Bonus: Coconut cream

I spent my morning trying to figure out with Blaine our next training routine.

“I’m telling you bro, you’ve got to train more for the patrols. We’ve been getting reports of dark silhouettes moving through the forest, the latest one saying it was only a few hundred yards from our border.” He tells me, his dreadlocks swaying as he tries to get his point across.

I shake my head. “We’ve not had any attacks on the border for quite some time. I think we should put the resources to training the young ones, there’s not enough trainers and we need more.” I think out loud.

Blaine holds his hands up. “You’re the boss! But in my opinion, we could never be too safe.” He warns.

He’s right of course. We’ve had a few wolves retire recently from patrols and we need to replace them.

“You’re right. How about we put half of the recently trained up wolves to patrol training, and the other half on trainer apprentice duty. That way, we’ll cover both. If we need to change, we can do so easily.”

He stands and bows. “Very well. Right, I’m going to go get Estelle and Rosella as we’re going to the Dome for some dinner.”

I smile and pat him on the back. “Go enjoy, we’ll catch up later.”

Blaine leaves the room and I sit there on my own, thinking about the time I spent with Sara earlier. We’ve been trying for just shy of half a year now and she’s still not able to get with child. I’m running out of options. I have my Mum and Dad breathing down my neck about a grandchild and an heir to the pack and if something doesn’t happen soon, then Mandy or Loretta, whichever has a son first, I will have their child named heir. I sigh in frustration.

I close my eyes and send a prayer to the Moon Goddess, wishing she would allow me a chance to have a mate. Anyone, I would take anyone, just to feel the love I see those who have mates feel.

I’m taken out of my thoughts when Will comes through the door.

“Good evening Alpha.” He starts formerly, as always. I’ve always respected him as he trained both me and my ranked members since we were pups. He was proud to be promoted to pack trainer under my Father’s rule and I was more than happy to keep him in that position.

“Blaine has mind-linked me about the next training regime for this quarter. I was wondering if you’ll hear a few of my opinions.” He starts, and we then spend the next hour going through what it will look like and the candidates he has in mind.

We finish up and he heads back to his wife. I then stand from my desk and stretch, trying to rub one of the muscles I pulled the other day trying to add weights to my deadlifts.

I feel a connection trying to come through and I groan, knowing I’ll never get a chance to relax. I accept it.

“Lukas, where are you just now? We’ve been having Elder Irish badger us about you trying again with Emma.” My Father says.

I groan internally. Emma and I used to get on like a house on fire when we were younger. I had always thought she was going to be my mate. But as soon as I hit eighteen, I felt no overwhelming pull towards her.

As the years went by, I never found my mate. I started to become frustrated and started sleeping around, one of them being Emma. I enjoyed being with her to an extent, but over the course of the last year she started to become greedy, wanting more than just a fling. I had always told her that I would do nothing more unless I found my mate, which made her furious. She demanded I make her my Luna and chosen mate. That’s when I cut off our sexual relations.

My Father wanted an heir, but I was not willing to have one with her, so he went off and chose Sara. She’s a sweet girl, comes from a good family and we hit it off on good ground. Still no child though, but I expect that’s because it’s difficult for two wolves who aren’t mates to become impregnated.

I sigh. “No, Dad. Not with Emma. I refuse to even speak with that woman right now. But in any case, it’s not your business, please stop snooping.”

“Your Mother and I are worried for you, son. You’ve been doing this for how long now? Six, seven years?”

I start to become angry with his constant pestering. “It’ll happen when it happens. We can speak later.” I say, cutting off the connection and blocking him out.

“We’ll find her soon.” Ares, my beloved wolf tells me.

“Will we? Because it seems the Moon Goddess doesn’t want me to meet her.”

“Be patient. She’ll come.”

I roll my eyes internally. Yeah when I’m old and grey I think to myself. I feel Ares return to the far corner of my mind and rest.

I decide I want to get up and go for a run, to clear my mind. I’ve never been one for wallowing, but lately I can’t help but feel somethings about to happen. To be an Alpha to thousands of wolves is a large responsibility. One that I can’t do without my mentors or our Elders.

I mind-link Blaine.

“I’m heading for a run, ask Albion for a hand with things if anything gets too much.” I say to him. I receive nothing back so I assume he’s happy to take over for a while.

I make my way to the lake, stripping down and placing my clothes away in a tree cove. I then start to shift to my wolf form. Into Ares.

It takes a few seconds to shift, my bones and joints used to the shifting process now, I can barely feel a pinch as it happens. As soon as I’m done shifting, I shake my fur to allow it all some air. Then I trot over to the lakeside and start drinking some water.

I allow Ares to take over, and he spends his time running whilst I watch on. Ares is a practical wolf, he loves running and feeling the wind hit his face as he does. If he sees food, he’ll hunt. If he senses danger, he runs towards it.

A few hours go by and I decide enough time has passed and I tell Ares it’s time to head back. It’s getting dark now, and I’ve no doubt that my family want to have dinner with me tonight, probably to pester me even more.

Are’s starts making his way back to where we left the clothes. As we arrive, I feel a connection coming through.

“Alpha, the patrols have seen some movement on the Southern border.” Albion tells me.

This is the seventh time I’ve been told this over the last few months, and yet nothing comes close to our border line. I think it’s about time I check this out myself.

“Thanks, Albion. Ares and I will start heading that way. I want to see this for myself.”

“Do you want us to head over as well?” He asks, and I can tell he’s unsure on my decision.

“No, I will meet up with the patrols over there. Is it Jerry?”

“Yes. They’ll wait where it was last seen.”

I close the connection off and Ares starts sprinting to our Southern side. It takes less than five minutes in our wolf form, when we buckle down and sprint, we’re the fastest wolf in the pack.

Ares sees Jerry and lets me take over. Jerry and Harley are both in wolf form, so mind-linking is our only option.

“Where was it you saw it?” I ask them both.

Jerry bows. “Alpha. We saw a large dark object moving quite far over there.” He says, pointing his snout in the direction of the river that runs around our border.

“It then moved away, we’re unsure what it was after.” He finishes and I look that way.

I feel Ares go crazy in my mind. That’s when it hits me. Coconuts and honey. We have a few coconut trees in the large greenhouse as our soil and weather doesn’t support it, so we only use them for special treats. It’s always been my favourite, and that paired with the sweet scent of honey sends my heart and mind racing.

I look to the wolves on patrol.

“Leave.” I command. They both bow, and I notice Jerry’s a bit hesitant, but he can’t go against my command. I’ve no doubt I’ll hear from Blaine soon.

I step foot off the pack lands, something someone hasn’t done for a very long time. I head towards the river and hear the rushing water crashing against the rocks on the side. The scent gets stronger as I get nearer to the river. I stop a moment, noticing a body thrashing in the water heading towards me, downstream.

“Mate! Mate!” Ares cries, but I just continue watch as she grabs a rock on our side of the river. She pulls herself up and twists herself over until she is on her back on the grass, spluttering up water. I can see she’s cut her hand and the blood is flowing out of it. Her long brunette dishevelled hair sprawling all over the place. Her face is marked and I can see bruises on her arms. As I get closer, that’s when I see it. Her right side has a huge claw mark against it, blood seeping through the open wound.

Ares is going mental in my mind. “What are you doing! Go to her, mate is hurt.”

I do as he says and walk over to the woman who’s just come out of the water, making sure to keep an ear out for anyone else who could have been with her. I can tell she’s about to pass out and I notice her deep blue mesmerising eyes as they look to me. Her eyes close and I can tell she’s unconscious, her breathing ragged. I stand there stunned, unable to comprehend her beauty. The Moon Goddess heard my prayer. She’s here and she’s mine.

Ares forces me out of the way and goes to her hurriedly, lifting her up by gently grabbing her top and dragging her onto our back. He then races straight towards the pack hospital, being as careful as possible to make sure he doesn’t hurt her or make her fall off our back as we run.

We get to the hospitals vicinity and mind-link Doctor Lowe.

“Doctor, please come help me at the front.” I request.

Not a minute later I see the Doctor rush down the stairs and to the front door. She looks a bit flustered when she notices someone on my back.

She says nothing but moves back to the left of the door and grabs a hospital bed. She waves me in and she helps move the woman off my back and onto the bed.

“Who is this Alpha?” She asks.

“I don’t know. She isn’t from the pack.” I admit, she looks at me with concern.

“She’s an outsider?” She whispers.

I nod.

“Alpha, I need to get her into a room as soon as possible. If you want to be with her once I’m done, you need to be in your human form. I’m sending her to room two-four-one, so wait outside whilst I check on her and change her.

I growl, not wanting to be away from my mate when I’ve only found her. Doctor Lowes expression softens. She realises that this is my mate.

“I promise she won’t go anywhere while you wait. If she’s an outsider it may be easier for her to understand where she is. If you’re hovering over her, she may be uncomfortable. I suspect she probably doesn’t know what we are or where she is.”

I sigh, knowing she’s right. I wouldn’t want to scare our mate.

“I’ll be back soon.” I promise.

Doctor Lowe bows and starts wheeling the hospital bed through to the patient lift. I watch as the woman I am mated with is wheeled away to be taken care of.

Rage fills me, knowing something has hurt my mate. I feel Ares reeling in my mind, ecstatic we’ve finally found her. My emotions are all over the place, and I need to leave so I can sort them out before I speak to her.

I head to the pack house whilst Doctor Lowe helps my mate heal. I can’t wait to tell the family.

I feel Dads connection coming through just after I shifted back at the lake and put my clothes on.

“So, who’s the person you found outside the pack border?” He asks, and I can tell he’s angry. A wolf hasn’t stepped out of pack lands for years.

“My mate.” I say, knowing I’m about to get a lot of feedback. I cut off the connection as quickly as I responded.

And so it begins.


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A/n

Hi everyone!

I hope you've enjoyed the end of the story and this extra bonus chapter.

What did you think of the ending?

I do have plans for additional books in the series, however ETA on this may be a while.

I have created a Fb page, which you can find by searching for "AuthorG.Santos"

Happy reading!*