Be my mate

MATE

CHAPTER FIVE

Luther POV

I liked silent nights, when everything was quiet, and you couldn’t hear anything for miles except the beating of your heart, the hooting night owl, and all the night creatures of the forest that roamed in it.

This was why, at four a.m. in the morning, I was sneaking out of my bedroom window, leaving it half-open. I shivered in the cold.

I was trying to escape the stifling rules of pack politics. I was exhausted and needed a break before I had to go back to dealing with all this again. I tuned myself to my wolf shifting to my fur, bone cracking, breaking, reforming, stretching, and conforming to the new form I wanted and desperately needed.

Soon I was on all four paws, sniffing at the air. On nights like this, I liked to escape the stifling world of rules and slip into a skin that was so much easier, and with the ever-constant threats that Alpha Derek and his pack made for invasion every day, and he was close to doing it too. Just yesterday, news reached us that he was planning on mating the daughter of the neighboring pack.

My minister thought it was best to crush the opposition, which would mean all those allied with them, but I didn’t want to do that. Hence, the run.

There was no one for miles as most people were asleep. I could hear the tiny sounds of mice, the scraping of the beaks of birds against the trees, and little insects buzzing around a dead deer just up north, one that smelled like moose, but that wasn’t in my territory.

I would have loved to hunt some deer, but I was much in need of the quiet that came with it. I jumped off the balcony and onto the soft forest floor, so I ran.

This was the only time when I was able to escape the fact that I was tired of living in this pack as the leader of a pack of men and women that couldn’t be held accountable for their own selves.

I was a leader, and I wanted to be better than my father. The only time I was allowed to acknowledge the fact that my father being dead would be better for us all in the long run was on these runs. The truth was, he was not a good man. I wish I had been brave enough to stand up to him, but he was my father, and while maybe I could have killed him and taken over as alpha, I would never have forgiven myself, not for killing him and not for the innocent lives he would drag under with him trying to fight for his life.

In the end, he had killed himself, and I had taken over, determined to do a good job.

I was getting a little tired when the sound came to me: scuffled paws breathing against the ground and human feet. There was a scream and a shout, then total silence. I dragged myself to the edge of the wood for cover and stilled to hear more. I heard the first light footsteps that made me think female or skilled at running from people. I heard the next set of steps chasing across the wood, and I was still scenting the air. They didn’t smell like a pack. I shifted back to my human form. They were running this way, and if they were human, it was better to scare them back to the road than have them enter pack territory.

I walked out into the open, just as a small body jammed into mine harshly. I peered down, and I needed to do so much because the woman who had run into me was small and almost too tiny; she had hair flowing to her back in a black-brown color that was almost as dark as the night sky.

She looked up at me, her eyes a soft, almost fragile blue, blown wide with fear. I was sucked in almost immediately, ready to protect her from whatever she was running from.

“Please help me,” she whispered, and I frowned, looking over her shoulder. I couldn’t tell if she was human or not. Her scent confused me. The other steps drew closer and heavier, then disappeared.

She pulled back, looking at me with trepidation.

“Alpha Kage,” she whispered, and I understood her fear. I was a large man, almost seven feet tall, with broad shoulders and strong, unyielding features; my eyes were deep black, and my hair followed suit. In my wolf, I was more formidable.

When my father was alive, I shifted away from him and the pack, so he didn’t feel outstaged in his own pack, but everyone knew who the bigger werewolf was. I looked at her and did not say anything; she stared as well, then swallowed and stiffened when I growled.

“I mean no harm; I’m here to see the alpha; that is you, I guess,” she laughed, her arms tapping her chest.

I paused, frowning.

“Who are you?” I asked, and she straightened.

“I am Beth Canndor, the daughter of the Alpha of the Black Fang,” she introduced. I sighed and turned to look at the very unfortunate woman standing before me. I knew what she was doing. She was running and I heard about Derek. I didn’t really blame her, but this was going to make a lot of things messy for me. Footsteps raced across the road, and three men stopped by me, looking at me. One of them was the Alpha and her father.

They skidded to a stop when they saw me. The man hissed, and his companion gulped. I could understand their trepidation.

“Alpha Kage,” he muttered, and I nodded. I looked at the girl, my gut churning with desperate denial. Whatever these feelings were, I didn’t like them, and I didn’t want to experience them.

“I am here for my daughter; she is to be mated,” he offered. I looked at her and then back to him, but said nothing.

“The girl is Alpha Derek’s bride.” The man said, my gut clenched in dismay. Well, f**k. I had known that, but hearing it was quite different from hearing it.

She stilled her hand clutched to my waist. I turned to her and sighed. She seemed to realize just what she had gotten herself into because she sort of deflated right before me, and my heart clenched with worry about her.

“I’ll take her with me; this is pack land, so you can go back the way you came and gain proper entry.” They started to argue, and I frowned.

“You can’t cross-pack land without official permission.” I muttered; they looked at me as if they wanted to say no. I stared at them, daring them too.

They thought better of it and nodded, moving on.

“Let’s go; your father will want you ready when he comes to collect you,” I said, huffing.

“Why did you pretend you would help me?” she queried, rounding up on me. I smiled warily.

“I didn’t pretend; I just didn’t know you wanted to try a suicide mission,” she said, stiffening. I walked away.

“The Silver Moon pack runs for acres from the spot you jammed into me; even if I hadn’t caught you and your pack mates hadn’t, my men would, and then you’d wish you were dead,” I muttered. She swallowed her face, falling almost immediately as she realized I was right.

“Is not wanting to be mated to that man so wrong of me?” I felt the sorrow she experienced at that moment and wished that for her sake I was wrong. I grimaced as the sunlight pierced the canopy of trees. I had lost track of time.

I sighed. She was too young and pretty to be in this dilemma. You would think that at his age, Derek Jeter would have realized that women didn’t find him all that attractive, but no, he likes women and he likes attractive people. And she was definitely attractive.

“What’s your name again?” I asked, and she frowned.

“Beth. Bethany Canndor,” she muttered, and I sighed, gesturing to the forest path I had come from, so she could follow.

She looked at it, then at me. I smiled wryly.

“You are going to cause problems for me; don’t worry, I’m not killing you,” I whispered, and she nodded, smiling a little. We walked side by side together.

“How come no one sees you around that much? I was surprised when I met you. I expected you to be more….” she paused, and I smiled. That was something that surprised a lot of people. My father didn’t want to be seen as related to me, and he liked keeping me as the mysterious shadow of his pack.

“It’s complicated,” I muttered. She slipped on a stone, and I gripped her arm quickly, pulling her into my embrace. She blinked, looking to me. My eyes fell on her lips, soft and tempting. She didn’t look away or pull back. We stared for what must have been hours. A c***k had us jumping apart from each other. I ran my hand through my hair, gesturing for her to go. She licked her lips, her gaze still locked on mine. Then, with a movement that stunned me, she kissed my arms over my neck.

I grabbed her waist, tucking her to me. As I tasted her lips, she pulled away. Her eyes dazed as she looked at me and said words that stunned me further.

“Be my mate.”