The Wolf (Book 1)

Hunters

“Ok, so... how is this going to work?” Chris asked as he sat down on a chair in the main hall. I took a seat next to him to begin to explain how we were going to proceed with our hunt.

“Ok, listen carefully.” I was wondering if he actually would though “So first thing is first, we need to shift and have a spare change of clothes. We will shift in our cabins and leave our clothes on our beds. Second we head out to find the deer, if one of us picks up a scent from one of the Mule deer then we follow, we pick out a weak Mule deer, preferably female, and we stop to analyse. Once I say it’s ok to go, we go. We separate her from the herd and kill her, that’s going to be done by you biting down on her leg and me crushing her throat. Got it so far?”

“Yes sir.” He smiled almost laughing.

“OK.” I laughed as well, being called Sir was weird and no one had ever said that to me “Once it’s dead we DO NOT eat it, one of us, that means you, will stay behind whilst I go back to camp. Once at camp I will shift back, get changed and take a quad bike with something to bring the deer back, you need to stay so if I get lost you can howl to where I should go to. Once it’s back here then we can eat it. Is that ok?”

Chris shuffled in his seat and pulled a funny face “Yeah but...” he paused and rubbed his chin “Can’t we just eat as wolves?” I sat in thought for a moment “I mean, it is only our second day here, maybe we should leave the quads for something bigger, and we don’t even know if we have to stuff to bring a deer back, plus, why waste our time cooking it when we can just eat it, would be a ton easier and personally, a lot more fun.” He smiled at me again.

“Can’t say no to that can I.” I smiled back at him, to be honest I couldn’t be bothered to spend more time than I needed to eat, I mean, sure it might be nice to actually use the kitchen and cook, but it might be better if we just hunted and ate as wolves.

“Question...” Chris said fiddling with his fingers “What does Mule deer smell like?”

“Good question. I have no idea so I guess we will just find out.” I smiled at him having not thought of that myself. I knew that in the UK we had Roe and Red deer, and I presumed they would have a completely different sent to the Mule Deer and Elk here.

“So when do we leave?” Chris asked eagerly.

“How about right now?” I smiled as I got up out of my chair and turned round. Chris got up and followed me out of the main hall closing the door behind him. I walked past his cabin as he turned off to go inside and I headed for my own.

As soon as I got through the door of my cabin I took my shirt off and threw it on my bed. I was wearing shorts since it was nice and hot outside and I didn’t bother to take them off, I simply undid my belt relying on them slipping off when I was a wolf. I closed my eyes and concentrated on shifting and within a few seconds I shifted on the spot and as I opened my eyes I smiled and kicked off my shorts. I walked outside kicking the door shut since they opened outwards and then stood in the middle of the clearing.

Camp seemed so much different now; I could smell the forest, the trees, and every animal that had walked across here in the last few hours. As I looked around I thought I heard a deer call out from the direction of the lake. Really? Was our prey really that close? It seemed so easy and on the bright side it meant less running.

Chris padded up to my side after a few minutes of waiting. He closed his eyes as he lifted his head up high; he looked free, free from life, from worry, from everything, and happy, just, happy. It was like looking at a photograph of a classic wolf posing about to howl and letting the wind rush through his fur. I to closed my eyes and lifted my head, it felt so good, the breeze through your fur, the sounds of the forest and its smells.