Rouge…No Mate!

Six Years Later

Stephen’s POV

            For the past two years, my patrol on the west-south border has stumbled across the scent of a single female rouge. But not once have they been able to capture her. Heck, they haven’t even caught a glimpse of her. After six months of her barely breeching our borders, we learned to live together in peace. On Christmas, my mom would leave her a small gift basket of essentials. And she would leave my mom some small trinket that my mom loved.

            She knew my mom better than I do, and they’ve never met. After two years, I was getting curios about this she-wolf. Every time I crossed her trail, Titus, my wolf would get all giddy and happy. But he didn’t know why.

            I walk to the window in my office and watch as the pups train. Ever since the council alerted us about the three major enemies of pack wolves joining together to wipe us out, ever pack in the world started training every pack member. The rank of Omega had been banished. For months we trained. Then we received word from the Adelis pack that the threat had been wiped out.

            I know that they were the best warriors that wolves could wish to be, but seriously. How did they defeat hundreds of vampires, rouges and hunters? They didn’t tell anyone how they stopped them, but the rumor was that a she-wolf by the name of Henri something gave her life to defeat their leader.

            They say that she was something special because she had three mates. Shaking my head, I turn my eyes towards the setting sun. For the past five years, I’ve been looking for my mate. At the age of 23, I was sort of the odd alpha. My pack was strong, but we didn’t have a Luna, and I was starting to think that I would never find her.

            Feeling Titus start to become anxious, I decide to go for a run. Letting Thane, my beta know where I was going, I shift and race towards the west-south border. After an hour of running, I finally reach my destination. Sniffing the air, I could smell that she hadn’t been by today. So I find me a hiding spot and wait. And I didn’t have to wait long for her to show.

            She came walking through the clearing literally right on top of the invisible line that separated my lands from neutral ground. She stops suddenly when she smells me. The rouge takes several steps towards me before she flattens her ears and growls softly. I stand up and walk out of my hiding spot. Our eyes met and everything fades away. She shifts suddenly and I follow suit. “Oh! You’re Stephen Galloway.” I laugh softly.

            “You got me in a bind sweetheart. You know my name, but I don’t know yours.” She blushes when I call her sweetheart and Titus howls with pleasure. Dude, our mate is beautiful.

            That she is. “I’m Henri…I think it’s a sort of nickname for something else, but I don’t remember.”

            “You don’t remember your name?” I ask a little shocked. My mate must have been rouge longer than the two years she’s been living here if she can’t remember her name. “All I know is that two years ago, Angel and I woke in the woods. I couldn’t remember anything except for the name of my wolf. She was calling me Henri.”

            “How did you know my name?” She lowers her eyes and blushes. “I’m not sure. I just knew that my mate’s name was Stephen Galloway. I’m not sure how I knew that.” I suddenly notice that she’s wearing the necklace I put in the basket last year and I smile. She chuckles softly looking confused. “What?”

            “You’re wearing the necklace I gave my mom to put in your basket last year.” I tell her softly. She fingers the howling wolf slowly as a smile appears on her lips. “I love it. Thank you.” I take her hand and we start to slowly walk back to my pack house. Half way there, Thane and several of my best warriors surround us. When they see Henri with me, they start to growl at her.

            Rouge! Alpha, what are you doing with the rouge?

            Thane, I’d like you to meet your Luna. They stop growling and look at my in shock. They knew that I had given up hope on ever finding her. One of the warriors glances at Henri as we talk and yelps in surprise. Everyone turns to see what was wrong. I had to take a second look.

            Henri had backed up until she was standing in front of a huge tree. She kept her eyes on the others. But what stopped us all was the fact that her left hand had a fireball floating above her palm and her right hand looked like ice. “Babe, where did you learn to do that?” I ask awe in my voice.

            She blinks and looks at her hands. They quickly return to normal. “I don’t know that either. The first month I stumbled onto your land, I learned that I could make fireballs. And then slowly I learned that I could freeze things.” I hold out my hand to take, but she stays in front of the tree. That’s when it hits me. The guys are making her nervous. Linking with them, I tell ‘em to go ahead and head back to the pack house.

            The second they turn and disappear into the woods, she lets out a sigh of relief. “Why do they frighten you Henri?”

            “I don’t know Stephen. Every time I see them, I feel like there’s something trying to get out of my mind. But it never does.” She shrugs and slowly takes my hand. I decide not to push her any more.

Henri’s POV

            As we walk to his pack house, I couldn’t help but check him out from the corner of my eye. He was a walking dream of a man. From his fiery read air to his pale white skin, this for a wolf was surprising. I could hear Angel purring as thoughts of him fly through our mind. I blush at some of them. Bad Angie, bad. I think laughing softly.

            When we reach the house, I hear Thane, the beta I think talking about a neighboring pack that was coming over in a few days for the annual pack party. I snicker as I recall the one they had last year.

            I was doing some running a little later than I would normally take a run and the loud music grabbed my attention. That night, I went closer to his pack house that I’d ever been, well except for right now. I could hear their laughter for miles away and it intrigued me.

            That night I climbed a tree just within the tree line around the back yard. I could tell that there were several packs milling around. One in particular caught my eyes. The alpha had this sad aura about him that called to me. His face had me racking my brain for anything, but like usual I came up empty handed. His mate though was beautiful. I heard one of Stephen’s members say that she was a hunter a few years ago before Derrick found her.

            That must have been a rocky start. I was sort of looking forward to being able to meet everyone face to face this time. But for some reason, I was dreading meeting Derrick and his pack. Angel was extremely nervous around him, but she couldn’t explain why. I didn’t notice that I was so wrapped up in my thoughts until I felt someone staring at me. Looking around a little wide eyed, I blush when I see Stephen smirking at me.

            “I’m sorry. What did you say?”

            “I said that this is Thane, my beta. And this guy here is Bobby, he’s the TIC.” I nod at them and mutter a soft hello. I knew that they wouldn’t dream of hurting me know, but over the past two years, they’ve came so close to finding me. I’ve become a fast runner trying to keep ahead of them. “Y’all are pretty fast.” I blurt out.

            “What’s that Luna?” Thane asks me. I smile at him. “I said that you and Bob here are fast. Because of the two of you, I had to learn to run faster. Last year, right around Thanksgiving, y’all almost caught me by the lake. If I hadn’t found that small cave that opened into that stream, I would have met everyone sooner.” I laugh softly at their faces.

            “And there was that this last month when y’all almost stumbled into my little den. Y’all stood right outside of it for an hour.” They groan softly and I laugh louder. “Y’all shouldn’t worry about it though. I’m really good at hiding when I want. And if I want to be found, you’ll find me.”

            “That’s good to know.” Stephen whispers softly in my ear causing my face to blaze. He chuckles and leads me into the house. “Everyone, attention please. I’d like to introduce my mate and Luna of the Blood Stone pack, Henri. Henri, the Blood Stone pack.” I smile at everyone and take a step behind Stephen. I hated being the center of attention in a large group of people.