raiden

I've never been a fan of night patrols. Morning ones? Fine. Afternoon ones? Done. But the idea of spending the night out, staring into the darkness, and watching for rogues had never been something that appealed to me.

The majority of the time I never had to do night patrols unless someone needed to fill in. So when Maia linked me in the middle of the night, I knew it had to be serious.

"...den...Raiden, wake up!" Maia calls throughout our pack link.

I wince slightly before sitting up and reaching for my phone. It was almost ten at night. Not extremely late, but I'd have to be up at four in the morning to switch off with the night patrol shift.

"I'm up, what do you need?" I link back.

"Meet me at the hospital, tell Mars to get one of the cells ready and bring your car."

My brows furrow at her words but I get up nonetheless. It was rare for us to have rogues pass into pack lands. There was open land around us so most rogues stayed in that area and the few that we did get were easy to handle. With the spike in feral rogues, we were lucky to not have to experience any so far.

Standing up, I quickly pull on some shoes and link Mars before leaving the house, getting in my car, and driving towards the pack hospital. I was curious to know why Maia was calling me. She rarely bothered to unless it was important.

The drive to the hospital was short. I step out of the car and the moment I enter, I see Maia standing with Alpha Tatum, Beta Reo, and some of the warriors who had been patrolling tonight.

"Maia!" I call out before turning to greet the others. "What did you need—"

My sentence runs short as I walk towards them. The closer I get, the stronger an alluring scent becomes. My eyes move to the door behind them and everything in me is screaming at me to tell them to move out of the way and go inside.

"We found two people at our borders," Alpha Tatum says. "One of them is a rogue who's in bad condition. The other one appears to be human, when he wakes up, Beta Reo is going to wipe his memory and you'll take him back to the town."

What was a human doing in the woods? Our pack was far enough from the town to the point where we didn't have to worry about humans finding it but close enough to where we could stay up to date.

We didn't run into humans often. There had only been one other time when a human had crossed into our territory. Being a hybrid, Beta Reo was able to handle the situation with ease and we ended up moving the pack slightly, but that was years ago.

I nod along and the door opens from behind them. Doctor Wade steps out and bows slightly in greeting. The scent from earlier grows stronger and before I can stop myself, I move past Maia and Doctor Wade and enter the room. Laying in one bed is a wolf and in the other is a boy. My eyes land on the boy and I find myself taking in his form.

His body lays unmoving on the bed beside the rising of his chest as he sleeps, his eyes are closed and his dark brown hair lies untouched. My breath catches in my throat and I blink twice to make sure that I'm not still asleep.

"This is the human we were talking about," I hear Maia say, but my attention isn't focused on her.

I walk closer to the bed and stare down at him. A small smile forms on my face. This human is my mate.