Chapter One
Dimitri
“DidImentionyouare a complete idiot?” Dax grumbled through our mind-link while his wolf’s large head butted against my shoulder, and I stumbled over. The cool cemented floor had started to comfort the large mounds of hair that began to sprout with our time here. It was almost comforting. Almost.
“Just today? Or the other 93 days we have been in here?” I joked as Dax snapped his jaws close to my ears. His teeth were itching to take a bite at my scruff. We could feel each other’s pain, and I knew he didn’t want to feel that constant tug at his own ear.
I huffed as I shook my head to get rid of the wind that blew in my ear. Our black fur has started to become matted, the chained linked cages we have slept in had only angered our Wolves, and them becoming irritable was inevitable. We were Alpha males stuck in a nine by thirteen-foot dog run, something the humans have called as a ‘dog pound.’
“Dimitri, this is getting ridiculous. I’m going to shift back one day in front of all these humans and it won’t be a pretty sight,” Dax growled again as he jumped on the cage to shake it. Dax was the hot-headed one, with no time for patience. He was all in the spur-of-the-moment. It made him a great fighter to spar with, but I was the tactful one. I liked to plan, wait for my enemy, and strike with the least amount of blows possible.
“Patience, brother. I feel today is the day.”A worker walked by our cage and Dax began salivating, snapping, and growling his maw towards them. The male looked on in horror as he skipped our section of the cages. Owners of this prison had also taken it upon themselves to keep the other dogs away, for fear we would bring pieces of their bodies into our cage and eat them. We have straight up refused to eat dog food, and since this was a no-kill shelter they had to feed us something.
Steaks, ground beef and some vegetables were thrown in and we scarfed it all down. Our bellies were sure to be nothing but mush once we left here.
“She isn’t coming, just like the past 93 days.” Dax paced the cage up and down a few more times before he finally curled up in the corner. His brows furrowed as he closed his eyes.
Dax took this hard; he was a wild beast just like our father, Kane, king of the shifters in Bergarian while I took my mother, Clara’s, patience and grace. Not to sound like a total pussy though, I could put up one hell of a fight.
Our grandmother held the gift of foresight, at times she could hone in on certain family members if she concentrated hard enough. Once she was able to see her twin grandsons with their mate she immediately told us to pack our bags and head for the Earth realm. Without question, we were given a week’s worth of lessons about Earth from our mother who was once human and left to find our mate. The one woman that would pull at our heart strings for the rest of time would be found, no matter how long it took us.
Her being human wasn’t part of the plan, if she was a Wolf my brother and I planned to mate and mark her on the spot. Our years of research for the perfect mating were thrown out the window and now we will have to go at a snail’s pace by human standards of dating.
Ah, yes, the research. We read, we watched, and we took pointers from our friends who had already released their own beasts on other unmated females. We both agreed to wait, to be different, we wanted our dicks to be buried only in our mate. Not a substitute. Our mother had waited for our father and father always had the guilt in the back of his mind not waiting for mom. Not us, we won’t be like that.
We had visited many packs along the way as we traveled. On month six into our journey we were ambushed by a pack of rogues. I wanted to take the Northern route; my wolf Declan was pulling me in such a direction. However, the rogues had other plans and used grenade-like silver powder that infiltrated the air. It attacked our lungs so we couldn’t breathe, and the two strong Alphas were taken down in an instant.
Waking up in a cage full of humans staring down at you like a science experiment wasn’t great to wake up to. Dax, being the action kind of guy he was, took this as his time to bite a human; something we try not to do. He let go, but the damage was done. We were deemed, ‘unadoptable,’ and stuck in a cage.
Dax’s light snores filled our side of the pound as I sat patiently at the front door of the cage. Cameras sat all around the facility so shifting was out of the question. The locks couldn’t be picked, especially if you didn’t have movable thumbs. I huffed again, feeling that strange pull I felt before we were attacked. It was stronger today and I wondered if Dax could feel it too. He was just being his pessimistic self and blaming it on heart burn.
Ears perking up, lifting my snout I could smell the faint smell of ginger snaps and cinnamon. It was heaven, it reminded me of home, Christmas, and family. Pulling in one large sniff, the door at the far end of the enormous facility opened and all the dogs went wild. The smaller ones yipping and pawing at the doors trying to look adorable. Key word was trying, they looked nothing but little rats running around the cage.
The cinnamon smell became stronger, and Dax was at my side in an instant. He nudged me and I nodded my head in realization. This could be our moment, the woman we had been looking for, this could be her. Day number 93, could it really be it?
We had yet to see anyone, the cages stood towering and signs blocked our view. Some signs held warnings, medical information, and personality traits. Ours held a caution sign, ‘we bite’ sign and ‘unadoptable.’ Dax thought it was hilarious, me not so much.
The worker, known as Aaron, explained the different types of animals that were available. The black cap the woman was wearing was nodding up and down, her face was still not in view, but her fiery red hair was. It was long and curled as it stuck out of the back of her hat. It would swish side to side throwing that cinnamon smell our way.
“You know what they say about red heads…,”Dax growled triumphantly. I didn’t even humor him with a response as she came into view. She was still a few stalls away. Our woman was mouthwatering and couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into the finest piece of ass I had ever seen. It was curvy, it was thick and best of all it was mine. Dax had always been into breasts, and he was drooling up a storm. Her breasts must had fit his mind of perfection.
We had saved ourselves for our mate, our dicks were for her alone, and after thirty years of waiting it was going to be torture for us to wait much longer if she put up a fight. With the scowl she was giving to dear old Aaron, I had a feeling she would.
Walking with confidence, her black shirt and pants gave nothing away. Her face was stoic as she crossed her arms and her breasts as they lifted. Aaron was obviously staring, and she picked up on it fast.
“What do you think, Seraphina?” Aaron gave her a smirk while looking her up and down.
“Seraphina, it’s perfect,”Dax purred, and I did the same.
“All I see are some lap dogs. I told you I needed some guard dogs, not some yippie dogs that need a stroller to keep up,” she spoke softly as she looked down at a short-legged dog. Her stature didn’t meet her voice which only made me more curious about her. The accent her voice spoke had a hint of Italian, which I found weird with a redhead.
“We have more, come on this way. Back here we keep some of our pit bull and German shepherd mixes.” Aaron moved out of the way so Seraphina could walk forward so he could get a perfect view of her ass. Honestly, couldn’t blame him, her ass was perfect but the loud growl I gave off to him in warning made his head snap up.
Seraphina’s eyes glanced over to our cage. Trying to act like noble and well-behaved dogs we sat at the front of the cage with our tails wagging. Seraphina’s shoes clicked as she walked toward us and she removed her hat. The red flamed curls danced around her face as they kissed her cheekbones. I’d give anything to be that piece of hair.
Seraphina’s fingers went through to touch my snout when Aaron took her hand and pulled it away. “You don’t want to touch those,” he warned as she stood back up. “They are aggressive. If we were a kill shelter, they would be long gone by now.”
Seraphina’s rigid body slumped. “So, you just let them live in a cage and suffer? That’s terrible!” She didn’t even give Aaron a glance as she spoke, not even humoring the college kid. “They seem perfectly well behaved to me,” her voice went soft as she got closer.