Intruder's Chase

Aidan

Kiarra had been right. I really needed to sleep.

When I woke up several hours later, my head felt heavy, but my body felt more energized than it had for the past couple of days.

I opened my eyes with a slight groan and looked at the woman lying in my arms with her head resting on my chest.

She was sleeping peacefully. The frown that had permanently decorated her face for days was finally gone, and I hesitated to disturb her because I knew it meant the return of the crinkled forehead and furrowed brows.

So instead I just kept still and watched my mate as she snuggled closer to my body in her sleep. I gently stroked my hand on her back as my mind went elsewhere.

The past couple of days had been chaotic, and I hated how little of it had been in my control.

Everything that had happened had happened because I was in the dark about a lot of details of my mate’s past.

The more I thought about it, the more obvious it became to me that we had glanced over a lot of really important factors when we got to know each other.

I also couldn’t help the anger that surged in me as I thought back to my own passiveness.

After she had turned and we found out she was a werewolf, I should have been more proactive in figuring out how that was even possible.

I should have asked more questions, and I should ~definitely~ have sent Isaac to gather information about missing two-year-olds or anything relating to them.

Even if Kiarra had withheld the information herself, I could probably have figured this out on my own. It wasn’t exactly common for werewolf pups to end up in a human orphanage.

I clenched my jaw silently in an attempt to control my emotions.

My dominant side wanted control in every situation I was in, and the fact that everything that was happening in my pack and to my mate was out of my control was unacceptable.

How could I gain back control?

Kiarra meeting her parents was the only thing we could do as of right now, and I had luckily convinced her to get that done today.

But what then? Was I supposed to just sit still and be blindsided by whatever happened at this meeting?

I couldn’t protect her from getting hurt if I didn’t know what would happen. All I could do was prepare for the different scenarios we had imagined would come from the meeting.

If they just wanted to get to know their daughter, then that would be a thing between my mate and the Kendricks.

On the other hand, if they had any ~other~ motives, it would be a thing involving me, my pack, and my pack’s future.

If they wanted to have an official Luna ceremony and make a peace treaty between our two packs, that could be done without much work.

Although we had our disagreements with their view of the world, we had never had any disputes with the Apex Pack and a peace treaty could be upheld without much effort.

If they wanted to merge packs, that would be another ball game altogether. But seeing as they already had a new heir, that outcome looked the least possible.

Those three options were the only reasons we had come up with for Kiarra’s parents’ sudden appearance, and I had already handled the response to each one of them.

What made me wary was the possibility of the unknown. What if there was something else they wanted? What if there was something we hadn’t thought of?

I hated not being prepared. I was always in charge. I was always in control, and feeling helpless was not a feeling I was or would ever be comfortable with.

I looked at Kiarra’s sleeping face again and brushed my finger lightly over her slightly parted lips.

They were soft and pink, and the more I looked at them, the more appetizing they became.

At the touch of my thumb, her sleeping figure stuck out her tongue and licked the bottom lip, following the trail my finger had drawn.

It might be a gesture done while asleep, but it had a triggering effect on my body and my dick started hardening as I watched her.

I let out a low groan and slightly adjusted myself as I looked up at the ceiling, trying to control my urges.

It was still completely dark outside, so the night was still ongoing, but thanks to my troubled mind and hardening body, it became impossible to go back to sleep again.

I had considered waking up my mate for a round of fun, but thought better of it as I thought about what she had to prepare for the next day.

The decency in that decision became increasingly hard, however, as the sleeping woman moved her position.

Kiarra slid her one leg up my body, generously stroking my hardening dick on its way, and ended up resting it on my abdomen.

As her arm was already splayed out over my chest, her new sleeping position almost resembled that of a koala hugging a tree.

It would have been cute if it wasn’t also extremely tempting. I could feel her breast pressed tightly against the side of my chest and, with her legs parted, I could feel the heat from her delicious center right on my hip.

“For fuck’s sake.” I groaned once again in a low voice as I could no longer keep my eyes from wandering down her beautiful body.

We rarely slept in clothes when we were in our bed, but most nights it was because we’d had sex before going to sleep, so I had never thought much of it.

But we hadn’t had sex tonight and I had fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, so I hadn’t noticed how Kiarra had gotten into bed.

The little vixen had stripped off everything except for her pair of thin lace panties.

“You are killing me,” I mumbled out and swept a hand over my face in exhaustion.

I looked down at my beautiful mate once again and smirked. Well, maybe a good round could help her be more relaxed tomorrow.

Just as I was about to move and wake her up with the intention of fucking the stress away, a sound broke the peace.

~“Alpha, we’ve got movement at the border!”~ Isaac’s voice rang through the mind-link. I instantly stopped my otherwise occupied mind.

~“What?”~

~“At least one unknown wolf. We are in pursuit, but it’s fast. Heading toward the northeast.”~

If it hadn’t been for my mate sleeping on top of me, I would have jumped up immediately at the words.

Isaac was well trained and his speed was only second to my own, so if he was having trouble catching up to the intruder, then it was not a normal wolf.

I gently lifted Kiarra’s limbs off of me and quickly and quietly slid out of the bed without disturbing her.

She tossed around a little at the loss of the warmth beneath her, but as I softly placed the cover over her naked body, she quickly settled down in peaceful sleep once again.

~“Keep pursuing. I’ll cut it off from the other side.”~

~“And send ten—no, twenty warriors to my house immediately. They are on Luna protection,”~ I added before running out of the room and jumping down the stairs in quick strides.

I knew something was up. Those damn motherfuckers thought they could get a leg up on ~me~?

I let out a low growl and shifted the moment I jumped out of the back door, then ran through the yard and into the forest as fast as I could.

I could feel the trembling of the ground caused by other paws running at high speed as I closed in on the intruder, who was being chased by Isaac and some of the patrolling warriors.

I let out a snarl as soon as I saw the dark brown wolf hurtling through the forest a few yards up ahead.

The wind carried the smell of the wolf toward me, and before I was even within fighting range, I knew it was a pack wolf. It didn’t have the foul smell of a rogue.

As the gap between us narrowed, I knew it was a she-wolf.

I let out a loud growl as the distance closed, and we both emerged through the trees into a small clearing, but the wolf didn’t flinch away or even change her direction. She just kept running directly at me.

We were moving fast, and a lot of things happened within seconds. She came straight toward me, almost challenging, and just as we were about to clash, she tightened her hind legs.

My eyes zoomed in on the action and I instinctively knew she was going to try and jump over me, so I mirrored her and jumped too, ready to clash and sink my teeth into her skin.

I was expecting a clash, but the moment my body set off from the ground, the she-wolf changed her strategy.

She used her paws and the built-up strength in her hind legs to slide on the ground beneath me, effectively avoiding a clash and getting past me.

I was stunned for a fraction of a second, unable to comprehend how the hell she had been able to stop herself mid-jump like that.

It took immense control of her wolf form, not to mention strategic maneuvering, to pull off, and she had done it effortlessly.

I landed on the ground a few meters ahead and immediately spun with an earth-shattering growl, intending to follow her again, but stopped before I got further than one step.

Instead of having immediately gotten back up and run off again, the she-wolf had stopped in the middle of the small opening in the woods and looked directly at me.

As our eyes connected in the dark, something felt familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Even though it was in the middle of the night and everything around us was only faintly lit up by the moonlight, my eyes had no trouble seeing.

Her eyes were as dark as her dark brown fur, and she carried herself with an air of arrogance that was unnatural for a normal wolf.

It almost matched my own, and I knew enough about myself to know I had a little too much arrogance at times, so that was saying a lot.

It strangely irked me, and I let out a snarl, snapping my teeth at the she-wolf who was just standing there, looking at me without even an ounce of fear.

She let out a snarl of her own, responding to me with a wolfish smirk before looking behind me.

From the feel of the shaking ground beneath our paws, I knew Isaac and the others were arriving any second, finally having caught up.

I didn’t need to turn my head around to know this, so I just kept looking at the she-wolf, observing her strange reactions.

She was too arrogant and way too confident. Instead of attacking directly, I let my curiosity get the better of me.

I observed her from a distance, and as her eyes reconnected with mine I couldn’t help but frown as the familiar feeling once again emerged.

The wolf showed her teeth once again in what could only be described as a wolfish smirk, huffed, and before I could even react she turned around and ran.

Only this time she didn’t run toward the borders of the pack, but away from it.

I could have chosen to pursue her, but for some reason, I didn’t. I just watched as the dark brown wolf darted into the forest and ran away.

~“Alpha.”~ Isaac had caught up, caught a last glimpse of the wolf before she disappeared, and walked up to me. ~“Shall we pursue?”~

I shook my head and turned around with a growl.

~“No. Just make sure she leaves and doesn’t have any funny plans of returning.”~ I walked past a stunned Isaac and made my way back through the forest.

~“What?”~ The perplexed voice was a new one from Isaac. He never questioned my orders, but this time he looked downright dumbfounded.

~“I said no. Increase patrol and leave it at that.”~

I didn’t necessarily understand it myself, but I knew something wasn’t adding up. The she-wolf had felt familiar. The look in her dark eyes had felt a little too familiar and too confident.

~“Yes, Alpha.”~

The confusion in Isaac’s voice was clear but I ignored it as I picked up speed and ran toward town.

The familiar she-wolf trying to cross our borders, the Apex Pack, Alpha and Luna Kendrick.

It all seemed too fucking perfect to be a coincidence, and I had a growing suspicion that needed to be confirmed. So I changed course and started running toward the western perimeter.

~“Wait, Alpha. Where are you going?”~

~“To get some fucking answers,”~ I growled out as I leapt through the forest grounds.

I was done being led around by everyone else. I was fucking done being two steps behind. I needed answers, and I needed them now.

As soon as I reached the little house just inside the perimeter, I shifted back and was greeted by a warrior at the front door, who hurriedly found me a spare change of clothes lying in a basket on the porch.

He looked surprised to see me but didn’t say anything. He knew it wasn’t his place to question, so he just bowed his head with respect and stood aside.

I didn’t bother knocking and just opened the door with a little more force than necessary and stepped into the dimly lit house.

Two people were sitting on the couch of the living room, looking as if they had been expecting a visitor in the middle of the night.

“Alpha Gold. What brings you here?”

I let my cold gaze travel between the two and took a seat in the chair opposite them, leaning back and getting comfortable before answering them.

I let a smirk appear on my otherwise emotionless face and said in a low, commanding tone, “I think it’s about time we have a little chat.”