My Mate's Touch

Chapter 3 - Luca

He looked up at me from his crouched position. He didn't look much older than me. His eyes were still blue and green, seeming to shift in the fading sunlight. His skin was slightly tanned and his build was thin but muscular. He had thick brown eyebrows and bright blonde hair that was almost white, a stark contrast compared to the rich, dark fur color of his wolf.

One wolf came over to the man, dropping a pair of pants at his feet. The man quickly slipped them on and came over to me. As he walked I noticed that he was quite tall, with long legs that made walking seem like no effort at all. He looked at me blankly but then furrowed his brow in what looked like concern, and then he bent down and looked me in the eyes.

I realized that I was crying as a tear fell down my already wetted cheek. He went to brush it away but I flinched harshly, and he drew his hand back in response before speaking.

"Are you alright?"

Obviously I wasn't with the blood soaking through my pants leg, but I guess it was the easiest way to initiate conversation. I still refused to talk. I wasn't sure why; maybe I was holding a small grudge against the wolves since they cornered me and made me stumble back into the bear trap in the first place. The man understood that I wouldn't speak and stood up, walking back over to the wolves.

"Take him back to the medic. Make sure he gets food, water and fresh clothes."

The man then shifted back into his black wolf, running swiftly and crossing through the river and beyond. Two wolves looked at each other and shifted hesitantly. Once again, a wolf dropped some basic clothes in front of them, and they shrugged them on quickly.

The two wolves that stayed behind shifted into a girl and a boy. After throwing on their clothes, they walked closer to me. The girl bent down in front of me, reaching out her hand to shake mine or pull me up, I couldn't tell.

"Hi, my name is Aspen!" She said, exuding a bubbly demeanor.

The name Aspen suited her for a reason I couldn't quite explain. She had wavy red hair and rich brown eyes that looked at me kindly. It was a look that I missed, even though my parents always looked at me with shame or indifference. I decided to shake her hand. It was warm, in a comforting way.

I looked behind her at the other werewolf, a man who quite obviously didn't want to be here. It's not like I wanted to be in this situation either, but at least I didn't have a scowl on my face. Well, I had a slight grimace from the pain in my thigh, but that was the extent of my facial expression capabilities right now.

Aspen turned around to see what I was looking at. "Oh, that's Xander. I guess he forgot to introduce himself," she looked at him, telling him to be polite with her eyes.

"Hi." He looked down at me, completely unfazed and keeping a bored expression on his face.

Xander made me kind of uneasy, as if I wasn't traumatized enough already. He had dark, piercing eyes that made you feel instantly inferior to him as soon as you looked into them. His light brown skin was covered with intricate tattoos that went from his neck to his arms and all the way down to his knuckles. He even had some smaller tattoos littering his face, and an eyebrow slit that most likely wasn't a stylistic choice.

"Sorry about him," Aspen said nervously. I was thankful she broke the awkward tension. "He's not the friendliest, but he'll come around."

"It's alright," I finally mustered.

"What's your name? Sorry I forgot to ask."

"Um, I'm Luca." I couldn't even remember the last time I'd met someone new. Everyone generally kept to themselves or made futile smalltalk in my hometown, so saying my name was all I could muster.

"Well, Luca, Xander and I are going to take you back to our packhouse so you can get bandaged up at the infirmary. I hope you don't mind, but it'll be a lot faster if one of us carries you in our wolf form."

I tilted my head slightly. "Packhouse?"

"Yeah, we're from the Shadowclaw pack. We have an amazing reputation, you'll see when you get there!"

I've heard of the Shadowclaw pack. They're unrivaled and have been for a few decades now. They excel in almost every aspect of pack life: medical care, combat, even gastronomy. I never knew I would ever get to see it. I must have run farther away than I thought I did.

"Xander, can Luca ride on your back please? I'm tired," Aspen whined dramatically.

"You piss me off," Xander furrowed his brow and then turned his head towards me. "Get on once I'm done shifting. You better not be heavy."

I think I'd rather get on Aspen's back at this rate, but I merely nodded my head. This was going to be uncomfortable, I could tell. Not only would I be carried by someone who hated me, but I also still had the bear trap in my thigh. I hadn't moved and I'm scared to. Somehow, I hadn't bled out yet.

Aspen and Xander shifted and Xander came up to me so I could prop myself up. I pushed through my pain and fear and threw my good leg over him, gripping onto his thick fur. As he and Aspen ran, the wind rushed onto my face and through my hair. Before we even crossed over the river, I was asleep.

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