It seemed Reyes’ assumption that some of the wolves just didn’t want to embarrass themselves about the others wasn’t totally unwarranted. As his mate went off to have a spar with Remington and assess her skill (though he had the suspicion the woman would be granted the position of guardian shortly hereafter), he allowed the pale female to pull him aside. He didn’t know much about Lenka, except that Askan had accepted her into the pack once – and then again, after she’d gotten lost somewhere in the forest (or something like that).

Which made her purpose a little strange, he had to say.

The dark wolf exhaled heavily through his nose, leveling her with an unreadable look. “If y’got know sense of direction….why do you want t’ be a scout?”

Reyes was pretty sure that every wolf who had four legs could run (and was pretty sure that any wolf without four legs probably didn’t last very long) – it didn’t make her argument exceptionally appealing. Being a scout had a lot more skill involved than just…running. (And not getting lost.)

“You know, a scout has to be able to represent the pack to other packs. Deliver messages…or herbs, sometimes, I guess.” His mind flittered back to when Askan had been injured at Wild Rye Fields. If Lachesis couldn’t have left his pack then, he’d have surely sent supplied. Dios mio, he thought that marathon was going to kill him, but… Well. Love spurred you to do some strange things when you thought you were about to lose it.

“Means you gotta have some tact. Know when to talk. And when to not.” Yeah, he could use some of that himself, but hell, he was the alpa. He had some wiggle room. “You ever think about being a hunter or something? You do a lot of runnin’ in that.”

It was hard to say what direction to go with the girl – ‘running’ was so…vague…

“Oi, wasn’t sayin’ you shouldn’t. Just makin’ sure y’know what you’re gettin’ yourself into.”

The last thing Reyes wanted was to start training up the members of his pack, only to find they couldn’t do it. Or want to do it. Or wanted something else more. Right now, Lenka hadn’t really started anything – the world was ahead. They had time.

“I mean, we got a healer. Kinda. I’m not…actually sure what he does…”

Fuck, what he wouldn’t do to recruit Lachesis. But he knew the ghost would never be a subordinate – he’d been an alpha himself longer than Askan. (And perhaps Reyes, but, well, that was his secret to keep. “Look, chica. ‘m not askin’ you what you are good at – I’m askin’ you what you want to do. A happy wolf practices, and a practiced wolf is damn good at what she does. Comprende?”

Well. At least she was honest. He had to give her kudos for that. He still couldn’t say he knew Lenka terribly well – or was impressed how quickly she managed to get herself lost – but she was fuckin’ honest, even when it would have been easy to lie. And he liked that. Maybe there was hope for her as a kind of scout yet.

His tail gave a tiny, itty bitty, almost indistinguishable wag. It was more like a wiggle, really. “No hay problema, chica. It’s not life or death, don’t forget to breath. Fuck.” She did look a bit like she was about to swallow her tongue and choke. He couldn’t tell if she was embarrassed, or shocked, or… Well, whatever. He wasn’t going to cuss her out or something. “This is what we’ll do: you can spend a day with Pete in the medical den, spend a day hunting with Cancer, and come scouting with me sometime. Once you try those things, we’ll have this conversation again. How does that sound?”

It made him laugh, just a little. “Cancer is the big black wolf with a bad attitude and blue eyes. He gets his work done, though. And if y’tell him I sent you, he can’t say no. Pete is…” Well, he barely knew the guy at all, really. Since Askan had accepted him, he was a like a ghost. “He’s dark brown. Got a white chest patch. Doesn’t say much, usually at that medical den he’s trying to make.”

Which was better than nothing, Reyes supposed. If he was being antisocial, at least he was being productive and antisocial. “Any of ‘em give you a problem, you let me know. And let me know when you wanna scout. Got it?” Easy enough. He rolled his shoulders with a shrug. “I gotta go catch up with Askan now, so catch you later, chica.”

And with that, he turned to go find the other alpha – they had a lot of up and coming wolves and a lot of prospective roles to discuss now.

Exit.