His runaway mate

Jackson

She is going to hate me the moment she wakes up. My wolf is cowering in the back of my mind, regret and fear keeping him in a corner and leaving me to clean up the mess. The moment Katy’s body gave out, he retreated and I wanted to strangle him. Normally I have full control over him even in wolf form, but I waited too long to stake our claim on her in a civilized manner. He took full control and staked our claim in a pure animalistic manner.

Even though it was not the smartest idea to challenge a wolf, I was proud of the way she didn’t show my wolf any fear, even if he could smell it coming off her in waves. She surprised him by attacking first, showing us that she will be a fierce mate and a powerful Luna for our pack. Luckily for us, her knife was stainless steel instead of silver or we wouldn’t have recovered from it so easily. Thanks to the lycanthrope virus, it takes our bodies seconds to heal where it takes the average human days. My eyes on the other hand still burned even after shifting back to human form.

When I saw her fragile body lying unmoving on the dirty flour, the fear I felt was overwhelming. I didn’t care much at that moment if anyone saw me naked in public, all I cared about was making sure Katy was still alive. I bent down and felt for a pulse on the side of her neck that was not wounded. It took a few seconds before I felt it but it was hardly a flutter. I knew going to the hospital wasn’t an option. It wouldn’t take long for them to realize something isn’t right with the amount of blood she has lost but no wound big enough for it to be possible. They would also have to draw blood and the moment they would  look at the results, the secret of our kind would be out.

There are a lot of stories about us and while some facts are true, others aren’t. Most humans believe our existence to be a fairy tale and it is best that way. Not all humans are open minded and wouldn’t be willing to live alongside shifters peacefully knowing what we are and what we are capable of. Others would want us to change them and they would go to extremes for us to do it. The government would probably want to experiment on us. Our race would go extinct in years if we are lucky.

I picked Katy up and took her to the back of the ally. I picked up her handbag that she dropped when she attacked my wolf and took out her phone. She had no password on it to my relief. I quickly dialed the pack doctor, Caleb, and told him where to find us. He was on his way to the pharmacy to pick up some new supplies and was close by. It took him ten minutes before he pulled the van to a stop in front of the ally to make it difficult for anyone to see past it, into the ally.

The moment he saw all the blood and Katy’s unconscious body, he rushed over with his medical supplies. “Good lord, Jackson! What have you done to the poor girl?” Caleb scolds me, taking in the mess my wolf made and handing me a track suit pants and shirt. He must have seen the fear and pain in my eyes, because he dropped his eyes before bending down and taking out a clean cloth to wipe off the blood. “Alpha, you need to let her go and stop growling at me, I need to clean her wounds and see if she is healing.” He said in a gentler voice with his hands facing up as a sign to my wolf that he means no harm.

My logical side knows that Caleb would never hurt Katy. It is not in his nature as a healer to even hurt a fly in his human form, but my animalistic and not so logical side, wanted to protect our mate, even from our own pack members.

I slowly relaxed my grip on Katy to allow Caleb to take her from my arms. He went to work immediately and checked the wound my wolf made on her neck while I wiped off the blood on my body to put on the cloths. The mark my wolf left on her neck is a claim mark she won’t be able to hide unless she wears a scarf every day. “Well, your wolf made sure to stake his claim. How long have you known she is your mate?” he asks as he slowly cleans off the blood, careful not to hurt her.

“I caught her scent four months ago at the super market in that small town just outside the forest, but couldn’t find her. After a month of going to the store every day, I assumed she might have just been driving through and stopped at the store before moving on. I found her three months ago when she walked into my office. It was the day I had that meeting with Alpha Anderson about the rogue attacks. She was my new receptionist and with Bridget being on maternity leave, she took over the duties of my assistant.” I found that just talking about her to Caled calmed both my wolf and me.

“What the f**k where you thinking? Waiting that long? Even as an Alpha, not claiming your mate after a few weeks of finding her and then to have her right under your nose? You could’ve killed her, all because you were suddenly shy? Is this really how you wanted her to find out about us? Is this really…” I cut him off with an angry growl and he lowers his eyes again in submission and shows his throat asking for forgiveness for his sudden outburst. “I apologize, I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.” He says softly.

I gave a sigh and shake my head to clear it from the anger and frustration. Shame and regret followed soon after. “No, you’re right. I should’ve said something to her earlier, tried harder. I knew my wolf was going to lose patients. The irony is that I was taking her out for lunch in the hopes of trying to tell her what we are and how much she truly meant to me.” I really shouldn’t have waited that long. If this kills her, my wolf will go feral and I can only hope my pack does the right thing and put us down before that happens. I won’t be able to live without her and I don’t want to either.

“What made your wolf take over like that when he would’ve known what your intentions were?” he asked as he wiped off the last of the blood around the wound. By the looks of it she was healing fast and the wound should be only a scare in a few hours. “She is healing up nicely. The virus has done its part in healing her, but now it is all up to her will to survive. If her body doesn’t accept the virus, she won’t survive to see the sun rise. For everyone’s sake, I hope she survives. By the smell of the blood on her, I take it she didn’t go down without a fight. I will be proud to call her my Luna.” He starts to pick her up but I quickly shook my head and move to pick her up as gently as possible. She gave a soft sigh of relief as if my touch helped to relief some of her pain.

I tried my best to slowly put her down on the back seat of the van. She gave a soft whimper as I lay her head down and moved to pick up her shoes and handbag before I got back in the van with her. I held her hand hoping it took away some of her pain. The process of the body fighting off the lycanthrope virus was painful and not for the faint hearted.

“Her phone rang and she answered it by calling the person baby and ending the call with ‘I love you.’ That was all it took for my wolf to take over.” I answer Caleb. Thinking about it now, she could’ve been talking to anyone. I know a lot of older siblings call their younger siblings by pet names. It could’ve been her brother she was talking to, but my wolf didn’t care. He wasn’t taking the chance of her belonging to another man. Knowing Katy, she wouldn’t take kindly to anyone that thought she belonged to them. Shifters are very possessive and territorial, we would never see her as an object and I respect her for being the strong person she has shown us she is, but we belong to her just as much as she belongs to us. I can only hope that she doesn’t reject us when she wakes up, after the mess my wolf made, I wouldn’t be surprised if she does.

We drove in silence to the pack house where I took her up to my bedroom and carefully lay her down on my bed. I knew it wouldn’t count in my favor if she woke up and realized I invaded her privacy by undressing her. I called one of the submissive female wolves to take off her bloodied dress and wash off the rest of the dry blood left on her. I left one of my shirts for her to be dressed in. After she was cleaned and the dirty bedding was removed, I took her hand in mine and started praying to the Moon goddess that she would survive.