G H O S T R U N N E R

< T W E L V E >

© Amber Kalkes 2014

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< T W E L V E >

Ghost runner.

Arden has heard the term whispered around her for years. She was no longer Arden Lowell, daughter of Jensen and Georgia Lowell. She was just Ghost Runner or bitch. Never Arden, after years and years of being called only those things she is often surprised she can even remember her name.

Ghost runners were known as descendants of the first werewolf, Aniwaya. She was a woman of the old tribes who fell in love with a man. The moon loved him as well for his beauty was something truly marvelous in the rays of her light. So he was asked to choose between the two.

Eventually the man, realizing the moon must stay in the sky so he chose Aniwaya to marry. The moon became jealous so she cursed Aniwaya while she was pregnant and turning her into a white wolf. The woman’s child also was able to turn into a wolf as punishment to Aniwaya and a reminder to her husband that even if he rejected her, his descendants would still howl to the moon's beauty.

These children were called ghost runners because of their white coats moving through the trees as they ran like phantoms in the night. It was a myth Arden’s mother always told her before she went to bed, a common bedtime story most mothers told their pups. She isn’t sure the myth is even real now but she can’t shake off the feeling it has some truth.

How else could she heal so fast? How else could she disregard an Alpha’s command? How else could she have a wolf able to survive the amount of strain it had been under for so long? She’s not one to bank on myths much but the evidence is staking up that maybe, just a little bit, she may be special.

“A what?” Sam asks.

Arden’s taken out her thoughts at the sound of his voice. She gazes at him without shame. He is hers to look at anytime she wants to. He’s accepted her and that means he has accepted the mating bond. Though she would feel much more secure if she could just mark him. Arden’s gaze trails up to the area where his shoulder and neck meet and begins to salivate a bit.

Arden’s wolf howls in her at the idea. She wants to mark him now.

It takes a lot of control on her part but Arden holds her wolf back just barely.

Though she too wants to get it done. Technically if they were in the wild he would be up for grabs and since werewolves are very animalistic creatures she can’t help the territorial urges building. She needs to make sure no other female even glances his way in interest.

To put it bluntly,Arden simply doesn’t share.

“A white wolf.” Alpha Hank informs him before taking a deep breath, “A wolf of legend. Said to bring luck, strength and power to any pack that crosses its pack. They’re blood…is said to be a powerful healer.”

Arden watches realization and then horror color Sam’s features.

“Shit.”

“It all makes since now.” Alpha Hank muses aloud, “White wolves are treasured and often kept hidden from other packs so they don’t try to steal them.”

“Treasured?” Sam parrots in disbelief at the large man, “Did you not here what she told us in there? They abused her! They used her, abused her and nearly killed her and your spouting some shit about treasuring? Are you fucking insane?”