A New Life
“Do you also want to try it out after watching us?” one of the teachers, an old female, asked and approached Imyasel. The young wolfess nearly had fallen asleep from just watching them stumble over each other.

“I would love to.” She replied. “Actually, I was shown how to hunt before, and I already did some hunting myself.” She found it best to tell them about her experience, even though the smiles on the faces of the other young wolves showed, that they seemed to think she was boasting.

The older wolfess just replied “Oh, I see. Then do you want to do the circling exercise with the older girls?” she asked and Imyasel nodded and got up. She had seen the older wolves move and knew their habits and weaknesses. She learned from Demon to always watch the hunting partner. With the older male it had always just been the two of them, but because she learned by observing him, she started to look at him all the time during the hunts and even when the trees were blocking the view, she could make him out by the sound of the branches on the ground or the rustling of fallen leaves under his paws and know where he was.

She was ready to put this into practice in the training here. She had had enough time to know the sound of the different steps of the wolves. In addition, their steps were much louder than Demons, even though they did not weight even half of him.

“Sue, you will lead this exercise and make sure to make the pack synchronize with her. She is new to the group.” The older youngster just nodded and scanned the small frame of Imyasel with her blue eyes. Her body looked like an older version of Mira, just with her eyes not being yellow like the younger girl. Imyasel guessed her age to be around three years or a bit older.

For the training, they were to circle one of the teachers to make sure they would not escape and to tap them with their nose. Sue seemed to be used to order everyone around and Imyasel clenched her teeth at the loud voice barking commands back and forth. She guessed that by the time she sorted out the formation, the prey would be long gone.

She understood that the teachers allowed her to shout because this was just a training, but Imyasel found the noise just distracting and a nuisance. It did not help concentrate but hindered it and she closed her eyes to phase it out and concentrate on the steps of each wolf.

Sue was easy to track because she was chatting all the time. Two of the other young wolves were breathing quite hard and easy to spot. The last wolf did the best in Imyasel’s opinion and all she heard from her was her step.

The experienced huntress got into the formation at the point where Sue directed at first, but soon noticed that the wolves around her in the formation did not position correctly and also the commands Sue gave were not always correct and the formation incomplete.

Being used to always correct her positioning for the best encirclement the young girl moved from the spot she was assigned to and closed the gap between the others to avoid the prey, the trainer who invited her, to break out.

She heard Sue bark commands to her quite a while later, when the wolfess spotted her not being at the place she assigned, but Imyasel ignored it, because she knew that if she moved now, there would be a hole in the circle.

She completely ignored the voice of Sue and concentrated on the formation, the prey and the silent wolfess on the other side of the prey. She had to admire the young wolfess for her precision and silent approach. Even though she was clearly not on the level of Imyasel yet, she was the best of the group and seemed to also take the positions of the other wolves into consideration to close any weaknesses.

Imyasel had to admit, that with her experience in hunting with Demon had made her be far ahead of the others and that some training like this would never get close to the hard exercise of trying to circle a prey with two wolves while matching the speed and power of the biggest wolf in the pack.

The group circled around the teacher for quite some time, while the teacher tried to find holes in the defense and break through. Twice she tried it at the other side, but the silent wolfess always had closed the suddenly appearing holes in the encirclement with a quick jump and made the teacher retreat.

Imyasel heard the breath of the wolves around her and noticed, that the one behind her was getting very tired. She herself also noticed, that her pregnancy made her burn more energy than she was used to, but she still could keep up and stay concentrated and alert.

When she was getting a bit tired herself, she nearly was caught off guard by a sudden hook by the trainer, that spun around and jumped at a gap that just formed from the wolfess behind her stopping to catch her breath.

Imyasel could act just in time by burying her claws into the soil and turning her body to slide around in a circle and just when she faced the other direction, she jumped forward. The teacher had nearly passed them, but Imyasel nudged her nose right at the shoulder and scaped it over her neck before she passed over the other wolf and came to a stop on the other side. She was quite exhausted but also happy, that she had been able to do this jump.

“That’s it!” the teacher closed and some of the other young wolves of the group let themselves fall to the ground and took deep breath. Imyasel also let herself sink to the ground and flipped out her tongue to cool herself down.

“That was a very good move Imyasel. Even though also a bit risky. But good job in catching me. I nearly got away.”

Sue did not take too kindly on the praise on Imyasel and the young girl could hear the other girl mutter: “Yea, great job in nearly letting her escape.” Imyasel still ignored her words. She was just proud, that she managed the flip. She felt that her body was not moving as easy as before with it being filled with pups and she also noticed from this exercise that she should be more careful. She avoided bumping her belly on the ground when landing, but it had been a close call and she did not know if it would have been good for her and Demons pups.

“Now everyone, gather around. We will discuss where you could improve.” The exhausted pups got up and formed a circle around the teacher. Also, the other young pups joined in and first she asked them what they observed. Sure enough, they had not been able to observe all the small mistakes but only the obvious flaws like nearly letting the trainer escape.

Then she turned to the training group and asked them, starting with Sue. “So, as the leader, what do you think went well and what went wrong?” she asked and looked at the young she-wolf.

“First of all, the new kid did not listen to anything I said. This made it so much harder to hold the formation and I nearly got husky by trying to get the commands across to her. I give it to her that she has good reflexes, but she was the one in the first place to break the formation and give the prey a chance to escape. She greatly lacks teamwork.” Imyasel felt a bit of anger inside her but she suppressed the growing growl and tried to just ignore the words like she had done before.

“And Laila was just sneaking around somewhere behind me and did not communicate at all. I could never tell where she was, so big point off to her as well.” Imyasel looked up and saw the green eyes of the wolfess who was called out glimmer in anger. She realized that this had been the she-wolf she had been so impressed with for moving so silently and adjusting to the situation just as good as she herself did.

“Well, before I say something about this, we will let them speak, right?” the teacher calmed down Sue. “Why don’t you give me your observation Imyasel and respond to what she just said about you. What do you think went wrong and could be better?”

Imyasel sighed. Originally, she had not wanted to speak up because she knew she was about to make herself an enemy if she was honest, but on the other hand there was no sugarcoating it and maybe the teacher noticed what she was doing and just wanted her to voice it.

“Okay…” she sighed again. She had always been shy, and her voice still was very small and soft. The others stopped their chatting because else they could not understand her.

“First of all, Sue, right?” she looked at the temporary leader of the group who returned her gaze with a mix of arrogance and anger. It seemed she really believed that Imyasel was responsible for the bad performance.

“You are far too loud. If this would have been a real hunt, the prey would have run away long before we even would have been able to encircle it. All this chatting and barking around commands would never work at a hunt.” Sue huffed and wanted to respond something, but the teacher stopped her with a stern look and nodded to Imyasel to continue.

“In addition, the formation was full of holes and I tried my best to fill them on my side and Laila, it was Laila, right?” she looked at the gray-white wolf with the green eyes that had observed her very careful during her speech. She nodded to her looking interested to her observation.
“Laila filled in the holed on your side and prevented out teacher to get our five times.” The eyebrow of the wolfess raised surprised by this observation but the angry glimmer, that she had shown towards Sue, vanished and she even smiled.

“She moved nearly perfect and silent to not alert the prey and observed her surroundings for any possible weaknesses. From this group I think she is the most experienced and skilled one.” Laila smiled at her, showing her white teeth.

“The other two tried their best but their breath was too loud. I think they need to work on their endurance and to control their breath more. Half of the times I had to adjust my positions were because they reacted too slow or could not keep up. The other half was due to the incomplete formation.” She closed. She had spoken calm and her voice never rose louder. She was surprised that she even talked so much. She had not been used to talk much around Demon.

“You little brat!” Sue could not hold herself back anymore. “What do you know. Just because you got a bit of reflexes and got lucky to tab the prey you think you are the big shot and…” a growl from their teacher silenced Sue.

“She is right about everything.” She said and Sue looked in shock to the teacher. “I did not say anything before because you need to learn formation and teamwork first but in a real hunt, there is no shouting or commanding. You need to know where the other hunters are by using your senses. The only two who got this right at the training were Laila and Imyasel.”

Laila looked happy and proud of herself while Sue threw murderous gazes at Imyasel and bared her teeth in disagreement. “You seem to have quite some experience with hunting. You did not even have to look at the others but had me in focus all the time. Did you track them with your ears?”

Imyasel nodded and smiled. “By the rustling of the leaves, sometimes by the scent and I felt the position of them. It’s…” she started to stammer a bit. “It’s hard to explain, sorry.” Sue let out a disbelieving huff and looked at her with an arrogant look, but the teacher smiled at her.

“Who was your teacher? Did you hunt in a big group before?” Imyasel felt more and more uncomfortable with everyone staring at her. She wanted to just get back to observing and listening instead of talking.

“It was Demon… my male… he… well we hunted, and he showed me how… or better… I observed him and learned by imitating him…” she explained. She was not sure how to correctly explain the hours of them running side by side without a word and him then suddenly breaking away with just a gaze at her and following a prey while she helped him to corner it by reading his commands from the way he breathed in, his movements or a simple gaze from his red orbs into her silver ones.

“You are mated with prince Demon?” the girls closed in and Imyasel felt even more insecure. She saw that even the smirk on the face of Sue froze and she looked at her in surprise and it seemed she was fighting with herself to not show too much interest and amazement in the news.

“Yea… erm prince… I… I mean yes, I am…” she looked down at her belly that clearly showed and then back to the girls and she saw the awe in their eyes. Mira on the other hand looked cheeky and had her chest pushed out proud. Imyasel was unsure if this was because she was Demon’s sister or because she took pride in Imyasel being mated with someone who seemed to have quite some attention with the younger folks.

The teacher looked rather worried after this statement. It seemed that the teachers were from the generation that feared Demon because of his size, but the younger generation, that never saw him, only grew up with the stories of the alpha’s son and maybe idolizing him as some kind of super wolf.

“How is he?” – “Is he back with you?” – “How did you meet?” – “Did he really mate you?” – “So, you are pregnant?” – “Was he tender?” – “How was it to hunt with him?” – “Tell us all about him.”

All the girls talked over each other so that Imyasel had trouble to understand one question. It took the teachers some time to calm all girls down. Imyasel lay down, because she felt that her pregnancy and the exercise had worn her out a bit. Then she turned to the girls and answered all their questions one by one. She told them about how she met Demon, how she had been a bit afraid of him at first but got to know his soft and caring side quite fast. She also explained how she learned every skill of survival and hunting from him by watching him and that he never actively taught her, but she had to observe him and take in every detail of his actions.

All the girls lay down and even the teachers sat down and listened to her stories and answers and the worried look on their faces turned into interest. Imyasel was not sure if she could cast away the vision of the older females on how they saw Demon, but she saw that the young wolves grinned and giggled and laughed and seemed to idolize Demon a lot and every bit she could tell them about him was appreciated and a high valued information.

Especially Mira was very keen to hear everything about her big brother. Imyasel noticed that they looked at him with curiosity and not with fear. Maybe only because they never saw him but only heard stories about him. But now, that she told them all she knew and how generous he was, she was sure that they would continue to look at him in a good way even after meeting him.

Mira even boasted that she saw her brother, and it was clear that she was proud to be the sister of Demon even more than being the daughter of the alpha. It took far into the evening to satisfy the knowledge hunger of the girls and they also told her about their lives in the pack and how things rolled here.

When they finally parted ways, the teachers decided to not to another training session because the concentration of the girls was so frazzled by the exciting stories of Imyasel, that they would not be able to perform anyways, it was nearly morning. They had asked Imyasel if she would help them to train the others while she was pregnant, because she would not be able to help much with real hunts in her late pregnancy. They also explained her, after Imyasel told them how many moons it had been since they mated, that she would have four more weeks of pregnancy before her and that she was over the half through it.

She returned to the den that she slept in the last night together with Mira and Laila, who both pronounced themselves to be her best friends and stuck with her to make sure she was delivered safely to her den. Demon already waited inside and both other girls geeked out when they saw him and he nodded to them in a greeting, while Imyasel approached him, ran her body along him and snuggled against his belly, rolling herself in to rest and sleep. The other girls finally left, after wishing them a good night, and left her alone with her mate.