Chapter 2

Adam POV

Slamming into Wendy one more time, we both shatter and groan at our releases.  We have been dating for about six months now.  She was hoping I would select her as my Luna.  She would make a good Luna.  She was thoughtful, kind, and people seemed to like her.  However, she was a warrior.  And I knew the Elders in the Red Pine Pack were hoping I would select a chosen mate who was also of Alpha blood.

They were concerned about the welfare of the Pack.  The growth of the Pack and the desire to have strong pups.  Who else could deliver strong pups but a warrior?  Nonetheless I had to play it cautiously, so I didn’t piss off the Elders.  They could easily find me a Luna and strongly encourage me to choose her as my chosen mate or else I would lose my Pack.  I couldn’t lose my Pack.

My father and grandfather had been Alphas to this Pack.  It had been handed down to me on my eighteenth birthday ten years ago from my father.  My grandfather had since passed but my father played a role on the Elder advisory committee.  I was infuriated that my father had sided with the others in their quest to find me a chosen mate, if my mate didn’t materialise in the next three months.

Three months!  Fuck three months was not long enough to find my mate.  I hadn’t found my mate in ten years, what was so fucking magical about three months?  I would be 29 at that point; my birthday was just around the corner.  I knew I needed to produce a strong, healthy Alpha male.  The truth was I was looking forward to being a father.  

Sliding out of Wendy I roll to the side, pulling her in my arms.  We are both breathing heavily.  She twists to lay on her side, snuggling into my chest.  I wrap an arm around her, pulling her close and kissing her forehead.  I hear her breathing change and I know she has slipped into a deep sleep.  

I gently crawl out from under her and head out to the patio off my suite.  Wolves don’t care about nudity so I don’t worry whether someone might see me.  I need some fresh air to clear my head.  I like Wendy, but do I want to spend the rest of my life with her?  Because it will be a lifetime choice once I choose a partner.  Whether she is my mate or a chosen mate.  I need to choose wisely.  Someone who I won’t tire of quickly and someone who will keep me on my toes.  Wendy tends to be a yes woman.  She wants to please me, which I love, but is that what I need?

Leaning on the patio rails I run my hands through my blond hair.  I know I am a good-looking guy, but it’s made me a target for a lot of she-wolves just wanting to be my chosen mate so they can fulfil their dream of being a Luna.  When I didn’t find my mate when I turned eighteen in the Pack, I started to go to summer and winter balls, galas – any events where finding your mate was encouraged.  But to no avail.  Either my mate doesn’t exist, or we just never crossed paths.  Will we, I wonder?  A small part of me hopes to find my mate, but another part is trying to keep my expectations low.

Wendy has agreed to be my date for the upcoming mid-Summer Ball next weekend.  I know it’s rather crazy to take a date, but I feel like it’s a good idea.  I know I haven’t found my mate yet, but do I want to spend yet another night alone when I could have someone comfortable by my side to keep me entertained?  It was a good decision.  We would have a good time and some good sex will follow.

Smirking at myself, I turned to head back into my room when I got the call that there were some rogues at the north border.  Not bothering to wake Wendy as I can see her jump up, I jump off the patio and land in wolf form.  My wolf is all black; his name is Jake.  Jake has been with me since we were fourteen years of age.  Most wolves come at age sixteen but in my family, wolves tend to come earlier.

Jake desperately wants to find our mate.  He does not want a chosen mate and does not really care for Wendy.  He agrees she is nice, but her wolf is not his mate, and he does not want to settle for anyone less.  As we jump through the forest, I can feel Wendy behind us.  We are faster than Wendy so her ability to keep up with me is challenged.  But she is a strong fighter.  

As I round the corner, I can see my warriors engaged in a battle with six rogues.  I see two on one of my top warriors, so I jump at them with a loud growl.  The rogue looks shocked to see me as I use my back legs to push him off my Pack member.  As he goes, he takes some skin with him as his claws had been dug into the warrior.  The warrior whimpers but continues to fight the rogue he was originally fighting.  

As I look at the rogue, I realise he’s a little on the scrawny side.  I take a quick look around and see most are on the leaner side.  Taking the rogue in front of me, I was able to break his front leg as I moved to break his neck.  Something in his eyes makes me stop before I do so.  Shifting quickly, I yell at everyone to stop!

As everyone freezes in position, I realise this was a death mission.  None of these rogues were sent here to win.  They were sent as a distraction.  As I look around, I mind-link my warriors, “Take them to the dungeons,” I say.  The warriors look confused until I repeat myself ending with “Now!”.  Everyone starts to move.  Shifting one by one, the rogues are cuffed in silver and start the long trek back towards our dungeons.  Silver is debilitating to a wolf; it stops them from being able to shift and can be painful when it touches a wolf’s skin.

For this reason, a few years ago, I decided we didn’t need to torture our captives until we knew they deserved to be tortured.  So, I had our silver cuffs wrapped in tape.  It still had the same effect.  The wolf or rogue cannot shift; however, we are doing our part to be a bit more humane.  We do have cuffs that aren’t coated when we want to punish the individual captured.

As I move toward where Wendy is standing, I nod toward her that we should shift and head back.  Just as I am about to shift, I hear a twig snap behind me coming from just across our border.  As I turn, I see a man step forward.  Another rogue, much bigger than the others.  Wendy shifts while I stand there looking at the rogue.  We can’t attack him unless he comes onto our territory.

Rules the Wolves Council had established long before I had been born.  Rogues could live in no man’s land or rather unclaimed land; however, when they crossed into a claimed territory, they were subject to be punished however the Pack sees fit.  In this case, we chose to take the rogues and will interrogate them after.

As the rogue stepped forward, he simply smirked at me as he looked at me and Wendy.  “What do you want?” I demand.  “Oh Alpha, I don’t want anything you can give me tonight.  But soon, you will know exactly what I want,” he says.  “What the hell does that mean?” I ask when he suddenly turns, shifts into his wolf form, and vanishes.

Wendy shifts back, “What the hell was that all about?” she asks.  As I ponder her question, I stare after the rogue where he had disappeared.  “I have no idea, but I do not think this is over.  We need to interrogate those rogues,” I say as we look at each other.

Turning away, we both shift and run back toward the Pack house.  Detouring slightly, we shift.  I grab a pair of shorts while Wendy grabs a t-shirt that falls mid-thigh.   Walking into the dungeons, we start to interrogate the rogues.

None of them knew what exactly they were doing.  The head rogue had recruited them by promising them some money and food to cause a disturbance at the north border.  What he did not tell them was that it was a fool’s mission.  They weren’t expected to win.  Now we had to deal with them.  It didn’t seem right to kill them for no reason.  However, we couldn’t simply let them go either.

One did offer one piece of information that would later prove to be helpful.  “The rogue told us he was looking for someone,”; “Who?” I asked the rogue who spoke up.  “He simply said someone special who had special powers,” the rogue replied.  Well, that couldn’t have been more cryptic.  Nobody here had special powers, or I would know about it.  For now, we would keep the rogues in the dungeon and decide what to do with them in a couple days.