Rejected by Wolves by J.L. Wilder

Author:J.L. Wilder [Wilder, J.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sky Winters
Published: 2021-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-One

DOV

Dov turned the fish slowly, enjoying the sound of the sizzling meat over the flames. Fish wasn’t his favorite meal; it never had been. But after days of nothing but squirrel, he was excited about anything different.

“You really caught this?” he asked Lacey. He was deeply impressed. She hadn’t struck him as having the ability to do any hunting. Even though he had been impressed by her tenacity, she hadn’t seemed to have a tremendous variety of skills.

Then again, maybe he should have known better. After all, she had set those snares. And she might insist that that had been nothing but luck, but she must have had some kind of intrinsic understanding of how it needed to be done.

“I’m telling you, she was awesome,” Bern said. “First try. Just—wham! Fish on a stake.”

“It wasn’t that big a deal,” Lacey said, blushing.

“Yes, it is,” Bern said. “I didn’t catch a fish on my first try when I was learning how to spearfish.”

“You learned how to spearfish when you were seven,” Dov said mildly. “You were hardly big enough to hold up the spear without falling over.”

“You're exaggerating,” Bern said.

“My point stands, though,” Dov said. “It makes sense that Lacey’s better than you were when you got started. She’s an adult.”

“The first time Dov tried to spear a fish,” Bern said, “he didn’t even manage to get the spear through the fish’s body.”

“You didn’t?” Lacey looked at Dov.

“Bounced right off,” Bern said, laughing. “He didn’t know how hard you needed to stab down.”

Lacey laughed too. “Were you also seven?”

“Yeah,” Dov said.

“I guess you learn young in the pack you guys come from,” Lacey said mildly.

Dov felt something tense up inside him.

“No,” Bern said, and he wasn’t laughing now. “We were kicked out of our den when we were seven. We learned to spear fish because we were living wild.”

Lacey’s jaw dropped. Her eyes went wide.

“When you were seven?” she breathed.

“We don’t need to get into that,” Dov said.

“That’s so young,” Lacey said quietly. “What happened?”

“The alpha didn’t like us,” Bern said. “Thought we might be a threat. Because we were strong, and because if one of us made a play for the position, we’d automatically have the other one’s support. He wanted his son to take over for him.”

Dov felt sick at the memory. It was hard to think about that time. They had been so young, and neither he nor Bern had had any ambitions to lead the den. As he recalled it, Bern had always been angry about what had happened—he had certainly spent that first year stalking around the woods killing any prey he could lay hands on—but Dov had been a little heartbroken about it. He had liked belonging to a den, being a part of something. It was something he had hoped to recreate, in a way, with Justin and Terrance. But now they were gone, too...

“Hey,” Bern said.

Dov looked up at him.

“I’m sorry,” Bern said. “I forgot how much it bothered you.”

“I’m all right,” Dov said.

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