The Dominant Pair

Fight Me

I blurred through the woods along the river. The trees passed by me in a flash as I ran away from my mate, silently willing him to catch me. It was a story as old as time, a were-custom that had held strong throughout the millennia. Artemis is a hunter. She is powerful, bold and dangerous.

She would never give in to someone weak.
Why should her she-wolves?

My human smirked. Well, it'll be hard to catch me. I'm faster than most-
My ears perked up. My mate was catching up fast. How?! Not even my parents can beat me in a race!  I picked up speed and felt the joy of finally using my full power. No more holding back. To throw him off, I changed direction and ran across the river into the woods. Back into Light Wolf territory.
Come at me, I dare you. Sprinting, I changed direction again, arching in a circle back towards the river.

Hah! He'd never expect- oof!

My beautiful, powerful mate had caught up to me. Rolling on the ground, we parted and I snarled at him. Let's fight him!  My human grinned. He's all yours, wolf. His green eyes narrowed dangerously at the sound of my snarl. A low, ominous growl warned me I was out of my league. Oooh, what are you gonna do now, wolf-soul?  My human seemed to be very amused, imagining up 'popcorn' to watch the fight. I eyed my mate cautiously. Fast. Strong. Heavy. Must be faster. Must be careful. Must not allow mate to win. We began to circle one another, the thin layer of leaves on the ground rustling under our paws. My hackles rose as the tension between us sparked. We stopped at the same time. Now!

I darted to the left as his front claws smashed into where I'd been standing just a second ago. Jumping onto his back, I attacked his ruff with my fangs and used my claws on his sides. Before I could get a good grip on him, he threw me off. I grunted as I fell on the ground, sliding into a tree. Leaping to my feet, I was forced to jump out of the way as he came barreling towards me. I tried to run to get some distance between us, but he used his momentum to jump off the tree and landed on top of me. I growled harshly, struggling to get him off before he got his teeth around my throat. Human-!  We changed forms. Our mate froze, temporarily shocked. Chance! Changing again, we rolled out from under him and barked tauntingly. Ha, he looks pissed! I told him I wasn't going to make it easy for him. He charged, but I was prepared for his speed this time. I waited until he was close enough to bite me before ducking and lunging for his throat - a risky move if you didn't land on top.

I landed on top.
With a snarl he tried clawing at my chest, but I shook his neck gently to remind him of the situation he was in. In a real fight, I would've bitten down harder and torn his vertebrae out of his spine. He'd have had no time to fight back.

I won.

Submit to me, mate. I may have used dirty tactics, but a win is a win.
Silence. But he stopped fighting back at least.
Besides... you'll have many chances to get me back, you know. The rest of our lives. We're a dominant pair - neither of us will be satisfied with just one fight.
I couldn't be sure, but I thought I heard an annoyed sigh right before he became limp. I immediately let go and backed away as he got to his feet. We stared at each other, the noises of the forest gone awkwardly silent around us. Finally, he plodded over to me and touched our noses together, ending the tense moment like it had never existed. I let out an inward sigh of relief and laid down next to him, wanting some time to test out our new, unexpected bond.

I've never lost before, you know. With a smile in his voice, he continued, you were my first.

To be honest, I've lost once. It was to my dad. I was about, I don't know... 11ish at the time? We were sparring and he tripped me and put his boot on my chest so that I couldn't get up. It was humiliating. I swore that day that I would surpass him. In 3 years time, I did. It didn't feel as good as I thought it would.

Why?

Because I was stronger than him - now what? Who would be my goal, my motivation? After that, I realized that it wasn't just him; I was stronger than everyone. No-one could dominate me. No-one could beat me in a fight, human or wolf form. No-one would be able to stop me if I decided to go on a rampage. Having that kind of power was terrifying when I realized what it meant. It meant that I had to grow up fast to deal with the consequences of being strong. I had to control myself better than anybody and fight for the pack with all my heart and soul so that, if I ever lost control, I would still remember them and protect them. Learning I was stronger than the alpha was the day I started acting like one - because that was a guarantee that I was the next in line to rule.

I understand the need to always be in control. Being stronger than everyone else... it's great, but at the same time, it sucks. People either respect you, fear you or resent you. It doesn't matter if you dedicate your life to serving the pack or satisfying the alpha. When it's so easy to judge someone based on what they are rather than who, why try to look past that? In some ways, it's hard not to get angry at them for treating you like an outsider. But you learn to shoulder the responsibility and bear it because you don't have a choice.

My tail flopped over his in silent recognition as I ran through his words again.

Why do they treat you like an outsider? Have your alphas done anything about it?

He huffed, his ears flicking with dismissal. He's part of the reason they treat us like that.

Why?

It's a long story. Tomorrow?

Hm... clever tactic-

I lifted my head and tilted my ears towards the woods. My wolf growled as I groaned to myself, wishing that the goddesses had given us a bit more time. Come on. We have to get back to the river - I can hear the patrol about 10 kilometers away. He was on his paws immediately and we raced back to the border together.