Human

EVERETT

“Alpha, come join us hunting today,” Beta Lucius offers as he and Gamma Ace charge into my office like the feral animals they are.

I can’t blame them, hunting fuels my virility also. But, as alpha of the strongest and largest pack in the country, I must remain calculating and composed.

When my parents were killed, they handed over the reins of a pack that could be considered a kingdom by size and strength.

And with all this power, the responsibilities also fall to me, to protect the pack, to care for the wolves, and not act like an eager, boisterous pup.

“I would but I have those rogues in the cells to attend to,” I reply, attempting to seem uninterested in their activities.

As for many a wolf, hunting and running with my pack is in my nature, in the blood coursing through my veins.

Denying this hunt is like denying my nature, although I have higher duties.

These wolves look to me, trust me to take care of them. I won’t let them down.

I’ve proved my strength to them over the last couple years as alpha, yet I have to continue to do so.

Without my mate, I’m doing all of this alone, making all the decisions.

When I find her, I hope that she’ll be as strong as I believe she is, her wolf far superior to anyone else but me, and we’ll lead as alpha and luna, side by side, sharing our problems.

“They can wait, Alpha. You’ve been working all week. You owe it to Chaos to let loose,” Ace argues, making a fair point.

“He’s right. I might explode if I don’t get to hunt,” Chaos, my wolf, seethes, completely distraught by the fact that I just run around pack territory in the nights and don’t let him run wild.

It’s his instinct to be free, to run without restraint, to hunt.

“Fine. But it’ll be short. I have to get back to those rogues,” I declare, standing up, a little too excitedly so that Ace and Lucius chuckle a little.

We head out.

Once we reach the borders, I shift into my wolf, letting Chaos take control. The others shift into their wolves also, ready for a hunt.

Hunting in rogue territory is always more challenging as we have to hope the rogues don’t get to the good catches before we do.

Also, hunting in rogue territory means we can get ambushed at any moment, but rogues aren’t often so stupid as to go up against an alpha, beta, and gamma, no matter how many of them there are.

Rustling in the branches causes my ears to prick up and my eyes to narrow in on the target. A fawn. An innocent little fawn wandering in the woods.

I almost don’t want to take it down, but a rogue gets to it first, leaping onto the animal with ferocity and digging its teeth into what was meant to be mine.

I let out a beastly growl, which causes the rogue to scatter faster than he has time to look up and see me. I chase after it, with my beta and gamma following swiftly behind me.

I hate rogues with a passion. More than any witch or human.

And this rogue is no match for an alpha. I pounce on him, digging my claws into his fur and skin and causing a whimper to escape him.

But when a scent fills my nose, I immediately let go without question.

Honey and roses. And a mixture of other sweet smells. Everything that I could ever want all at once.

Chaos runs immediately toward it, back the way we came, even with Ace’s and Lucius’s confusion through the mind-link.

I begin to growl as I see a human girl with her head in her hands, her eyes closed as if she could sleep out here. She carries the scent.

“Mate!” Chaos yells to me. She doesn’t open her eyes, but swiftly gets up and sprints away from me, her mate.

Chaos chases after her with nothing else in mind but the fact that she is our mate. I watch her stumble a few times over nothing, as if she doesn’t know how to run.

I catch her easily, pinning her to the ground with my paws. The girl’s eyes are still squeezed shut, and then I realize she’s human.

Maybe she doesn’t even know about wolves. She’s going to, though, if she doesn’t. I shift into my human form, my hands pinning her down.

I sniff her deeply, letting the heavenly scent fill my nostrils.

“Mate,” I growl, which causes her eyes to snap open in shock.

“What’s going on?” Lucius asks through the mind-link.

“I have found my mate,” I state. “Human mate.”

How can a human be my luna, though? She’s not nearly strong enough. Maybe she’s just tired.

But I need a wolf to stand by my side. I need a female who will strengthen me in everyone’s eyes, not weaken me.

But this girl, as her eyes connect with mine, I know that I want nothing else in the world but her.

Chaos is leaping around in joy because we’ve found her, and in lust because he wants all of her. He’d mark her right here and now if she allowed him. I certainly wouldn’t though.

Then our little mate proceeds to pass out under me, maybe in shock or in exhaustion.

I lift her up in my arms and race back to where our clothes are, slipping them on in case she wakes up and she’s scared.

Lucius and Ace join me, their eyes widening at the sight of my mate.

And I take this time to take her all in.

She’s a mess. Blood smeared all over her face, her own blood. Dried blood drips down her jaw and as if someone just painted it all over her neck. It’s thick right in the middle, clotted there.

Her body is limp in my arms, so small like she could slip through my hands.

Her mahogany hair is laced with dirt and crumpled leaves and clumps of even more dried blood.

What the fuck did she do to herself? Why is all this blood hers? And where did it all come from? I see no wounds.

I sprint toward the pack hospital, handing her over to a female doctor with others close behind.

They assess her wounds and place her in the room next to Ophelia, my dying aunt. She looks up curiously from her bed as the doctors wheel my unconscious mate by, a thousand questions in her eyes.

I need her safe, and this area of the hospital already has a guard for Ophelia. I sit by my mate, just watching her as the doctors do what they do.

My mate is a human. A young human girl. She can’t be any older than eighteen, at most.

She isn’t just my mate though. She’s the mate to the alpha of the strongest pack in the country—she’ll be the luna.

Yet she’s human. I smell pack wolves on her, so maybe she was running in fear.

She was in rogue territory, incredibly dangerous for humans.

Did she know that? I can’t introduce this whole world to her. I don’t have the time and I have a responsibility to the pack to give them a strong luna.

I know what I need to do.

I have to reject her.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Chaos hisses as the thought crosses my mind. He reels inside of me as I say it, wanting to fight me and kick me out of control so I can never reject her.

“You are not rejecting our mate.”

But I’m the alpha. My duty is to the pack.

~What choice do I have?~