The Alpha's Unrecognised Mate

Rogue Wolf

The rogue wolf was close, closer than I would have liked, and gaining. If I hadn’t been restored with Clint, I would have had no hope of outrunning him. As it stood, I could probably outrun him at his current pace, but I had a bad feeling he wasn’t running as fast as he could yet. I wasn’t sure how long it would take him to fill the gap between us if he sped up.

My first instinct was to howl for help, like Clint had instructed. I held my tongue, though. The closest wolf to me right now was Trixie. She may have had a bit more speed than I did, but I knew she had about as much fight training as I did- that was to say, none. If I called out for help, we’d both get slaughtered together before Clint could arrive.

“Our mate! He’s close. We might be able to make it to him…” Lyra suggested, already changing her footing to head back the way we had come.

“Okay, but if the rogue doesn’t follow us, we have to howl,” I countered. If the rogue decided to go after Trixie instead of us, she would be just as defenceless and even further away from Clint. I wasn’t all that confident I would be able to make it to Clint in time, but if I got close enough, I would at least have faster healing on my side. As long as I was closer to Clint than to Trixie, I could howl for help. If he could detect me running the other way, would he know to come to me? What if he thought I just wanted to see him, and it wasn’t an emergency? How did the sense of smell of an alpha compare to the heightened awareness of a destined mate? How long would it take him to tell I was close?

Lyra was content to leave the thinking up to me as she flew through the forest, all thought of hiding our increased stamina lost. It took the rogue a moment, but he had decided to follow us. In a way, it was a relief to know Trixie was safe. In another, it was horrible to know he had his sights set firmly on me. Worse, his pace had increased as we shifted from a jog to a run. As I ran, I tried to judge whether he was faster than me or not. I had a bad feeling that he was.

I wanted to push Lyra faster, but if I’d learnt anything from this morning it was to trust her instincts and let her work without my interference. This time when the trees went past, so close I could feel my fur brushing through the rough texture of their bark, I wasn’t concerned. The greater concern was still gaining on us from behind.

“He’s coming!” Lyra cried excitedly. She was too happy to mean anyone but Clint, and I felt deeply relieved. Even now, we were too close to Trixie for me to feel comfortable howling out, and now it seemed I wouldn’t need to. Just knowing he was heading our way made me calmer, but we weren’t safe just yet. If the rogue reached us before Clint did, it mightn’t matter much when he arrived.

“He’s so fast,” Lyra noticed in disbelief. Clint was getting closer at an exceptional pace. He wasn’t holding anything back to get to us. Did that mean he could sense the rogue too?

We were no longer tracking the rogue by scent- his paws echoing off the trees were close enough for us to hear. He wasn’t in leaping range, but he was getting awfully close. It took all my strength to keep my eyes ahead and charge towards Clint. I didn’t have any time to spare with a wayward glance.

“I’m sorry I let you down,” I told Lyra gently. “If I’d let you free more often we would never have-”

“Focus, Tori. I’m not dying today,” Lyra commanded, and I obeyed. I wasn’t as confident at our odds as Lyra was, but it was my turn to let her lead, and she was doing a phenomenal job. For once, I shut off my brain and let her charge forwards without my thoughts in our head.

Clint’s wolf leapt from the trees so suddenly I’d barely had time to hear his approach before he was above me, jumping over my running form with such perfect timing it was as though we’d practiced it before. Rather than continue running, Lyra spun around to back Clint up. There wasn’t a damn thing we could do to defend ourselves, or him, and she knew it as well as I did, but neither of us were about to leave him there alone. Besides, maybe the rogue didn’t know how useless we were just yet.

Our sudden change of pace left the rogue scrambling to a stop in front of Clint’s wolf. Our alpha’s stance was aggressive, a growl erupting from his powerful jaw. The rogue immediately turned submissive, flattening himself to the ground and tucking his tail under his body. It was the first time I’d been able to see the rogue that was chasing me. He was a dirty brown colour, and he was big. He was almost the same size as Clint’s wolf, and I didn’t like that. He didn’t move, and neither did Clint. As a rogue in our territory, Clint had every right to end him then and there. As soon as it became clear the rogue wouldn’t be attacking, however, Clint eased up.

The rogue let out a long, slow whimper. He looked into our alpha’s eyes from his position on the ground, asking a question I couldn’t discern. Clint seemed to understand, however, as he grunted, and swung his head in a ‘get out’ motion. The rogue didn’t need any further prodding, skidding as he rushed to stand and leave as quickly as he could manage. If I wasn’t mistaken, he retreated even faster than he had approached.

I looked to Clint and found comfort in his grey eyes. He walked towards me, then around me, as he inspected me for injuries. Content I hadn’t actually been attacked, he pushed his head back down the hill. Part of me wanted to shift and ask him all of the questions I had, but his calm demeanour told me the answers I wanted weren’t urgent enough to be worth embarrassing myself for. Besides, it was awfully cold this time in the morning, and I wasn’t too keen to lose Lyra’s warm fur for even a moment.

Clint started trotting back down the hill and, much like that morning, I followed him until we reached a comfortable sprint. I realised now that this pace was only possible for me in his healing company. I was a little disappointed, because that meant I had even more progress to be made. I’d be working on my cardio a lot in the future.

“We’ll be working on a lot in the future,” Lyra chimed in. “I don’t want to feel defenceless like that again.”

She was right. A defenceless wolf was an awful oxymoron to be. I hadn’t given her this much control in a long time- or had I ever? If we wanted to be luna, that needed to change.

“Luna or not, it needs to change,” Lyra corrected. Again, she wasn’t wrong.

The trip down the mountain was much more uneventful. About halfway down, Clint broke off to check on the stragglers, and I slowed myself down to reach the clearing at a more reasonable time. As the distance between us grew the slowing down became less of an act. The adrenaline of the near attack was emptying from my body like a balloon being untied. As it left, I felt completely deflated. My muscles ached from being pushed so hard in the run to safety, not to mention the trek up the mountain before that. I ended up reaching the training grounds near the back of the pack as I had expected. Most of the stumps closest to me as I entered the clearing had already been marked. I chose an empty one near the back and dragged my claws through the wood, leaving a heavy mark. I was saddened to think that my mark would smell no sweeter to Clint than any of the others around us. He would always be there for me, but he would never feel the same, almost magical feeling of being my fated mate.

“We can go and visit him tomorrow, after work,” I told Lyra, beating her question before she asked. We couldn’t really hang around the training grounds without arising suspicion, and we needed to shift to talk to him, anyway. Heading home to a nice warm shower would do us both good. Lyra didn’t have the energy to disagree, instead heading in the direction of our home and setting off.