Gypsy Moon

Chapter Forty-nine: Gyam

. . . . . . (early October)

I was much larger than the last time Aiden was in his wolf form, and he took a moment to stand tall next to me. My ears were even with his shoulders now, I was about the size of a small pony now, and he nodded, impressed with my progress. I have grown at least a foot in the last two months, and I am getting a little too big to ride in cars in wolf form now.

Aiden took off towards the border without a word, his coat glinting in the sunlight. He looked like molten gold arcing gracefully through the trees. Sinah's wolf has similar fur, she must look like quicksilver dancing in the sun. I rolled my eyes as I kept pace with my Alpha. My bright and shiny, ridiculously visible Alpha.

I huffed a laugh as he slowed to speak with one of the patrols. I was no better, my fur had grown in quite well, still pretty short on most of my body, but long enough that the shifting grays made me look like a living watercolor painting.

I took several deep breaths as Aiden shifted so he could discuss the Puma's aura and scent with the patrol. I couldn't find anything on ground level, and I noticed the warriors looking at me oddly when I stretched up on my hind legs as far as I could, sniffing towards the tree branches. I snorted when Aiden felt the need to remind the patrol that they were keeping an eye out for a wereCAT and I watched as the realization dawned on them. Little dim bulbs flickering in the dark. I shook my head at Aiden, and he nodded, shifting back to his wolf and heading towards the next nearest patrol.

I slid to a stop halfway to the next patrol, my ears swiveling rapidly. Aiden leapt back to my side and lifted his head, his gaze pivoting slowly. He lifted his muzzle and took several deep breaths. I stood up to do the same. The woods were abnormally quiet, but neither of us could catch the scent we were looking for.

Aiden growled softly, torn between investigating the oddity, and continuing to alert the patrols. I growled and tossed my head, indicating to him to continue without me. I would investigate this strangeness alone. He nodded and I watched him resume his run. I chuckled, you could see him for a stupidly long time, the white underfur of his golden tail like a banner to spot at a distance.

I shook my head and closed my good eye. The branded eye could register images as if I were looking through heavily clouded glass. I focused on my hearing instead, using the branded eye to prevent myself from bumping into trees as I tracked the silence. It was a fun exercise, tracking a lack of sound, my ears flicking rapidly, turning myself away from noise in any direction.

I moved carefully, but more quickly than I expected. The void of noise around me centered and I stopped, opening my good eye and scanning the silent woods. Nothing moved, and I focused my hearing as sharply as I could, turning my face up to the faintest heartbeat far in the tree above me.

I sat and looked into the treetops. Aiden said it was hard to focus on the shadow from a distance, like it could blur the space around it, but it certainly helps when the shadow moves to look down in surprise. I whined a soft complaint to him, and he obediently moved closer to me. His fur was a similar color to Aiden's, but not metallic. I shifted to human and looked up at the big cat.

"You are the Puma?" He blinked slowly at me and shifted, sitting up in the tree away from me.

"You are not affected by my aura." It was a statement and I shrugged.

"Aiden said my breeding would help, but it's more likely my upbringing."

"I am hiding my scent."

"I followed the lack of sound." The look on the guy's face was curious. "Then I heard your heartbeat in the tree." I supplied before he asked. He scoffed.

"Why did you track me?"

"My Alpha is alerting the local patrols to the possibility of you visiting so that no one harms you by accident." He nodded slowly.

"Very considerate, I appreciate his actions. I am not often well received. I would like to speak with him." I nodded and shifted back to my wolf, sighing comfortably as I shook out my fur. My human form feels so weird, I've barely used it in six weeks or so. I sat and stared up at the guy. He seemed surprised I was waiting for him to join me, but shifted and climbed slowly out of the tree, watching me distrustfully.

I turned towards Desert Falcon and jogged slowly. He slid through the woods behind me silently, his heartbeat was the only noise I could hear from him. I caught a scent and stopped, and he neared me suspiciously. I sniffed the air; the wolves Aiden had spoken to earlier were coming towards us.

He looked at me pointedly and climbed into a tree, stopping when he felt he was comfortably out of reach of a werewolf. The patrol neared and I could see them now, heads lowered aggressively. I stepped back and growled softly for them to stop. They glared around me, growling darkly, and I blinked. This must be the aura the cat mentioned, interesting.

I tilted my head when he made a short noise in his throat and the patrol looked up at him, squinting to focus on his shape. One of the wolves shook his head and took a step back, the big cougar made another noise, one that sounded resigned. The wolf whined in response and jogged away. The other wolf stayed where he was, but he was obviously uncomfortable, and I could see he was having trouble controlling his wolf.

I barked angrily and glared at the wolf. I understand now why Aiden thought this was important enough for me to leave Sinah. I growled a very dark threat and the wolf's ears flattened back in shock. He blinked at me rapidly, before turning to follow his companion. The mountain lion above me purred a question and I huffed softly, tilting my head toward the packhouse.

He dropped out of the tree noiselessly and I c****d my head as he landed. He nodded warily and I turned to escort him towards my pack. Desert Falcon would be useless meeting him. I touched Aiden's mind in a link and guided the Puma to the packhouse.

The courtyard had several wolves in passing when I stepped out of the trees. The cat slipped up a large tree on the edge and waited patiently as the people stopped when they felt his aura. Without fail, they went on the defensive, several of them growling, and I lifted my head in irritation.

I poured my energy into my own aura. We were an alpha wolf, after all, even if we're small. We bristled our fur and let a low growl rumble deep in our chest. The collected group shook their heads like snapping out of a trance just in time for Aiden to arrive. The command rolling off of him was unmistakable, and the surrounding wolves backed down and moved away from the Puma.

He calmly jumped out of the tree and padded up to Aiden, who gave him a big canine grin. The cougar rolled his eyes and sat, curling his tail around his front paws. Aiden just sat next to him, his tail slapping the ground in amusement. I glared at Aiden, and he huffed a laugh and nodded.

I jogged away without another glance, passing Bryce as he left the packhouse to join Aiden and the Puma. I was frowning as I made my way inside. The recruits for Gypsy Moon were collected in the common room of the packhouse and I paused, looking at them thoughtfully. One of them spotted me and turned towards me with interest. I shifted abruptly and faced the group, not caring that I was nude.

"Our Alpha and Beta are outside with a feline shifter that will likely be a frequent visitor to Gypsy Moon." I glared at the collected group. "His aura causes fear. Control your wolves around him or you will receive punishment." I shifted back and stomped towards the suite, leaving the group blinking after me. The ceremony to add them to the pack couldn't come fast enough, it would be so much easier to yell at them through the pack link. I'm still not used to actually speaking.

I mind linked with Sinah when I was outside the suite and listened as I heard the bedroom unlock. She was talking to someone on the phone when she drew the bolt and unlocked the suite door for me to join her, so I just pushed the door closed behind me and sat patiently.

A soft knock on the suite door caught my attention, Sinah waved at the door and sat on a settee. I stepped back to let a pair of she-wolves from the kitchen crew open the door and bring in a tray of food. They waved as they excused themselves quietly and left. I found a plate of fried eggs and cheerfully filled my muzzle, enjoying the feeling of the warm yolks popping between my teeth.

Sinah giggled and picked up a cup of coffee as she hung up her phone.

"I'll have you know that looks really gross." I grinned and finished the plate of eggs off, contentedly licking the yolk from my muzzle. Her eyes clouded and she sighed.

"Aiden says I should stay here for now. The Puma suggested I avoid his aura until I'm no longer pregnant. He doesn't know if or how it might affect my cub." I tilted my head and nodded, and she giggled again.

"I'm done calling everyone's families and former packs, I was going to watch a scary movie, wanna?" I jumped up and went to the stack of movies on the shelf under the television, nosing through them until I found the one that I wanted and picked it up carefully. Sinah took it from me with a laugh.

"Really? I'm not allowed to meet the scary kitty, and you want to watch 'The Conjuring'?" I wagged my tail, bouncing playfully as she loaded it into the machine and turned it on.

Movies were an unexpected treat I had never considered, and Sinah indulged me. The crap humans came up with for their amusement was astronomical. I lay down on the sofa and put my nose in a bowl of some sort of cheesy pasta. I have to find the wolf that cooked, they used a twisted noodle today, much easier to catch in the bowl than the long skinny noodles.

This is a fun movie, humans really like jump scares, and the ghost is super creepy. The effect was a little lost on me since Sinah kept squealing and hugging me as the tension built, but it was good all the same. The custard I discovered also turned into a major distraction, caramel sauce was a lot harder to get back out of my muzzle fur than egg yolk was.

. . . . . .