Mated To The Mythical Alpha

Chapter 6

I picked up a scent in the distance. I closed my eyes and closed the air a few more times. Squirrel. She’s right. I pulled my hand back behind my head to reach an arrow from my quiver and set it in the string of my bow. I headed deeper into the forest, the wind blowing the scent in my direction again. It’s getting stronger, and I hear rustling behind a tree in front of me and I draw the arrow back and rest the string upon my check. I’m ready for the squirrel to move, but as I take a giant breath in through my nose, a new smell enters my nostrils and puts my brain on high alert. Rotten eggs.

Artemis is growling, taking control over my senses. My eyes grow bright blue, my hearing intensifies and my palms are heating up. Alpheus and Alex must be around. I’m panicking. I look and aim in all directions of the forest, every sound causing me to turn in another direction. I aim back at the tree truck, I hear breathing, shallow deep breaths. More leaves and branches are being walked on, coming right towards me.

“Artemis.” A deep voice echoes in my head. A mindlink? Only my pack and my mate once we have bonded can mindlink.

“Artemis, I’ve been looking for you.” That voice. I need to get it out of my head.

“Show yourself, you coward.” Artemis growls. My palms are on fire, my eyes are bright and staring right into the darkness behind this tree trunk. Artemis is threatening to shift but I hold strong, at least once he steps out from the tree I can shoot an arrow in his head.

“Tisk tisk tisk, little princess. It is you that is the coward. Running away to the Northwest Taiga. Very clever too. Artemis sure will blend right in with the snow.”

How does he know what we look like? We never transformed in front of him. He wasn’t even sure it was me? Artemis asks me, panicking in every word of her voice. I try to make sense of it. Arte-

“I’ve been watching you for quite some time after our moment in bed.” I wish he would just stop hiding. My stomach is starting to churn thinking about it. Tears threatened to leave my eyes. I’ve had enough. I see movement and decide to launch forward behind the tree and shoot my arrow at a figure. I find another arrow and continuously proceed to shoot off six arrows into Alex. I heard a thud and knew he was on the ground.

My breathing is heavy, I drop my bow and stare at the large figure in front of me. It was dark in the forest but I felt content when I heard nothing but the wind rustling the leaves.

Laughter. Deep, throaty, maniacal laughing. “You missed me.” No. No, I didn’t, he’s right here on the ground in front of me. Suddenly, like a light switch has been turned on, it's bright white and the ground is covered in snow. I finally saw the figure that lay in front of me, with six arrows in his chest. He was tall, wearing only a pair of basketball shorts, he had a tan body with wide shoulders. I walked slowly over to him and noticed his short blonde hair, pink lips separating slightly, but what would haunt me forever was the lifeless bright silver eyes looking straight at me. Orion! Artemis howls in my head. How? Why?

“With your mate now dead, you are mine!” Alex says, standing behind me. I turn around just in time to see his black pupils disappear and his irises go completely black and lunge at me. He pins me to the ground and his canines elongate.

No! No! No! I’m screaming and trying to wiggle my way out of his grip. My palms are hot and I shut my eyes as hard as I can. My body feels like it’s being constrained. Alex is grunting, telling me to calm down. I try to kick and scratch, he holds me tighter.

“Par! Par! Shhh. It’s me. Wake up!” I heard in the distance. I feel softness on my forehead, like someone is rubbing a cloth on me. I smell mint and Artemis tells me to relax. I let my body go limp and someone’s arms around me start to lighten. My breathing is still heavy but I open my eyes and see that I am engulfed by Brekin. He’s putting mint lotion on my forehead, trying to calm me down.

“Another one?” He asks. I nod my head as tears fall down my cheeks. Nightmares have basically been regular since the semester started. I felt terrible keeping Brek up at all hours of the night. One day he went out and bought some mint lotion for his dry skin once winter hit and, for some reason, it always calmed Artemis down, so I asked him to use it to wake me up next time I had a nightmare to see if it would help and it worked so well he needed to go out and buy three more bottles. He is the only male that Artemis will allow to touch us, even get into bed with us in the dormroom after an episode.

“Thank you, Mr. O’Connor. Please bring Mrs. Wolfe back to the dorm room.” Matilda said quietly.

Brek nods and lifts me from the library lounge chair. I wrap my legs around his torso, my arms go around his neck and my head is buried into his chest. I can’t stand the look on other peoples' faces whenever this needs to happen. It was much worse; I ended up sending three security officers to the burn unit after they tried to wake me up. Now the librarian, Matilda, has Brek on speed dial as an official “Code Wolfe '' soldier whose sole purpose is to wake me up without any injuries.

“What time is it, Brek?” I asked him as we walked out of the library. It’s dark but last I remember, I came to sit down after class at only three o’clock.

“Time for bed.” Is all he managed to say. I buried my head in his chest again. Artemis, do you think Alex knows where we are? It was just a dream, little wolf. Paul would know if there was any movement from him. And if there is a mysterious, ancient pack around here, they would definitely have killed the bastard by now.

I take a deep breath of mint again. She’s right. Soon after we left, Paul had called to say Alex ambushed the pack and found out I was no longer living there. Since then, Paul hasn’t seen him but he has heard he went rogue. About three months after leaving, Paul had called to tell me he had found his mate and future Luna and she was from a pack further up north than Redwood. She was once told by her great grandfather that there is an ancient werewolf pack in the northern part of Taiga where legend says the wolf side is more dominant than the human side and they only turn human every full moon to mate and maintain pack numbers but want nothing to do with the humans in the nearby villages. And when the college was built, it angered the Alpha of the pack, so the pack retreated to the higher mountains to live life alone and only be with their kind. Any outsiders would be killed, so if Alex wandered around the college, maybe they would take care of him first.

Brek gets us to the dormroom and sets me down on my bed. He looks tired. I have kept this poor guy up countless nights in the last few months. His green eyes are bloodshot, I wonder if “Code Wolfe” woke him up. I sure hope he can make it home for winter break and maybe get some sleep in his old bed. Brek and I have gotten really close, really quickly. I found out he is one of seven! He has four older brothers, that are two sets of twins and two younger brothers that are a pair of twins, with him being the only child born with no twin. His whole family looks exactly alike with red hair and green eyes, but Brek is the only one with noticeably more freckles.

He told me he always felt out of place being the only child without a twin. He said he would look to the stars for comfort, which is why he majored in astrology. He was so excited I knew about Orion’s constellation and completely geeked out over the fact that my birthday was on the day the constellation aligned.

“Par.” He says quietly. He looks at me with sadness. “Do’t ya tink it’s time to talk to someone?” If only we could, Freckles. “You showed up here, lookin’ abused as fuk and ya say it was an accident. I didn’t say noting’ but yer nightmares aren’t about an accident. Please talk to me?”

I bit my lip. What can I even tell him? I’m a werewolf; I’m here because I’m a born-again goddess who needs to break a curse so I can be with my destined mate; my nightmares are because I got kidn*pped and abused by someone who was obsessed with me when I was a Greek goddess; Artemis’s brother has gifted me the heat of the sun to protect myself; my mate Orion is out there somewhere and I have to find him before Gaea kills him for abusing her Earths creations? Ugh, I just gave myself a headache.

He looks at me like I’m the sister he’s never wanted and he reminds me so much of Paul. It’s okay to let him in a little, little wolf. “Brek.” He runs his finger over the scar on my chin. I breathe deep. You got this. “It wasn’t an accident. I was attacked. He bashed my head and took me away from my family. He gave me those bruises, he broke my shoulder, and tied me to a bed…” I had tears in my eyes, my breathing was heavy. I brought my legs to my chest. I couldn’t look at him, I didn’t want any sympathy, I didn’t want him to look at me like I’m damaged. “...he tried to get what he wanted, but he didn’t get a chance to go all the way. My brother showed up.” I cried into my legs but Brek shoved me to his chest. “His father killed my father, Paul had to end it. I can’t go home until he’s gone!”

The tears were blinding. I covered Brek’s chest in snot. My breathing is so sporadic, I don’t even notice Breks’ chest heaving up and down. I feel raindrops on my shoulders. I look up and Brek is crying too. I wiped his tears away and in between sobs I managed to say “I didn’t want you to look at me like I was damaged.”

Brek gives a little chuckle, pulls me away from his chest and keeps me at arms length. He takes his thumb and wipes the tears from my eyes. He sniffles and gives me a half smile. “Par. Yer the strongest woman I know, and it’s an ho’or to yer roommate. Tank ya for tellin’ me.” He pulls me in for a hug and I start sobbing all over again. He’s right, little wolf.

Now it’s my turn to start laughing. Brek pulls me away and gives me a questionable look. “Brek, if Alex didn’t put me in the hospital, I would have gotten my single dorm. I would never have met you if that hadn’t happened.” He gave me the biggest smile I have seen this semester. His green eyes are bright, his face is beat red and all his freckles are barely noticeable.

“I’m so sorry ya had to go through that, Par. But I am so glad ya ended up right here. Let’s get sum sleep.” He gets off of the bed and switches the light off. He grabs a bottle of mint lotion and gives himself another rub on his arms, he climbs into my bed and wraps his arms around me. I inhale the mint scent as deep as I can and finally get calm enough to drift asleep.

I sure hope we can find our mate soon, Freckles is nice, but these are not my mates arms. She says with sadness. Me too, Artemis.

During winter break, when everyone goes home, we can go explore the mountains. She perks up just enough for her tail to wag before she circles around and lays down. We both drifted off to sleep, inhaling mint and this time I had nothing to dream about.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Ughh. Alright. I rolled over and slapped my phone to turn the alarm off. I go to slap Brek awake but my hand is met with a pillow. He must have gone to the gym. He only has a few classes left until finals, so he must be blowing off steam after last night. Just like Paul. I grabbed my portfolio and my design book. Today is the day I have to present to my entire 403 architect class my semester project. I have worked incredibly hard on this, and I am insanely proud of myself. I grab my dress pants, put on a bright blue tube top that makes my eyes pop. It covers my chest just enough to be classy and the black blazer really pulls it together. My face has cleared up but I still apply just enough makeup to hide the scar under my cheek. Looking good, babe. Let’s go show everyone our design!

“Mrs. Wolfe, you’re up.” I took a deep breath and stood up.

As I walked up towards the front of the class, I noticed my professor sitting next to a massive figure who I'd never seen before. He has dirty blonde hair that is kept in a buzzcut but what really caught my eye was his silver eyes. An image of my dead mate's eyes flashes in my head and my breath stops. I shake my head and take a few deep breaths to try to calm my nerves. Relax, it’s just a project. A project that is most of my grade!

“As you all know, we were given the task of designing the new campus library…” I trailed on my introduction and looked around the room. Most everyone was bored, of course the professor went alphabetically, so I was the last one to present. I start to get nervous when the massive figure starts talking with my professor. Does he not care either? Why was he here? Time to get everyone's attention!

I opened my portfolio and laid out my design. Artemis helps me stand tall and I puff my chest out just a little bit. My design fills the entire screen on the projector wall and everyone freezes. Some have their mouths stuck open, some eyes have got larger, the figure next to my professor has this bright, amused smile. I scan the room and all fidgeting, all whispers and side conversations stop. All eyes are on me. That's what I thought.

“For my design, I decided to take a trip back in time. I present to you: the Northern Borealis Academic Hall, inspired by our Greek ancestors.” The building was a classic replica of ancient Greek buildings. It stood four stories, with columns lining the front entrance. The title of the academic hall was in Greek writing. I flipped through my design book to show sketches of the Northern Lights edged at the top of the columns, and the columns that line the inside were decorated with Greek Gods and Goddesses like Artemis and Apollo, Zeus and Athena. I flip through some more pages and show designs with marble floors and white walls; bookcases that stretch to the floors above them; a place for a lounge and individual study rooms. I didn’t realize how long I had talked for, but when I was done, everyone in the room stood up and clapped for me.

The professor ended the class after I presented it but asked me to stay back for a special “one-on-one”. As the room was being cleared and I picked up my books in the front, people were congratulating me on my presentation and then soon all that was left was just the professor, the mysterious massive man and myself.

“Mrs. Wolfe.” my professor shook my hand. He pointed to the man beside him and said “This is Mr. White, the college director.” I froze. He had this powerful aurora around him and stood tall. I stuck out my hand to meet his, when Artemis freaked out. NO! Bow to him. He presents himself as Alpha. Show respect. I put my hand to my side and I bow as Artemis says. The man's silver eyes lit up and his smile widened. He nodded his head in approval.

“This was a project for the semester, but this was also a true test of skill to present the future college “Academic Hall”. My professor says with a scene of pride. “Mr. White has chosen your design to proceed with construction.” he continues. I’m shook. The school director chose MY design?

“Your presentation was the best, Mrs. Wolfe.” Mr. White says in a deep, husky voice. His silver eyes are locked on mine. “Greek architecture was a very interesting take, and who could go against tradition?” he says with a bright smile. “I look forward to starting this process with you. And for your benefit, I have secured a conference room in our current library where you can work alone and we can meet with my team to have this process go smoothly, just ask Matilda and she can take you upstairs.” He bowed his head and walked out of the room with my professor.

Little wolf, something about him is off. He smelt like were. A werewolf the director of a human college? If Artemis thinks something is up, I guess we’ll continue with caution. I took out my phone and called Brek. He picks it up on the first ring.

“How was the presentation?!” He asks before I can even say hello.

“Brek, it went so well! I have got my own room in the library, so I can work with a team! Let's go talk to Matilda about getting the key!” “Meet you there in ten!” I hung up the phone and was finally able to breathe.

First semester complete. Let’s go for a victory run tonight!