He felt a dull pain cut through the curtain of sleep. His eyes opened and he tried to roll over. His body stopped as his tail was yanked. He jerked backwards to relieve to pain and the pressure. Aceso was standing over him.
“It’s time.”
She released his tail and he stood up. He absentmindedly reached behind him to massage his hurt appendage. He looked at Aceso and nodded. He noticed that none of the others were awake yet. He moved to the next compartment to wake up Charles as Aceso moved to the opposite side of the den. They moved around the den waking up the other four members of the pack. There was no grumbling or protests except from Nicolas but William had been expecting that. Even when his world was being turned upside down or another unknown phase of his new life was staring him in the face it seemed he could always count on Nicolas to be a constant, constantly complaining. William shook his head and moved outside of the den.
He took a moment to look around at the surrounding forest. He had spent a good deal of time here. He was actually going to miss this place. He had no idea if he was going to be able to come back here any time soon. He had no idea what was going to happen. He flexed his leg and arm muscles. He might miss his size and strength but being back in his human flesh sounded pretty good too. That brought up thoughts about what Derceto had said about being trained by Efraim. He wasn’t looking forward to that kind of training. He had a feeling that he was going to miss being in werewolf form before too long.
The rest of the pack joined him outside. There was none of the tired expressions that he would have expected to find from a similar group of humans being woken up at this time of night. Every one of them looked alert and ready to go. Even Nicolas, all his protests aside, looked like he was fully awake.
“The human born will want to put on some clothes before meeting in the city square.” Aceso said. “We will run back to the city together and split up so that you may go back to your respective rooms and get some clothes and take some time to do any sort of other thing you human born do in the morning.” She smiled.
Her words brought to mind just how long it had been since he had brushed his teeth. His mouth didn’t feel dirty in werewolf form. Still being reminded of just how long it had been since he brushed his teeth made him very self-conscience. He wondered if the rest of the human born felt as uncomfortable as he did right then.
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Without another word Aceso bent over on all fours and started running at a leisurely pace into the forest. William couldn’t help but run his tongue over his sharp canines as he too bent over and ran after Aceso. William heard the rest of the pack follow suit and soon their leisurely pace increased into a full out run.
William and Aceso traded lead positions several times. Aceso was showing amazing awareness as she never out ran the rest of her pack even though the pack bond that she and William shared would have allowed them to run at speeds greatly over matched by the rest of the pack. William checked behind himself several times during the run. He lost track of Nicolas at one point but the blonde darted out and around a clump of trees a few moments later.
Aceso did slow down and took up a rear position at one point. William had never thought to do anything like that before. Aceso was keeping an eye on her pack and also motivating them with the subtle suggestion that she was not above running in the rear of the pack. William admired his alpha for that show of humility.
The pack broke through the tree line and raced for the outskirts of the city. William recognized the area, and he tore across the open meadow of grass nearing the stark black angles of the City under the Mountain.
Aceso raced up to take the lead position and she dove into a nearby alley way between two buildings. In the quiet, predawn morning the sounds of their claws on obsidian pavement was loud and obtrusive. He tried to ease the noise by resting his footsteps back on the thick pads of his claws and feet. It helped but the noise was still there. They broke through into a main street and Aceso turned her head to the side looking at William. She nodded once. William nodded in understanding and broke away from the rest of the pack. He knew where he was and he increased his speed as he ran for his apartment.
It was strange for him somehow to be coming back to this place. His room was exactly how he had left it. But there was no collection of dust that he could detect even with his wolf senses. It was like someone had come into his room, cleaned it, and then deliberately messed the place up in the exact fashion as it had been.
He glanced up toward the ceiling crystals. They were brightening as he moved through the hard open space of the room. He walked to the wooden dresser and reached for one of the drawers. He stopped as his massive, furred claw wrapped around the wooded handle. He heaved a heavy sigh and let go. He let his arms rest by his side and he closed his eyes. He went back to that day when Ares had made him change back and forth all day long. He tried to summon his human flesh to him once more. After a moment he opened his eyes and looked down at his hands. They were still furred claws. William cocked his head to the side and immediately put down the panic that he felt rising in his gut.