Moon Touched (Zodiac Wolves: The Lost Pack #1)(37)

“You’re like a three-year-old pup,” Stella said, still laughing. I looked up at her and grinned as well as I could, still on my back in the grass. She shook her head at me and let me roll around for a few more minutes before she called me back over to her. “Time to start training,” she said, and I cocked my head at her. “We’re going to test those wolf senses of yours.”

She pulled a few objects from their house from her bag and waved them in front of me. “I’m going to hide these, and you’re going to track them by smell. Now close your eyes."

I dipped my head in acknowledgment and closed my eyes. I heard Stella walk away, and focused my ears on other things. It wasn’t hard, since there were so many things to listen to all around me, enhanced by my wolf's hearing to the point it almost became overwhelming. I couldn’t imagine being in a city in wolf form.

The wind whispered through the trees, shaking the leaves. I heard small animals skittering through the branches and along the ground, and larger ones plodding along further away. They must have smelled us and ran away, but the birds and squirrels paid us no mind as we traipsed through their forest. I twitched my ears backward, trying to see if I could hear anything from town. With glee, I detected a few voices and the sound of cars.

Stella’s light footsteps sounded close to me. “You can open your eyes now,” she said, and I blinked up at her. She had one hand on her hip and was smiling down at me. “I hid ten objects from the house. See if you can find them all.”

I lifted my nose to the air. The previous concentration I’d had on the sounds of the forest vanished now that I was actively using my nose and eyes again. I caught a whiff of something familiar, something like bread, and followed it. My nose led me through the brush in the direction I’d heard Stella walking when she first left me. I tried to only focus on the familiar scent, but I kept getting distracted. I could smell other animals and plants, and when the wind shifted, I lost the correct trail for a second. I had to backtrack, and suddenly I caught scent of another object. I looked between the two, trying to decide which one to follow. The second one was stronger, as if Stella had gone black and forth several times, rather than the fainter, less pronounced first one.

As I tried to decide, a squirrel skittered across the ground before me, and my wolf instincts made me chase after it up a tree for a few seconds before I realized what I was doing. I put my nose to the ground and inhaled deeply, and decided to follow the second path. Food, my nose told me. Meat. The trail ended abruptly just a few feet later, and I looked around, swiveling my head to try to find the object she’d hidden. Nothing.

I backtracked and tried to find the first scent again, but it seemed to have disappeared. Frustrated, I made my way back to Stella and sniffed around to catch another scent. She stood, watching me with that twinkle in her eyes.

“It’s overwhelming, isn’t it?" she asked. "You’ll get used to separating smells the longer you do it. Trust me, everyone is overwhelmed at first.”

I shook my head at her, my tongue hanging out, and kept searching. Every time I smelled food, I went after it, growing more and more hungry. I always thought I was close to getting something but then I’d come up empty, the scent disappearing and no object in sight. I only managed to successfully track one thing, an old running shoe that looked like it belonged to Kaden. That stinky thing had been easy to track with my nose.

When I brought it back to Stella, she called a halt. “Good job. You can shift back now.”

I felt weak, like I had after training with Kaden, and sat down on the forest floor. I barely managed to shift back and get dressed, and then I regretted it. My human senses seemed dull in comparison to the time I’d spent as a wolf, and I was even more hungry now.

"You used food for some of the objects, didn't you?" I asked. "But when I got there, they were already gone."

Stella laughed again, and it was almost a cackle. “I knew you'd go after the food first because that's what every wolf pup does. What fun would it be to make it easy?” She helped me up off the forest floor. “You did good, for a beginner.”

I shook my head. “I only found one thing. I think you’re just buttering me up because you’re stuck with me.”

She grinned. “You’ll do just fine. Come on, let’s go get some dinner.”

Underneath the bone-deep tiredness, I felt gratitude. I was so thankful to be receiving this training, no matter how hard it was. If I’d still been with the Cancer pack, I wouldn't have learned any of this. It was up to family and close packmates to show others how to be a wolf, but Dad wouldn’t have bothered. He’d left me to figure everything out by myself up to this point in life, so it wouldn’t have been any different this time. And the Leo pack? I couldn't imagine they'd be much better to me.

I’d take this knowledge any way I could get it.

I felt something else stirring inside of me as we walked back to the house. I hadn’t felt it for years, since I was a child. It took me a few moments to understand what it was. I wanted to make a good impression, to have Stella look at me and say good job. It was odd, feeling it after all this time. I used to feel that way with Dad before I realized that nothing I did would be good enough for him, and I’d stopped trying.

To a lesser degree, I even wanted that from Kaden. I still didn’t like his shitty attitude or his harsh methods, but I could at least respect him as an alpha. It came down to one simple fact: he could help me get stronger. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t the kindest teacher, or that he seemed incapable of giving out praise. He could help me get revenge for Wesley, and that was all I cared about. I had no problem putting up with his cocky, arrogant attitude if it meant I’d get the satisfaction of seeing the Leo pack on their knees, begging for their lives. Knowing this rejected wolf was the one to help bring them to their ruin.