Leo

I’m brutally woken up by my Beta, Mason, as he yells something about humans on our land into the mind link.

My wolf does not like how disrespectful he’s being about it, but I ignore him. The humans are more important. There have been no sightings of humans here for decades, so having them show up now makes everyone a little stressed about it. Okay, a lot. It’s not a natural situation for us, as we can’t communicate with them in any way or they may try to hunt us down or something.

My pack, the Dark Moon, is different than others.

We’re cursed.

Or the pack land is. I never cared to find out because I had to take over the position as Alpha after my father at the age of 15. Making the pack stronger was my most important task. I’ve always detested how weak our wolves were. That was mostly the reason why the humans were able to hunt us down almost to extinction with ease. Now there are about 50 or so wolves in my pack. Every one of them, except for the pups, is a great warrior that other packs are either terrified of or jealous. We are masters when it comes to combat in wolf forms, so many of the packs send their warriors to be trained by us.

The human form is a different matter.

Like I said, my pack, or my pack land, is cursed. Unlike other werewolves, my pack stays in wolf form all the time. The only time we can shift into our human forms is during the full moon.

It’s pretty inconvenient, especially during the Alpha meetings, when we ‘discuss’ things, but we manage. We can use the mind link to talk. The wolves that come here to train switch their loyalty to me for the time being and that allows them to talk to my pack with the mind link. Alphas can mind link each other all the time.

I stare at my Beta and wait for him to elaborate on the subject of humans.

‘The patrol on the southern border smelled a human entering our territory, Alpha’

‘A human? As in ONE?’

‘Yes, Alpha. Damn it, Leo, what do we do? The humans don’t come here. There haven’t been any humans here for what, 60 years or so. What if it’s a hunter?’ my Beta panics.

I understand his point; he lost his parents and an unborn sibling to hunters, but we are not a weak pack anymore to be afraid of a human, even a hunter. Especially ONE human.

‘Calm down Mason, we have go check it out. Tell the patrol we’re coming and tell Jason, Luke and Shane to come with us.’

‘Got it.’

As Mason links the others, I leave the living room, where I was sleeping, and go towards the southern border. It is my duty to check everyone that comes into my territory, whether it’s a human, a rogue or simply a guest from some pack.

Our little group runs through the woods towards the patrol, the sound of our paws hitting the ground resembling a thunder. Mason spots the patrol first.

‘Alpha, there, near that fallen log! The patrol!’

‘Stop yelling! We can hear you! Idiot.’ Chastises Jason. He and Mason are litter mates, both with brown fur with white patches on their heads and paws. Mason also has a white patch on his tail. It’s the only difference between them.

As we get closer to the patrol, I notice their agitation and it’s unnerving. What is it about this human?

‘Alpha.’ Greets one of the guards with a bow. I turn to him.

‘What is it that I hear about a human here?’

‘Alpha, the human is about half a mile from here. We didn’t want to be spotted, so we didn’t stay too close. Doesn’t seem like a hunter, but there is no guarantee that it’s not a trap, so we decided to tell Beta Mason about it. Then he told us you’re coming here, so we waited. The rest of the border is clear. Nothing out of the ordinary.’ The patrolman, Duke, explains nervously. He’s one of my strongest warriors with his huge bulky body and dark grey fur. It’s weird to see him nervous, when I’ve seen him rip apart a bunch of rogues with his bare teeth. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS HUMAN, GODDAMN IT?!

‘Okay, continue with your duties. Contact other patrols about it and tell them to keep an eye on the borders. If it is a trap, they probably wouldn’t come from the same direction, but rather use it as a distraction. We’ll take it from here.’ I tell Duke, dismissing him.

We head towards the human, and as we get closer, the most amazing smell hits my nostrils. It’s the smell of roses with a hint of something else I can’t recognize, but it’s so amazingly alluring, I would smell it for the rest of my life. ‘MATE!’ my wolf screams in my head. I stop in my tracks, making others stop with me, and simply breathe in the amazing scent.

‘The human is my mate. DO NOT ATTACK!’ I warn them.

I look back to see them bowing their heads and nodding.

We close in onto my mate’s location and I anxiously look around searching for her. But I don’t see her anywhere. Where is she?!

‘Alpha, look! On the tree!’ Exclaims Luke.

I look up and my heart shatters.