《The Hunter's Alpha》8 Disguise
Advertisement
Devon
An anxious feeling welled up in me before the confirmation that something was in fact wrong came. The frenzy of my pack increased with an interesting scent that they had picked up, and it did not take me long to put the facts together.
My heart pounded and I commanded them all not to hurt their prey. They wouldn't intentionally hurt a sentient creature who was not an enemy, but her status amongst us was murky, and on this night things could so easily get out of hand. Their acquiescence was immediate, but it did little to calm the racing of my pulse. I ran through the forest on my paws with the greatest urgency, and I was relieved when my brother sent me an image of her huddled on the ground, terrified but alive.
Finally I reached the location, and I sent them away. She was resolutely looking at the ground instead of at me, so I nudged the side of her face with my muzzle. She jerked away, raising wary eyes to meet mine, clearly concerned that I would hurt her.
I huffed my disappointment. She still smelled like herself, but she had clearly tried her best to cover her scent by stealing the clothing of my gamma in training, Rhianna. Combined with the backpack of another pack member, it was clear that she had planned to escape from me.
And why wouldn't she? I had tried to let her settle in, but had not told her anything about why she was here. For all she knew, we were still keeping her here as leverage.
I nudged her a couple more times until she finally got up and I indicated that she should follow me. Like always, she did not argue and simply followed me through the forest for long minutes. I was surprised at how well she navigated in the darkness, but I had heard many tales and seen many examples of the hunters' heightened abilities.
Advertisement
Although I understood why she might run away, my heart ached that my unaware mate might leave me. Surely she felt some of the pull between us. Even with a human, it could not all be on my side, surely. Maybe her fear of me was overshadowing it.
I wanted to talk with her plainly, and I had enough self-control to return to my human form even on the night of the full moon, but I was afraid at how she would react if I spoke to her without clothing.
Finally we reached the pack house, and she opened the door at my indication and I followed her inside. I climbed the stairs and entered my room before shifting my flesh and bone to my human form. It was difficult on this night of all nights, but I maintained my state and dressed myself in the shirt and jeans I had been wearing during the day.
She was sitting in the living room with her knees up to her chest, looking tiny and vulnerable. I sat across from her and waited in vain for her to say something. Finally, I broke and spoke. "Where were you going?"
"Nowhere," she said, her voice soft and forlorn.
"Were you returning to the hunters?"
Her eyes widened with what seemed to be genuine surprise. "No, of course not."
"Where then?"
She frowned. "If I tell you, you'll follow me."
So she still intended to flee? The ache in my chest increased. "I'll follow you even if you don't tell me."
"Why?"
"Where?"
She finally gave in. "I was going to go and live in the regular human world, you know, try to lose myself and have a normal life. I know it's a lot to ask, but could you just...let me go?" I would not have been able to hear her final words if my hearing were not so acute. Her eyes met mine, large and pleading, and if she had asked for anything else in that way I would have been helpless but to grant it.
Advertisement
But not this. Letting her go was the one thing I could not give her. The wolf inside me growled his protest at the idea of her ever leaving us, and I was unable to stop it from leaking out of my own chest.
She leapt in her spot and seemed to be terrified of me all over again, not meeting my eyes, but rather keeping them low while they darted everywhere else. She shivered as she assessed what was around us.
It hit me like an arrow. She was plotting.
She was certainly afraid, but the meekness was her disguise, her strategy. Even through her fear, she could attempt to reason a way out of the situation.
Had she not kept her head down and jumped and shook until she had an opportunity to flee this night? She was calculating. She wasn't entirely the meek and weak creature she portrayed. I smiled slightly and she eyed me warily again.
"I never want you to leave, Amber, because you belong to me."
Her eyes widened and then her brow crinkled. "No."
"You're my mate."
She finally looked me in the eyes. "That's not possible."
"It is possible, and it's true."
She shook her head. "Only wolves can be mated to wolves."
"There are uncommon exceptions, and we've long suspected that hunters have some vampire and werewolf blood deep in their lineage."
There was a long pause while she considered my words, and then she met my eyes again. "I'm not a hunter. They found me as a baby, just a common human."
"That changes nothing." But perhaps it explained a lot, perhaps why she had been so terribly treated by those criminals as if she were not one of them.
She studied my face, still cautious, but really looking at me. "So you'll keep me prisoner forever because I'm supposedly your mate? How does that make you any better than the hunters?"
"I am not like the hunters."
"I want to leave, and if I'm really your mate... Shouldn't you care about what I want?"
My wolf was close to the surface and I struggled to keep firm control of him. "I do care."
Her posture was submissive, but her words were not. "Not enough to let me go though?"
I exhaled slowly and tried to retain my calm. My wolf instincts wanted nothing more than to grab her and mark her right now whether she liked the idea or not, but my human side knew that was wrong and the surest way to alienate her further. "Please," I said to her.
She looked conflicted at my words and it gave me hope until she spoke again. "I've been a prisoner my whole life, Alpha."
"Devon," I said.
"I've been a prisoner my whole life, Alpha Devon." There was a quiver in her voice as she said my name. "I don't want to live this way anymore."
I willed her to understand me. "I don't want to keep you prisoner."
"You just stopped me from leaving, so what else am I?"
Advertisement
Spell Analyst
Synopsys: Jude a Systems Analyst and Murl a Physicist find a new universe created through absorbing information from our own. This universe is quite different as it was overly influenced by computers. During one experiment to create avatars to explore said universe the two get sucked in themselves. Somehow Jude gets sent thousands of years later than Murl and he finds himself in a world of magic and swords. However, there is a game like system that seems to control everything. Jude decided to gain levels and power so that he can find out what happened to his friend Murl. Along the way, he stumbles across a quest that will lead him to the truth of the Universe. WARNING: MAY CONTAIN GOD AND SATAN Authors Goals: 3 Chapters a week M-W-F One chapter a week on Mondays 2k-3k words per chapter Over 3k per chapter A solid ending Improve writing This fiction is part of the Pledge. This story will be finished no matter what!
8 202Sol
Sol is Waterfolk, merpeople blessed by an old god. She dreams of being a warrior like her mother, but has now found herself betrothed to a lord. Is the lord as cruel as people think him to be or is he much more? And what of the Landwalker that chased her back to the sea? What is the dangerous presence lurking among the Landwalkers?
8 167Lich God Deidre
Twenty-five-year-old office worker, Deidre, is killed after getting T-boned from a drunk driver. She gets dragged away from the normal afterlife by an unknown force and is instead reincarnated as the Lich God. Deidre, dying with lots of regrets, now tries to live her new life by fulfilling all the things she didn’t get a chance to do previously. However, as the Demon King, Fyren’s plot is revealed bit by bit, she learns that the nice life she tries hard to get used to might not last forever.
8 157Building A village in Naruto Universe
USA' 'AREA 51' Deep-underground beneath the hot heated desert sand lays a man, he sat on couches in a small square room with a plastic door This is a story about a former rich anime lover being reborn in naruto world as a god in a land untouched by chakra
8 149NeverMore
For the brief moment that I hold your interest, let me show you something interesting... A short story collection featuring: 1. The Soap Eater2. A Pretty Girl Who Ate Her Shoe3. The Actor, the Audience, the Mirror4. The Boy with the Glass Heart and many more ...
8 167Dishonor
In the center of a nuclear wasteland lay the last vestiges of humanity, the City, as its numerous inhabitants called it. To leave its protective wall was certain death. Humanity was not meant to fit within the confines of a walled city. But, with a strict caste system and the threat of being sent to the lowest level of the caste system for even the smallest crime, the City has survived. Liv was born to the highest caste, Most Honored. After her father's treason and subsequent execution, her family was cast into the prison that the lowest caste, the Dishonored, lived in. Tortured and forced to work as a slave for every bite to eat, Liv desired revenge against the King that made her life a living hell and the City that held her captive. With a forced smile and a polite bow, Liv would destroy the overpopulated last bastion of humanity. Releases weekly on Tuesdays at 12:45 Eastern US Time. This story is posted on Wattpad, Inkitt, Moonquill, and Royal Road. There is an original old version (never been updated and does not have any chapters that have been published since 2016) available on Fiction Press and there is an old version of Dishonor (the first volume only) for sale on Amazon. If you are not reading on one of these location, you are reading a pirated version and you can read it for free on Royal Road.
8 443