Chapter 6

ERIC P.O.V

“She smells amazing.” Blaze cried out.     

I tried everything I could to stop my wolf from racing over to her.

Nitro looked back at us and growled which only heightened Blaze’s desire to get to the girl pleasuring herself in front of us. 

“Stop it Blaze, we can’t.” I yelled at him. I growled and pushed Blaze back making myself phase into my naked human form. I lost my footing and fell back into the bushes which resulted in the girl gasping in fear.

“Who’s there?” she called out.

Blaze began pushing us to phase again. I had never seen him act like this before. It was like he was rabid with wanting and for the first time in a long time I was a little frightened. I had to run but I couldn’t trust Blaze if I phased back.

Sensing my worry Nitro got up next to me. Gavin spoke using the mind link.

“Jump on my back.”

I grabbed a handful of Nitro’s fur and mounted his back. We raced off towards our campsite and I struggled internally to control my wolf.

20 minutes later we were back at the campsite. I stayed seated on Nitro’s back as a continued to admonish.

“Ok we’re here, so get your junk off our back man.” Gavin said through the mind link.

I looked down to see I was still very much naked, and a wave of embarrassment washed over me.

“Sorry.” I spluttered leaping off my friend. Blaze roared with laughter. What an arse.

Gavin phased back and we headed for our tents for clothes. I struggled putting on my shirt and thought I could feel three shallow cuts on my lower back from the tree I fell into. They really stung but I knew they’d be healed by morning.

I met Gavin over by the campfire. We sat in silences while we tried to put what happened in some sort of context.

“What the hell happened man?” Gavin asked breaking the silence. He was busy prepping the gas stove to make something to eat.

I sat on a log fiddling with a twig, poking at the ground. I feel he’s stopped what he’s doing, and I look up. His eyes try to read mine and I look away in embarrassment.

“I’m not sure.” I mumble returning to poking at the ground with the stick.

“You look like shit.” He said chuckling. “I’ve never seen you act like that before.”

“Blaze went crazy at the scent of the girl.” I explained “I had to fight him to stop him from doing something we’d both regret.”

Gavin lit the gas stove and opened the Esky. He rummaged around before pulling out two pieces of steak. My mouth began to water.

“There was something about her though.” He began to say as he seasoned the steaks. “Apart from the obvious.” He smirked.

My forehead knitted at the idea of him watching her play with herself. I could feel the anger rising. Blaze growled a low dominating growl and I silently reprimanded him.

“She was just some horny human.” I snapped too quickly.

Gavin raised his eyebrows at me. “Nah, there was something else and she didn’t smell like human”

“Like what?” I asked, and Gavin just shrugged. “Whatever. I’ve got enough on my plate at home and in case you forgot, which I doubt, you already have a mate.” I retorted

Gavin shook his head. “Man, I would never cheat on Lisa, she’s my world. I just meant her scent seemed….”

“Enough!” I boomed in my Alpha voice. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

Without thinking a got up and stormed off to my tent.

***

The next morning, I woke feeling stupid. I didn’t know why I acted like an idiot when Gavin was talking about her and I felt like a complete fool. I had decided that Blaze was just aroused by her scent because it had been a couple of months since we last got frisky. Tatiana had seen to that.

I thought about the girl and wondered who she might be? If she was werewolf, did she have a mate? My heart jolted at the thought and Blaze snarled. I could tell he was angry at me. I tried talking to him, but he chose to ignore me. I quickly got dressed and sat on my camp bed thinking.

If my wolf wouldn’t speak to me, I’d have to explain myself to Gavin.  But Gavin wasn’t in his tent when I went to look for him. I tired mind linking with him but was met with a mental block.

Strange.

 After several minutes Nitro emerged from a clump of small bushes. Gavin phased and took off towards his tent.

“Why did you block my mind link?” I called out.

Gavin emerged as he was slipping on his shirt. His large biceps flexed as he pulled the shirt down. As kids I was always jealous of Gavin’s curly mop of hair.

“I took Nitro for a run. Helps to clear our head. He said gruffly and I could tell he was angry at my behaviour yesterday. He opened the Esky and proceeded to hand me a couple of pancakes Lisa had made us for our trip. I took the pancake and torn a chunk of it with my teeth. Lisa’s pancakes were truly the best.

“You’re a lucky man to have such an excellent cook for a Mate.” I tried lightening the mood, but Gavin just huffed in agreement. “Look I’m sorry for yesterday.” I could be the bigger person. He nodded his head, and I took that as a step forward. I knew my best friend and I could tell he was just pretending to shut me out.

“So, where did you go for your run?” I asked changing the topic.

“Actually, I went to check on the girl.” Gavin admitted.

“What? Why?” I roared. I was angry. Not at him for going to check on the girl but for not going to check on her myself.

“You didn’t seem all that interested yesterday. I was concerned we’d frightened her.” I hadn’t considered if we’d scared her.

He munched the last part of his pancake before grabbing a bottle of water and down it in one gulp. Gavin was a caring person, just like his Dad and I admired him for that.

“Was she alright?” I asked trying to not show my concern.

 “As far as I could tell yeah.” He paused “I think she is a werewolf. She was talking to herself a lot.” It was normal for werewolves to have open conversations with themselves although many tried to keep it internal.

“That’s interesting.” I said before thinking.

Gavin looked at me strangely before shrugging and shaking his head. “Dude, you know you can be honest with me. Id never tell anyone anything about you.” He patted me on the shoulder knowingly.

“I appreciate that I just don’t understand my thoughts myself at the moment.”

“Well, I’m here if you need.” He smiled as Blaze rolled his eyes at me. Gavin knew me better than anyone and could tell my internal conflict surrounded the mystery girl more than my problems at home. I often thought he would have made a better Alpha than me.

***

We spent most of the day exploring the park, keeping our adventure in the opposite direction of the girl. My thoughts and my moody wolf didn’t want to let me think of anything else other than her. It was beginning to drive me insane, so I tried to focus my attention on the beauty of the park around us. Gavin left me to my thoughts. I didn’t even know he had phased by the time the sun was beginning to set.

As Alpha, I decided to make plans to inspect the outer territory when I got home and check on the people who live there. I told myself I had to be the Alpha they needed not a spoilt rich kid whinging about his problems. I was 23 it was time to act like it. The one problem I didn’t want to think about was Tatiana. I knew deep down that because she was carrying my pup, she was rightfully Luna whether I loved her or not. Maybe one day I could love her, but it would never be the same as loving my mate. As for my mate, wherever she was I had to reject her. It was the right thing to do. It was the mature thing to do.

Thinking about my mate led me to think about the girl at the swimming hole. How did my thoughts end up here? Did she have a name? Was it as beautiful as she was? Blaze purred with satisfaction at the thoughts and he shared some of his seedier mental images; The girl on the rock, making herself come alive with passion. Blaze snickered as my manhood jolted thinking about her.

Damn that wolf!

“Are you going to talk now?” I asked him, adjusting myself.

“Are you going to admit there’s more to her than just lust?” Blaze snapped back.

“Its pure lust for you. I have no interest in her.” I jab back.

“Please, we share the same mind. I know what you were thinking.” He smirked showing off his sharp canines. I sighed, he was right, it was me who started thinking about her.

“There’s nothing we can do about it Blaze. We have responsibilities at home. She would only complicate things. I don’t even know why I can’t stop thinking about her.”

Blaze huffed and went back to ignoring me. Bringing my focus back on my surroundings I realised that we had almost reached the park boundary. The sun was barely visible, only a slither on the horizon.

Nitro came up behind me and nudged my hand. “Should we go back? It’ll be dark soon.” Gavin said through the link.

“Yeah, probably a good idea but I’ll have to walk in human form. Blaze is being a turd.” A growl sounded in my head.

Nitro and I set off back in the direction of our campsite. The tree’s shadows stretch ominously in front of us and I felt the night air begin to get cooler. I wished Blaze would let me phase as that I could have a nice warm coat on, but he turned his back on me. I pulled up the hood on my jumper and continued walking a little brisker.

We had been walking for almost an hour and I was trying to tempt Blaze into phasing so we could go hunting. Suddenly, Nitro looked up and trotted off. Blaze’s hackles stood on end and a low growl sounded in my head.

“Something’s wrong.” Gavin said through the link.

“What do you mean?” I asked but he didn’t reply. He was doing that a lot lately.

I ran in the direction Nitro had trotted off in and was instantly hit with the scent of toffee apples and strawberries. The scent caught Blaze’s attention. He was on high alert.

Pushing past some branches I found Nitro standing his ground and snarling at a black wolf. The wolf stood over a shape which was unmistakeably a naked female body. As I approached the black wolf looked up and growled a throaty growl before racing off. Nitro chased after him.

I started to run after them, but Blaze pulled me around and ordered me to help the woman lying unconscious on the ground. I took off my jumper and covered her naked body. She was very still and Blaze was concerned she wasn’t breathing, we couldn’t hear her breathe and we couldn’t focus on a heartbeat. Not wanting to scare her I grabbed hold of her wrist with the intention of finding her pulse. All of a sudden, jolts of electricity ran from her wrist into my fingers and I dropped her hand. She moaned softly and rolled onto her back. I looked at her and realised she was the girl from the swimming hole.

Blaze began to run in circles in my mind before howling. I didn’t understand what he was doing and started to move away from the girl.

“No don’t!” he yelled before bellowing the one word I never thought I would hear, “MATE!”