“Come on, he is six. And you have spent too much time with your aunt. There are no men coming after me,” I said as I rolled my eyes.
“The little guy is playing the long game, you wait and see. The day he turns eighteen he will show up on your doorstep and proclaim his undying love.”
“Give me a break, he’s a good little wolf. He will hold out for his mate,” I said.
“Are you ready for the day?” Finlay asked, changing subjects.
“I am. I’m looking forward to it,” I told him truthfully.
“Then we should get to the fun part,” he said. “Everyone, get ready to start the first pup cup of hide and seek!” he then called out and also sent in the pack mindlink to the other sites. “Are all the pups ready to go?” he asked and got a loud ‘yes’ from the pups around us, and the same reply via the mindlink. “You will have a ten minute head start. Ready! Set! Go!” The pups went crazy and set off in all directions. Some giggling or screaming in excitement. Some of the older ones had a firm determination that told me they were taking this seriously. We all stood waiting and listening as the ten minutes ticked by. “Warriors, get ready! Go!” Finlay called out and groups of warriors set off all over the pack land. It didn’t take long until we heard the first gigglingcoming from the forest. A warrior was walking out of the trees with a young pup on his shoulders.
“She was hiding in a pile of leaves. I would have missed her if it weren’t for the giggling,” the warrior told her parents as they came to collect the still giggling little girl. No one could help but to smile as the warrior set off into the woods again and the girl excitedly told her parents about the twelve minutes they had been apart.
“So adorable,” I told Finlay.
“Very,” he agreed with a huge smile. He walked over to the family, talked a little to the girl and gave her a pat on the head, and then talked to the parents before returning. “I suggested some training on keeping quiet,” he said.
“You did not,” I said, laughing.
“Maybe not. But it’s not a bad idea.”
“You might be right. But it breaks my heart to explain to someone so young why they need to stay quiet in a pile of leaves.” Finlay sighed.
“Yeah. I wish we could let the pups be pups. It’s unfair to the pack that they need to suffer through this. We aren’t a low-ranking pack,” he agreed.
“It will be better after the Games, they are only a little over five years away. We just need to hang in that long and train so we won’t end up in the same situation again.”
“Right.” We kept looking as warriors brought back pups from all over the forest. Cadence was among the last to be brought back, and I walked over to congratulate him. Mari was the second to last to be found.
“It must run in the family. Well done,” I said as she got a hug from her parents.
“Thank you. It was kind of fun and the tips mom and dad gave were really good,” she told me.
“I’m looking forward to seeing you two in the next event,” I said to their parents. Shelly and Jake stuttered they would do their best. It took half an hour to reorganise everything and prepare for the grownups to get ready. Finlay sent them off and this time there was no giggling. Everyone was focused.
“This will be interesting,” Finlay said to me. I hummed in agreement as I watched the warriors get ready. When Finlay gave the go to start tracking they went off into the woods in hot pursuit. It took longer this time for the first pack member to be found. As they all were adults, or at least teenagers, they made their way back to the starting point without a warrior to escort them. This made the warriors more effective, as they didn’t need to stop. Half an hour later, only one pack member was unaccounted for. It was Jake, Cadence’s dad.
“I’m impressed,” I said to Finlay as time ticked on without him being caught.
“I agree. Who knew?”
“He works in the IT-department, right?” I asked.
“Yes, he’s one of our best technicians. I didn’t know he had hidden talents.”
“This might prove to be a useful exercise in more ways than one.”
“Never doubted it,” Finlay said, and tried to ruffle my hair. I quickly ducked out of his reach.
“Hey, watch it, Alpha man. No one messes with the hair,” I growled. Finlay burst out laughing.
“Did you just growl at me, Red?” he asked. He sounded amused, so I knew he hadn’t taken it the wrong way.
“You bet your ass I did. Don’t mess with the hair. It’s messy as it is. My uncle always messed with it, I hated it,” I told him. He continued to chuckle, and I knew he had found a new way of teasing me. Truth be told, I didn’t mind it as much as I pretended to. Sure, it was a pain in the ass to make it lookdecent after it had been messed with. But I liked the relaxed and friendly bickering the two of us had. I just needed to find some way I could retaliate if he managed to mess with my hair. I made a mental note to check with Martin and Sam. Finally, a warrior sent out a mindlink to say they had found Jake. A moment later, the warriors and Jake came back to the starting point. His family swamped Jake and he looked prouder than I had ever seen him. Finlay and I walked over to him.
“Congratulations, that was impressive,“ Finlay told him and shook Jake’s hand.
“Thank you, Alpha.”
