The Lone Alpha

Chapter Five. Mars.

Chapter Five. Mars.

“Hey, do you want me to take your nature trail group tonight?” Justin asks me.

Given how anxious my wolf is, I am more than a little bit tempted. I think he needs to go for a long run, to get rid of the excess energy he seems to have.

“What is the catch?” I ask him, because trust me, Justin always has some sort of ulterior motive for offering to take my shift.

“No catch,” he tells me, but by the look on his face, I do not believe that one little bit.

“There is a catch, don’t lie, tell me why you want to volunteer,” I sigh at him, waiting for the real reason.

“Geeze, I am offering you to finish now, instead of a couple of hours, and I am getting the Spanish inquisition for trying to be nice!” Justin huffed.

“Don’t try that manipulation with me. It doesn’t work. Remember, I have lived and worked with you for years now. So, what is in it for you?” I ask.

It may sound like we are having an argument, but the tone of our conversation is more like banter, than anything else.

“Okay, you got me,” Justin chuckles and has the good grace to begin blushing.

“That woman, the single mother. I may have happened to, kind of, found myself following her to her caravan. I jumped on the train and sat behind her. I heard her say to her little boy that his friend’s dad works at the Ranger station. However, after they were dropped off, I saw their caravan number and checked the list, and they are on it”.

I should have known it would be about a woman. The guy is desperate with a capital ‘D’.

“NO, we will work,” Ares practically blows my internal eardrums up, he shouts so loud. What the hell is up with my damned wolf?

“That is f*****g stalking Justin!” I shake my head in dismay at him. Seriously, he has a damned screw loose somewhere in his brain.

“No, it isn’t, it is just checking that our guests are safe and well,” Justin shrugs.

I seriously worry for this guy!

“Whatever. Don’t go following the women guests to their caravans. It is just weird,” I shake my head at him.

I cannot be bothered with this bullshit. I have Ares behaving really weirdly, and now my work colleague has turned into a god damned stalker.

“I just want a chance to talk to her!” Justin defended himself.

Fuck it, I need to go for a run, and I need to get Ares back under control because he is now ready to be f*****g fight against Justin. So, it is best to get out of here and calm him down. Justin may be a little desperate, but this woman is not in danger from him. He is harmless enough, so I don’t need to worry about the woman's safety. Maybe she will like the attention, and they become love young dream for a week.

“Whatever man. Just stop stalking the poor woman,” I say, handing him my clipboard, and leaving the man to it.

I seriously cannot wait to get where it is safe for me to shift, Ares is going ape s**t inside of me.

“Will you calm down? You are too worked up. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“You should not have let him talk you into changing the shift,” Ares’ anger is almost all-consuming and more than a little concerning. He has never been like this. Well, maybe once when I ran from our mate, but that was understandable. There is no reason for his behaviour this evening.

“Why? You give me one valid reason for why I should not let Justin work tonight and I will turn right around and head back, so I will.”

I am not joking, if my wolf can give me a valid reason for his concerns, I will head back down there right now.

“ I can’t give you a reason, but just something inside me says to go back,” Ares huff’s knowing that won’t cut it with me.

I let out a sigh, and ponder on if I should go back, but given how angry Ares got back at the station with Justin, I did not want to risk him force-shifting, and causing more than a little issue. Can you imagine, going on holiday and having a secret werewolf shifting and going crazy on his work colleague, for perving over some woman who has nothing to do with me.

“Sorry Ares, but that is not a valid reason. You need to go for a run, to help you calm the f**k down and figure your s**t out,”

I walk past my caravan, towards the rear of the site, so I can get out of here as quickly as possible.

As I reach the tree with a burrow hole in it, I strip off my clothes, stuff them into my hiding hole, and allow Ares to push forward.

My wolf runs, then suddenly doubles back, heading straight for the caravan park.

SHIT!

“What the f**k bro?” I bellowed at my wolf.

“You cannot go onto the site!” I scream at him, attempting to take back control, but my wolf is resisting me every single step of the way.

What in the holy hell is happening right now? My wolf has lost its God-damned ever-loving mind.

I have made a huge mistake. I should have stayed like he wanted, because now he is taking matters into his own hands, and anything could happen!

Shit, maybe it is another werewolf and Ares views this place as his pack, and he feels like there is some kind of threat. After all, he is an Alpha wolf, which would make sense.

“Ares, go back to the tree, let me get my clothes and I promise you we will go back to the holiday park,” I am trying to reason with him. Maybe he is turning feral, being on our own for so long. Is this what it feels like to turn rogue?

“I am not a rogue!” my wolf growls at me.

“Well, you are not behaving normally!” I counter at him.

“I will take you back to get your clothes if you promise me to go back to the site and straight to the ranger station. If not, I will force the shift again, and we will be going in wolf form!” Ares threatens me.

“I promise!” I shouted back at him in desperation.

Let’s be honest, I will do whatever it takes right not to keep my wolf from running onto the holiday park and causing the guests, and my work colleagues to panic.

Finally, we reach the tree, and Ares gives me back control. I quickly pull on my shorts and olive-green polo shirt, socks and boots, and scrape back my hair, tie it into a man bun at the back of my head, and make my way back to the holiday park.

“Go to the north park,” Ares commands me.

What the hell, he wanted me to go to the ranger station, and now he is demanding I head to the North part of the park. Seriously, my wolf needs psychiatric help right now.

“No. I don’t!”

Okay, so I need to control my thoughts because my wolf is getting increasingly angsty with me. That is the problem of having two personalities in one body, especially when one of them goes ape s**t for no valid reason! I could block him out. But I have only done that once, the first few weeks after I met her, my beautiful mate. It was the only way I could cope, and not turn round and claim her. But I did the right thing. Today proves that I was right. After all, I cannot even control my damned wolf, let alone protect the person who is part of my soul. I couldn’t protect my sister or my parents, so how the hell can I protect an innocent, beautiful, fragile human girl?

I head past the North Field. I agree to go to the ranger station, not where some of the tourists live, so I will keep my word, and ignore Ares constantly changing his mind.

As I walk down into our little part of the park, I smell the lavender, coconut and a slight hint of caramel again, which instantly soothes Ares.

I see Justin in the distance, returning with the group I should have taken, and sit on my log waiting for him.

The scent grows stronger, then suddenly a little boy hurtles towards me. A little boy whom my wolf recognises immediately, who smells of caramel, as the panicked voice of his mother shouts.

“Max, stop!”

“Mammy, it is Thrax’s daddy!” the little one shouts, as I stare in shock, as my mate locks eyes with me and gasps.

“MINE!” Ares shouts on repeat, as I look at my son, catching him, as he throws himself into my arms.

Mine. My pup. I love him. I never knew he existed till ten seconds ago, but now he is my everything. I look up and see my mate approaching me, shock on her face, and heartbreaking tears in her eyes, but the shock turns to anger, as she stomps towards me, grabbing my pup away from me and giving me a look that makes me feel an inch tall.

Fuck!