Alpha Brothers - the Lonely Brother (book 3)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3
Tarna
Everything smelled so wet. The sky water had washed away the familiar smells of the trees and made everything have a fresh new smell, just waiting for animals to put their scent on them. I decided to be the first one to place my scent on them. I bushed my fur up against them as if I was marking a territory. But I didn't own this place, I knew that.
I could smell the scent of other wolves and by their rich smell I could tell that they were a part of a pack. Whines came from my mouth as my heart started to ache. I was tired of being alone.
Before I could let myself miss something I would never have, I bolted. I didn't know where and I didn't care. I knew that the lake was nearby. I could smell it, hear the trickles it made over the rocks. The boundary wasn't close to where I was so I could keep going as long as I pleased for a while until I reached it.
I knew that the King lived on these lands, it's probably what drew me here. His power, his protection, his pack. And from the stories that I had heard about him, he was fair and even kind. My human recognised a story of him allowing an enemy to live instead of killing him. Only the fairest and kindest of Kings would allow that.
I heard the enemy was evil. Well, most of them are. But his family had also ruled this vast kingdom for many years like the family that ruled now. But it wasn't like it was before. History repeating itself.
The enemy's father was the enemy of the King's father. I had heard a story about that as well. He had wanted to get his family's crown back but it wasn't his family's crown to start off with. He had murdered the old King and his mate before the second son, the second brother of the New King, attacked his pack. My heart skipped a beat when I remembered this part of the story. What a wolf. To rip apart half a pack, that wolf would have to be strong, too strong. It probably would tear the second son apart from the inside. It made my human want to shut down my brain but I couldn't stop thinking about it. I didn't know much else about what happened to the rest of the family, well I didn't know much about the family at all. But I wanted to. I wanted to so much that it hurt.
When I got back to the cave, I was covered in mud. My feet, my hands, in my hair even on my belly. I don't even remember lying down in the mud. I groaned at myself heading straight through and into the pool to wash myself.
Why was I thinking about that damn story again? Around these parts it was like a Halloween story and everybody avoided talking about it like the plague. Well, most people did anyway. There were always those few wolves that could spill their guts at any chance to reveal a good secret.
But I found every time I allowed my wolf mind to wonder, it always went to that damn story.
I groaned and turned my thoughts off. Yeah, as if that would happen.

Malcolm
Something was wrong. Something was seriously wrong.
I didn't even want to go out walking and then, all of a sudden, I was in the damn forest. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to feel and that thought was freaking me out.
My heart was racing, my hands were shaking and the back of my neck was hot. I felt so out of control that it was actually scaring me. Me. I hadn't been scared of anything since the last time I had lost control. But I had turned away from my wolf, I didn't feel –
I froze when I felt something move so deep inside of me that I thought I had imagined it. This couldn't be possible, this wasn't right.
I allowed the guiding hand to lead me to where ever it was taking me. I couldn't describe the force, I could even describe the feel. It was like I was sleep walking but I knew I was awake.
I felt the burning glow of my eyes and knew that they had returned to the familiar gold. My nails had double in their length turning to the colour grey. I felt my jaw harden as my teeth grew fangs. Everything became heightened.
The colour of the green shrubs, the sound of the birds in the trees and a scent of something so pure that I found myself following it. I couldn't describe the scent as any smell but only as a feeling. It felt warm and comforting. It felt pure and almost holy. I wanted whatever held that scent and I didn't care what it took.
The scent led me to the opening of a cave. By then, any hope of thinking logically went out the window. Possible reasons to why this was happening was put to the side. It soon became like I was thinking in my wolf mind in my human form. All that mattered was the scent.
I struggled down the small downward tunnel till I got to a solid platform. The smell was so strong down there that I couldn't mistake the movement inside of me other than the thing that I had spent so many years forgetting. Just find whatever holds that scent I told myself, then you can go back to normal.
I just had forgotten what normal was. I thought it was the normal that I had created for myself. Hiding in the hidden walls and watching as my siblings live their lives without me. But it wasn't.
I felt my eyes burn even brighter when I found the source of my scent. It belong to the woman. She stood, deep in the cave water, moving her head to wash her soaked hair out of her face. My jaw slightly dropped as I began to question it but found I couldn't even control my words. Not when I knew that below the water was a body waiting to be claimed as mine. She hadn't even noticed I was there, watching her. I found myself telling my legs to move, telling them to get me out of here and back to the attic where I belonged. But they wouldn't move. None of me would.
When she flicked her head toward my way and spotted me, I froze. So did she. She wasn't screaming like I thought she would have been. But instead as my eyes burned brighter, her eyes turned to a violet not only telling me that she was one of my kind but also telling me something that made me want to lose all control.
"Oh my God," she finally spoke, just as breathless and shocked as I was, "Your, you're my –."
"No!" I roared, feeling all the anger and frustration build and build inside of me until there was nothing left to do. I turned and swung my hand. I didn't care where it landed, I just wanted everything to stop. I felt the rock of the cave wall crumble under my fist before I heard the bomb like sound go off. I didn't stick around to say sorry.
This wasn't possible.
This couldn't be happening.
It wasn't plausible.
It wasn't right!
I paced through the forest at a speed that wasn't quiet running but wasn't far from it. I knew she was following. I knew it and I didn't like it. I didn't want it.
God, this couldn't be happening. Why was this happening?
Small whimpers came from behind me, causing a stir in my stomach. There was no denying it anymore. Seeing my mate – no, she wasn't my mate. Seeing whoever that woman was had awaken my ignored wolf.
I turned around and spied a small grey she-wolf. She was so small. Almost the same size as a normal wolf but her burning violet eyes told me that she was the same lass in the cave water. I swallowed at the memory.
When I realized the affect the memory had over my body, I began to grow angry. And not just normal anger that you can just burn off. This was a feeding rage that built up and built up until it came uncontrollable.
I couldn't see this wolf as my mate. I wouldn't.
"Go!" I shooed her like she was just some animal, "go on, get!"
Her whines grew as she shifted from paw to paw. Why was she still here?
"Get away!" I yelled, shooing her with my hands.
But she stayed.
Why was this happening to me?
I groaned and turned, heading back in the direction of the house.
When I heard her whimper again, I snapped, "Stop followin' me!"
She scrambled back, fear now filling her eyes. My mouth opened to stop that fear, to apologise but I was too paralysed by my own fear. This couldn't be happening.
I turned and ran back to the house.

Tarna
I shifted so that I could think with my own thoughts. For once I wanted my questions in my head to consume me.
I curled into a ball on the forest floor, trying to get it through my head.
My mate. My mate was in my cave. He was just there. Where did he come from? Why did he freak out? Why did he shoo me away like I was some animal? Why did he run away?
I didn't understand. I didn't understand any of this.
What if he had a family? Wouldn't that make me part of his family, a part of his pack? This could be my chance to have a pack, to have a family. To have people I could depend on. It brought tears to my eyes just thinking about it.
So why did he run away?
I made a vow to myself that I would do anything that I could to make him claim me. Absolutely anything.