Chapter 7:
Kiba followed his pack mates out of the den. As he walked out he noticed that most of Hige's pack was still sleeping, so he slowly and quietly walked down the hill into the valley where Tsume was waiting. When he arrived next to his mate, the white wolf looked around and noticed that Toboe was nowhere in sight.
"Tsume? Where is Toboe? I woke him up and he walked out of the den before me, so where did he go?"
"He walked over to Hige's and Blue's sleeping quarters to say goodbye."
Kiba looked at the gray wolf, which had a dark look in his eyes. He didn't like that look at all, so he sighed, took a deep breath, and spoke softly.
"Tsume what's going on you and Toboe are acting very strange. I don't like the tension that's coming off both of you. Please tell me I am very worried about you two."
The gray wolf turned his eyes to his mate, stared into those worried filled golden eyes, and released a deep sigh. Kiba saw this and waited patiently for Tsume to continue. Said wolf returned his attention to the white wolf next to him, and spoke clearly.
"We had a little disagreement...well it was more like me blowing up at him, but I still think he needed it."
Kiba's eyes went huge. What? Why would Tsume do something like that? He thought they were getting along so well. So what caused this sudden change in his two pack members? Kiba turned his shocked eyes to his mate. He silently told Tsume to explain himself at that exact moment. Seeing the look in the white wolf's eyes, made the gray wolf begin to tell him what happened.
"When I returned to the den after sending those two up first, I saw that they were talking. I didn't announce myself until a little later, but when I did both of them stopped talking and looked right at me."
"What were they talking about?"
"I don't know I interrupted them before I could find out."
Kiba glared at his mate. What was wrong with him? Why did he act the way he did? Well whatever the reason, he sure wasn't pleased with the way his mate handled the situation. He stared Tsume right in the eye before he spoke.
"Tsume before you showed up last night, Me, Blue, Knight, and Toboe were talking about why those two left. They told us that Toboe left the den because he couldn't stand being held up for hours. So he left, but not without Knight following him. They then informed us that Knight only followed him because I told him to keep an eye on Toboe. Which he did, so Blue decided not to punish him to bad. She only told him to apologize to her and to Hige, but he also apologized to me as well. Then we all said goodnight to each other, but I noticed that something changed in Toboe after his little adventure with Knight."
Tsume listened to his mate tell the story, but stopped when he mentioned the part about Toboe changing. He shook his head, confused with this information. How did the runt change? To him he still looked, and acted the same way. So what could be so different?
"I didn't notice a difference when I saw them last night."
Kiba shook his head in disappointment. He couldn't believe his mate, was he that dense when it came to these things? The white wolf chuckled for the first time that morning, while a small smile appeared on his face.
"Tsume, remember the way you acted around me when we first started courting?"
The gray wolf slowly nodded his head as he tried to remember. The only thing he could remember though was how stupid he acted, and how strange he felt the whole time being around the white wolf. He especially remembered how every time he saw the wolf, his heart would stop in his chest, and his pulse would race. Then every time he would receive a smile from the wolf his whole body would get excited with just one look toward him. He loved those feelings at that time and even now as he watched the white wolf.
"Of course I remember how I acted; I acted like a complete idiot. I couldn't finish my sentences, I kept fumbling over my words, I was always nervous about saying or doing something wrong, and I couldn't think straight. All I kept thinking about was you, and how you would react, what you thought of me, and if you even liked me."
Kiba smiled at his mate. He was very proud, and surprised that he could remember all that, considering they have been together for a few years now. He then approached the gray wolf slowly, until he was standing right in front of him. Tsume watched him closely as he began coming even closer. Kiba then licked Tsume on the cheek, nuzzled his shoulder, and whispered into his ear.
"Exactly."
Tsume pulled away completely lost. Exactly? Exactly what? What does remembering how he acted or felt when they were courting; have anything to do with Toboe and Knight?
"What do you mean by that?"
Kiba hung his head in defeat. He still couldn't believe it. Tsume still didn't understand, well then looks like he would just have to hear it bluntly. Kiba took a deep breath and stared at Tsume once more.
"Tsume, what I have been trying to say is that, Knight seems to have feelings for Toboe, while Toboe is a little confused about his at the moment, so when you interrupted their conversation last night. I believe Knight was going to tell Toboe how he felt."
Tsume's eyes went huge, how? What? When? Tsume's head was spinning at all this new information. He couldn't fathom what this meant but he would try and understand it little by little. Kiba on the other hand watched his mate as he took this information in. Although from the reaction he got, Kiba began to realize that it was going to take a while for all of this to sink in.
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Toboe arrived at Blue and Hige's sleeping quarters and looked inside. He noticed that all the pack members were scattered around the cave. But he couldn't locate a certain pair of wolves, but he wasn't going to give up. He took one step into the cave, and that was about as far as he got before he froze in his tracks. What made him stop was a very familiar silver wolf glaring down at him from his perch on the second level of the cave.
"Well, well, well, look who decided to invade our sleeping quarters."
Toboe stood completely still, but kept a look out for any other wolves that might come near him. The silver wolf stood up, and began descending from the perch he was previously on. He smirked as he watched the young wolf shrink back a little as he approached him. The silver wolf finally stopped, when he was right in front of the pup.
"I thought I told you that your KIND isn't allowed in here. And I also remember telling you that any and all outsiders were to be killed if they came into our territory."
Toboe finally found his voice as he unsteadily stayed on his four paws. He nervously looked at the towering wolf, and gulped before he finally spoke.
"Y-yes you did but I-I just wanted to-to-to talk to my friends be-before I had to le-leave."
Toboe stuttered as he started to shake from the fear he suddenly felt. He didn't know how long he could stand it, he wanted someone to wake up and help him. Anybody, Hige, Blue, Knight, someone. But no one moved or made a sound, as he was stuck all alone dealing with this wolf that wanted to do nothing more, then kill him quickly, and silently.
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As Kiba and Tsume were waiting for Toboe to return, a sound came from the woods. Both wolves were on their feet in a flash, and had their eyes locked on the woods next to them. After a few tension filled minute's two wolves emerged from the bushes. Kiba and Tsume physically relaxed as they saw Blue and Hige coming toward them.
"God, you two almost gave us a heart attack."
Tsume growled at his friends. Kiba nodded in agreement, but smiled at his friends none the less. Blue smiled back as she walked up to the two wolves, soon followed by Hige. She looked around and saw that Toboe was nowhere in sight.
"Hi guys what are you doing up so early? Where's Toboe?"
Kiba and Tsume looked at each other with a confused look, and then turned their eyes back to the blue-tinted wolf. What was Blue talking about? Wasn't Toboe supposed to say goodbye to them before they could leave? And if so where was he?
"Well Tsume wanted us to leave at first light so we were headed out, but Tsume told me that Toboe wanted to say goodbye to you guys. Didn't he talk to you yet?"
Blue and Hige shared a look, and then shook their heads. They didn't see or talk to the young pup at all.
"No we walked the boundaries of our territory to mark them again."
Hige said as he sat down. Blue followed suit and sat next to him. Kiba and Tsume shared another look then back to their friends. If that was true then who was Toboe going to meet in the cave? Suddenly a thought stuck the white wolf.
"Maybe he went to say goodbye to Knight then."
Tsume tensed up at the sound of the black wolf's name, but shook the feeling off. He then wondered what was keeping the runt. If he was saying goodbye to Knight, then why didn't he return yet?
"If that is true he should have returned by now don't you think?"
Kiba was about to say something, but Higue spoke before the white wolf could get a word in.
"Um...Kiba."
Kiba looked at Hige. The light brown wolf gulped and took a deep breath, before he spoke. Blue nuzzled his shoulder to comfort him, it worked of course...if only for a little.
"Knight sleeps by himself away from the other wolves in our pack. He was like that since his parents died in a hunt. So we never told him other wise and let him sleep where he wanted."
"If that is true, then Toboe is walking into your pack's cave without permission, and he might be in trouble as we speak."
Tsume said as he growled under his breath. All four wolves then nodded their heads, and ran off towards the pack's sleeping quarters. Hoping they would arrive before something terrible happens.
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Knight was sleeping soundly in his den, which was located on a shaded side of the valley. This was a long distance from the other wolves sleeping areas. He sighed in his sleep as he stretched out. But when a noise came to his ears, his eyes shot opened. The black wolf shot to his feet and listened closely.
After a minute or so of silence, he heard it. It was the sound of a fight about to start. Knight wasn't surprised considering there usually was a fight happening every other day or so with the young males. But even so he raised his nose to the air to see if he could tell who was going to fight by their scent.
"I bet its Zeal acting like a big shot again."
Knight said to himself as he took a deep inhale. As he inhaled he was hit with a strong scent that was none other than Zeal. That guy always had way too much testosterone in his system to begin with. Knight shook his head and decided to check and see who was Zeal's unlucky punching bag was. So with another deep inhale he was hit with a sweet scent of earth, snow, and something else.
He was having a little trouble with trying to identify what is was, since the air was filled with testosterone from Zeal. So he tried once again, he took another deep inhale, in which he received the smell of earth, snow, and wolf? No...something like it...fox? No...was it...dog? Yea that's it dog.
But why would he be smelling dog? There were no dogs in this part of the forest, let alone in this valley. Then it hit him like a shot to the heart. The only one he knew that had that smell was one wolf.
"Toboe..."
Yep another cliffhanger lol! Next chapter will be up soon so don't worry, I won't keep you all hanging. So please review and I will return with the next installment of WolfDog.