Looking To Belong (A Runt's Story)

Chapter 34

I lay on a patch of grass and looked at the pile of mushrooms in front of me. I could sense Ruby's frustration off to the side somewhere. When I had first run with Will, I had been running through unknown territory and had done fairly well. This time, I knew the lay of the land.

Ruby had been trying to catch me for a couple of hours with no success. I had lost her well over a dozen times, only to appear from the side and yip at her, just before taking off again. She was not taking it well. She had prided herself on being a top fighter, but discovering that she couldn't catch a runt was not a pleasant realization for her.

Admittedly, I had pulled every trick I possessed out of my sleeves for this example. She thought that I was just running and hiding, but I had actually been collecting mushrooms while evading her. It was good evasion practice for me, but the pile of mushrooms that was bigger than me was going to be a shock for her.

~

       I felt her finally locate my scent again. I hadn't paused to really mask it, so it wasn't hard to find. I laid on my side lazily and fluffed up my fur before putting on my best innocent puppy expression. She came at a run through the bushes, only to slide to a stop in surprise. I smiled at her as if the last few hours hadn't happened. My voice was innocent. "Do you think that there is room in your bag for these? I also found two truffles, but I need help digging one up."

She looked at me as if I had grown two heads. I could feel her incredulousness and shock as she simply couldn't merge the innocent puppy runt act with the sly rogue that had evaded her time and time again.

She was still staring at me in disbelief. She could see the puppy-like traits I was using now that she had seen me without them, but she still couldn't make her heart believe what her head knew. Her heart and instincts saw the puppy traits in my petite size and wanted to protect me.

I tilted my head and colored my mind voice in feigned confusion. "Is something wrong?"

She blinked slowly at me. Her reply sounded like each word was being pulled reluctantly from her, "How did you do that? It shouldn't be possible."

I chuckled and shook out my fur as I sat up, dropping all but the couple of puppy traits that I usually wore. I felt her surprise as she saw the change once again. I shifted back to human and started loading the mushrooms into my own collection bag. Ruby shifted and slowly came to join me, watching closely for any more surprises.

I spoke contemplatively as we worked, "Most of what I just did is only possible for a runt. Things like running where most wolves cannot, sneaking down rabbit burrows, running through hollow logs, and such. Some things I did simply would not occur to most wolves. Most wolves on the hunt rely entirely on their wolf shape and don't think outside the box."

We started walking back through the forest side by side. I could feel her burning curiosity as she asked, "How so?"

I glanced at her in amusement. "When chasing another wolf, the average wolf would never consider shifting to their human form. The human shape can get places that a wolf can't, such as climbing trees."

She was somewhat confused by that. "What good would climbing a tree do?"

I handed her my collection bag. "Can you hold this for a moment?"

She took the bag and watched me. I swiftly climbed the tree beside us with the ease of practice. The leaves quickly hid me from view, and I silently swung from branch to branch and ran along larger branches in the dense canopy as I used the forest highway. I climbed down lower in a different tree and sat on a branch as I silently grinned at Ruby. She was still staring into the first tree while waiting for me to come back down.

"I'm over here."

Ruby jumped and whirled with wide eyes. She glanced at the tree above her and back to me, unable to figure out how I had appeared over there. She took a step closer to the first tree to peer up into it before stepping back and muttering, "Nope, I am not going to look any harder just in case there are two of them..."

I laughed and climbed down. "To the best of my knowledge, I do not have a twin out there. But if you think that's impressive, there are other tricks that rogues can do that I can't simply due to my smaller size and lack of strength."

She looked intrigued. I was somewhat surprised to notice that she no longer sported that super-focused hunter look. She seemed more laidback now, and her frame of mind had also relaxed. The last hour had probably made her roll my words around her head endlessly as she considered them.

I chuckled at the rather noticeable change, and she looked at me in confusion. I explained, "You are much easier to talk to like this. How you acted before would have made most rogues put as much distance between you and them as possible."

She blinked in surprise. "I guess that is why I never saw any rogues in no man's land, well, other than ferals."

I grinned and started to reply before a mind voice blasted across my senses, "I FOUND HIM!!!"

I jumped in shock, and Ruby immediately fell into a fighter's crouch while looking around for danger. I exhaled and shook my head as I replied to the mindspeaker while letting Ruby listen in. My mind voice was slightly exasperated, but curious as I called back, "Tiffany, have you ever heard of knocking? You almost gave me a heart attack!"

Her reply was immediate, but my comment had not lessened her enthusiasm any. "Sorry! But I found him! I found Nathan! I can't believe it! He is SO hot!"

I laughed at her high spirits and at her swooning. "Is he part of a pack?"

"No, he was a rogue in no man's land. They had a camp exactly where you thought he was. He was exiled because of something his father did. He is coming back with us! Just wait until you meet him!"

I sent humor down the link. "Uh huh. I know the power of a mate bond. You aren't going to be so perky when any female so much as looks at him."

I saw Ruby grin as we picked up Tiffany's shock and realization that I was right. She recovered quickly. "Well, you are marked, so I doubt I will have too many problems with you, but, yeah, any unmated female is going to be my new nightmare."

My reply was thoughtful, "Well, you have at least a week of running to get back. That should be plenty of time for you to realize that he isn't going to be able to look at any other lady. Remember that his reactions towards other males will be stronger as well."

The fact that she had gotten that far so quickly meant that she had really pushed herself. "Hmmm..." Tiffany faded out of the mindlink. I shook my head in amusement, and we went to get those truffles. Ruby helped me shift the log off of the one, and I showed her the scent she was looking for.