Page 5 of Pregnant Wolf's Mate

Dropping to her knees on the ground, she placed her face in her hands and continued to sob silently, breathlessly. Her heart felt as though it was shattering into a million pieces. Just the image of her parents’ disappointed faces was enough to haunt her even here, alone in the woods where she usually felt so safe and secure.

Suddenly nothing seemed to make sense and she had no idea who she was. All she had to do was call her wolf forward and begin the full moon ritual on a high note for all of the pack. What exactly was so difficult about that?

Well, it turned out, everything.

She had been entirely unable to even produce a single claw to scratch her head with, and she was certain that her parents would never forgive her for bringing shame upon the entire damn family.

What Dash and his mate Raya might think of it all didn’t bear thinking about, and soon she was so wracked with the shock of what had happened that she slumped sideways onto the ground, the cold and damp of the leaf mulch soaking into her sensitive human skin.

In the distance, she heard the sound of the first wolves beginning to howl and knew that the pack had decided it was time to shift without her. They were calling to the moon, worshipping her in all her silver glory as she rode silently through the midnight black sky, queen amongst a crowd of stars.

And all Macie wanted to do was cover her ears and cry herself to sleep in the crook of the roots of a large cedar tree. But even when she did cover her ears, her senses were just too good. Through the meaty flesh of her hands, she could hear them howling, and the sound threatened to drive her insane.

“Shut up! Just shut up!” she screamed out at them though she knew that they would likely not hear her over their howling. Even if they did, what would they care? They were all too proud of themselves, all too eager to celebrate the full moon that charged their wolves muscles with the power to run all night long, to frolic amongst each other, playing and dancing and sometimes even mating beneath the stars.

Macie would not be a part of it and as she lay there trembling, still crying though the tears appeared to have dried out, she wondered whether she would ever be a part of it or the pack that had always been her family from the moment she was born. Would they ever really accept her into the fold if she couldn’t do the one basic thing every shifter was supposed to be able to do?

Please, just please, leave me be, Macie thought, feeling as though the sounds of the other wolves all around her might actually drive her insane. She could hear them now, beginning to pound through the forest on all fours, searching out rabbits to kill and the lake to swim in. Never would she know the feeling of water in her fur or what it was like to brush herself against the wolf of her mate, to feel a pure connection of love, trust, and protection that came between two shifters when their beasts entirely gave themselves to one another.

And as she thought about all of the things she would miss out on, Macie cried anew with grief and pain and all the disappointment she knew her parents would be feeling even as they joined the pack in their full moon ritual.

Moon, kill me now! Anything was better than this.

Chapter 4 - Ray

Where the Silverdale Manor was light and open and airy above ground, the parts of it below ground couldn't have been more opposite. It was cold, dark, and dank, and the feeling of the earth pressing in on you from all sides was difficult to suppress.

No matter how many times Ray was on guard duty, he could never get used to the feeling. And from the moment he reached his post to the moment he left, all he wanted to do was claw his own skin off with the need to run free and wild, above ground where he was supposed to be.

It was made all the worse by the knowledge of the full moon. Though he was deep down, well beneath it and unable to feel its cool light, he could still sense it. His wolf was howling to it, pleading to be released to run wild with the rest of the pack. He thought he could hear them in the distance, howling and barking and playing.

To make matters worse, when he glanced at his watch, he saw that whoever was supposed to relieve him, they were late. The fact caused him to grit his teeth and tighten his hands into fists. The tension within him had been growing all night and he knew that if he did not get some relief soon, his wolf would force his way out.

Just when he was beginning to think of leaving his post whether another pack member turned up or not, he heard the sound of the iron door opening at the top of the basement stairs. Whoever was coming, it didn't sound as though they were in any rush to switch places with him. Their footsteps were languid and quite simply grating to Ray's ears.

Even before he caught sight of them, he started to growl with frustration. "Where the fuck have you been?"

"Whoa, hey! Cool it, man. You know what it’s like during a full moon shift," Dean protested with his hands raised, looking cool, calm, and relaxed as though his run had done him a world of good. "It's easy to lose track of time."

"I wouldn't know," Ray snarled back at him angrily, "I've missed the last few and I don't intend to miss another second more. All's quiet down here. Don't fuck that up."

With that, he barged his way past the younger wolf and stormed his way up the stone steps.

"Did you check the cells before I got here?" Dean called after him and Ray thought of keeping his mouth shut, of leaving him to figure it out for himself.

But knowing that if shit turned sideways it would fall to him, he yelled back over his shoulder, "No. You should get on with it."

Ray had guarded the door through to the cells for several hours. It was the only way in or out of the dungeon-like place beneath the manor. And he hadn't come across anything untoward. If Dean wanted to take it upon himself to check every single cell to be sure no demon wolf had escaped during the last three hours and disappeared into thin air, then he wasn't going to stop him.

He, on the other hand, was damn well getting out of there.

With the iron door leading right out onto the patio via mossy stone steps, Ray quickly found himself out on the lawn and stripping off his clothes. Though the moon was up, it was further across the sky than he would have liked. He wasn't about to miss another second of feeling the silver rays upon his wolf pelt. And so, fast as he could, he shook off his human form in favor of his golden brown wolf.

The mere thrill of shifting was exhilarating enough to make him charge right for the wolf woods, leaving his clothes in a pile on the patio wall. It was no odd thing to find around the Silverdale Manor. Nobody would touch his things, and he had little else to worry about now that Dean had finally shown his face. So he ran.

And he ran until he felt as though his muscles were beginning to burn. It was at that moment, as he drew to a skidding halt in the leaf mulch, that he realized he could hear something.

At first, it sounded like a wounded animal, but pricking his ears and cocking his head in the direction the noise was coming from, he came to recognize the sound of weeping.

---