The Alpha And The Prey

Chapter 1

Nathan Pov

    I never thought my whole life would change in one moment. I wasn’t one of those people that believed in love at first sight, and the word love never mattered to me anyway. I was raised on competition, the notion that one of us would get our mate first and run the pack. But love? Love was never part of the equation. One single moment, my life changed. It sounds dramatic, I know. But if someone had told me back then that a simple run through the meadow would change my life, I’d have told them they were crazy. But there was no denying any of it, not since I met her. 

    “Nate, come on, it’ll be fun!” I lifted my eyes to glare at my younger twin brother, frowning. 

    “Isaac. It’s not my fault mother told everyone no training for the day. She’s giving them a day off because the Rogues haven’t attacked this month. Go have fun, go away, leave me alone.” I said with a frown. Out of the three of us, I was the middle of the triplets. While Jason, the oldest of us, was always off searching for his mate, I was the one who took care of the corporation. Isaac was in charge of training the warriors, and mom, well, she’s been single-handedly running the pack despite being Luna since dad died when we were nine. It was uncommon for a Luna to run the pack, but no one had ever tried to go past dad’s decree. 

    Isaac groaned, plopping down on the seat across from me with a frown. “We never do anything together anymore,” he whined. I simply lowered the papers in my hand, raising my eyebrows at him. 

    ‘It’s because we hate each other.’ I said in my mind, trying to ignore the laughter of my wolf, Ray, in my mind. 

    Ray was busy rolling around laughing in my mind, but I could hear the soft whimper in his voice as well. How long has it been since we went for a run? I sighed, running my fingers through my hair as I groaned in frustration. “You’re not going to leave me alone until I go running with you, are you?” I asked Isaac. He stood up fast, bobbing his head up and down with a grin, and I frowned. It was strange looking at him sometimes, because of how similar we three always looked. There were differences, of course. Jason was taller than Isaac and me, while Isaac was more muscular than the rest of us. I was in the middle of the two of them. Muscular, tall, and lean. We all had brown hair but mine was lighter than the rest. In the sunlight, it looked more like a dark blond, and my brothers used to tease me for it, saying I was a dumb blond growing up. Isaac kept his darker brown hair cut short like a buzz cut, while Jason had his hair long, usually pulled back into a man-bun on the back of his head and the sides shaved. I kept my hair short, but long enough that my bangs tended to brush against my eyebrows and sometimes tickle my forehead. I guess in a way I was the most stoic of the three, the one who always had his head in books studying. We all wanted to help mom the best we could when we were younger, and despite the fact that we hated each other and were competing from a young age for the ultimate title, we worked together enough to agree to help mom. Isaac was the one who helped with the warriors. Jason and I were both supposed to help with the corporation, but Jason couldn’t stand it. He had a position in the enterprise, even an office next to mine, but he was never there anymore. Once we turned eighteen, five years ago, Jason pretty much left, coming back once a month or so to see what was going on, because he was searching for his mate. He was determined to find her, whoever she was, before either of us did. I wasn’t sure what Isaac was doing, but I wasn’t searching. Of course, I wanted to take over the pack, but I didn’t think I’d have to go out of my way to search for my mate. One day, she’ll come to me. The Moon Goddess will deliver a beautiful, strong, and fierce werewolf to me, and she’ll be the perfect Luna to replace my mother and help me drive the Rogues from our lands once and for all. 

    Isaac was grinning, his hands pressed down on my desk as he waited for me to put my papers away. I leaned forward, pressed down on the button, calling my secretary. I tend to always work at home instead of going to the office unless there’s a meeting, so my secretary was having everything sent here for me to work on. I rarely went to the corporation unless they really needed me. After my father died, we hired someone else to pretty much run the corporation. We only really took care of the bigger, more pressing concerns. It wasn’t uncommon for them to go without seeing me for a few weeks, since most of it could just be sent to me. “Mrs. Reid, I’m going out for a few hours. I’m sending what I’ve done so far to you, and reschedule the two o’clock meeting.” I said. She agreed and I took a minute to fax over the papers I had been working on, trying to ignore Isaac as he rattled my desk in his excitement. 

    ‘I don’t understand why he wants to spend time with me now.’ I said, frowning as I faxed over the papers. 

    Ray shrugged, grinning at me. ‘Maybe he wants to spend time with you.’ He said. 

    I snorted, shaking my head at him. ‘If anything, he’s luring me out to kill me. One less competitor for him.’ I said. 

    Honestly, Isaac was closer to Jason than he was me, so this really was a strange visit from him. I should have just kept ignoring him, but a part of me wanted to know what he wanted. That is, until I stepped out of my room and followed him down to the lobby. Our pack was fairly simple. We had a packhouse for the Alpha family and guest rooms, along with a conference room and so on. Next to this was the packhouse for the Gammas and Betas and their families. Then there were three more packhouses filled with warriors and Omegas. We had various houses as well for those who didn’t want to live in the packhouses and a few other buildings around our pack. We had a large building for the school, pretty much all of our kids were taught here so they didn’t have to deal with humans. However, the town close by was within driving distance and it wasn’t uncommon for the wolves to go to town when they were bored, as long as they behaved. The same town that our corporation was in, and how our pack survived as it did. We didn’t have to worry about the humans, it was the Rogues we had a problem with. “Isaac, what is this?” I asked, frowning. 

    Standing in front of me were a handful of wolves, all staring up at me eagerly with a grin on their faces as I yanked my tie off of my neck. There was one guy who was staring at me amazed, probably because I rarely came out of the packhouse or talked to anyone with all the stuff I do every day. Three girls were batting their eyelashes at me and Isaac grinned, shoving his shoulder into mine, making me groan. Of course…he wanted me to spend time with him again…because of girls. “Excuse me,” I gritted through my teeth towards the others, grabbing Isaac’s shirt and shoving him away from them. He was probably stronger than me but he didn’t fight me as I shoved his back to the wall, glaring at him. “Did you take me away from my work just to help you out with girls?” I hissed at him. 

    He shrugged, grinning at me sheepishly. “Lisa said she wouldn’t go out with me unless I set her twin sister up. I figured what better way to get with a twin unless I use a twin too, and Jason is never around when I need him so…come on, it’s gotta suck being single all the time.” He said to me, wagging his eyebrows at me. 

    I groaned, dropping my forehead against his shoulder in frustration. “I had an important meeting today too,” I grumbled, annoyed that it was going to have to be rescheduled now for this useless crap. 

    “Come on, when have I ever asked you for anything? Just hang out with us, maybe you’ll like her.” He whined. 

    I pulled away from him, letting go of his shirt with a frown. “She’s not my mate,” I said, looking at him like he was stupid. “This is a waste of time,” I said. 

    He shrugged, turning away from me. “It’s not like we’re getting married. It doesn’t mean we can’t get laid, bro. Loosen up.” He said, turning to look at me with a grin. Before I could say anything, he punched me lightly in the shoulder, wrapping his arm around my neck and dragging me over to the others again. He was so frustrating. I wasn’t like him. He dated for fun, getting laid, not caring about who he hurt. I didn’t see the point in any of it. Eventually, I’d find my mate, and that would be it. Why bother useless dating for someone that it obviously wasn’t going to work out with? I didn’t have time for dating. “Nate is boring and wants to get back to work, so we’re just going to go for a run and loosen up, okay? Maybe get something to eat afterward?” He said, wagging his eyebrows at me as he draped his arm over the girl I assumed was Lisa’s shoulders. The other guy grabbed one of the girl's hands, leaving me with the last one. She was holding her hand out to me with an expected look on her face and I merely glared at her, making her shiver as I put my hands in my pocket, already annoyed. 

    “Let’s get this over with,” I grumbled, following them out of the packhouse. It was still fairly early in the day, around lunchtime, but I suspected we’d probably be running until about dinnertime. Once our wolves took over, they ran for hours. Our pack was surrounded by a large wall, with two gates on it. One leading to the road where the human town was a few hours from here, and one leading to the forest. However, the rogues tended to live in the forest somewhere and whenever we went there, we had to take a group of warriors with us otherwise we’d be attacked. It was frustrating, the depth of the forest and how we haven’t had a chance to figure out exactly where their hideout was yet. We were starting to suspect they moved around every day or so, otherwise, how have we not caught them yet? But then again, hundreds of Rogues were hard to move every few days, so we were still unsure. However, near the forest was a meadow, and our wolves tended to run through it instead. It was a large meadow and on a hill, meaning if the rogues tried to catch us off guard we’d hear them trying to race up the hill and we’d have the upper hand. The meadow was a fun place for us, because it usually was filled with all kinds of animals to chase. Our wolves enjoyed chasing squirrels, bunnies, the occasional deer, and even a few bears once that had managed to venture from the forest. There was a fairly large pond in the middle of the meadow and the animals came to drink from it often, giving the wolves plenty of animals to tease and chase. 

    All of us went out the gate to the forest, but walked towards the side where the meadow was, before stripping out of our clothes. Wolves never really were all that caring of modesty and before we knew it, all of us were bundling our clothes up against the wall and shifting into our wolves, stretching and howling into the brisk afternoon air. Ray grinned, his tongue sticking out as he yawned, stretching his legs as our dark gray fur shifted from the wind. The only other dark gray wolf here was Isaac, the others were all dark brown. The color of the fur didn’t really matter based on rank or title, we just were whatever color our wolf was. Because Jason and Isaac were my brothers, we all tended to have the same color fur. However, being Alphas, Isaac and I were bigger than the other wolves who whimpered automatically under our gazes, instantly bending down into submission from our pheromones. Then Isaac grinned, letting out a soft yelp as he took off through the grass. The others were looking at me as if asking permission to follow and I nodded, watching as they took off after Isaac. ‘I know you’re wanting to get back to work but I’m glad to get out of the stuffy room for a while.’ Ray said to me as we started chasing after the others. 

    Almost instantly I felt guilty. ‘I’m sorry, Ray. I should let you out more, there’s just so much to do, you know.’ I said, sighing. 

    Ray yipped at me, joining the others as we started to chase after a squirrel. ‘Don’t apologize, Nate. It’s fine, I promise. I understand. It’s a lot and Jason pretty much abandoned you with it all. You’re a good Alpha, Nate. Hopefully, we find our mate first. Honestly, I don’t think Isaac is fit to run the pack, and I’m not entirely sure if Jason is either.’ He said. I nodded, agreeing with him. Together, Isaac and I ran the pack fairly well, besides all of what mother does. If I were to take over as the Alpha and run the pack, it would make sense to keep Isaac in charge of the warriors and assign Jason to the cooperation. However, I just wasn’t sure if Jason would cooperate if that was the case. Not that it mattered right now. We had to find our mate first. ‘A beautiful she-wolf, strong and fierce, able to take on everything.’ Ray hummed. I nodded, grinning as he imagined a white wolf in our mind, barking out admiration at the image. I grinned, shaking my head as Isaac killed the squirrel, getting a howl of frustration from the others since he won the game. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. A small white bunny hopped into the meadow. Before I could say anything, one of the brown wolves took off after it, and soon enough, all of us were chasing after it. 

    I laughed with the others, feeling Ray’s happiness at stretching his legs as we ran, and suddenly out of nowhere another white bunny appeared. It was slightly bigger than the other one and for a moment all of our eyes were on it as the other smaller bunny hid behind the bigger one. A parent maybe? Ray smacked his lips, his tongue running in between his teeth as we ran towards it, faster than the others. Surprisingly, the bigger bunny lifted its foot and kicked the smaller bunny towards the bushes, staying in place as a distraction for the smaller one to get away. The act was very…strange, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Slightly human thinking, in a way, but I brushed it off. That wasn’t possible, right? I could feel the other wolves behind me groaning as I leaned down, gripping the bunny in between my jaws, and squeezing down on it. It let out a noise as I crunched down on it, and for a second I could feel it quivering in my jaws as my teeth sunk into its warm fur, piercing the soft skin. 

    The other wolves howled in frustration, their voices in my head were annoyed that the other smaller bunny had got away and that I had won, but I wasn’t paying attention to them. I tasted the blood spilling into my mouth and suddenly…everything was changing. The bunny’s body was shuddering and cracking in my mouth and I whimpered, letting go of it as it fell sharply to the ground. I backed up a step in wonder as the bunny moved in impossible ways, the loud cracks of bones shifting, and all of a sudden where the bunny had just been…a woman sat there. Words can’t describe the way I felt as I looked at her. She was naked, as all those who shift from an animal are, but that wasn’t what was captivating me, tugging at me. Maybe it was her long black hair that ran down her body, brushing against her waist, or her bangs that were cut to frame her face and accent her thin features? Maybe it was the graceful curve of her body, or maybe it was her eyes. One was a warm chocolate brown, while the other was a light blue, strikingly beautiful. No, that wasn’t it. I knew what it was, exactly what it was. 

    As she sat there panting, anger racing through her eyes as blood streamed out of cuts on her stomach and on her back from my teeth where I had her in my mouth, I felt my body start to shift back into my human form. However, before I was fully a human, she was a bunny once more, turning around and racing back through the meadow through the bushes. “Mate,” I whispered, my eyes wide as I felt Isaac’s hand clasp onto my shoulder. I felt sick to my stomach, my body shaking as my eyes stared at the bush where my mate had just vanished.