Chapter 24

The next day found the wolf encampment in a hazy fog of bliss. For one day, there was no sparring between adults and the meals were surprisingly quiet.

Mila might have found it amusing the way some wolves were still drunkenly stumbling from the forest well into the late afternoon hours. However, she was in her own state of mild intoxication. Though Jed moved about anxiously, worried he may have hurt her at some point in the night, Mila wore a peaceful smile throughout the day.

The children were considerably more active than the adults. Many had taken a keen interest in Mila, getting closer than usual and sniffing her.

“She smells like that vampire,” one of the younger ones wrinkled their nose and whispered to their playmates.

“Do you think they fought again?” One of the others asked, clearly cheered by the idea.

Mila paid no mind until one was brave enough to speak to her directly. A small wolf boy by the name of Darren came up to her with questions. “Did dinosaurs look the way they did in movies?”

“Not really,” Mila smiled in amusement, her posture still relaxed. “They were much more colorful. Some had hair or feathers. Some even had tentacle-like noses like moles or elephants.”

Darren stuck a dirty finger in his mouth to mess with a loose tooth. “Was the t-rex really the biggest and meanest? My sister said they were the meanest.”

Mila shook her head. “Not at all. I didn’t make a point of introducing myself, but they were more like coyotes or vultures. They picked up the scraps left behind from other animals. Their heads were too big to run around as much as they did in the movies.”

“Oh,” Darren sounded a little disappointed.

“They did have an impressive bite force though. They could crunch through bones like hyenas,” Mila enthused slightly, trying to cheer him. “But the meanest might have been a spinosaurus. It had a maw full of razor-sharp teeth and a spiney sail on it back. It was deadly in water and outside.”

Darren’s puppy-dog eyes widened. “Was it big?”

“Extremely,” Mila stretched out her arms to imitate something much large than herself. “And so fast! Its spine was green to look like a particularly delicious plant leaf so it would hide itself in murky water and when an animal foolishly tried to take a bite out of its back, it would jump up and catch them in its teeth!”

Darren squealed in horror and laughter. He soon ran off to tell his playmates all about the exaggeratedly evil creature from a time long ago. Mila smiled after him contentedly.

She’d never had very much to do with children. Her kind had always remained relatively self-contained. They’d watched the humans and had reason to interact with adults in particular, but children were messy and chaotic, in charge of nothing.

Mila couldn’t say she disliked children though. She found a certain joy from watching their play. Jed recoiled from them slightly, aware of the wolf parents that bristled from his closeness. Whether he liked children or not, food or otherwise, they weren’t terribly keen on allowing his presence yet. Neither, did he seem, interested in pursuing conversations.

But Darren had kicked off a trend. Children intermittently came up to Mila, asking her questions about the world that she had seen. They asked about her god, about Ae, and whether she knew of any other gods. She didn’t, but she couldn’t say for certain that the wolves didn’t have a god of their own.

They asked her about the oceans and what was inside the very deepest of trenches. Was the leviathan or kraken real? If so, where did it hide? Was there really an Atlantis? Was that where she’d lived?

All of these things were easily answered as yes, there were leviathans which often disguised as islands or underwater masses. Bottom feeders, mostly and Atlantis was real, but always told wrong.

Winnie and Dillon emerged from their cabin in the evening for dinner, their faces glowing. Dillon quickly joined the trend of asking childlike questions while Winnie cooed over the cuteness of the children. Mila had no doubt that they would soon be eagerly welcoming their own pups.

-

Mila didn’t realize at once that several pups weren’t being allowed to come to her. Several were having to ask their questions through others, listening intently at a distance. It seemed that Kiera’s pack were avoiding Mila as much as possible.

Unlike most of the other adults, Kiera wasn’t in a blissful state of relaxation. She was ornery, sending scowls Mila’s way and scaring off pups that got too close in their eagerness for more stories.

Mila wasn’t entirely sure why, but she caught a glance at Kody. He was smiling warmly from the alpha tables, watching the group of children converge on Mila. He seemed delighted that they were taking such an interest.

But when Kiera tried to speak to him, he’d waved her off without hardly glancing. Kiera had been snubbed, it seemed.

Without asking, Mila couldn’t know if it was her fault. If it was, that seemed terribly foolish on his part. Regardless of attitude, Kiera was an alpha and very beautiful. She radiated a power that Winnie sorely lacked and would surely birth many strong pups once she’d settled down.

Mila was neither interested nor capable. She enjoyed talking with the children, but she would never bear any of her own.

It wasn’t something she’d ever spent much time considering before now. She’d never wanted for anything of the sort while she was with her own kin. Only now, as she felt herself warming under the avid gazes of pups and several admiring adults, did she feel a sort of sadness at not being a part of their group.

Jed too, seemed stiffer than usual. Possibly their night of passion had ruined something between them. Or possibly, the interest Mila clearly had in the future time with the wolves.

She could feel his gaze remaining on her, analyzing everything she did. The unicorn as well, though it liked the children more than Jed and more easily allowed for closeness, it seemed to always keep one eye on Mila. As though it were waiting for something.

Mila couldn’t possibly know what it might be...