Undying Love

Chapter 3

Owen POV

I saw her laying on the grass staring up. Why did she yell like that if she is just laying here? If I couldn't hear her heartbeat I would have sworn that she is dead. I need to scare her away. She can't be alone in the forest. It's too dangerous. I growled to make her aware of my presence. She immediately jumped up and looked at me. Her eyes big as she took me in. Being a werewolf I’m much larger than any normal wolf. A normal wolf would be about 2 m in length and 0.8 m in height if they are big. I’m 3,5m in length and 2,5m in height, I’m a terrifying sight. The rest of the pack is smaller than me, being Alpha has its perks. My ageing is slower than theirs, I’m faster and my senses are better. Even my healing is more rapid and I can use my telepathy with other alpha's, not just with my pack.

She just stood there watching me, so I growled again. I heard her heartbeat speed up, but still she didn't move, is she one of those that freeze when confronted by fear and danger. I barred my teeth as I growled at her again trying to be more terrifying hopefully this will prove my theory and frighten her out of her frozen state. I saw acknowledgement and then determination, great she isn’t the freeze type she is bring it on, danger type. I got closer to her trying to intimidate her, but instead she closed the distance and placed her hand on my head her finger working through my fur. It felt so good. She started talking to me telling me how she wasn't leaving. She pet me like a dog while doing this. This is just great, why is she so stubborn!  I pushed her hand of me. I’m not a dog!

And she can't get to friendly with my wolf form, at the moment I’m fighting my wolf personality, if he breaks free it would be hell on earth. He doesn't care that she doesn't know or that she is human. All he has been thinking of all day is jumping her and ripping into her soft white skin. This is the perfect opportunity for him. He will attack her, bite into her while in wolf form and if he can keep me caged he'd probably turn to human form and mate her here on the grass, with or without her consent. I know I’m a bastard, but my wolf is way worse than me. He isn't concerned with feelings, he is run by power. It's that power that controls the Bloodshadow pack.

I walked away from her and laid down. Watching her carefully and keeping my distance.

"I didn't really want any company, but as long as you don't turn into a human, I guess its fine." I froze. So she does know about werewolves or she just made a very on point joke.

She sat down against the trunk of a tree leaning her head back exposing her throat. I could see the exact place I should sink my teeth in to claim her as my mate.

'You know you want to do it, she is ours after all, it's our right to have her'

'No she has the right to reject us if she wants'

'Make it easy for her, if you attack her, there is nothing she can do, you know you don't want her to reject you'

'Of course I don't want her to reject us, but if we force her, she will always just remember that'

'Yes, but she'll be ours, she'll feel the mate bond'

'That is no way of getting her as a mate. I want her to like us.'

'That emotional crap won't get us anywhere, relinquish control to me, I’ll do it'

'I said NO!' She looked at me and that's when she started opening up to me. She is really amazing. The way she sees nature is how our wolves sees it. If she was a wolf she would probably have already paired with her wolf to become one. Most packs keep their wolf and their personality separate, but in our pack as soon as you finish school that includes University, if you plan on it, so around the age of 20-25 they pare with their wolf personality. Then there is only one, the wolf is anyway just your features extended. Another reason for waiting is to give you time to find your mate. Once you find your mate your personality changes to fit your mates. Mates are a perfect pair that fits together like a puzzle piece.

My mother is calm and my father is fierce. They cancel each other out into harmony.

The more she spoke the more intrigued I got, I couldn't help, but crawl closer and closer to her. If she caught me I would freeze. It felt like I was stalking her. Finally she announced she knew. Everything within me froze. Does she know that it's me?? Does she know I’m a werewolf? I only breathed again when she told me I could go to her. She made the joke about not biting me because of the fur. I growled at her in sarcasm. If only our minds were linked I could tell her how much all this meant to me. Then she could feel how I felt.

'You sound like a wimp!' Shadow growled at me.

'Whatever, I know you feel it to, even more than I do.' He kept quiet after that. She basically jumped me digging her finger in my fur behind my ear, it felt so good. I couldn't help but relax and enjoy it. She quickly threw it in my face that she knew I licked it. This girl has no mercy.

She let go, only to lean against me, closing her eyes and enjoying the moment. I looked at her for a little while longer, before laying my head down on my paws and also closing my eyes. I listened to her breathing and heard as she fell asleep. I was so relaxed that I couldn't help but fall asleep to.

I woke from the change between day and night, I felt the atmosphere shift. I quickly licked her cheek and she opened her eyes, those blue orbs looking at me. As she saw how late it was she was up and ready to go, I watched her as she did in the hall this morning and just like the morning she didn't really want to ask for help.

I was going to lay here until she was out of sight and then I would have followed her, so that I could see she that she made it out safely. I got up and trotted passed her, she was annoyed by my attitude. I don't think she likes to be help. She likes taking care of herself.

She told me she would do it herself as she went in the wrong direction I helped her out by growling. She walked the right direction and stopped for a minute, just as I was about to nudge her with my snout she started to walk, with confidence not stopping once, she came out at the parking lot, which is weird since she went in near the courtyard.

She bragged again before saying her goodbyes and leaving. As she drove pass me I noticed her eyes looking for me. I watched her drive of. When she was finally out of sight I phased back. I stretched my joint, they feel a bit sore after just laying down in wolf form for hours.

This was the best afternoon ever. I walked over to the schools phone booth and called Nate to come and get me since my car wasn't here anymore.

"Thanks for coming to get me."

"Did you find her?"

"Yes I did she was in a clearing lying on the grass. She didn't run when I tried to scare her off instead she approached me petting me and then she opened up. She is so in tuned with nature like our wolves. The two of us fell asleep. She slept on my fur. I’m totally lost. She is very different from other humans." He nodded in thought.

"I have something for you." He said handing me a small box, as I opened it I saw a key.

"I have this friend with a 3D printer, he can make anything from a photo and now you have a key to your mates’ room." Now I can finally get some answers. We stopped at the large iron Gate waiting for it to open once inside we drove passed all the houses until we arrived at the male dorms.

Us werewolves live in a compound. It keeps all the humans out. In the compound, which is almost like a town on its own, there are separate houses for families and then there are two big houses' one for the guys and one for the girls' when you turn 16 you can go and live there or you can stay at home. Each person has his own place in the dorm which consists of a small living room, a bathroom and a bedroom. The rest of the house consists of a large kitchen, a big living room, a gym and a bathroom. Each floor also has a bathroom and a small kitchen.

Then there is the two apartment buildings' one which is for mated couples. As soon as you find your mate you move in there, so that you have your own private little home. When you think it's time or you decide to procreate you can move to a house. And the other apartment building is for older wolves, who decide that keeping a big house is unnecessary, since their children are grown up or their spouses has passed on. This is all confirmed through the Alpha of course. My parents use to own this land, now it's mine. It's a lot of work, but since I’m still in school my father does maintain it. My parents are also still staying in the main house. I told them as soon as I meet my mate I would move there and take over completely.

The main house is almost like a country club. It's where all the meetings take place. And all social events like weddings, mating announcement and proceedings, Sunday lunches, anniversaries if you wish, and all other celebrations like birthdays, bridal parties, baby showers and so on. All those things except for the pack meetings are arranged by the Luna, her second, third, fourth and fifth obviously helps, just like mine does. The last two buildings are a hospital and a funeral home. Most packs don't live like us; they take up a street in a town or something like that. Some only have a mansion in the woods for the whole pack.

With the first option, you have a lot of fatalities to humans. Wolves do lose control when it comes to our anger and not to mention to be found out by humans.

The second option is good, but with larger packs it can be  difficult, too many dominating personalities in one small place can get out of hand. My pack is the largest known pack that functions. Some packs can't get to large or they lose control.

Yet the BloodShadow pack is different. Since we don't initiate ourselves to much into the society, we don't have extra stress and we don't get noticed, by doctors and stuff like that. We are also very close, like a big family. Outsiders have to be thoroughly approved before being initiated into the pack. But mostly it's generation of families that live here; we can trace our ancestors in the library at the main house. And the most important part that allows us to be such a big pack is our training.

Pregnant she wolves can decide if they want to do their pregnancy period as a wolf or in human form. If they decide to do it in wolf form, a den is created for them and for that 63 days they live as a wolf and give birth to pups, they have to wait for the pups to fully develop, meaning their eyes to open and for them to start walking and get use to going outside. This process isn't done a lot, but some of our fiercer wolves do believe in it. Their pups don't take the change so hard.

The other option being normal pregnancy which is the full duration of 9 months, but it is safe to give birth from 6 months as the baby does develop faster than human babies. After taking care of the babies they are educated from the time they can truly start to understand. Normal packs wait for their kids to become teenagers basically from the age of 13 and up before they have them shift. They are told they are only able to then. In our pack we take all the 6 year old and have them shift to their wolf form and for 10 months they live as wolves. In that period they are taught how to find food and take care of themselves' they truly experience what a pack is. The last two months of the year they are brought back by their protectors. They adjust to changing back living like humans.

Then at the age of 7 they are fully aware of their wolf selves. They are home schooled up to the age of 10 to avoid any accident and then they get to go to normal school, where they have a normal life. Between the ages of 7-10 they do leave the compound a lot, we do not wish to isolate them. They go to the park to play and make friends if they wish to, there is also the movies, restaurants, town events etc… Other packs believe that our way is cruel. Taking such young kids away from their parents, but our results are a connected pack, with stronger wolves with better control. We get a lifetime, where other packs start at the age of 13 trying to learn how to control, while being surrounded by humans.

If something were to happen, like an attack most could shift, the kids under the ages of 10 are taken away, those between the ages of 6-10 can protect their brothers and sister at their designated safe zone if it is needed and if they are separated they can fend for themselves.

If other packs are attacked they have a lot more to protect weakening their fight force and jeopardizing everyone's safety. I got out of the car making my way to the kitchen, I’m starving. Unfortunately in the dorms we have to fix ourselves breakfast and lunch, but dinner is brought from the main house. But the chance of there being anything for me will be little to zero.

Being a werewolves means that we do eat a lot more than normal humans. A normal hungry wolf can eat up to 9,07 kg of meat for a human that is about 100 hamburgers. A werewolf can eat about half of that if we get really hungry, that's in human form. If we live in wolf form we need about the same amount to fill us sometimes double because of our size.

I opened the fridge to see a whole chicken with a note.

'This is Owen's dinner. If any of your DARE touch it I’ll castrate you. Love Valeri.’

A smile spread across my face as I took the chicken and heated it up. With it I quickly made some scrambled eggs and took 4 slices of bread. I’m really hungry I didn't eat this afternoon.

My usual eating habits consist of: a big breakfast, a medium sized meal at school break, a large lunch after school and then a huge dinner. Sometimes I do snack in between. I sat in the kitchen eating my fill, before quickly checking the house to see what everyone is doing. There isn't any trouble, so I grabbed a jacket and jogged to my parents’ house.

As I stepped inside I started calling out for them. My mother always hated when I did it.

"We're in the TV room!" My father yelled at me. I heard him groan probably after mum hit him. I ran up the stairs two at a time. The first and second floor is public, but the third floor is their private home. Once I got there I kissed my mom on the cheek before falling down on the empty couch.

"What's up?"

"Owen I’ve told you not to yell like that, just because you're a wolf doesn't mean you should act barbaric!" My mom scolded me.

"Your mom is right." My dad said winking behind my mom.

"I saw that!” she growled at him.

"I thought you were coming over this afternoon, so that we could go over some things." Once a week I would go to my dad and he'd teach me something else I needed to know about being alpha. He was going to teach me about the applications for the living arrangements today.

"I was busy, you know hanging out with my Mate." I said it nonchalantly, but it got their attention as they both sat up and stared at me.

"Well tell us, who is she?" My mom urged at me.

"I’ll warn you, that it's a complicated situation."

"Is it a boy?" That made me freeze, my mom thinks I’m gay? She has walked in on Valeri and I before, why would she think that.

"What? No! Mom I’m into girls."

"I don't judge sweetie it's all fine with me." My mom is so weird.

"Is she from a different pack or a rogue?" My father asked, two realistic ideas not like moms.

"No."

"Then what can be so complicated about it?" My father asked.

"She is human."

"That hasn't ever happened before, are you sure?"

"Oh I’m sure, I smelled her when no one else did and when I saw her, my whole world slowed down. She is gorgeous. And then she walked past me and my whole world shattered." My mom got up and came to stand in front to me. She hugged me awkwardly.

"Oh sweetie I’m sorry."

"It’s fine. The problem is since she isn't a wolf she can't feel the mate bond, so I’m going to have to court her like a normal couple would." My dad looked worried, but kept quiet and listened to what I had to say.

"But it must be going good since you guys hung out until now?"

"Yeah it would be going good if I was a wolf."

"Sweetie you lost me." My mom sighed frowning at me.

"She shut me down, she is a complete mystery. She lives at the motel in town, no one knows anything about her and she is really guarded. It took me all day just to find out where she lived it took me over two hours just to get her name since she didn't want to tell me."

"Yikes, she is a tough one isn't she, I can’t wait to meet her. So what's her name sweetie?"

"It's Sapphire Evans. Mom you should see her it fits so nicely. She has blonde hair a really light shade, with these big sapphire blue eyes and white skin. And she is super hot; her body goes on for days. She won the twins in the bleep test, she made it to level 10 mom. She is that fit."

"You mentioned she liked you as a wolf?" My father asked interrupting my admiration of my Mate. He has been quiet, observing the situation no doubt.

"Well yeah. Something at lunch upset her and she ran off. A while later I heard her scream and I went looking for her. She was in the forest. I wanted to scare her off so I growled at her, but instead she approached me, she pet me and told me she wasn't leaving. Then she opened up since she thought I was just a normal wolf. She told me how she wish she could fit like nature, she talked like a wolf, dad. And then she told me she wanted to escape society for a while that's why she was there. It's clear she had been crying a lot and I guessed that's why she screamed. Anyway I kept my distance at first since Shadow was ready to take her forcefully, but as she talked she seemed to just pull me in, at the end she laid down against my fur and we fell asleep."

"Aww, that's so sweet honey."

"Yes and it's a big problem."

"Urg you don't have a romantic bone in your body." She scolded my dad.

"She is human, so she can't know about us, you are going to have to reject her."

"No, I won't just reject her because she is human. We have never experienced something like this, maybe fate wanted her to be a werewolf? She already has the personality of one that has paired together. Look at the way she acted when she was confronted by huge black growling beast and then there is how she chose to escape to the forest."

"What if I mated her and she turned, it could happen we don't know. But I’m also not a fool, I’m Alpha of the BloodShadow pack and I won't do anything to disrupt this pack, that is why I’m investigating her. I will find out exactly who and what she is before I make any attempts at mating her." You are born as a wolf all that fictional nonsense of being scratched and bitten doesn’t work, but there must be a way to turn her or else she wouldn’t have been made my mate by fate.

“If you do decide on mating with her we would have to get permission from all the packs we have a treaty with as it will influence them if you told her. Our secret is the most important thing we have, it keeps us safe." We were not allowed to ever tell humans about us.

"Of course."

"Maybe she is a wolf and just don't know it. You did say no one knows her, maybe she was adopted or stayed an orphan. If no one ever told her, she would have never phased or found out until she burst."

"It could be, but I’m the only one that can smell her specific scent. Speaking of scent, I do smell something delicious in the form of meat. What did you cook mom?"

"Valeri, came by to get your food. She was so worried when you didn't show up. What are you going to do about her?"

"Well I’m not going to dump her until I’m sure about my mate."

"But that is cruel, keeping her around on a ‘what if’ basis. You should have never dated her." My mother scolded me.

"All of us thought the two of us would be mated. When she turned 18 a week after me and we didn't feel the bond it really was a shock. I do love her and I don't plan on hurting her if it's not needed. We made a deal that if we found our mates we would let go of each other."

"That might be harder than it sounds sweetie."

"I know mom, but Fate didn't put us together for a reason. Who am I to fight Fate."

"Okay sweetie." I got up and kissed her on her cheek before leaving. They just made all this more complicated for me. I got back to the dorm and it was pretty quiet. Only a few people were still awake. It's 21:30, still early for most people, but we do tire ourselves out during the day so it pretty late for us. I opened my rooms’ door, I took of my jacket and threw it on the sofa. I forgot to hang it in the closet down stairs. Something is different with my room, I just don't know what. I opened my mini fridge and grabbed a bottle of water I took a few sips before putting it back and then I headed to my room. As I opened my door I saw Valeri on my bed, she woke up from the door creaking.

"What are you doing here Val?" She sat up pulling her fingers through her hair, she didn't look at me at all.

"I was worried, no one really knew where you were, all that Dax said was you didn't want to be bothered. I got really worried when you weren't back for dinner so I got you some, did you get it? It's fine if you already ate though."

"Yeah I got it thanks it was sweet especially the threat part." A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"And I cleaned up a bit cause you live like a pig."

"You didn't need to do that I would have done it eventually."

"You always say that and I always end up cleaning it for you."

"Are you okay, Val?"

"Yeah, it's late I should go." Still she hasn't looked at me once. She got up and started walking to the door, but I blocked it.

"Come on Owen, I’m tired." I tilted her head and saw the tears in her eyes; they were puffy from crying earlier on.

"What's wrong? Why were you crying?"

"Nothing." She said looking up trying to stop from crying again.

"Come on Val I haven't known you for a day."

"Yeah you've known me 17 years and for 5 of those I’ve been your girlfriend." Her tears finally spilled over.

"Hey, come on don't cry." I pulled her into my arms. My body towering over hers as I held her to me with both arms folded around her body

"Come on talk to me Val."

"I’m so afraid. I don't want to lose you Owen. I just love you so much that the thought hurts me. It hurts so bad."

"No shh, I’m not leaving you, my Mate is human. It's complicated. We still have time together until I figure this out."

"Yes and then when you figure it out, you'll just leave me!" She pulled free from me, her tears falling down her face in streams now.

"We promised that if we found our mates that we would let each other go."

"I found my mate Owen!" She yelled, probably waking every guy up.

"And I rejected him, because what a surprise I love you."

"What?" She already found her mate and rejected him.

"Who is he?"

"Just some guy from another pack. If you really loved me you would reject that bitch."

"You know I can't do that and she doesn't even know about the whole werewolf mate thing, she is human."

"Then what is the problem!"

"I can't help it Val she bothers me, I need to know what the story is with her, Fate wouldn't have paired me with her for nothing."

"Oh please, you just want to sleep with her!"

"I don't want to sleep with her, come on Val, calm down." She sat down on the bed with her head in her hands. I walked over to the bed and knelt in front of her.

"Valeri, I’ve loved you for five years and I need you to understand that it hurts me that we aren't mates, but I owe it to myself to see where things go with my mate. I promise I won't sleep with her while I’m still with you. I won't cheat on you. And if I decide that fate was correct I will tell you first. If I do reject her I’ll mate you and you'll be my Luna."

"There is so many if's." I got up, picked her up in my arms and laid her on the bed, then I laid behind her holding her tight against my chest.

"Please don't make it public that you found her."

"If you don't want me to I won't."

"I’m afraid that if my mate finds out he'll come get me, I don't want to leave, especially not with him. When both our wolves recognized each other I heard his thought for a second and they scared me, a lot. At least I had the power to reject him, because I knew I had you."

"Shh it's okay, I have you. I won't let him ever get you."

"He had such sadistic thoughts; he thought that I was used goods, so he would lend me to his pack." That is sick, he probably won't do that to his mate, but to think it to torment her, is sick. I smoothed her hair back until I felt her falling asleep in my arms. What am I going to do?

When I woke up Valeri wasn't in my room anymore. I got up, took a shower and quickly got dressed before going down to the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. I made myself some toast, cooked some bacon, baking my eggs, in the bacon's oil. With it I heated up a can of baked beans, I grilled a few slices of tomato and two sausages and a poured myself a big cup of coffee.

"Good morning...Hey Owen do you feel like sharing that food?"

"No I feel like eating it." Dax looked longingly at my food before heading to the stove, he made himself an omelette with everything in.

"It's about time you showed up, you are always late Nate."

"Stop whining like my mother, doing what we want is why we have this place!" Nate growled at Dax.

"Geesh stop being such a grumpy pup, it's not my fault you didn't get laid last night."

"It was a blood relative of yours that woke me, so I’m blaming you."

"Sorry about Valeri she was a bit upset last night."

"Your fight was so juicy!" The walls are very thick giving a person privacy, but being werewolves our ears are definitely more in tuned to sound so if she yelled they would have heard something since they are the two rooms next to me, but only if they were actually listening in' by focusing hard they would know what the conversation was about.

"You're such a perv." Nate said before pouring his muesli into a bowl and pouring plain yogurt on top of it. Nate is actually a healthy eater most of the time depending on how much physical activity he partakes in.

"What I was curious!"

"To hear them at it!" Nathan said in disgust.

"No I’m not that big of a perv! She's my sister! And she can't sleep with him now anyways, she is in her prego week. And he made it clear last year he will only have pups with his mate." Why did he have to bring that up. Female werewolves go into heat one week of the year to ensure the continuation of the species. I remember how crushed she was when I said I didn't want to sleep with her because I didn't want litter from anyone, but my mate. She wasn't even thinking about babies she had told me, but it hurt her to know that I didn't want them with her. She didn't speak to me for a month.

"Thanks Dax you just made my day."

"You actually said that to her."

"I didn't know it would be such a big thing, we had an agreement." He just started eating.

"I was thinking we should go and check out her room today, we could skip our first period and be back at school in time for second?"

"Okay." Dax said and Nate nodded.