The Lone Wolf Ch. 04

Mother and father told us that they were going to go on a little trip, and would be back before the mating ceremony for Alford and Zoey, Antonio and Fawn, and Clark and me. Ardwolf was told to act as alpha so he could gain more experience before he had to actually take over from father. Ardolph was told to have fun and go find his mate, as was Ardwolf. As for us mated couples to be, we were told to stay together with our other half to get to know each other better.

Clark and I went for a walk to be alone. The den seemed to be overrun nowadays with so many getting ready for what's to come when mother and father came home. After a few minutes, Clark slowly stopped walking.

"Clark?" I asked, turning to look at him.

"Belle love, I need to know what you want to do after the mating ceremony." Clark said as he took both my hands in his. "I've been waiting for you a long time. I knew you were my mate. I just held off until you were nearer your 20th birthday, and for a time when I could get you a way from your family, seeing how they have always sheltered you from most other wolves."

"What do you mean? We are going to be together as husband and wife." I replied with some confusion. "I was a little slow understanding the depth of my attraction to you, but I've never had feelings like this for anyone."

"Yes Belle, we will be together as husband and wife, but that's not what I mean. Belle, you are human. I could turn you into a werewolf right after the ceremony so you could be like the rest of your family, or I could get you pregnant with OUR cubs, and wait until after you have them to turn you. I told Ardolph it would be up to you what you want to do." Clark said, looking into my eyes.

"Pregnant with our cubs, or turn into a werewolf." I said, "Both, I want to do both."

"Belle, love I don't want to tell you what to do, but may I tell you what I would like us to do?"

"Go on Clark; I want to know what you think my mate."

"I want you to have my... our cubs. I don't want to go looking for a human woman to have my cubs, just to take them away from her, and she never gets to see the cubs grow up. I understand that's what needs to be done for werewolves to keep being born, but I don't want to make you feel like I love someone else." Clark told me, his eyes looking intently into mine.

"But Clark, what happens after I'm turned? Don't you think you would want more cubs? And if you do, I will not be able to give them to you." I said, concern lacing my voice.

"No, I would be happy with the cubs you can give me. Not everyone can say their mate gave them cubs. If you choose to have my cubs, that will be the most wonderful gift of life ever that you or anyone can give me my love." Clark said with a warm smile.

I couldn't believe my soon to be mate was asking me to have his cubs. I knew I could have four or more cubs like the woman who had my brothers and me, but if I was lucky I could have just one cub. I knew what I wanted even more than to be a werewolf. I didn't say anything to Clark but I kissed him so hard so he knew my answer.

"I love you my Belle. I have since the first time I saw you." Clark said, his warm arms wrapped around me.

I never knew Clark was in love with me. I had always thought of him as a good friend, but deep down I knew I had stronger feelings for him. Could it be love, or just the mating pull to each other? No, I had feelings for him before he said I was his mate.

"I love you too Clark. I never knew how much until now, and not just because of the mating pull. I always had feelings for you." I said hugging him tightly.

"Belle, by the time the mating ceremony is here you will be in your fertile time. I could get you pregnant then my love." Clark said.

"Yes." was all I could reply.

This time it was Clark who kissed me hard. We walked hand-in-hand back to the den. I couldn't wait to be mated to him.

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"Sweetheart, are you going to be all right for the mating ceremony?" Antonio asked.

"I don't know Antonio. Your mom has been telling me what is going to happen. But to do something like what your mom said in front of the whole pack? I just don't know." Fawn said worriedly.

"Fawn, I want you to know I would never do anything you are not ready for. Maybe it would be best if we pull out of the mating ceremony for now." Antonio said gently.

"I knew it! You don't want to mate with me. Well you don't have to worry about me anymore. I'll leave you and your family's house tonight. I have taken care of myself since I was six years old, and I can keep doing it." Fawn stated.

Fawn got up to leave. She got to the front door, and she had it open when an arm from behind her closed it before she could get out.

"Sweetheart, where are you going?" Antonio asked.

"What do you care?" Fawn snapped.

"Fawn, what's gotten into you? You've never acted like this before."

"Let me go! I will not stay here any longer. I'M SORRY I WAS SO MUCH TROUBLE FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AND YOUR PACK. I'LL FIND A WAY TO PAY YOU ALL BACK. NOW LET ME GO! " Fawn shouted.

"Fawn, I won't let you go out of this house, or onto the pack's land." Antonio said, worried for her safety.

Her wolf was getting mad. Fawn could feel her trying to come out. Suddenly she couldn't hold her back any longer. The next thing Antonio knew he was holding her front paws. Antonio couldn't believe Fawn's wolf came out because she wanted out of the house and away from him. He wondered what he did to make her go to her wolf form. That was something she hated.

Fawn pulled her front paws away from the man who was holding her. Fawn knew the only way out was where the man was standing. Fawn's wolf was a warm red color with black highlights, but Antonio barely had time to notice before she was trying to lunge at him, her jaws at his throat.

"Fawn, stop this now!" Antonio ordered loudly, hoping to get through the wolf to the woman inside.

Just then Antonio's parents and his brother came out of their rooms. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. They had never known a wolf to attack their mate before; but with Fawn anything could happen.

Shane saw the wolf on his brother and acted as fast as he could to help his twin; but she swiped her sharp claws at him, slicing a cut on his chest, forcing him to jump back. Fortunately the cut was not too deep; he would heal with minimal scarring.

"No Shane, stay back. It's Fawn. She's just upset about something." Antonio said.

"Man, I would hate to be you right now." Shane smirked.

"Not helping right now bro. Fawn, sweetheart, turn back to your human form so we can talk about what is upsetting you." Antonio pleaded.

"Antonio, what were you talking about before she got upset?" Karissa asked. Antonio's mom hoped for some clue to how she could help Fawn calm down.

"We were talking about the mating ceremony. I told her that if she was not ready for it, we could wait. I DON'T WANT TO FORCE HER INTO SOMETHING WHERE SHE'S GOING TO HATE ME FOREVER MOM." Antonio said, his voice rising with distress.

"Fawn dear, do you think that Antonio doesn't want to mate with you because he said that?" Karissa asked softly, taking a step closer.

Fawn stopped trying to attack. She turned to look at Karissa, then left Antonio and went over to her. When she reached Karissa, Fawn's wolf sat down and laid her head on Karissa's shoulder and just whined from the emotional hurt.

"It's ok dear, let it all out. You will feel better. Antonio, I told you to take your time with her. Now look at what happened." Antonio's mom scolded.

"I just wanted to give her more time to get herself ready for what's to come. She's my mate! I do want to mate with her, just when she's ready." Antonio said passionately.

Fawn stopped crying and looked over her shoulder. She saw that Antonio had moved away from the door. She got up, looked at the people who were going to be her family, and then she ran full speed to the door, breaking right through it. She ran so fast Antonio couldn't see where she went.

"Fawn, come back here sweetheart. You can't just leave me like this. We will do the mating ceremony if that's want you want. Just please come back home. " Antonio called out, standing at the door. "What do I do now? She's out there in her wolf form without any clothes to put on when she turns back to her human form."

"We'll call Ardwolf. He's acting as Alpha while his parents are away. He will know what to do." Antonio's dad Connor replied.

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RING RING RING RING RING RING

Dammit, fucking phone kept going off. A wolf trying to learn how to be an alpha should be able to get some sleep around here. Whoever it was better have a good reason to wake me up.

"What the fuck do you want? Do you have any idea what time it is? This better be good." I growled.

Antonio's voice sounded urgent as I heard, "Ardwolf, I'm sorry about how late it is, but I need your help."

"Antonio what is it? What happened? Is your family ok?"

"It's Fawn; she ran away from me." Antonio explained "I need your help to find my mate. She's a new unmated wolf, and not yet a pack member. Someone could try to force her to mate with him. Her wolf was so fast that I need you or one of your brothers to come help find her."

"I'll be there in a few minutes." I assured him. "I'll come in my wolf form; it will be faster. If you could have a pair of pants waiting for me that would be nice."

"Thank you, and yes, we will have a pair of pants for you. Again, I'm sorry for the time." Antonio said.

I got off my phone and let my wolf take over. My wolf ran as fast as he could to Antonio's house, getting there in minutes. It looked like Antonio's door was open, but when I got closer to the door I realized it was simply gone. Fawn must have been really mad to go right through the door. What happened here? Doesn't Fawn want to be mated to Antonio? Antonio is one of the best wolves I know.

I walked up to the door and shifted back to my human form. There was Shane with some dried blood on his skin. I walked into the house, and Antonio gave me the pants. It's lucky that we were the same size.

"Antonio, what happened man?" I asked as I pulled on the pants.

"Fawn got upset with me and transformed to her wolf. That was the first time I ever saw her wolf." Antonio said with admiration. "She's beautiful."

"What did she get upset about? It might help us track her down."

"We were talking about the mating ceremony. I told her we could wait if she was not ready yet, so now she thinks I don't want to mate with her. I tried to talk to her, but all she wanted was to get out of the house and away from me. When I didn't let her go, she shifted and attacked me, and I guess Shane too.

"Aww man, what a mess just over a misunderstanding. Don't worry we'll find her." I told him. "Do you know which way she went?"

Antonio showed me the direction I should start looking for her. Antonio and his family transformed into their wolves. I knew they would want to come help find her. I took off the pants and transformed into my wolf again. We started sniffing the ground for her scent. When I got it I howled to the others, then we took off following her trail.

We ran down street after street. We followed turn after turn until her scent went into a back alleyway. We could feel there was something wrong with this. We slowed down to a quiet walk as we entered the alley. There Fawn was, cornered and back in her human form, with ten male werewolves trying to mount her, but she was smaller and quicker, and dodged away before they could do anything to her.

When Antonio saw Fawn being attacked, he let out a loud snarl and charged the males. Connor, Karissa, Shane and I were right behind him. Antonio took down one wolf immediately, and tore into a second as Shane ripped into another. Connor and Karissa had fought side-by-side for many years and worked together to knock out two more of the males. I had taken out one wolf as I raced to get in closer to Fawn. Antonio's anger had him focused on punishing the attackers. As the fight continued, I saw one male trying to take advantage of the confusion to go after Fawn.

I was not going to let this wolf mate with my best friend's mate. I ran over to Fawn, and stood so she was huddled under me. I let out a very long howl and everyone one stopped fighting. I howled once more for all ten of the wolves to leave immediately. They took off once they knew who I was. I felt Fawn being pulled out from under me, so I looked back to see who it was. It was Antonio, pulling Fawn into his arms.

"Oh Sweetheart, thank the gods we got to you in time."Antonio said, holding Fawn closely.

Fawn didn't say anything to Antonio. She just looked around like she didn't know what had happened or who had her in his arms.

"No, put me down or I'll rip your throat out." Fawn threatened.

"Fawn, you are safe now. No one is going to hurt you ever again." Antonio tried to reassure her.

"Put me down now." Fawn ordered.

"We are going home Fawn." Antonio countered.

"I don't have a home. I haven't had a home since I was six." Fawn stated firmly.

I decided it was time to step in. As Alpha, one of my duties is the welfare of my pack. I went over to the distressed couple.

"Fawn, you do have a home with Antonio and his family. Just take a good look around you. They came because they were worried about you. I know Antonio hurt you even if he didn't mean to, but he was only trying to think about you. Antonio's a great guy, and he would be a good mate for you. My best friend was willing to give his life up for you just now. NOW AS YOUR ALPHA-TO-BE, I'M TELLING YOU TO GO HOME AND WORK THIS OUT. "

"Ok Ardwolf." Fawn said, her wolf overriding her reluctance and giving in to its Alpha.

"And Fawn, I hear when you get into it with your mate the makeup is so much better." I teased, hoping to lighten the mood.

I walked back with them to their house, Fawn held in Antonio's arms like he was never going to let her go again. I can't wait to find my mate. Where could she be?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shadoe and I told the pups that we were going on a trip, but not where. We were going to see the human that had Shadoe's pups 20 years ago. I just wish that female werewolves could have young so we didn't have to let our mates be with someone else who could give them young. I don't know if it's true or not, but I had been told once before that the first female werewolf was cursed so she would not ever have any cubs, and after she was gone it passed on to all female werewolves. I don't know how or why that would work on all of us, but it seems to.

"Mia?" Shadoe interrupted my musing.

"Yes love?"

"Mate, we are about there. Not too much farther now. You're sure about this love?" Shadow asked me, concern on his face.

"Yes Shadoe. I....We need to know why Annabelle and Fawn look so much alike, though I'm not so happy to meet the human girl you had the cubs with."

"Mia, you know if I could avoid mating with that human woman I would have. but as an Alpha my name must go on for the good of the pack. I must have cubs; there is no way around it. I hate that I had to mate with her. It feels like I hurt you, and I never want to hurt you in any way." Shadoe told me.

"Shadoe I really do understand, and for the record you and your human gave me the four most wonderful pups. And by the way, you never hurt me."

"That's good to know, love. Hey Mia, you should know that when in the human world I go by a different name. I'm known as Austin." Shadoe told me.

We soon were in the human part of town. It was too loud for me. I like it at the den in the woods where it isn't so loud, even with all the animals and the pack members howling at the moon. Their howl was more like a song; sometimes it was sad, happy, or angry, and some were calls trying to find mates. That's how I met Shadoe. He was howling his song for his mate to come to be beside him. He told of how he was lonely, and needed his other half to come out into the open.

"Mia, we're almost there, " Shadoe said, bringing me back to the present.

"Well, let's go talk to this human so we can go back to the den" I responded.

"Mia, you've got to stop calling her human. Humans call other humans by their names." Shadoe explained.

"Sorry, you know I have not been around a lot of humans before. So what is her name?"

"Wendy." Shadoe said, "and remember, she calls me Austin."

"Well Austin, let's go talk to Wendy then."

We walked downtown, until Shadoe stopped us in front of a well put together house. . It was not too big or little for a couple of humans with maybe one or two young. Austin (Shadoe) walked up the walkway, up the steps, and then rang the doorbell. We waited for someone to come to the door. After what seemed to be forever, the door opened.

The human woman looked like someone Austin (Shadoe) would mate with. She was 5'6", short, but not freakishly so. She had a decent amount of meat on her bones, blonde hair and green eyes with a small nose. Maybe a C cup or D.

"Austin? What in the world are you doing here? I haven't seen you in 'bout 20 or so years." the human named Wendy exclaimed.

"Wendy, it has been 20 years, and a couple of days. This is my wife Mia."

"Why don't you both come in? Hi, Mia. You look like you would be a good mother. I'm happy to meet you, and glad I could help give you kids. How are the children? They must be big now? Did anything ever happen to them? I mean like you could never say because no one in their right mind would believe you." Wendy said, seemingly all in one breath.

"Um no Wendy, I can't say it has. I glad you bring the kids up, because we need to ask you something. I know you had three boys and a girl. But a friend of the boys had his girlfriend over the other night, and she looks just like my little girl; all but her eyes. My little girl has blue eyes, and she had green eyes. And this girl is the same age and same birthday as my kids. Same everything. " Austin (Shadoe) said.

"We need to know why she looks my... our little girl." I added.

"Well Mia, Austin, you both know I had four babies that day, but what you don't know is I actually had five babies; three boys and two girls. I didn't know if I could give all five up. Hell, I didn't know if I would ever have kids again. I needed to keep one child, I didn't think it would hurt anyone." Wendy said.

"So where is the pu...kid now?" I asked her.

"I don't know. She was taken away from me when she was six years old. Put in her place was a demon; a wolf demon at that. I have never seen her since then." Wendy told us.

"A wolf demon? She went through her rite of passage all alone. We should have been there for her. I bet she was so frightened and lonely, and didn't know what was happening to her." I cried.

"Mia, calm down!" Austin (Shadoe) said sharply, reminding me of the circumstances, and I pulled myself together.

"I do have a picture of her, but it's of her when she was six. Let me go get it for you. I keep it put away so my other three kids don't ask who she is, or why they never see the little girl. I don't know what I would tell them." Wendy said.

Wendy got up and went down the hall into another room. She came back with the picture of the little girl that should have been raised with her brothers and sister. So my little Belle is one of my pups. But why can't she turn into a wolf like her brothers? Just one more thing we have to find out.

"Here she was just the happiest little girl." Wendy said passing the picture to us. "Her name was...."

"Fawn!" we all said at the same time.

"You know her Austin? Is she ok?" Wendy asked eagerly.

"Yea, Wendy. Fawn is okay now. She had been homeless for the longest time, until Antonio found her and took her home to his family. Now they are going to be married when we get back home." Austin (Shadoe) said.