Mate of a Wild Wolf (SAMPLE)

Part One. Chapter Six. David

When I walked away from the pack for the first time, I never thought I would return.  More than three years later, I was eating those words.

Charles' text had been cryptic; "Come home or you will regret it."

Regret what exactly?  I had been regretting several decisions over the last three years as I travelled on an endless spiral into a self made ditch that I barely was able to dig myself out of.  What was one more on top of that?  But I went home anyway as I had been trying to change over the past twenty odd months for the better.  I no longer wanted to be the waste I had become, wallowing in self pity and heading on a one way road to my own destruction.

I had no plans and no destination when I left the pack.  I just went south, no hopes for the best, just I needed to leave.  I was running away and refusing to take responsibility.  I ended up in one cheap bed and breakfast after another, taking cash in hand jobs and travelling south.  When the money ran out, I slept rough for a bit, hunted for my dinner on packless land on occasion and somehow ended up mingling with a rough crowd that lead me to participate in underground fights inside the city.

I beat the shit out of my first opponent, this juvenile polar bear and earned myself a bit of cash.  I slept in a bed for the first time in a while, liking the feeling, I went back.  I did not always win.  My arm was broken in two places on one occasion where I had the pleasure of coming up against a vampire.  The quack doctor fixed it back into place, but it took a couple of weeks to heal.  During this time, I slept on one of my girlfriend's couches.  For their own reasons, girls were attracted to the fighters and I was no exception.  At first I resisted, I'd fucked up twice, why take on another mate?  But they didn't want to be permanent fixtures, they wanted the thrill of taking a fighter to their beds and the money in those fighters' pockets to support them.

Opal was what she called herself, but I don't know if that was her real name.  I wasn't her only sex friend, but we probably tumbled together in the sheets more than with others.  For me, it was just sexual relief, nothing more.  But after six months of screwing around, I began to feel a bit numb to it and didn't bother so much after that.  Most of the girls dropped me, but Opal stuck around.  I think she was less interested in sex than she was my winnings, but I was okay with that.

One of her other guys wasn't.  He was a hulk of a panther shifter, was almost as big as a grizzly, he must have taken some epic steroids to turn into the monster that he was.  But for all the pounds of muscle, he wasn't agile and I had beaten him once or twice in the ring.  He didn't like that either, so came after me with a bunch of idiotic goons.  There were humans in that gang?  Was he so fucking stupid that he thought their numbers would be sufficient?  At least bring a vampire or two, no wait.. Vampires have brains and wouldn't be so idiotic as to corner a dominant wolf! 

Speaking of wolves, mine was furious and together we punched, bit and wiped the floor with the lot of them.  I changed from wolf to human to wolf so smoothly they couldn't get a hold of me.  Unfortunately, I was swept away by my own arrogance and one of them stuck a knife into my shoulder.  I saw red.

When I came too, this bloke had grabbed my arm and was holding it aloft while I snarled at him like a rabid animal.  "Enough!" He barked and my wolf acquiesced.  It had been a long while since we had submitted to anyone and it forced me to look at what was going on.  My knuckles were aching and bloody and I was sitting on top of the Panther, whose face did not look good.  I must have smashed most of his jaw in my anger.

What the fuck was I doing?  Blood was pissing out of my shoulder where I had aggravated the knife wound, my fist was swollen and I had almost killed a man in my rage.  I practically fell off of him and yelped as my arm was twisted due to the fact that the person who'd held me back didn't let go of me quick enough.