Page 41 of Alpha Awakened
“That’s all that’s necessary per regulation,” Ice said matter-of-factly.
“True. But it feels good to let the wolf out more often than that. It’s our other half.”
“Hmmm.”
“I think I’d jump out of my skin if I only shifted once a month.”
Ice responded with another non-committal hum. Clearly he didn’t see shifting often as important as Hazard did.
Outside, the storm finally broke. Rain came down in heavy sheets, fat drops hitting the window and sliding down the glass. They jogged silently for several minutes while watching the rain.But there was something else Hazard had been curious about it so he decided to bring it up.
“What about scenting?”
Ice turned his head slightly toward him. “What about it?”
“Can I ask why you don’t want to?”
“Just did, didn’t you?”
Hazard laughed. “I guess I did.”
“I haven’t done it since I was a kid,” Ice answered the question with an unconcerned shrug.
That answer had Hazard snapping his head around to look at the alpha next to him with his eyes wide and mouth agape. He nearly lost his footing at the abrupt movement and had to steady himself on the treadmill’s handrails before he spoke. “At all?”
“Not intentionally.”
Hazard was floored. How in the world had Ice lived his entire adult life without scenting? That was incomprehensible to him. Scenting was important to wolf shifters for many reasons. It established bonds. It helped to familiarize wolves with a pack mate’s scent so they could quickly find them when they were lost. Scenting soothed like a baby sucking on a pacifier. It calmed like a hit of nicotine from the first drag of a cigarette. It warmed you like a grandmother’s hug. And Ice hadn’t done it in years. Hazard stared straight ahead, debating if he should ask why Ice hadn’t scented another wolf in so long.
“What?” Ice asked.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You want to.”
He looked at Ice’s reflection in the window. Those dark eyes were watching him. “You sound certain of that.”
“Your nose twitches when you have something to say but you’re holding yourself back.”
That observation had laughter breaking through his stunned surprise. “Learning my tells, Captain?”
“Hard not to notice. You look like a bunny when you do it.”
“Hey! I’m a predator. Not a cute little bunny.” He bared his teeth in a mock growl.
“I never said you were cute.”
“You didn’t.” He waited a beat. “But I am.”
Ice chuckled, husky and low. “Is this a workout or a senior citizen mall stroll? Kick up the speed, Corporal.”
Hazard grinned and followed the order. He always felt as if he’d accomplished a Herculean feat whenever he made the older shifter laugh. Their feet pounded harder on the treadmill belts as they went from an easy jog to a light sprint.
Hazard let the conversation turn teasing and light as they finished their run. He could tell that Ice didn’t want to share his reasoning behind not scenting. But the captain was right. Hewascurious. The little pieces of Ice’s history that he’d been given had him curious to know more. To know it all.
Ice was raised among humans, in a military school. He didn’t scent. He didn’t shift except during the full moon, when their bodies practically demanded they do so. Why was he raised with humans, instead of in a wolf pack? Even if something had happened to his immediate family, pack members should have been the ones to take him in and raise him. Was he from one of the shadow lands where shifters lived not in packs but scattered and isolated?
He wanted to know the answer to all of those questions but he had a feeling Ice wouldn’t be telling him his life story anytime soon. That was fine. He wasn’t usually the most patient person. But when it came to Captain Ice Anderson, he had all the patience in the world.