It was almost like he was waiting for me, standing off from the sight of the gathering. I couldn’t explain what I was feeling, other than a bit tongue tied, unable to come up with much more to say than hello. His eyes drifted over me, and for the first time I got a good look at his face. Stark black fur framed brilliant eyes of blue fringed in yellow. But the pupils themselves were far different from anything I had ever seen, hazed over in blue and for a moment I was dumb struck. Quickly my mind made the connections, how he his eyes had not moved from the general area of Eden during the pack meeting, how he hadn’t even glanced over at me the whole time. He could not see me, or anything else for that matter. But then with the first words he spoke, my name falling from his lips, all of my nervousness ebbed away, replaced by a tingling sensation that was the most exhilarating thing I had ever experienced. “Faciam,” I do. I replied, my soprano voice so much more at ease than it had been only moments before. He spoke the tongue of my mothers, which was apparently not altogether uncommon these days, but it was just another level of connection that I felt with him.

“Semper,” Always, I replied to his request to walk with him, before I could think to repress my thoughts. But then he was moving, and I fell into step beside him. Only approaching my third winter, I stood a good few inches shorter than him, and I cast my eyes up at him once more as we began to make our way wherever it was we were going. Did he need me to guide him? Clearly I did not, for he knew precisely where he was going and how to get there. Silently we walked, and I couldn’t help but look up at him every so often, enraptured by his very presence. I wasn’t completely vain; it had been more than just his handsome appearance that drew me to him. It was a connection that only fate itself could severe, and I hoped it never would. We were destined for one another, in some way. As we made our way I actually tripped once, so distracted by looking at him, and I felt heat rise into my cheeks. I had two perfectly good eyes and I was using them to stare at him rather than pay attention to where we were going.

When he stopped so did I, but I remained by his side. He asked me if I felt it too, if I knew what this was. “Of course,” I answered. But what did it mean? Did it have to mean anything? I hoped it did, because I wanted to spend more time with him, and part of me knew that that was what he wanted to. Why else would he have asked me to walk with him? I knew that in some cases males had violent reactions to imprinting, but just as I instinctually knew he wanted me around I knew it wasn’t to harm me. My thoughts were stunned into silence when he bumped into my shoulder as he turned to change the course of our walk. My brows peaked with surprise, and it was like a bolt of lightning shocking my system as his form brushed against mine and he apologized. I wanted to tell him to never apologize for touching me, but luckily I had a better grip on my tongue this time around. “Its okay,” I said instead.

I hastened forward to move with him once more as we continued forward, and silence fell between us again. It was not uncomfortable, though I kept a mind to focus on where we were going this time. I wanted to brush up against him again, but I thought that might not be very proper so I merely walked at his side. When we came upon the den that had been our destination I slowed to a stop, nostrils flaring at the stale scents here. It had not been occupied in some time, and the smell of other predators and small prey were the most recent visitors. But beneath those was the now familiar, ingrained upon my memory, scent of Haziel. I glanced up at him, knowing I had never seen him before, but a hazy memory of a similar scent having once dusted blades of grass and specks of sand around Glorall. I’d always thought the aroma was so alluring, but I’d never had a face or name to put to it. Now I did. “You used to live here?” Obviously he had, but once more my words got away from me before I could hope to think twice about them.