The Wolf Of Penshaw Lake

*Mason POV* Around one hour after he left The Black Horse.

Mason barrelled through the forest like a clap of thunder. If the weather mirrored his mood, there would have been a storm so great it would have destroyed the earth beneath it. The forest seemed to close in on itself, as though it could recognise the danger. The trees stopped swaying in the night wind and the clouds covered over the moon leaving Mason in pure darkness. Mason was losing control and it didn’t help that his trusted advisor, his best friend...

Was the one to unravel him.

Crashing through the brush, rabbits, deer and birds fled in fright, their sleep disturbed, as Mason’s wolf snapped and snarled at any creature who dared not to move out of his way. A rabbit got caught beneath him and he quickly snapped it up in his fearsome jaws, crushing it as though it were a grape. He dropped the deceased rabbit, after tossing it about gruesomely, and continued on his warpath. His four paws thundered against the ground and the wind lashed around his deep, black fur as he pushed forwards through the forest.

Suddenly Mason came to a screeching halt as he sensed another wolf not far behind him galloping forwards to try and catch up to him. Inhaling the scent he let out a deep, warning growl for the second wolf to turn around. When they didn’t, Mason let out another guttural snarl. This time, it was an order. An Alpha’s order. The second wolf stopped running immediately, but he was already within sight.

Head bowed submissively, the russet brown wolf stepped into view and sat down on his haunches. Isaac was feeling guilty, but he wasn’t even sure what about. He timidly lifted his head to peek at his friend, the much larger, midnight black wolf was pacing in front of him. Red drool escaping from his panting mouth, Mason looked more like a rabid than an Alpha. Isaac licked his lips and waited for his Alpha to make the next move, if he spoke out of turn; it was deeply disrespectful and considering Mason’s mood, was punishable.

Finally, through the longest, morbid silence, Mason heaved a sigh and closed his eyes. Shaking out his long fur, he willed the bones in his body to break and transform, allowing the DNA that created him as both man and wolf to change its form and become human again. His fur blew away on the breeze, his canines disappeared back inside his gums and his eyes returned from their alien black, to his more humane deep, chocolate brown.

Following Mason’s transformation, Isaac quickly copied, not wanting his Alpha to wait around any longer than need be. He was confused as to why his best friend was so angry at him, he hadn’t been this way in a long time. Stretching himself up, Isaac was aware of his panting chest, where Mason stood as still as stone. He waited, in another painstaking silence, for Mason to speak.

“You had no right,” The Alpha spoke finally, but his teeth were bared and gritted together, as though he had difficulty stringing the four words together.

“To do what?” Isaac cried. “I haven’t done anything wrong, or at least I don’t think I have!”

Mason ran a hand through his hair and wiped his mouth, frowning at the blood that was now coating his hand instead of his lips. Rabbit. Not the tastiest. Naked as the day he was born, Mason strode towards Isaac and stopped still in front him, the size difference giving him the feeling of power that he needed.

“You-” He stopped, why was this damn human woman making him lose control like this? “Forget it,” he snarled. “Go home.”

Isaac wracked his brain for anything he could have said and done to make his Alpha, his best friend, as angry as he was right now. Isaac could barely muster the courage to look into his blazing eyes, instead concentrating on the balled fists that could easily swing against him and knock him out. He began acting strangely as soon as they entered the pub, Isaac recalled, and his wolf surfaced as soon as Isaac introduced himself to the new girl that Dee and Josie were so fond of.

With furrowed eyebrows and a raised lip, Isaac finally looked up at his Alpha in confusion, “This isn’t anything to do with that human girl I flirted with is it?”

Clearly it was, as Mason socked Isaac so hard, Isaac flew back and landed with a crunch against the thick bark of an oak tree.

“Okay,” Isaac stuttered, as he tried to regain his breath and stand. “It is.”

Isaac stood to his feet and held his hands up in surrender, “I apologise wholeheartedly Alpha, but in my own defense I had no idea you wanted to pursue her.”

“I DON’T want to pursue her,” Mason growled. “But I don’t want anyone else pursuing her either!”

“Well that’s not fair on the poor girl,” Isaac joked lamely. “Is she...” He faltered for a moment, “She’s not your mate is she?”

Mason punched a tree.

“No,” He yelled, his claws elongating from his nails as he threw his arm forward on another attack against the tree, leaving four, deep, claw marks in the bark. He panted heavily, his shoulders heaving up and down not just from physical exertion, but his brain was fried. “I don’t know,” He changed his mind quietly.

“How can you not know? The mate pull is supposed to be so magical and immediate that no other feeling compares.”

“She is human Isaac,” Mason said, turning around to face his friend. “There has not been a human mated into my family for centuries. I cannot disappoint our family.”

“Bullshit,” snapped Isaac and Mason widened his eyes, taken aback by the sudden brutality of Isaac’s words. “You and I both know that all your mother has expressed is that she wants your happiness and only that. She would be happy if you brought a male home to greet her.”

Mason’s face scrumpled at the thought. He was not homophobic in the slightest and he knew that although homosexual lycan pairings were incredibly rare, it was not unheard of. His mother was not who worried him, Jane was the sweetest wolf in Penshaw Lake. It was his father.

“My father would not approve,” Mason sighed. “A human girl would disrupt our perfect bloodline. It must be a mistake.”

“Mates are no mistake,” Isaac growled. “You should be counting your every damn blessing and trying to court that woman immediately although I can’t say she’s lucky to have you the way you’re acting.”

Mason knew his friend was right. Here he was, worried about the thought of never finding his mate and when she comes along? He ignores her and tries to push away the bond. Isaac had every right to be mad, the longer a wolf goes without finding their life partner, the likelihood of ever finding them diminishes year by year.

Leaning his head against a tree, Mason closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. It was wrong of him to deny her, but she was human. How would ever begin to explain that he was not? Would she accept him with open arms or would she run away and leave him heartbroken?

As though Isaac could sense what his Alpha was feeling, he looked up the moon and said a quick prayer, as he always did; wishing for his own chance. He then turned back to Mason and sighed,

“Take it slow. Court her, date her. Show her everything you have to offer and when you finally feel the time is right...tell her.”

Insecurities coming to a head, Mason frowned, “What if she doesn’t even want to date me?”

Isaac snorted, “Did you really just say that? Mason you used to have the biggest head of anyone I’ve ever met. Don’t say this girl has reduced you to a normal sized ego?”

Mason punched his friend, lighter this time, but still caused him to stumble. He knew he could always count on Isaac to bring him out of a spiral and even better, to bring him out and reduce to him to laughter. It was one of the many reasons that he was a perfect Beta.

“Okay, I’ve officially had enough of seeing your tiny penis out of the corner of my eye. Let’s shift and get back to the pack house before your mother wonders where on earth you’ve gone.”

Mason rolled his eyes, “I am twenty six.” He suddenly caught onto the first part of Isaac sentence, “It is NOT tiny!”

The two wolves shifted and started back towards the pack house at a leisurely pace, trotting through the forest and like magic, it began to open up once more. The trees began to sway and talk to each other as they always did and the moon shone down brilliantly against a now beautiful clear sky. A deer shot her head up at the two passing wolves, but noting their gait, dozed her head back to rest.

Patrick’s pack were still in Penshaw Lake for another day or two to allow mates to get to know each other without the stress and upheaval of moving hours away across the country. It was also highly improper to host a gathering and send your guests away after only one night. Traveling was rough on most. Mason noticed a cinnamon coloured wolf staring up at the fountain in the pack house driveway and due to her scent, Mason could tell it was Jennifer.

Noticing the Alpha and Beta, Jennifer bowed her head. Not wanting to shift indecently in front of her, he greeted her as wolves did by rubbing his face against hers politely and sniffing against her neck. Jennifer was brash, however, and teased the tip of her tongue against Mason’s cheek in a flirtatious, but harmless greeting. Mason shook his fur out, but did not chastise her. A bark from Isaac drew his attention away from the daring wolf and he nodded to her once in parting, before trotting away and up the steps to the wooden oak, double doors of his home.

As he had done hundreds of times before, Mason opened the door with his jaws. He would have shifted, but now that he was one step closer to accepting that he had a mate, he didn’t feel it was appropriate for a female wolf to see his dick. Unsurprisingly, nobody in the house was awake and Mason shifted back with only Isaac for company.

“Goodnight Alpha,” Isaac said with a tired nod.

“Goodnight Isaac. Thank you,” Mason responded after a short pause.

Isaac gratefully accepted Mason’s gratitude and headed up the stairs towards a guest room. Isaac often stayed at the pack house when duty called, but he had his own home just down the lane. Mason followed Isaac up after a few moments and was eternally grateful to see the sight of his wonderful King Bed beckoning him to fall asleep.

Mason resisted the urge to fall asleep and trudged into the shower to rinse away the mud, blood and sweat from his earlier run. Running the water across his body, he recalled how he first saw her in The Black Horse. Wearing a tight jumpsuit, her pert arse stuck out him like a sore thumb as though it was calling to be grabbed, and when she turned Mason thought he had struck gold. Her beautiful brunette hair cascading down her shoulders and landing in the middle of her back was begging to be pulled and her perky breasts teasing him as they threatened to escape the thin straps of her top.

Shaking his head, Mason realised how serious her effect on him was. Hard as a rock and horny as the devil, Mason pictured how she would feel pressed up against him, her naked body perfectly molded to his own and he let out an audible groan. Pleasuring himself, Mason almost couldn’t believe his situation. Most newly mated male wolves would be deep inside their mates within hours of meeting, but here he was in the shower, pleasuring himself to his own imagination.

It was frankly abhorrent.

And he would absolutely need to do something about it.