The Lost Mate

Max

Lillian kissed me full on the lips the moment I got in the door after another long day of work. I loved my job, but not nearly as much as I loved coming home to her after every shift.

Since we were fully mated and working for the pack, we were living in one of the smaller apartments in the pack house, but the size didn’t really matter. She had decorated it with her usual simply slightly girly style, and I was happy to let her because things like that didn’t really interest me, and doing it made her happy. And I loved the place, because it was like paradise since she was there, and the whole place smelled fantastically like her. I must have been a very good wolf for the goddess to have rewarded me with my beautiful Lillian.

I openly looked her up and down and she shot me a teasing smile. We’d been together four years already, and familiarity had not made her any less appealing to me. If anything, it made her look sexier with clothes on because I was so well aware of the treat that was waiting for me once I got underneath them. I pulled her closer to me and snuck my hand up under her shirt. “Ooh, no bra? Hello to me.”

“Max, we need to eat first. I’m starving,” she said, batting my hands away. I managed to land a hand on her ass before she gave me a look that told me she was serious and I needed to behave or she’d make me regret it later. She really must have been hungry, therefore my wolf demanded that my mate be fed.

I grinned at her. “Alright. We’ll do it your way.”

Since there was no scent of food cooking from the small kitchen, I figured that she intended for us to go to the pack dining hall, and that was fine with me. Her cooking was better in my opinion, but she said I was just biased in her favour. I didn’t argue, because I didn’t care which it was. All I knew is she made everything in my life more worthwhile. She went and changed. I grabbed her hand and intertwined our fingers as we went out the door.

We ate supper that night surrounded by our friends. The group had changed over the years, since new people had come, mostly through mating to people we knew, and others had left to be with their mates in other packs or to pursue goals in the outside world, like Will who was in his third year at Sterling. Lillian and I got along with pretty much anyone, since she was so sweet in her quiet way that everyone adored her.

My impatience was front and center by the time I got her home, and the moment we got in the door I swept her off to the bedroom. She laughed and complained, but I knew she liked it. She made no effort to hide her actual feelings through the bond, and the sexy look she shot me was certainly not telling me to get lost. It didn’t take me long to strip her clothing away, and mine followed, landing in haphazard heaps on the floor of our bedroom. I kissed her, and she kissed me, and we spent hours just pleasing each other.

Afterwards, I fell asleep with her, sated and content. It was an excellent sleep, as always, until I woke to the terse voice of my alpha booming in my head.

“We’re under attack. Fighters, this is not a drill. Protect your pack. Children and other non-combatants, your goal is to survive, and if you can get to it, hide in the shelter, and evacuate when possible.”

After our alpha finished speaking, the beta began shouting orders through the link, as did the delta. Lillian woke while our alpha shouted, her lovely eyes wide as she clutched our sheets to her chest. “What’s happening, Max?” she asked, terrified expression meeting mine.

“I’ve got to go, Lily. And you need to get away if you can. We’re under attack.” I jumped out of bed and pulled pants on automatically, and Lillian replaced her skimpy nightgown with a t-shirt and leggings and we left the bedroom, into the living area of the home we’d built together.

“Max,” she said, her eyes filling with tears, “stay safe.” She pulled me towards her and kissed me hard, before releasing me.

“I will. Now hide and survive. I promise I’ll find you when it’s all over. But first I have to do what I can to protect the pack.” I rushed out the door, Lillian right behind me.

—————

It was pure chaos in the hall, people rushing either towards or away from the fighting. Lillian grabbed onto another woman rushing down the hall and the two of them went together, in the direction of the shelter. My instinct was to go with her to offer protection, but instead I went in the opposite direction where duty demanded. The sounds of fighting, snarls, and cries of pain grew louder as I rushed forward. Bursting out of the pack house, I discovered just how overwhelmed we truly were. Will’s sister was on the ground, trying and failing to protect herself from an attack, and another fighter, a friend of mine, was being ripped apart by enemy wolves.

My wolf surged within me, and my shift was near instantaneous with the adrenaline coursing through my veins. I wasted no time as I ripped into the one attacking Will’s sister, getting the underside of his throat while he was preoccupied with his assault on her, severing the throat and arteries the same way he’d been trying to do to his victim. Blood flooded my mouth and the iron was all I could taste. Wrenching his head back, I twisted as hard as I could, leaving him lying at an unnatural angle. He wouldn’t be getting up again, or surviving, without serious healer attention.

Will’s sister scrambled to her feet and thanked me as she limped away as fast as she could go in the direction of the shelter.

I left the wolf I’d attacked leaking blood into the soil of our territory and turned to the other enemies nearby. The three had abandoned their outnumbered victim, and golden eyes advanced on me. I didn’t have much of a chance against three, so I turned and ran until I was near the tree line as if I were running away. Only two chased me, and I leapt towards a sturdy tree with my forepaws outstretched, and used it to abruptly stop and reverse direction towards my pursuers.

They weren’t expecting my tactic, and I didn’t waste my advantage. I couldn’t go low enough, so instead I snapped my teeth into the face of the nearest one as I passed, raking teeth in an attempt to blind as I rushed him. The squeal of agony told me I’d hit my mark. He howled and snapped, blindly catching my tail. I yanked it out of his teeth as I ran, losing fur and scraping skin off in my escape.

Blood dripping from my maw, I wheeled on the other, but I’d already lost the element of surprise. I growled, warning in an attempt to intimidate, when movement behind me caught my attention. The third had come after me, so I dashed away, turning to face both threats. The wolf I’d likely blinded was whimpering, but his fellow warriors paid him no notice. Neither did I. He’d been neutralized as a threat and I had no sympathy for these invaders who had already killed so many. My wolf could feel the deaths, more painful than my physical wounds, and he wanted to repay them in kind.

My wolf growled again, and I faked running at one, only to quickly switch direction and drag my teeth into the other’s flank. He nicked me, but I could barely even feel the wound past my pumping adrenaline. I clamped my jaws down on him again, more blood spurting into my mouth and coating my fur with the metallic stench.

It was sick and violent, but my wolf loved the bloody taste of satisfaction and wanted to spill more of these invaders. We’d kill every one to protect our mate and our pack, flood the earth with their lives.

Both enemies went for me, and I dodged the more injured one and focused my attack on the one still in good fighting form. As he came at me I went low, ready to change direction at a moment’s notice.

I might have overcome the odds against me and gone on to help others, but that was the moment when our alpha died. It was pure agonizing weight for a moment, stunning in its painful severity. And then nothing, nothing but stark emptiness where my connection to my leader had rested my entire life.

I was too stunned to focus on the fight, and that moment’s distraction was all it took. My two remaining attackers got the better of me. They held me down prone, my muzzle digging into the dirt. My struggling was pointless, because I couldn’t gain enough movement to dislodge them.

With nothing else I could do, the fight was over. I’d lost. “Lillian? Baby? Are you somewhere safe?” I needed to at least know that much, in these final moments. She needed to live on. I prayed she would get a second chance and be happy without me, fulfill all her dreams. My heart was in my throat as I hoped she would answer.

“Yeah, I’m in the shelter with some of the kids and others. What’s happening out there, Max?”

I didn’t know what to tell her. “I love you.”

“What? Wait, Max, what’s happening?” Her voice grew louder and more upset. She must have heard the finality in my tone.

And why weren’t they going for the final kill while I was so vulnerable? It would be easy. Instead they held me down, shoving me into the ground with too much direct pressure for me to hope to knock them off. I pawed helplessly at the ground. What should I tell my mate? “Our alpha died.”

“I know. I felt it. But what about you?”

Was it kinder to warn her, or just let her realize when the bond between us snapped? Sharp pain bit my neck. “I’m...”

Everything went black.