Mated to the Enemy

Chapter 2 - Trespassing

--- Jet ---

Ralph was already stuffing his clothes into his bag, and standing in front of me with his ass hanging out. He was never the shy one of the pack, and ever since we turned rogue together we were inseparable. He was my best friend, and was supposed to be the future beta of the Black Pine.

Maybe, if I could convince him to go back to the pack then he still could be.

He shouldn’t be held back because of my past.

“Quit staring at my perfectly sculpted buns and let’s get this party started!”

“This isn’t a party,” I reasoned with him. “Packs kill rogues like us when they are on their territory.”

“We aren’t here to harm anyone.” Ralph scoffed.

I turned around to strip my own clothes off and stuff them in my bag, along with an extra pair of clothes, a toothbrush, and a bar of natural shampoo. Ralph whistled behind me, and I ignored him. He didn’t understand, or just didn’t care that every blood moon that we roamed the forest of another pack we were risking our lives.

“They might not look at it that way. We are here to potentially steal one of their pack.”

“No, we are here to potentially find our mates. And the goddess has definitely given us mates, somewhere. You’re a f*****g alpha, and I’m your right hand claw.”

We were here for his mate.

I only came because I knew the goddess would give him a mate, and that would change his whole perspective on being a rogue. He would join her pack, or take her back to his pack where he could claim his rightful place as beta.

This was the only way for him to get his life back.

Fuck if the goddess ever gave me a mate, I couldn’t claim her.

Not with my past.

My skin rippled, and my wolf launched into the forest of the cascades. Ralph caught up to me, his wolf had white hair and blue eyes, a stark difference to my black fur and silver orbs. The air was chilled, but we ran hot making the moisture in the air steam around us like we came equipped with our personal fog machines.

Ralph’s joy at being in his wolf form emanated off of him in waves. He mind-linked me, We’re going to find them this time. I can feel it.

I hoped he would, for his sake. We were older than what was normal to find a mate. But that’s because I had to leave before I was eighteen or be forced to reveal that I was an alpha and fight for control of the pack or be exiled anyways. No one liked to have a rift in the pack’s unity.

There would be a power struggle and the wolves would have split until one of us was dominated by the other. I already knew before my eighteenth birthday my wolf wouldn’t have submitted. We’ve already lost too much already to lose our identity too, but I didn’t want to lead the pack.

I couldn’t lead the pack.

It would hurt too much to be responsible for another’s life.

The whole pack’s lives.

To lose another piece of my soul.

And I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to be mated with a pair of rogues, I mind-linked back.

"We can go back to the Black Pine, or start our own pack." He was ever the optimist. "We could call it Silver Fang, or the Dark Moon Pine, or the…"

I let his list of pack names fade into the back of my mind, letting the feel of the forest beneath my large pads.

Packs couldn’t just be formed on a whim, we would have to visit the Lycan King and have the pack registered. Other wise we were just rogues with a flashy name, and more likely to have other packs be sent to drag us to the Lycan King, or have us killed.

Also, prime prey for other creatures like stray fae or vampires.

Though they usually stayed away during a blood moon, unless they were powerful enough to not give a s**t that wolves were much stronger on a blood moon.

With the sun’s departure, the rest of the packs in the area would gather, but there would also be increased patrols as the wolves rotated shifts. Lucky for us, we’ve made a few connections over the years of being rogues… garnered a bit of a reputation along the way with the she-wolves.

Because we stayed in wolf form none of the she-wolves knew who we were, but every blood moon, more would come as they came of age to see if we were their mates. It wasn’t difficult for any of them to feel the alpha energy radiating off of me, or the strength that was evident in Ralph’s white wolf that looked like the moon goddess herself had blessed him. They probably assumed we were from another prominent pack, and some she-wolves even joined just to have a bit of fun.

Once we made it to the small lake clearing I linked Ralph to let him know I’d be in my usual spot. I didn’t want to chance being exposed to too many she-wolves and accidentally find my mate, though I doubted I was given one. I monitored the area to make sure he was safe, and no patrols decided to crash his bi-yearly mating search.

They’ll ask for you again… he tried to convince me to stay.

I prowled the surrounding area, that mostly had other she-wolves that would wander by to see if there was anything of interest to them, but I stayed out of sight and kept my alpha aura tight within. My wolf suppressed a growl from being tamed on a night such as this. He wanted a mate just as badly as Ralph did, but he accepted, as I did, that it wasn’t meant to be. We needed to find a way through the portal, and kill the fae that took our mother.

I couldn’t have others risk their lives for my revenge.

“Where do you think you’re sneaking off to?” Willow leaned against the tree one leap away, her chest bared, arms lifted into her brown shiny hair, and one leg propped behind her. She was naked, and on full display… and I knew it was for me. My wolf huffed, pacing towards her, lust filling my loins.

Distracted by my own thoughts I let her get close and even transform back into her human form to taunt me. I knew she wasn’t my mate when we meant a few years ago, but I’d convinced myself that choosing one she-wolf to keep me occupied would help prevent accidentally running into my actual mate.

My belly clenched realizing that my wolf was convinced that I had a mate out there, and though he wasn’t opposed to a little fun, he seemed more reluctant lately to fool around. Even if it was only one she-wolf. I hardly considered that whoring ourselves.

It only served to make me more concerned about being left to sniff the surrounding area by myself. She was out there. I howled into the budding night’s sky, and Willow smirked thinking it had something to do with her seduction that had my wolf restless.

How do you know? I questioned my own wolf, but it wasn’t like he actually spoke to me, we were just connected. Part of my soul. I simply knew what he could sense, and his emotions. Or I should say our emotions.

He just knew.

And so did I.

Her claws dug into the bark of the tree behind her, and she lifted her own feet off the ground angling her p***y for me to smell and access easily. It was sexy as f**k that she was a strong she-wolf capable of suspending herself with her own strength, but her arms were toned and feminine.

I knew my mate was out there, but it was because of that fact that my c**k was harder than steel, and wanting to claim whoever she was out there. I prowled closer to Willow, the daughter of the Blood Crest’s beta. Her lips curved up excited to see my wolf approaching.

She didn’t even change into wolf form the closer I stalked her.

Waiting patiently, her thighs clenched in anticipation, feeling my alpha power flowing off of me.

I had fully intended to devour her tight cunt once again, but my wolf resisted sniffing the air eager for the hunt. My large black wolf turned its attention to the right, my ears twitching.

Willow lowered herself to the ground and in her impatience stepped forward to initiate things herself.

In close proximity, as an alpha I could mind-link even wolves outside my pack, but she still remained in her human form. She fully intended to get beastly with me, staying in her human form until her wolf couldn’t stand it any longer.

I’d never shown her my human form, maybe this was her way of trying to convince me to shift in front of her?

My wolf growled as she touched our fur, trying to stroke our arms. In her human form she couldn’t reach high enough to do much more than that.

It was a warning.

And my alpha energy rolled off making her whimper and take a step back. Her bewildered eyes told me she was confused as to whether she should be turned on, or afraid.

I should stay with her. I tried to force myself to, but again my wolf howled at the moon. I always avoided making unnecessary noises. Not once during our search for Ralph’s mate did I howl into the sky.

And I had done it twice now.

“At least tell me your name this time!” Willow roared from behind me.

Black eyes flashed at her darkly and she tripped to the dirt in her effort to back away.

No one would get in between me and my mate I thought, and the statement shocked me to my core. I had to get away from here. I had to leave.

Going back to Ralph was out of the question, what if my mate was there with the rest of the she-wolves? I wasn’t thinking clearly. Running through the forest, I convinced myself I was escaping my fate… and not heading straight for it.

The local pack’s delta enforcers were doing their rounds to protect the mating ceremony from being crashed by rogues. Just what I was trying to avoid. They were close to having the edge on me, if it weren’t for the silence that followed them. When the animals quieted, that was usually the sign of a good hunting team, most were too preoccupied to notice the absence of something.

Pacing the same area waiting to see if Ralph needed me gave me plenty of time to think, and to know when my stay was overdue. It would have been easier to avoid the patrols if I joined Ralph in wooing the she-wolves, but it was too risky for other reasons.

Slipping through the gap in their patrol, I had to go back and pull Ralph away. I only hoped he’d found his mate in the little time that we had this blood moon.

But it was like the enforcers knew I slipped them, and were specifically hunting for me, and not just doing a sweep. I could hear them closing in again, they weren’t hiding themselves anymore.

Then a wolf jumped out from the trees growling, followed by another.

How big was their hunting team?

More were still approaching from behind.

The biggest of them was trying to mind-link me as he prowled, but I wasn’t stupid. Opening up a link with a wolf not within your pack that you didn’t initiate was submission. My wolf wouldn’t allow it.

None of the wolves surrounding me were bigger than me, but that wouldn’t matter if all of them attacked. I was one wolf, against what appeared to be eight now.

The brown wolf shifted to talk, folding his arms over his chest pretending not to be impressed by my appeared strength, or the stature of my black wolf, made even more fearsome by the shadows.

“You’re trespassing,” he stated, but he still didn’t dare take another step closer. “We’ve had a report about an alpha harassing the she-wolves, that must be you.”

I growled realizing that Willow sent them. She obviously didn’t take kindly to me turning her down, and decided it was best to end things with a bang. Just not the kind of bang she was offering before. Scanning the wolves, I considered the fallout for knocking a few out and outrunning them. If I surprised them I’d escape without harming anyone too bad, but there was no telling if they’d mind link the rest of the pack initiating a full-scale hunt. That wouldn’t bode well for Ralph.

“And I thought to myself, why would an alpha be wandering out here instead of being f****d three ways to sunrise at the mating ceremony? No she-wolf in our pack would give a s**t whether they were your fated mate or not, they’d gladly be a luna even if you found your mate later. Unless, you were a rogue.” He did take a step forward this time, feeling proud of himself for figuring out what a pup could have surmised.

Towering to my full height, I slowly rounded towards him with a snarl. I wasn’t about to show him my face for him to remember and try to find me outside of the pack later. Letting my alpha aura wolf down on him I forced a mind-link with him making him flinch.

“I’m not here to cause trouble. Let me pass and I won’t tell your buddies a rogue made you submit.”

I broke the connection, and he rubbed the back of his head. The fire in his eyes told me he was going to make the wrong decision, and when he lunged in wolf form I knew this was going to be a fight instead.

The rest of the wolves gathered around us, but kept their distance.

He must have told them to back off through their pack link.

There was something to prove now, and I howled at the moon once more, ready to make the pup submit once more.

The brown wolf wasn’t anything too impressive, strong, but impulsive. He was taking this way more personally than just a matter of my alpha breaking down his mental walls into submission. I was doing my best to keep him relatively unscathed by our fight, but it was getting more difficult to do when the other wolves were growing impatient. Some swiped their claws as I neared them, and avoiding their interference while redirecting the mut, was proving detrimental to my success at getting out of this mess.

It was becoming more and more apparent that I would have to stop suppressing my alpha energy. This had gone on long enough.

I mind-linked Ralph, “Get your ass out of the Blood Crest territory. We’re grabbing our s**t, and going home.”

“f**k,” he replied immediately, though his tone had me smirking. The other wolves around misinterpreted it for cockiness, which I was, but that was besides the point. He might not have found a mate, but he certainly found someone to entertain himself with. That was the kind of f**k used when you’re balls deep in an exceptionally enjoyable she-wolf. I doubted he wanted me to hear that across our mind-link, but he was a bit too preoccupied to stop himself.

“f**k,” he repeated, but this time with the kind of tone I would have expected the first time, “I’ll come find you.”

“No,” I commanded. “I’m surrounded. Just let me know when you’re far enough away that we can lose them when I bolt.”

“How many?”

I counted again… there were fifteen now.

“I can handle it.”

Something sharp dug into my shoulder from behind. I roared, bucking the wolf off, and slamming my claw onto the neck submitting them. They quickly shifted to their human form, and stared up at me vulnerable. Why would he shift like that? His wolf would have handled the weight of my wolf better than this. I eased up on my pressure, and it was then that another wolf aimed for the same spot on my shoulder. Whatever they plunged into me burned… wolfsbane?

Rage consumed me.

Fucking wolfsbane, I didn’t have much time.

Being an alpha only made the poison take longer to work, and I could heal faster from it, but it still worked. I tossed the human wolf into the group of wolves that was the thinnest of their barricade. Jumping over one, and ripping my teeth into the next, I made my way through.

The wolf from the beginning chased me, and I turned at the same time as unleashing the full force of my alpha command. It crashed into him so suddenly he wasn’t prepared, and his wolf whimpered, giving me the window necessary to knock him out with one good punt to the jaw. He’d recover, but it’d give me time to run before the burning of the wolfsbane traveled to my heart.

I could hear the rest of the wolves taking chase, but they weren’t fast enough.

Grinning, I knew I’d make it back to Ralph before I passed out. He was strong enough to carry me back to the car.

“You’re going to have to do a Patty’s Day Save.”

“There’s no way you’re drunk right now…”

“Wolfsbane.”

“You ruin all the fun,” he joked, but I could hear the concern in his voice.

I could already feel myself slowing down. That was a s**t ton of wolfsbane. It was working itself through my body faster than I anticipated.

Stumbling through the forest, I rammed into a few trees on the way until my wolf retreated knowing I’d heal faster if I conserved energy. My hand reached for my shoulder coming back red with blood.

Fuck, it still didn’t heal shut.

The wolfsbane was worse than I thought. Something else had to be laced with it.

My vision blurred, and I leaned on a trunk for support, but couldn’t hold myself up.

I wasn’t going to make it back to my bag, or Ralph. I couldn’t even tell if I was still heading in the right direction. Trying to mind-link him all I felt was emptiness in the connection.

So much for that idea.

Body thumped to the ground. I groaned while dragging myself to sit against the trunk of he nearest tree. This wasn’t giving up, I reasoned, this was recalibrating before continuing my escape from Blood Crest’s territory. I slammed my fist back against the large tree, but it had me doubling over from the pain.

What was on that blade?

“There’s a rogue out there, you should get back to your pack,” the sweetest voice of the goddess called to me, and I swore, not realizing that I was that messed up that I’d hallucinate, or be on the cusp of death itself.

“Unless it already got the best of you…” Her voice was hesitant, yet I could hear footsteps coming closer. How had she got so close without me realizing?

Duh, Jet, you’re already passed out.

Sniffing the air, I could smell her now. She smelled of pine, and earth, and a hint of lavender. I inhaled the scent with a moan, and suddenly my wolf didn’t care about conserving energy to heal. Everything inside of me begged to be closer to her. The haze in my vision blurred around her, creating a kind of halo effect. Within that tunnel of moonlight revealed a goddess with bright green eyes, and red hair that glinted with every spec of the moon’s rays. She was close enough to grab, so I did.

With my wolf’s help we were fast enough to catch her soft hand and she fell into our lap with a shriek. Even that sound was melodic to my ears. My chest vibrated with contentment to have her in my arms, but I didn’t have the strength to do more. She pushed at my chest, but before I could object everything went dark.