3. Voss

3

VOSS

I’d never seen anything like it in all my fucking life. There she was, my mate, tackling deer without ever having to shift. Killing them with a flick of her measly little weapon. Breaking that animal down like a mode of art. Scaling that goddamned tree without using her talons once. I’d never seen an Alpha with such elite traits. An Alpha with the ability to hunt, kill, stalk, and survive without ever once having to shift. Not even my fucking father was capable of that shit.

Then again, my father hadn’t been capable of much except being a gluttonous fool with a braided whip.

Are you for fucking real, Voss?

Ronyn’s voice growled in my mind as I stood in my human form at the edge of the meadow, watching a man hug my mate.

If he wasn’t careful, I’d rip his head off in his sleep.

Don’t wait up, I said as I slowly stalked around to their side of the meadow.

The fuck does that mean? Ronyn snarled. You were too deep in those woods for these boys to come back empty-handed and alone. I demand an answer!

My eye twitched. You better remember who you’re speaking with, general.

And of course, Dom had to get into the mix. Right now, we’re dealing with a very hungry pack. You got any ideas on how to make a buck you were supposed to bring back magically appear?

I stood there with a fucking smile braided across my face as I watched the pack not thirty feet in front of me devour the buck that the kids of my pack tracked. None of them were anywhere near the fucking buck when me and my mate rolled up on it. As far as I was concerned, they earned it. Why the pack felt it was necessary to hinge our first summer meal on a bunch of uneducated, uninformed pups was beyond me.

I don’t know, I said as I kept my eyes on the woman with the yellow eyes, maybe next time don’t rely on pups for food.

Come on, Ronyn grunted, this is a yearly thing, Voss. All of us went through it until we bagged our first deer. It’s just tradition.

I scoffed. Yeah, well, tradition is just being bullied by dead people.

As my two best friends who helped me run the pack talked back and forth in groupthink, I kept my gaze trained on them. That pack. There was something off about them. Something that didn’t quite sit right with me. I stood, shrouded in the bushes behind a tree, trying to piece them together. Trying to figure them out. But, the more I searched, the more I realized that she left.

My mate was no longer by the fire.

Where the fuck did she go?

“Do you always stand naked in the woods while the sun is setting?”

Voss? Dom asked. You got any input?

I slowly turned toward the delicate voice and found that wild, curly-haired woman staring back up at me with her hands on her hips. Her lips were downturned, turning that pillowy lower lip of hers into something that looked almost playful. How the hell someone could frown and still look playful was beyond me, but those shimmering yellow eyes of hers twinkled with the rays of the setting sun.

Which only served to slam my heart against my chest.

“Well?” the woman asked as she folded her arms across her chest. “I’m waiting.”

Voss! Ronyn barked.

Hey, I said as I studied the small woman in front of me, it’s not my fault you can’t teach our boys to fight properly. Maybe work with them on their survival skills first.

Ronyn snarled. I swear to fucking hell, Voss ? —

Like I said, don’t wait up. I’ll be back when I’m back.

Then, I shut down my end of groupthink and blocked it all out. If the pups were home safely, that’s all that mattered to me. As far as I was concerned, these woods were no longer safe for children to hunt in, anyway. I knew that Dom wanted things to seem normal with the pack. I knew he didn’t want to let go of traditions that made things feel like home when we were only a few months into our newest home. I knew Dom was only trying to make things feel like normal again.

Things would never be normal again, however.

Not until the vampire that slaughtered my family, and a quarter of my pack, was dead.

“Cat got your tongue?” the woman asked.

I raked my gaze along her body. She was short, compared to me. Barely came up to the bottom of my chest. Her curves were anything but, though. They looked toned. Trimmed. Hips for days and thighs I wanted to sink my teeth into and never let go. I wanted to know how she’d feel, staked on my cock and bouncing while crying out my name. While announcing to the whole of my pack who she belonged to.

I wanted to bury my fingers into those luscious curls of hers and?—

“I’m a night owl,” the woman said as she cocked her hip out, “so this doesn’t bother me one damn bit. But, I will get an answer out of you, and if you so much as take another step toward my pack, it’ll be the last thing you do. So, I suggest you talk.”

I wanted to know what bothered her, though. I wanted to know everything about her. What made her cry. What made her mad. What made her smile. What made her tick. She had spunk, I’d give her that. I tilted my head and let my stare continue to drip all around her body. I wanted to memorize every inch of her. I wanted to rip those fucking clothes off and mark her in my scent. But, there was something about her that seemed… off. Something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

Wait, did she just say her pack?

She’s a fucking Alpha?

“Do you not use words at all, then?” she asked. “Because I can drag you out of the shadows and let them have their way with you, if you want.”

God, what I wouldn’t have given to see her try. I watched her take down that deer, though. I watched her bring that entire fucking meal back to her pack without so much as breaking a fucking sweat. They must’ve been a makeshift pack, or a pack that had been slaughtered to dwindling numbers and chased out of their home. Any wandering pack was crudely called a ‘makeshift pack,’ because one of the defining points of a pack was having a home to backtrack toward.

How long had my mate and her pack wandered around with no home?

“Look,” she said as she closed the gap between us, “we don’t mean any harm. If we’re on your territory, all we need is an evening’s rest, and we’ll be gone before the sun fully rises in the sky. Can we at least compromise with that?”

I refused to back up. Having her closer felt like heaven stuffed into a bottle just for me. Her scent wrapped around me, holding me hostage as my naked body cloaked hers. My hardened cock jumped between our bodies. A glimmer of the setting sun shone through the trees, illuminating my mate’s lovely, tanned skin. She had eyes like wildfire and hair that was wind-whipped. And her voice…

It sounded like a choir of angels descending from the sky just for me to behold.

So, naturally, I wanted to see what she’d do when my naked body was flush with hers. I wanted to see if she’d jump. Or slap me. Anything to learn more about her. Was she offended? What angered her? Where did she come from? Did she grow up in the area?

No, she wouldn’t have. I would have found her if she did.

I took a step forward, closing the last of the distance between us. And with my hardened cock flush against her torso, all she did was look up at me. She held her ground, her clothed body against my muscles, and all I wanted to do was pick her up, slam her into the nearest tree, and stuff her full until her mewling and quivering sent her pack fucking running.

Goddamn it, watching her not back down only served to make me harder than I’d ever been in my entire life.

“You may think you scare me,” she said as she continued staring up at me, “but you don’t.”

“Alpha!? You back here?”

That made her back up. She took a few steps backward with her head on a swivel, but that one word halted me in my tracks. Holy fucking hell, she really was an Alpha. But, how the hell had I not sensed her? Alphas always sensed each other out. Hell, most packs could, too. I still wasn’t sure whether or not her pack sensed me out. If they did, they didn’t seem bothered by it. Fucking hell, I hadn’t come across a female Alpha in a very long time. The only one I met was when a pack passed through when I was only nine.

But, when footsteps sounded behind me in the meadow, I watched as my mate’s confused gaze slithered down my body.

“Be right there!” she called out. “Just got caught up in some sightseeing!”

“You sure?” a man called out.

My mate nodded. “Yeah, Greg! I’m good! You guys just keep cooking and get those little ones fed. I know Annabelle’s chomping at the bit!”

“Sure you don’t need anything?” another voice asked.

Another male voice.

I wanted to reach behind me and snap that fucker’s neck.

“I’m sure!” she called out. “I’ll be there in a second, you have my word.”

And just like that, I heard their footsteps backtracking.

Which caused me to lick my lips.

“Are you hungry? Is that what you want?” she asked.

Hungry for you.

For who? Ronyn asked in groupthink.

For someone trying to shut us out, Dom said in that cocky ass tone of his, he’s not doing a very good job, is he, Ronyn?

It took everything I had inside of me to stomach my growl. Shut the hell up, you two.

“Do you need something?” my mate asked.

She pronounced her words, almost as if she wasn’t sure if I understood her. It was kind of cute, honestly. But then, she did something I didn’t expect. Something I didn’t calculate, what with me standing there fucking naked as the forest grew dark and quiet around us.

She picked up her hand and placed it over my heart.

“If you need something, I can help. But, you’ve gotta talk to me,” she said softly.

The instant her skin touched mine, my eyes were held hostage. Instead of clocking the darkness and the animals that lurked within it, I saw images of us together. Her, in a bright white dress with my mouth devouring her tits that spilled over its tight top. I saw us, in my bed, slamming the headboard against the wall until it punctured holes in the plaster. I saw us enjoying breakfast together. Running together. Shifting, and hunting, with gray hair and lots of children running all around us.

I saw my life with my mate flash before my eyes, just like my mother always said it would when the time was right. I saw our mating bands. I felt our mating bonds. My eyes bore a reel of still life snapshots with my mate standing right next to me. Commanding with me. Supporting me.

Kissing me…

And that’s when I snapped.

“Come here,” I growled.

I couldn’t wait to stuff her full. I couldn’t wait to taste her juices. I’d spent too many years searching for her before I spent too many years mourning the fact that my mate had probably been killed. Vampires scoured our woods, taking what they wanted simply because they thought they could. If they didn’t turn us, they fed on us, chasing us out of our homes. Many of us had to cope with the fact that there was a possibility that our mates were already killed before we ever found them. I simply… lumped myself into that category.

Until my hands gripped her waist.

“Mine,” I snarled.

“Over my dead body,” she hissed.

I expected our mouths to connect. I expected her body to meld to mine. The second my hands gripped her waist, it should’ve been game over, for both of us. That’s how it always was. It was as if the mark of a mate changed our DNA structure. Reformatted our perspective on life. Gave us a new outlook on things. But, instead of ending up against a tree with her pinned to me, I ended up on my fucking back.

Staring up at the treetops.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she growled.

I watched her boot come toward my face and I rolled out from beneath her. I swiped my leg out, trying to get back onto my feet so I could figure out what in the absolute fuck just happened. How the hell did I end up on my?—.

“Goddamn it,” I growled as she grabbed my foot.

“I may look delicate enough,” she harrumphed as she twisted my leg.

I had to swallow back a howl of pain as I wrenched away from her.

“But, you won’t ever touch me without my permission ever again, you slimy fuck,” she hissed.

Just as I scrambled to get back onto my feet, she leapt through the air. I’d never seen anything like it. She blindsided me, scurrying around in the darkness as my back fell toward a tree. I sharpened my eyesight. My stare pierced through the darkness and tracked her wild body. I pivoted with her, keeping her in front of me as she stared me down, and that’s when I heard it.

I heard footsteps scrambling behind me again.

“Alpha!?” a small voice called out. “Alpha, is that you!?”

I watched my mate’s face tick with the sound. “Get back to the food, please! It’s going to get cold!”

“But, what about your food?”

She kept her stare on me. “Do as I say, please, Billy.”

Her scent was too much. Her presence was too great. Yet, as I studied her face, she seemed almost… frightened. Why the fuck did my mate look frightened of me?

Like I said, something was very off about this woman. And as the small footsteps scurried back across the meadow, I made the mistake of peering over my shoulder. Of checking to make sure there wasn’t anyone else watching us.

And it was all the entrance she needed to slam her knee into my balls.

“Oh, my fuck,” I choked out as I sank to my knees.

She sank her hands into my hair and yanked my head back. “Lay a hand on me or my pack, and I’ll choke you out with your own fucking intestines. Got it?”

I cradled my nutsack as I stared up at her. “Got it.”

She tilted her head before shoving mine away. “Good.”

Yes, even as a shifter, getting kicked in the balls isn’t a very good look.

Doesn’t feel very pleasant, either.

But, that was all she left me with. As she wrapped around my body, leaving me there with an aching set of precious stones, she left me and headed back to her pack. How the hell did she pull herself away from our connection? It damn near held me hostage! Forty years, I waited for her. Forty long years, with just under half of those years being Alpha of my own pack. Yet, as I watched her walk back across the meadow to her pack, I found myself stunned to silence.

How in the fuck did she put me on my back?

Why the hell did I like that about her so much?

And how the fuck did she not know who I was?

I stumbled onto my feet and turned to face her. I watched her hips sway with every step she took as her pack cheered her on, like a commander coming home from war. I still felt every single urge to knock her out, throw her over my shoulder, and tie her to my bed just so she couldn’t get away. Every shred of me was harnessed by her, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to leave without her. Even if I had to camp there as long as they did, I had to find a way to usher her and her pack back toward us.

Back toward my pack.

Back toward my home.

However, in the middle of the field, she paused. I watched her entire body freeze. Her head on a swivel as those focused eyes scanned the entirety of the space they took up.

She was on the prowl, and it was fucking mesmerizing.

What do you see?

Other than an absent fucking Alpha? Ronyn asked flatly.

I see a dwindling freezer of meat, that’s what I see, Dom said playfully.

I ignored their pleas and quips. I tried to reach out to my mate in groupthink, but to no avail. This was nothing like what my mother always talked about. This was nothing like how I had dreamt. Hell, this was nothing like any of the other mating bonds I had seen snap into place before. It was as if she had no fucking clue who I was. Like she hadn’t felt a damn fucking thing when I had. However, as she slowly twirled around, with my gaze devouring her from the edge of her pack’s precious meadow, she lunged toward the fire.

“Get away from the shadows!” she exclaimed as she took off running. “Get the children up into the trees! Hurry!”

When the wind kicked up, however, I smelled them. It was enough to pull me out of the harnessed heaven that had graced my nostrils before sunset. Across the meadow, bordering three sides of the expansive opening, were beady, flashy eyes that blinked in the darkness. Dozens of them, coming out of nowhere like Hell’s lightning bugs.

Coyotes.

And my mate and her pack were damn near surrounded.

Ronyn, send the boys, I said as I took off in the woods, making my way toward the first set of coyote eyes while shrouded in darkness, I just found a group of coyotes.

Oh, coyote meat is delicious this time of the year, Dom said in groupthink.

Already got them headed back your way, Ronyn said.

Then, I slammed myself into that first coyote and cracked its head open on a fucking rock.

One down, at least a dozen or so to go.

How many you got out there? Ronyn asked.

I grinned as I laid the coyote’s body where it could easily be tracked by the pups. Plenty enough to restore order to the freezer.

Thank fuck, Dom said, I’ll prepare the space. Just make sure none of the pups come back empty-handed. Can you do that?

I snickered as I leapt over the rock and jumped right onto the back of another coyote. Depends. Can you tuck in the attitude since you’re the one dressed to the nines while Ronyn is training his troops and I’m out here hunting?

Dom chuckled. You’re just jealous that I look better than you in suits.

I snapped that coyote’s neck and laid it out for the next pup that came along. Says the wolf that doesn’t like pissing in open meadows.

Anyone can see you when you do that shit! That’s gross as hell, Dom exclaimed.

And as Ronyn chuckled to himself, I took down yet another coyote for one of the pups to drag home. Meat, finally. Maybe this shit would get Dom off my back for this summer solstice celebration of his. He damn near drove me batshit crazy with our spring solstice blowout a few months back, and I sure as hell wasn’t arguing with him anymore about our dwindling food stores. This pack of wild coyotes would more than fill our freezers. And just as I caught the scent of yet another one, a howling coyote pulled my attention back to the meadow just in time to watch my mate get charged.

Before another coyote sank its teeth into my fucking shoulder.

Goddamn it, I had to get a grip on myself if I was going to get us all out of there in one fucking piece.