The Alpha's Unrecognised Mate

Chapter 5: Mount Gray

I’d been as eager as any of the other wolves to make a good impression, but I was thankful Lyra was smart enough to realise her full-on pace from the morning wasn’t going to win us any prizes in this challenge. Clint had said the climb would take around an hour which meant her top speed wasn’t sustainable. That being said, while I wasn’t expecting to be the first to reach the top, I was determined not to be the last, either.

It had been years since I’d tried to climb Mount Gray. The morning sunrise from the peak was dazzling and I’d wolfed up for the trek a few times when I first shifted. Nowadays I could never seem to find the hours needed to get there and back. It wasn’t just the view from the summit that was gorgeous, though. The trees that covered the mountain had been there for centuries, mammoth creatures reaching for the sky in such volume that the forest was in a permanent shadow. The sun that did manage to avoid the layers upon layers of foliage holding it back shimmered through onto the dirt floor in glowing rays. This time in the morning meant the air was still gently blanketed in fog and crisp dew.

My chest protested long before my legs that the jogging pace we were running was too much. Lyra grunted in annoyance and lowered her pace. I could smell a few others in my vicinity but I noted coldly that we were definitely in the latter section of the pack. I wanted so badly to push myself ahead but forced control. This was a trek, not a race, and the end was nowhere in sight. To tire myself out more now would only hinder me as I kept climbing. My wolf healing was kicking in, helping me to recover faster. The most important thing was to keep moving, even if the pace wasn’t as solid as I would have liked. To rest completely would make it harder to get going again.

A little further on and the fog revealed Misty doing just that, panting heavily as he lay on the ground in defeat. I could sense the anger coming off him, but fortunately it was anger at himself rather than anyone around him. I couldn’t help but resonate. Even at my lowered pace, I didn’t see him long before he was behind me. The steady movement felt slow but passing another wolf helped reinvigorate me to keep my speed balanced.

It was almost impossible to tell how far into the trek I was. I could feel the ground rising and was confident I was going in the right direction, but with the trees blocking the skyline it was hard to tell how far away the peak was. Unable to see the sun, I couldn’t get a sense of time either, not that it would have helped much. Clint had suggested an hour to reach the top, but what sort of pace had he been basing that on? I had no idea how long I had been climbing.

“We’re getting closer now. We’re probably three-quarters there,” Lyra interrupted my musings. This sort of thing came a lot more naturally to her, and I needed to remember to rely on her more heavily. While my frustration at our pace was laid completely on myself, hers was also aimed at me, and I appreciated that she did her best to keep it out of her mind and focus on moving forward.

“How can you tell?” I asked her.

“Focus. Smell,” she replied, distracted. I hadn’t noticed before, but she was putting a lot of her thought into her breathing, keeping her breaths deep and long rather than reverting to a pant. She was better at this than I had realised. Not wanting to utilise more of her attention than I needed to, I did as she said. With each deep breath our head was filled with an artwork of smells telling a detailed picture of the area around us. When I focused hard, I could distinguish the other wolves closest to us. Trixie was somewhere to my right, about 300 metres ahead of me. Two other wolves I hadn’t recognised at the training circle were behind me, but still close. I could faintly pick up Misty at the rear. At least I knew I wasn’t the slowest.

More interestingly, though, were the scents of the other wolves ahead of us. While some were staying consistent, others were getting stronger. Some of the pack had already reached the summit and started their descent. Their progress was slow, though. They’d used most of their energy to make it up the hill and were now relying on the downward slope to carry them back down. It wouldn’t be too long before the leaders started to pass us.

The distinctive scent of Clint was there, too. He smelled of fresh-cut wood and an intoxicating, almost sweet scent- was it cocoa butter? It was hard to tell while he was still so far away. At this distance I shouldn’t have been able to smell him at all, but being his fated mate made it easier to detect him. Since he was waiting at the summit, I finally had a way to determine how far we were from the top. It also helped to reinvigorate me to keep pushing even as my legs begged for rest. Lyra was keeping us steady and I was just starting to learn to put my faith in her when it came to things like this.

The pain started to subside as Clint’s scent grew stronger. At first I thought his presence alone had distracted me enough to ignore it, but as it steadily subsided I remembered that fated mates healed faster when they were close to each other. Did that mean he would heal faster, too, or did that not work on him since he gave up mating?

Lyra picked up our stride as we got closer, no longer limited by the aching in our chest and legs. Our increased speed meant we reached Clint not long after Trixie had turned to go back down. I hadn’t meant to stop, but Lyra couldn’t resist staring into Clint’s wolf’s shimmering eyes. He was in alpha leadership mode, his eyes sharp, but when he noticed Lyra stop, he softened them to look at us. This time it was his turn to assess us. Halfway through the challenge, we should have been panting and weak. It was kind of cheating for us to have healed so much. If we stayed close to him for much longer, we’d be able to start the way back down with as much energy as when we started. It took him a moment to realise this himself and he barked out a light chuckle when the reason clicked. He nodded back down the hill, breaking Lyra’s focus on his irises. There seemed to be an unspoken message in the air.

Don’t go down too fast, alright? We don’t want it to be obvious…

Another wolf arrived at the top of the hill and broke the private moment we were having. Clint’s eyes were back to serious, and I realised sadly I had no excuse to wait for the other wolf to leave before making my own descent. I nudged Lyra to bring us down, and she sadly obliged.

It was a little strange to maintain pace on the way down. I decided my best way to keep track of myself would be to follow Trixie. If I stayed about the same distance behind her down the hill as I had up it, there would be no way to tell I’d had a healing reprieve at the top.

Even without a boost of her own, Trixie was making good time down the hill. Clint wasn’t wrong when he said the way down would be faster. Finally we were working with gravity instead of against it. A human may have needed to use additional care so as not to stumble, but in wolf form we gripped the ground and were too well balanced on four legs for such a concern. It made it even harder to match Trixie’s pace, Lyra keen to push herself now she was being given the chance. If we wanted to improve, I’d have to give her more chances to push her limits. Pack training wasn’t going to be enough.

It wasn’t too long before I started to feel Clint’s scent growing. That meant all of the pack must have reached him and he was making his way down. I was a bit disappointed with how close to the back of the pack I was, and I knew Lyra felt it more than I did. I couldn’t quite push the guilt away, even though she didn’t force it onto me. I was determined not to let us be in this state again.

A new scent slammed me out of my thoughts and nearly took my legs out from under us. Lyra detected it before I did and was so shocked she hadn’t known how to react. Now I was on board, I didn’t have much better of an idea.

“That’s not one of ours,” Lyra growled deep to me. The scent was undeniably wolf, but her message was true. They hadn’t been in the training grounds with us, and the burnt smell in their scent suggested they weren’t just not one of ours- they weren’t part of anyone’s.

It was a rogue wolf.