The White Wolf

Chapter Two

~Payton~

I lay in bed, and it is the most comfortable bed I have ever laid on! Honestly, this must have been made out of duck feathers or something because I really don’t want to move. My old Alpha used to buy the most uncomfortable beds, because and I quote, the comfortable bed makes you soft, lazy, and fat. I used to roll my eyes at him thinking he was being overly dramatic. We always had really hard beds, it helped us get out of bed and into training nice and early at 5 am.

Laying here I look around the room, it is fit for a queen to live in, all beautiful wooden furniture, this massive wooden bed that matched the other stuff. It was easily a king-size bed, with a headboard that has been carved out and a little wooden wolf on the top. In my old room, we only had a rail in a build-in wardrobe and a chest of draws, we didn’t wear fashionable clothes but more like a uniform, so didn’t need much space. To the left of me was a window and double doors, the key was still in the door, so I decided to open them up and see what the land was like. As I open the door you can smell all the flowers from the garden. The garden was a large garden, with a hedge border. There are raised flower beds in a corner of the garden, with different types of flowers, or foliage. There was also a tree, with hanging birdseed holder, that had a swing attached to it and a bench under it. The bench was kept in good condition too. There were some free-standing hammocks around the garden, as well as a pond in the corner. The garden was beautifully attended too.  To the left of the garden, was the forest, which has a small gate to the side of the garden but could also be accessed through the main gate at the back of the garden. There were also packhouses to the left, beautiful wooden houses. From the balcony, you can hear the forest life. Birds chirping, deer grazing, water flowing, I could almost hear the wolves that were at every edge of the territory doing their rounds, they would come in and out of hearing range. I could hear them moving around as wolves, and a few of them talking as human. They were discussing me, I couldn’t hear all of it, it sounded like they wanted me to train them. Weird. I stand there a few more moments admiring the view for a while, allowing the sun on my face warming me. I felt relaxed standing here, being here, so eventually, I decide I need to use the bathroom and get ready for the day.

As I walk into the bathroom, which is all equipped with everything I need, shampoo, conditioner, towels, toothbrush, and toothpaste. Do they seriously have the rooms ready all of the time? Our rooms didn’t have anything in it, we expected visitors to bring their own. We had a little supply just in case, but it was barely used. We were a training pack; comfort was not something we invested in until we were old. How could I not notice how great the bathroom was last night? It was huge, with a shower clearly built for two people, a huge free-standing bath, and a sink with space on the side for makeup or hair straighteners, there was also a huge mirror in a gold frame above the sink.

When I come out of the shower, I find my bag by the door with a note on top.

Got pack business to sort out, if you need anything those working in the house today will help. I asked them to collect your stuff for you last night. Please don’t leave until I am back, I want to be able to at least say goodbye. X

I look at the note, he doesn’t want me to stay so he can say goodbye as it would be easier for him if I just left randomly which I’m not opposed to doing but I do really want to see him again. I really don’t want to leave either. I know I should but a big part of me wants to stay with him. Of course, you do, he’s our mate. we love him. My wolf pipes up. But we are putting him in danger, putting his pack in danger, we shouldn’t be here. I counter. She can feel my heart being torn. Maybe, he’s stronger than he looks, we can train the wolves, and maybe, just maybe we can win against Alpha, I mean you can win against him for sure, he’s old now, we can take him. I feel her need to stay, to be with Jake, it’s not that, it is the fact that Jake’s pack could get killed, then what? She thinks for a minute or two, they won’t fight against weaklings for no reason, he won’t order it as he knows you will kill him in a fight. Alpha won’t openly attack as all the other packs won't back him; you have to give Jake a chance, he deserves that much. He indeed deserves a chance, I won’t reject him, I would never reject him, but he can reject me once he hears my story. Then it’s not down to me. My stomach starts to grumble as I’ve not eaten in the last 24 hours, so if I’m going to stay until he rejects me, I might as well find the kitchen. I quickly get dressed and head out my door, turn right and find the stairs. They are the grand kind of stairs that you find when the princesses are being called or the elite use for their ceremonies. I walk down them thinking about the movies and follow the smell of food.

There is a young girl who is doing the washing up, her blonde hair is up in a ponytail. She turns around and greets me as I walk in,

 “Good morning Miss, what would you like for breakfast? We have everything from cereals, to a full English?” she’s got striking blue eyes, dimples on her cheeks as she smiled at me. She’s taller than me, with a curvy shape to her, she’s wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

“I’d like a full English, please. If it’s too much trouble, toast will be fine”. I say, as I smile at her, she gets to work straight away. While she’s cooking, I admire the kitchen. The kitchen is fair-sized, the cabinets are classic and wooden with a wooden top. The sink is under the window, and the massive cooker is on the outside wall. “At once Miss” she mutters. It’s weird being in another pack’s home, watching how they do things, looking at their lifestyles. We never had a kitchen like this, ours was more industrial-like you’d find at a school or restaurant kitchen.

“You can call me Payton” I smile “what’s your name?”

“Chef Mi… Payton” I frown she must have a name; she wasn’t born Chef. Seeing my expression “Claire, my names Claire. I work as a chef so usually, that’s how I’m referred” I make a face, in our pack everyone used their birth names, of course, people had jobs for the pack but still, “it doesn’t bother me though.” She says quickly after seeing my face. What a weird way to refer to people. Seems very impersonal like they can’t be bothered to see her, learn who she is, Claire is more than her job.

“So, where’s Jake? He left a note but I’m not sure what I am meant to do while I wait for him?” Claire looks up from cooking.

“Oh, I’m not sure, I know people were having problems on the outskirts, of the compound so he probably out there checking it out” I nod. Great I’ll have to wait for him to return, just so I can break his heart, well and mine in the process.

“Oh, ok, I’ll wait in my room until he comes home then.” I smile at her. Least the rooms comfy, I guess, and it has a TV. So that’s good, I can watch tv all day. Well, I can also stand on the balcony and admire the views too. I look outside and catch sight of children running around trying to find things. There’s only one person in charge of these kids, and it looks like Steph, Jake’s sister from last night. It was about 20mins or so and Claire puts my breakfast down in front of one of the stools in the kitchen. I start to eat it, “This is really good Claire, Thank you so much”.

“That’s ok, had much to do with pups, Payton?” She follows my eyes watching the children.

“A bit, I guess. I used to look after them before I turned and helped with training” I smile, I probably shouldn’t tell her that there are not many packs that train their pups, but we shall see what she does with the information. I carry on eating.

“Maybe instead of sitting in the room, you could go out and help if you like? I’ll tell Alpha Jake when he’s back and it will beat sitting around waiting for him?” She says smiling at me. “I guess it will, but I met Jake’s sister last night and I doubt she will want to spend the day with me today, but it’s ok” I shrug. I’m a little worried about approaching her, she wasn’t happy about me being here regardless of being Jake’s mate.

“Oh, don’t tell them this, but I heard Jake and Steph talking this morning, and she’s willing to get to know you, so maybe this is your chance?” She smiles encouragingly.

I nod, she takes my plate and I thank her and wonder outside towards to sound of children playing.

I forgot how much noise children make when they are having fun. They were running all over the clearing finding things that were hidden. I stand on the edge watching them, they would find something and hand it back to Steph. She was taller than me, 5 ft 9ish, and slim built. She’s wearing jeans and a really pretty top, it flowed down and was all flowers. She had her hair down and straightened, she is really pretty. She noticed me standing there all awkward.

“Hi, I’m Steph, Jakes sister, we met last night,” she says awkwardly. Her hand is on her hip. Clearly from her body language, she’s annoyed with me. I mean I would be too, I guess.

“Oh, yes, I’m Payton. Jake asked me to stay until he’s back and I saw you with all these pups and thought you might need help, but it's ok, you don’t even want me here let alone have me around the pups. It’s cool, I’ll wait for him in my room”. I go to turn away, but she blurts out

“You’re just going to break his heart, aren’t you?” Her voice is tight, you can hear the annoyance in her voice.

“well, it’s not like it will be easy for me either. Do you even know what happens when wolves reject each other?” I cross my arms over my body.

“well not exactly, it’s never happened here” she frowns.

“Well doesn’t matter who rejects who by the way, but their hearts feel like they are breaking, and that’s literal, it feels like the other half of you is dying, like only half your lungs are working, half your heart is working, if you’re lucky you pass out if you’re not, you wish for death, all the while, your brain reminds you of the one you lost. Some die, some lose all sense of self and others just about function if you’re lucky you will get another mate, if not you’ll be alone forever, destined to live an eternity without finding your mate again. So no, I am in no hurry to live through that. I do not want to reject your brother or harm him in any way. I watched my mother go through the loss of my dad, I couldn’t do that to someone else, no matter the reason. ” I say getting lost in my thoughts, after watching my mother go through the death of her mate, I never wanted to experience it. My mum although I was young, it was still awful to watch, I was basically raised by Jamie’s parents until my mother mated with the alpha.

“Oh, I didn’t know, I’m glad you don’t want to hurt him like that though, but what happened with the men? Clearly your dangerous” she’s curious as any adult would be.

“The five men to one woman, attempting to kill her? What do you suppose I done? I fought for my life, not sure I could have outrun them, and by the time your brother came to help…” I trail off.

“Well, ok, yeah. I guess anyone would have done the same”. I turn around to leave, “Payton, I would appreciate some help today, as an experienced fighter, and we’ve been having problems around the compound, having you there to help protect the pups would be a blessing”, she’s trying her best and there’s no way I could leave the pups unprotected.

“ok then, I would love to help out” I smile back at her. “It beats sitting in a room all day”.  

“I wouldn’t count on that; these kids never stop. However, we are doing a little bit of training with them to help keep them safe. Aren’t we kids?” the pups all nod as they are still looking for the last thing.

“There isn’t one more is there?” I whisper.

“Nope, wonder how long it will take them” she laughs, they are still looking. This little girl comes up to us, Steph introduces her, “this is Maddie, she’s 5, her parents aren’t around”, I nod. Not every wolf is lucky to have parents around, some can’t handle being in a pack, others have been killed by rogues, normal accidents, or natural causes.

“Why don’t you smell like a normal wolf?” she comes up to me sniffing the air, I smile.

“Maybe my smell is just different from your pack?” I say testing her. She’s got a keen sense of smell for one so young, she could grow up and be a tracker.

“Nope, that’s not that” She moves around me sniffing, so I relax a little bit to magically let my scent be released.

“Ok, I smelt that, you smell like honeysuckle, but you definitely have didn’t have a scent. I know you didn’t!”. She’s very adamant and stamps her foot, she also frowns at me. That was me when I was a child. I can’t help but smile at her.

“Ok, ok,” I say as I bob down to talk to her with my hands held up, “Well, Maddie, sometimes, a wolf is born without a scent or able to control their scent. It is very rare though. Your very smart to notice my inability to admit a scent without thinking about it!” With that, she smiles, she has cute little dimples when she does and announces very boldly “There are no more to find” she’s proud as punch and her little curls bounce as she moves, the others all start coming over and sit on the floor. We kneel in front of them. Maddie is clearly a very clever little girl, with a keen eye and smell, she will make a great beta one day.

“So,” Steph starts “we are going to go into the forest today, we will run, and I want you guys to follow me and listen to the noises of the forest. We will have Payton with us today who will take the back during the run”

“Hey, everyone, nice to meet you all. Does anyone know why we run as pups?” I query, not every pack trains their young, but if they do its all standardised.

A little boy puts his hand up. His brown hair is messy and fairly long and has the most beautiful blue eyes.  

“What’s your name?” I say as I point to a little boy.

“Luca, miss. We must listen to our surroundings”. He’s sat cross-legged in front of me. He seems quite proud of himself for knowing the answer too.  

“Why do we listen to our surroundings? And why train you so young?”

“Because miss, we need to know what natural noise is and what is a threat. We train young so that when our wolves come, they will know already, we will know already. Makes us stronger miss”. He’s got his arms up tensed showing off this arm muscles. This makes me smile, Jamie used to do the same thing making my heartache for him.  

“Good, Luca, do you guys mind if I run with you?”

They all enthusiastically start nodding and they line up like they have done since they learnt to walk. When running like this, if this were a true exercise the warrior would be at the back of the run, this is so they can defend any attacks that come on the side. Unknowingly I was placed at the back as I don’t know where I am going but it does give me a vantage point. Due to my training, I can fight a wolf in human form and win, therefore I won’t need to change and reveal who I truly am. I don’t think they would welcome me so openly if it was the case. As we take off, I match my speed to that of the children, which isn’t as slow as normal children but not as fast a wolf once transformed. We start at the edge of the forest, Steph seems to be following a well-formed grove within the forest, they must run this path a lot. Within the forest, which seems to be quite large, you can hear deer and rabbits, I can hear other members of the pack pacing the boundary. I now use my senses to listen in on their conversations, which seems a really bad thing to do but hey I need to know how they feel about me, apparently not a lot, they were talking about a girl being back from university and were arguing over who gets to date her. There are wildflowers that the kids all stop to smell, Steph stops a few times and asks the children what they can hear, smell, see. The flowers mean that rogues could use them to cover their scent if this pack isn’t well trained, they could easily slip in, ill mention it later to Jake. I use my senses to ensure we are alone in the forest. We are alone, which is good. The kids play, running and jumping off logs that have fallen, they cartwheel and somersault when they can. The girls all laugh as the boys show off to them. Some of the kids will hide and jump out at their friends, or girls, who shriek, each time Steph looks back to make sure no harm has come to them. We seem to come back where we started in one massive loop and we must have been running for 30 to 45 minutes.  Steph starts setting up for the next activity, which is defence. We talk as she sets up and explains what they learn. I asked if she minded if I took the lesson and I could teach them a bit more. She had told me that the kids wanted to learn more, but no one except the fighters knew and they never had time to train them.

“That’s a pity, in my old pack since we could walk, we learnt defensive manoeuvres.”

“Oh, that’s good, you can take the lead then, and I’ll do it with you, so you're training me too,” she says excitedly.

“Do they expect women not to fight here?” she’s piqued my interest now; I can’t stay here if I’m expected not to fight. That would be boring and pointless. I am hands down the best fighter any wolf has seen.

“It’s not so much we aren’t expected as most women just aren’t trained, most have different jobs, or flat out refused to fight” she shrugs. Maybe they just need to be shown, that women can fight and well, be just as good as men and still have all the other stuff too. “I don’t know how to fight as my mate, doesn’t want me in battle with him, in case something happened to me and I don’t want to distract him from his job and get him killed.”

“Yeah, I get that, it’s hard, to be honest. But if Jake will allow, I can train mates to fight to their advantage together? Some packs believe mates are weak and vulnerable, but trained mates are unstoppable, they know each other and can cover each other much more efficiently.”

“Will you? you can definitely train me and mine, I don’t want to be in a fight, but I want to be able to protect myself and not have him worry” I nod.

“Miss, can we learn now, the boys are so annoying”. Maddie says rolling her eyes.

“Ok,” I smile back at her, “Everyone pair up boy-girl please” the boys moan and the girls giggle. We always paired up like this, otherwise, girls paired up with girls and boys paired up with boys, and neither s*x learns about the other, their strengths weaknesses, when to be gentle and when to be rough.

They were full of energy at the beginning but by the end not so much. The girls had learnt how to beat the boys, and the boys had learnt that girls aren’t as soft as they previously thought. I taught the basics in blocking and dodging, building upon their very limited knowledge. I could feel Jakes presence watching me as we wrapped up the last few moves. The kids all came over and thanked me as their parents appeared. A few came and gave me cuddles telling me they enjoyed today. It reminded me so much of home.

“Had fun today?” Jake says as I walk over to him, he looks over to Stephanie and waves. She starts to walk over too.

“Oh, I hope you didn’t mind, it was just it’s been a while since I was around a pack, and even longer since I’ve been around pups, I just wanted to help out. Contribute in some way while I’m here”. I say nervously playing with my cardigan.

“Of course, I don’t.” He smiles at me, “It’s good that I didn’t have to ask you to try with the pack. You just naturally did it, and the pack instantly warmed knowing I wasn’t around, and you took your initiative.” Steph makes it to us; seems a few kids haven’t been picked up yet. “How was today?”

“All good, no issues thank god. I’m glad you came with us today Payton, made me feel safer”. Steph says. I guess my fighting skills are needed here more than I first thought.

“Really? I’m glad you feel like that. Look I’m not dangerous in myself. I will do anything to ensure your all protected if that’s either by me leaving or staying I’ll do what is best”.

“I know you will, you’ll make a good Luna”. Steph says. She smiles at me as she walks away.

She walks off towards the houses with the kids in tow, with a glance back at us. We turn around and walk to the house. As we walk side by side, our hands grazing each other as we walk, the electric passes between them at every brush. The longer I stay the harder it will be to leave, and I know I should, but I just can’t. I’ve been hoping to meet the person who our goddess thinks I deserve and now I have I don’t want to leave, but I don’t want to put him in danger. I’m being completely selfish. My heart starts to break every time I think of leaving. We walk into the kitchen, no one is there. Wonder where Claire would have gone.

“Do you want anything, water? Maybe?” I nod and he passes me bottled water fresh from the fridge, I drink some and set it on the side. I can feel him staring at me, it’s like where his eyes land there are little pinpricks over my skin. So, I turn and smile, he’s leaning against the kitchen side. He looks handsome, you can see his muscles under his light blue shirt, he’s wearing jeans again, but he has tucked his shirt into the jeans. I am leaning against the isle in the middle, looking less smart and more homeless, which I guess I was.

“Are you ok?” he is still staring at me intently, and I fidget, I’m not used to people staring like that, a kind of heat in his eyes. Usually mates would have coupled by now, so he’s clearly trying his best to keep things casual between us. To get to know each other better. You can’t know someone in a day.

“Yeah. I am. I enjoyed today” I bite on my lip maybe I shouldn’t say that I don’t want him thinking I’m going to stay, and his eyes darken. He crosses the kitchen and pulls my lip from my mouth. I look up to meet his eyes. They are darker green, almost black.  

“Please” are all the words he got out, I look up at him and as our eyes meet, he kisses me. It starts gentle and unsure when he realises, I’m not pulling away, it gets deeper and hungrier. His hand and slide down to my side and pick me up, places me on the island, my legs wrap around his waist, and draws him close, he moves his kisses down my neck to the skin that meets my collarbone. I arch my back and tilt my head back as I moan in pleasure. He moves up and is back to kissing my lips. I want him, he can take me. I am his and he is mine. He stops and I whimper a little, he gives a throaty laugh and rests his forehead to mine, we are both breathing heavy. My god, he’s hot.

“Payton, before we, we need too… talk”

“Oh,” Here it comes the rejection. Then I don’t want you. I got carried away speech. Then you’re not good enough speech. I freeze and panic, I don’t want to be rejected, it’s so hard, I want to be with him all the of time, but at the same time I know I should leave to save him, his pack. I know I should trust him, to tell him everything, but I’m so scared he will reject me, how can I tell him everything knowing he won’t want me. Clearly sensing my distress and inner turmoil he says

“I’m not going to rejecting you, Payton. I want you; I want you here, part of this pack. I think we should talk about our pasts a little bit, and how we would both like to proceed.” Oh, our pasts, like ex’s because mine will be short. Very short, his probably half the pack or something. For us, the goddess gave us a mating link, as you meet your mate, your mind’s start to link, I think she made that so that you can be completely in love in days, and no one would question it. You won’t be moving too fast because you're made for each other, your souls are connected deeply.

“Jake, my past, isn’t something for a casual conversation. It is difficult and complicated, and I was told, that my mate wouldn’t want me, that I would be rejected as I am not good enough to satisfy any man. That I would be useless. So please understand that I am cautious, please be patient.”

“What? No-one gets to speak for me! I can make my mind up about you” he growls. I can feel the anger coming off him. “How dare they make judgements about what I want” he shouts at me, well in general but as I’m right there. With that five guys come running into the room and instantly stop and look around puzzled.

“Sorry Alpha, we heard shouting” they instantly freeze, and I remember how we are and drop my legs.

“It’s ok. Everything is fine.” Jakes tone leaves very little argument. They don’t move though. “Payton, I will be patient to a point. At some point, you will have to let me in.” I just nod. He puts his arms around me and holds me tight.

“So” I force a smile, “I’m sure you have Alpha stuff to sort, and when I was running with the pups earlier I notice you have a lot of wildflowers in the woods, that could be problematic if your pack isn’t trained, a rogue could use them to cover their scent by the way, just thought I should mention it, I’m going to lay down before dinner, being around pups today has tired me out”, I swing my leg around so I can hope down from the island and make my way upstairs, just as I curl up on the bed, Jake appears, lays next to me and I put my head on his chest and rest until he wakes me for dinner.

He smiles at me as he wakes me, I grumble for more time,

He laughs a throaty laugh “Come on it’s dinner time, you haven’t eaten since breakfast you must be starving.”  I am, I can feel my stomach grumble. He gets me up and points me in the direction of the door. I just kind of follow him in a zombie-like state. Once we get to the table everyone is chatting away, Steph talking about me advancing the defence techniques with the children and how adults could use the lessons too. Jake pulls out a chair for me, next to him, he sits the head of the table and I’m to his left and Nick to the right. Dinner is served which is cottage pie, with vegetables. The vegetables are in dishes and everyone is helping themselves. I put a few different types of veg on my plate and listen to the conversations.  I pick up everyone's names, Elizabeth although she doesn’t mind being called Iz, Caleb, Thomas, Noah, and Logan, are all unmated and live in the packhouse, the men are classed as, warriors and Elizabeth is home from university and she must have been the girl that they were talking about earlier. I can see why they were arguing over who gets to ask her out first. She is really cute, long blonde hair, blue eyes and a cute smile, she’s also really friendly, and Nick’s little sister, I think they are twins, but Nick is slightly older.  They all chat about their days, made reports on the boundary. I mostly listen and reply when asked a direct question. Once everyone has finished eating, the plates are cleared away, and everyone moves to sit in the lounge. Jake disappears for a minute or two, so I sit in the love seat in the corner of the room. Steph sits perched on the end of the seat. Elizabeth sits on the couch but closest to me, Nick takes the armchair, Caleb gets to the seat next to Elizbeth first, then Thomas sits next to him, Noah and Logan sit on the floor all facing the tv.

“I’m sorry for how I acted last night, it was a shocking knowing about them men, and well I thought my brother was in danger from you, can we have a second chance?”

“I get that, if I had a brother, I would totally be the same. I just want to do the right thing, you know. I don’t want to hurt him, and I don’t want to put his pack in danger”

“Payton, I know you don’t, finding your mate is difficult and confusing. My Mate is my brothers best friend and that came with all kind of complications, I bet not as dire as yours but still, it was awful to start with. My brother had this whole no sister thing with all his friends, so of course, when it happened it was crazy, he knew he couldn’t separate us in the end”. Her eyes were sad and far away like she was caught in a memory, she would rather forget.

“That is what scares me though, they can’t separate us, so they won’t try. They will just kill us instead”. I blurt out, instantly regretting my choice of words, I wish I could take them back.

“Are you serious? She squeaked.

“Yeah which is why I won’t talk about my past Steph; I want you all safe”. That’s when I hear a cough and Steph gets up and sits on Nicks lap, snuggling into him. He starts stroking her back to calm her. Jake takes her seat. I pull my legs onto the seat and lean into his side and look up at him and smile.  

“So, I have a question?”

He smiles at me, “go ahead”

“So, Jake, do you use that instead of Jacob?”

“Yeah, my parent’s named me Jacob, and I use that on all my official documents, but people name me Jake, I find that I’m deemed more approachable. Other Alpha’s still calling me Jacob though”.

“Huh, did this name change happen when Twilight came about?”

“No, of course not”, everyone burst out laughing. “Twilight is just stupid”

“We had a Jacob in our pack, the town always making a joke about him being a wolf, little did they know” I shrug.

“Yeah, well, I get his pain, being an actual wolf called Jacob, is super annoying”, he gets lost in his thoughts.

Someone suggests watching a film. Twilight gets put on. we all sit, eat popcorn, and laugh.

Halfway through I need a wee and pop to the downstairs loo. As I open the door on my way out, Jake is standing there, I smile at him assuming he needed to go and went to walk away. He grabs my hand and pulls me back. I stumble into the wall for all my training I am still fairly clumsy. He puts his hands either side of me, he dips down and kisses me, I pull him closer and he slides his hands down my legs and lifts me, my legs wrap around his waist drawing him in closer, and he moans gently in my ear. He moves to kiss down my neck and back up to my mouth, as I moan as each kiss he does. One hand on his arm and the other in his hair. Just then a youngish girl rounds the corner and gasps. We both stop to look at her and Jake almost drops me. Like what the hell. She nods a little

“Sorry Alpha” and backs up looking like she was slapped in the face. We stand there frozen. Jake instantly becomes alive,

“Tasha! Wait come back” Jake shouts. What the hell? Then it dawned on me she must be his ex. He may have moved on and found his mate, but she hasn’t. He followed her, he just left me there, standing frozen. I didn’t want to go back to the group, so I go to the kitchen, Steph is in there, talking to Jake. He didn’t catch up to her, as I try to escape, I walk into the door. They both lookup.

“I’m going to go for a run. I need fresh air.” I half-smile and head for the kitchen door.

“I’ll come” he pleads,

“No, I think you have some business to attend” my voice dripping in sarcasm in the hopes he understands “I’ll be perfectly safe and will stay away from everyone.”  Both true, I am the safest person in this place, and I don’t want people to know about me therefore staying away from them is a given.

“but…” I didn’t hear the rest of what he said as I walked out the back door, it slammed shut behind me and I walk towards the woods. Considering I’m a guest in his home, I act as I own it, I make a mental note that needs to change. I can shift under the cover of the forest, but before I shift there’s a wolf smell that doesn’t match the pack. When I look over there is a pup playing on the grounds, and a wolf, circling. I start running through the garden, I am faster than a normal wolf, and as I’m close enough I shout for him so call the pack, through the link. Having a link with the children helps keep them safe, as the adults can keep tabs on the children better, and I can’t mind link anyone not being from this pack. It is Luca the boy from earlier. Just as the wolf lunges, I jump into the air, shift, and knock him over. I growl low and deep as a warning for him to stop or else. We teach our young what to do in situations like this, as the rogue population started to grow, its either lay down or run. The little boy laid down, hopefully, mind linking the pack. I took a protective stance over the boy, just as the pack comes out of the kitchen entrance, I shift back to human with my clothes on, in the hopes they didn’t see me. I know the little boy has seen me, but it was briefly, and he wouldn’t remember, or I could tell him not to tell, there’s only the one wolf so this will be an easy fight. The wolf lunges at me and the boy. I manage to kick him in the snout. While the wolf is sorting himself out, not taking an eye off the wolf I shout, “run to the pack boy”. I keep my stance and an eye on the rogue. What the hell is it doing here? It’s dangerous to get into the centre of a pack even if you make it there, your unlikely to get back out without being noticed, which means death.

He gets to the pack safely and runs straight into Steph’s arms, the pack are trying to move into formation, but I can feel their fear of the wolf that managed to get into the heart of this pack. The Wolf circles, me I keep my stance low, and move around as he does. He checks me out, doing a few lounges to see how on the ball I am. We end up fighting, he’s good considering. I twist and jump out of his way, land a few blows to him, I try to downplay my abilities, otherwise, it will be clear where I came from, who trained me and who I am. He manages to get a shot off with my shoulder. As Jake mentioned the Shadow pack before I know he’s been there, which means Alpha, would have told him all about his up and coming fighter that put adults to shame, if he cottons on to that, I am bugged. The wolf claws deep into the tissue of my shoulder. I whimper. I can’t hold my wolf back any longer, with the emotional pain of being dropped, and the pain from my shoulder and leg, I can’t contain her any longer, I need her. I shift into my wolf. As everyone looks at me, realising I am a white wolf, everyone freezes. Jake who was running to me, stops, the others were in a position to help but now, due to shock they don’t move, the only one who is not fazed is the one I’m fighting. Now I’m injured, although slowly healing, magic isn’t speeding it up either, so must be bad. I am well trained and start using my training. I will this fight. The fact my shoulder hurts slows me down and the wolf manages to get my leg, it's only a little cut but it hurts like hell. I start drawing on the earth to give me strength and continue on my fight. I use my ability to shift easily to gain the upper advantage. Eventually, I gain the upper hand, I jump up as a human, using my extra strength to gain a bit higher, as I come down I shift, and land on the wolfs back, I push down and grab his neck keeping pressure on to show I have won. Then and only then everyone seems to unfreeze. The warriors come rushing over to get the how shifted human and take him into the house. I wait in my wolf form to ensure I can react fast if he tries anything, once he’s inside, I shift back to human, with my clothes on.

Then Luca comes running up to me. His little hands were shaking, his blue eyes wide, a smile played upon his lips.  

“Omg that was so awesome, thank you so much thank you thank you thank you.”

“It’s ok Little one, don’t worry about it.” He launches himself at me, and I catch him he snuggles into me. I pick him up, considering his age, and my wolf abilities, picking up a 10year old isn’t hard. If I were human, it would be. I walk us over to the group. Jake is barking orders at people.

“Everybody home. Those with two or fewer people get together, get into groups of 4. Lock doors and windows, check-in every hour, every house.” He would of mind linked this to those who were not here. They would organise themselves with his orders. Those working in the house left for their own homes.

I’m watching the pack organise itself, and put Luca down, he runs over to Steph and takes her hand she guides him into the packhouse.

Jake eventually turns to me, “Are you ok?” I nod, "are you sure?” I nod again, he looks at where the guy got me, it’s not healed as well as normal. I figure it will take longer than normal, I used a fair amount of magic this evening, and have very little left to heal myself. “We will find out what he wants” he almost growls.

“let me talk to him, I can find out everything you need to know with very little effort!”

“I am not letting you out of my sight” he growls. My eyes go wide,

“I know your angry Jake, I’m sorry I didn’t tell I should of,” he cuts me off,

“I’m not angry at you Payton, I’m angry because I’m meant to protect you and I didn’t. I just stood there.” Frustrated with himself. Most Alpha’s wouldn’t think to jump in the fray, more so when the fight involves their wounded mate.

I laugh and shrug “you were distracted. I’m ok though”. Although my shoulder and leg ache, which is weird usually I’m healed by now, being a wolf and all.

We walk into the house and down to the basement. He’s chained up. I walk over to him.

“Who are you?” I bark at him. I’m a lot smaller than him, and stand there with my arms crossed, scowling at him. I’m used to picking fights with men twice my height. My old pack would do say I say. I’m not that type of person, but with my Alpha, I had to be, he wouldn’t accept anything less than terrifying from me. When I got locked away, I changed, I could be me again.

“Like you care who I am, you will torture me and kill me because that’s what you are told to do”. He was very matter of fact.

“Well no-one tells me what to do, I am a white wolf, the first one in like a hundred years, I do what I please” I stand there my arms crossed, he should know what I mean.

“I was kicked out of my pack for being gay! Gay like it’s a dirty word, and I so badly wanted a child”

“Are you fricking kidding me, right?”

“No, unfortunately not, see to your shoulder and leg, otherwise your mate will kill me”.

“You think it’s acceptable to behave like this do you, who cares if your gay, stealing children is not acceptable and you still stay here like this tonight. I will think about what to do with you in the morning”, Jake’s tone left no argument. He promptly turned and walked out of the basement, with a glance at the guy, I turned and followed.

As I get to the top of stairs, Jake shuts the door and pushes the cardigan off my shoulder to look at the injury. Its red and veiny meaning silver was used. It is more toxic to me than normal wolves, so I and Jamie researched white wolves a lot and found medical books around what herbs and that I could use in case I was hurt when I ran away. We packed a whole load in my bag which was upstairs.

“Jake, JAKE” I shout at him, he looks lost in thought and worried, probably mind linking the pack doc. “It’s ok, I’ve got the stuff I need to heal upstairs, I’ll just run a bath and be good as new afterwards.” I make my way up the stairs, and grab my bag as I go to the bathroom, I get my bags of herbs out, already premixed and stored in little bags, I just pour the whole bag into the bath, I mixed the water around with the herbs and whatnot. I turn off the tap and go back into the room, Jakes sat on the bed.

“Hey, I’ll be ok” I smile at him. “This has happened before, it will take like an hour or so, so you can you know, do what you want, you don’t have to wait” I kiss his check and go to the bathroom, I close the door gently and start to strip off. I climb into the bath grab my e-reader from my bag. I love to read, and Jamie brought it for me before I left so that I wouldn’t be without my favourite books. It wasn’t like I could just carry an entire suitcase of books around with me, and my Alpha knowing my love of books, would think to search libraries for me so it wasn’t like I could go there, he would also keep tabs on bookshops, no matter how small. So, this was the best present. I can feel the herbs burning away the silver, and as it does, I feel my strength return. I lose all sense of time as I read, I made it to chapter 5 of vampire academy before I started to fall asleep. I love reading human takes on the supernatural, they all bring an element of truth into them, but none of them know the full truth and therefore fill it in with random but logical elements. Vampire academy is fairly true to vampires, but I love reading for the love stories, although human love stories seem a little mundane to me. I put the e-reader on the floor and move to drain the bath. Once it is drained, I stand up and promptly slip, knocking my shoulder into the side of the bath. Goddamit. Just as I’m about to get up Jake it there with a towel held out his eyes closed. I lean on him, so I don’t slip again and get out, he wraps me up in a towel and helps dry my back.

“Thank you,” I say as he leaves. I quickly get into the jammies that I packed, and I walk into the room, he has gone back to watching tv and is in lounge pants and a t-shirt.

“You ok?” he says as he looks away from the TV.

“Yeah I just slipped in the tub” I smile sheepishly. “what are you watching?” I ask as I climb into the bed and cuddle into him. It’s weird how quickly we have become a couple in that sense.

“Oh, this? Its supernatural” he says shrugging.

“Oh, I love supernatural, this is only season 1, and the first episode?” I tilt my head to look at him better.

“yeah, I thought I’d just started watching again before the final season is released”

I nod at that and settle down. Popcorn appears on his lap as we watch the rest of the first episode. After about 3 episodes, I start to get sleepy and kept yawning, Eventually I fell asleep on the fourth episode watched.