Chapter 2

~Now~

I get my fire ready for the night, stacking each log in a certain direction so it'll have enough air flow to keep it going all night long. The nights get so chilly in the winter, even Axel, my wolf, has trouble staying warm and he's covered in fur.

I've kept moving these past 5 years in case the son of a bitch Alpha decided to come after me. I doubt it since I was just a piece of shit to him but then again he is the type to finish what he starts. It must be eating him alive that I'm still out here somewhere. That thought makes me grin.

I figure I'll just keep moving north, further and further from his territory. I'll deal with the coldest weather to stay away from him until I am strong enough to kill him and I will kill him. Axel whimpers lowly and my stomach grumbles. Guess it's time for dinner. "Ready for a hunt Axel?" I hear him get excited in my head and I strip down ready to shift.

I just recently got to meet Axel's wolf. When a wolf turns 18, we get to shift for the first time. We share minds with our wolves since the day we're born and they grow just like we do. We'll until a certain age, eighteen, and then our aging slows down. We still age, but we'll look twenty when we're fifty.

I shift into Axel and let him have full control. He's built for this and I'm not so good at hunting so when we need food I let him have full reign. He takes off knowing just the right place to hunt for a nice big deer. It isn't long before he stops mid run and I know he's found something. A giant buck. If I carve it just right we'd have food for a whole month.

Slowly Axel creeps up to the buck careful of where he steps so he doest scare off dinner. Watching and waiting for just the right moment, he finally pounces and catches the buck by the neck. Perfect kill spot. The buck tries to squirm away but Axel is to strong for it. With a snap of its neck, the buck stops moving. Now to drag it back to camp.

After a long walk back to camp I shift back into human form and start carving the buck. Careful to make the pieces big enough to fill us up but small enough I can keep it for awhile. Lucky for us there is snow covering all around us. Perfect to keep food cold. As I'm busy carving, I suddenly smell a sweet scent. Lavender and pine. As if I couldn't control myself I suddenly get up from where I was sitting and follow the scent. I walked maybe two miles before it became so strong I knew I was close to seeing who had this amazing scent.

I hide behind the tree line when I spot a group of three people out in a clearing. There is a woman and two men. They all have a brand on their shoulder. The initials RM. I wonder what they stands for? Just as I was thinking of turning back and trying to make it to camp, the woman turns and looks straight at me.

We lock eyes and I can't help but to stare into her lavender colored eyes. Mesmerized. They are the most beautiful color I have ever seen. Forcing myself to break eye contact, I take in her body. Slim and sun kissed skinned. Very muscular. Long jet black hair. She's the very definition of gorgeous. She starts to walk towards me and I back away. She's going to kill me for staring.

"Alpha? Are you okay? Do you see something?" One of the men ask trying to see what or who she had spotted.

So she's an alpha. There is no way she'd let me live. I'd be treated just the same as I was in my old pack.

Axel whimpers when I turn away. "Sorry buddy."

I keep walking, looking back every once I awhile making sure I wasn't being followed. Axel is going nuts in my head, practically ramming the back of my skull thinking it would make me turn back. "Axel, chill please? You're giving me a headache."

"No! Turn back. Mate!"

"She can't be our mate Axel. You heard the man. He called her Alpha. We'd be treated the same way as we used to be. And that's if she even decided to accept us as a mate. She'd probably just reject us."

"Mate!" He screams ramming my head again.

"Ugh, I know. It's okay. We're better off alone. You're just going to have to trust me on this one."

Axel starts whimpering. Great. I can't go back. I know I was right. We'd either become a slave or she'd reject us. I was a nobody. A Rogue. She was an Alpha. She was somebody. Nobody would accept a Rogue as their mate.

Finally making it back to camp I sit down by the fire. Axel still whimpering in my head I go back to carving up the buck, putting some on the fire to cook it up a little. As I'm turning the meat, just off in the distance I hear a twig snap and immediately stand up looking in that direction.