The King's Love

Chapter 14~Greyson

We've been searching for Charlee for almost a month and still no sign of her. Alpha Hendrick told me Charlee learned how to survive by herself and leave no trace of her presence. We tracked her scent 4 miles off the north border to a river and it stopped there. On the other side, it's very faint. It's not even enough for me to track and her scent is the strongest to me because of the mate bond. My wolf Blade and I were hurting, just when we had our mate we lost her because some greedy b***h tried to attack her.

Blade and I get to the river and sniff around again. Still nothing, I decided to take us forward past the river hoping we'd catch her again. After about 20 more minutes of running, we came across a cave. "We should check inside so she could be in there. Let's just hope she's not hurt." Blade says to me, I agree with him. We walk in and hear faint whimpers. We go in farther and Charlee comes into view. Blade and I have our little celebration in our heads. As we got closer, I could hear Charlee's whimpers, I could tell she was shivering from the cold. I whimper at her to get her attention. She looks at me and terror comes through the bond, it just dawns on me she doesn’t remember what my wolf looks like, and from how scared she is she isn't listening to her other senses. She scoots back to stay away from me. I walk up towards her slowly, yet she still shies away from me. “You should treat this like the first time you saved her, remember she’s terrified,” Blade says to me and I take his words into account. I get down lower and slowly crawl to her. She shakes her head no and takes a deep breath. "No, I can't go back! I'm going to get punished for Addison's lie. I wasn't trying to hurt her, Snow forced me to shift so she could protect me." She starts crying. She wraps her arms around herself and starts to shiver again. I needed to get her out of here or she's going to get hypothermia. I continue to get closer and once I’m right in front of her I lay my head down and whimper at her. I sniff her hand and look up at her. Charlee slowly lifts her hand, then hesitates petting Blade. A few moments later she finally moves her hand closer to Blade's head and pets him. “I want her to remember us,” Blade says to me and when he looks at Charlee, her sparkling emerald eyes have glossed over like she was mind-linking someone.

~Flashback~

This was six years ago when I first met Charlee. Blade and I are looking for her and the rogues that kidnapped her. Just about three miles out from the east border of their pack lands we caught the nasty scent of the rogues and Charlee’s sweet scent of cherries. Blade follows it, silently moving through the forest. We came up to a camp and the scent of the rogues went right to it. “Felix I found the camp of rogues and Charlotte’s scent leads here as well, send back up.” I mind-link to not only Felix but the guards that came with us. I circle the outskirts of the camp and determine how many rogues are here. I count three, two men and a woman. “Greyson, we can’t waste any more time, we have to save Charlotte,” Blade says, then a twig snaps alerting the women. She sees me and yells to the two men, who instantly shift. They both come at me at once. Just before the first wolf can get to me, I sidestep to the left and swipe his front right leg with my claws ripping the tendon. I dash into the camp and immediately pounce on the woman knocking her down. I go for the kill shot and rip her throat out. I hear a small whimper from the tent to my right. I look over and see a little girl, with red hair and emerald eyes. The look of terror on her face. “Great, I have scarred that poor girl for life.” I think to myself.

“It’s better than what those rogues had in store for her,” Blade says to me.

I go into the tent and slowly approach Charlotte. I tuck my tail to show her I won’t hurt her. She backs away scared still. She looked up from me and the horror on her face was indescribable. “Look out!” She yells, and just before I could get out of the way, the jaws of the other male wolf came down and clamped onto the back of my neck. I thrust about to shake out of the rogue's jaws, Blade takes over and turns around. He grabs the rogue by his leg and rips it off with ease. Blade instantly goes for his throat and rips it out. Just out of the corner of my eye Blade sees the wolf I injured before, charging at me. Blade charges back at him and sees that his wound hasn't healed all the way yet. He uses that to his advantage and uses his full body weight as he rams into his leg, breaking it, making the rogue fall. Blade wastes no time getting back to the rogue, He pounces onto his back instantly taking hold of his head with his jaws, and rips the rogue’s head clean off in one swift motion.

“Are the bad wolves d-dead?” Charlotte asks quietly as she slowly comes out of the tent. Blade gives me back control and I look at Charlotte and nod. I walk towards her and she quickly backs up. “Greyson, she just watched us slaughter three wolves, take it slow,” Blade says to me. I get down and slowly crawl towards Charlotte and lay down in front of her. It takes her a few moments, then she puts her hand out to pet me. I lift my head and touch her little hand to my forehead and rub against it. She begins to giggle, “You might be scary, but you can be cute too.” Charlotte says with a small smile. I get up slowly and turn around. I motion to her with my head to get on my back and bow down. She gets onto my back and wraps her arms around my neck to keep from falling off. I whimper to her, “I’m ready.” She says and I take off back to her pack.

~Reality~

“I remember that Greyson, you saved me, and every morning until you left I found you outside of my door sleeping in wolf form.” She says, making Blade get up and bark excitedly. I shift back and I quickly pull her into my arms and press against my body to give her some warmth. "Charlee, you're not going to get punished, Hendrick and I knew she was lying, her act wasn't in the slightest convincing. Her punishment is still going on right now. Please come back with me, I need you. This past month has been killing me." I begged her. She looks up at me in shock. "I've been gone for a month!" She says, I nod and pull her back the moment I feel her shiver again. She feels so cold, it's almost like I'm hugging a corpse. I let her go to grab her backpack that I put clothes in for when I found her. I pulled out my boxers and put them on. I hand Charlee a pair of her panties and my sweatpants and my pullover. I thought giving her my clothes with my scent all over them would help ease her. She hugged them to her but didn't attempt to put them on. "Little alpha, what's wrong?" I ask her. She shivers again. "I… I'm too c-cold to m-move." She stutters. I help her stand up and she hands me the clothes back. "Don't worry baby, I'm going to help you," I tell her to kiss her on the forehead. I kneel and hold her panties open. She grabs my shoulders for support and steps her feet in each leg hole. I pull them up to her waist and I notice I'm level with her center, I had to stop myself from mating with her, she was in no condition for that. I help put the rest of the clothes on and I pull her into me. I stick my face in the crook of her neck and take a deep breath, only the Goddess knows how much I've missed this intoxicating smell. I move my head to her ear and whisper, "dear Goddess little alpha, you have no idea what your scent does to me. I'll never get tired of it." In a low husky voice. I grab the backpack and scoop her up in my arms and tell her to get some sleep as I could tell she hadn't slept in days. It will be a good two hours before we get back to the packhouse while I'm in human form.

Charlee

I don't know how long I slept, Greyson woke me up as he neared the packhouse. I snuggled myself closer to his body for more warmth. Felix was sitting on the front porch waiting for us. He opened the door for Greyson and Felix told him the alpha granted his request to take care of me as long as I went to the pack doctor for a physical to make sure I wasn't sick. Greyson just nodded his head and took me upstairs. We enter my room and Greyson shuts the door with his foot. He set me carefully on my bed and went into the bathroom. I laid back and all I wanted to do was sleep. I heard the bath start, I sat up as he came back out. I noticed he had a huge tattoo going from the left half of his chest, all the way down his left arm stopping at the wrist. It was a warrior tattoo. All the warriors in every pack are to get them once they finish their training, the colors of their pack are supposed to be embedded in the tattoo, so if a wolf is ever killed in battle, they’d know who’s pack he or she belonged to. Greyson had the royal family colors, emerald green, midnight purple, and gold. "I've started a bath for you to warm you up, come on little alpha." He says, snapping out of my trance, he gestures to come to him. As I stand up I feel my knees begin to buckle. I take a step and my legs give out on me. I would have fallen but Greyson caught me, he picked me up and carried me to the bathroom. He sets me down and undresses me. He helps keep me steady as I step into the tub and sit down in the water. I sink in the water letting it engulf my body, yet I still feel like I'm freezing. I looked at Greyson, he was sitting on the floor leaning up against the counter with his eyes closed. "Um, Greyson?" I say timidly. His eyes opened with worry. "Yes, love?" He asks.

"I… I'm still cold." I say involuntarily shivering. Greyson turned around and while taking off his boxers, I saw them. The scars his uncle gave him, there were so many, but there was one that terrified me the most. It was huge, it started at his right shoulder blade and stopped at the left side of his lower back. That didn’t look like a whipping scar, it looked like someone took a silver blade and dragged it down his back. He turns back around and takes a few steps toward me. "What are you doing?" I ask.

"I don't want my boxers to get wet." He says, gently pushing me forward. "Are… are you getting in with me?" I ask, stuttering. "Well yeah, you're not warm enough so I'm going to give you my warmth." He gets in the tub behind me. He wraps his arms around my torso and pulls me to him. His body is so hot and the sparks engulf me, making me relax against him. I close my eyes, enjoying every second of being this close to my mate.