"Was your brother here?"
Anwaatin wrinkled her nose as she walked alongside Chloe. Sweat glistened on her brow and she swiped at it with the back of her hand. "I don't know... Was he?"
Chloe sniffed around the path as everyone headed home in high spirits and chatting excitedly amongst themselves, waving to Chloe, thanking her, and telling her they'd see her tomorrow.
"Yeah, I thought I smelled him during our training but I didn't see him," Chloe told her, her eyes roaming around the path for any physical trace of him. "I didn't look around too much, though. I was too focused on what we were doing. But his scent is definitely on the trail here."
Anwaatin rolled her shoulders. "That's so weird. I don't know. He's so busy these days, I hardly see him."
Chloe hummed to herself as Oliver jogged up to them and the subject dropped. He'd been talking with their cousins before joining their side and tromping through the brush toward home.
Their conversation diverted to include Oliver until they dropped him off at home and Chloe continued onward through the valley to take Anwaatin home. They still liked to be careful and take precautions since they were both daughters of high ranking wolves. Thankfully, they only received respect from everyone they encountered—probably because of their families' positions.
"So what now?" Chloe asked as they approached the Alpha and Luna's house.
"First things first, I demanded to know why my brother was spying on us! He's usually home around this time."
"He was probably curious. You told him about our training, right?"
"Yeah."
"So he was probably checking it out. As long as he doesn't tell anyone who will break it up, I don't care."
"I know. I love my brother and all but I don't want him spying on me. It's unnerving."
"That's true." Chloe had to agree with her there.
When they were a few yards away from the house, Animkii came out the front door, his long braided hair dripping wet and soaking the back of his workout shirt. He glanced at them and hurried down the porch steps and started to jog toward the pack house.
"Hey!" Anwaatin called after. "Where are you going?"
"Training," he grunted and disappeared.
Glaring at his back as he dashed off, Anwaatin huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Guess I'll have to get it out of him later. Come on, let's go inside. Lemonade?"
Chloe followed her in and Anwaatin gave her a glass of the sugary-sweet yet sour juice before hopping in the shower for a quick scrub. They played a board game until her parents returned an hour later.
Alpha Noodin was still in rough shape and it ached Chloe to see him like that. She couldn't imagine how hard all of this has been on them. First Madison disappeared and died, and then they almost lost their father too... It was all too much. She didn't know how she'd feel if her father was challenged in a battle to the death that he barely scraped out of alive.
And yet, it was this battle that awakened Animkii out of his comatose state of grief and liberated him from his prison.
She hadn't spoken to him since that day of his father's fight. Not that she wanted to—he'd been busy, as Anwaatin said. She hardly ever saw him until he started training out in the valley with the other warriors.
It was so weird seeing him and Mik constantly together like a tag-team. Where Animkii went, Mik tended to follow. They made for a quiet and elusive pair that had many wolves whispering.
Roxy was always at their house now with Mik training all the time with Animkii, and Sam working in the infirmary—not that Chloe's family minded. She was a good pup and Camilla liked having a female pup the same age as her to play with. The two of them were always playing together outside with Oscar and Oliver nearby to keep an eye on them while they played their own games that the females weren't interested in. So Chloe spent most of her free time in the summer with Anwaatin and Kayla—who wanted to introduce Zumba to their training sessions as a warm-up. Chloe had to practice with her every day so they were in sync for the next day's training.
When the Alpha and Luna returned home, Chloe greeted them before heading out to meet Kayla. She never anticipated her summers to be filled with so much exercising but she loved it. It gave her confidence and strength and she loved training the pups. Someday, they would all be following her lead as the Head Female Warrior. That was the position she was aiming for. She wanted to be the youngest Head Female Warrior the pack ever had and if that meant putting off finding her mate and having pups a little later in life, she was fine with that.
Besides, if she started having pups before she was twenty, they would have no first cousins to play with for at least another five years. Pups could wait until she was twenty-five and Oliver found his mate and they were ready to have pups too. Being the oldest pup with a five-year age gap sucked. She didn't remember much of her childhood before joining the pack, but she knew she must have been a handful because it was just her and her mother and her mother's Real Estate career.
Nevertheless, she had dreams and goals and they gave her the drive and motivation to keep going every day.
After spending an hour with Kayla going over tomorrow's warm-up, they cooled off in the sprinkler before laying on a pair of towels on the grass, roasting their skin to a nice golden brown, and talking until Kayla's mother called her for dinner and Chloe ran home, knowing that her own mother would be calling the pups in for dinner soon too.
On her way home, she picked up Animkii's scent again and looked around until she noticed it ended at the sycamore tree near her house. The big tree rose out of the earth like a hand with its fingers extending up to the sky. In the palm of the hand was the treehouse she and Animkii used to play in many years ago. Their fathers, along with Mik, built it for the two of them to play it.
Animkii was always climbing trees, she remembered as she stared up at the sycamore. Many afternoons were spent up in that tree. They shared lunches of peanut butter sandwiches, carrot sticks, and cut pieces of fruit. Watched the birds flutter among the branches, singing their songs, and preening their feathers. Sitting side-by-side with their legs hanging over the wooden boards of the doorway, their arms and legs brushing against each other, laughing at each other's silly stories.
The treehouse was their special place. It was more than a place for fun and games, it was also like a sanctuary. When something was bothering them, they could meet up there and either talk it out or simply be present in a silently supportive role.
Her heart pounded with the memories playing over in her head. How many times had they laughed and comforted each other in that treehouse? What drove him to this place holding so many memories?
Curiosity getting the best of her, she started climbing up the thick trunk and pulled herself up into the large wooden fort nestled ten feet up.
Animkii was there, staring out one of the glassless windows to the sky peeking between the leaves of the tree.
"Hey, what are you doing up here?" Chloe asked.
His eyes drifted lazily to her. There was a void within their depths before he blinked and life returned to those dark brown eyes. "I could ask you the same thing."
"I picked up your scent. We haven't been up here in years, so I was curious."
His attention drifted back to the window. "Thinking."
She smirked. "Obviously. How long have you been up here?"
"Not long."
She sat down beside him and he shifted a couple of inches away from her. She frowned. "What?"
"You're a pup." Eyes still fixated on the window.
"So?"
"I can't be near you."
She frowned. "Why? I thought it was okay for friends regardless of age or sex to be close, hug, and hang out?"
Heaving a sigh, he closed his eyes. Creases marred his forehead as he furrowed his brows. He took a deep breath in and released it as he pulled himself up, swooping a little as the treehouse was only six feet tall and couldn't extend another six inches to accommodate his full height. His scent shifted but she couldn't recognize the meaning of it.
"Yeah, well... not anymore."
"What?" She rose to her feet as he shuffled toward the open doorway. "What do you mean? Are we not friends anymore?"
He gripped the frame of the door as his scent shifted to one she could recognize: guilt. "I'm sorry. Someday, you'll understand."
Crouching down, he jumped as his words stabbed her in the chest. She reached out to lean her weight against the wall as she stared out through the leaves of the tree and saw him jogging away.
After everything they had been through together as pups... How could he end their friendship so suddenly over the phone and then later ask if they could still be friends? Why would he show up at her birthday party and make her favorite cookies for her if he didn't care? Why would he push her away but still return to a place filled with memories of their childhood together?
She knew he had to be conflicted about his emotions with everything going on, and yet she still held on for some reason. Still held on to the possibility of being friends. Why? Why must she torture herself this way?
Why did it hurt so much?
"Fuck you," she whispered to the part between the leaves where she last saw him. "If that's what you want, fine. I'm done trying to be your friend."
Her fingers curled into fists as she looked around the dusty wooden boards. The urge to break something or punch something filled her until her eyes landed on a little cotton doll that fit in the palm of her hand. His scent saturated the thing.
Picking it up, she whipped it out the door and through the leaves of the tree.
Take your shit and go! she screamed in her head as a wordless aggravated snarl erupted from within.
I don't need you or your friendship! I never needed you! I was doing perfectly fine without you! Fuck you!
---- Author's Note ----
Next chapter will be up on the 30th or you can get the next 7 installments now on Inkitt! Link is in my profile.
Dedicated to HeartStone Packmate: sweetluna071616 - Join us on Facebook!
Copyright Jo Lee Hunt ( Joflower ) 2020