The Hunted Love

I was going through the forest patrolling the surroundings. We needed to keep the pack house away from trouble as we were preparing for mating ceremony. Once a year when new young pups were already grown up we held mating ritual for them and other not mated yet wolfs. It was created for every pack in country so we had a lot of work to do. Pups could participate in ceremony as soon as they turned 16. They are not yet of age but they can met the love of their life. Of course there are some cases where even 40 year old wolf or older doesn't have a mate but either he is a loner who lost his mate or got rejected. It is very rare at this age to not be able to find a partner but it is not impossible.    As I was spacing out I saw unfamiliar figure. It ran away into the night right after it saw me, so I followed behind. Dark long hair and delicate shapes, definitely it was a woman. But it was not important, she is NOT from my pack and yet she is still running on my territory. I could not let that happen. I quickened my steps. On four legs I was faster so I should be able to catch her in seconds yet after running behind her for few minutes I couldn't get her. She was so close yet so far, it was frustrating. She wasn't a werewolf like me, I would smell it If she was and there wasn't anything like vampires in this world. So how in hell did she manage to run so fast? It was impossible. I was a werewolf! And in addition not any ordinary one I was the alpha and yet she was able to run away from me, that was odd cause no one ever was capable of doing that. I growled loudly and tried to speed up but the girl sensed that and vanished into the air. I was confused. Who the hell was that?!  My men caught up with me after a minute. When they saw me running they shifted into wolfs and came straight after me. ''Alpha! That bastard disappeared. What do we do now?'' Said my beta John through mind link. He was my childhood friend and the second powerful wolf in our pack, right after me. He was obviously smaller than me but not as much as others and his brown-red fur stood out against my dark black coal fur and the others simple grey or brown wolf. I tried to think about a solution but I couldn't think of anything. That woman was still in my head. She had rather powerful aura too but it was not a power of a werewolf. It was a mystery to me as I never meet someone like her within 25 years of my life. ''His out of our territory now but leave an eye open, we can still be in danger.'' I didn't mention that I don't know what is happening. I didn't want them to worry. We tried to find anything near but after an hour of looking there was no clue and no trace. She just melted... After few more rounds around we decided that it was pointless. We shifted back into human form and went back to the pack house to have dinner. It was already long after sunset. The autumn was coming to an end soon and winter was close, so it was getting dark right after 5 pm. ''Alpha! I'm sorry that we weren't able to find anything.'' Said one of the members just as I went inside the building, clearly afraid that I'll be mad.'' It's okay Eric, we will find some clues in the morning."  I said that confidently ignoring his puzzled face and went to sit at the table. Everyone was clearly annoyed or scared as no one was able to tell what caused this person to appear on our land. As an Alpha I needed to ensure everyone that there is nothing to be afraid of. ''Everyone quiet now!'' I yelled at the noise and everybody went silent in a second. ''First thing in the morning you will go into the forest and see If you can find anything. There is nothing to worry but for your peace I will double guards. Rest well and don't let this distract you cause we have a ceremony in few days and not everything is prepared yet. And now excuse me I have some things to do before tomorrow.''  Saying that I stood and left the dinning room not even touching my meal.  This situation caused me to be worried and I wasn't hungry anymore. I noticed earlier that guys didn't see that we chased a woman so I didn't want to tell them that fact. I don't know why I just didn't want to share this information with them even with my beta. I got more anxious because of that. Maybe this information was the key. Not wanting to overthink this I went to my office to finish some paper work. I thought for a moment that it could be a mistake but I ignored it and I didn't know it then for sure...