The Unclaimed Human Luna
Chapter 45

El POV

El looked at the message she’d gotten from Conner, she’d already been up and gone for a morning swim, had hit that pool at 5am, she’d been unable to sleep. So she had gotten up. She’d not seen hide nor hair of him in three days. Then he just texted her out of the blue and it was weird to say the least, he’d apologised and told her what he’d been up to. Asked how she was.

El had sat and stared at that message for a long time and then just ignored it. Didn’t need that man talking to her, trying to be all friendly like with her, likely just wanted to come to her room and have his way with her.

That got her a*s up and off the couch, “Nope, not going to happen again.” Yanked her hiking boots on in a hurry and was gone out of the room, before he just bloody showed up and got what he wanted from her. Ducked down the stairwell, knew he’d be coming from the other end of the building, if he was coming.

Headed right out into the woods, it was only early morning and though the day was supposed to get warm she was in the shade of the dense forest, and the morning breeze was cool. She kept her pace quite quick for the first 15 minutes. Looked over her shoulder many times, there was no one following her. No Conner, it seemed, relaxed and allowed herself to just slow down to a casual walk along the path.

She was only mildly concerned about that one wolf he’d called Atlas roaming about out here, that very large beast of a wolf had not chased her, or harmed her, in anyway, on the last encounter, just smelled her and then ran off. Hopefully, being that it was early morning, she could avoid coming across it. It had been afternoon both times she’d seen him.

There was no one out here, she took a trail where the path was divided into five and realised she’d been here before, smiled to herself, already learning the tracks. Looked at the path she had taken last time, decided against that it was where she’d come across that wolf, knew the path directly ahead of her would lead down to the lake.

Took the one next to that it was headed north east, hadn’t been on that one yet, strolled along it, didn’t take long for that path to start to climb upwards, a long hill to the top of a small ridge. There was a really nice view of the lake up there. She was surprised to see a bench seat up there. It must be a local hike.

She sat herself down and just looked out over bear lake. The sun was well up now, it was mid-morning and there was no actual shade here. Within just five minutes she was getting hot out here in the sun. got up and looked at the path she’d come along and then the one that wound down the ridge, it was well maintained, wound down into the valley below.

Strolled on down it, it wound back and forth along the ridge, some of it was path and some of it was stairs, it was a long walk down to the valley floor below, but it sported some nice views of the lake along the way, and two more benches for people to sit on.

Down in the valley it was cool and she found herself at a small stream with a wooden bridge to cross it, strolled across it. The other side of the bridge was really dense forest, hardly any sunshine reached through down here, smiled up at the tall trees and could see their were birds flying about up there, had a decision to make, go north or south, the path she was on led to a T-junction, south she knew was going to take her to the Lake for sure.

North however, was unexplored territory for her, smiled to herself “north it is.” Wondered if this was the path that lead all the way around the gated community. It could well be, she thought, checked her phone, no service. Well, if they were looking for her, or Logan thought she was going outside the gated community, he had no way of telling her to get back there.

She strolled along, till she found herself on a path that was going to wind its way up a ridge. The trail looked to be for a serious hiker, but she wasn’t prepared for that at all. Looked at her watch. It was nearly lunch time and she’d not grabbed food, just her water bottle in her rush to leave and it was nearly empty.

She hadn’t really planned on being out here for so long, but the trails had just called to her and off she’d gone. Smiled to herself, that part of her was all her father. Strolled back at a casual pace, there was no point in rushing, not when she knew she was a few hours away from her apartment, wouldn’t get back until mid to late afternoon, depending on which way she went.

Didn’t particularly think climbing up that winding ridge trail was going to be the way back, not without more water. So she would take that south path and likely end up, down at the lake but she could fill up her water bottle down there at least, then would have to make her way from there back to the apartment complex. A long walk but at least it was shady and cool under the canopy.

Stopped at the sight of that wolf, padding along the path towards her ‘how on earth did she always manage to find herself face to face with this thing’ she wondered to herself as she came to a standstill. It hadn’t attacked her the last time, she’d not moved or run away from it. Perhaps if she just stood still it would go the other way or off into the woods.

It stopped and stared at her, tilted its head to the right and she saw it smell the air, smelling her in all likelihood, didn’t take her eyes off of him. He was a massive beast of a creature, and curious it seemed. Though Conner had told her this was his territory, was the Alpha wolf, not that she’d seen any of its pack, just him.

Saw that wolf sit and stare at her, bit her l*p. She didn’t know how to interact with it, how wild it was, though it never seemed to phase Conner or be bothered that Conner was out running on the trials, it was likely that he was so regular out here, that he came across this wolf a lot.

Wondered how long it would sit there and watch her before it got bored and left. She stepped slowly to the edge of the path as if to give it room to go passed her, and it watched her the entire time, then stood up and shook itself out. Stretched himself backwards, lowering its head to its feet, almost as if it was bowing to her.

She’d seen her friends’ dogs do that, usually when they were playing, not an aggressive thing, then that wolf lay all the way down and put its head on its paws and watched her. She sighed softly to herself, now what was she supposed to do. The beast took up the whole entire path, was actually blocking her way past it.

It was a stand-off it seemed, who was going to move first. Well she knew it wasn’t going to be her. If he was the Alpha wolf, he would be dominant, and anything could be seen as a sign of aggression from her. She wasn’t willing to get bit by it, reached for her phone slowly and checked the service, still no bars. Couldn’t call for help.

Saw that wolf creep towards her, two steps on its belly and then just stop. It was still watching her. She’d never seen a wolf belly crawl before. Saw its tail wag a little at her as it looked at her, then it was on the move again, two more belly crawling steps in her direction. This definitely was not an aggressive thing for it to do.

It almost looked as if the wolf wanted to play with her, was actively trying to communicate with her, who the hell knew. It had been aggressive the first time she’d come across it, neutral the last time and now playful. She didn’t understand it’s motives, couldn’t it was a wild animal, though she could see the brilliant blue of its eyes from here, and realised it was likely to be the wolf she’d seen out near the apartment complex, staring at her from behind the tree line last week.

Heard that wolf yip at her and blinked as it popped up to its full height and then just flopped down on the ground and started to roll around on its back, wriggling everywhere. Before just laying on its side and looking right at her, pawed at the air in front of it.

If this was one of her friends’ dogs she’d go over and rub its belly, didn’t think it was a wise thing to be doing that to a wild animal regardless the display it was putting on for her. Though she was tempted to take a photo of it, no one was going to believe her. She watched as it inched a little closer to her, then just rolled all the way over and popped back up onto its feet and stood staring at her, its head tilted to one side.

Wagged its tail at her a little and padded right over to her, she stared right at it, the damn thing came right up to her chest, and when it lifted its head up looked her right in the eye, her heart was hammering inside her chest as it stood right in front of her. If it wanted to attack her she was going to be seriously injured. Watched as its head tilted from one side to the other and then this rumbling noise came from its chest almost sounded as if it was purring at her.

“Shoo” she murmured softly.

Saw its ears prick right up and its nose drop a little, then it smelled her once more, took its time in smelling her, bit her l*p as its nose touched her skin, it was cold and wet, and she could hear it sniffing her. Felt its tongue lick the back of her hand and her eyes widened, ‘stay still’ she told herself and did just that.

It nudged her hand with its big head a few times and whined at her, then its head snapped around and its whole body was tense as it looked off into the woods, watched as its hackles raised as it turned away from her and a low and threatening growl issued from it. Her eyes moved from it to where it was staring, she couldn’t see anything in particular.

But she heard another growl issue off in the distance and then it was just gone, a massive snarl ripping out of it, as it dashed off down the hill into the woods, she didn’t wait to see what the hell was going on, moved very quickly off down the path away from the fight she could now hear going on down in the valley behind her.

Likely it had scented something in its territory that it didn’t like. Was off to protect its territory. Saw another wolf come from nowhere and skidded to a halt. It was almost as large as that big dark grey one, only this one was pale grey, almost silver with black fur from its head down its back to its tail, its brilliant green eyes locked right on to her and then after a second it was just gone, off the trail into the woods in the direction of that fight she was hearing.

She moved on, picked up her pace, there were likely to be more of them out here, kept herself to the trail and ran along for as long as she could, then walked as fast as she could, holding her side, had a stitch, she was not fit for running about the woods for long periods of time.

She found herself 30 minutes later seeing several people coming towards her, one of them Logan, “El are you alright?”

She nodded “Yes.”

“Take her back to the complex.” He rapped out, and she found herself escorted by two men she didn’t know. While Logan headed off into the woods with half a dozen men hot on his heels, right in the direction she had come from. Turned and looked back as he and a bunch of men went that way, right towards where she’d left the wolves fighting it out.

“Don’t concern yourself with it, Eliza.” She was told “Wolves fight all the time, he’s just headed out there to make sure it doesn’t spill over and get closer to the complex.”

“What’s he gonna do about wolves fighting?”

There was silence on that, and after about a minute he stated, “He’ll handle it, don’t worry about it.”

She was walked all the way back, and made to go inside, her mother was standing staring at her, walked right over to her and hugged her. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, why is everyone asking me that?”

“There were wolves, Eliza, you could have gotten hurt, attacked. It’s why we don’t like you wandering out in the woods by yourself.”

“Alright, I get it.” though that big grey one and that silver coloured one hadn’t hurt her, perhaps they were of the same pack. She didn’t know “No more going into the woods alone.”

“Good, that will make me and Logan happy.” Her mother smiled at her, seemed relieved to hear it. “How long have you been out there?”

“All morning, I was just exploring,” she shrugged “I’m thirsty and hungry though.” She admitted.

“Come, let’s get you some lunch then.”