The change ( his mate)

Chapter 18: Hunting together

Lara

Grayson stuck to his words, he didn’t try to touch me, he stopped telling me he loved me, he had backed right off, however, he did still keep telling the rest of the world that we were a couple.

Christmas was right around the corner, a week away in fact, the place was decorated with Christmas lights in the windows, the Christmas tree colourfully decorated by me, Grayson and Leo. It was sat in the corner of the living room.

Kai had come to visit today along with his dad, Ralph, they were going away for a Christmas break, so we wouldn’t see them for three weeks. While Leo and Ralph were chatting and drinking in the kitchen me and Kai were on the leather brown sofa in the living room watching home alone. Halfway through the movie he tried to drop his arm around me.

“Kai,” I warned.

“What? You wouldn’t want to just kiss a little?”

“No! I’m not like that, go find one of your many girlfriends.”

He leaned in closer against me and murmured, “I’d rather you.”

When I glared at him he spread his arms wide. “What? Do you know how rare it is to find a female werewolf, most of them are in bloody America.”

“You can’t have this one.”

“Why? You’re single.”

Before I could respond Grayson came down the stairs, with his wolf hearing he would have heard the conversation from the top of those stairs. “She’s already got a mate.” He carried on into the kitchen.

“No she hasn’t!” Kai called out.

Grayson came back, standing in the doorway and said, “yeah, she does, she’s mine so back off.”

“Is she? Apparently she don’t want you anymore than she does me.”

Was Kai drunk? He was setting himself up for a rough night if he carried on. Grayson looked at him coldly and voice cold as ice said, “she’s mine.”

When Kai looked to me I shrugged, “I’m his.”

He slouched back against the sofa and grumbled, “I know, thought I’d at least try.”

Grayson looked at me and grinned boyishly, I think we both knew I’d always been his the moment we met, the whole I didn’t want him thing was just a charade and I wasn’t fooling anyone.

He turned towards the kitchen and called out, “Kai, come get a drink you miserable f.uck.”

Kai sighed, sulked a minute longer then got up and joined Grayson.

I joined everyone in the kitchen after a while, while everyone enjoyed themselves the phone rang and Leo got up to answer it. I could hear it was a female talking, but I was too far away to make out what she was saying, by the look of surprise on his face It must have been interesting.

He took the phone into another room and a few minutes later he came back out to us. “Who was that?” Grayson asked.

“A female werewolf called Amber, she wants to make a new life in England, asked for permission to live here in Surrey.”

“And?” Kai asked.

“I said yes, both to that request and her second request…whether she could join the pack.”

Kai grinned, Ralph sat there with raised eyebrows and Grayson, well, Grayson flipped.

“What! You can’t just let a f.ucking stranger join the pack without knowing anything about them!”

“I realise that Grayson, I told her to come here and meet me and I’d make my final decision based on the visit.”

“Is it because she’s female? If you want to get f.ucked that bad just go out and grab a girl from a bar.”

Leo’s own temper flared at the insult and he snapped, “don’t be so ridiculous, it has nothing to do with that, but now you mention it, yes, another female in the pack would be nice, especially for Lara who I have no doubt could do with a break from you and your alpha male attitude.”

Grayson threw his beer bottle at the wall making it smash, not daring to aim it at his alpha, no matter how angry he got he respected Leo and would never try to hurt him, couldn’t even if he’d wanted to, his wolfish instinct to protect and follow his alpha too deeply ingrained.

He settled for smashing the bottle and punching the wall making his hand bleed, then he stormed off to his room. He really didn’t like strangers.

Sighing, I followed after him, knocked on his door and went in. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, his feet on the floor with his elbows resting on his legs while his right hand dripped blood onto the floor.

He stood up when he saw me. Without a word I went over and slid my hands around his waist , pressed my cheek against his chest and held him. He wrapped an arm around me, used his other hand to hold the back of my head gently stroking my hair.

“Sorry, every instinct I have is to protect the pack, some f.ucking strange wolf joining—” he trailed off making a growl of frustration.

“Even real wolf packs accept other wolves sometimes,” I said.

“I know, and I can’t stop Leo letting her join, but that doesn’t mean I trust her, she’s not pack to me.”

“Yet, give it time, you might find she’s not as bad as you think she’ll be.”

He snorted at that. Looking up at him I asked, “want to go for a run?”

“F.uck yeah.”

We went back downstairs and left the house, when Kai tried to follow, a look from Grayson was enough to stop him in his tracks.

“You don’t want Kai to come?” I asked as we walked along the grass.

“Not today, I just want it to be me and you.”

We found our spots to change, Grayson didn’t care, but I sure as hell wasn’t letting him see me change.

The familiar pain of the change ripped through my body, I dug my nails into the dirt and gasped. Because I changed frequently it wasn’t quite as painful as it had been at the start, ok, maybe it was, but the process was faster, so I was only in absolute ‘I want to die’ agony for about five minutes instead of the ten to fifteen.

When I was done I lay on the floor panting, waiting for the last phantom twinges of pain to go. Grayson padded over to me and I got up on my paws. He nuzzled my neck and then turned and headed deep into the woods.

We started with a slow trot and slowly gained speed until we were running as fast as we could. I’d never get over how amazing it felt to have the cool wind hitting my face, ruffling my fur. I ducked before a branch sticking out whipped my face, I jumped over another thick branch that had fallen to the floor.

Grayson skidded to a stop and I crashed into his backside sending us both tumbling to the ground. I growled at him in annoyance, but he pushed his nose under my chin lifting my head to see what he’d seen. I looked into the clearing and saw four rabbits. Two were eating, one was laying down asleep and another was cleaning itself.

When I licked my lips, Grayson made a soft sound and lolled his tongue, his version of a grin.

I was still pretty bad at catching things, but slowly I was getting better, so for now I let Grayson take the lead. We got down on our bellies, inching closer, my mouth watered and my stomach grumbled with hunger.

When we were ready we sprang, sending the rabbits running in every direction. I chased one through the trees, trying to keep up as it ran, hopped and bounded from right to left and made so many turns I’d probably be lost after. I almost had it, a hairbreadth from my jaws before it jumped down into its burrow. I growled in frustration and hit the burrow with my paw.

I ran back to where I started and sulked when I saw Grayson standing there holding the limp body of a rabbit in his mouth, another one was at his feet. Of course he caught not only one, but two, pfft.

He gently shook the rabbit in his mouth at me and I tried to give puppy dog eyes. His eyes sparkled with laughter and he padded over and dropped it down in front of me. I looked up at him expectantly and he nuzzled my neck and licked the side of my face.

I lay down and ate, tore into the meat absolutely starving, it had been about two weeks since I’d eaten raw meat, the wolf needed to have raw meat at least once a week.

I was done within minutes and Grayson picked up the other rabbit, came over to me and dropped it at my feet too. I tilted my head asking why he wasn’t eating, but he nudged the rabbit closer to me and ran off into the woods.

He came back half an hour later dragging a whole deer. My eyes widened and he grinned. Coming over to me he nudged me with his head, so I got up and went over to the deer. I looked at Grayson and he nuzzled me again letting me know he wanted to share.

I was still hungry and he probably knew I hadn’t eaten enough raw meat lately. He was a good mate to me, not that I was admitting I was his mate yet, but in his eyes I was and so he took care of me, he never treated me like I was lower than him in the pack, I was, I was a submissive wolf, slowly working my way a little higher, but I’d probably always be more submissive than dominant.

I knew that really I should wait for him to eat first, wait until he allowed me to have my turn, but maybe as a mate it was different? He never made me wait, he made everyone else who was a lower rank than him, like Kai for example, but never me, heck, sometimes like now he made sure I ate first.

When we were finished I held his muzzle with my paw and licked it clean. He’d tried pulling away the first time I’d done this, but these days he let me, and when I was done he licked mine too.

With a full belly I was sleepy, I laid down and Grayson laid behind me resting his head on my back and we fell asleep.

When we woke up we played for a bit, I pounced on Grayson and tried getting him to the floor, but he shook me off like I was nothing more than a bug, I tumbled to the floor and he stood over me, lightly putting his jaws around my throat. I kicked my feet under his belly throwing him off to the side and jumped back on, this time pinning him to the ground.

After some more play fighting we ran back closer to the pack house and found somewhere to change.

I was barely done when Grayson came into my spot. “Don’t do that! Wait until I’ve said you can come to me,” I snapped.

“Sorry.” With that grin I knew he wasn’t sorry and I sighed when he pulled me in against his body. We were both still naked, being werewolves it didn’t matter, it was normal to see one another naked, but when the others were with us I always made sure to dress, I was the only female in this pack and I didn’t think it would be quite the same for them if they saw me naked, especially when I had a big chest.

My b.reasts were pressed against Graysons chest, he stroked my hair behind my ear and smiled, “so you admit you’re my mate now?”

“Pfft, no, I was just helping get Kai away from me.”

He lost the smile and said, “so you don’t want me?”

I shrugged and he backed away letting me go. “You’re so f.ucking stubborn.”

“And you said you’d stop chasing me and making any effort.”

Growling he shoved his boxers on, grabbed his t-shirt off the floor and stormed off back to the pack house.

The urge to chase him, tell him I didn’t mean it was almost strong enough to make me do it, but I forced it away, got redressed and slowly made my way back inside.

I did worry as I walked, I’d been extremely lucky, spoilt in fact when it came to Grayson and his endless patience and devotion. I knew I could push him away, keep him at a safe distance, knew if I was a real b.itch I could even go and sleep with other men, date other men and he would still wait patiently for me, never give me up, I wasn’t that cruel though, I’d never do that to him.

Instead I kept pushing him away and I knew that wasn’t fair either, but my fear was too strong. So far I’d been lucky in that I do it knowing he’d always be there, always want me, now things might change, with a new female joining the pack he might decide I wasn’t worth the effort anymore and move on, then id lose him forever.

It was so selfish, I knew that, hated myself for it, I wanted to keep him at a distance, but I didn’t want him with anyone else either, knew it would destroy me. Grayson truly did have the mind of a wolf, to him a lover meant forever, not a night or a week or a year.

What if he liked this new female and decided she was easier to be with? Gave his complete loyalty and devotion to her instead? Even as I thought this I knew him enough that it wouldn’t happen, he’d already chosen his mate, me, whether I came back to him or not his feelings would never change, it would always be me, so why was I still such a damn coward! Because that inner voice told me I was wrong, all it would take was for some new werewolf, a born werewolf and not bitten like me, someone who embraced her wolf side fully like he did to make him choose her instead, someone prettier and who appreciated his affections.