Wednesday, October 10th; 4am

The first hour of my journey is uneventful as I pick my way through the thick trees. We’ve traveled this overgrown path many times but the darkness of early morning is proving even more difficult to navigate than in the daytime despite my partial shift.

‘Beware, Dallas.’

My wolf whispers in my head. Unfortunately, my father using the link to torture me for six weeks and Alpha Andrew’s attempt to block him resulted in even my wolf talking to me being very uncomfortable.

I pause my movements, turning slowly in a circle, looking and smelling for him. I find myself at quite the disadvantage considering how I’m traveling upwind. Unable to detect anyone in the woods with me, I continue but at a slower pace. I may have gained half the weight I lost when I first got here but I’m still about fifteen pounds lower than where I was at Crimson Dawn and about forty pounds less than peak condition. Add my low body weight to my anxiety and asthma issues and this five mile hike is quite the underta