Chapter Six

Amante POV

“No way! It is not what I am thinking it is, right? Don’t you dare!”, Amaltheo shriek in my head when he reads the idea that is thrashing inside.

“Why not?”, I ask taunting him visions of mountaineering. I chuckle at his gutlessness.

               What I have in mind is clawing my way up the hundred-foot, rocky and snow-filled hillside. It is crazy and dare-devil but I think I am going to give it a try. I can understand my wolf's freakouts. Wolves have quite a large build that was not made for climbing trees especially vertically slanted hills. I use to weigh only 90 pounds in wolf form but now, I assess it to be up to 250 pounds which is very heavy to carry up the head heights. Wolves simply aren’t climbers. I look back at my mate. She motioned her approval by nodding excitedly with a sweet smile plastered on her face. I feel my chest beam with joy by her supportiveness. She looks completely confident. And that gives me the courage to do the scary, difficult, and dangerous act of self-exploration. I turn my head towards the river and jump my way across. One single leap is all I had to do and, boom, I arrive instantly at the base of the hill. I look up to survey my way through and it looks daunting from here on. I feel my head voluntarily shake as a sign of discouragement from my opposing spirit wolf. I ignore its negativity and push through. I found an opening across a barren rock that leads to a stair-like rock formation that travels till almost half of the hill. I take the path cautiously, wary of the gravity that is pulling my heaviness back down to the ground. I arrive at the end of the stair and subconsciously look down at Allyssa. She encouragingly waves her delicate hands above her shoulders. I smile.

“Tsk, you are making me look like a love-sick pup!”, teases Amaltheo with his tail wagging joyously.

“She's nice to look at from this distance, isn’t she?”, is my only response as I start to make my way through a ragged pile of rocks.

“Nah! I prefer ravishing her underneath mine!,” this perverted comment caught me by surprise that I missed my footing.

               Good thing though I landed on a wider range, and from there, I can almost see the peak a few meters above me. The snow covering the rocky slope looks slippery. It is getting harder to squeeze my bulk in and my weight is getting me off-balanced. Reality is kicking in but I decline to submit myself to failure and humiliation. I am not going to embarrass myself in front of my mate! I position myself perfectly angled to an overhanging branch a meter away from me. I spring myself up, transforming into my human form mid-air, and clutches on the sturdy wood. I swing myself around and feel the wind push me up to the safety of the hilltop. I landed face palm on the ground. My heart goes wild-drumming inside my chest. I did it! I succeed!

“Awwhhhooooooo!”, I howl my triumphant venture incessantly at the top of my lungs.

               My celebratory mood echoes. I feel alive, truly alive, and powerful. I need to get back to the pack. I need them to see I evolved. And I will bring back Allyssa. I believe she somehow has a great part in this mystery. Maybe it is because of the completion of the marking rites. I heard before from some newly formed mates that they change after mating. Mine just happens to be extravagant because of my Royal bearing and it simply compliments my exceptional personality. I am getting thrilled to see what the future holds for me after this mutation.

                I pick up my mate and start on my way back home. I am now relieved of any anxieties that I can see the surroundings more appropriately. It is familiar. Ha! This is where the army camped out before the attack. How on earth I am back here after several miles of trekking back to the pack house? I know I am not mistaken. This is the escape route marked on the map given by Maziar. Something is fishy and I do not like what it means. My survival instincts are now on high alert. There must be someone who wants to get the hell out of me and the fuck I am giving it to them mercilessly. I run faster. I want explanations and I want it now. I feel Allyssa hold tighter as I gallop my way through bushes and frozen swamps, then into the dark, thick forest in the snowy mountain that conceals the guard station conveyed as a boundary of Irati Nardus Pack territory. From here on, there are two more forests of only two species of trees inside- podocarp conifer and southern beech isolated miraculously under the glaciers, and a frozen lake home to several Antarctic notothenioids such as arctic cods, bald notothens, and thread-fin pitheads before arriving at the covert gate of the packhouses. The snow here never ceases throughout the year. It is only a matter of how strong the snowstorm may be. The ground is made up of thick glaciers that hide small, yet deadly hole spots. If you are not part of the pack and are under-skilled to locate the traps, you will find yourself frozen underneath, without any traces of your wretched doom. We, as part of the pack, have been taught about the geographic and environmental statistics of this land. We were also trained for survival methods and techniques. I, myself, faultlessly memorize this not because of simply surviving the freezing hibernation, but, it is the best way to flawlessly wield the schemes I have for the pack. The icy wind breezes and I feel my mate trembling, unable to quench the terrible cold out of her thinly-clothed body. I run much faster now with my stronger limbs and seven feet long wolf body but we still have few yards to go. I can tell she is not able to last long. She is just a human after all!

               I make a swift turn about to the left side where the forest is. I know somewhere in there, a guarding werewolf or two must have extra quilts or coats, thick enough to ward off the chilly air. I head towards the deepest part of the forest and meet Maziar, surprisingly but not uncommonly. He must be hunting for food. He is the Lead Hunter and I am glad to have him as the first to meet back home. I regard him as my friend, my savior, but I never shared my treachery. He is a reputable loyalist to the Alpha King. Besides, I don’t trust anybody more than myself. My dream is way too precious to be jeopardized by a single mistake of mistrust and betrayal. A traitor like me would never trust another might-be-traitor. I rather collaborate with somebody outside the werewolves clan, a weakling like a human perhaps.

“Maziar! Quick, hand me an extra quilt or anything to wrap around her. She’s freezing to death!”, I hurriedly ask him via mind link not showing any regard to his stupefied expression.

Maziar is awfully slow to react. “You are? Amante? What? How? And she is a human, isn’t she?”, he raises series of questions instead, unable to comprehend the situation.

               Out of impatience and hot-headedness, I pounce on the ground and hiss him on the face, knocking him out of his stupidity. He finally found himself changed into human form and frantically searching inside his bag hanged to a nearby branch of the southern beech for what I had asked him for. He comes back urgently with a greyish-colored quilt on his arms and covers it over the shivering body of my mate, wary enough not to touch her to avoid misinterpretation. Mates especially those with Alpha blood are known for extreme possessiveness, therefore, results in misunderstandings and infantile jealousy. I feel Allyssa relax under the coverlet. Maziar's bewildered face paces back and forth between my mate and me. I let him gag on for a minute there, taking pleasure in the dramatic effect of my grand comeback.