Blood moon

Challenging the alpha

Hunter woke up at dawn. He had resisted the change all night and still felt exhausted, but his cell phone kept ringing with messages from the herd for him to appear. His father was especially furious because he had scheduled a rite to celebrate the union of a new couple. His lack of attendance at the ceremony was the equivalent of heresy in any religion.

—Damn it! — he mumbled, trying not to wake the female next to him.

He had learned the ways of her body and he could tell that he loved each one of them. He knew that his scent was impregnated on her skin, that turned him on. Seeing her lying on the bed wrapped between the sheets, made him want to repeat everything on that lips the night before, but he bit his lip to restrain himself from the idea.

She was a girl with sweet feelings and he wanted to show her how committed he was to getting to know her beyond the physical. He hoped she would give him the opportunity to prove it to her. He would come to see her tonight, he thought to himself. He set out to pick up his clothes scattered around the place. He arranged hers on a chair, leaving them folded. He looked for some paper and a pencil. He wrote down her number along with the request, "call me when you wake up, kiss Hunter".

As soon as he left the house, he felt a tightness in his body, as if his instinct was telling him that he should go back to her. He thought to himself that maybe it was. He had good s*x they had had, but as soon as he was ready to start jogging on his way home, the idea of her being his partner came back to him. You'll know it in your gut, his father would say. He put the idea aside, thinking again about his transportation. He had no choice but to run because there was no way he would get transportation now and while his men were getting up from yesterday's big party, he had to get some exercise.

As soon as he arrived near the property on the outskirts of the city, he smelled a different scent, it was only for a second, but he was convinced it was the scent of an alpha he didn't know, then he stopped to look at the trees that were surrounding him, he couldn't see anything, nor feel threatened by another presence, but he was sure that for a moment he caught his scent.

He had been warned in the past that the opportunity could arise for lone wolves that were expelled from the pack to roam the city, like alpha males that lost in the duel for leadership and decided not to submit to the new leader, wolves that committed some atrocity like the murder of their sentimental partner, or men with an erratic judgment that are a burden to the pack, which one of them would it be?

Because he could not be the leader of any group, he could not sense any other scent, and as his father said hunting is successful when it is carried out as a team, everyone worked under some guidelines, as a social unit, each one contributing something to the hunt.

—Your father is going to kill you— commented a man's voice, making him come out of his state of self-absorption. It was one of the men on duty to guard the perimeter who spoke to him. He had seen the man a couple of times when he was a kid. They said he was an experienced man in combat.

—Thank you— he replied sarcastically.

He continued walking as if nothing, until he reached the end of the stone path, where a two-story house stood imposingly, it had a classic Victorian style, painted in a dull white color that made it look more peaceful class in front of the entrance where the rivers of blood of the animals killed the night before.

Hunter thought of his first memory of a similar scene. He would have been about eight years old when he saw the dismembered bodies covering the floor. At that moment, he felt like vomiting. Now he felt a fierce hunger. He realized as soon as it developed that the instinct to hunt his own food was something as primitive as breathing.

All the doors of the house were open, men were coming and going with their wives, socializing about the breakfast they would have with all this new meat. He knew the exact moment they noticed, because the dynamics of the room changed, the air became much warmer.

A hand clutched tightly at the back of his neck, causing him to duck his head.

—Hunter, you never learn— Harley snapped.

Leading him in an uncivilized manner to where his father was sitting in the main chair of the room, he didn't want to raise his eyes, because he knew the disapproving looks would be on him, the council of elders would be near their alpha wanting to talk about planning new activities.

Harley pushed him so that he fell to his knees in front of his father.

He didn't have to open his mouth.

—I can smell it on you, you don't have any excuses—he wasn't planning on giving one either, Hunter said to himself. He hated this kind of questioning, but since he wasn't the leader, he had to keep his head down in this kind of situation or he might lose a hand in the process.

—I'm sorry father.

—You haven't even changed— he spat almost with disgust. Harold Hallan had almost animalistic brown eyes so dark they looked black, capable of seeing the secrets of his opponents — Will you tell me she's your partner? — There was a hiss of surprise in the room.

Hallan knew his son like the back of his hand, that's why he felt an intense rage inside him. His alpha instincts wanted to tear him apart in the yard for disrespecting his pack and lacking loyalty, but his rational side told him he had to keep his emotions in check. His son's lack of response infuriated him. He transformed his fingers into wolf claws and proceeded to dig them into the skin of Hunter's neck, to force him to look him in the eyes. He could see the bloodlust in his gaze that pleased him amply.

—Yes, or no? — he asked in the form of a snarl.

He only showed his fangs from the pressure of his neck that already left a trail of blood on his shirt.