Their Terrified Mate

Chapter Three

James' POV

Alpha Cam is telling us a story about his passed mate, talking about one time he walked into her pup hiding in their closet wearing underwear on his head and claiming it gave him magical powers when he tried to get the pup to take it off.

I laugh at his story, glancing at Dennis as he chokes on a sip of wine. He looks in my direction and smiles wistfully at me.

I know how much Dennis wants pups. Every time he hears a story about one, he gets that same look in his eyes, a look of longing.

I wish I could give him what he wants, what we both want, but alphas can't birth pups, only omegas can do that.

But that's why we're here, to hopefully find the missing link in our mate bond.

However, my hope is starting to grow thin. This is the tenth pack we've visited this year looking for our other mate, and so far there has been no luck. I've started to wonder if we even have another mate, despite the empty feeling I have constantly in my chest.

Dennis' stomach growls and Alpha Cam looks at him and laughs. Cam has a loud, booming laugh that lightly shakes the table. He's the kind of man that you can tell by looking at him, is strong beyond belief. I'm a fairly strong wolf, and I would be hesitant to take him in a fight.

"I'm sure you two are hungry," Cam says, "the food should be here." He pauses for a moment before shouting, "Noel!"

The moment he says that name, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I feel a surge of electricity go through my entire body. I have never experienced anything like this before, especially at the sound of a name. When I look at Dennis, he has a shocked expression on his face.

I'm about to question Alpha Cam about who Noel is when I smell it, the scent of freshly picked apples assaulting my nose. I look at Dennis, who stares at me in wide-eyed shock. I can't believe it. After all this time, our mate is right behind us.

However, when we turn around, he is nowhere to be seen.

-

I can't believe it's been two days since that first encounter and we still haven't found our mate. There have been a couple of close calls, smelling apples, but every time we look, he's not there.

Surely he has to know that we're his mates. Everyone can smell the mate bond, so I wonder why he hasn't found us yet.

Things have been strange ever since we arrived. Alpha Cam promised that an omega, Noel, was supposed to watch over us and attend to any needs we might have, but I haven't seen him at all.

When we usually visit a pack, those assigned to watch after us always introduce themselves and have lots of questions about our pack. I can't blame them, Dennis and I have done our best to make our pack a safe place for omegas, where they have equal rights, unlike a lot of other packs.

Sometimes it's difficult to visit other packs to see how they treat their omegas and I wish there was something we could do about it. I know that omegas are often mistreated or treated like pack slaves, and if I could take them all to my pack, I would.

I do really want to meet this Noel wolf. Any time Alpha Cam talks about him, something doesn't sit quite right with me, but I can't figure out why.

"What do you think he's like?" Dennis asks while sitting beside me on the guest bed, a dreamy tone to his voice. He's been like this for a long time, daydreaming about our mate, but it's gotten worse now that we've confirmed he's here. For a long time we had given up on the idea of us having a mate. We truly thought that we were destined to be without a luna.

"I don't know," I say, "but I know that he'll be wonderful. He'll make an amazing luna."

"Do you think he's kind, or that he likes dnd?"

I laugh. Dennis has been obsessed with dungeons and dragons ever since we were pups, but I could never manage to get into it.

"Maybe," I say, "and if not, I'm sure you can change that."

Dennis perks up at that. "I haven't been in a campaign since high school," he says, "I wanna start a new one so bad. You know, something to destress from all of my alpha duties."

"Oh, am I not stress relief enough?" I ask, wiggling my eyebrows suggestively.

Dennis laughs before he moves closer to me on the bed.

He doesn't say anything else before he kisses me, biting my lip and tugging on my hair. I moan into his mouth before I kiss back, fighting him for dominance as our kiss quickly progresses to me shoving a hand down his pants.

I grab his thick cock in my hand, causing him to shudder before he pushes me, causing me to fall on my back on the bed. He climbs atop me and grinds himself into my hand. I moan at the feeling and start to stroke him.

-

It was Dennis' idea to not tell anyone that we know our mate is here. Especially since we don't know who he is yet.

Because of that, we spend the days wandering the property of Alpha Cam's pack, looking for a mate that we are certain is in the pack house.

It's exhausting to spend an entire day walking around, but I do enjoy meeting new people so I try to focus on the positive, and carry on conversations with members of the pack.

It is through these conversations that I learn that the only people who live in the pack house are omegas, wolves without immediate families, and Alpha Cam, though three meals a day are served at the pack house so others are usually there during those times.

This really doesn't help me narrow down the identity of Dennis and I's mate, which only leads to disappointment.

It is when we are on our way back to our room after a long day of walking among Alpha Cam's pack that I smell it again. The smell of apples is faint, but undoubtedly there.

The moment I pick up the smell, I start to run, determined to not let my mate escape my notice again.

The smell leads me to the room Dennis and I have been staying in. When I push through the doors, I see a small man with pale skin and raven black hair making the bed.

However, he soon stops and looks up at me with tears in his eyes and an expression that I never want to see on anyone's face—an expression of fear.