Chapter 15 - Noah
It was the perfect evening for a hunt, and I had been looking forward to it all day. A run in wolf form would be the perfect way to blow off steam.
At least, that's what I had thought.
The pack hunt had only begun an hour ago, but I was already feeling antsy and distracted. I was supposed to be the leader of the hunt, but there was no way to keep my head in the game. We hadn't caught a single thing, and I didn't care. All I wanted was to see Sage, and it was driving me mad.
She'd looked so beautiful that afternoon, her cheeks rosy and her lips full.
She'd smelled amazing, too, and the way she'd leaned toward me, her eyes glazed and her lips parted, had nearly driven me insane.
I wanted to push her against the nearest surface and kiss her senseless, heedless to the fact a good amount of my pack and my cousin had all been standing right there.
I hadn't dared voice it out loud, but I was almost positive her heat was nearly on her once more. It pulled me in more powerfully than any spell she might cast ever could, and letting her walk away with Summer had really tested my patience. Surely I had proved last time that I was
capable of giving her relief without pushing things too far. Why would she rather suffer than let me take her pain away?
She was haunting me as my paws thundered over the forest floor, my pack all around me, every one of us fixated on the scent of a deer in the distance.
Sage's laugh, the way her auburn hair caught the sunlight, and the stubborn look on her face when I tried to push back about her leaving.
..it all caused me to lose track of the scent trail again and again.
It was pointless. I veered off from the group, letting Cal take the lead and loping back towards town.
For the moment, I was more of a hindrance than anything else.
Surely she would be home by now, done with her trip with Summer.
I appreciated my cousin spending time with Sage and making her more comfortable in the territory, but I was ready to be alone with my mate once more.
The house was quiet when I returned home, but I could still scent Sage faintly.
Instead of wasting time calling my cousin and trying to zero in on where my wife was, I reached inside myself for our mate bond and tugged on it gently.
It responded instantly to me, and I could follow the glowing connection of it to Sage.
She didn't seem to be too far away, and from what I could tell, she was nowhere near the center of town anymore.
Excited at the prospect of having her alone, I followed our connection, taking a shortcut through the woods until the trail led me straight to the outskirts of the territory, where the farms were.
There were quite a few of them, and each one was owned by a pack member who specialized in providing for the rest of the group.
Most were self-sufficient, and the crops and animals they raised were usually sold in the surrounding towns.
Lately, that had all gone south, and the farmers had been working night and day to make ends meet.
The fact that they were barely able to feed themselves wasn't lost on the pack.
It was a sobering thought, but not enough to shake me out of my fixation on finding Sage. I'd been dealing with the failing land for years, but I'd only had my mate with me for a few weeks.
I felt her magic humming in the air before I saw her, walking slowly through the center of one of the brown, dead fields, her hands outstretched.
She'd put her hair up, but a riot of unruly curls had escaped and curled around her face, and the knees of her jeans were brown with dirt as if she'd been kneeling.
My mate's fingers glowed with golden magic as she walked, and when that magic came into contact with the wilted plants, the leaves perked up, reinvigorated.
Sage was a healer, but I'd never considered that her powers would work on something other than people. She raised the plants from near death, and as she walked, they almost seemed to lean towards her as if she were the sun itself.
Sage was facing away from me, and I had a chance to watch her work. The sight of her in her element, the way the sun hit her hair and her skin, made my breath catch in my throat. She was stunning.
I approached her carefully, knowing that the sound of my footsteps would give me away.
As the Alpha, my power was strongest and most easily detected, so it was hard to sneak up on someone, especially when that someone was a witch and my mate.
But she was concentrating hard, and it gave me the edge I needed to go undetected for a little longer.
I'd only been able to see her in action a handful of times, and each time was like seeing her for the first time. Every part of her was graceful and powerful, and I loved watching the way her muscles moved beneath her skin, her expression serious and intent.
How could anyone ever view someone like her as an abomination? Sage was a miracle.
I was so mesmerized by her that I lost track of just how close she was getting to the pack borders, and my mate was only a few feet away from triggering a trap when my brain finally switched back on enough to realize it.
"Sage, wait."
My voice was too sharp, and I immediately knew that I'd made a mistake. Her fingers froze in midair, and her shoulders went tense. As she turned to meet my eyes, she let her magic fade, and her expression was guarded.
"What are you doing?”
I hadn't meant it as an accusation, but it was obvious that's how she'd taken it. "I'm trying to help," she said, her voice tight, "Is that allowed?"
She was shaking with the effort of the spell she had been casting, and her face and neck were flushed. I'd broken something very fragile when I called to her, and she was teetering on the edge of being very, very pissed off at me about it.
"Of course," I said carefully, "But you almost triggered some of the border traps that we have. I didn't want you to get hurt."
"You don't trust my magic."
"I'm trying to," I said, holding out my hand to her, "What you were doing, healing the crops, was beautiful, but you were just too close to the edge. Setting off those traps would have brought my patrols running here, and I know you don't want that. I wasn't trying to offend you."
"Well, you failed."
"You know I don't hate your magic."
"You say that...but the way you talk, the way you act...it doesn't match. You only care about my magic when you have something to gain from it, but when I want to try to do something on my own, all you can talk about is traps. What do you want from me?"
"Nothing, Sage. You, and that's it."
She sighed, "You know that's not a good enough answer."
I didn't have a good response for her. I was still reeling from seeing her like that, and I was torn between wanting to kiss her and wanting to snatch her away from the border and keep her safe, even if it made her kick and scream.
She looked down at her hands, which were covered in dirt, and sighed. "I'm tired. I think I need to rest."
"I'll take you home."
"I'm fine," she snapped, then closed her eyes. "I'm sorry. I just...need some space."
I wanted to argue with her, but she pivoted, and between one breath and the next, she had shifted.
It had been a long, long time since I'd seen her in wolf form, and the sight of her was almost enough to make up for the pain of the misunderstanding we couldn't seem to find a way out of.
She was a dark, rust-red, her muzzle and feet black, her coat thick and soft.
I'd never seen a more beautiful wolf, and my own beast yearned to shift and follow her. But she needed her space, and I was going to give it to her, even if it drove me mad.
I was so close to finally having everything I had ever wanted, and somehow, it had slipped through my fingers once more.
Maybe I just needed to hold on tighter. Maybe being so gentle with Sage was the wrong approach, and she needed me to show her just how fucking badly I wanted her close to me.
Everything else had failed thus far. It was worth a shot.
***
Sage was fast on four legs, but I was faster. When I got close, she turned to nip at me, her growl unmistakable.
She wanted me to leave her the hell alone. But I was done keeping my distance.
Still, I let her run for some time, allowing her to believe that she actually had a chance of outrunning me. She was young and healthy and strong, but I was an Alpha. Her Alpha. There was no real chance of escape.
I was patient and determined, and eventually, I would get my way. As a man, I had failed. Maybe as a wolf, things would be different.
Eventually, her speed and determination waned, and when I nipped at her, she spun and growled, teeth bared. It would have been a warning to anyone else, but I took it as an invitation.
She wasn't the only one who could run all day. She wasn't the only one who wanted to win.
I darted in and snapped at her flank, not quite getting her, but letting her know I was there. I circled her, waiting for her to make the next move. She didn't have it in her to keep up the fight, not with how much magic she had used today.
I watched as she shifted, the process happening almost faster than my eyes could follow. One moment, she was a wolf. Next, a woman stood in front of me. She was breathing heavily, and her dark red hair fell in wild waves over her shoulders and breasts.
"I told you I need some space." Her words and posture were both stiff.
The words came out in a gasp. She'd given everything to the chase, and now she was paying the price for it.
We stood like that for a long moment, staring at one another and not speaking.
Our feral sides were close to the surface, but before one of us gave in again, I had to speak to her. Mate to mate, husband to wife.