Red's Wolf

The closer I got to home, the more my excitement settled to fear. My brain seemed to be playing tennis with the rounds of doubt and intrusive thoughts. What if she rejected me immediately? What if I creep her out? What if I come across as pushy...dorky...desperate? To be honest, I was desperate. I couldn't get her scent out of my head nor her cute freckles. My wolf whined.

Finally I couldn't take it anymore, I skidded into the drive, kicking up gravel with my tires. I parked my bike and started pulling off my clothes. Tossing them across the seat, I shifted. The familiar pop of my bones and the sudden heightened senses caused my worried and pent up wolf to howl in delight. In an instant I was off like a shot, out of the clearing and through the trees.

Running felt good. It was a release to which nothing compared. My muscles contracted under my fur, the pads of my paws pounded into the dirt, and my nose sucked in the scents of the forest. I picked up the trail of a small hunting party and steered clear of their path. I didn't want to see anyone else just yet, I needed the space.

Unfortunately, my peace was interrupted by a link from my mother just a few minutes later.

Sawyer! Meet me in the den in twenty minutes.

I didn't respond, but I sighed internally. I took the rest of my run at a slower pace, I didn't want to go back, but the drawback of having your parents as leaders of the pack meant that anything they told me to do had the added weight of a pack command. Carving my path through the woods, I took a wide banking turn to head back to the lodge. When I was within sight of the buildings, I shifted reluctantly and gathered my clothes from my bike.

Mom was waiting in the den at the back of the house when I finished pulling my shirt on and entered.

"Well, there's my other child! I haven't seen you all morning."

"I went into town, Mom. I just got back and went for a run."

She gave me a piercing look, "I know where you were, Sawyer. Why is it I had to hear about my only daughter finding her mate from the pack gossip chain?!"

Oops. I sighed, "Look, Mom, Colleen only knows because she was with me. And she told May since, um, since I was upset." I slouched into a chair and covered my eyes. "I can't, Mom, she's not going to want me. Besides, Colleen thinks I'm wrong because...well, because-"

"Because the girl is human." Mom finished my thought with a knowing glance.

"Yeah," I rubbed my forehead. "That."

"Sawyer, a wolf can have a human mate."

My eyes snapped up to my mom's face. She looked completely serious. "How do you know that?"

Mom shrugged, "Because I've seen it."

My eyebrows must have vanished into my hairline with how shocked I looked, but Mom just chuckled.

"Darling, you know I wasn't originally a Forest Walker."

"I know, you lived out east in the South Moon Pack."

"Yes, well the South Moons are an ancient pack, much older than ours. They practiced magic and spoke many languages. I grew up learning lore about the beginning of wolves and how the Moon Goddess created her first champion. The first wolf was mated to a human woman, the mother of all wolves."

"But I thought that was just a legend, a fairytale?"

Mom laughed, "Don't all fairytales have some basis of truth? Otherwise we wouldn't retell them." She paused to look out the window at the rain that was just beginning to fall. "But it's not only in legend. A member of the South Moon pack, my friend Aria, her mate was human."

My world was rocked. I wasn't alone! "What happened? How did they meet?"

"Aria was a spitfire, truly a hellion. She used to organize these massive pranks on the elders." Mom's eyes were far away as she remembered. "Once she set up a bucket of fake blood and goose feathers on the frame of the pack house to pay back a girl who'd been mean to her. Only the Alpha's cranky mother walked through the door first and got coated in red liquid and white feathers. Aria had extra chores for a month!"

I laughed with mom picturing a poor, crotchety woman's face as she became the unwitting victim of teenage pranks. "Aria sounds fun."

Mom's smile faded as she nodded, "She was. But as the years went by and she didn't meet her mate, she grew bitter. It was hard because I hadn't met your father either yet, but I knew he was out there, like I knew there was sun behind the clouds. Aria though, wasn't so sure. She kept saying she didn't have a mate.

"Finally, when we were about twenty-five, our Alpha sent us on a trip to find our mates. Our pack was so involved with other local packs that we knew we had to travel further to find mates, so we packed our bags, got a junk car, and left. It was fun for a few months, just traveling, visiting other packs, and being with my friend. But it all changed when she met Roger." Mom sighed.

"What happened?"

"Roger was a mechanic at a garage somewhere in Idaho. We'd had to stop because the car kept overheating. When Aria got out, she immediately zoned in on him. We could smell he was human, there was no doubt. But Aria didn't care, she was in love at first sight." Mom stopped, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Did he reject her?"

Her eyes locked on mine, "No! No, but Aria was afraid he would. We stayed for a few weeks as they got to know one another, but she hid what she was the whole time. Roger wasn't a mean man, but he was highly religious. He went to church three times a week, prayed for every meal, and read from the Bible every night.

"Aria was worried that if he found out what she was, that he wouldn't want her. So she kept her wolf hidden. She suppressed her and started going to church with Roger. She buried her symbols of the Moon Goddess and, um..." Mom's breath caught.

"What?"

"She had herself sterilized."

"Mom, that's- that's awful."

She nodded as her light eyes swam with tears, "It really was, I don't even know where she had it done. She stumbled back into the motel where we were staying one evening, bleeding and sick. I took care of her and Roger came by to pray for her, believing her story that it was an illness.

"When she healed, she married him. A few weeks later she sent me away, saying she was choosing a human life. She made me swear not to tell anyone from the pack where she was, not even to write to her. I guess I hoped one day she'd come to her senses and bring him home to the pack, but as far as I know, she never did. I met your father six months later and the rest is history."

I shifted to my feet to pace, "But why did she go to such extremes? Surely he would have accepted her! He would want his mate to be herself? What- and why did she have surgery? If they had kids, wouldn't it be a 50/50 shot that they were wolves? Or they'd be only part wolf?" I stopped when I saw Mom shaking her head.

"Sawyer, when a wolf and human mate, the offspring are always wolves. The Moon Goddess makes her genes dominant to ensure the continuation of our race."

I gulped. "So, what does that mean for me?"

Mom got to her feet and put her hands on my shoulders, "You need to be sure this woman is your mate, absolutely sure. Then you need to be honest with her. I won't lose you, darling. She'll accept you as you are or she doesn't deserve you."

I nodded. Mom gave me a fierce hug, then made her way to the door. "Also," she called over her shoulder. "Take May's advice. Take the girl on a date." She winked before closing the door behind her. I collapsed onto the soft, green sofa. A date. Right.

"I've gotta get her to look at me first," I mumbled to the silent room.

_ _

It wasn't until 6 o'clock when I found the courage to head back to the coffee shop. It was still light enough, so I took my bike, letting the cool air calm my nerves and clear my head. I pulled up and noticed the sign on the door saying they closed at 7:30. Good thing I found my courage before then, I mumbled to myself.

The same smell of coffee permeated the air as I entered the cafe.The place was much less busy than it had been that morning, but a few patrons still milled about the tables while the baristas busied themselves behind the counter. I caught a flash of red and a freckled cheek behind the espresso machine as I walked up to the counter. The cashier took my order with the same friendly indifference as the day before and sent me down the counter to wait.

I tried to take deep breaths to calm the butterflies in my stomach but all that did was heighten my awareness of the honey and peaches scent filtering out from behind the large machine. My wolf whimpered in my head as I closed my eyes to take another deep breath.

"Hey I remember you!" A lovely voice broke my reverie. My eyes popped open to see my redhead staring at me with a smile on her freckled face. "You were in here yesterday, with your wife?"

"Wife?" I asked,both confused and completely captivated. "Oh, Colleen! She's my best friend."

I tried not to read too much into it, but my redhead's smile brightened slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry." She blushed crimson as she passed me my cup.

I chuckled, "Don't worry about it. Colleen's the best, but if we were married to each other one of us would already be dead."

She laughed, light touching her brown eyes and her nose scrunching up adorably. "I have a friend like that," she said. "Well, nice to meet you," she held up the cup with my name on it, "Sawyer, who is definitely not married to Coleen. I'm Scarlett." She extended her delicate hand to me. I carefully reached for it, before my brain caught up.

"Wait, Scarlett? Like the color red?" I asked, our hands just inches apart.

"Yeah yeah, I know. My parents were a bit on the nose with that one."

"I'll say," I laughed. As I took her hand to shake it, I felt a warmth spread through my entire arm, like applying icy-hot to your skin. I know it's cliche when people say it only took one touch before they knew the love of their life, but with wolves it's a little more meaningful, because we do have mates. And the touch of my mate set my body on fire from the tips of my fingers where the embers burned brightest all the way up my arm and to the nerve endings in my shoulder. I felt her connection. Reluctantly, I released her hand and saw to my delight she looked a little reluctant to release me as well.

"It's nice to meet you, Scarlett," I said with a little more husk in my voice than I intended. "I'm gonna go enjoy my drink. You should come say hi again if you get a minute."

A gentleman approaching on my right caused us to break our eye contact. Scarlett caught his glance, blushed, and turned back to her machine. With every ounce of coolness I could muster I strode over to a table near the windows and slid onto a stool to enjoy my tea.There wasn't much going on outside with it being so late on a weekday, but I pretended that it was as fascinating as the Super Bowl game because if I didn't my eyes would wander back over to Scarlett as she worked. I didn't want to stare, but our eyes met often enough that she knew I was looking.

Around 7pm, my keen hearing picked up a conversation from the back.

"I'm gonna go sweep up," Scarlett said.

"Is that all you're doing?" her coworker replied, "Or are you gonna go get a closer look at that tall drink of water by the windows?"

I heard some giggling and scuffling before Scarlett appeared, flushing bright red with a broom in one hand and a dust pan in the other.

Thoroughly pleased, but trying not to look it, I slipped my tea and turned to look out the windows again. I saw the redhead approach out of the corner of my eye. I considered dropping a napkin on the ground so she'd have an excuse to come over, but that felt far too "meet-cute" for me. Instead I was pleasantly surprised when she swept her way over and smiled.

"How's your tea?"

I smiled, "Good. I'm not much of a coffee drinker."

She laughed, "Well I guess that would explain why I haven't seen you around here before." She leaned against the broom and I got my first good look at her. She was shorter than me by quite a bit, probably only 5'2 to my 5'11. Her red hair was curly, falling past her shoulders, but her body is what made my mouth run dry. The woman had curves. Her black leggings and black company t-shirt hugged her form like a second skin. She was soft and plump around the middle with thick thighs and killer calves. I felt a familiar tightening in my jeans with just one glance of her full breasts.

"Uh, yeah, I only come to town when I have to. Yesterday I was here getting my grandma some of the coffee she likes."

"That's sweet of you. So you don't live in town?" Her scent as she got closer to my table was beginning to affect my brain. Added to the way her hips swayed as she swept, I had to use everything in me to remain coherent.

"I, um, live at FW."

I registered the surprise on her face, "Oh! The reservation? I'm sorry, I don't want to sound ignorant, but um, you don't look Native American?" She was blushing and looked apologetic.

I chuckled, "My mom's from out east, I look a lot more like her." What I couldn't say is my pack really isn't related to Native Americans at all. Some packs are, but our heritage was more Greek influenced. The cover story the feds put out to hide the existence of wolves was that we were Native American, that way we could have our space. Our land was called Fort Walker Reservation.

"So what's it like to grow up on a reservation?" Scarlett leaned over my table looking interested.

"Well, my classes were small and our whole community is really close. My family all lives in the same house, there's always someone around, so that's good and bad."

She smiled, "I can imagine. Nice to have them, but privacy is probably a hot commodity?"

"You have no idea."

Giving up the pretense of sweeping, she plopped down in the seat across from me with a giggle. I was mesmerized by how every one of her small, perfect teeth showed when she smiled.

"Do you work?"

"Oh, yeah. I do security and vehicle maintenance. The, uh, tribe gives me a salary, kind of an allowance, for the work I do."

"That's nice," she rested her chin on her hand. "I know nothing about cars. I don't even drive!"

"What?" I laughed, "How do you get around?"

She shrugged, "I walk. I live really close to the shop, but I'm working on my degree right now. I have to bum rides to campus for my classes. Public transportation sucks in these small towns."

"What are you studying?"

"Culinary arts. I want to run my own kitchen someday."

"Wow," I was truly impressed. "That's awesome. I probably know as much about cooking as you do about cars."

"Oh yeah?" She smirked, "What can you cook?"

"Um, I can make sandwiches."

"That's assembly, not cooking."

"Okay, I can bake pizza rolls."

Her eyes crinkled up and she laughed loudly, "Pizza rolls? What are you, sixteen?"

"Twenty-eight," I mumbled sheepishly as she laughed harder.

"Well, maybe I can teach you how to make an actual pizza someday and you can show me how to drive that sexy bike of yours."

I flushed with pleasure, "I'd like that a lot."

She beamed, "Should I give you my number then?"

Shit. Right, people used cell phones to communicate. Some pack members had them, especially to keep in touch with family in other packs or friends from college, but I'd never needed one. I fumbled with a napkin for a second.

"Y-yes please. Uh, my phone broke, um, I have to get a new one. Can you write it down on this?"

She looked skeptical at first, but pulled a pen out of her apron and scribbled numbers on it. I folded it up and tucked it safely into the inner pocket of my leather jacket.

"Hey, Scarlett! If you're done flirting with the customers, I could use some help cleaning up!" The other barista had emerged from the back with a mischievous glint in her eye and a dirty rag in her hand. Scarlett's entire face burned red as she tripped out of her chair.

"Right, shit. Coming, Claire!" She turned back to me,"I've gotta go help or I won't hear the end of it. Text me when you get your new phone, okay?"

"I will, it was nice to meet you, Scarlett." Her smile and wave made my heart skip. My wolf whined pathetically as she walked away. I tossed my cup into the nearest trash and adjusted my jacket to face the cool night. Stealing one last glance back, I caught her blushing while her coworker clearly continued to tease.

As I exited the shop, I started to panic about my phone situation. I had no idea where to buy a phone or really what to get. Most of the security I did was closed circuit cameras and fences. I'd used a phone on rare occasions, but it wasn't really something I needed day to day. And our pack was safer the fewer members we had online. My first thought, reluctantly, was Callum. He had a couple phones for pack business. I slid onto my bike, securing my helmet, then took off for the pack land, mentally preparing to ask my brother for help.

_ _

When I approached him the next morning, Callum wasn't nearly as insufferable as I thought he'd be. May and Mom must have got to him first. He pulled a simple smart phone out of a safe in his office. It was still in the box.

"I didn't know you kept a store of phones?"

Callum grimaced, "Unfortunately, having a set of burner phones ready is standard practice today. We need a secure way to reach pack members when they are far away and to contact other packs." He turned the device on and went through a series of set up menus, then handed me a sticky note. "Here's the number for this phone. I assume this is how you'll be communicating with your mate?"

I flushed, "Uh, yeah. She gave me her number already."

"Fine. But keep all pack business off it. Don't allude to the pack, wolves, the reservation, any of it. This phone can't be tracked, but any device can be hacked. Understand?"

I rolled my eyes, "Cal, I know how to keep our secret. I think I can handle it."

He just nodded before handing over the phone and dismissing me. I took the device up to my room, my sweaty hand clutching the banister for support. The napkin with Scarlett's number was on my coffee table. I closed my door and sank onto the couch.

"Okay, you can do this. Just ask her out."

I pulled up the contacts and added Scarlett. Her name glowed, burned into my nervous brain as I opened a new message. Several attempts later, I had what I thought was a solid text.

S: Hey, it's Sawyer, from the coffee shop. I got my new phone. Would you want to meet up for dinner this week?

I hit send, then prayed to the Goddess for calm. My mate didn't respond immediately. Hoping she was just in class or something, I paced around, cleaning up my rooms and checking the phone every few minutes. After close to an hour, I couldn't take it. I left the offending device on the table and took off down the stairs. Pulling my shirt and shorts off, I hit the porch nude before shifting quickly and bounding into the woods.

The air was noticeably warmer today as winter hadn't fully made an appearance. I ran fast through the trees, hearing sounds of combat training from far off to my left. I skirted to avoid the training field, not wanting to get roped into a game with Luke and his friends at the moment. Usually, combat training was tons of fun and took my mind off of whatever was occupying it. Today, the thought didn't sound appealing.

Rounding a large ravine peppered with pine trees, I heard some growls and panting, but couldn't sniff out the wolves it might be. The border wasn't that close, so it couldn't be a patrol. I slowed to listen. My wolf cocked her head and made a frustrated throat sound at not identifying the pack members. Crouching around a wide pine, I spied into a thicket of trees where two gray-brown wolf shapes could be seen. A few steps forward and the scent finally hit me. Mating.

Shit! I started to slink back as quietly as I could. The pair were crouched in the thickest part of the pines. Now that I knew what I was looking at, it was clear to see that the male was on top of the female while she crouched on all fours. His massive paws dangled over her shoulders as her paws on the ground supported both of them. Their forms twitched as he thrust forward and grunts and whimpers were driven from her muzzle. The smell of sex permeated the grove, causing my wolf to whimper. At the sound, the mating pair stopped for a moment, I could feel the press of the mind link a second before my best friend's voice intruded.