Page 3 of Undesired Mate

“Did you feel that?”

She nods in agreement. Her face screams deer in the headlights. The lack of food causing her to take more time to regain her full balance.

Fuck.I scream inside my head. I turn away from her and start pacing. This can’t be happening. If she was rejected, she must have done something terrible.

“Why were you rejected by your pack? Why are you in our territory?”

Staring at her, I wait for her to answer. When she doesn’t, I throw up my hands and pace again. Fine, I’ll get her back to my place and make her comfortable. I’m sure some food will loosen her tongue. Or I’ll just tie her to a chair and make her watch me eat. Either way, answers will come later. Right now, I just want to get moving.

“Okay. We’ll shift, and you can follow me. I’ll get some food in you.”

“I can’t shift right now,” she blurts out.

“Why?”

“I only turned eighteen a few days ago. And I’m too hungry to control it. If I shift, I’ll run off. Or worse, I’ll attack you.”

I see her reasoning. However, why wouldn’t she just shift to feed herself? I’m sure she won’t tell me anyway, so I don’t press the issue.

“Fine. You can climb on my back, and I’ll carry you.”

“What?” she asks flatly.

I turn to her and say it louder.

“Climb on my back after I shift. I will run for both of us.”

In her current state, it would probably be faster, anyway. I’m honestly surprised she’s able to move as much as she can. It also means she weighs next to nothing. So carrying her won’t be that hard.

I shift and wait expectantly for her to climb on. I’m a large wolf. Not quite as big as an alpha. But not too much smaller. I feel her relent and try to climb up. She grabs handfuls of my fur and pulls painfully at them.

I reply by growling at her. Getting the message, she stops. With her firmly on my back, I start making my way back to the new guys. I have a lot to explain. But I will do most of that later.

Right now, it’s just going to be, yes, sir. As the creek where I left Kiera and Gable comes into view, I can see them resting on the bank, already in wolf form. Stopping just short of them, my mind is already flooded with their questions about the woman.

“Shut up.”I think.

Communicating in wolf form is essentially telekinesis. The problem is that there is a delay of a couple of seconds. So it takes a bit for the noise to stop in my head. This is also why talking as humans is preferred.

That’s not an option right now. The woman has fallen asleep on my back. Or passed out from exhaustion. Either way, I’m not answering questions.

“Go back to the barracks. No questions right now. Everything is fine. Don’t respond.”

I’ve learned over the years that small sentences are best when doing this. It doesn’t get cluttered, and it’s easier to remember. I don’t bother keeping pace with them. I need time to think.

What the fuck am I supposed to do? The question runs through my mind like a race car. She stirs on my back, my muscles tensing as she moves.

Deep inside of me, I feel something beginning to stir. A new sensation I have never felt before. I stamp the feeling down further and try to lock it away. Mate or not.

She is going to tell me why she got rejected. If not, then I will execute her myself. Either way, she will answer for trespassing on our territory. She’s still young. But she is an adult.

She must answer for her actions like one. A new scent catches my nose that makes me stop in my tracks. The lavender that accompanies her everywhere is still there. But there is a new edge to it.

Something feral. I try to locate the source by turning my head back so I can smell her better. She sleepily bats at my nose, which I’m sure is wet and cold. It finally hits me what the smell is. She is in heat.

At eighteen, she is incredibly fertile. It takes all of my energy not to see how fertile she is. To shift back to my human form and take her right here and now.

She is a reject and more than likely a criminal. I won’t doom my children to having a degenerate mother.I tell myself this over and over in the hopes I convince myself to not give in to my baserdesires. I start to run. If I’m running, I can’t fuck her. As long as I don’t mark her, the bond won’t be complete.

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