Adjusting - 8. Chapter 7 - Tracking

Alex was furious with me tracking down a rogue.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?!" he almost shouted at Brian.

The six of us who were in the office earlier were all standing at the edge of the woods. We had waited until night time to go for our hunt. Brian stood in a relaxed pose, his hands stuck in his pockets, his eyes showing how little he cared about what Alex was saying. Alex was the complete opposite, with his green eyes flashing with fury. He seemed even taller than normal as he ranted.

"Adrian could be killed!"

"Alexander, calm yourself," Alpha John said.

Alex whipped his head around to fix his glare on his dad. The Alpha stood there with his arms crossed, his brown eyes revealing his excitement and anxiety. He stared into Alex's eyes for a moment before switching his gaze to me.

"Are you sure you can do this?"

I nodded to him, trying to hide my true feelings. I was worried. I didn't know whether I would be able to track down a rogue or what might happen if I were able to find one and the others weren't nearby.

However, I was also worried that if I didn't offer to try, I would quickly be out of the pack, a gift from the soon-to-be Alpha.

Alpha John narrowed his eyes, as though he knew of my lie. Luckily, he didn't point it out and turned back to face the group.

"We will follow behind Adrian, far enough so we can't be scented, but close enough to hear him if need be. Understand?"

We all nodded to him. I gave one last look at Alex's worried face before turning away from the group and briskly walking into the forest. Once I was safely in the cover of the trees, I took off my clothes and folded them before setting them in a neat pile and shifting.

Pain wracked through my body as it morphed from average human to human-sized wolf.

Once I had fully transformed, let out a short bark to let the others know I was ready. One at a time, each wolf entered the shelter of the forest. I could easily spot Alpha John, as he was the largest wolf there and was fully chocolate brown with no other colors marring his coat. I could quickly spot Brian as well, for he was the second largest with an ashy brown coat speckled with black. The other three wolves were roughly the same sizes, one with dirty blond fur, one with pure black fur, and another with brown fur. I picked out Alex as the one with several shades of brown due to his bright green eyes. The other two wolves I couldn't identify as Blake or Greg, but I also didn't really care.

I turned away from them and ran deep into the forest. After running about a mile, I stopped, closed my eyes, and took in the scents around me.

After two years of torture and ten years on my own, I had been taught by other rogues and taught myself how to track well. You needed to know, in that hell-hole, who was coming and when in order to be prepared. You had to learn the specific scents of not only each pack, but each pack member and rogue while out on your own. You needed to remember which scents meant another day of living, and which ones meant instant death.

After a minute or two of sifting through the multiple scents, I finally found the one that wasn't like the others. I could smell several wild wolves, but I could also smell a couple that were much stronger than the others. These two scents smelled as though they were from the same wolf pack, yet at the same time gave off the stench of a rogue.

I had found our guys.

I quickly set off on their trail, ducking and weaving through the trees as quietly as I could. After running for a few minutes, the two scents went different ways, and I was at a fork in the road. I randomly decided to follow the one that continued to the left with barely a pause in my stride.

The wolf's odor was steadily getting stronger, and soon I knew I was on their tail. I slowed down and began to sneak up behind him, eager to catch my prey. I heard leaves rustling in front of me and I stalked through the underbrush.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten the number one rule of hunting: remember that your prey can sometimes end up as your predator. Before I could spot the rogue, he had seen me. I was abruptly tackled from the front and ended up rolling into a clearing with an unknown dark gray wolf.

I quickly jumped up and growled at the mysterious wolf. He seemed skittish and frightened, nervously glancing from side to side to find an escape from me. He was tiny, drowning in the additional wolf pelt with fresh wounds on his sides. He had to be new to the rogue life, no more than a month out of his pack.

But, if he was so wet behind the ears, how had he already figured out the pelt trick? And why was he out of his pack?

No one goes rogue unless they have a good reason, are kicked out of their packs, or are crazy.

What was this pup's story?

Apparently, my brooding had frightened the pup even more, and he suddenly launched himself at me in an attempt to weaken me before running away. I quickly dodged his attack and hurled myself on top of him, closing my jaw around his throat and growling loudly. He whimpered and pressed his neck into my jaw more, showing his submission.

I let go of him and watched as he stood up to make sure he wouldn't bolt before howling loudly into the midnight sky.

A moment later, the other five men waked into the clearing as naked as the day they were born. I whimpered and Alex handed me my clothes. I took them gently in my jaw so as not to rip them and ran out of the clearing. When I was human and dressed, I left the covering of the trees to join my new pack members.

I was shocked at the sight. Brian had an unknown boy pinned against the ground. The boy's sandy blond hair was muddy and snarled, his blue eyes wide with fear. He was struggling against Brian helplessly while the others were just standing around watching.

The young boy couldn't be any older than thirteen.

"Why are you here?" Brian growled at the pup.

Tears began to cascade down the child's face. "Please, let me go!" he begged.

"Stop!" I yelled as I sprinted over to Brian and the boy. "Let him go!"

"Why should I?" Brian snarled, not turning away from the kid's frightened face.

"He's only a pup," I pleaded. "We don't know his story, and he can't be of any harm to us!"

I turned and instead faced the Alpha.

"Please, Alpha John. We can still question him, but he's only a pup."

Alpha John stared at me for a moment, trying to figure something out. Eventually, he turned to Brian and ordered him to release the child. Brian snarled before shooting up and glaring at the kid. The kid shot up and took a few steps back from Brian.

"Don't move," I said gently. "We won't hurt you."

The pup turned his frightened gaze to me. I slowly walked towards him with my hands in the air, showing I meant no harm.

"My name is Adrian," I told him, speaking as one would to an injured animal. "I used to be a rogue. What's yours?"

The pup bit his lip before whispering, "I'm Jude."

I gave him a small smile. "Hello Jude. We don't want to hurt you, but you have to comply with what we say. Can you do that for us, Jude?"

He hesitated before nodding to me and my smile grew wider.

"That's great, Jude. Just follow me and I'll lead us back to our pack house."

His eyes grew wide in fear and he took another step back.

"Don't worry," I told him, knowing exactly what his fears were. "The house will be empty. The other men behind me are going to go back to the house and clear it of all the pack members. Can you handle that?"

He nodded again to me and took a step closer.

"That's good, Jude. Just come here. I won't hurt you," I murmured softy as he came closer.

I slowly dropped one of my hands and reached out my other, offering it to the pup. Once he was close enough, he cautiously accepted my hand with his own. I turned around with his hand in mine to find that the other wolves had already left back for the pack house. We began to walk together when I saw that the poor boys was shivering, having no clothes to shield him from the icy winds.

I stopped him before taking off the sweatshirt I was wearing and offering it to him. Jude gave me a shy smile and pulled it over his head, wearing it like a dress.

"Thank you," he whispered with a ducked head.

"No problem," I replied before taking his hand again and leading him back to the house.