Chapter 6
6
DECLAN
W hat the fuck was I doing? My mate just tore off into the forest and I was just standing here? My bones snapped as I shifted into my wolf form.
A howl tore from my lips are I ran in the direction she went.
Her heart rate had sped up and she seemed on edge.
Was she in danger? I’d been the Alpha of the Silvercrest pack for over two hundred years, and never once had I needed or wanted a mate.
Even when the elders, and my packmates, including my mother and sister pushed me to find one, and even when opportunities presented themselves… I’d never wanted a mate.
Something about her seems so familiar.
That scent… where did I know it from? My thoughts raced, memories from my childhood invading them as I ran past the trees, branches snapping beneath my feet as my paws hit the ground with such force.
“Sit the fuck down! You useless piece of a woman!”
My father yelled as he threw my mother across the room.
Her body hit the wall causing the pictures to fall and glass to shatter on the ground around her.
“Daddy leave mom alone!”
Isla screamed from the bottom of the stairs.
“Shut your mouth you little slut or you will be next! I am your alpha and you will obey!”
He growled while prowling towards her.
I tore open the door from the closet I had been hiding in, “If you are going to hit anyone, hit me! I am a man and the next alpha of this pack. FIGHT ME”
I roared.
My father stopped, turned towards me and smirked.
His eyes glowed as he laughed, “If you insist, a fight to the death for Alpha of this pack.”
The Alphas House came into view and there was no sign of Talia, her scent faded about a half a mile back, and without a pack link I couldn't trace her.
Maybe Trystan could help me find her.
What would I do once I found her? Would I bring her home and claim her as my mate? Make her the Luna of my pack? I didn’t need the added complication, I already had so many secrets.
But… Fuck, she was something else entirely.
Her wolf was a magnificent creature, The speed in which she took off from the clearing had to mean she was a strong shifter.
My wolf could sense something beneath the surface when we were near her, and I was determined to find out what it was.
I ’ d only spent a brief amount of time with her, but I wanted to know everything about her.
My heart raced in my chest when I was near her.
I couldn’t think clearly, and the thought of her being in danger made my skin crawl.
A growl formed in my throat as I felt someone approach from behind.
I relaxed once Trystan spoke and his scent hit me.
“Declan, there you are! Where did you disappear to? Jericho has been asking for you, not to mention there are many attractive females in attendance tonight. Maybe even some potential mates.”
He spoke.
I turned towards him my brows furrowed, as I looked up and blurted out, “I met my fated mate tonight.”
Now that caught his full attention.
Trystan was my beta, my second in command, and had been my best friend for the past twenty-five years since he joined my pack.
He could hold my stare for a lot longer than most beta wolves around, which I always chalked up to his stubborn ass nature.
The man escaped a full-on slaughter in the shifter realm, he was as stubborn as one could get, and a damn good beta.
I glanced up at him, staring at the scar covering the right side of his face.
It served as a reminder of what he had been through in his past.
“Let’s take a walk.
I need your help with something.”
We walked around the back of the house towards the pack members’ homes, which were all empty right about now because this gathering was mandatory.
Once I was sure I couldn’t sense anyone close enough to hear us, I turned to Trystan and said, “I think my mate is in danger.
She ran after she heard something in the forest.
She appeared distressed.
I need you to help me find her.”
I whispered.
Trystan’s mouth tightened, his brown hair falling into his face as he shook his head, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me Declan.”
He said with anger in his voice.
“What are you angry at me for?”
My eyebrows raising, while I stepped closer to him.
“You know my past, how could you leave her unprotected?”
he growled.
“I didn’t do it intentionally, she ran off, and you should have seen her.
I have never seen anyone move that fast outside of royalty in the shifter realm.”
I huffed.
“She is a female, a female who has a mate but has not secured her bond.
Declan you need to always be with her if you hope to keep her.”
He chastised me.
“She doesn’t seem too fond of fate having chosen a mate for her, and I had never wanted a mate, you know that.”
Trystan leaned against the side of the house, “Well, you better figure out what you ’ re going to tell your mother when you get home because you may be the Alpha, but she will kick you in the balls if you bring home your fated mate and fuck things up with her.”
He smiled briefly, before his face turned serious again.
He wasn’t wrong.
My mother valued relationships.
She never liked the fact that I didn’t want a mate.
She thought I lived a lonely life and wanted more for me.
I couldn’t bring home a mate to only have her reject me.
But there was something in Talia’s honey-colored eyes that made me want to fight for her.
If I was smart, I would have rejected her right there with the moon goddess as my witness.
But I liked to do shit the hard way , apparently.
Trystan tapped me on the shoulder, pulling me out of my own thoughts, before he said, “Okay so what’s the plan? Where should we start looking for her?”
Guilt consumed me for a second as I thought of her scared and running through the forest alone.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose on end.
Something was happening.
Trystan stared at me with wide eyes.
“Declan, your eyes are glowing.”
A growl vibrated through me, “Something is wrong.
I don’t know how I know, but we need to find her now.
Talia is in trouble.
We need to find her.”
My wolf raged inside of me, anger consuming my whole being.
My vision sharpened as my wolf began to push his way to the surface.
“I will go find Jericho, you go wherever your wolf is telling you to.”
Trystan said.
“Tell me through the pack link once you find her.”
“From now on until I hear otherwise, she is yours, and therefore under mine and the packs protection.
We will find her.”
He said holding a fist over his heart.
I shouldn’t be so possessive of her already, and I most definitely should not be able to sense her this quickly.
It’d only been a couple hours since we first met…but my chest felt like it was going to explode, she was mine.
She was his.
She was ours.
“I’m going to head towards the pack houses and try and find her scent.”
I growled.
“Once I find Talia I will reach out, if you don’t hear from me in twenty minutes, come looking.”
Before he could get in another word, I shifted and headed towards the woods.