The Hunt Begins

Sofia stood quietly on the porch of the house, staring into the wilderness that surrounded it. The woods called to her, that vast, wild space riddled with trees and underbrush that she could weave through and hide in and run around. She glanced up at the sky. The sun was setting. It would be dark soon. Barefoot, she padded across the soft wood and went back into the house. There was no need to make dinner tonight. She was going to hunt.

The wolf was stirring. Soon, she told herself. She just needed to wait a little longer, until it was dark enough. Sofia busied herself with menial tasks around the house to pass the time. Finally, dusk began to fell. Sofia stood at one of the large bay windows in the front of the house and watched as the full moon peeked over the horizon. It's time, she told Caius, wherever he was in the house. She swayed as the moon started to sing to her. She was ready.

Tags;; @Saber​

She stood next to Caius on the porch and let her eyes slide closed as she listened to the sound of his voice, low and warm and comforting. She kept her breaths slow and even as the wolf started to wake up. The next thing she knew, she was kneeling, her joints popping and stretching. Sofia gave a few soft grunts of discomfort as she changed, slow and painful as always. She did her best to relax into it, difficult as it was.

When it was finally all over, Sofia opened her eyes. She wobbled onto her four paws like a newborn deer, trying to get her bearings. The world slowly stopped spinning around her. Sofia sat herself down on the porch and looked up at the moon as it came into focus, lifting her head and singing her song to it. Her howl was long and rumbled in her chest. The wolf was ready to hunt, her instincts starting to sharpen even further.​

She smiled in her mind as Caius joined her and they sang together to their nighttime mistress as she called back to them. Sofia could feel the pull of the moon in her chest. The wolf knew it was time to hunt, to chase, to feel blood between her jaws and taste victory. She looked at Caius, her tail wagging and her head bowed slightly to show that she recognized him as her superior...her alpha. They made for a rather small two-wolf pack, but she was happy.

His thoughts rumbled through her head like a soft bass drum. I'm good. She is cooperating, Sofia told him through the telepathic link that bonded their minds, allowing them to communicate even in lycan form. Her wolf would sometimes take over when she changed...or even, occasionally, without even being changed. It all depended on the situation. Her wolf tended to respond to aggression; if someone threatened Sofia, the wolf would come to the forefront of her mind to defend her. It was pure instinct.

Trotting down the porch steps, Sofia made her way to the edge of the woods, crouching down low as she scented the air. Picking up the trail of a doe, she put her nose to the ground and followed it into the trees, stalking along quietly. A doe would be a big prize. Usually they only found rabbits, sometimes the occasional raccoon, but a doe...her eyes glinted at the ground as she honed in on her prey's scent.​

Sofia paused for a brief moment as his thoughts wired into her brain. Had she been in her human form, she would have been blushing. Her stomach flipped a little, her heart skipping a few times before she forced it back into submission. She wasn't sure how to respond to that. Her wolf urged them to continue, so she chose not to respond, though doubtless he would have picked up the change in her pulse with his nose, ears...both, probably.

She could tell that they were closing in. The tracks were fresher. The scent was stronger. She copied his movements, keeping low and quiet as they stalked together through the underbrush. They reached the edge of a small clearing. Sofia could see the doe now, drinking from a stream, unaware of the predators that were closing in. It picked up its head, and Sofia shot like a black-and-white blur from the brush, pouncing and trapping the deer beneath her claws. She went for the neck, her fangs closing hard and twisting until she heard the familiar snapping sound of its spine. Blood oozed across her tongue, and her pupils dilated as the wolf took over.​

Her wolf heard the growl...it was hard to tear herself away from their prey, but she had to submit to the higher authority that Caius held over her. They'd fought once before, and the wolf knew that she would always be bested by him. He was too strong for her to even try to take on. Sofia's wolf submitted, dropping the doe and ducking her head down, twisting her neck to expose her throat to him. Even the wolf liked Caius to a degree, which was more than she could say about most others.

Sofia found her control as the wolf backed down, grateful that Caius was there to help her keep control, even in the heat of the hunt. Her tail drooped a little and she whined quietly, her eyes on the ground. Despite her submission, the wolf was hungry...they both wanted to claim their prize from the hunt.​