Chapter 11 - Hector

Friday came too slowly. Though it was only a day later, it felt like I had waited eons to participate in the mating ritual, in the very tradition that would determine the course of my life, my leadership, my family. As soon as night fell, I began my preparations, nearly rushing through every step just to get to the door. Finally.

The moment I stepped outside, I could smell her. The air was rich with peaches and cream, a scent I'd come to know inside of my home. Another scent came with it, patchouli, a decadent aroma that grounded me into the earth. Much like her, I felt like that scent was my salvation. It would lead me to the future—one that would be secure enough for us all.

Faye wasn't the type to wear things like perfume, but I knew she liked to put oil in her hair to take care of it. As I stepped out into the yard, it made me think of this morning when I heard her caring for herself in the bathroom, the one upstairs that we shared. All her haircare products had been left out. Most of the things I disregarded, but one of them, the patchouli, was the one that I paid the most attention to. It was an interesting scent for a woman to have; for her to have. And for whatever reason, I knew it to be our connecting aroma.

I walked to the woods with my crew, Adrian included, to commence the mating ritual. The evening was chilly, and the moon was already on the rise. I could feel my inner wolf growing restless, wanting very much to shift, knowing that the ritual would solidify more than my place as alpha.

It would cement my place as Faye's mate.

I tilted my head to the sky and inhaled her scent repeatedly. She would be hidden among a group of women who would also be running alongside her, around her, ahead of her. We weren't permitted to see each other before the ritual began, so I had no clue what she was wearing other than brown robes. By the sound of it, her dance had commenced in the forest with the others.

Chuckles echoed from the trees. The sound of feet pounding the ground mixed with the clang of sticks banging against branches or trunks and rocks being thrown. All the things that were supposed to distract me from finding my mate. This was the hardest part of the ritual, the women causing all these distractions, trying to deter me from my course.

My chest swelled with anxiety. What if I catch another woman by accident?

No, there wasn't any time for doubts. I had to focus on what I knew inside of me to find Faye. As soon as we reached the edge of the woods, the sound intensified, and I turned to my wolf brethren. Cliff stood next to Adrian with the others behind him, everyone chanting, "For the pack, bring her back."

They said this repeatedly. They started beating their chests as they chanted, making grunts and animalistic sounds in between words. The longer they stood there and sang to me, the greater my resolve. Their howls rose above the racket coming from the woods, encouraging me to face the trees and tilt my head back.

I spread my arms wide while inhaling the chaos around me. The drumbeat of my brothers, the way that their grunts and growls filled the air, the way it sounded like war was happening just outside of my peripheral vision was intoxicating. It reminded me of the hunt, the chase I was about to embrace. It was a warning against those near and far, those that meant us harm—we were one, and we would never be defeated.

Soon, the drumbeat begged me to strip away my clothes. I stood naked with my fist raised, howling at the sky. That was when my skin began to tingle. The shift always came on differently for everyone. For me, it was a hard and fast, a rapid assault on my body. The fur often exploded in tufted waves, and then my snout extended. I crouched on all fours and felt the way my bones broke, reassembled, reset. The way my teeth popped out hurt the most, sharp teeth pushing my human bone aside to make way for the wolf's.

As soon as I was fully shifted, I stood proudly at the edge of the forest with my nose twitching excitedly at the medley of scents. Behind me, my pack brothers each released a bellowing roar. The sound of a horn squealed above all else.

The ritual had officially commenced.

I darted forward, listening to the sound of women's giggles and squeals, trying to find the figure with the doe mask. As per the custom, they were all wearing generally the same thing—earthy robes with a deer mask of some kind and a headband of antlers. Though I didn't know what Faye was wearing specifically, I had confidence in my nose. I had skilled senses.

I also had a beating heart that knew her touch. My vision focused on a blonde woman who was darting between the trees. I pursued her for a few minutes, trying to single out her scent as I ran after her. She was light-footed and gazelle-like in her motions. She very much matched her mask. But I could tell by the way her robes draped over her body and flew behind her, outlining her figure, that she wasn't my mate.

I can't believe I fell for that, I thought. One strike for me.

I was under the impression that this would be a lot easier. Not that my mate would just run out and reveal herself to me, but that I would have a better grasp of who she was out in the open. Maybe I didn't know Faye as much as I thought. Maybe the woman who was staying in my home was too different from the one I had rejected seven years ago.

It hurt my heart to recall what I'd done. The longer she stayed with us, the more regret I had over that incident. I was terrified to think that she would use that event to determine the way the rest of our lives went. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to grab her out of her pack and keep her here. But she needed to know that she belonged here. She needed to know that she belonged by my side. She needed to know I would protect her.

After breaking away from the wrong woman, I ran to the right, following the curve that would eventually lead to the campfire.

More clacking sounds came from behind me. I turned about, trying to determine what sound was what. A few branches clattered off to the left, and then I spun about again, feeling dizzied by everyone's scents that came in at once. There were so many different ones—lilacs, daisies, brown sugar, sea salt, cherries, and cranberries—most of which were dull and unimpressive.

Not even one of them was my mate.

Irritated by my confusion, I closed my eyes. I pointed my nose to the canopy above and forcefully inhaled, focusing on the one that I knew intimately. Peaches and cream greeted my nostrils, intensifying my desire. As soon as I got a beat on her location, I opened my eyes and ran directly toward her scent. The trees inevitably parted like a stage curtain, revealing a figure with strands of blonde hair flying behind her.

The sleek doe mask that she wore over her face shimmered in the moonlight, reflecting some of the firelight behind me as she turned to peek back. The small antlers that stood up out of her hair caught some of the wheat strands. I saw her mouth widen and her pupils dilate, and then I heard her gasp.

You're mine!

I sprinted after her for another minute or so, falling back every so often whenever I caught up too much. She giggled as she raced ahead, hopped gracefully between a set of trees, and then lunged over a fallen log. Another chuckle escaped her, breathless and vivid, a sign of her carefree nature rising to the surface. She was having fun, wasn't she?

With a sharp wolf grin, I lowered my head and danced after her, enjoying the many ways our limbs matched pace, grace, and style. It was too thrilling to run after her in my wolf form, precisely for the fact that we'd never done this in our lives. Neither of us had ever shifted with each other. Whenever everyone went for pack runs in the morning, Faye was never present. She wasn't the type to exercise. We never had the chance.

She cast another glance at me while wearing a devious smile. Just as she went to jump over a branch, it caught her foot, sending her flying into a pile of dry leaves. The way they crunched under her body echoed through the night, making me realize that the other women who were supposed to make noises had gone quiet. All that was left was the chirp of nighttime bugs, the soft sigh of the breeze through the trees, and the earthy creak of the swaying branches above. The night felt brisk and full of potential, inspiring a curiosity in me that I couldn't deny.

This was it. This was the part where I caught my mate.

I approached her slowly, inspecting the way the robes had fallen over her bare legs. Her feet were free of socks and shoes. She lifted her head slightly, watching me walk around her body with blown-out pupils. A smirk crossed her lips as she rolled to her back and pushed away from the ground.

I don't think so, Cherry Pie.

I pounced on her back and flipped her over with my massive snout before she could scoot away from me. She tried to move back with a lustful grin, inviting me to pin her shoulders with my paws. My massive weight kept her in place just as easily as I would in my human form. Round hazel-brown eyes peered up at me through the mask, blinking slowly as her soft lips parted. The tip of her pink tongue appeared, slid over her bottom lip, and then retreated. All my focus was promptly drawn to her throat, which clenched and bobbed with an anticipatory swallow.

I shoved my nose underneath her mask, enjoying how she sighed against my wet snout. It was the same soft sigh that she had released many days ago when I'd first attempted to take liberties with her. My eyes naturally closed. I would have ruined everything .

Her fingers coursed through the fur at the back of my ears, a gentle motion that made me bow my head toward her. It was such a subtle touch at first, light and benign, that I considered giving up my power. She was doing something spectacularly mysterious to me, though I wasn't sure what. She knew she wasn't allowed to use her power here, so it couldn't be that.

This felt stronger; beyond supernatural.

Regardless of how she was forbidden from using magic, it felt like what was happening was intensely rooted in the magical realm. I nuzzled her mask aside to reveal her gorgeous face to the milky light of the moon. The hazel-brown of her eyes seemed to fill up with snowflakes of gold as she looked up at me.

There was no fear in her face. There was only a sense of great curiosity, an amusement at the game that we had just played. The forest remained silent while I stared down at her for what felt like ages, trying to think of a way to communicate with her in my wolf form in a way that she would understand.

But the longer I looked into her eyes, the more I realized we were communicating—we just weren't doing it with words. It was her touch that seemed to translate what we were thinking, the kind of touch that told me all her secret thoughts. It relayed her trust in me—for in this form, I could do so much damage to her. I could mangle her body. I could tear her to pieces.

My maw opened at the thought, exposing vicious teeth dripping with saliva right over her chin and mouth. She didn't tremble, and she didn't attempt to shimmy away from my threatening position. She simply laid there, accepting her fate. Shuddering, but accepting, nonetheless, that I was in charge—and I could do anything I wanted.

If I wanted.

Her golden hair sprawled all around her head like a halo. How great my desire grew to drag my fingers through the wheat strands and pull a chunk, to expose her throat to me even more. My paws were insufficient to be comforting in that way, in the way that only humans could do. Still, there were other things I could do for her, other things that were easily accomplished between woman and wolf.

Without hesitation, I removed my teeth from her chin and mouth. I saw her eyelids flutter, that notable desire enhancing the gold flakes in her eyes. She dreamily looked into my eyes, peace evident on her face as she applied pressure to the back of my neck. She tilted her chin back and showed me her throat. She pulled me into her flesh, beckoning me with shivering fingers and quivering breaths. She wanted this as much as I did. Her insistence made me feel like she was not doing this out of obligation. She was doing this because she wanted to do this.

So, I didn't hesitate. I didn't wait another second. I opened my jaws, wrapped them around her throat, and bit down.