The Hunt

Chapter 4

        The soulmate bond is one we have yet to do full studies on. It is a strange phenomenon unique to werewolves and their kind. Our studies so far have shown that there are shared feelings of pain and pleasure between the bonds. So far we have not determined a limit on this due to distance. There seems to be a constant awareness of the soulmates position however this feature fades with more distance between the two. More specimens are needed for further studies on this.

Hunter's Codex, werewolf lifestyles pg. 478

    “Son, are you paying attention to me? This is important stuff you need to know when you take over in my place.” My father had a stern look on his face while he maintained eye contact with me. 
    “Yeah, I’m sorry I just don’t know why I’m not all here.” That wasn’t true, I knew exactly why I wasn’t paying attention during my lessons anymore. My mate wasn’t with me and she should be. I couldn’t do anything about it though, it’s not like I could bring her to the pack and be with her as a mate should be. Humans weren’t allowed. 
    My father sighed and sat back in his big armed chair seated behind his desk. We were in his office going over important documents and paperwork, as beta of the pack he was the Alpha’s right hand man and helped take care of a lot of the nitty gritty details. Me being his son, I’m supposed to take over when he decides to retire and normally I would be on top of the work, invested in what I know is my future, but I just haven’t been since I saw her in town last weekend. 
    “Is there something you want to talk about? I can tell something has been weighing on your mind.” My father had his hands clasped, resting in his lap as he gently rocked his seat back and forth. It was a nervous habit he developed from sitting behind an office desk for too long. 
    “I don’t know if I should. It’s not like there’s anything I can do about it anyways.” I sat back in my seat across the desk from him, mirroring his posture. 
    “Well now I’m invested. Come on, talk to me son.” 
    I closed my eyes and mentally prepared myself to tell him what happened. It’s not like I should keep it a secret, in fact if anyone should know it should be my dad. I’m his successor and not having a suitable mate means he would most likely need to look into arranging a new successor. “Well, while I was in town I happened to come acr---Agh!!” I fell onto the floor gripping my leg. Pain shot through it and it burned. I pulled my pant leg up to look but nothing was there. 
    “Will!” My dad was by my side in an instant putting his hands on my shoulders. I let out another scream of pain, cutting off my dad as he was asking what was wrong. I felt my back beginning to feel like it was on fire and ripped my shirt off to reach back and touch it. Something wasn’t right, I was okay, this was someone else’s pain. 
    “Son, please, tell me what’s wrong!” My dad began the process of looking me over as he saw me doubled over in pain again. 
    I managed to grit through my teeth and answered, “I don’t know.” Then it hit me. The Soulmate bond, I must be feeling her pain. I stood up, as hard as it was for me, and I ran to the window and opened it. 
    “Will! Where are you going?!” I jumped out of the window and shifted before my dad had a chance to grab me. Now that I was a wolf I could handle the pain much better and I took off in the direction I knew she would be. 
    I ran as fast as I could, jumping over roots and stumps, ducking under low hanging branches and slipping between brush when it got thick. I stumbled as I felt a pain course through one of my front legs. Whatever was happening to her she wasn’t going to survive if I didn’t hurry. Panic began to set in, I just found her, I wasn’t going to have her taken away from me so soon. I was beginning to regret not having introduced myself that day in town. What was wrong with her being human? She’s my Soulmate and I needed to help her, be there for her and above all, protect her.
    I stretched my legs further, my stomach almost touching the ground as I picked up my pace even more. It’s the fastest I’ve ever run in my life and somehow I managed to go faster. It didn’t take long before I caught whiffs of her scent in the wind along with the scent of another wolf. This wolf wasn’t part of my pack and he was in our territory, at this point I was fuming with anger. At the wolf attacking my mate, at the fact that she was human, and most of all at myself for being so careless. I saw them through the trees and didn’t slow down as I was coming up on them. 
    The lone wolf must have heard me coming cause he was standing over what he considered his prey, growling, as I crashed right into him and began tearing at anything I could get my jaws on. I let all my frustration out on this wolf underneath me, I was going to kill him for hurting her the way he did. 
    We fought but it didn’t take long for me to get the upper hand. I had the scruff of his neck in between my teeth, clamping down harder and jerking, trying to get him on his back. He kept turning and trying to snap at my face or neck, but it wasn’t any use. He was a lone wolf, one who defected from a pack and therefore was at a disadvantage. Especially since I was bigger, being a beta’s son. Eventually he collapsed and I let go long enough to grab his throat and feel the bones in his neck crushing under the weight of my jaws. Blood filled my mouth as his body went still and he stopped breathing. I held on for a moment longer, still wanting to tear him limb from limb, even though he was already gone. 
    It took a minute for me to control the urges of my wolf side and I finally let go and took a step back. I huffed to clear my nose of any blood that had gotten in it and turned to face the woman who had managed to slip back and against a tree. I made my way in her direction, holding her gaze and trying to be as gentle as possible to show I wasn’t a threat. She stared back, her eyes beautiful shades of brown and green, like a piece of abstract art. I didn’t think I could be this drawn to anyone in my life before and it only aided in my decision to be there for her, even if it meant I had to go and leave my pack. 
    I could see her slowly beginning to lose consciousness and it startled me when I heard her say, “Y’all are some strange looking wolves you know?” Her accent sent my heart racing. She wasn’t from around here, I knew her scent was different from most people from here but I thought that was due to her being my Soulmate. Her eyes fluttered a little before finally shutting. If she wasn’t laid here in front of me dying from blood loss I might have had a moment to soak in her slow drawl even more, but in that moment I shifted so I could carry her back towards her apartment. 
    I knew which part of the woods we were in, I had scouted out this area just the other day while stalking her. I’ll call it what it was, I was stalking her, I didn’t know what else to do. We were almost to the edge of the woods when I heard voices coming from the direction of her place. 
    “I know something is wrong Chris. She left her phone and it’s been almost an hour since she went out.” 
    “Maybe she just decided to take a nap, you know she comes out here and can spend just about the whole day sleeping up by the river.”
    “I don’t care, she had that weird guy following her and she knew better than to take a nap today. I told her 30 minutes or I was bringing the entire police force.”
    “You didn’t call them did you!?” 
    “Of course not, but I want to.” 
    I laid her down and slipped into the cover of the woods, shifting so my dark fur could help hide me in the shadows better. I watched as they found her on the ground where I left her. I began to back up, making my way back towards the pack, when I heard the girl scream. While they were distracted I turned and ran, I didn’t want them, or anyone else, thinking about searching the area and me getting caught out here.
     I made my way to where I left the body of the lone wolf, grabbed the scruff in my mouth and pulled it into the brush to hide it. I would come back out later to dispose of the body. First thing I had to do though was go explain everything to my father. 

    I was sitting in my bedroom, on my bed, my mom cleaning my wounds to make sure they didn’t get infected while healing. My eyes were on my father, pacing back and forth in my room deep in thought. 
    “So you're telling me you found your Soulmate, and she’s a human?” He kept pacing.
    “Yeah.” 
    “Is this why you’ve been distracted the past week?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Is she the reason you took off and came back looking beat up?” 
    “Yeah.”
    My dad stopped pacing and turned to look at me. “Are you gonna have any answers other than ‘yeah’?”
    I sighed, I wanted to say ‘yeah’ again but I knew that would just make him mad. “Apparently a lone wolf made it onto our territory and out of all the people in the world he decided to attack, it was my mate.” I was tired and you could hear it in my voice. 
    My father must have heard it too cause he looked at me sympathetically, “I’m sorry. Is she okay?”
    I nodded, they must have gotten her to a hospital in time cause I never felt her death. I don’t know how bad she was at the moment, but it couldn’t be any worse than when I left her. I shut my eyes and felt my fists clenching. I should have taken her there myself, I hated being left out, not knowing how she was doing. I didn’t realize I was working my jaw until I felt my mom place her cool hand against it. 
    “It’ll be okay sweetie. I know it hurts not being there right now but it’ll be okay.” 
    I opened my eyes and looked over at her sitting next to me on the bed. “I'm scared.” It came out as just a whisper. “What’s going to happen to her? Alpha won’t let her live here with us, she’s human. Besides, she may not even want to come here.Why did she have to be human?” 
    My mom held my face in her hands and looked me in my eyes. “I said it once and I’ll say it again, It’s all going to be okay. We’ll figure this out together but I just want you to remember. There is nothing in this world that can compare to the connection you have with your Soulmate, no matter what happens, we will be here with you every step of the way.” Tears glistened in her eyes as she held my gaze. 
    I smiled at her, “Thank you mom.” 
She sniffed and looked over at my father, who had come to sit on the other side of me. He had his hand on my back, trying to comfort me in his own way. “Beck, I want you to look into any cases of human/werewolf Soulmates. If it’s happened to our son, then it’s happened before.” 
    He looked a little taken aback at what she said, “Of course, Luce, but why?” 
“So we know why our son has paired off with a human and also so we know what happens next. If there is anything in our lore or texts that says what happens to human/werewolf Soulmates. For all we know it may never end well.” She turned to look back at me. “Figure out what you want. I want you to actually think about what you want so we know what we’re fighting for.” 
    She finally let go of my face, the tears no longer threatening in her eyes. My father and I were both stunned at how she just took control of the situation and knew exactly what to do. “And both of you, not a peep of this to anyone. I don’t want any interference or issues to stop us before we get our answers.” 
    With that she stood and held out her hand to my dad. “Come on Beck. Our son needs some time to think. We have a dead werewolf we need to get rid of before someone sniffs it out.” They both went to leave, my father turned at the last minute to look at me. He looked like he had something he wanted to say, but then just turned and left. 

    I was pacing at the back of her apartment, watching her window. This whole week I haven’t had a chance to meet her or anything else. That Chris guy was here, all day, every day and when he wasn’t his sister was. I wouldn’t have minded going up there while they were with  her, in fact that might make her feel better, having someone else there. I kept stopping short though, something didn’t smell right about the place, I don’t know what it was but the smell made my hairs stand on end. In fact the first night I showed up I smelled it and instinctively growled. Ever since I’ve come everyday and paced at the edge of the woods, trying to figure out what was wrong. 
    I was still in the middle of pacing when I felt the strangest sensation. Even though I was a wolf at the moment a strong wave of desire washed over me and my lips burned. I growled and had to fight every instinct I had to crash through the back bedroom window and stop whatever was happening. I smelled the Chris guy in there and his scent was beginning to mix with her’s. She was MY mate and he had his hands on her, touching her, I could feel it. The thing that hurt the most though, was she was enjoying it. 
    It was many painful hours later that afternoon when she finally walked into her bedroom and began to change. It felt wrong to watch her, but I couldn’t help it, she was beautiful. She looked out of her window and saw me, finally noticing me here after all this time. We stared for a moment before she backed away, and I laid down on the cold forest floor huffing out a breath. It was beginning to get cold out, and I had to make my move fast, before Chris got in the way.