Her only Alpha

the hunt

I wake up in the back of a moving vehicle, rolling around without the means to steady myself as my hands and feet are tied. I presume the vehicle to be a pick-up as the surface I am lying on is hard, corrugated and spacious. It is cold and dark, the sound of rattling metal overwhelms my senses. The sound of the road beneath is freaking me out, its coarse and choppy beneath the tyres, they must be heading somewhere on a dirt road.

Where are they taking us? I ask my wolf, but she remains quiet. Where is she? And will she come back to me?

Ouch! I am going to be bruised for sure, every bump in the road sends me flying into the side panels. My hips hurt so bad from being jostled about by the rough road.

"Only another 45 minutes before we reach New York..." a deep and course voice says.

"Let me call ahead then, our timing has to be perfect to avoid being seen by someone in the neighborhood." This time it was a woman speaking, she was direct in taking charge.

"Don't worry about this one! I have her under control." another man says... right next to me!

This is not the way I wanted to visit New York!

Adrian's POV

"Cora?" I search for her between the covers, still half asleep.

"Cora?" I call again, this time opening my eyes to search the room, my heart rate increasing instantly. I have a sickening feeling that something is wrong.

"CORA!!!" I am now crossing over into panic. Where the f**k is she? My hands are now starting to shake and my breathing elevates.

I catch sight of a folded piece of paper standing upright on my desk.

No it can't be a note, a note would imply that she left of her own free will. She wouldn't do that to me... would she?

I walk over to the desk, if anything, I would prefer my suspicion to be wrong, I can handle many things, but rejection hits home far too hard.

Opening the neatly folded yellow piece of paper, I pick her sweet scent up immediately. Inside I find a note, addressed to me and written by my sweet little mate in the most delicate handwriting. I read the words she left me with, I feel my heart being ripped from my chest and I fight the urge to sink to my knees in defeat.

I think I'm going to be sick! How could she leave me like this! How could this be happening again?!

It had been like any normal school day four years ago when Adrian had first recognized the scent of his fated mate...

She walked right past him without breaking stride. Her scent was strong and demanding like a jasmine in full bloom. Her long snowy white hair flowing in the wind and her perfectly fitting crimson red sundress playfully fluttering around her with every step. He chased after her, blocking her path.

"You are my mate!" he said out of breath at the shear excitement of meeting her.

"And you are making me late for my date..." she glared at him with her sharp little nose held high, pushing him aside.

"Your date? How could you still want to go?" the excitement completely wiped from his face as he slumps backwards against the wall of the shop he had just run out of.

"Because I have know about you for a while now, and you are not good enough for me. I can't be with some kid who has achieved nothing in his life" she turns to keep walking when he grabs her wrist, in a desperate attempt to keep her from leaving. He looks into her bright hazel eyes pleading with her.

"I Charlotte Knightley reject you..." she starts

"Stop!! Please don't!" he openly beggs her.

"... reject you, Adrian Agnor as my mate! Now leave me alone!" His hand slipped away from her wrist as he watched her leave...

As I snap out of that dreadful memory I feel my eyes glow with a murderous rage, my body trembling as my wolf threatens to take control.

"F**K!!" I shout, grabbing the edge of the desk and catapulting it into the wall across from where I stand. Reveling in the fit of rage that is all consuming, I repeat the process with the chair, the bedside table... tearing the flat-screen tv from the wall... the sight of everything going to pieces brings relief. Brokenness seeks brokenness I suppose.

"I WILL f*****g find her and bring her back here if it's the last f*****g thing I do!!"

"She WILL be MINE!!"

Connor flings open the door to my room unannounced, his hidden talent, I come to believe.

"My Alpha... are you alright?" He asks, eyes wide and cautious. He is right to be cautious... one wrong word and I will tear him to pieces!

"ARIA!!! Fetch me Aria!!" I demand and he leaves as quickly as he came.

Moments later my sister is at my door, she stops before entering, taking in the crime scene of all my murdered possessions.

"Brother... what happened?" She speaks slowly with her eyes wide and her perfectly manicured fingers covering her mouth in shock.

"She left, she f*****g left!" I shout, trying to remain calm but failing miserably. My wolf is hurt and angry, I have a sickening feeling in my stomach, my chest hurts as if my heart had literally broken and my skin is crawling with agitation.

"Brother I..." she starts before I interrupt her.

"Did you know she was going to leave?!" I ask, my fists clenching.

"Uh... I knew she was unhappy..." she answers.

"AND YOU DIDN'T THINK TO TELL ME!"

"Would you listen? I mean, you did bring her here without asking her if she even wanted to... then after she ran away the first time, you brought her back again, knowing she didn't want to be here to start with..." I feel my anger at being rejected turn into self hate... it was all my fault... do I even deserve her...

"Probably not..." I admit, half to my sister and half to myself.

"Did she say anything else? Anything that could tell us where she went" I ask, looking down at the floor. I suddenly felt too ashamed to look my sister in the eye.

"Sounded like she had a rough start... besides her best friend's apartment... I don't think she has a safe place."

"She won't go to Anna's... Anna is human and won't understand her miraculous recovery..." It feels hopeless, we literally have no leads to go on. The only thing I could do now was to follow her scent... and it had to be done quickly before it disappears into thin air just as my little mate did.

"You will find her big brother... and when you do, you will make things right"

"That's just the thing... I thought I already did make things right, I tried so f*****g hard to be what she needs... and we were getting along so well..." I am pacing up and down, frustrated as hell.

"Perhaps... give her the opportunity to choose you too..." She eyes me with a lifted brow, acting all wise all of a sudden.

"Yeah yeah... I've heard about that, if you love them, let them go s**t. I am just not willing to take a chance with the, IF they come back, part."

"Connor!!" I call out.

"Yes my Alpha." he says standing by the door, I knew he would hover...

"Go fetch Shay, head of security, and tell him to prepare his best team..."

"Yes my Alpha!!"

"That's Cora's brother? Right?" Aria asks the moment Connor is out of sight, her face pulled into a frown.

"Yes" I answer hesitantly... what is she getting at.

"I find it strange, he doesn't look anything like Cora... Nor do they look anything like their parents." She states, as if she had contemplated this for a while.

"Now that you mention it, you have a point... but what are you getting at?"

"Nothing... just interesting... usually genetics aren't soooo varied"

"My Alpha... You called for me" Shay bows his head in greeting. He is slightly older than me, around 25. He isn't tall nor overly muscular as you would expect head of security to be. Shay is of Chinese decent and an experienced warrior with extensive stealth training.

"My mate... ran away. I know how it sounds. Thing is, I don't know where and her scent is our only clue. Mobilize a team asap to assist in tracking her down."

"Yes my Lord" He answers and leaves speedily.

After the arrival of his team, they took an item with her strongest scent... she smelt so lovely, soft and sweet like roses on a dewy morning.

"Alpha, my team is ready when you are. Since she is your mate you will pick up her scent with less effort. My Lord, would you mind leading the way, then we will follow to assist however needed." Shay skillfully made his recommendation.

I nod in acceptance as I close my eyes to concentrate on the task at hand. Going out to the patio I can almost picture my little mate leaping over the steps on the grass, I feel her between the trees, over the furrow, across the road and the boulders until I reach the sand. Opening my eyes properly to take in my surroundings I notice something that warms my heart and gives me hope...

"She came to the place where we first met." I feel a slight smile warm my lips, there is hope after all, she can't hate me if she came straight here. I can still fix this.

Something catches my eye when it shoots a bright reflection my way... the shiny object is in an area where Cora's scent is strongest. I bend down and dust my fingers over the object which is mostly covered by sand, and see... Cora's cellphone.

"Shay, come take a look here quickly..." I show him the black Samsung S9 in my hand..

"This is hers..." I tell him.

"Alpha... I also found something I would like to show you..." The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach returns with vengence.

"What are the odds that she simply forgot her phone?" I asks, already knowing the answer.

"I am afraid, we found tracks between the trees."

"What tracks" I ask urgently.

"At least 8 people, and I have a suspicion they belong to humans." he clarifies.

"Their scents are masked?" I ask gravely, dreading his reply.

"Yes my Lord... and there are tyre tracks belonging to two vehicles going in two separate directions."

"They were being clever to prevent us from following them..." I sink to my knees where I had uncovered her cellphone, feeling lost in despair. As I dig my hands into the sand, I find something else... A small metal object that stings when I touch it. I lift it out of the sand to inspect it, with Shay looking on intently.

"A dart..." he gasps, it's been a while since we saw one of those in our territory.

"A silver tipped dart! with..." I smell the small vial attached to the dart, "WOLFSBAIN!!" The discovery angers and scares the life out of me... my poor little princess was shot with a dart containing WOLFSBAIN. She must be feeling terribly ill...

"She was taken by them... the hunters." I say coldly.

"We will find her, Alpha!" Shay assures me.

"I will track her down, and search for her till the ends of the earth." I state decidedly.

Walking towards the tracks Shay discovered I carefully inspect both...

"She went this way!!" I call to shay, showing him which track belonged to the vehicle carrying my future Luna.

"Follow me, let's hunt these f*****g savages down. I will bring my Cora home, come hell or high water! If they hurt a single hair on her head I will tear them to shreds"