Enemies

Chapter one - Alyss

I felt it.

This was the first time I could feel it but somehow I knew right away what it was. The mate pull.

I was brought to a halt by something inside me and I tried to understand where the pull was coming from. Gwynn noticed something was wrong with me and she stopped as well. That day we were patrolling the borders around our territory together. I ran between the trees and she flew above them. This was just my second patrol. I'd had the first one with my brother.

*What's happened?* she mindlinked me.

*My mate is close* I replied.

*Be careful. No one's supposed to be here.*

I tried to go by her advice and tame my instincts but I still hadn't got full control. As soon as my inner self captured the sense of direction I tore out towards my mate.

*Shift!* Gwynn screamed in my mind. *It'll be easier to control yourself if you're in human form.*

I wasn't even able to process the meaning of her words. All of me was occupied getting to my mate. Gwynn saw that and she tried to take another approach. She landed on my back and shifted herself. The sudden weight of a grown woman distracted me and I fell to the ground.

"Alyss, shift! Now!" She growled out. I almost snapped at her but I struggled and regained control. I forced a shift.

"For f**k's sake, Gwynn. I could've hurt you. You can't jump on a jaguar like that."

"Like there's anything else I could've done... I couldn't chase after you much longer, you're too fast for me."

I didn't listen to her anymore, as I felt the pull again. I suppressed the urge to shift. I hoped I wouldn't go into a haze. "My mate is close. Please let me go," I whimpered.

"We'll go together. Let's just be cautious." Gwynn helped me up and kept holding my hand while drawing circles on its back. It helped me ground a bit. "Lead the way."

I resumed the run, pulling Gwynn behind me. We were much slower in our human forms and it annoyed me, but I understood it was for safety's sake.

-----

About a kilometer later we saw a huge phoenix approach us. He was holding a bag in his claws. We stopped and waited for him to land.

"How did you know where we are?" I asked. Rod shifted and opened his bag. From inside of it he pulled out a pair of shorts for himself and two simple linen dresses he handed us.

"I figured you would prefer to wear some clothes meeting your mate for the first time." He smirked. "At least for a while."

"I mindlinked him," Gwynn cut him off. "I thought he might be of use..." she mumbled with a guilty expression.

"It's fine. You're both right. It's good to have you here. And the clothes." I smiled and got dressed. "But let's go alreadyyy."

"Don't whine, lil sis. Go on." Rod took my other hand in his and let me lead him too.

-----

The closer we got, the more worried Rod and Gwynn seemed to be. After a while I got it too - human stench. There was a few of them. But there was also the smell of my mate. And the pull, getting stronger every step I took in his direction.

"My mate is a human," I managed to voice what we all already figured. I looked at my brother, as if I hoped he could fix it for me.

"Let's get closer and see for ourselves. Not all humans are bad," he replied in calm, reassuring voice. "Star's dad is human, right? Caleb's grandma was human too. Some humans accept us."

Gwynn shushed us, pointing to her ears. Right, we shouldn't let the humans notice us.

We creeped closer and saw a group of humans forcing their way through the forest. They were all heavily armed. I opened my mouth but Gwynn shushed me again. We remained still as long as the humans were in our sight and then almost an hour longer. My brother and his mate were giving me time and space to digest the news and I was feeling very weak. Finally I raised my head facing Rod and Gwynn.

"He is a hunter."

"I'll find a way," Rod whispered. "We'll find him again and I'll check if there's anything I can do to convince him."

"That's pointless..."

"Don't say that!" Gwynn rubbed my back. "We won't know until we try."

"Let's go home now. I don't want to think about it anymore today," I suggested.

-----

They did as they promised. They kept looking for a way. They escorted me home and came back to where we saw him right away. They tracked him to his quarters. They watched him for a while. One day, two weeks after I saw my mate for the first time, Gwynn and Rod went for a patrol together again. And they didn't come back. When we looked for them later, we found their blood. It was close to said quarters. None of them managed to mindlink anyone. We didn't know what happened to them. They never told me if they were planning to contact my mate. But we assumed they did. And that he killed them.

My brother, the powerful fiery bird, caring and responsible Alpha of shapeshifters' hideout, and his mate, beautiful mignon canary with a heart of gold, were gone forever.

I was supposed to take over my late brother's position, as I used to be his Beta. I hesitated. I was heartbroken. But the people convinced me to do it.

-----

That's how at the age of seventeen, less than a month after my first shift, just as I became a grown woman, I lost my last family member, I became the Alpha of our group and I decided to kill my mate if I ever saw him again.