Taken by my mate

Spencer

I hadn’t trained much in about a week, so after seeing Evadiene returned to the alpha I went to train with Ellion. He was still feeling rough from his spar with the alpha the night before but put up with me for a few rounds. Lucas came out of the pack house to join training looking as distraught as I felt. We both needed to shift and fight until our muscles ached.

‘What’s got you bent out of shape?’ I asked him through the mind-link after we had both shifted and could communicate privately.

‘It… it’s not for me to talk about,’

I chuckled in my head, knowing immediately. ‘The Luna.’

His eyes shot to me and off my feet that he had been tracking. ‘It’s not like that!’

‘I know.’ I dove at him and he bit me back as I caught his leg before we started tackling each other. ‘She has that affect on people. Everyone wants to care about her, to protect her, but also to believe her. She’s convinced more than eight of our warriors that she’s where she’s supposed to be while never telling a lie.’

He chuckled as well. ‘I believe it. She just… she told me about maintaining the gym equipment with her changes, said she might be going to see her family soon.’

My heart stilled at the thought.

I can’t imagine her, stuck in an animal form forever.

‘Did she?’

He yelped as I caught his tail but it was unintentional and I let go immediately. ‘Yea, but she didn’t seem happy about it, and I have I hard time believing the Alpha would allow that. I’m worried she’s in some trouble.’

‘I’m sure if there was a threat, that we could do anything about, we would be asked to help. Everyone knows how important the Luna is to a pack. Our Alpha will do what he thinks is best,’ I tried to sound hopeful, and encouraging, but the alpha hadn’t seemed like he cared about her the same way the night before.

‘Like now,’ he continued like he had barely heard me anyway, ‘why is she sitting outside alone? In a normal pack maybe it would be fine, but she’s already been attacked by someone from another pack, who’s to say that someone else wouldn’t try to hurt or kidnap her to get to the Alpha?’

I didn’t believe him. ‘Haha nice try, I am not getting distracted so you can pin me.’

‘No really, she’s sitting in a tree beside the bench. I’ll circle around.’ He didn’t sound like he cared about our match anymore at all.

He slowly paced around so I was on the side he was and I looked up to see her indeed sitting up in a tree and watching us fight. I could feel my muzzle stretch up into a mimic of a smile but Lucas was right, she was alone, and I doubted she had ditched the same guards twice, which meant she hadn’t been assigned any. I think she caught my eye, because she waved and smiled brighter.

Lucas tackled me, trying to show off, but I wasn’t about to let him look better than me. I flipped him over, and the two of us began fighting in quick succession, pouncing and snapping at each other. Eventually Ellion had seen us hit each other enough to call us off and demand we separate. He had also recommended we cool off, but we both took that as an opportunity to go see Evadiene.

Emrys was howling in my head to be let out, but I still didn’t trust him, especially not around her. She smiled at us as we came over, petting Sequoia beside her, but then her hands moved to my head and scratched behind my ears.

“Hi Spencer,” she said softly. “It’s in your eyes, you haven’t given your wolf any control.” Her voice was gentle and caring, then she switched a hand to Lucas. “Ellion is over there, but the hair colour… Loo-cas?” His wolf sat down, letting his tongue fall to the side. “Is that right? Are you Lucas’ wolf?”

His wolf was elated that she had recognized him and his tail began to wag with his happy prance. His flank bumped the tree and knocked her out, but she fell on me and couldn’t stop laughing. I felt her nails on my head and it reminded me of the mate I had lost.

“This is why my mom always loved the wolven so much. You wear your hearts on your sleeve and act like puppies when you’re happy.” Her nails raked over my crown and down my neck, burying her hands in my thick fur.

Lucas was surprised to hear that her mother had known the wolven, everyone else still believing she was human. At the same time he seemed to realize this wasn’t widely known on purpose and assured me he would keep his mouth shut.

‘Thank you,’ I thought to him.

‘Like I would ruin the Luna’s happiness. Look at her, from this morning, I much prefer hearing her laugh.’

The Luna.

Somehow I’d forgotten that.

I looked up, feeling eyes on me, and saw the Alpha staring back at me. He was quite far away, his wolf form large and intimidating, and I could feel his growl in my head that stilled all my movements. I was laying on my stomach, the Luna laying on my back, our spines now pressed together as she looked up at the sky.

‘You protect her with your life, and don’t you dare tell her I’ve left,’ he commanded. ‘You fail at either and your death will not be quick.’

His eyes burned through me and I suppressed a shudder but the intensity of his gaze still made me stiffen. The Luna stopped her distracted pets through my fur and rolled over like she was hugging me.

“Are you alright Spencer?” I got her warm breath near my ear and it twitched in response to the tickling sensation, but I turned and brushed my muzzle against her in a nod.

It was easier to lie to her when I couldn’t speak, but it still hurt. She was right, even before she said it, I would be kidding myself if I said I would have been okay lying to her. I felt her nails again and it smoothed out the tension in my muscles.

‘Don’t you think she will feel the Alpha leaving even without us saying anything?’ Lucas asked, and I hadn’t realized he had been talking to both of us.

I looked over at him where he was now scratching his neck against the tree. ‘I’m not sure. The best we can do is keep her happy and distracted until he returns.’

I slowly stood up and she sat up. “Do you want me to get down?” I shook my head as I started to walk. “Don’t you need to return to training?” Again I shook my head. “Well I’m not about to argue against being carried around like some princess. Besides, Covyn is upset with me and I don’t want to risk running into him on my own inside,” she continued more quietly but I knew Lucas had heard her. “It would be easier if he would just reject me…”

She trailed off, both of us feeling much sadder than before with her words.

‘But he’s marked her. Does she still believe he doesn’t love her?’ Lucas asked, his wolf following beside me, trying not to whimper at the idea of being rejected.

‘He hasn’t had a lot of time for her, and she’s been through a lot. I think it’s easier to believe he’s been avoiding her,’ I lied, walking slowly around the property.

Lucas waited beneath the tree, inviting her cat to jump on his back and, knowing what I did, I think she enjoyed having a wolven as her pack mule. ‘Our poor Luna.’

He told me how the Alpha had accused her ruining his new equipment when she set it up and had the crew come back to check it over. Clyde had told him about an incident in the warehouse as well, and at the time he had sided with the Alpha in his worry but now….

I felt bad talking about her with her laying quietly on my back, but I also grew more angry as I wondered how many hints she had dropped him like she had me. One day with her and I had asked her the right questions, but it had taken her dying in front of him for him to see the truth. And then he had been angry.

As we rounded the property on our gentle walk, we were coming up to the cemetery and I was reminded of what had happened there. I turned my head to look up at the Luna, as if to reassure myself that she was okay, but her eyes grew wide. I turned back around to see skeletal wolves clawing their way out of the ground. Others like them were regrowing muscle and fur, jointing a line of them that seemed to chew at our boarder.