He felt a light tap on his shoulder. He looked over to see Charles’ frame over shadowing him. Charles looked him in the eyes and jerked his head to the side. William understood. They turned and sprang off deeper into the forest. Charles took the lead, but William was pacing him with ease. William took a small amount of joy running through the forest. He dodged the trees and jumped over the underbrush with no difficulty. Either the pack bond with Aceso was becoming more beneficent than he realized or he was getting stronger. He sprinted ahead a good hundred meters. He looked back to see Charles running with a renewed strength from this morning, but he was still slow.
He glanced back to find Charles missing. He stopped short and sniffed at the air. Not surprising he couldn’t smell any trace of the him. He backtracked where he had last seen him. He studied the ground to see where Charles’ tracks lead off to. It was a long walk for William. How long did I run before Charles just decided to disappear? Was he really not paying that much attention to his pack mate? He would have to better control his new speed until the others decided to form a true pack with him and Aceso.
He became impatient with the search and began to trot back the way he and Charles had passed. His wolf sight could easily pick up any trace that he might have left behind. A howl pierced the quiet late afternoon of the forest. William cocked his head to the side reading the tone and pitch of the howl. It was Charles.
William took off in a wild sprint that threw him over the terrain. The howl wasn’t a cry for help like he had heard when he first entered the forest. This howl was much like the howl he had issued to the pack when he had called them after he killed the dear.
In his enthusiasm to get to where Charles was, he almost crashed into the tall werewolf as he came out from behind a tree. William didn’t have time to stop. He threw himself to the side at the last instant, avoiding Charles’ midsection by centimeters. William landed and skidded to a stop while he turned around.
Charles had a large buck thrown across his shoulders. The sight reminded him of how he had carried deer after he had made a kill in his forest. William stood up on his hind legs. “I guess you didn’t need me at all,” he said with what he hoped was a good-natured tone.
Charles looked down at the shorter tan werewolf. “That’s not entirely true. If it hadn’t been for you sprinting way ahead of me, I would never have caught the scent of the buck in the first place.”
William was confused. “But I didn’t smell anything. Charles, what are you?”
Charles looked at William with a steady gaze. “I’m a human born shape shifter, like you.”
William shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. I mean when were you reborn? What abilities do you have?”
Charles hefted the large buck redistributing the weight across his shoulders. “I was reborn under the crescent moon. Being reborn then, I was granted the gift of an acute sense of smell. I am a Tracker.” He took a step toward William and bent down slightly toward the shorter werewolf. “Although sometimes that isn’t so a much a gift as it is a curse.” Charles stood up straight with a broad smile across his face.
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William cocked his head to the side. “Was that a joke, Charles?”
The Tracker shrugged his shoulders and turned around to walk back the way they had come.
William followed the taller werewolf back along the track they had used to get there. He was much more conscious of his surroundings this time around. He felt like he was escorting a helpless NPC in some computer game. He trotted in circles around Charles. Sniffing at the air and listening to the sounds of the quiet forest around them. He strained his senses to anticipate any attack. Not that it would matter. He was sure that Charles would be able to detect any scent before William could, even though William was creating a decent perimeter around his burdened friend.
William found himself thinking about the ideas of Trackers. His mind reached back to what Tasha had done to him in her forest. She said she had manipulated pheromones. It was a scary thing, suddenly being completely enthralled by someone simply because they could manipulate your own body’s chemistry against you. He found himself looking warily at Charles. He didn’t seem like the kind of man that would deliberately use that power over someone else. But if anything, he knew that power was corruptible and that was a very tempting power to use on someone. He wondered if he would be able to control that kind of power if he had blessed with it. I could have made the world a little better. I would have been able to make people see how stupid they were acting and to be more genuine towards each other. But then that would be defeating the whole purpose. The only reason that people would follow his ideas would be because they were slaves to his control of their biochemistry. People had to see what they were doing and why for themselves. No one could show them that. It was something they had to figure out on their own.
These mental exercises kept him busy all the way back to where the pack had met after entering the forest. Charles laid the carcass on the ground. “I’ll go get Nicolas and Achelois.” He nodded his head to the outskirts of the clearing. “Maybe you can go find Aceso and Katherine?”
William nodded. “Sure. Don’t be too long. We don’t want the smell of this thing to attract any unwanted visitors.” Charles nodded and disappeared into the deep brush of the surrounding forest.
William turned back to where had last seen Aceso and Katherine. They could be just about anywhere by now. He wasn’t sure what he was doing but he closed his eyes. If Aceso knew where he was because of their pack bond maybe he could call out to her as well. He tried to picture her form in his mind. Mentally he called out to his alpha.
After about five minutes of nothing happening, he decided to give it up. What did I expect to happen? He let out a soft laugh and shook his head. He was just going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. He sprang from the ground and landed with all four of his legs moving, shooting him off at a sprint. He could detect the barest of traces of the pair’s passage through the forest. He followed the signs as best he could. They were moving at a good pace but they were being very cautious. This wasn’t a surprise. If Aceso was tracking the attackers they would be very cautious. He decided to follow their lead and slow down.
He was being led deeper into the forest. He knew that going off on his own was in direct conflict with the orders that Aceso had given them. He figured that if he could find them quickly then they would be in a group of three and that was acceptable.