Chapter 5: Hunting - Amelia

It’s 8 am when my eyes finally open, since I felt I deserved a little sleep-in. Look, I know 8 am doesn’t sound like a sleep in but compared to my usual schedule it is. I can see Zara is still softly sleeping away in my mind and I smile. Perfect, I can execute my plan. But I can’t risk her waking up or knowing what I’m doing, so I put a barrier up between us in my mind.

I rarely ever do this, a lot of people – especially those at odds with their wolf spirit – tend to keep them silenced fairly often. I think it’s quite cruel and stupid. I could never keep Zara locked away like that, I love her too much. That may sound vain since I’m talking about a personality in my head, but Zara is her own entity, we just share a vessel is all.

Getting out of bed I give my body some stretches and twists before I leave my room and the Alpha suite. On my way downstairs several pack members stop me to kindly wish me a happy birthday and I thank each of them. I then make it outside and begin my trek into the woods.

We wolves are very durable so the rocks and twigs under my feet don’t bother me in the least. As I walk deeper into the woods – staying on pack territory – I keep my nose to the wind and ears open.

I’m on the hunt.

I can hear and smell some small animals nearby but I’m hoping to find something a little bigger, maybe a stag. I decide to try a different direction when a scent makes its way to me on the wind; a grin splitting across my face. This is perfect!

I strip out of my pyjama shorts, top and underwear then place them over a tree branch. We are more than accustomed to nudity, it’s not that big a deal. Depending on the day, if a human entered the territory they might mistake us for a nudist colony.

Once I’m in my birthday suit – HA! Birthday suit, get it? Because today’s my… oh never mind.

Anyway, I drop the barrier in my mind and am met by a very displeased Zara.

“What the hell, Amelia? Why was I waking up to a barrier?” she sneers. I giggle at my grumpy wolf.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” I shout in my mind. Her sneer vanishes and she’s immediately yipping and wagging her tail with glee.

“Happy Birthday Amelia,” she giggles shaking her head. “How do I fall for that every year?” she says in amusement.

“Good to know I can still surprise you,” I say cheerfully.

Technically speaking, wolf spirits don’t have birthdays, or at least no one I know gives their wolf a birthday, but I do. Zara has been with me since birth; in my eyes that was the day she was born, so I happily share my birthday with her. Each year I put up a barrier just long enough to put a surprise together and drop it for the reveal, she’s so unaccustomed to the barrier that she never realises what I’m doing. Works every time.

“Time to shift, Zara.” This makes her ears perk up.

After a moment of searing heat, I’m quickly on all fours shaking out my fur. Immediately everything around me becomes amplified. The colours around me are more vibrant, the smells more prominent and the sounds more amplified.

The first shift is the worst, mine took four hours and twenty-three minutes and was absolute hell. For over four hours all I did was scream and writhe in pain while every bone in my body broke and rearranged. The second shift was a significant improvement, and by the third shift, there was no pain. Now it takes me a couple of seconds to shift and instead of pain all I feel is a burst of searing heat spread through my body and then it’s gone.

Zara is a stunning wolf; I was in awe the first time I saw her form. She is black and white but in a unique way. She’s black on the top half of her coat going from the tip of her nose down to the tip of her tail and she’s white on the bottom half from the tip of her jaw again to the tip of her tail. She looks like she walked through white paint and ended up dip dyed. She’s also a good 6’5” tall, which is pretty normal for Alphas.

Alphas are commonly around the 6 feet mark as are other ranked wolves with other wolves usually being around 4-5 feet, but the Alpha is always the biggest in the pack. Dad is two inches taller than me in wolf form.

“So what’s my surprise?” Zara asks excitedly.

“You tell me,” I reply coyly.

I give Zara full control and feel as her ears are perked up listening to her surroundings and I watch as she points her snout up and sniffs the air just as a gentle breeze moves past and I know she caught the scent.

“No way!” she exclaims making me chuckle.

“I was surprised too, but it’s just perfect. It’s all yours, girl,” I tell her.

“Oh, thank you, Amelia, this is going to be awesome!” she exclaims again as she takes off into the woods at top speed; the trees around us becoming a blur.

Zara and I have had an understanding since we first shifted; when in wolf form I would give her complete control because technically speaking this is her body; I would just be the passenger giving guidance. When in human form I would be in control, and she would be the passenger. The only time we would relinquish these roles is if we felt the other was in dire need or danger. We are a team. We have mutual respect and understanding and that’s what makes us so unbeatable.

I just chill in the back of her mind while I watch her do her thing.

She is an exceptional hunter; she was approaching her prey at lightning speed but slowing down the closer she got until she began taking tentative steps as she crouched down, and her eyes locked on their prize.

Damn it was huge!

Standing near a stream lapping at the water was a moose that had to be at least 6 and a half feet tall at the shoulder and if I had to estimate, weighed around one thousand pounds. I couldn’t believe the luck when I caught its scent on the wind, and the breeze is working to her advantage. She’s currently crouched downwind, so the wind is blowing her scent away from the moose, making it easier to catch her prey by surprise.

While I’m content with cake and music for my birthday, Zara is a wolf and deserves to have moments where she can be herself, and hunting for food in her own body is what she loves to do. For an Alpha wolf to bag such a large kill like this, well, that’ll boost her ego for ages.

I watch as Zara slowly edges closer to the unsuspecting animal, her body coiling ready to strike. At breakneck speed she lunges at the moose tackling it to the ground, landing a shallow swipe of her claws to its side as she leaps off it giving it a chance to get back up.

I can see the fear in the wounded animal’s eyes, but also its determination to survive. It gets up and charges at Zara aiming its antlers right for her, but she’s quick to dodge them, manoeuvring to the back of the moose. She quickly attacks biting into its hind leg and tugging it back causing it to drop to the ground as it lets out a cry of pain. She lets it go and moves back and I simply roll my eyes.

Yeah, Zara could have killed it in the first strike, but she’s the play with her food type. Thank the Goddess she doesn’t do this during real fights.

Zara gives the poor moose one more chance to fight back before she sinks her teeth into its throat going for the kill. She clamps her jaw down hard and I hear and feel its neck snap between her teeth. Just like that the animal is finally dead and Zara begins to dive into her kill enjoying her oversized breakfast.

After gorging on moose, Zara heads back to where I left my clothes collecting them in her mouth, then makes her way back to the packhouse. I can feel her muzzle is covered in blood and no doubt the white in her fur is now a garish crimson red, which is now getting on my clothes that are in her mouth, but I don’t mind. Besides, we wolves are used to getting blood on our clothes.

“Thank you for the birthday surprise. I feel so lucky to have been paired with you,” she says, and I can feel through our connection how sincere she is; it warms my heart.

“My pleasure Zara, same time next year?” I chirp.

“It’s a date,” she chuckles.