The Hunt is On

The Hunter or The Hunted?

That night Ember and I managed to light a fire and cook the majority of our small deer.
We ate hungrily, not having had a lunch of any sorts. Ember decided that we probably wouldn't be able to keep the left over meat, as it would attract unwanted animals and people. So after our dinner, we dragged it down to the river and threw it in, watching it float away.

"Hopefully that didn't contaminate good drinking water." I said as an afterthought. "That probably just contaminated our water."
Ember shrugged. "We can find other water. But it's getting late, and we need as much energy as we can in this place. Let's go to bed."

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I slept well that night, as well as you can sleep on a cave floor. We kept our small fire going all night long to keep ourselves warm, as neither of us can sleep when it's cold.
The next morning I woke up after Ember, and when I sat up, she was nowhere to be seen.

Instantly, I panicked. I stood up and scanned the cave we where in. Nowhere. Swearing under my breath, I ran to the entrance and peeked out. She was nowhere in sight, nobody was. I came all the way out, making sure nobody else was around. As I emerged from the cave, I saw Ember sitting with her feet in the river, humming tonelessly.

Frowning, I stalked up behind her and gave her shoulders a shove. She lurched forwards, stifling a scream. She fell into the water, but caught herself in time to save her whole body going under. She turned to me now waist deep in water, holding her arms above her waist.
"What the HELL was that for?" She yelled at me, flicking me with water. I flinched at the coldness and glared at her.
"That is for letting me wake up thinking that you where gone or had been taken. Do you know what that did to me?"
She was silent for a minute, obviously having a small conversation with her wolf, who was most likely telling her not to argue with me. Apparently she took the advice. She sighed and hopped out of the water back onto the rock she had been sitting on earlier.

"Alright, I'm sorry. I should have thought that through. I won't do it again, I promise."
I nodded at her. "You better not."
"But that didn't give you the right to shove me in the water, now I'm all wet."
"Sure it did, you'll dry off."
She glared at me and huffed dramatically, folding her arms for effect. I rolled my eyes at her. "Come on, I'm starving. Let's go catch a bunny or something."

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An hour and a half later, Ember had relit out fire and was roasting a small bunny over it. I brushed some stray fur away from the flames and sat down.
"You know what the annoying part of this is?" Ember asked me, looking up momentarily from the fire. "I mean, besides the obvious."
I shook my head. "No, what?" "If we weren't in here for these two weeks, we probably could have made it to Coachella."
I laughed at her. She was the only one who would thinking of that in our situation. "Okay, well we can go to Coachella if we make it out of here alive and well."

Ember scoffed and rolled her eyes. "With the way that it's set up, neither of us are going to make it out alright."
"Hey, if you meet your mate in here, you're whole perspective on this is going to change." I reminded her. She was silent for a moment, turning the bunny slowly over to fire.
"I guess you're right." She whispered. "I just don't want to find out."
"Why not?"
"I feel that it would take away some part of my freedom in a way. I don't want to move in with another pack, I don't want to have kids just yet, I don't want to get bound to another werewolf for life. That's a fucking huge commitment, Sole."
I nodded and watched as she removed the bunny from the fire and set it down on some leaves to cool.

"I know Ember, you just got to give it a chance. Even if it's a small one."
"Well last time I checked you didn't want a mate any more then I did."
I shrugged, shifting my weight uncomfortably. "I'm just nervous I think. You know, there's always the possibility that he will reject me or not like me, or the other way around. But I can't really do anything about it, and if he rejects me then at least I won't have to live with someone who hates me. And plus, I can always stay with you and Gage and Acton."
Ember smiled and started to pull apart pieces of rabbit meat, putting it into her mouth. I did the same, only now realizing how hungry I was.