Secretum Passionis

Training

The forest was quiet. But that was to be expected. A team of werewolves were on the prowl. Even though we weren’t hunting, the creatures in the trees and underbrush did not know it. Frost crackled beneath my wolf’s paws. Even though it was still early autumn, the temperature had dropped significantly overnight. Winter would be cold.

My wolf, Nova sniffed the chilled morning air and let out a soft howl. Soon the rest of the warriors, all in wolf form, joined us.

We were on a training exercise. The Beta of our pack had left us a trail. We were required to follow it and find him before mid morning. It was proving to be difficult. Beta Lukas was known as one of the best trackers in the werewolf world, and as such he was also excellent at hiding his trail.

We had an hour left.

Jax’s wolf, Cliff, growled. “He’s sneaky. Somehow he’s managed to spread his scent around to confuse us. Even by spreading out we can’t isolate the trail.”

Opal, my best friend, Gina’s wolf shook herself, ridding her beautiful black coat of dry leaves. “We’ve got to think like Beta Lukas. What would a tracker do to mask his scent?”

“Maybe that’s the problem.” I interrupted. My team all turned to look at me. “We’re following our noses and not the actual trail. Lukas is a strong Beta, his scent will linger, and he knows that. We need to find tracks.”

“You’re right.” Simon, the head warrior said. His wolf, Arrow, stepped forward. Even though his brown beast was bigger than the rest of us we didn’t flinch. He was a fair leader and we knew he respected each of us as much as we respected him. “We need to find his prints. Scatter!”

We leapt at his command, each heading in a different direction. This time we weren’t following our noses, but instead we used our keen vision to look for anything out of the ordinary in our familiar forest. It was Opal that spotted the broken twig and the tuft of Lukas’s grey fur. From there it didn’t take us long to pick up the trail. It lead us to the enormous oak behind our packhouse’s dining hall.

Our Beta had shifted back into human form and was casually lying on one of the lower branches, picking at his nails. “Well done, Warriors!” he praised us. In wolf form we couldn’t help but wag our tails. We adored our Beta and training with him was always a privilege as he was often too busy with pack business to spend time in the field. Gracefully he jumped to the ground, more cat like than the werewolf he was. “I’ll tell the kitchen to keep some breakfast aside. Go get dressed. I’ll make sure there’s extra bacon.”

The thought of a warm breakfast after running through the cold for three hours made us yip with excitement. We took off towards the barracks where we stayed, nipping at each others tails and back legs with delight.