Chapter Six

“There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” someone unexpectedly said from somewhere behind me, making me jump.

I spun around, almost spilling the herbs from my basket. There, crouched in the shadows of a house, I found Trist.

“Trist? What are you doing there?”

“Shh!” he urged. He was smiling, but it had a guilty edge to it. “Sorry, I’ve only just managed to get away. They won’t leave me alone!”

“Who is they?” I asked, suddenly concerned.

“The rest of the pack.”

“Oh,” I replied flatly.

“Anyway, where have you been?” he asked as he stood up and walked out of the shadows. “I’ve been looking for you because I need your help with something.”

“I was in the forest, picking some herbs from the priest.” I raised the basket slightly so that he could see it. “We need to replace the potions that we used on my mother yesterday. I’m done now, so what do you need?”

Trist suddenly looked away. For the first time since I met him, he did not seem to be overflowing with confidence. 

“I need to ask you a question,” he said quietly. “What do I do?”

“Huh?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

“I’m the alpha of this pack now,” he said, looking at me again with frustration knotting his brow, “and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Everyone’s watching me all the time, but I don’t know what they expect from me. The only pack that I’ve ever been in did not have a good alpha. I don’t want to be like him.”

“Right. Your mother told me a bit about that last night.”

“I thought that the best thing to do would be to keep everything the same. Your mother was the old alpha, so I thought that you might have a good idea of what she used to do. That’s why I wanted to ask you, what do I do?”

I paused for a moment to consider his question. The truth was that Luca would probably be a better person to ask. I had never really paid much attention to my mother’s duties before because her position in the pack was so different from my own. But I had sworn that I would be Trist’s friend, so I wanted to try and help him.

“Well…uh… I think that you’re supposed to supervise things,” I began hesitantly. “You are supposed to make sure that everyone’s doing their job and that there are no problems. Sometimes you go with others to patrol our borders. I think that’s about it…”

“Sure, I can do all of that,” Trist said easily, his confidence seeming to have returned. “But what can I do right now?”

“As in today?” I asked nervously.

“Yep.”

“Well, I guess that the first thing you should do is to stop hiding. You’re the alpha so you need to be approachable. Then, if anyone needs help with anything they can just ask you directly.”

“All right, fine. I can do that too, I guess. It’s just… they keep asking me all these personal questions. I know that they are just trying to be nice, but I think that I need a bit of break. Can’t you think of some sort of activity I can do, to keep them from bothering me? Something like that?” He pointed at my basket of herbs.

“Umm… I guess that you could just help me?” I suggested. “I was planning on chopping some firewood for Granny Tumble, after I drop these herbs off with the priest.”

“Sure,” he said, smiling brightly.

We managed to pass the basket of herbs on to the priest without being accosted, but a group of girls interrupted us as we made our way to the firewood. Luckily for Trist, they easily accepted that he was too busy helping me to stop and talk. Unluckily for me, that meant that the girls blamed me for making Trist busy. I could still feel their glares as I bent to pick-up the axe.

Over the autumn, the pack had collected a lot of logs to be used as firewood. Like most things in the pack, everyone was free to take whatever they needed, but it was a bit harder for the older werewolves. I liked to help them out by cutting up some firewood and delivering it to them. I mostly did it for the good of the pack, but with Granny Tumble I had an ulterior motive.

“Trist, listen-up! I’m going to give you some really good advice,” I said as I set-up one of the logs for chopping.

Trist’s head snapped towards me, his eyes sharp and alert.

“I’m not sure if you have met her yet, but Granny Tumble is one of the most important werewolves in this pack. You’re going to want to get on her good side.”

“Why is that?” he asked eagerly.

“She used to be human,” I explained as I hefted the axe into the air. I brought it down quickly, a loud crack rang out as it bit into the log.

“And as a human, she learnt how to make human foods,” I continued to explain. “Every year, she makes these things called biscuits with spices she gets from the merchants that pass through.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of biscuits. I tried some when I stayed in human villages,” said Trist, far too nonchalant for my liking.

“Then you must know how delicious they are!” I exclaimed as I raised the axe for another swing. “She only makes a few each year, and she only shares them with her favourite people. I’m one of those people,” I bragged as I swung the axe down into the log again.  

“There’s another axe over there. If you help me chop up the firewood, I’m sure that Granny Tumble will share some of her biscuits with you,” I generously suggested.

“No thanks. I’m fine just watching. Actually, I’m enjoying it a lot.”

I felt something then through our bond that made me distinctly uncomfortable. I turned around to see Trist staring, his eyes raking lasciviously across my body. The discomfort I felt turned to outright disgust.

Trist must have noticed, because he suddenly froze and his face paled.

“I’m sorry! I really am sorry!” he quickly apologised.

“It’s fine,” I mumbled, turning back to the log.

“No, seriously! I didn’t mean to! I promise that I won’t do it again!”

“I said that it’s fine. Let’s just forget about it.”

I lifted the axe again, intending to get back to work. After a moment, I heard Trist sigh, then footsteps as he walked off in the direction of the other axe. The sound of splitting wood rang out as we both focussed our attention on demolishing the logs. When we had built a decent pile of firewood, Trist finally broke the awkward silence.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” I said as I wiped sweat from my brow.

“You’re obviously not weak,” he said gesturing to my body, “so why are you at the bottom of the pack?”

“I just don’t like fighting,” I replied guardedly.

All new members of the pack eventually asked about my position, so it wasn’t surprising, but it was irritating.

“All right,” Trist agreed surprisingly easily.

“All right?” I asked, confused that there were no further questions, no insisting that I was wrong or pushing for me to change.

“Yeah, it’s all right,” he answered with a shrug and a smile. “Now, how will we get this wood to Granny Tumble? Should we just carry it?”

“That would probably work,” I replied, still somewhat dazed.

Trist began to gather up the firewood in his arms. After a moment, I joined him.

“You know,” I said as we began walking back to the village, “if Granny Tumble doesn’t bake any biscuits for you, I’d be happy to share some of mine.”

“Really? Thanks!”

He flashed his dazzling smile, and for a moment it seemed like some part of our bond might actually make sense.