It was always the same advice and it irritated me to hell. One thing I knew for sure is that my gamma and I do not share the same taste in books and we probably never will. He relished in these quotes and encouragements and 'strategies' that 'improve your life', while for me, it was mostly a bunch of crap I never wanted to read or heed in my entire life.
If you read one of these books, you've read them all.
I heard a knock on my door and released a groan. People, or rather, wolves, or in this case, my beta, know that I don't like them in the upper part of my house without a good reason. They especially know that when my bedroom doors are closed, that means I want my peace and I want everything quiet.
Completely quiet.
"Alpha, I am sorry to interrupt your me-time, but I couldn't get you through the mind link." Steph, my beta, said mockingly and it made me groan once again in turn. "There was a breach on the western border, near the Darkwood." He exclaimed and then grew silent. I knew he won't say another thing until I get up and open the door.
"Rouges?" I asked opening the door to my bedroom and stepping outside. I was still in my sweatpants and no shirt on, but in this pack, everyone was free to walk naked around if they wish.
His half-closed eyes looked me over once and he started speaking slowly while brushing his fingers through his hair. "Yes, they are all dead, but there was another wolf." At my raised eyebrows, he smirked lightly. "A she-wolf from a different pack. It looks like they started chasing her in the Dawn Pack territory and followed her here." He explained as we started walking towards the stairs.
I held in a complaint, a grunt, a groan, whatever was threatening to come out of me and I followed him out of the room.
I wasn't in the mood to deal with another runaway teenager, and convincing them to go back to their parents or mate or whoever, was the last thing I wanted to do tonight. But reading that stupid book wasn't on the top three list for the night either so I picked up a shirt from a closet in the hallway downstairs and followed Steph outside into the night while he briefed me on who was on patrol tonight and how many rogues there were.
It was weird to see Steph walking around at this time of the night when the entire pack is asleep and only the unmated couples and teenagers run around or hide in their favourite spots. Steph is a morning person and loves his beauty sleep. By this hour, he is already nestled in his bed next to his mate. He is the early riser that I always needed in my life, and that my pack needed as well.
The nighttime, especially after midnight, however, is my favourite time to go for a run. People usually steer clear of the woods and I try to avoid alcoves and the lake beaches where there could be any teenagers that are throwing a party and I just let myself run. I try to do it as often as possible, since it helps me connect with him, even if my wolf form is not as cooperative as it used to be these days, and going for a run is a bit harder than usual.
As I started making a turn towards the Hut, the known spot where we keep all unknown wolves that crossed our border, before finding out what they want, the smell that I felt made me turn my head in another direction. I felt a tug somewhere inside of me to head in a different direction and my stomach churned with the possibility as soon as I feel it.
Please Goddess, please... Not tonight.
"It is this way actually." Steph turned onto the street that led us to his current house and the direction from which the scent came. "My mate refused to take the girl to the Hut and instead decided to take her home." Steph waved his head smiling, it was as if he felt it too.
Emma, my childhood best friend, at the same time, Steph's mate, and his wife (since they did have to do both of the ceremonies for some reason) was my general and one of my best warriors, as well as someone who sometimes had a much larger impact on my beta's actions and decisions than myself.
That infuriates me at times, however, Steph does know how to keep them both in check and make sure that the pack business that we take care of, is only ours and no one else's. Emma does have a temper and often tugs at our friendship to get things her way when it came to training and similar stuff. But she does love her husband and makes sure to never undermine his or my authority when it comes to the things we are to deal with. And I do have crazy respect for her when it comes to my pack's defence and territory strategy.
Not to mention I love her like a sister.
"Of course she did." I tried to not groan once again as we closed in on the house. The smell I felt was overcoming my senses. I felt it enveloping me and I couldn't help myself so I took a full deep breath of air that I simply never recovered from.
I felt a fresh spring breeze with violets being the main note. It was as if being enveloped in spring and lying down in the field of flowers and feeling like I can breathe for the first time in forever.
The smell wasn't too sweet nor too weak, it was just the right amount of everything, which scared me even further.
"Here we go." He opened the door and took us inside Emma's parent's home which was mostly the same as it was for the past 28 years of my life.
Until their house is built and completely furnished in a couple of months, Steph and Emma decided to stay with her parents, and it looks like the couple loves having them around. It seemed that they only grew younger with every day they had their pup back and it makes both Emma and Steph feel better and safer, after the fire in their home more than a year ago.
"She is in your old room, we made her the bed that was there and she has been sleeping for the past two hours," Emma said sternly, looking at me like she is reluctant to let me go through and into the room. As I made a move to turn past her and go down the hallway she stopped me with her hand. "Please be careful, she is exhausted and I assure you that she will not harm anyone here." Her words were gentle, but her eyes told me that she already felt sympathy for this girl.
Emma does love her wounded birds more than anything.
My stomach was already tied into a knot, but I just needed to get in there so that I can check it. I smiled at her jokingly. "And you can guarantee?"Emma rolled her eyes with a smile and nodded twice.
"I can feel it." She said it. And when it comes to her intuition, I know I am to trust her. I made a path down the hallway, step by step, being overpowered by her presence and her smell every centimetre I advanced.
When I opened the bedroom door, all of my suspicions from the moment I felt her scent and that tug deep inside of me, were confirmed.
Mate.
My mate.
Here, in my pack. In my beta's house. Running from rouges. A sudden surge of protectiveness took over me, I felt my wolf string at the fact that she wore Steph's shirt and trousers, and with another male's scent enveloping her, everything that tied me to her suddenly multiplied, urging me to go there and claim.
You sure have a nice way of playing with me Goddess.
I took a step back to make sure she is not woken up and to actually take a good look at her.
To say that she was the most beautiful thing I have ever beheld would be an understatement that would probably make someone roll their eyes, Goddess knows I would do it too if someone said that to me, but when it came to this girl, it was the truth.
Her copper hair was still held with a band on the ends, but most of it spilled on the pillow or on her own chest in soft waves. I couldn't make it all out under the blanket but I was able to see that her body was a bit rounder and more filled out than the average she-wolf with curves and delicate beige skin that was shining in the moonlight.
Made for me, as I was made for her.
Her lips were pouted in sleep and it made me smile even though I tried to contain it, however, there was no one here and I was free to fill my gaze with her, so I allowed myself a moment of it. Just a moment of enjoying it. She was just the right amount of everything. Looking even better than the way I imagined she would be.
I felt the need to go to her. To take her in my arms, sniff her, and take her home with me. Everything inside me, from my wolf to my human side woke up as if I was seeing and feeling it all again for the first time. I felt like howling to the moon and then doing some non-biblical things with the girl sleeping soundly in front of me.
She was in my bed, the bed I spent most of my childhood in and I couldn't help but smile at that fact as well.
Go to hell, Steph's t-shirt!
It felt good, even though those sheets haven't smelled like me for a long time.
I never knew what it was like for other wolves to meet their destined one from the goddess but one second I was staring at her and her lovely sleepy face and the next I was able to see the future with her. The one we could have together.
I was able to see her smiling at me and holding my hand and see her sleeping next to me with her soft body pressing up against me. I was able to see her figure carrying a chubby toddler with copper hair in her hands and I couldn't help but smile at the gift I was given. The gift I didn't want or ask for, but I still got it.
Everything opened up and it felt like I was seeing it all for the first time. This room wasn't as dark with only the moonlight to fill it. It felt as if her soft breaths filled it out with a soft glow of a winter's fire and those crackling embers.
For a moment there, I couldn't wait for her to open her eyes and look at me.
At the same time, I wished she never would. I wished she didn't see me, or notice me or smell me or get to know me. She could wake up, leave this pack and never come back again. Live her life without a mate or find a second chance with another lone wolf or a human. She could find someone that she will love and respect and be a friend with first. She didn't need me, nor this life.
She could have a normal one. That was all I could think about at that moment.
And yet I didn't move, not one centimetre. I simply watched her for quite some time while she slept and didn't dare move a finger in fear that she will wake up.
Eventually, her body started stirring on the bed and her silky hair was finally released from the band that was holding onto its ends. The rest of the shiny copper waves spilled down the pillow and onto her shoulder. I held in a breath.
This was the time to run. This was the time to turn and go.
I stayed nevertheless.
Her eyelids started moving and I wanted to step out of the room and run, but I wasn't able to move my legs. She stretched her limbs and after releasing a small moan opened those round hazel eyes while sniffing her surroundings and directed them towards me.
A confused expression passed her face for a moment. I knew she needed a second to compose herself and remember where she was. I knew that was a second I could use to turn and leave.
"Mate." She smiled and breathed out finally and it was as if something cracked inside of me.
That very moment, while I wished nothing more than to come up to her and hold her and kiss her, promise her the world and get to know her, I turned on my heels and ran out of the house, trying to shake it all off.