Wild and Free

(Mason’s POV)

Auden’s ocean blue gaze was glued to mine, waiting for me to say something. Anything.

“Why don’t you guys just ask us what you want to know,” I suggested, looking between her and Cassie.

Auden’s eyes narrowed slightly, “What, is there something you think would be better left unsaid? Like we don’t deserve to hear the whole story, whatever it may be?”

“No,” I bit back quickly. “I just mean we should figure out what you actually want to know so we know how to answer.”

They traded a look, staying silent for a second before agreeing.

“Fine, I’ll start,” Auden said, taking charge quite unsurprisingly. “Why are you guys here? We’re not going to beat around the bush, we know what we saw and we know what you are. We just don’t know how or more importantly, why.”

To say I wasn’t a little stunned by her bluntness would be a lie. From what I knew about Auden, she seemed like a pretty straight forward person. But there were definitely things that I hadn’t been expecting from her. She could hold her composure and stay calm in stressful situations but she also knew how to get down to business.

“Kenz? You wanna answer that one?” I asked, giving her the chance to explain to her friends.

She nodded and took a breath.

“A couple months ago, back in our old territory, one of our hunting groups came back. On of the members had gotten bit by a Rogue, which is kind of like an outcasted member of a pack,” Kenzie clarified. She ignored the confused looks on the girls faces as to why this was relevant to Auden’s question. My sister just wanted them to have enough background before answering directly.

“We didn’t find out until it was too late that the bite was infected. I guess the one that attacked him was sick with some sort of disease,” She went on. “The one from our pack died too quickly for us to figure out what it was,” she swallowed. It was then that I felt bad about asking her to talk about it but I knew that I would take the hardest part so she wouldn’t have to.

“A couple days later, pack members started to flood into the infirmary because they were getting sick. A lot of them didn’t make it,” she said solemnly. “It was a huge blow because our pack was of the very most powerful in the country. Losing so many members was something that got around quickly. Our father and the Betas were panicking because they didn’t know what to do. And before really anyone was fully recovered, we were attacked by a rival pack. We were still powerful but we didn’t have anywhere near the numbers to fight. Plus, we didn’t have the healing powers of a Luna to save us.”

Auden knit her brows, “A luna is like the mother of the pack right? What happened to her?”

Kenzie looked down at her hands, both of which that were still scuffed up healing from her wounds.

“She got infected,” I said, turning the group’s attention from Kenzie to me. I looked to Auden as it was her question, “You’re right, a luna is like the mother of the pack. But she also has the power to give the pack strength in times of need. She was very weak and that meant she couldn’t use her powers to help the rest of the pack. She was healing quickly, as most of us do, it just wasn’t quick enough,” I bit my lip shaking my head at the memory.

“And that was why during the attack, the others didn’t hesitate to slit her throat first.”

Almost everyone took in a silent breath. The guys and Kenzie of course knew all of this but it was still something we had to remember we were there for, just to believe it was true.

“Wait a second,” Cassie said, her eyes not trained on anything in particular, which meant she was thinking. “If your father was with your pack’s Beta, then that would mean that your father is–”

“The Alpha,” I finished for her.

Auden scoffed, looking away, “And that would mean your mother was the luna who was killed.”

Cassie’s head whipped to hers, “W-what makes you say that?”

“Well the luna of the pack is the Alpha’s mate, or soulmate in other words. Correct?” Auden stated, to which I nodded in response. “And if their father is the Alpha then that means their mother is, or I guess was, the luna.” She looked up and met my eyes, “I’m sorry. No one deserves to lose a parent that way.”

Auden noticed the tear stricken face of my sister and she and Cassie went over and gave Kenzie a hug. But Auden’s gaze was downcast in a way that was a little more than just remorse for someone else. The way she said that it was a horrible way to lose someone, made it sound like she was speaking from experience. I made sure to keep that in mind and ask her about it later.

“How about we move on?” Riley suggested as the two girls went back to where they were sitting.

“Cassie?” Auden said, looking to her friend for the next question.

The blonde thought about it for a second before looking at each one of us, “What can you guys actually do?” she asked curiously, showing that she was more intrigued about us than she was nervous. “Like, we saw what we saw yesterday but there are obviously things that we don’t know,” she went on, gesturing to Kenz’s hands and face that, unless you were there, from which you would never know what happened the night before.

Riley shot me a look that said he’d answer, “Well, we can heal faster than… humans,” he managed. It was weird for us to be talking about it so I understood how it was hard for Riley to say. “And we have heightened senses, like hearing, smell, sight, etc.”

Cassie smiled at him, “So like if I stood across the forest, you could hear every word I said?”

He nodded with a grin, “To an extent. Why? What would you say?” He said with an eyebrow raised.

Cassie blushed and looked away, making us all grin and roll our eyes at them.

“Okay you two, calm down,” Greyson joked, making Cassie’s blush deepen and earning an aggravated slap on the back of the head from Riley.

“Oh and since Kenzie and Mason are true Alphas, they both have special abilities,” Riley added.

“What kind of special abilities?” Auden asked.

Kenz glanced at me, “Well I get visions of the future. Nothing big but they show me things that help me sometimes.”

“And that’s why your eyes change color,” Auden guessed, earning a nod from Kenzie. “Do the visions change often?”

“Sometimes,” She answered. “Really any decision a person makes can change the future, which is probably why I didn’t know what was happening last night. I got a vision outside the diner last night and it showed us all together here, but not why or how we got here.”

“Wow, that must be so cool,” Cassie mused, shaking her head in disbelief.

“What about you Mason?” Auden asked, turning my attention to her, and the others’ attention to me.

“Object Manipulation,” I stated.

Instead of trying to explain the technicalities of my ability, I let it do the talking for itself.

I looked around and saw a fallen tree branch on the forest floor a couple of feet away. Concentrating on it, like I’d been trained, I reached out for the invisible thread that tied it to its spot, and pulled. The branch lifted into the air, weightless, and sailed over our heads at my command. I released my grip on it, letting it crash to the ground once again, on the other side of our group.

I didn’t have to look over at Auden or Cassie, or even my pack to know that they were impressed.

Figuring, why not? I decided to show off a little more.

My focus this time was at the pond at the base of the waterfall. I cupped my hands in the air in front of me, and my ability did the same to the water, picking up a bit of it in the form of an orb. Inside the orb were a few unsuspecting tadpoles that swam around mindlessly. I pulled it toward us, letting Cassie and Auden study the specimen up close before setting it back down in the water.

“I can move and manipulate things shape and position with my mind,” I briefly explained.

“That’s incredible,” said Cassie, even more shocked than before.

“Whatever,” I laughed. “Next question.”

“You didn’t really answer my first question,” Auden said.

I guess she was right. We had been stuck on the topic of my mother and our abilities that we never really finished what we were talking about.

“Well after our luna was killed, along with sadly another large part of our pack, we knew we had to leave. We had to get out of that place and find somewhere new so we could redevelop our power and recover from our losses,” I explained.

“Yeah and as the almighty pack of the entire country, we had a lot of allies,” Greyson boasted.

“We still do,” I bit back.

He rolled his eyes, “Whatever. We have a lot of allies and one of them was in a similar, position to ours. They had lost their Alphas in a fire and the Betas weren’t necessarily equipt to take over. So we made a deal and combined our packs so we would stay in power.”

“So now your father is leading both packs as one?” Auden asked.

I nodded, “For now, but since I was born before Kenzie, when my father steps down, I’ll take over.”

“And they’re okay with not having a Luna? Assuming you haven’t met yours.” she added, her question almost sounding as if she was surprised that a pack could make such a deal without their second leader.

“Well combining packs was difficult to begin with and there are always the people that don’t approve of the decisions. Unfortunately for me, they aren’t many pack members that like the idea of my father ruling alone,” I told her.

Cassie narrowed her eyes, “Why is that unfortunate?”

Riley and Greyson smirked at me earning my hardest glare.

“Because May has to find his true love before he can take the position of Alpha,” Greyson teased, poking me in the ribs. I grabbed his arm and twisted it before bending down and lifting his feet so he rolled backward off the rock and fell into the wet soil at the bank of the waterfall.

“Though I would have said it in other words,” Riley said, ignoring Greyson’s curses, “the people of the pack we combined with have made a rule that before Mason can take his father’s place, he has to find his mate so that our pack can have a luna.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense. I thought that a wolf didn’t have any control over when or where they would meet their mate,” Auden stated, confusion shadowing her pretty face. “How could they instate that kind of rule without any guarantee that she would even be here?”

Greyson climbed back onto the rock on Riley’s other side, away from me, “Our Alpha got some witch lady to do some sorcery shit and tell us for sure she’s somewhere in White Chapel.”

“How exactly would you know if you found your mate?” Cassie asked. Auden looked at her with her eyebrows raised. Cassie rolled her eyes, “I just mean that, from what little I know about this, shouldn’t you have found her by now? It just seems weird that you guys have been here for a while and nothing has happened.”

I saw Kenzie smirk out of the corner of my eye and I knew what she was going to say.

“Well when you find your mates around our age, it’s pretty common for the process to take longer than it does when you’re in your twenties. When you’re younger, the pair isn’t developed either so you could spend your entire childhood in the same pack as your mate and never know. Sometimes it’s touch that tells you that you’ve found them but usually, when you’re near your mate there’s this irresistible scent that only mates can smell. From there a wolf would follow it and find their mate,” my sister explained. She looked over at me and smirked, “May has been getting this scent ever since he got here and can’t figure out where it’s coming from.”

RIley and Greyson couldn’t hold back their laughter.

“Is it just your guys’ mission to talk about my love life today?” I asked, glaring at them.

“Or lack thereof,” Greyson muttered, not intending for me to hear.

I growled at him and before he could do anything, I flipped him into the dirt again.

“Whatever,” I mumbled angrily. “The point is, she’s here somewhere but there’s something that’s keeping me from being able to find her. Maybe it’s like some sort of enchantment or something.”

“But that doesn’t make sense either,” Kenzie said. “Why would she try to hide herself from you?”

“Maybe she’s scared?” Auden suggested.

I knit my brows, “Why would you say that? People in the same pack should trust each other. Especially their future Alpha.”

She shrugged and fiddled with her necklace, “I don’t know. Have you thought that maybe… she isn’t in your pack?”

~~AUTHOR’S NOTE~~

Well, ominous as always aren’t I? Would anyone else be yelling at Auden for saying this cuz I think I would. Ah sometimes fictional characters can be so frustrating, despite the fact that they are the product of my imagination and I have total control over what they do, but that’s not important. Hope you enjoyed!

As always, comment, don’t hate, and read on!

~your Cheshire Cat loving friend