Enemy Mates

Chapter 7

Unknown POV

I am in the forest that seems vaguely familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on where exactly I am; I just know the Moon Goddess needs me here. I run calloused hand over my face in frustration. Where do you want me to be Goddess? It feels like I don't have control of my own body, that somehow fate is moving my feet. I stop in the woods and feel the overwhelming need to turn East, toward the ocean. The moon pulls in the waves just as it pulls me to this place. I hesitate to continue. I can feel the static in the air, as if the Moon Goddess herself is watching me and waiting. That's when I smell it. Someone is following me. It's a female shifter, and she's about half a mile behind me. Her scent is like the beach embodied mixed with honey and it smells so alluring that I want to run to it and press my nose to her so that I can imprint that very smell on my soul, but I don't. This is probably a trap.

I feel my wolf awaken at her scent. He too, tells me to run to it, to her, and to wrap myself around her and never let go. I can't make myself known to her though, I might spook her. I hear her footsteps quicken the closer she gets to me and then I see her. The whole world stops; There is no sound, there is nothing but her. She ran in from the side of me so all I can see is her back. Her long hair tumbles down her back in waves, her waist is pulled in but her ass, Oh Goddess that ass is perfect. This woman was made for me. I can't help but to think of those thighs wrapped around my head. I suppress the growl that is growing in my throat when I look at her, every part of me growing harder by the moment. I don't care if this is a f*****g trap anymore. I need this woman like I need the breath in my lungs. My wolf won't stop yelling the same word over and over again and I want to tell him to shut the f**k up. I can't think. It can't be, after all these years that this woman could be her. I can't keep her safe in times like these, when the world has gone to s**t. How can I protect her? Anger rises from the pit of my stomach. Why now, Moon Goddess, after all this time alone? But I know, now that she stands just feet from me that I won't ever be able to let her go. I'll never be able to walk away. She is mine. Nobody else's but mine.

I don't even realize that I am moving towards her. I reach out a hand, desperate to just touch her for a moment. To feel her skin beneath mine. I want all of her. When I speak the one word that my wolf has been yelling in my head all this time my voice comes out husky and rough.

"Mate."

I wake up with a raging hard on and a rare smile on my lips before I realize, it was just a dream. The same dream I have been having since I was a pup. It's always a different scenario but always the same scent but this time, I saw her. Well, I saw the back of her. "f**k!" I roar to nobody. I'm so furious that it was only a dream. I had her right in front of me for her to just be taken away. Why does the Moon Goddess do this to me? I want to shift and howl my anger to the Moon but I have responsibilities. The pack won't be awake this early in the morning, but I know there is no going back to sleep. I guess my damn day is starting at 3:30 AM. Good. I think. I need to work off some of this anger anyway.

Half an hour later I am in the training facility, throwing all my weight into the punches I throw at the punching bag. My knuckles are starting to break and bleed but I relish in the pain. I need the distraction, and now that I think about it, that's all the woman in my dream would be, a distraction. I can't take a mate now, not now that war is upon us. I can't even figure out who is behind the attacks on my land and on my people.

I have been a fearless leader and warrior all my life, but if I had a mate, I wouldn't be fearless anymore. I would constantly have to watch her back; I would constantly worry for her. That's how it was for my father, he died protecting my mother. She still feels guilty about it every day. Some days, she doesn't speak at all. She is pain embodied. I mourn for her as much as I mourn for my father because she isn't my mother anymore, she's just heartbreak.

I hit the bag again and again reeling when I scent someone coming into the facility. Before they even step foot in the room I roar "GET OUT!" so loudly the mirrors shake, but they don't leave. The man crosses the room and puts a hand on my shoulder. I debate for a moment on whether or not I am going to drop his ass right here and break his pretty boy face, but he speaks.

"You've already broken one punching bag this morning" he says calmly while looking at the equipment I shredded apart earlier. "Why don't you give it a rest big guy? We have a lot to work on today and I'm f*****g starved"

I feel the blood running down my hand and laugh humorlessly. There's no point in worrying about this now anyway. It's not real, it was only a dream.