My Christmas Wish Alpha

An Alpha's Choice

Fenric

It’s getting pretty damn old, all the rogues that keep popping up on our territory. I’m not sure why they’re becoming so brave and foolish all of a sudden, but I have people working on that.

This last fight was quick and decisive, as were all the others. Fighting isn’t their strong point and well, they’re rogues, after all, so they don’t know how to work as a cohesive group. My warriors took care of most of these new ones, and I’m running after the one who got away.

He’s got stamina. I’ll give him that. I’m nearly at the end of our packlands, and he’s still running. But I think I’ll just let him go. He just lost a few friends, and if he has any more wherever he’s headed, maybe he’ll deliver the news that the Ponderosa pack is nothing to mess with.

It’s been a few hours since I left the cave. I wonder whether Neviah will stay put instead of venturing out and getting herself killed. But I left her with plenty of water and food. She seems smart. She wouldn’t leave the safety of the cave.

‘Avoid the roads, and get back here,’ Alec, my Beta, suddenly tells me in the mind-link.

‘What the hell is going on now?’

‘The humans—they’re combing the forest for some reason,’ he explains. ‘We need to cover the entrance. Get back here quick.’

Neviah... they’re looking for her. I knew this was coming, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon. I suppose I need to make a choice.

I could lead her out to the road, and they’d find her safe. She doesn’t know about anyone but me at this point, and I could ask her not to tell anyone. But it’s clear in her eyes that she’s an honest woman, and that would be difficult for her. It’s a risk.

The other choice is taking her to the pack. That’s a greater risk, with no turning back.

But I can’t let my mate walk out of my life, human or not. ‘I have something I need to do first,’ I tell Alec.

‘What? Fen—’

‘I know what I’m doing,’ I say, cutting him off. ‘Just get things ready.’

‘I don’t... okay, fine. Not like I have a choice, Alpha.’

He never uses my title, and he does so now with sarcasm. But I can’t worry about his feelings right now. It’s a two-hour run to Neviah from here, less than half that if I shift. So, that’s what I do, leaving my clothes on the snowy forest floor.

‘Send a scout to pick up my clothing,’ I tell Alec. ‘Northwest quadrant, a hundred yards shy of our border in the middle of the birch area.’ The last thing we need is for the humans searching for Neviah to find them.

‘On it,’ he says, but I can hear the strain in his voice, even through the mind-link. He has a lot of responsibility bringing everyone in and keeping them calm right now, so I let it go.

There is enough on my mind trying to decide which course to take with Neviah. The run toward the cave happens without thought. I feel my paws hit the ground and I avoid the obstacles on instinct, my thoughts too overwhelmed with the events over the past day.

I felt the mate bond at our first touch, grasping her hand to get her out of the car and away from the rogues. It hit like a lightning strike, but I didn’t have time to address it while I got her away from them. They were easily dispatched when I finally got her safe in a hiding spot, but I couldn’t let her see me shift and fight, not yet.

Now, I need to decide what to do. The more I run, the more the first two options sound like the worst mistakes of my life. I can’t send her away to return to her human life forever. And I can’t keep her prisoner in our pack.

A third option occurs to me: explaining who I am and what we are together and letting her decide.

It’s too bad I don’t have time for that one.

Option two it is, then.

She won’t come with me as a wolf, and she’s probably not ready to watch me shift. So, I shift far outside the cave before entering.

And she’s not here.

Neither are the sacks of provisions, so she must have taken them with her. She can’t have gone far.

I shift again to pick up her scent, which stands out like a beacon in all the scents of the forest. We don’t get many floral smells here, just those occasional hints in the spring when Seraphina plants flowers and seasonal flowers for the summer.

Neviah smells like the sweetest one I’ve ever encountered, a bright bloom of purple I saw for the first time in Seraphina’s greenhouse. The kind human woman had called it lavender.

It suits Neviah.

My mate’s scent wafts closer, and I need to decide how to approach her now that she has left the safety of the cave. She will surely hear my approach even with human ears, and if I’m in wolf form, she will run away, terrified.

I finally spot her hiking clumsily through the forest, trying to trace my footsteps from carrying her. She’s smart, and my chest fills with pride. I’ve spoken to no one about my mate, so I don’t know if a human has ever—or could ever—be a Luna. All the same, I feel she would make a good one.

For a moment, I just want to admire her tenacity, the way she pushes forward even though the trail must be difficult for her.

But then a sound catches my ears. The humans searching for her are close.

This is it. Either I take her now or stand back and let her go forever, back to the human life, where she will never know she was mated to the Alpha of Ponderosa.

I only hesitate for a second before shifting and running toward her.