Chapter 3

“Fucking let me Shift Brax” I scream at my wolf. He doesn’t, refusing to hurt her but she was fucking tearing shreds off me. I manage to grab the fur on the back of her neck ripping her head away, her teeth pulling away from my arm painfully.

“Enough!” I scream at her forcing my Alpha aura over her to make her submit. She whimpers going limp. My blood stains the cave floor as it runs down my arm and drips off my fingers.

I let her go and she dropped her head in her paws whimpering. Standing up, I reach down to grab her and force her to shift when she turns on me, her teeth snapping at my hand before she takes off running from the cave.

I growl annoyed at this game of cat and mouse, she won’t be escaping me this time. Turning around I find Tim still frozen on the ground having not moved an inch. “Help me catch her and I will let you live another day” I tell him and he nods, getting up.

“She likes hiding in the caves” he says and I nod while walking out.

“The others, who are they to her?” I ask him. He looks behind us as we walk from the cave.

“Her parents,” He says softly. Fuck!

I follow her scent, Tim looking around anxiously at every noise, every snap of a twig. His nervousness had me confused. What could he possibly be scared of with me beside him? Coming to another cave entrance we could hear the feral sounds of a fight. I could smell blood, her blood along with the blood of a bear. Brax pressing against my skin. Fur sprouted along my arms as he fought for control. Control I wasn’t willing to give him yet.

Stepping in the cave my eyes adjusted to the never ending darkness, the pungent smell growing stronger when suddenly the growls suddenly stopped. The sound of a high pitched whimper making my heart jolt for a second until we stumble across the bear. Torn to pieces, its fur lying in clumps on the cave floor.

Tim notices the dead bear a little too late as he trips over its fallen form. A shriek of fear left him before I grip his arm pulling him from the torn up remains, his body drenched in the blood of the huge bear. Surely she didn’t do that, as I looked down at its torn out guts spilling over ground, organs ruptured and on display, though I could tell her blood had been spilled too, her scent everywhere as we continued our trek through the winding caves. Tim jumped at every noise irritating me.

“Why are you so jumpy, nothing to fear in these caves except myself” I tell him and he stops looking at me.

“I would rather take on you then her” He says, making my brows furrowed in confusion. He was scared of my little mate? Standing next to a hybrid and he is scared of a she-wolf?

“Just hurry up, before we lose her scent” I tell him, pushing him ahead where I can keep an eye on him.

The cave comes out on another side of the mountain, a side that I actually recognise as Red river Pack territory. Looking out at the forest, I know she must have headed for the road, crossing between packs. Jumping over a fallen tree I listen, looking for any sound I could pick up, listening for the sound of paws on the dirt. Only I got nothing, not a whiff of her scent. Not a single sound. I never met a rogue that wasn’t happy to find their mate, especially one from a pack. Most would jump at the chance to be taken into the safety of being in pack instead of surviving off their hunting skills and their ability to survive in the wild. I found it odd she was going to the extremes of taking on a bear just to evade me.

Slowly moving through the forest careful not to make much noise, though noise was inevitable in a forest this thick.

“How long have you known them for?” I whisper to Tim.

“Not long, they came with the hunters” He says, making me stop. So my mate is one of the ones helping the humans. I couldn't stop the growl that escaped my lips. Once again the moon goddess cursed me with a dud for a mate. Bad enough she is rogue now she was a traitor to our own kind.

“You know her name?” I ask him.

“Never spoke to her, never seen her either, only her wolf” He says, making me stop again. Something was definitely amiss, exactly what is my mate hiding or more importantly who is she hiding from? We moved through the forest for around another ten minutes before I picked up her faint scent. She can mask her scent but not her blood and she was running directly toward Tate’s Pack. Smart girl she back tracked. Using the mindlink I summon Tate and Drake.

“She is about to hit your Pack edge. I think she is heading for the road” I tell them.

“On it, you sure it's her?” Drake asks.

“Positive” I tell him before taking off, leaving Tim behind to follow my scent. If he is smart, he will follow or die by Tates warriors.

Zipping through the trees and jumping over fallen debris and rocks I can just see the road coming into my line of vision through the trees, Tate and Drake's black wolves running toward me, when I spot her white fur. They herded her back toward me and now I was going to catch her.

Picking up my pace I manage to get right on her tail, tackling her and we roll. She pivots just in time her teeth sinking into my shoulder, her claws ripping down my bicep before we both hit a tree, sliding along the leaves. I tried to keep a grip on her but she managed to slip out from under me and run for the road, which was about twenty metres away.