The Forbidden Mate
Chapter Ten - The Hunt

Alex

I waste no time the next day going round to Katy’s house. I am getting reckless no more waiting until it is dark and skulking around the back door. I march up to the front door and knock repeatedly. I know that this is only going to feed the rumour mill about us, but I must see her. I have to explain. This has been going on for too long. I know I screwed up by not telling her that I was being pressurised into looking for a chosen mate, but she has to listen to me now.

I needed to tell her that I am going to speak to my grandfather and inform him that she is my mate. That he will help us to tell the rest of the pack. I am ready to take on my father, the beta and anyone else who stands against us because she means everything to me. There can be no one else.

She still refuses to answer the door, so eventually I give up. I will speak to her at the pack house on Monday, I don’t care who sees. She won’t be able to avoid me there, and if she tries to, I will drag her into my office by force.

……………..

I set out to replace Euan. I need him to provide me with an update on what he has found out about the suspected traitors, and I also need to tell him about the silver wolf.

I replace him in the packhouse dining room eating lunch. I grab a sandwich from the buffet table and sit down beside him. There are too many people in the room to speak privately but we can talk after breakfast.

“I didn’t see much of you at the party yesterday. Did you have a good time?” I ask him neutrally.

“Yes” he says but doesn’t elaborate.

“We could use a catch up after breakfast” I tell him. He nods.

“Have you received a brief on last night’s border patrol” I am keen to know if they observed anything unusual last night.

“No” he says, “it was pretty quiet, no rogue sightings, other than the one that I had to drag you away from the party for.”

That means that I was right, and the silver wolf had managed to evade the patrols.

We finished our meal and headed towards my office. On the way there bumped into beta Carl and my brother. Jordan has taken to spending increasing amounts of time with Carl, to prepare for when he takes over as Beta.

I had a feeling that our meeting wasn’t a coincidence. Which was borne out when the first thing he said to me was

“Did you manage to capture the rogue, that was spotted last night? He asks me. “Lily was very disappointed that you had to leave the party early, after you had promised to spend time with her.”

“No we gave chase but he managed to escape. I am sorry about Lily” I say. There were so many shewolves to speak to, I just didn’t have chance.”

“And was one of those shewolves your mate?” he asks.

“No but there were a couple who I thought would make a suitable chosen mate.”

I can see that Euan looks shocked, but I will explain my reasons to him later.

Beta Carl’s face falls and his mouth tightens into a thin line, I can see rage gleam in his eyes for a second, before he quickly recovers and adopts his normal neutral expression. “That is good” he tells me blankly “this pack desperately needs a Luna.”

“On another matter” he says changing the subject. “I have heard of mysterious sightings of a strange wolf.”

“A rogue?” I ask hoping that he is not referring to the silver wolf.

“No something different, I am not sure exactly what they are. They are not a rogue, but not a pack member either. It may just be rumours, but if you do hear of or come across a strange wolf, I would be grateful if you could let me know. For security reasons of course, wolves roaming our territory who are not part of the pack could pose a danger to our neutrality.”

“Of course,” I say. It sounds like I am not the only one who has seen the silver wolf. If she really is a member of the royal pack then I am sure that Carl will be a danger to her. I have no intention of telling him what I know. In fact, it is imperative that I replace her before he does.

Carl and Jordan walk off leaving me standing with Euan.

“Did you really replace a suitable chosen mate?” Euan asks quietly when he is out of sight.

“No, but I will explain more about that when we are alone” I tell him.

We reach my office, and I give Euan a few moments to get settled.

“I am not going to take a chosen mate. In fact, I am going to tell people that Katy is my mate, starting with my grandfather. I need to speak to Katy first, she needs to know what I plan to do. But she won’t speak to me” I complain running my hand through my hair in frustration.

“The reason I left early to replace her last night, was because she saw me with Sarah.”

“Sarah?” he asks questioningly.

“The accountant’s daughter, we went to school with her” I reply.

“Oh yes, I remember, very good looking but only had eyes for one wolf. Not interested in a gamma like me however much I tried to get her to go out with me.” he says mischievously.

“Well, she hasn’t changed. She still wants to be my Luna. She made that very clear. She was the one who suspected that I had feelings for Katy. My actions in protecting her during the rogue attack made her think (and goddess knows who else) that I did it because I care about her. She doesn’t suspect she is my mate, not yet anyway, but I had to be careful how I spoke to her.

Anyway, Katy must have seen her draped all over me because she ran out of the party.

That is why I left early to follow her but by the time I got away it was too late ,and I couldn’t replace her anywhere. I went to see her this morning, to try and explain but she wouldn’t open the door. I am going to have to corner her at work. I cannot cope with her not speaking to me, avoiding me anymore. I am going to go crazy.”

“If you want, I will replace a way to get her alone tomorrow” he offers. “It would be better if it is me who asks to speak to her, then no one will suspect you.”

“Thank you” I say gratefully.

“What are you going to say to your grandfather?” he asks.

“The truth. That she is my mate, that initially I was shocked and planned to reject her because she was an Omega, but as time went on, I realised that there was much more to her. That she is in fact perfect for me, and I could never reject her without destroying myself in the process.

I will beg for his help. I know that he will be surprised that she is an Omega. Who has heard of an Omega being an Alpha’s mate? It has never happened in our pack history. But he believes in destined mates, and that the moon goddess chooses the perfect mate for each werewolf. I hope that that will be enough to overcome his pride and help us.”

Euan nods there isn’t much he can say to this. He has no better idea than I have what my grandfather will say.

“There is one other thing. It is important. When I went looking for Katy, I encountered a strange wolf in the forest. A shewolf. She was not a rogue, but she definitely wasn’t a member of the pack. I followed her until we reached the pack borders but she was too fast for me and escaped.”

He whistled “she must have been fast if you couldn’t catch her. Unusual. None of the patrols mentioned seeing a strange when they reported to me last night. I could ask them if they encountered her, but I think they would have mentioned it if they had. I have never seen a silver wolf before. I doubt they have either. Do you think that this is the wolf that Carl was referring to?”

“Yes, I think so. Don’t ask the warriors about her. I don’t want to draw any attention to the fact that a silver wolf has been roaming our pack lands,” I tell him. “I spoke to my grandfather about her last night. He told me that silver wolves are very rare. They are always high-ranking members of the royal pack.”

“Like the princess who could have escaped?” he asks.

“Possibly” I say cautiously, “but she could be any high-ranking female who escaped the black moon pack. Lucius made it a priority to hunt down all silver wolves, those that escaped would have gone into hiding.”

“It is strange though that they appear on our pack lands” he mused. “We are not known to be allies of the royal pack anymore, and with the increased activity of the Black Moon pack and the rogue attack, it feels like more than just a coincidence.

I take it that neither you or your grandfather think that she is a member of this pack?”

“No” I say “a wolf like that couldn’t hide here, she would have been noticed by someone. But she is in danger, and we need to to replace her, so that we can help her before it is too late. Tell no one about what I have just said. I want you to try and track her yourself. Your tracking skills are better than mine and I don’t think it will be easy. “

“Of course, I will make it a priority” he tells me.

“Good. So tell me what you have found out about the suspected traitors?” I ask changing the subject.”

“Daniel has been hanging round them as requested and picked up some information. They don’t include him in any of their meetings or private discussions, it is pretty clear that they are wary of him because he is my brother. Fortunately, he can be unobtrusive when he wants to be so sometimes they forget that he is there. They keep on talking about an event where they can show off their fighting skills, to the rest of the pack. Daniel is suspicious that this is some kind of code to hide what their real intentions are.

“Well, they haven’t organised an event, or announced anything to the pack so he has good reason to be suspicious. Even if it was at the planning stage, I would have expected Carl to have told my father and myself about it.

I think we need to replace out more, we need someone on the inside” I tell him.

“I am trying. Jane has approached them casually about training with them, but they have turned her down. She is one of our best warriors, but they barely speak to her.”

“They wouldn’t want her” I interject, “Carl is too much like my father, he would never promote a woman to a senior position in the pack or trust her with anything critical.”

He nods “I am hoping Ross will have more success, but it has been slow going getting them to trust him” he tells me.

“Understandable, they will be suspicious of strangers we don’t want him to blow it by seeming to keen.

I think though we need to start tracking their movements. Recruit some of the trackers we trust to keep a watch on them, but from a distance.”

He nods his head in agreement.