Wild and Free

(Still Mason’s POV)

“Not possible. We would’ve caught a scent of a rogue around here or some kind of Omega,” Riley said brushing off the idea.

I stared at the dirt floor of the woods and thought about what Auden was suggesting for a second, “What about the black wolf?”

My sister, Riley and Greyson looked at me.

“You mean the she wolf that you got your assess handed to you by?” Kenzie laughed.

Auden was smirking at the thought which made my face pale in embarrassment.

Kenzie addressed Cassie’s confused expression, “A little while ago May and Riles were walking in the woods when they caught some black she wolf watching them. They got mad when she didn’t turn back to her human form after they told her to. And then the boys being boys had to start a fight. And unfortunately for them they underestimated the girl’s power and got their butts whooped,” she chuckled, shaking her head at us.

“And that’s why you two came to school that day all beaten up and scratched?” Cassie asked, recalling they day after the fight when our wounds were still visible.

Riley nodded, “She fought in a way we’ve never seen before. So precise and calculated, yet disorganized and unpredictable.”

“But you guys weren’t healed like you are now. How come?” she added.

I shrugged, “If only I knew. Again, we had no idea how she fought like she did. Somehow she managed to scratch and claw us in a way that we couldn’t heal. I’ve never had scars before, but somehow this wolf knew how to make that possible.”

I pulled up the hem of my shirt to show them the claw marks that were still on my abdomen. They had healed from cuts but were now very prominent scars. They might fade over time but who knows.

“Serves you right,” Auden remarked.

“It’s pack law to obey commands from an Alpha or someone from an Alpha family. I told her to reveal herself and she didn’t so we did what we had to do because we thought she might be a spy or something,” I defended myself sternly.

“Have you looked for her?” Auden asked, her blue eyes reflecting the sunlight like sparkling ocean water.

I could’ve sworn I’d seen those eyes somewhere before. The feeling I got in that moment, I couldn’t identify. It was the same feeling I got that first day we met, when I asked if we’d met.

Shaking the thoughts away, I answered, “We did but she wasn’t anywhere on our pack grounds so we gave up. Who knows maybe she was just some rogue or Omega passing through.”

“I guess we didn’t really give it much thought after we couldn’t find her on the pack grounds,” Riley pointed out.

“She was probably part of the pack that attacked us,” Cassie suggested quickly, glancing at Auden for a second. “I’m sure she’s long gone like them.”

“Maybe Riley is right,” Kenzie agreed, overlooking her friend’s idea. “You guys didn’t catch a scent or anything but maybe you just weren’t looking in the right place. What if it’s worth another shot? If this she wolf is or has a clue to who May’s mate could be isn’t that something worth trying?”

“I don’t understand,” Auden said. “If you guys haven’t caught a scent and haven’t seen her anywhere since that fight shouldn’t that mean she’s gone? I don’t know about you guys but if I knew I was going to get in a fight with someone who had the power to ruin my life, like an Alpha, I wouldn’t stick around afterward.”

She did have a point. Any wolf would be crazy to try to live normally within a pack if they knew that we would be looking for them after they broke the rules.

“That might be true but things are different now. We didn’t detect the scent of those wolves from last night so there’s got to be something that can disguise or mask their presence to others,” Greyson explained.

Auden shrugged, “I don’t know, to me it just doesn’t seem worth it.”

“Why not?” I asked, seriously.

“Well you said the fight you had was a small one, and you got hurt in a way you never have before,” she began. “What do you think would happen in you found this girl and she put up an even bigger fight?”

I opened my mouth to say something but she interrupted me.

“And mates are supposed to be like undeniably attracted to each other right? So wouldn’t that mean that if this wolf was your mate, you’d know? Even if there was something trying to mask her? I just think that you shouldn’t waste your time and your pack’s resources looking for some girl that probably isn’t even your mate.”

We were all quiet, weighing out the options.

On one hand, we could look harder for the she wolf. We could look in the town and around school, more carefully than we had before. Considering we assumed she was just part of our pack and gave up after we couldn’t find her there, tells us that maybe we underestimate the wolf’s hiding abilities.

But on the other hand, Auden made a good point. From what I knew about mates, their bond was extremely powerful. Something such as a simple enchantment should never have been strong enough to block that bond. If this wolf was anywhere around, I should know.

“Do what you want, but that’s just my take on the situation,” Auden said putting her hands up in surrender.

“She’s probably gone by now anyway,” Kenzie said. She looked at me, “Have you caught that scent at all since the first fight?”

I shook my head, “Not since then. Usually it’s on and off for days but there hasn’t been a gap this big yet. Cassie was probably right. Whoever it belongs to, whether it was the she wolf or not, must have fled.”

Greyson scoffed, “Probably the smartest decision. No offense to her but you’d probably go all out the next time you saw her.”

“I wouldn’t go all out hurting her, but just enough to make her listen and tell me what she knows,” I said, trying not to curse. “And it might be helpful to know how the hell she did what she did and got away so quickly.”

“What was so different about it?” Auden asked.

“Well one second I had her pinned down, and the next she was gone. It was like she’d disappeared from thin air,” I explained.

“Okay enough about this random she-wolf or whatever,” Cassie waved off the topic. “I have one more question.”

“Shoot,” Riley replied.

“Why is it such a big deal that you guys stay secret? With what you can do it doesn’t seem like you have anything to be afraid of with us,” She explained, looking at each of us.

Auden sat back a little, crossing her arms over her chest, not in a defensive way but in a way that sort of made it seem like she wanted to know the same.

“It’s just safer that way, for both kinds,” Riley answered simply.

“Yeah, and no offense because you two are obviously different, but almost every other human would want to experiment on us or see how we work,” Greyson added.

“We’re like fairy tale characters to you guys. No one believes that we actually exist. There would be uproar if they knew,” I stepped in.

“So does this mean that other things like vampires exist too?” Cassie inquired.

I nodded, a disgusted look on my face, “We call them leeches. Terrible, ruthless creatures. We usually try to keep our distance. But yes they do exist, along with others that I would prefer if we didn’t go into detail about.”

Auden gave me a look, “You do not get along?”

“I mean yes and no,” I answered vaguely. “It kind of depends. We’ve had fairly pleasant experiences with multiple different breeds of creatures but we’ve also had some unpleasant with the same kinds. I like to think that it all comes down to them having a good leader. A good leader leads a good pack.”

“How very kingly of you,” she replied with a teasing smile.

I rolled my eyes but smiled slightly at the jab, “I’m not a king, nor a prince, just them same as Kenz is not a princess. We are a pack, not a monarchy.”

“Sure doesn’t sound like it,” Auden retorted. “You make it sound like you’ll take some sort of throne once you come of age and you’ll rule fairly over your loyal subjects. Technically it might not be a monarchy but when you break it down, it is pretty much the same thing.”

“King Mason,” Greyson mused, gesturing to the air with his hands.

We all laughed. She was kind of right when you thought about it.

“Okay whatever,” I said, holding back another eye roll. “I guess it does kind of sound like it. The reason we don’t refer to an Alpha as a King and a Luna as a Queen is because titles like that express dominance. Our kind,” I gestured to my pack members, “are a very territorial species. Most packs are obsessed with power. So if one pack decided they were going to start calling themselves the king or queen, then that would be taken as a challenge in most other packs’ minds.”

“And you’re different?” she asked.

“Why do you say that?”

She shrugged, “You said most, not all. To me it just implied that you might think otherwise.”

I thought about it for a second, “Well I guess I just don’t want to lead the pack like one of those greedy Alphas. I want the Royal pack to mean something more than just power and inflict something more in others than just fear and dominance.”

She grinned and shook her head, “And long may you reign,” she gave a slight mocking bow.

Everyone smiled.

We chatted aimlessly for a few minutes before I checked the time.

“Shit,” I cursed.

My sister looked at me, worry etched on her features.

I shook my head, “Father wanted us home early before dinner tonight.”

She knit her brows, “What for?”

“He didn’t say but we should probably get going before they send out a search party or something,” I suggested, grabbing my sister’s hand and helping her off the rock. However much she would deny it, there was no doubting that she was still a little unsteady after last night.

I handed her off to Greyson for a second before turning back to Cassie and Auden.

“I don’t think I really have to say this, but you cannot repeat a word of this to anyone. After last night, it’s not just your lives, but our reputation in our packs that will be in jeopardy if you do,” I warned, hoping they heard how urgent it was.

They both nodded in acknowledgment.

The girls gave Kenzie one last hug and went to leave before Riley called out to Cassie. He asked if he could talk to her, causing me and Auden to send a look at each other.

“I’ll catch up with you guys in a minute,” Riley said.

“Same here A, I’ll see you at the diner later,” Cassie told Auden. And then the two of them walked off in one direction together, already in deep conversation with smiles on their faces.

Kenzie and Greyson both waved and shifted before racing each other in the direction of the pack house. I was about to do the same but a tap on my shoulder stopped me.

I turned around to see the slightly guilty looking face of Auden. It was strange to see her that way. She was never one to express much emotion, or at least not outwardly. I could hardly process how confusing she was sometimes.

“I just wanted to apologize for yesterday,” she said softly, struggling to hold my gaze.

“I already told you, it wasn’t your fault that they-”

She waved her hand to stop me, “No that’s not what I meant. I meant I’m sorry for not listening when you guys said not to go in the woods. And I’m sorry that you and your friends got hurt. I’m also sorry for how I treated you after everything. I just sorry for everything. I-”

“Auden,” I interrupted her, an amused smile making its way onto my face. “It’s fine. Relax. You had no idea what the danger was when you went in there, that’s why we followed you. And like I said, it wasn’t your fault that those wolves came, we were the ones who chose to fight them, if anything it was our faults that we got hurt the way we did. And as for the last thing, the entire situation sort of hit you all at once, you didn’t have control over that.”

“Yeah but I should have,” she said shutting her eyes frustratedly.

“Why do you beat yourself up so much over things like that?” I asked, genuinely curious. “It’s like you have some insane expectations of yourself that you don’t even believe you can meet.”

She looked over my shoulder, “I guess growing up without support from your family, forces you to try to be better than that. I’ve just got this permanent vision in my mind of the person I should be.”

She bit her lip, “The person that they wouldn’t have thrown away...”

I studied her in that moment, for the first time actually realizing how broken she was. It was then I think that everything I’d learned about her hit me. She had been dumped by her family to live on her own, and she’d been doing it rather successfully for the past two years. Auden was not only a straight A, honor roll student, but she also paid her own bills and made her own food just so she could live normally. We’d learned many survival tactics in training to prepare us if we were ever stuck in the woods alone or something, but none of them even gave us a glimpse into the world that Auden survived in every day.

She was a true warrior, but underneath there was someone she didn’t seem to show anyone. It was the girl who hadn’t gotten the opportunity to live as a normal teenager without a care in the world. The girl who was tougher than she should need to be in a world like ours. The girl who had grown up too fast.

In a way I felt like I could relate to her. My parents had always raised me to be the perfect Alpha. But then again, while they were hard on me, they knew where I needed to get, and they never had such strict expectations like she had of herself.

However something about what she said had peaked my interest though.

“I thought your parents left you when you were sixteen? You said that you’ve grown up without them. What’s actually the truth?” I prodded.

She shook her head, “It’s more complicated than I would choose to explain.”

I wanted to tell her that she shouldn’t have to choose. That she should just spit it out, relieve herself. But something in her gaze told me that no matter how much I encouraged her, she would never fully trust me with the details.

She shook her head, looking up and taking a breath, “Sorry it’s just…”

“Complicated,” I finished for her. “Don’t apologize. You heard my story. Everyone’s got issues.”

Auden nodded and took a step back, “I know. I have to go, I’m covering a friend’s shift tonight and I don’t want to be late.”

“See you in school,” I said.

She turned around but hesitated for a second

“Mason?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you,” she whispered before stuffing her hands in her pockets and walking away, down the trail.

~~AUTHOR’S NOTE~~

WOO okay!

Anyway, I hope that this was dramatic enough for you and if not, don’t worry because if you know my stories at all, there will always be more drama. :)

Hope you enjoyed!

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

~your Cheshire Cat loving friend