Chapter 4

Casper

I squared up to the large black wolf in front of me.  I snarled with my teeth bared and felt tingles go down my spine as all my fur stood on end.

The black wolf circled me, mirroring my actions.  He was impressive looking when he was stood like that.  But I wasn’t worried. I could easily take him.

I quickly jumped forward and nipped his back leg, making his head fly round in my direction.  This was what I had been waiting for.

I lifted my head up and sprang from my powerful back legs, landing with my nuzzle on the back of his neck.  I clamped down hard.

The black wolf twisted round, almost moving within his skin and managed to throw me off.

I jumped back round, on guard, facing him again.

I could see I had wounded him, but I also knew that it wouldn’t stop him.

The dance started again as we circled round each other once more.

I needed this.  I felt the tension and stress of the past few days filter into every sinew in my body.  My muscles were primed. I felt invincible.

In a flash of teeth and claws I managed to pin him to the ground.  I felt my teeth sink into his neck and tasted blood.

A sharp whine from the wolf snapped me out of my trance and I quickly got off him, and turned back into my human form.

“Shit, Jamie, are you ok?”

My beta wolf changed back also, his hand pressed firmly onto his neck to stem the blood flow.

I quickly bent over and assessed the damage.  It wasn’t too bad. Enough to potentially kill a human, but not a werewolf.  Thankfully we clotted quickly.

“Damn it Casper, what were you thinking about?” Jamie asked, slowly removing his hand now the wound had sealed.

“I don’t know.  Just the usual I guess.” I said with a slight shrug of the shoulders.

Jamie looked at me and raised an eyebrow.  I could see that he knew I was keeping things from him, but as my Beta, he also knew not to press me further.

Jamie was my right hand wolf.  The one I depended on. The one that was always there for me no matter what.  In human terms he would be my best friend, but in reality I couldn’t really call him that.  No matter how close we were, I would always outrank him, and it was inbred in us to feel that way.  But I knew that he was the closest thing to a best friend I would ever have.

“I think that’s enough training for today.  I’m going to go for a run. Maybe work off some of my pent up anger,” I said grinning at him in apology.

I changed back into my wolf and set off running.

As a wolf, there is no better feeling in the world than running.  It was the one thing guaranteed to make me feel better. It made me feel alive.  It made me feel free.

I was turning 23 in a few months and I still hadn’t found my mate.  This meant that in a few months I would be free to choose my own. Or so it was assumed.  In reality I would have very little choice. I knew that my dad had already lined up a selection of “approved” females and I would be expected to be married to one of them as soon as possible.

I don’t know what upset me the most.  Having to choose one of the bridezillas that my dad had selected, or the fact that I would never meet my mate.

I knew she was out there.  I felt it. It was like an extra heartbeat thumping deep inside me.  Yet here I was nearly 5 years later and I still hadn’t found her. I had met and shaken hands with hundreds of female werewolves, yet nothing.  Not a thing.

It was unusual for an alpha not to find his mate.  That was because every female werewolf in the country would make it their mission to shake your hand, hoping that they were the one.  And my father had arranged countless balls over the last five years, giving high ranking werewolves from around the country, the opportunity to come and meet me and shake my hand.

I had come to the conclusion that there were 3 possible reasons why I hadn’t met my mate yet:

She was younger than me and so may have only recently turned 18, thereby making the window of opportunity for meeting that much smaller.

She was too low ranking for my father to have invited her to one of the balls

They weren’t a she-wolf.

Number 3 could mean one of two things.  It could mean that my mate was human, or it could mean that my mate was male.

I know both of these were unlikely, but believe me, after 5 years of searching and wondering, I began thinking anything could be a possibility.

I turned around and started heading back to the manor.

By the time I arrived the sun was setting and it was beginning to get dark.  I changed into my human form and made my way to the back door.

I often went in through the staff entrance after a run.  I was wet and covered in mud and didn’t want to dirty the main entrance carpet.

As I walked through the corridors, I could hear the sounds of the staff working in the kitchen.

There was no one around so I quickly peeked in through the glass window of the door.

He wasn’t there.  He was never there.

I was beginning to think I had dreamed the whole thing.

I went into the bathroom and locked the door.  The staff rarely used this bathroom as it was a washroom as opposed to a toilet.  It had 2 shower cubicles in it. And there wasn’t really any need for the staff to take showers here, so I sort of commandeered it as my post run shower room.