Warrior Luna - Fighting for Survival

Dream Mate

Matteo POV

I knew I was dreaming but it felt surreal somehow.

 I was fighting, protecting my pack from a pair of rouges. I was a skilled warrior, both human and wolf, as an Alpha’s son should be. But something felt off, I felt slow, my reactions and tactics were all wrong. I was a pup fighting an adult.

The rouge crushed my exposed throat, my lungs were on fire, my vision blurry. I tore with my front and hind paws at the rouge, trying to curl myself up and push it off me with my hind legs.

Suddenly the weight lifted.

The rouge wolf seemed to grow before my eyes, gaining a few more inches every minute.

It roared and snatched me up in its terrifying embrace, tearing its claws into me. Shredding my fur, skin and muscles into strips.

I felt panic rise in me. Something I hadn’t felt in a long time when fighting.

I squashed it with a deep breath.

Despite the pain I clawed at his eye. Instinctively the rouge turned his head exposing his throat.

 I punctured his carotid artery.

Blood poured out spewing everywhere. I couldn’t breathe. The blood was drowning me, pouring down my nose and throat, into my lungs.

 I felt panic rising in me again.

‘I can’t escape the blood!’ I screamed in the dream. But the only sound that came out was gurgling of blood. I felt my consciousness fading, sinking deeper into the blood.

In the distance I heard a girl’s beautiful voice, but it was sad. Pleading. I didn’t understand the words.

My eyes flew open and I sat up so fast I almost head butted Tyler, my best friend who was shaking me.

“Dude! What the hell was that!? You good?” he looked me over concerned.

“I just had a very… very f****d up dream.” I said still reeling from the overwhelming feelings. I had never experienced such fear or guilt or panic.

“Well, we should get downstairs if we want any breakfast before training.” Tyler said not pressing the issue further, for which I was grateful.

I sat on my bed, groggily rubbed my face and raked my fingers through my hair. It was 7:30am, training was in half an hour.

I stood up and went to reach out for the pants that were draped over my desk chair but my right leg gave out and a piercing pain shot through it. My left arm and entire back, especially the right shoulder hurt, it was strange. I searched in my mind what could have caused it but could not find an explanation. 

I came into the kitchen to find Tyler loading his plate with bacon, sausages and eggs my mother was piling onto the already food laden table. The smell of food made my stomach knot and gurgle in anticipation.

“Hungry today I see.” Mom commented as she bustled about.

I grumbled my agreement and grabbed a plate for myself and loaded it up, then hobbled over to the other side of the table and sat next to Tyler.

“Why you limping man?” Tyler looked me up and down.

I shrugged, which hurt my shoulder. “No idea.”

“BOYS! BREAKFAST!” My mom yelled.

The rest of the boys of the pack thundered down the stairs and started polishing off the mountain of food in mere minutes.

School was officially done, so all the younger pups and those nearing maturity came to the pack house for training. Most slept over in the upstairs quarters for the summer too. Dad made Tyler and I instructors for the last couple of years which was a pain in the ass, I didn’t have any more free time.

I didn’t have enough patience with them and I sometimes felt like a scary brute rather than a coach. I always thought that maybe it was because I was an alpha’s son.  No matter, Tyler and I made a good team, good cop bad cop approach; it worked well for the most part.

I went to put my plate in the dishwasher but stumbled, again!

‘Why the hell am I so sore?’ I growled internally.

“Are you alright?” mom asked noticing my limp.

When I didn’t reply she gently grabbed my right shoulder and turned me to face her. I winced involuntarily.

“I asked, are you alright?” She asked a bit more sternly this time. “Why are you so pale?”

“Matt had a bad dream,” Tyler said from the table still chewing on a strip of bacon “he woke up like that.”

“I can speak for myself.” I snapped at him.

“You shoulda.”

“Enough bickering you two.” Mom gave us both a disapproving look. “Why are you limping?”

I shrugged. “I’ll be fine. Just need to stretch.”

She gave me a skeptical look but released me.

Training didn’t go much better than breakfast. I noticed I was very irritable, but I had no reason to be, it felt as though I was helpless and trapped and it made me angry.

We were teaching the younger pups how to throw their opponents. Not a difficult move, but useful. It was also good to have the older pups take the fall and let themselves be thrown by the younger ones. The younger ones gained strength and confidence and the older ones got to swallow their ego for a bit.

I faced Tyler in the demonstration, he grabbed my collarbone and the outside of my elbow pulled me forward, sidestepped and spun me in mid-air, effectively throwing me. I landed on my back and immediately passed out.

I woke up on the nurse’s cot. Nurse Ben was at his desk a few feet away looking through x-rays and other paperwork, he heard me getting up because he turned to face me.

“Matteo! Oh good, you’re awake.”

“Why am I here? Are those my x-rays?” I asked annoyed.

“First of all, sit back down or I will cuff you to that bed. And no I don’t care for your opinion on the matter.”

I glared at him but stayed sitting.

“Mother made you take those.” I nodded at the x-rays.

“Yes. And Tyler told me about your back and shoulder. He said it was all because of a dream. Elaborate please. I need the whole story.”

A few moments passed before I finally gave in. Ben was a stubborn mule and I knew he wouldn’t give up. I told him in detail about the fight in the dream, the mood swings the random pain and the general pull and restlessness. When I finished he looked at me for a long time, considering all the new information.

“This may sound weird…” he started “but do you feel a certain… electricity? Butterflies if your stomach? Anything like that?”

“Are you asking if I feel horny?” I asked in disbelief.

He sighed in annoyance, “If you want to call it that fine, but answer the question.”

“Yeah, sort of. It’s more of a knot in my stomach, restlessness maybe.”

Ben looked at me rubbing his ear with a weird look on his face.

“What? Just say it already!”

“I am fairly certain you won’t believe me when I say what I think.”

“Try me.” I crossed my arms.

“You have just found your mate… and she is hurt.” He said carefully.

At first I stood there dumbstruck, wondering if he was just pulling my leg, then I laughed until my abs hurt.

“How dumb is that!? You really want me to believe that after almost six YEARS of waiting I finally got a mate? And I find out through a stupid dream? That wasn’t even real! Were you listening to me at all?”

“You can believe whatever you want Matteo! I am telling you what my experience has shown.” he took a calming breath before continuing. “Mates feel each other’s extreme emotions and sometimes can even reach out with their subconscious. If she just turned she wouldn’t know how to control the mental link she shares with you yet.”

“Fine I have this mate I don’t know. Why did I have to wait almost six years for her?” I snorted. “And where the hell is she?”

“I don’t know.” Ben shrugged. “All I can advise is follow your heart, the pull. And you’ll find her.”

I got up off the cot and walked out into the hall. “Thanks a lot.” I muttered sarcastically.

I stormed out of the house, my annoyance growing into an angry bitterness. I didn’t want my family to see me like this.

I walked for a few miles and stopped at one of my favorite secret nooks in the forest, a small stream trickled down the cliff face and made a small pool at the base, it was only about ankle deep but it was crystal clear. It was truly beautiful, and for the most part calming.

I sat on a big rock next to the pool and put my head in my hands, breathing in the nature’s smells.

At the end of summer I would be 24 years old, it would be six years since I’ve waited for a mate. Most males have to wait a year or two for their mate to turn, but waiting six years!? And not even know who or where she is? It really hurt and it made me anxious. 

Without a mate I wouldn’t be able to take over my father’s pack, only a few times in history was there ever a record of an alpha ruling by himself and my father wasn’t one to break tradition so easily.

I had to tell father I had a mate. But how could I ever hope to find her?