Mated to the Enemy

Chapter 3 - Alpha Threat

— Danny —

“Get your hands off me!” I shrilled pushing on his chest to right myself, but my ass moved and I stilled feeling something firm between his lap that I collapsed onto. Hand raised to slap him, I fumbled backwards as his heavy body went limp. I blushed profusely, closing my eyes.

The man was fully naked, and… injured, I reminded myself.

He was worse off than I thought. I grimaced seeing the nasty gash in his shoulder. Weren’t werewolves supposed to heal faster or something? That wound didn’t look like it was going to heal anytime soon, if anything it looked like it was getting worse.

I part pushed part rolled him off of me, taking care not to have him land on his injury. After getting a closer inspection, the stabbing wasn’t that large and shouldn’t have been affecting the wolf this bad. He must have been poisoned or something. Leaving him face down on the dirt, I rushed back to camp to grab my first-aid kit.

Rummaging through my bag, Christy came out of hiding.

Right, I had forgotten. How had I forgot she was here?

“Is everything okay?”

“There’s a…”

How did I explain a naked, injured man in the forest?

“I need this.” I settled on lifting the first-aid kit and waving it in the air before bolting.

Real smooth.

“Danny!”

When I get back to the spot I left the injured werewolf, there were other wolves surrounding him. I stilled, Christy bumped into my back. Pushing her back with one hand I urged her to go back to camp without a word. She shook her head, refusing to leave me. Bravery wouldn’t stop the wolves from tearing either of us a part.

“You’re faster than me… I’ll distract them,” Christy whispered, offering herself as sacrifice. As touching as it was, I couldn’t let her do that.

“This isn’t one of your novels,” I hissed back.

The wolves weren’t distracted with the unconscious man anymore, they were watching us, seeing what we would do. That’s how I knew they weren’t ordinary wolves, they were werewolves. If we ran they would chase, but what would they do if we just stayed put?

I lifted my hands in a sign of submission. If this was one of their own then they would protect the injured man. They’d want me to help, right?

“I have first aid,” I told them and pointed to the man lying face down in the dirt. His bare ass was sculpted, and I closed my eyes trying to stop myself from thinking about that when we were surrounded by wolves, and he was hurt.

“What the f**k,” Christy screeched.

I opened my eyes to see that one of the wolves just broke all protocol among non-werewolves to shift in front of both of us. Another man was naked and approaching us, sniffing the air.

“Stay back,” I warned him pointing my first-aid kit at him like it was a weapon, but I had no idea what I would do if he called me on my bluff. He was large even not in his wolf form. Brown, short hair in a military-like cut, and his amber eyes glowed reflective in the moon’s light. Predatory.

He merely smiled at my weak attempt at staving off his advance towards us. If I ran he’d shift again and I wasn’t sure that would be much better than our current circumstances, if not worse.

Last resort… had to mention my mom, and the pack name.

“Are you,” I stuttered, “from the Blood Crest pack?”

Christy darted from me to the man, and back again confused. I’d have to explain some things later.

The man stopped.

“What is your affiliation?” he asked.

So, did that mean he was or wasn’t from my old pack?

“My name is Danny,” I introduced, about to give my mom’s name too before the man’s eyes widened, and I couldn’t say anything as he quickly rushed us. His arms gathered me up into a tight squeeze.

“For f**k’s sake, you could have led with that squirt. Danny f*****g Gabriel, you’re all grown up. Last I saw you, you were so small!”

At his words the rest of the wolves shifted, and I heard a thump behind me.

Christy had fainted.

There was one that stayed behind with the injured male, a woman with long brown shiny hair. She cringed at the sight of the gash in his shoulder, and when her fingers touched his skin every muscle in my body tensed. I gritted my teeth, and growled.

“Woah,” the man said amused, but pulled away to take a look at me with a raised brow. “You’re certainly not little anymore, are you? You smell unbelievable.” He closed his eyes inhaling my scent. “Like the forest in spring time.”

“Are you about done?” I glared at him, uncomfortable with his current level of affection.

“Right, of course.” He let go, and now I was regretting even that decision because he was not ashamed of his nudity. His chest was chiseled, he was lean, and I averted my eyes squeezing them shut before I got any lower. He laughed at my response.

“We’ve got ourselves a shy one,” he called back to the group. “Where have you been all these years? Tristen swore you would only be gone until some sort of danger to your life was taken care of. Being an alpha’s daughter, when his previous pack would sooner kill you than have you come back to claim any right to lead and all that. So, what, did you hear your old man already killed the bastard that threatened you?”

My mind swirled with all the information being flung at me so fast that I felt like I should be the one fainted on the dirt instead of Christy. I couldn’t keep my eyes closed after hearing that. An alpha’s daughter? Leading the pack? Killed?

Wait, Tristen… wasn’t he the one I just met, the beta of the Blood Crest pack? Was my father the alpha of the pack?

There were too many questions, and not enough answers, but there was no time for that. I glanced back down at the perfectly sculpted butt of the unconscious man, and the weight of the first-aid kit hung heavy in my hand.

“I’m really just camping out for now, blood moon and all.”

He laughed, and still didn’t introduce himself, like he thought I should know who he was when he didn’t even recognize me himself.

“You know fated mates are a rare thing these days, like the goddess has given up on that sort of thing. Blood moons just reveal whether our wolves are compatible for mating.” He stepped closer to me then and closed his eyes as he sniffed the air around me. “You smell amazing, Danny.”

“Uh, thanks. Anyways,” I replied awkwardly side-stepping him, “Not here to find a mate, blood moons are just nice to enjoy the woods.”

“I’ve got some wood for you to enjoy,” a guy from the group behind him joked.

“f**k off,” the stranger said over his shoulder, and then smiled back at me. “There’s a reason why I pick Rual for patrol on the blood moon, he isn’t capable of finding a mate with his kind of charm.”

A female was kneeling down over the prone man and searching his face like there were clues to some mystery on his face. She sniffed him and wrinkled her nose.

“This has to be him, he smells of wolfsbane,” she interjected, “You can try to seduce her after we bring the rogue in.”

“He’s not going anywhere,” he joked casually.

A rogue… werewolf packs killed rogues.

My chest tightened painfully thinking about the mystery man being killed for being a rogue because technically I was one too. Not that I had a wolf to be of a threat. I couldn’t let them take him.

“He isn’t a rogue,” I blurted out, unsure where I was going with this.

“Lauren,” the naked female intoned her irritation at waiting, “just take her with us.”

Those amber eyes smiled, his canines gleaming in the moonlight. “Would you like to have some fun in the woods, Danny?”

I cleared my throat, turning my gaze up to the moon. “You might need some clothes. I should take a look at him,” I motioned to the body on the ground, “before you bring him back with you, and make sure he’ll make it.”

Brushing past him, I knelt down with the woman, and found the stab wound in his shoulder. I popped open the first aid kit, and spritzed some cleaning solution over it cringing at the fact that if he was a werewolf, he should have been healing faster than this.

The man groaned, and I flinched not expecting him to have a reaction while knocked out. His skin was clammy, and hot. Hotter than what was even normal for a werewolf.

“My first-aid kit isn’t going to cut it. He needs a healer,” I announced, seeking some sort of action from the few werewolves that were there, but none of them made a move to help the rogue. Why would they, I thought, he was trespassing, and the pack in charge of the area determined his fate.

When I made a move to adjust, and drag the poor guy myself an arm flew around my waist knocking me off balance. The man growled, but his eyes were still closed. Lauren, the wolf that seemed to be leading this scouting party, was quickly shoving a heel into the man’s shoulder, and instead of the injured man letting me go he pulled me closer. I was wrapped up in his arms like he was protecting me while being attacked. He stumbled, and rolled away with a pained grunt from Lauren’s claws grabbing him or me.

Lauren threw back his head in laughter.

“Get a load of this one, he thinks Danny is his mate.”

Then a lightbulb burst off in my mind.

If he was my pretend mate while he was all out of his mind, then no one would force me to show my wolf, or try to mate with me. This rogue was as good as dead anyways unless I could prove he was mine and had a right to join the pack.

I grinned to myself mischievously.

“Don’t be so sexist. He’s my mate.”