My Love but Not My Mate

Chapter 10

‘...’ – speech in wolf form

“...” – speech in human form

Chapter 10

   Sometime in the depth of the night, I had woken up from a sudden chill and sidled up to Blake’s side to try and steal some of his body warmth; unfortunately, Blake was only half asleep and I had fully woke him up, so he put one arm around me and we both fell asleep together.

   When I eventually woke up in the proper morning, I was still lying next to Blake. Though when I lifted my head up to rub my eyes, I noticed that Blake had been watching me all the while I was waking up from sluggish to aware.

   “Morning, Layla. So you forgave me in the end?”

   “Huh?” I said yawning and brushing my fingers through my hair to get the knots out.

   “Well you must have if you cuddled up half way through the night,” he wrongly assumed.

   “No, I got cold and wanted some extra heat, so I thought I might steal some of yours.”

   “Ah, I see.” Without a hint, he rushed forward and planted his lips firmly on mine.

   “Awww, that’s cute,” one of the other’s called out. Blake twitched his eyebrows up and I knew he had done that on purpose, so I pouted and narrowed my eyes darkly before changing to my natural self and wondering off with my head held proudly in the air with a flick of my tail in his face. Noticing it was Lexi’s mate (I didn’t know his name); I grumbled lowly to myself and padded off among the trees to relieve myself.

   Walking back into camp, I saw Blake was being bombarded by the youngsters again but this time it wasn’t play, it was loads of questions about him and me. Hearing my name being said a few times, I started giggling to myself as I reminded myself that he had got himself into that mess. Stomach rumbling, I trotted over to Kai and asked if I could go hunting by myself.

   ‘Of course, but if you do end up getting lost just howl out and I’ll send some of the others to go and find you. Aren’t you taking Blake?’ As nice as he sounded and old as he was, he was still very observational and took in a lot of detail. ‘You want to spend time thinking about it all?’ I looked at him shocked but he soon made things clear. ‘I understand, and you mustn’t fear me. I am not some old, grumpy Alpha who makes everyone do as I want; just stay safe or Blake will try and blame me. Off you go.’ And with that I bowed my head and sprinted off, weaving and darting between the trees trying to pick up the scent of a deer or elk that I could take down easily.

   Now stalking a roe deer that was ambling about in a small grassy clearing, concealing myself between two very leafy bushes; when I heard the sound of whispering among the trees somewhere to my right. Sniffing at the air, I was hoping it was two wolves from Blake’s pack that happened to have come this way too; it wasn’t, and I suddenly found myself crouched even lower and breathing as shallow as I could.

   The deer suddenly collapsed accompanied by the sound that resembled a wild cat protecting its territory; that description I only knew belonged to one thing, gunfire.

   Surrendering my potential prey, I sprinted off faster than ever before, away from the scene. Not knowing which direction I now travelled in, I had become lost. Hitting my leg on a log, I hurtled down a muddy bank and tumbled into the murky puddle at the bottom of the hollow.

   Pounding from my leg and dizziness in my brain, I shook my head and walked my way out of the cold, dirty water. There was one thing I knew right now and that was that I was undoubtedly lost. I debated whether to howl out to the pack or not; if I did then they would come and find me but I would be risking the humans finding me too and possibly killing me and maybe my pack. If I didn’t howl, I’d remain lost and lonely for some time and over that time the humans might have tracked me down and would still kill me.

   Thinking of Blake, I suddenly felt cold; not from the water that clung to my fir and soaked to my bones but from being so alone. I was scared and afraid of dying like this and I started pining with an empty heart.

   CLICK. I jumped and sprawled my legs out to catch my weight. Looking up, my ears turned backwards as I saw them stare down at me along the barrels of their rifles. In my last attempt at saving myself, I transformed before their eyes and pressed my back against a root that protruded out of the bank behind me.

   Wonder and shock spread across each of the men’s faces and I stood there, below them with an expression of sorrow and hatred on mine.

   “What magic is this?” said the thinner man, his sallow face exposing the shape of his cheeks and his chin jutted out. He rose his gun up again and pointed it at my heart. I closed my eyes and took in what I thought would be my last breath.

   “It isn’t magic. She’s a werewolf,” explained the other man; I looked up with one eye and saw that he had pushed his companion’s gun down again. “Don’t shoot her, she might not be alone.”

   Though I was cold, shaking and understood every word that they were saying, I remained silent and hoped that would help my predicament.

   “Why not? She might follow us and kill us from behind!” shouted the first man.

   “If you kill her, and she has a pack, you might set a whole load of other wolves onto us. Leave her be,” ordered the other man, clearly he was more afraid than he was showing but he was also very wise with his words. “We are sorry to bother you, Miss,” he added to me very slowly. “I hope you understand what I’m saying.”

   A light smile touched my lips, grateful of his mercy and I thought I should maybe show it. “Thank you.” Both the men’s eyes widened with fear and started backing away, but I noticed they weren’t looking at me. They were looking at the top of the hollow I was in and I noticed that Kai was stood there, proud and strong with his teeth bared. “Kai, it’s alright. They were about to leave. Don’t attack them.” Even though I was in human form, I knew he could understand; but he started barking at the two humans who turned round and ran off the way they had come. I quickly changed form and tried clambering up the shallowest bank. With a hard struggle, I now shook the water and dirt off my fur and lay out flat before Kai.

   ‘What happened?’ he asked, his voice was hard with fury.

   ‘I was stalking a deer and when I had it cornered I smelt I wasn’t alone and then the deer was shot dead. I knew I had to run and I fell into that ditch,’ I started my story but he soon cut me off with a short snarl.

   ‘Why did they chase you?’

   ‘I don’t know. I thought they hadn’t seen me but they obviously had and hunted me down.’ I found myself panting and my body was buzzing with the remains of my adrenaline rush. ‘I’m so happy someone came along. Thank you, Kai.’

   ‘You are very welcome. Come on, let’s get out of here before they come back and possibly bring more with them.’ His order firmly planted in my head, we both leapt off and headed back to camp. We both knew that we had to get the pack out of the woods and far away; so when we finally bolted past the last few trees, I ran to Blake and explained all that had happened. Kai began barking his orders to everyone else, and with gasps of loathing and fear, they dashed after their Alpha with me and Blake taking up the rear.