In an hours times the piercing sun will have gone to bed in its cocoon of whitewashed cloud vapour, and the silver speckled moon will have risen, shining, soon at its brightest as this is the night before the full moon. But now the empty sky, was, a cascade of butterscotch and cerise, both smeared together to make a sea of painted colours. The sun was just starting to nestle into the hills for the night ahead. There was a still blistering breeze blowing over them, as their hands often brushed against each others. Aran would occasionally glance at his Alpha- his own kind if perfection in life was his alpha, and she was contently smiling next to him. Her cherry- burnt hair had small curls in it and the kinetic energy gushed through it, letting the strands of hair come alive. Aran's smile deepened: just by occasionally looking at her, he could match the serene ambiance with her own features. Aran hasn't even thought about how perfect her personality was yet- that was definitely something to think about.
This walk was brilliant, for the wolfblood's; It felt like they were far from the world they knew and loathed but they lived in this one. No rules ir regulations. just aran and jana. No pollution stained the skies and the air wasn't intoxicated. There was hardly any noise, only the birds singing their little hearts out. It was just them. And they loved it that way. No cares or worries to think about. Definitely no pack they were walking to.
"The pack awaits." Jana meekly said, her face pained and shrivelled like a soured prune. she'd finally got it out. For 30 minutes they had been walking across the moors. And for those 30 minutes, all she had wanted to do was forget about the very same pack that she abandoned and left, without a territorial system, without a leader, without anything. Okay maybe not without anything, they had Aran...
"Your betrayal to the pack will not daunt on our lives Jana." Aran consoled, gripping her shoulders from the side with one arm, the other swung loosely like a loop of rope by his torso.
"So it is a betrayal?"
Aran laughed lightly, the obsidian bristles on his chin glimmering in the tanned sun elegantly. Jana nudged him slightly, feeling his muscles reflex from the power of his touch. Aran cocked his bushy eyebrows at his alpha, breathing in the wilderness once more. He glared at her face, letting his body relax and his wolf pulse through his elasticated veins. "The pack needs you, you led them to these tame ways and to them you left the wild ways for a world that ruins lives. You cannot expect the pack to have gratitude for your arrival, but you can expect them to need you and reply upon your leadership."
Jana broke from the captivating gaze, and hopped over spends logs and rotting branches, Aran closely behind her. "I didn't come back to lead a pack Aran."
"Why did you come back then?"
"Aran!" Jana exclaimed, she hopped on a decaying stone, looking down at her Alpha intently, who was Centre-meters apart from her but not standing on a ashen grey rock but the sodden ground instead.
"Jana." Aran sternly uttered, but the softness in his voice warmed the atmosphere up, they bustled on further, picking up the pace as the moons energy tickles them and revitalises them from within.
"The pack awaits." Jana smirked a little and pounced onto the ground, walking forwards into more blackened trees. Aran's face grew darker, and his eyebrows furrowed slightly: Shuffling along, childishly kicking the auburn leaves away miserably.
"That's not an answer I want."
"But it's an answer you need." Jana's voice became evanescent and Aran could only see endless hanging branches in his way, he yelped a little and realised he had trodden into a large tree, the branches entwining around his limbs, scathing his back. Although the branches were thick and tight around him, he howled a little, whimpering as he writhed and squirm in the grasp of these seemingly ordinary branches. Twigs snapped behind him and he was hauled out of the wooden mess with a heaved. They plummeted to the soft ground with a jaw tightening thump. Aran rolled on his back and in a second bounced back on his feet again, his face softened and he gently hauled jana up, letting the grip of their hands tighten. Aran sniffed a little- watching his alpha release the bond, brushing the leaves off her finely trimmed body and rouge plump face. Aran noticed how defined her bones were now, the longer hair and tallness he could no longer tease about when she was a cub. He had grown up with this girl/ adolescent/women/ alpha/ wolf, whether human or not, he'd always seen beauty in her eyes. Not just how elegant she walked or how jana would flick her hair to one side- the beauty in words. Aran was find of her talks, how she displayed hope and passion, expressing them through her leadership and consoling words. It was easy for Aran to be Aran when near Jana- he had nothing to fear. Her beauty of wit though, was something he was still picking up on...
"I had it under control." Aran bluntly said, he let his shoulders relax and sniffed the cool air. There were no traces of human. Aran frowned. Odd. But he smiled a little. No Kincaid. No humans. No danger.
"Oh really." Jana lightly laughed, following Aran to the tree that has the strong branches swinging from them. Jana's smile dropped and she scrutinised the rope, sniffing like a feral beast. Aran frowned in perplexity and remained silent beside the girl.
"They were just branches." Aran muttered.
"I don't they they were, look. It's rope." Jana uttered.
She had smelt the faint synthetic wolfblood trace, it hit her like a bullet and the stench was acerbic. Cautiously, she handed a strand of rope and Aran too analysed it exactly the same why. "Rope?"
"Human stuff! Look!" Jana yelled, pointing to the manmade material. "It tried to tie you or trap you."
Aran's stomach flipped the other way, lurching into oblivion. Jana's face had fear etched over it and his eyes glistened the rebounded emotion. "Let's leave it for now. Lets go." He commanded, together they marched away. Not sure what it was. But they weren't the police, just two wolfbloods enjoying life, as most would put it.
Half an hour later, they happily arrived at the edge of a medium sized river. It's glacial water gushed down like a fan, coiling its way towards a much larger river that would eventually carry itself out to the Ocean. A cluster of occult trees had grown on the eroded river bank and miniature fish swam along with the flow of the water, breathing in the contamination like it was water- air. Aran and Jana turned themselves to face each other once more. It's as if time stood still for Jana during those minutes of facing Aran properly after the whole 'I love you thing'. The female instantly recalled how they used look at each other, giving secret glances when Rhydian or Alric weren't around, how her breathing would always fluctuate slightly, and that became worse when she got shot by that human six months back, Jana needed air but he was always there to take her breath away.
"You can do no evil Jana, it is incomprehensible. I trust you and i know you wouldn't want harm us." Aran stated, he meant it and it was the first thing that came naturally out of his mouth. He rested his forehead onto hers, his eyes burning like yellow coals, spluttering specks of star dust and Maroon stains in his irises. Jana hummed a little in agreement, and listened to the ripples of the water splash beside her.
Why had everything changed? She'd been gone for so long, left the pack for another through terrible circumstances and decided to stay after everything. She'd been all over the wild worlds, explored the human, put herself or humans first and yet here he was, after everything: Aran still respected her and needed her to be alpha to the remaining pack. Hows that even possible? Why her? However, the questions and doubts disintegrated into forgotten ashes of the mind. They were millimetres apart again. Aran tenderly grazed her face, feeling every line, each texture, smooth skin and carved features. Their eyes met and locked, gushing her out of the human and wild world and onto a tidal wave of emotion. Jana lost her train of thought, and that didn't even include how she lost all coordination of her limbs, letting everything go.
It wasn't long before they found themselves in the iced water, splashing each other and kicking the splashes in retaliation. Laughters and shouts echoed continuously, lighting up the dormant forest. It wasn't long before they were in the darkness, but tonight there were no fluffy balls of vapour anywhere and the luminous moon was shimmering bright, glowering at them like a spotlight. It looked like a whitened pearl but to them, it was a gem in disguise. Aran laced his fingers with Jana's, and excitedly led her through tousled emerald bushes, leaping over logs and bashed stones that slept in their way.
"Aran! Where you taking us? Aran!" Jana demanded, a smile tugged at her lips as she let his sturdy grip take her to oblivion. Aran didn't reply, instead he followed his instincts and so past the bushes they bustled. Aran abruptly discontinued, standing straight in a small clearing, watching the reflections of them etch into the shallow fathomable murky water. Stars glistened like dots and Aran led them to a jagged rock, they perched on it, calmly soaking up the still breeze. Aran's face became vacant and his hooded eyes naturally glistened yellow, like Jana's. His fingers and thumb coiled rounds Jana's own daddle and he heaved loudly.
"This is the place me and my sister would go to."
"I've never seen it." Jana bluntly said, she let her wolf take over with her sight and she could see everything, from warrens to shrubs. Nature was electrocuted and on fire with the beasts of the nighttime sky. Aran scoffed and laughed a little, letting the droplets of water scamper down his clammy forehead. He let his mouth escape a feeble growl, Jana gave him a profound look becoming clearly impatient- typical Jana.
"No one has, we were cubs at the time, pitiful fools of natures finest. Your father had become alpha, he was a good man, a strong alpha. Like a uncle to us."
"Was?"
Aran shifted a little but did not break the gaze, his jaw tightened and there was a long anticipated pause, making Jana have bad tinglings."He did not understand the importance of packs, how they must stick together. He ripped off people's limbs for authority, never in denial for his own crimes. We often hid in fear, we were just cubs, this was our security." By the end, Aran's voice had grown bitter and distinction, laced in pain and every word spat out like it was toxic. Jana shivered. Did Her father have no justice in this world?
"My father has always been scary but Aran, he's never made us live in fear-"
"Your father changed when you were born. so this place has grown old, abandoned." He huskily interjected, he turned his head and glowered at the shrivelled plants and brown sloppy leaves sprayed on the sludgy ground. Jana flickered her eyes from left to right, reining in the wolf as anger simmered to the top. Aran felt her hands heat up, he clenched them tighter and listener to the ripples on the water.
"my father changed when i was born?" Jana hollered, she shot up and flapped her hands in the air dismissively, her love for her father becoming metallic and withered.
"He learnt to love, it was you." Aran exaggerated the 'you', and Jana calmed down a little, growling and panting at the same time. His stern captivated expression didn't leave his face, and Aran's face never turned away from Jana's. he was an honest man. She knew that right?
"and ever since, this place has died?" Jana slumped next to the wolf boy, she nestled her head on his muscular shoulder, feeling his blistering body heat.
"we cannot live in the past." Aran whispered in her ear, sending cascades of tingles down their warped backs. Aran hoped his voice would sound dominate, sound authoritative, certain and powerful but how could it when they are both equals and they aren't worse or better than each other. Aran always felt at one with his alpha, take away the rules and dangerous perks and the endless obstacles- they were one. Always.
"yet you won't change the present."
"We don't need to, we are more able than any human."
"Prove it." Jana muttered, she lifted her head up and smirked at Aran, she swivelled her hips on the stone and crosses her arms expectantly. Aran didn't know whether to laugh at her suggestion or yelp with astonishment. Excitement took over and he pounced off the rock and knelt submissively in front of her, letting the moon glitter his coal hair, the bristles on his chin shining like diamonds.
"My alpha, for you. Anytime."
Jana's lips tugged at a simpler abs she causally nodded her head, standing and hauling Aran up from his sturdy shoulders"Okay then." Jana's face appeared playful, her facade daunting him and their love was exploding like a sand timer
"whats my challenge."
"wait and see."