An Alpha's Claim

Saf

Saf readjusted the strap of her bag and slung it back over her shoulders. She was regretting packing so much, the bag was heavy and with every mile it was only getting heavier.

She couldn't risk bringing a car, so on foot was the only way in. She had to be stealthy – to scout out the area before she approached the alpha and the potentially rogue, she-alpha. She needed to see what she was like; to work out if she really was going rogue.

But first, she had to get there without being spotted.

She had to be quiet as a mouse.

"I wanna be like you oh-oh..."

Cursing, Saf snatched her phone from her pocket and answered it on the second ring, quickly checking around her to see if anyone was running in her direction. Not only had she just given away her presence on packlands belonging to another alpha, but she'd also just announced to the world that she had a Jungle Book song as her ringtone.

Biting back a growl at her own stupidity, Saf answered the phone with a curt, "yup?"

The responding laugh was enough to make her growl deepen, "having a good trip?" Gee, her long-distance-friend teased.

Saf release a long breath and ran a hand through her hair, pausing for a moment in her relentless hike. "Oh absolutely," she angry-whispered, "hiking 10 miles across rogue she-alpha territory, what more could I want?"

She gave a cursory check over her shoulder, half expecting to find an army of wolves waiting for her. "By the way," she snapped, "when were you going to tell me that this place was practically a country in its own right?"

Gee cleared his throat and had the decency to sound a little sheepish, "I did warn you that the Western packs did things a little differently..."

Saf huffed, "no kidding. I've never seen security like it. I had to jump a fence, Gee. And it wasn't a little picket fence either. No, I'm talking eight foot security-style fence. I think I ripped my jeans," she glanced over her shoulder at the top of her leg, where she was sure she'd felt the material snag and tear.

Gee only laughed. Saf's mood soured.

"I told you it wouldn't be easy, even for you. You must be near to their main residence by now, anyway?"

Saf pulled a faded, folded map from her front pocket and scanned her eyes over the crude drawings, using the hill to her right to gauge her location. "I think so. I think I'm about a mile out. I'm hoping to spot them outside. Trying to get into the house without being spotted....that feels impossible right now."

"As I said, I have a plan for that."

Ah yes, Gee's plan. The one he'd been taunting her with for the last three days as she travelled towards the co-ordinates he'd given her. The plan he'd also failed to tell her.

"What's the plan, then?" She was growing tired, and knew that she'd regret it later as she sat down on the soft grass. Her body protested with the movement, but her back screamed in delight as she dumped her bag on the floor.

"Well...you probably aren't going to like it."

Saf's hackles rose, a tendril of panic sliding down her neck, "Gee. What have you done?"

He chuckled softly, "Umm...I kind of rang their pack security and said that I had reason to believe someone was on their territory..."

"Gee!" Saf spat, as she sat bolt upright, "why the f*ck would you do that?"

"There was no other way to get you inside. All you need to do is get close enough to the she-alpha that you can confirm if she's rogue or not. The alpha never lets anyone on his territory."