Chapter 4 - A Dry Welcome
Alice Forrest
It had been a long time since I’d run like this, it was liberating. To feel the crunch of the leaves and sticks under my paws as they hit the ground running, to feel the cool breeze tickling my skin as I raced through the forest, Jamie hot on my tail. I’d forgotten the sensation, of truly being free, the smell of the forest still reminded me of him, but perhaps it was a new day.
I had run away for too long; it was time we sat down like we did once before.
We needed to start afresh.
The trees grew taller and darker as we travelled East, back to Savage River from the coastline. I never realised how much I’d grown attached to the mountain range that came into view and the way the hills rolled down from them. I felt like I was one with the forest as I raced through, I could hear the animals and creatures that crawled around, I could smell the tracks of the wolves that had passed through the trees, where they over lapped with the routes of animals, where the regular patrol lines were.
We passed each check point without seeing another wolf, but at this point, I was unsure if it was because Jamie had warned them off, or because of the effects of the war were still visible within the Moon Pack.
’I told them I was coming through,’ Jamie said through the mind link, and I turned back to look at him, giving him a nod in thanks.
After a couple of hours of running through trees, crossing rivers and roads, deeper into the mountains and hills we climbed. Until we came towards the street that led to Savage River, to the pack. I could almost see the scents the wolves left behind, it must have been a couple of weeks since the last rain, and we slowed down, padding parallel with the road. Deep enough in the forest that we couldn’t be seen by any human who had strayed too far from any track.
A small brown wolf darted swiftly through the trees, my instincts wanted to growl protectively as she drew closer, but the scent of Jamie lingered on her fur and Jamie bounded happily forward. As she entered the clearing where we lingered, their heads collied affectionately and I felt a twang of jealousy in my chest.
Jamie had found his mate, finally.
She let him nuzzle her neck and shoulders, almost purring affectionately at his return. Shaking her neck, she dropped some clothes out of her mouth before stepping back and looking at me. Her eyes carefully running over me, she dropped her head in submission and darted back into the woods as I gave a nod.
Jamie shifted first, slipping into the pair of pants that his mate had brought, “her name is Grace,” he said, a smile etched on his face, “I found her in one of the Southern packs while I was looking for you,” he said, the grin widening with each word.
I shifted as he threw the black dress at me, catching it mid-air, “she must be ecstatic then, if you’ve been hunting for me for the last year, you’ll be able to settle down together.”
He peaked over his shoulder before turning around, “yeah, I’ve told her a lot about you,” he said, scratching his neck and dropping his gaze.
“She seems lovely,” I said with a smile and brushing the stubble on his cheeks, “I’m so happy for you Jamie.”
His grin grew to his eyes and he gestured towards the wall that was looming not to far away, “are ladies first.”
I nodded and began to walk from the forest to the main gate. A young woman around the same age as me, if not a year of two younger stood grinning sheepishly as us. Her brown hair tickled her bare shoulders, and she wore a simple shirt and jeans, her eyes were warm and brown, reminding me of my own and she smelt richly of lilacs.
“You must be Grace,” I said, stretching out my hand.
She glanced at it awkwardly and shook it, “It’s nice to meet you, er-” she paused and glanced at Jamie as she pulled her hand away.
“Luna,” Jamie confirmed.
“Alice,” I corrected, barely a second later, “call me, Alice,” I said giving her a reassuring smile, before throwing Jamie a dirty glare.
“Where is he?” Jamie said, taking Grace’s hand and leading us through the front gates, giving some guards a nod who’s faces paled at my presence.
“He’s still in the Alpha’s Master Suite, he’s been up there all morning,” Grace said, specifically avoiding looking at me.
“Of course, he is,” Jamie sighed, running a hand through his sandy coloured hair and glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.
I turned away from Jamie’s worried look and looked at the shop fronts as we walked through the town, some people had spotted us and were either turning in the opposite direction or shamelessly gawking at me, a young child pointing at me and pulling on his mother’s hand.
My own reflection caught my eye, in a particularly reflective glass window. My hair smoothly running down my back, it sparkled just like my fur coat now, getting lighter with every shift it would seem. Why white eyes still un-nerved me, but my brown eyes had never quite looked right either, so it was fitting.
Yet the black dress, looked like it was made to torture and tease. The muscles in my arms and legs were on display, the short skirt and no shoes made my legs and strides look longer and stronger, while the deep v-cut shamelessly fluttered in the breeze. I shot Grace a glance as she looked at me, I had a feeling this dress had been chosen by her or Jamie, for Nathaniel.
Some men and women scattered out of the pack house as we approached, the stone walls towering and the glass windows shimmering as the sun began to peak as the middle of the day grew nearer.
Jamie gave Grace a quick kiss at the bottom of the pack house steps and sent her on her way, she didn’t object, but I could feel that she didn’t want to leave his side. The reluctance clear as she slowly let go of his hand, their fingers grazing ever so intimately.
“Are you coming with me?” I asked as Jamie followed sheepishly behind me as I stepped into the foyer.
“I will if you want me to,” Jamie said, swallowing the nervousness he radiated.
I let my hand fall onto the railing of the stairs, “perhaps it’s best if you just linger in the hallway,” I said, hopping up the steps, the butterflies beginning to swarm aggressively in my stomach.
I could smell his scent stronger than before, it lingered on the furniture and the walls, around the bends of the hallways and the rooms and cupboards that lined them. I felt my muscles relax and a weight begin to lift from my shoulders as I walked towards the great wooden doors – I could hear his heart beat behind them and I pushed the doors open, dreed washing over me, as I was not sure what I would find.
He was posed smug and cocky – perhaps a bad choice in words, considering a blonde was trapped with her mouth over his cock, bobbing up and down like a child trying to fit too much candy in her mouth.
My wolf stirred in the back of my mind, whilst seeing my mate with another woman should provoke me, drive me insane and possessive, I knew that it was purely physical. After feeling his touch and warmth, nothing could warm me, after his having him as a lover, I knew no man would compare, I felt insatiable, and I stopped trying. I had no doubt that it was the same for him, this woman – who ever she was, was only here to invoke a physical reaction, fill the cavity that I left when I walked out the door.
Yet his face remained impartial, even for him. His eyes were focused on that dammed tablet of his, one hand bracing it, the other scrolling through documents, his eyes scanning them with little interested.
I stood in the threshold of his room, I refused to acknowledge the woman and I refused to acknowledge him as anything more than an Alpha to a pack I was not a part of.
The silence hung in the room as I held my composure, waiting to be addressed and refusing to let the mate bond tell my emotions to him. Yet a tingle started from my fingertips, slowly engulfing my entire body. He drew a sharp breath, his hand slipping from his tablet, holding the woman’s head down as he ejaculated.
Her toes curled, and I heard her muffle and gasp for air as his hand forced his length back into her throat. His eyes closed momentarily as the tinglingly peaked, stemming from my core and engulfing my entirety. Yet I forced my eyes to remain fixed to the painting above the bed.
Letting the breath out, he lifted the woman’s head up and caressed her face, “you may leave now my shrew,” he said, the emotionless façade growing.
The woman bowed her head and clambered off the bed, sliding on the silk sheets. She did not seem to care that her naked body was exposed to me, an audience. Yet the way she walked towards the door behind me, the smug smirk that she carried on her shoulder, the way her toned body strutted past me, they way she looked me up and down, it made me realised she was jealous of me. She did not realise who I was to her Alpha and that she would never be anything more than a bed warmer to him.
“You look well, Alice,” he stated, finally look up at me after the woman had left the room.
“As do you, Nate.”
His eyes glazed over, as I realised few must call him by that name. Even the woman who warmed his bed would call him Alpha Black, perhaps with emphasis, as if he knew him personally. He pulled himself from his bed, slipping on a black robe, tying it lightly around his stomach. I appreciated the courtesy, yet my wolf purred at the sight on him, his psychic had not faltered in the years where we were apart, if anything, he had aged like fine wine.