart thing. The wise thing in a situation like this.

I bolt.

I don’t make it far. Sir Rey grabs me by the collar of my shirt before I make it four steps. I almost choke as it compresses against my thorax. I still the urge to break his arm and stab him. As I knew what was coming, I feel in control of the situation and can hold in the automatic response to a mere twitch of my hand.

He pulls me down beside him on a nice little rock. My backside stings from the landing, drawing a wince from me. He winks at my glare. “Don’t you be going anywhere, prince.” He turns to the gathering of young and old, water still dripping from his beard. The amusement in some of the elder’s gazes tells me they have an inkling that this is about to get interesting. “We’re going to be here for the night. Plenty of time for the prince to rest. Later.”

The Shifters hoot and holler, some even cupping their hands around their mouths and howling at the retreating sun.

A sharp growl from my chest makes the howlers shut up, but the amusement and laughter is still there, making me wish to curl into a ball in a dark and secluded cave… but… it also warms something inside of me I thought was dead.

It warms the part of me that longed for the pack of my homeland, longed for a place to belong.

I’ve not had a consistent pack for over twenty years.

And now in mere years I’ve been welcomed among humans, Were, dragons… and now Shifters.

My mind is afraid to hope, afraid that it is too soon for those around me to be considered pack like I consider the humans and Were.

But my heart, the stubborn thing, warms as if it’s on fire with a blazing light to protect, defend, and uphold the sacred honour of Alpha with those around me. To see to their safety, their happiness, and their overall well-being.

And it shakes loose what was once a very lone wolf into something a bit closer to what I would like to become. A little less jaded and hard. A little more of what my birth mother tried to cultivate before my father broke something within.

We were alone. No more, Cynic says, somehow smiling.

But is it not too soon? What if they betray us?

Betrayal is not the beginning, it is the end. Be cautious, but let not the fear of betrayal steal the joy you have now.

When did you become so wise? I say, amusement making my lips tilt in an almost smile. A bit of begrudging warmth seeps into my soul. Perhaps I’ve never been as alone as I thought.

I’m not you, idiot, he grumbles. Even if hanging out in your brain has stolen many of my brain cells.

I’m not entirely sure what brain cells are… but I get the gist.

I try not to grin, even as the claps and cheers grow quieter around the clearing. Clouds gather above, blocking out the fading sunlight and bringing a hint of bitter ice and pure, fresh water. It’ll be snowing soon, and a pang in my heart begins as I remember the mare I just released who will have to find her way back to civilization.

I’ll need to send one of the Shifters… never mind. Her scent of fresh tilled dirt and spring grass with the musky odor of horse is a mere dozen feet away behind a copse of evergreen holly bushes where a hint of trickling water meets my ears. I'll ask one of the Shifters to take her near my father's home tonight.

I turn my mind back to Sir Rey as he watches the Shifters with pride and humor glinting in his eyes, even as his face remains stern.

“Now, now. Don’t be too hard on the boy. He is still quite drained from captivity and all.” My eyes heat with a glare. The old coot’s straight face turns to a grin when he glances my way. “But, should you all want to return the favor he has dolled out for the past hour or so, you may attack in five... four...” I free myself of his hand with a twist. I turn tail and tuck into the woods. Sir Rey’s laughter at my back goads me further. I scamper up a tree and use the limbs to go further without leaving an obvious scent trail. Then I tuck myself further up an evergreen to watch.

From this vantage point, I can barely see Sir Rey behind the last searcher. He gives the trees a salute before meandering back to where Alyssa is stirring a pot of soup. He gets a bowl and slurps contently as Alyssa gestures with the soup spoon.

I am so paying him back for this. I turn my attention to closer around me. The little pack gathers around the place where I left my scent before climbing a tree. Barks, yips, and a few howls filter through the tree limbs as they throw themselves into the hunt.

I threw a ripping of my shirt off my path into some bushes, hoping it would lead them off the trail for just a bit. It seems to do well until a smaller, langy wolf points his snout up the tree with a sharp bark that silences the others.

They all turn snouts and faces toward the sky, searching the trees. I stay still as a hare sensing a hawk, knowing it’ll only be so long before they catch me and not trying all that hard to outwit them. Besides, I’m secretly enjoying watching the pack function. It’s been a while, and it’s just settling into my soul that I’m back with wolves. A pack who has adopted me as their Alpha, strange as it sounds.

A few more shift to add better eyes to the trees while a few of the youngsters climb the tree and look for me as a few of the elders sit back with their arms crossed, small smiles turning their faces as they converse and let the younger wolves learn the art of tracking with no assistance. All without a word spoken, as if some invisible link binds them.

To my surprise, it’s little Jonas who ends up spotting me, the one who pegged me with a rock and I returned the favor. He’s a good tracker. He took the most likely tree limb and discounted it when he found no scuff marks. Then he noticed the smaller, almost inconsequential limb I scurried across, using it to traverse to the next tree.

And so he followed me through a maze within the canopies of the trees. And his face lit up with a delightfully mischievous smirk when he met my eyes within the evergreen I’d hidden in.

“Found ya,” he whispered before cupping his lips and howling, calling my pack down on me.

They bark, yip, and yell at me to come down. “Not in my lifetime, you crazy rogues!” I call back, leaning out to smile at those on the ground and at Jonas, whose grin has only grown until his eyes sparkle with pride. The thrill of the hunt is imbedded deep.

“Yes, this lifetime.” The big booming voice comes from behind me. A giant of a shifter I’ve only heard referred to as Big Ben looms behind me. His amber curly mop of hair is glistening from the anointing of water I gave him earlier. “Unless you’d prefer to go down unwillingly?” He cracks his knuckles, grinning from ear to ear.

I gulp. This is the second time in the last hour I wither under his glare. “Naw. I’m good.”

He gives me a shove, almost sending me toppling from the branch. I steel myself to face the execution committee with valor.

I slowly traverse down the limbs, taking my time.

I’m apparently too slow. Big Ben plucks me from the next branch and leaps. I’m not joking. Twenty, thirty feet? No problem for Big Ben.

BIG problem, I say. Before I can stop my instincts of being at the mercy of another, I twist in the air and swipe his hand, causing him to howl in pain as I stretch the tendons on his pinky, almost causing it to break. A rip sounds as my shirt tears from his grasp. I grab his now empty hand and pull him to me. A jerk and a twist later, I’m on his back, riding him down for the last split second before we hit ground. His legs absorb the shock, jostling me only slightly. I’m personally a bit amazed. I couldn’t have stuck that landing so easily without a roll.

He reaches back for me, so I spring from his eight to nine-foot-tall back and roll to the ground. I get up panting and feel the wildness of my wolf in my eyes at the flashbacks swimming through my mind. Of other times cruel hands took hold. Of other giant like men who took out their anger on small pups.

I shake it from my mind, coming back to the present amidst whispers.

“How’d he do that?”

“I didn’t see him move before he was on top.”

“That was awesome.”

The last whisper is from Jonas. He scurries the last few feet down the tree with adoring puppy eyes trained on me.

That whisper helps me settle back into my unassuming and odd persona.

I give an awkward half smile and a shrug, scratching the back of my head. “What else is a wolf to do in the hands of a giant? He could crush me in two with his pinky!”

Not my best performance, but most give me smirks, as if fear is truly what ended up helping me move quicker than a normal shifter—even an Alpha.

The wiser shifters give me appraising glances anew, as if seeing me for the first time.

The only ones who don’t appear completely taken by the act are Sir Rey and Alyssa. They appear confused at what they had seen. And Sir Rey in particular is looking a bit too knowingly at me to be comfortable.

“What are you all waiting for? He soaked you down like a common goat then tickled half of you to death before calling you a rabble! Get ‘em!” I send my best alpha death glare at Sir Rey. He grins and gives me a salute before a serious gleam enters his eyes and he mouths, “Later.”

I know he’s going to want the truth. I’m just not sure if I’m ready to willingly give it. Especially to him. The knowledge brings a darkness to my heart that the surrounding lightheartedness cannot touch.

Then the rabble are on top of me.