The White Wolf

~Payton~ So, I am walking through the woods, trying to get the lay of the land, when I hear three wolves and two men start making their approach. They initially use all five so that I’m completely surrounded and can’t run away. This is just my luck; I had already been around town and there was no evidence of wolves nearby. None. The three wolves all looked like a typical grey wolf you’ll find in a zoo, although slightly bigger. Alpha’s where the biggest, then warriors, then ordinary wolves. Their brown eyes were all focused on me, the wolves were circling, while the two in the human form decided to sit on a nearby fallen tree. They were watching me; mild curiosity schooled their features. They believed me to be human, yet I wasn’t crying or doing normal human reactions to seeing massive wolves circling me. These wolves were trying their best to be menacing, baring their teeth, allowing drool to drip out the corners of their mouths, snapping at me every so often. These three were trying to prove themselves to the men, clearly trying to form a rogue pack and I was their lesson.  Every wolf has a scent, their natural smell, within that, you can smell their pack scent too, so you know who to attack, your allies and rogues, which none of these wolves has. So, rogues working together in packs is unheard off, they usually kill each other during fights for dominance, so this is particularly disturbing. “You can’t win little girl” laughs one of the men, even sitting down you can tell he’s tall even for a wolf, he has brown shaggy hair and muddy brown eyes. He’s not that bad looking either, maybe he didn’t like being constantly outdone by an Alpha. I put a hand on my hip and scowl at him. Both men have dressed appropriately for walking or hunting in the woods. Me? after deciding that I needed to double-check that no packs were about I decided to come into the woods, in a sundress. A fricking sundress, with sunflowers all over it, a matching cardigan, and sandals. So, I was planning on quickly checking out the woods, being out here for half an hour maximum. I had also decided to wear my long blonde hair down, so I quickly put my hair up in a bun. This isn’t going to be easy; the two men will surely jump in when they realise, I’m not the human they think I am. I’m a great fighter the best in my old pack, which consequently makes me the best in the world by default. Five wolves though are impossible for anyone else. My heart sinks. We can do this, my wolf pipes up. A persons wolf will talk to their human, pointing out things their human’s miss, giving encouragement when their human half needs it. Well, yes. Of course, we can, but we have to kill them all, so that they can’t tell anyone they saw us, and me I’m not into killing people, I shoot back at her. I can feel her anticipation for a fight, her readiness at making sure we win. Allow me into your body, it will make it easier for you, emotionally. They have already seen us and clearly aren’t going to let us go. So, we need to fight to stay alive. I sigh she’s right of course. I relax my body and allow the wall between us to fall, and I can feel her strength wash over me and through my limbs. I look up just in time for a wolf to lunge at me, I duck as he goes over me, his mouth trying to take bites out of me as he does, I spin so as he lands, I knock his feet out from under him. Staying human and fighting wolves is going to be a massive pain and could cost me, my life. If we are going to kill them, shifting doesn’t matter, my wolf pipes up. No, that’s true, but you don’t know who’s watching from a distance, or even videoing this if we shift they will have proof, I could just be a girl who can fight this way, someone trained but went rogue. I could be anyone. I answer her. They weren’t expecting me to fight back, they thought this would be easy, they were wrong. They all look momentarily confused before they realise, I can fight, and this won’t just be a simple kill this girl task. The first thing we are taught is ‘know thy enemy’. As wolves who belong in packs, we won’t fight and kill just anyone, human’s cotton on too quickly for us to kill them, or they notice wildlife being absent. They were sloppy in picking me, if they were truly a pack, they would have stalked me first, found out more about me. The other two wolves had jumped in to defend the wolf laying on the ground. I used my wolf strength to jump up and over the two of them heading towards me from different sides, backflipping out of the way as they came crashing together. I give a little chuckle as I land. “You three are being played as fools” the man growls at them “she’s just a little girl”. He’s absentmindedly playing with a knife in his hands. Weird why would you bring that with you, he doesn’t need it, and can, therefore, be used as a weapon against him, especially if his opponent, is a well-trained fighter who can shift at will (which is rare) or human.   I hear more wolves approaching from upwind. Goddamit, however, while they would have a clear view of men and the wolves, they are staying back. These wolves haven’t even heard them yet, my hearing is better than your average wolf. They would run if they heard a pack ascending on us, which is exactly what I want to do if it wasn’t for these wolves. It’s ok, I’m here for you, we can do this and make it away before they come. My wolfs encourages. We really don’t want to get caught. The three wolves have now recovered and are growling at me, their mouths dripping with silva. The two men who thought they could leave it to these three, shifted into wolves, their clothes turning into confetti as they do. Why is the pack staying so far away, this makes me nervous, what if they are looking for me? for us? Surely, they wouldn’t leave a lonely person out here to fight five wolves, would they? I speak to my wolf, panicking on how this is going to play out. Breathe, we can only sort one problem at a time, we will concentrate on this fight, then we will run after, we can outrun them, cover our scent, hide in the hotel until recovered and leave. It will be ok. My wolf counters. She is always the reason for my crazy. I start allowing her more presence so that we can concentrate on the fight. I can’t risk them knowing about my wolf so I have to fight human, other wolves can’t allow their wolf in without the wolf taking over, so I’m lucky in that respect, I gain all of her power. Killing is a huge burden that our human halves can’t cope with emotionally, so we use our wolves who are born killers to take the pain away. These men if successful wouldn’t feel guilty or remorseful as humans over my death, they would barely remember it. I will remember their deaths though, and they will haunt me for the rest of my life. The five wolves all start advancing, I look down and see a whole load of broken branches, the good kind, so I cartwheel to the side placing my hands over a stick that would make a good pole. We trained using poles in my old pack to help with times we couldn’t shift or needed more time. I twirl it in my hands feeling how sturdy it is. Two of the wolves charges at me and I spin on the spot moving the stick to hit them. I landed a blow on the first one, hitting his side and hearing ribs crack. The other leads at me knocking me down, the stick against his throat as he snaps at me, I tuck my feet under him and allow him closer so that as I push up with my arm and legs he goes flying back and into a tree, he whimpers a little and the other one goes to his side to help him up. They all try their luck, and all get hit with the stick. Eventually, they start to attack as a pack, using two or three of them to advance, distract and attack. It’s smart but I’m quick so could keep them back for a bit. Using my full strength through my human body is trying and eventually, I will mess up. They just kept coming, it's tiring being 100% all of the time, eventually, they messed up and I saw an opening, I threw the stick and it speared straight through the eye of a wolf, a little bit of blood squirted out but not too much until his body shifted back to human. I was standing closer then and got a little bit of blood on the bottom of my dress. The wolves instantly forgot about him and carried on attacking, all 4 of them attacking at once, taking more energy now I don’t have a stick to keep them back. I had to jump twirl, kick punch to keep them for biting me. One managed to claw at me, opened a huge claw mark across my leg, allowing blood to soak the bottom of my dress. I used my magical powers to call fire to burn my leg to stop the blood, as well as calling on earth for its strength. I couldn’t manifest the elements as vampires can, but I could call on the elements to help support my body and lend it strength. In 20 minutes, I won’t even have a scar. They became more of a team the longer we fought, constantly covering each other, attacking in two’s or three’s. They managed to manoeuvre me so that I was cornered by a huge tree. They semi-circled around me before I had no way out, I ran towards the tree as they charged, I ran up the tree pushed off and upcoming down on a wolfs back, I’m light so I did no damage but they had moved me closer to the man’s knife he had dropped when he shifted. I grabbed it and plunged it into his back, between his shoulder blades, killing him instantly, I pulled the knife out and got covered in blood as his heart pumps the last few beats. So, now there are three left, and their demeanour changed, clearly, this was someone of importance. They became more aggressive, as one jumped at me and I threw the knife, it landed in the ribcage of another, the momentum keeping the wolf flying dead through the air, he landed and the magic leaving his body turning him back human again. Now there are two left, honestly not sure how they think they will win, but they carry on anyway. One wolf lunges on instinct, I jump up in the air, as I come down I move so I can swing onto his back and snap his neck, as I hear the snap and his body goes limp, I land on my feet with a dead human between them. The last wolf, clearly thinking using rage and not reason lunged at me, the one reason he got close is that I was distracted with the dead man between my legs. He knocked me onto my back, I quickly tucked my legs up into his abdomen and used the strength of air to send him flying, I backflipped up into standing position as he lunged at me again I jumped up into the air, coming down on the neck of the last wolf. His neck snapped with a sicking sound, and like all the others before him, the magic returned back to the earth and he was human. I was surrounded by five dead human bodies. I stand there in shock. I killed five people, a sob escaped my chest, my knees buckle and I fall to the ground. I sob my apologies to them, asking the Goddess to bless them and help them find their way. I was weak from all the magic used and fighting I had endured, I just sat there crying in the middles of a misshapen ring of bodies. What have I done? I sobbed, What you needed to, to survive. My inner wolf says to comfort me. I just nod, to survive I’m sure. I’m crying so much that I don’t notice the pack from early coming towards me, I know I should get up and flee but I can’t. I can’t leave them; I deserve their fate. I deserve to die. My old Alpha could kill rogue wolves in his human form all the time, I thought it would be easy, but I was wrong so wrong. As they are close now, I can smell their pack scent. Then there was this overpowering smell of chocolate and honey. It was so alluring I had to look at the person who smelled so delicious. As I look up, I find a man, who has the most perfect emerald eyes, a neatly trimmed beard, black hair and is about 6ft 2. He is also well built like he works out a lot but also like pizza. Just as our eyes meet, his widens, and I drop my gaze as his emotions flash across his face. I didn’t want to meet my mate like this. He wouldn’t want me now for sure, and he ensures a whole load of fresh tears start to fall. He will either kill me, release me or reject me or all three if he wants to punish me. After a few minutes and him barking orders at the men on the scene, he comes over and picks me up. I’m too weak to fight, and I can’t take on the men that are here let alone the whole pack that is waiting at his home for him. My wolf is comforted by his touch. My heart slows, my mind stops racing, stops reliving the last hour. we found him my wolf purrs, no he found us, I correct her. He’s carrying me bridal style, I’m absolutely shattered and start to drift in and out of sleep, but few conscience moments are there to morn for the lives I have taken. Someone speaks to him, and he growls at them, they instantly back off, and he carries on walking. I should stop him now, before its too painful for both of us, Please don’t take him away, we need him. My wolf pleads with me with that I fall asleep.     ~Jake~ So, I’m sat in my office, looking through paperwork. I love being Alpha, but I surely hate all this paperwork. I start to analyse where I need to spend money, where I can save, who I can help. It's long and boring, I wish I had someone who could help with all this. “Excuse me sir” Elizbeth pops in, we’ve been friends since high school, she’s back for the summer, after looking for her mate and going to university. “Sir? Am I old now?” I laugh at her, “Now you mention it, you’re looking a bit worn. Anyway, I need a Job, got anything here?” she smiles at me, we are the same age, grew up together, her dad was my dad’s second in command. She’s the younger sibling so she won’t get that title. “How do you feel about bookkeeping?” I shrug at her. “Seriously, I get to do all the budgets and stuff, but why aren’t you using a computer to do all this, there’s software to help with all this you know?” she shrugs. “Very well, buy a dam computer then”. Just then I get mind linked by my second in command, Nick, her older brother. Jake, you need to see this, there’s a little girl fighting five rogues by herself. He announces in disbelief, he starts to show me through the mind link what is happening. In the middle of five rogues is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, she stands tall and cocky, in summer gear. Which is silly because who hikes in those clothes, she must be a wolf, a human couldn’t do it. I look at Elizbeth, and she’s looking through her phone, no doubt at computers. “I think I’ve just found my mate Iz, I’ve got to go through, we will discuss this properly tomorrow with pay and everything”. I hug her quick as she leaves. Mate, my wolf shouts at me, it’s her, we truly have one. I can feel his struggle to break free, run to her and take her right then, Stop it, we will get to her calm down, I try to reason with him.  Hold your position Nick, I’ll be there asap. Make sure they do not harm or kill her; I think she’s my mate. I relay my feelings back as I watch her through their eyes. The confusion comes through the link from the others on patrol with him. As far as we can remember my lineage meant that I was unlikely to find my true mate, the mate the goddess deems ours, like my father before me, and his father before him, and so on. I head out in their direction as I get to the forest, I quickly get undressed and put my clothes into a backpack. I shift into my wolf pick up my bag and run in their direction. We can move a lot faster in wolf form, so I use all my power to get to her as quick as possible. I make it there in time to see her kill the last few rogues. You guys didn’t intervene at all? I mind link them in disbelief. I was so sure she would need help. No Alpha, we stayed away the rogues didn’t notice us, but she did. We kept checking we hadn’t of moved. We couldn’t help, but she didn’t need up, there were no close calls.   I see that Nick, change into human form, we don’t want to scare her. I mind link them all. We all changed back and put on the clothes we brought with us; she was sitting in a circle of the dead. Sobbing, she was actually crying over killing people who were trying, clearly not succeeding, to kill her. She was beautiful, her hair was up in a bun, she had a slight tan to her, clearly spent a long time outside. She was covered in blood. I am constantly fighting my wolf from appearing, laying her down and claiming her, while yes her wolf would love that, I doubt she would. Did she kill them all in human form? She didn’t shift at all?   Their silence was deafening. They had just watched her kill five wolves without her wolf. They were all on edge ready to attack if needed. I couldn’t help but stare at her, I felt so sorry for her, she’s looking down crying. Why didn’t she use her wolf? Her wolf would have protected her from his guilt. As I get closer her head snaps up and our eyes lock. I felt the electricity pass through us, she is definitely my mate. I can’t help but feel relieved she is finally here. As Alpha’s we get to meet our Luna’s early and I went to every pack looking for mine, she wasn’t there. I thought I was destined to be goddess-given mate-less, just like my father and the long line of ours not finding our mates. Once she sees happiness fleet across my face she drops her eyes.  She’s ashamed. She starts to sob harder now. I bark orders at the others, telling them to hide the evidence of this fight, to burn the dead. I walk over to her and pick her up bridal style. She buries her face in my chest and I inhale her sweet scent of honeysuckle.   “I’m going to take her to the packhouse, meet me there when you’re done” I order. I leave little room for argument and use my Alpha voice to ensure it is done. “Alpha, are you sure that’s wise? I mean she just killed five men, clearly, something is amiss here. she could be dangerous”. I hear Nick say, “Think of the pack” I growl at him. I am thinking of the pack, they need someone who can defend themselves and fight alongside the pack if needed. Plus, she is my mate, and for her to hurt the pack is for her to hurt me, she couldn’t do that, not now. I walk her through the woods and to my house, the packhouse. When we get there my sister Steph is waiting for us, she’s clearly angry, she’s stood with a hand on her hip, scowling at me. “Seriously Jake, you don’t know who she is.” “She’s my mate Steph, I know that much if it were Nick would you have abandoned him? She can’t hurt the pack now we’ve met; it would be like hurting me and she couldn’t do that” I growl back at her. Her and Iz are the only ones to stand up to me, but this I won't change my mind on, “I am the first Alpha of this pack to have a Goddess chosen mate for a long, long time, I will not turn my back on this Stephanie”. Her face softens a bit. She knows I am right. “I got some clothes that should fit her from other pack members, Nick sent me a picture of what she looked like, we should get her out of these clothes. They are covered in blood Jake, and not hers” she raises her eyebrows at me. Trying to show me that this could be dangerous. “Yes, I can see and smell that, thank you.” That’s when the sleepy girl starts to stir, sensing the change of location she springs out of my arm and backs into the door, changing her position into a defensive position. “Hi, My name’s Jake, what’s your name?” I say, showing her my hands so that she can see I am no threat to her. She’s quiet for a little while before she speaks, probably talking to her wolf.   “Payton” she’s glancing around, “What do you want with me?” she sounds unsure and scared. I didn’t think finding my mate would be like this. I thought it would be like everyone else, and instantly a couple. “Nothing, we saw what happened and just want to help” “And you didn’t think to help out while I was fighting them alone?” she interrupted. “or distracted them enough so what I could shift?” she’s frowning and clearly angry, but by the looks on her face, her wolf is talking to her probably to calm her down. Mine won't stop trying to claim her. She is ours; she needs to be with us. he purrs.   “Well, you handled it all without help, you didn’t need us, and I only got to you just as you killed the last man, so I couldn’t be much help. I got there as soon as I could, but this pack doesn’t attack without the Alpha present.” She frowns at me “why like to do all the killing yourself huh?” her position changes, like she’s used to dealing with people that like to kill. She stands with her hand on her hip, feet slightly apart. She could fight for her life or run in an instant. “No, no, nothing like that, my men are untrained in combat and I trained with the best, the shadow pack, so I like to be close or there before my pack fights” when I said shadow pack she looked even more scared. Her face paled ever so slightly, her eyes widened, Steph noticed the change too.  “Well if its all the same to you, I would like to go back to my hotel freshen up and I’ll be on my way” she turns to leave. No, she can’t leave, we need her. My wolf panics. “No, you can’t leave, you are my mate, I need you” I plead with her. Her face briefly looks confused and scared, before it's schooled into a more neutral emotion masking how she feels. “Huh? Even what you just saw, I killed someone, some people, some wolves. That isn’t someone I would want as a mate, I’m sure you deserve better than that. Please let me go, please.” She pleads with me. “How about you stay one night, we can talk, and then make up our minds?” she’s hesitant not that I blame her “You’ll be safer here, in a pack if more rogues are working together and if they had more in their group they could go looking for you. “Ok, but I at least need my bag,” she says. “Ok, what room?” “305”. I nod at her, and Steph walks off to ask someone to get her bag from the hotel. “Steph got you some clothes, so you can shower here while you wait?” She nods and I start walking up the stairs, she follows behind me. I walk into the room Steph set up for her, it was right next to mine, so clearly, she knew we were mates. She should understand the mate pull. “everything you need is in here” she grabs the clothes and walks into the bathroom without a word. I sit on the bed watching tv, not 10mins after she walked in there, I get this wave of sadness, then fear then sadness again. It was coming from Payton through our mate link as it starts to form, I get up and knock on the door, no answer, I knock louder, still no answer. I walk in to see her mostly clean sitting on the shower floor sobbing. Her knees are bent towards her and her body is completely covered by her legs, tears running down her face she looks at me, embarrassed. I strip down to my boxers and get in the shower with her, I put an arm around her. “I know how you feel. You did want you had to do” I say to her, She half-smiles at me, “You sound just like my wolf, have you ever had to wash someone else’s blood off you, to know you killed them with your bare human hands?” “Once, and just the one person, a rogue attacked me and my sisters, I couldn’t shift as the fear of people finding out, we were down the local park, mostly used by wolves, but you just never know, I killed him, he was also in human form. Everyone called me a hero, but I knew the truth, just like you do now” she nodded and rested her head on my shoulder. We sit like that for what seems like ages, tears rolling down her face until she randomly says, “I can’t reach the blood on my back do you mind helping as you are already here?” I nod and stand she moves so she’s standing under the waterfall, I soap her back and wash her down. She turns and smiles at me, “Thank you” I nod, grab a towel dry myself as much as I can in wet boxers, and head out with my clothes, I nip into my room swap boxers over and find some lounge pants. These have family guy characters all over them. I walk back into her room and sit and watch tv, 20 mins later she comes out clean and in loungewear not that dissimilar to mine. “So, Payton, care to tell me about yourself?” she gingerly sits on the edge of the bed. I move so I can pull her onto the bed properly. “I, I can’t… not… not yet. It's not safe for you to know me, to know who I am, it will only bring pain.” She stutters the whole thing. She’s nervously looking down at the bed like it’s the most important thing in the world. “I will protect you, I am here for you”. I try to convince her. “It's just not that simple, your pack is right, I am dangerous” “by dangerous you mean?” “you saw what I did, people are looking for me and are willing to kill and more to get me, please don’t put your pack in danger for me, please?” her voice is final, “I’m not, but I can’t lose you, not now that I’ve found you”. Her eyes fill with tears, and I put my arm around her, she instantly snuggles up and cries. I feel awful not being able to lessen her pain. The pain of her past, of what I witnessed, must be too much for her, but I know I can help her heal, to keep her safe, and she, in turn, will keep our pack safe. I will not allow her to leave me, to reject me. After a while, she falls asleep, once she’s asleep, I allowed myself to drift off.