My Troubled Mate

My life was always determined for me. Who I would be, how I would behave, and what my life would look like. I was meant to be a strong daughter, emotionless, and independent. I hated everything about my life. My older brother has been trained from birth to be the next alpha. Therefore I am the back up just in case something happened to the alpha. He was never my brother he was “my future alpha”. It was the same with my dad, he was “my alpha”.  The next step in my life was to be married to a man of my parent’s choice, another backup plan for the family’s title as alpha. That was the last straw from me. Between private tutors, and training for being luna of the pack, and the extra curricular’s I just snapped. I made the decision the day I was told who my husband would be to leave the pack and go lone wolf. It was as simple as making the decision and it was done. No more mind links, and the entire pack being notified. I ran out the front door of the house that day and never looked back.  Since then I have had one birthday completely alone and missed my own wedding date. I turned twenty this year. And the day passed without anything but whatever I wanted to do.  Most of the time I am sprinting through the forest with my paws pounding the dirt. I am sure I have been up and down the United States, yet I don’t ever really keep track. Lately, I’ve been keeping to the forests between Maine and Canda. The forest is dense and the moss is lush.  It is about two o’clock in the morning and I’m in a full sprint; my wolf and I enjoying the forcing of air coming in and out of my lungs. I decide that I want a drink from the fresh lake in the middle of the forest. As I am nearing the forest I smell something off. When I get closer I realize what the smell is. It is the thick smell of mildew and blood. I know that smell miles away. I slow to a walk. When I reach the barrier between the lake and the forest the smell gets stronger. It is definitely by the lake. I slowly break through the trees and stop in my tracks. I see a  massive wolf dredging through the water, but he is mid-phase. I take half a step back so I can still see, but I am still out of sight. When he finally completes the phase back to human,  he hits the bank of the lake, hard.  I stand, concrete, in the same place, frozen with indecision. I know what I should do. Lone wolves walk away and mind there own business. We don’t get involved with saving other wolves. It is the reason most go that way, we aren’t team players. But something is drawing me to him. It is like a strong magnet in my chest stopping me from walking away. Slowly as to try not to startle the mystery wolfman, I begin to step out of the coverage I’m in. I also decided to phase so I don’t intimidate him. He doesn’t seem to hear me at first. I get about halfway through the clearing before he manages to lift his head. “I told your pack the answer is no. You’re not getting my pack or our land!” he tries to yell, yet it comes out more of a grunt. “Whoa, dude, I’m just trying to help. I saw you struggling in the lake and something told me that you needed some help. But I’m all for walking away if you feel like you’ve got this. And by the way, I don’t belong to anyone!” as I am speaking to him I get a closer look at him. He has got roughly seventeen puncture wounds up and down his rib cage and abdomen. Some are still bleeding, some of them are old. To go with the wounds he’s got bruises all over like he took a whole body beating. Regardless he clearly feels that he doesn’t need my help. I turn to phase back and walk away when I hear him speak again.  “Wait! I hate that I’m asking, but I do need help,” he mutters. I stop in my tracks and slowly turn to face him again. “You’re an alpha, arent you?” I state more than asking. I shake my head to myself. Of course, he would be the alpha of some pack around here. That seems to be what my life revolves around at this point. Yet he hasn’t answered me at this point, but I have a pretty good gut feeling. “So? Am I right or am I wrong?” I inquire again. “Who the f**k is asking?” he spits with a little more energy. I just roll my eyes and begin to assess the wounds on his body. Some of the wounds need deeply scrubbed then covered.  “Alright ill be right back. I wonder to where I have a med pack stashed. I rummage through and find what I think ill need. And I head back to where I left him. He is struggling to sit upon a rock when I emerge. I walk over and stand in front of him, waiting. “Well?” he says as is I’m supposed to be pulling off what shreds of the shirt he has left on. I am not his nurse. But as now that I am standing in front of him I realize the size of this man. He probably has at least a hundred pounds on me, and at least a foot and a half. It instantly sets me on edge. I don’t do vulnerable very well.  “Well, you need to take those rags off so I can see what I’m working with. I’m sure you know how to undress yourself alpha,” I said, the words dripping with sarcasm.  “Well as much as I would love you to do it for me sweet little thing, I do,” he smirks at me, then pulls the rags off. He was almost charming, then the walls go up. All the alphas know each other. I can’t give myself away. I’ve managed a year on my own, living the way I want. I won’t sacrifice that. I look over the wounds and look up at him. “I’m going to assume that this was silver that did this to you and that is why you are healing the human way,” I state. He gives me a simple nod. And I really realize this man is simply handsome. Dark shoulder-length hair, falling out of a bun. Amber golden eyes and a full beard. He’s got dreamy broad shoulders and is sculpted like the statue of David.  “You are aware I’m going to have to scrub all of these out with alcohol, right?” I ask him, trying to make him aware that this is going to really f*****g hurt. “Just do it, women,” he demands “Excuse me?” I ask. Again I am not a wench or a maid thank you very much. He glares at me a moment. “Please,” he mumbles. That’s better. I had him the extra rag to bit on. If someone did this to him they are probably still looking for him. He puts the towel in the back of one side of his mouth and bites down hard. I take the alcohol out of the small pack along with the rag. I soak the rag and quickly put it against his skin. I roughly begin to scrub and he yanks his torso away from me. “Damn it women!” he raises his voice at me. I simply raise my eyebrow. “Okay, first I warned you it was gonna hurt. And two do you want whoever did this to you to find you? If so you’re off to a pretty good start with the yelling. I begin to srub again and he squints and bites down hard. Except for this time I’m the one that pulls away. And for good reason.  I hear a twig snapping and then another and another. I dropped everything in my hands and looked up and him. My instincts kicked in. I had no idea how many of them there were, but it was too many for me and the wounded wolf I had with me. “Let’s go! Now!” I whisper. I begin to pull him up and put one of his arms around my shoulders.  “Stop, it was just snapping twigs. You don’t know that its anything but a squirrel.” he is aggravated. “NO! Do you smell that?” I whisper a little louder. Still pulling him along with me. He pauses and takes a deep breath threw his noise. Then his eyes widened, and that’s all the signal I needed. We took off running as fast as we could with his fresh open wounds. It was no good, they could smell the blood. Before I knew if we were circled. Pinned with no one to help us and nowhere to go.