Way of the Pack

Stone

River

The minute Walker finished talking and had left the room, I was up, out of the room and heading straight for the exit. 

A fucking Choosing? Seriously?

I kicked the front door open with my boot earning a hiss of annoyance from Walker's butler but I kept on going.

I didn't want someone to decide who I was meant to be with.  What was I meant to do? Be with someone that wasn't Joy? Touch someone that wasn't her? Hell, the thought of not seeing her everyday made my stomach clench and bile rise in my throat. 

I picked up my pace, jogging past the row of cars and heading into the clearing that led to one of the forests that surrounded the town.

"Riv! Wait!" Joy called behind me.

I shook my head, shrugging my coat off and yanking my t-shirt over my head. A slight drizzle had began and I felt it lightly on my skin, a cool spray as I began to warm up and my wolf started to get angrier.

I forced myself through branches and bushes, ignoring the cuts that whipped across my skin, they would be healed by the time I phased back. As I started to phase, my senses heightened and I could hear Joy running quickly behind me. She'd kicked off her boots and I could hear her feet crackle against the fallen leaves.

I stopped suddenly and she thumped against my back. 

"Riv! Fuck, just wait!" She reached out to touch my shoulder and I shrugged her off. The way I was feeling right now, the way my wolf was feeling right now? Hell, I didn't know what I'd do if she touched me.

Joy must have known too as, instead of touching me again, she circled around me like she was trying to cage a wild dog in. I felt like one. My canines were cutting into my lower lip and I felt the anger increase in my chest and knew that I was going to phase in a matter of minutes.

"I know you're pissed Riv, I am too but we can't change this. It's the Law. Just take a minute and talk to me here." 

Joy had her hands held up as if she was in a hold-up as she walked closer to me.

I didn't want her to touch me but some part of me was dying for her to do it anyway.

Joy continued, "We always knew this would happen, Riv. We've been preparing for it since our first day here. It just seemed so far in the future that now that it's here and happening in a few weeks, it feels...amplified somehow. More real. I'm not happy about it either. I don't want someone to tell me who my mate is, not when I.."

She broke off, realising that she'd said more than she wanted to. I stared into her eyes, not breaking her gaze when I moved closer towards her. Her eyes flickered down to my chest then back to my eyes and she blushed slightly.

"You've chosen someone already?" I asked, gruffly as I tried to keep my wolf calm.Just a few more minutes. 

Joy nodded, "It was never a choice for me, it was always this way."

She reached out to touch me and we both held our breaths as she paused then placed her hand over my heart. My wolf roared and pushed hard, eager to get out, mark her and fuck the consequences.

"Joy," I forced out before I reached out to cup her face with my hand trembling and feel her soft skin for the first time. 

For the first time, my wolf stopped pacing and stilled. I stared at Joy in shock as I felt my canines recede and then there wasn't any part of me that was wolf. It was just me looking at the girl that I couldn't be without. 

We shouldn't be touching. If the elders caught us or heard what we were saying, who knows what they'd say or do. Until we were assigned our mates we weren't even allowed to kiss someone for fear of confusing our wolf and breaking the Laws. Yup, that's right, virgin wolfs until we get told who to fuck and we just had to accept it.

I didn't care though and I could tell Joy didn't care either. The drizzle increased to steady rainfall and Joy's t-shirt clung to her as we stayed as we were, set in stone.

Joy's eyes darkened and she leaned up on her toes towards me, our breaths mingling, her lips painfully close to touching mine. I leant forward, slowly, wanting to enjoy this moment with her, knowing that it was going to change everything.

A twig snapped behind me and Joy stepped back out of my hold and crouched to the ground, hands digging into the soft soil. A low growl emitted from the back of her throat. I turned slowly and my wolf woke up again, twice as angry as he'd been before. The forest looked clear and I inhaled, trying to catch a scent but coming up with nothing or no-one unusual. I stepped forward, holding onto a tree, my claws burrowing into the bark. 

I felt movement behind me and I glanced over my shoulder to see that Joy had phased and run, leaving a pile of torn clothes and pieces of my heart on the forest floor.