Taken by my mate

Covyn

I keep the same schedule every day because frankly it’s easy, and my family figured out the key to leading our pack. To everyone else I am professional, and organized, but I couldn’t be bothered trying to remember all the jobs that need to be done in a day. In keeping my routines, following the steps my family perfected, I got everything done, anticipated problems, and stayed on top.

I spent most of my free time training with my men or in my office anyway, because this was what I was meant to do. My family had run this pack for generations, and while there had been challengers, none had ever come close to our strength. When my parents died everyone was shocked, and the title was quickly passed to me before my time, leaving little time to venture to other packs for my mate..

Still I kept my pack on top over the centuries thanks to everything my parents taught me, the dedication of our warriors, and the safety of our boarder. Even still, we had to keep with the times, which meant investing in the human sanctions industries.

It was one of these endeavours that brought me a few hours from my pack lands every so often to monitor the progress of our business. This year we were opening a shipping and receiving warehouse for food items.

Really, we should have done it sooner with how much food we order alone. It was going to benefit us greatly between the cheaper grocery bill and the incoming it would bring, we already had plans to upgrade some of our facilities.

Improvements to the gyms alone was enough to drag my ass to city, but the warehouse needed to be just outside of it in a more secluded area away from housing due to zoning codes. Whatever, we had to do to get it done, but I wasn’t about to stay in the inn near the site.

Give me a secluded forest with nothing but nature or the buzzing city where nothing sleep. I don’t know why, but if I wasn’t somewhere where my wolf could run wild or there was constant distraction I would be on edge the whole time.

With responsibilities still in the packhouse I drove out every Friday morning, took meetings in my condo and entertained other Alpha’s either passing through or that lived nearby. Maintaining relationships half the time is just as important as training your own warriors.

That left me leaving my condo every bloody Friday during rush hour, but I’ll always choose spending the gas money and putting kilometres on my truck over staying at a dodgy inn. Over these months, this was probably the most either of those things had been used in a while.

It helped very little that the others in traffic looked just as bloody bored as I did. I tried the radio for a while but, after the third commercial about vasectomies, was more content in the silence of idle cars.

It was only then that I noticed an old convertible passing by, too short for me to really see inside it from my truck, but the music was bumping. I could almost imagine a firecracker of a girl behind that wheel having the best time of her life.

I had started to feel anxious sitting in traffic before hearing her music, but something about how carefree you had to be to make traffic fun. I wished I could have that kind of energy about me.

After that, each Friday I would be stuck in traffic, watching it slowly creep along through the winter weather, I would start to feel anxious. The feeling would come seemingly out of no where and dwell on my every thought. My heart would pick up speed for no reason that I could determine and my focus seemed sharper, like my wolf wanted to alert me to danger.

Christmas passed, and new years, then we were into February and the construction was no where near done with the frozen earth and snow setting us back, but the anxious feeling continued, never starting in the same place on my route.

The only reprieve I got was the strange carefree energy when that old convertible rolled by and I could almost feel the music it played.

It wasn’t like I was going to tell anyone about what was going on with me, though I think they knew something was up. My temper was shorter than usual and our pack doctor kept warning me about being over-stressed and it’s affect on my health.

March began and I went to bed exhausted, but I rested fitfully with the beginning of what would be a reoccurring dream. I was running through the forest, chasing after a shadow that always evaded me with a light amused laugh or a short giggle of devilish mischief. I would call out to the figure, beg them to wait just a minute, but when he would round the tree I was sure she was behind she would be gone, just a few words lingering in the air there. “Find me.”

“Mate!” The word ripped from my mouth, making him sit up in sweats in the middle of the night.

She had to be near, somewhere in the city, and I realized with frustrating stupidity that that was the feeling I was getting in traffic each week. How many times had I passed her before the anxious feeling began, and then again the number of times after. Seeing them was really what our human sides needed to recognize our mates, but I thought back to how stupid my wolf must think I am and I demanded to know why he hadn’t just told me.

‘Some things you need to figure out yourself,’ was basically what he thought in return, not having much in the way of language skills but putting forth that vibe.

I knew I needed to find her, end this anxious feeling, and calm my wolf however, I needed to do this logically. I began with a map of my route, marking down when the feeling began and ended. One day a week to try and find her really wasn’t doing me any favours.

It was moving into May when I was absolutely sure she was in one of the cars in traffic and not any of the businesses that dotted the highway. I looked into every car I could as they passed me, my dreams not giving me much to go on but I was sure I would recognize her if given half the chance. I even parked on the side of the highway one day and just watched all the people passing me as the feeling came and went.

The only explanation left was that she was going the opposite way and that didn’t really help find her any faster. I was no longer sleeping, getting woken up every night by that same stupid dream. It felt like she and my wolf were taunting me, calling me incompetent at my ability to find her. I didn’t like being made to feel impotent and my frustration quickly turned back to anger.

‘Why hasn’t she found me herself? Is she even looking me like I am for her? I can’t be the only one feeling all this stress and anxiety. When I finally find her I will never let her out of my site.’

The weather was getting warmer, just warm enough to be considered spring really, and I drove to the job site with my windows down, hoping the fresh air would calm my nerves. I tapped repetitively on the window sill with my fingers as my eyes wandered over the drivers going into the city. Around the same area as always the tight feeling returned to my chest, but this time she made it very easy to spot her.

I was nearly at my exit when I spotted that old convertible with the top down car zooming down the ramp to join the backed up line of cars. The music was blasted loud enough with the top down for me to easily hear it through my open window and I watched her race across three lanes of traffic before stopping dead with the rest.

Her hands gestured wildly, her face almost looking pained with the effort she was putting into singing the song, and her bright blue glasses hid her eyes completely. She wasn’t a particularly good singer, and with the eye contact she made with the other drivers she seemed to know it too, but that didn’t stop her from putting on a show.

Our cars grew steadily closer together and the wind whipped her short hair around her face and brought her scent towards me to take my by the balls. There was a 10 foot space, and two guard rails between us as we crossed over a river, but my heightened sight still allowed me to take as much of her in as I could see above the panel of her door.

Her hair constantly flew across her face and she tucked it behind her ears dramatically with the song she sung. Her skin was dark, but like coco made with milk, and she dressed like it was still fall despite clearly enjoying the top down.

A growl grew against my lips pushing just one word passed my teeth. “Mine.”

She barely seemed to notice me, definitely not more than any of the other car, but I was sure I saw her turn slightly after that, but a second later both lanes were moving and she was in the wrong direction.