Black Ice-Completed
Chapter 6

Shuffling her feet in the deep snow, Nyota blew on her hands to warm them up.

“Quit stalling Nyota, replace the trail that the deer took,” grumbled the giant wolf as he too shuffled his paws in the snow, though it wasn’t due to being cold, it was more due to losing patience.

“I’m not stalling, it’s freezing out here and I am trying to get warm!” Nyota snipped and sniffed as she looked around the clearing.

The wolf drew in a deep breath to try and remain calm and instead of yelling, growled low, “We both know that the snow doesn’t bother you. So yes, you are stalling.”

Nyota glared at the wolf, for the past several weeks, he had been yelling at her and making her go through drills at the crack of dawn. If she didn’t move fast enough to suit his needs he’d bellow at her, “Every hunter knows the deer stay in the thicket on the far side of the forest towards the East,” Nyota quipped and kicked a pile of snow that was near her feet.

“What if they’re not there though?” he asked in a bored tone which didn’t convey his true feelings what so ever. He was frustrated with this daughter of his. She didn’t want to learn what he had to teach and if she learned anything it was more or less like pulling teeth. Even her brother did better at listening then this pup.

Nyota ignored the question at hand and started to gather her hair up out of her face. Shifting her arms she pulled it back and tied it with a ribbon so it sat high up on her head. Turning back to the wolf she frowned as he stared into space.

“Patou?” Nyota asked quietly, calling him the name he had told her he preferred. Whatever it meant, it instantly snapped him out of his revere and pulled his attention back to her.

Braytek narrowed his eyes and bit out, “Again Nyota, what if they’re not in the thicket?” His mind had wandered to the past. As he had watched Nyota pull her hair up and away he had thought about Analise and how often her hair had gotten in her face.

Luckily Nyota had called him back with the use of patou, the word for daddy. Braytek knew Nyota didn’t know the language of the wolves but it was a secret thrill for him to be called Patou. His own sons didn’t call him that anymore. Instead they called him the formal word Sire.

“Then I would just go to the meadow,” Nyota growled back at him, she could not understand why she needed to know how to track!

Baring his fangs at his daughter he advanced forward, “Nyota, you know as well as I that the deer of this land do not follow patterns. Please use your brains!”

Crossing her arms she stared right into Braytek’s eyes, all but challenging him, “Are you calling me stupid again!”

Feeling his hackles rise at the obvious challenge, he met his own daughters eyes full on as he admitted to the insult, “I am!”

He should have known she wouldn’t back down. His own sons always backed down so easily that he hadn’t had a real challenge in such a long time. But what seriously surprised him is when she pulled back her arm and swiftly punched him in the nose. While there wasn’t a lot of strength behind the punch, there was enough for him to yelp in pain.

Rearing back, Braytek shook his head to try and clear the pain as his eyes watered. The nose was the most sensitive part on a wolf’s body. Punching it was like stepping on a thorn over and over again. After the pain cleared, he turned back to glare at his daughter, a growl slowly building in his throat but cut itself off when he saw that she was gone.

Looking around he saw her several yards away, marching back home. Huffing in annoyance, he started following his daughter.

Nyota was livid, why did the wolf constantly have to call her stupid? She wasn’t, nor was she an idiot. Nyota was tired of the insults and was going home to where she hoped supper would be waiting.

As that thought entered her mind, she found herself face down in the snow, the hot breath of the wolf on her neck. Deep inside, a feral creature unfurled causing her anger to morph into a calculated rage. But before she could do anything, the beast behind her lifted her up by the hood of her coat and was running faster then she thought the wolf could go. She had no idea where they were or where they were going because the surrounding forest was nothing but a blur.

The moment they stopped caused Nyota to become dizzy, and within that moment she took to steady herself, the wolf bit out, “Find your way home from here if you can!” he snapped and disappeared before Nyota could turn around to look at him.