Chapter 3: Mate
Alex’s P.O.V
“Get me the tranquilizer.” I shouted at the man following behind me as I held out my hand for the gun.
He did so immediately, without hesitation. If the guards were right and this was really a rogue, then there would be no reasoning with it. The best option should have been to get an actual gun and shoot it through the head…but there was this nagging feeling inside my mind that I shouldn’t kill it.
‘Are you sure we should keep it alive?’ One of the patrol guards asked via the mental link. They were currently in the clearing near the beach where the rogue had been spotted, with tattered clothes and blood all over her body.
‘Positive’, I replied to the guard. ‘Keep the patrol unit armed with tranqs, just in case there are more of them to follow.’
‘Affirmative.’
It was a high risk, keeping a rogue alive, but I had to. My wolf kept telling me that I ‘had’ to.
My wolf had never been this desperate before, especially not because of a rogue. And it gave me a bad feeling about the situation. The closer I got to the clearing, the stronger the sensation grew. A gnawing, growling feeling at the pit of my stomach that started to consume me whole.
‘We caught her!’
The news almost knocked me off my feet. The violent punch of emotions to the gut just helped me confirm the suspicion that I was starting to have and I didn’t like it one bit. Still, I went after the rogue, without letting my will falter.
‘Keep her down, but don’t hurt her…yet.’
I could tell that the soldier was flabbergasted by my command, but he didn’t say anything else as I broke through the woods and into the clearing, my feet aching from the speed at which I had run. But I didn’t rest. I had to see her.
Several of the guards were huddled together at one spot not too far away from where I stood and I made my way towards them without wasting any more time. Moved my packmates aside, I pushed my way to the front until I was standing right in front of the rogue wolf.
As if sensing my presence, she turned her head in my direction…and the sheer force of the mating bond knocked the wind right out of my lungs, bringing me to my knees.
Mate! My wolf screamed. Mate!
For a second, I couldn’t hear anything other than the deep breaths of my mate who I was now only inches away from. Everything else seemed hazy, unclear…except for her face. It took me a few seconds before I could regain my senses, before my wolf got over the initial shock of the mating bond punching through…to see the danger staring me in the face.
Just as she was about to come at me with her claws extended, her fangs bared…I pointed the gun to her chest and took a shot.
The tranquilizer shot out and embedded into her ashy skin, ejecting the full doze into her heart. It took only a couple seconds before her hands fell to her sides and her body fell forward while struggling against the net. And I caught a hold of her before she could hit the ground.
“Alex!” One of the senior soldiers warned me. “Let her go! We need to get rid of her while she is down!”
But the roar that tore though my lips at the thought of anyone hurting my mate, it had my own packmates jumping back in fear as several wide eyes looked in my direction as if I had gone insane.
“Alex?” The same man, Bernard, asked cautiously. I knew him as a friend of my father, someone who had a teenage daughter in high school and often frequents my house. But at this moment, I didn’t think of him as an ally. No one that wants to hurt my mate is an ally.
Another man came forward, trying to kneel down in front of me, possibly to see if I too had gone rogue or not. I haven’t. My wolf was perfectly sane, but it was angry. And it didn’t want anyone near me or my mate.
Whispers began to spread as I untangled her from the nets and picked her up in my arms. However, several of the men and women came to stand in front of me, blocking my path before I could carry her back to the pack house.
“We can’t let you through, Alex.” Sienna, one of the younger soldiers told me strictly. “Not until you tell us what is going on.”
“This rogue is my mate.” I told everyone loud and clear, my wolf predominant in my voice. “And no one is going to stand in my way of protecting her.”
Shocked gasps and even more murmurs spread through the group, but they stayed put, not letting me through. That was until Bernard stepped forward.
“Take her to the pack house, but you must place her in the holding cells.” He wasn’t as dominant as me, but the authority in his voice was clear. He was an older wolf, a man who has seen many more years than I have. So in terms of experience, he far outshone my rank. “It’s for all of our safety, my boy. She injured two of our men single handedly. We are your pack and even though the mating bond isn’t letting you see it right now, the guilt will hit soon enough. So listen while you’re still sane. Place her in the holding cells.”
I looked down at the face of the woman for the first time…the woman, who was mine for the rest of my life.
Her entire body was covered in blood. Some dried and some fresh; alongside dirt and other debris. Her hair was matted and plastered to her head and her skin was ashy and filled with dirt. It seemed like she had been wandering around in the forests for ages, with her mind no longer her own.
What could this woman have gone through that her wolf had had to take over to relieve her of the pain? What could have possibly been so wrong that she had to succumb to her animalistic instincts to survive?
Now, I nodded at Bernard’s request, knowing that he was right and it was for the safety of my own pack. Even though my wolf howled and growled in protest, clawing at my insides in rebuttal, I ordered a couple soldiers to open up the holding cells so I could place her there safely.
But most of all, one question that refused to leave my mind as I carried her to the pack house basement, accompanied by Bernard and a few other soldiers, was why had she not transformed into her wolf form when her wolf had taken over?