Chapter 10
2071 Words
Matty
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“Alpha,” Ben mind-linked me again, and I woke with a start. I’d fallen asleep in the chair, the taste of stale whiskey in my mouth. I looked at the bottle, empty. The glass had fallen on the rug beside me, a small stain under it.
“What is it?” I growled miserably.
“The guards have scented a rogue wolf,” he said quickly, perhaps sensing my cantankerous mood. Torin stirred in my mind. Why was he suddenly interested in a rogue?
Usually, I’d be up in arms at a rogue brazen enough to enter my packlands. Instead, I felt nothing. Still, I had to keep up appearances.
“Who the f***k dared to cross onto my land,” I growled, feigning anger. “Hunt them down and bring them to me.”
Ben cleared his throat.
“Alpha,” he said nervously. “They’ve already lost him. All they have is a piece of fabric with the rogue’s scent.”
I could almost picture Ben cringing, waiting for my reaction. I imagined that he mind-linked me and didn’t tell me in person for that exact reason, to avoid the explosive backlash.
“What? Are we so incompetent that we’d let a mangy rogue walk all over us?” I sputtered, doing my best to seem as if I cared. “Double training for all warriors for the next month,” I shouted. “Bring me the fabric.”
“There is something else,” Ben said uncertainly.
“What?” I growled.
“The guards reported some weird activity; storm clouds rolled in out of nowhere but disappeared as soon as the sun came up, and one said they saw a ghost.”
“A ghost? Are you f.ucking kidding me? Who was it? Who saw the ghost?” I nearly laughed. Ghosts? What the hell was going on in my pack?
“It was Jaxon,” Ben said.
It figured; Jaxon was known to be a heavy drinker, often showing up to guard duty still tanked or heavily hungover.
“Jaxon? He’s a f.ucking drunk. He must have been plastered again. Just bring me the fabric,” I ordered, dismissing the thought of ghosts.
Torin paced in my mind uncharacteristically. What was up with my wolf?
“Yes, Alpha,” Ben replied, his tone resigned. He would be training the extra hours too. No one was exempt.
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked Torin.
He growled and kept pacing. No answer. My wolf was so full of it; we couldn’t even have a conversation, much less work together. If we were challenged, we’d be in deep trouble. I could only hope that once we exacted our revenge on the Luna Queen, he would settle down and go back to his usual aggressive, domineering self and work together.
A knock at the door stopped that train of thought, and Ben entered. A faint scent of flowers, I didn’t know which kind, came along with him, and Torin went ballistic in my mind, pushing to take over.
“Mate! That is my mate’s scent!” Torin barked furiously, still pushing to take over forcefully.
My blood rushed to my toes. Mate? My mate?
Distracted by the shock, Torin took over, and Ben’s eyes widened. He took a step back as Torin rushed at him, grabbing the piece of fabric and sniffing at it deeply.
I couldn’t worry about that now. That belonged to my mate; I had to find her. Wait, did I even want a mate? Another thought hit me equally as hard. My mate was a rogue? What the f***k. I cycled through a range of emotions, confusion, excitement, dread, disdain. It was as if a dam had broken, and all the feelings I’d been missing the last few weeks drowned me.
“Leave us!” Torin ordered Ben.
Ben, inclining his head, backed out of the room slowly, afraid of Torin.
“We must find our mate,” Torin growled at me.
“She is a rogue,” I spat in disgust. “Is that who we want as a Luna for our pack? A filthy rogue?”
“She smells of flowers; she is not filthy,” Torin said, his tone deadly as if he meant to attack at any moment. “She smells better than all of your whores put together.”
“At least my whores are not rogues, the dregs of our society.”
“Watch your mouth when speaking about our mate. There is no one more suited for us than our mate. I have put up with your escapades all these years because we hadn’t found our mate, but now I will accept no other.”
I could tell that he was deadly serious, and going up against Torin would be brutal; he was powerful, second probably only to the werewolf king. And… perhaps the queen. Torin growled at the thought, still seething at the humiliating defeat. But suddenly, his hatred wasn’t as intense; did that have something to do with our mate?
“Torin, think about it. A rogue as Luna of our pack will make us look weak,” I tried to reason with him.
“No,” he shouted. “She is our destined mate. The Moon Goddess doesn’t make mistakes; she must be as strong as me. She will be our equal. I don’t care what you think; we will not reject her under any circumstances. If you even try, I will make your life a living hell.”
He was adamant, hell-bent on having his mate, and Torin did not make idle threats. Nothing I said now would sway him, but maybe he had a point; I hadn’t even met her, and I’d judged her already. I had no idea why she had become a rogue.
“Fine, but I will reserve my judgment until we have met her. If she is weak, I will decide if I want her or not.”
“You will not reject her.” Torin stood firm.
Arguing with him would not help anything at that moment.
“Fine,” I said.
I’d just have to see about that once I met her. In the meantime, I needed some more sleep. My neck ached from the awkward position in the chair. I looked at the bottle and wished it wasn’t empty, my emotions still roiling and uncontrollable.
“We have to find her, now,” Torin said.
I was hesitant. Who would have thought after all these years I’d finally find my mate; how would my life change once I met her. Wolves generally changed and settled down once they mated. They were tamed. But there had been cases of rejection, and that made them miserable for a while. Weaker wolves always had it worse. I wasn’t worried, though; I was as strong as they came.
“Fine, we’ll send out some trackers,” I said.
“We need to search for her,” Torin insisted. “I have her scent; I can find her.”
He wasn’t going to let it go.
“Fine,” I said to him, then mind-linked Ben for the location they’d found the piece of fabric.
I moved to the bathroom quickly and splashed some water on my face. The mirror wasn’t kind to me; my eyes were bloodshot, and stubble a few days old made me look scraggy.
“Yeah, a.sshole, you look like the rogue,” Torin taunted.
“Shut up, Torin.”
I’d had enough of him. I was going to find our mate like he wanted; why did he still have to be a d.ick? I got dressed and headed out to the area Ben had indicated.
The morning air was fresh, and surprisingly, I appreciated the beauty of my land. A thick forest of Red Spruce, Eastern Hemlock, and Red Maple took up most of it, the scents of which were comforting and represented my home. Their leaves in various shades of green and red made it picturesque. The clearings boasted fields of wildflowers in almost every color, and the lake was even more spectacular, framed by the mountains that gave White Mountain Forest its name.
Did my mate think it was beautiful? What was I thinking? She was running, a rogue. But… what was she running from? A chill ran down my spine; was she in trouble?
Wait… Why did I care? Was that the pull of the mate bond already? I was so confused, my mind a mess.
I approached the area Ben had mentioned and caught the faintest whiff of her scent. She had been there not too long ago. I followed the scent and found a tree where it was stronger, a deep impression in the sand below the tree. She must have sat there for a while. Had she been tired? Why did she leave?
I followed the scent as it left the forest, and just as it got to the road, it disappeared. Torin and I both growled in frustration. She must have hitched a ride, and there was no way to follow her scent from there. I looked around; which way had the car been heading? If I knew it would narrow down the search area considerably, but there was no way to tell.
I turned and walked back into the forest woodenly, my spirits low. Did that mean I’d been excited to meet my mate? My feet automatically took me back to the tree where her scent was strongest, and I sat there, where she had been not an hour ago.
What had she felt when she sat there. Who or what was she running from? Was she from a neighboring pack? No. I’d been to all of them regularly; I would have found her already. But then, how did she end up in such a remote area, far from her home?
It just didn’t make sense.
I sat, and thoughts flitted in and out of my mind until my eyes closed, and I vaguely heard the call of a raven.
I walked through a forest, the scents foreign. It was smaller than mine, and the trees were all wrong. Suddenly a young woman ran through the trees, dark hair streaming behind her. It was dark, and she was bundled up in a coat, carrying a pack on her back. I couldn’t see her face, but I caught a whiff of her scent. She was my mate.
A man stepped out in front of her, an Alpha wolf, and grabbed her arm, shouting at her furiously. She looked terrified, but she shouted back, although I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I growled and ran toward them, but as I tried to touch them, my hand went right through them. The woman was striking, her features dainty and petite, yet she was tall and graceful. She was gorgeous. My mate was gorgeous.
“Watch,” an eerie voice ordered.
I looked around and could find nobody else. What the hell was going on?
Suddenly something rose from the lake, an enormous monster that looked like a dragon? Did water dragons even exist?
I shouted at them, but it seemed they couldn’t hear me. I watched in horror as the monster approached until they finally noticed it.
“Watch,” repeated the voice.
The woman, my mate, looked around and froze in fear, the terror plain on her face until the Alpha started dragging her along again. She bucked and grabbed onto something, still screaming. I imagined she was saying that she still would not go with him.
My heart raced; she was going to die if that monster got hold of them. Why wouldn’t she just let the Alpha protect her?
She stood her ground until the monster roared, clearly ready to attack. She froze again, and then she flickered as if an image on a screen and disappeared completely. The Alpha stood transfixed, a look of surprise followed by cunning determination on his face, until the monster roared again, furious at losing its prey. Only then did the Alpha turn and run.
I opened my eyes and looked up. A raven sat high in the branches of a nearby tree. It called and flew off.
I felt as if someone had winded me. My mate was stunning, and she was in deep, deep trouble.
- Writer
