Chapter 3: Rose and Honey
1378 Words
Kael's Pov :
The freezing winter rain felt like tiny needles against my bare skin, but it did nothing to cool the boiling heat inside my chest.
I wiped the back of my hand across my jaw, smearing the rogue wolf’s warm blood into the rain. Beside me, my Beta, Riven, was doing the same. The storm raging through the Blackwood forest was brutal enough to send any normal creature running for shelter, but my inner wolf was still on edge.
I am thirty-five years old, the Suprem Alpha of the most powerful pack in the world. I had fought in wars, destroyed entire bloodlines, and ruled my territory with an iron fist. I was a man of few words, and my patience for disrespect was absolutely zero.
Tonight, a group of stupid rogue wolves had thought they could quietly cross my southern borders. They had been wrong. They were all dead now, their bodies left in the mud for the scavengers.
"The border is clear, Alpha," Riven said, his voice easily cutting through the loud crack of thunder. "We should head back to the pack house. This storm is only going to get worse."
I gave a short, stiff nod. My massive, 6'4" frame felt tense, my muscles still coiled tight with leftover adrenaline. "Make sure the border patrols double their shifts tomorrow," I ordered. "I don't want any more surprises."
We turned and started walking through the trees. The heavy downpour usually washed away all scents in the forest, making the air smell like nothing but wet mud.
But then, the wind suddenly changed direction.
I stopped walking immediately.
"Alpha?" Riven asked, taking a few more steps before turning back to look at me in confusion.
I didn't answer him. I closed my eyes, tilting my head up slightly to catch the wind. I flared my nostrils, letting my heightened senses tear through the curtain of the storm.
The first thing I smelled made my lip curl in pure disgust. Wet fur, but it wasn't the scent of a werewolf. It was the dirty, sour smell of human hunting dogs. Underneath that, I caught the sharp sweat of human men. They were incredibly close, right near the edge of the deep ravine that separated my forest from the human town of Oakhaven.
Humans. Trespassing on my borders.
Pure rage instantly flooded my veins, burning away the cold of the rain. Whoever it is, I am going to rip their throat out, I thought, my fists clenching so hard that my knuckles popped loudly in the quiet forest. I did not tolerate humans bringing their pathetic lives into my woods.
I opened my mouth to give Riven the order to hunt them down.
But before I could speak, another scent wrapped around me.
It was incredibly faint, almost completely hidden beneath the smell of the dogs and the rain. But the moment it hit my nose, my lungs completely locked up.
Rose and honey.
It was a sweet, delicate, and intoxicating scent. It was so beautiful it made my head spin. But my wolf didn't purr. Instead, it panicked. Because mixed into that beautiful scent of rose and honey was the metallic smell of fresh blood.
Someone was bleeding on my territory. And they were terrified.
I moved through the pitch-black forest faster than any human eye could ever follow. I tore through the thick bushes and jumped over fallen trees without breaking my stride. The closer I got to the edge of the territory, the stronger the scent of the blood became.
It felt like a weight pressing down on my own chest. My wolf was clawing at my ribs, howling in a blind, desperate frenzy that I had never experienced in my entire thirty-five years of life.
"Alpha, wait! What happened?" Riven shouted from somewhere behind me, struggling to keep up with my frantic pace.
I completely ignored him. The anger in my chest was blinding now. I was going to slaughter whoever dared to spill this blood on my land.
I finally reached the bottom of the deep, rocky ravine. I stopped so sharply that my boots slid in the mud. Riven landed silently right beside me.
We stood there in the absolute dark, staring at the ground ahead of us.
It was a girl.
She was incredibly small, maybe only five-foot-three. Her petite, fragile body was lying in the freezing, thick mud. She was wearing a winter coat that was completely soaked through. Her dark brown hair was plastered to her back, hiding half of her face.
She was shivering violently, her tiny shoulders shaking with every ragged breath she took.
The scent of a freshly blood hit my nose, sharp and sickening. Her left leg was bent at a highly unnatural angle. She was freezing to death right in front of me.
Above us, at the top of the cliff, the human dogs were barking loudly, their vicious snarls echoing down the gorge. Men with bright flashlights were searching the edge, their voices carrying over the wind. They were hunting her.
My rage shifted into something much darker and colder. The lethal danger that I constantly radiated spiked, turning the air around me heavy and suffocating.
I stepped closer to her, my heavy frame looming over her tiny body. It was impossible to see her features. She was looking like a broken doll thrown away in the dirt.
My boots made a soft squelching sound in the mud.
She heard it.
Even though she was clearly on the edge of death, she dragged her small, broken body up just an inch.
Her pale, trembling lips parted.
"Help," she whispered.
Her voice was so incredibly fragile.
And then, she completely collapsed. Her tiny body went totally limp.
The exact moment she spoke, the faint scent of rose and honey suddenly slammed into my chest with the force of a hurricane. It hit me so hard that I actually stumbled back half a step.
It wasn't just a scent anymore. It was my soul violently recognizing its other half.
The anger inside me vanished instantly. It was completely replaced by a suffocating, terrifying wave of fear. My heart, which had beaten calmly through decades of war, completely stopped in my chest.
"Mate," I breathed into the cold air.
The word felt completely foreign on my tongue. I had lived my entire life believing I would never find one. Believing I didn't need one. But looking at her small, unconscious body, I knew that if her heart stopped beating, mine would stop too.
I dropped directly to my knees in the mud. I didn't care that I was the most feared Supreme Alpha in the world.
My hands reached out, shaking slightly. I gently and carefully gathered her tiny body against my bare chest, making sure not to move her broken leg. She felt like ice. She was so unbelievably small and light against my broad shoulders.
I buried my face in her wet, dark hair. I still couldn't see her face properly, but it didn't matter. My wolf was howling in pure, agonizing distress.
She is hurt. Our mate is broken.
"Alpha?" Riven asked softly. He took a slow step back, his eyes wide as he felt the dangerous shift in my energy. He had known me for years, but he had never seen me like this.
I held her tighter, trying to transfer my blazing body heat into her freezing skin.
I looked up at the top of the cliff. The flashlight beams were still searching. The dogs were still barking.
My eyes shifted, glowing a solid, pitch-black in the dark. I didn't want a fight anymore. I wanted an execution.
"Riven," I said.
"Yes, Alpha?"
"Kill the dogs," I commanded, my eyes locked on the lights above. "And kill all humans. Make sure they suffer before you kill them. No one touches what is mine."
- Writer
