Chapter Three - The Winds of Change

Jake slumped down into his leather armchair, running a hand over his face. “COFFEE!” he yelled into the empty room, knowing the omegas in the kitchen below could hear him and would bring it quickly. It was later than he usually wanted his coffee, but they would have been waiting for the call to bring it promptly.

Last night had been long and miserable, so he was in a bad mood this morning. Going down to eat with everyone would be a really bad idea. He’d spent hours in that tiny little shed last night waiting for the man with the gun to go back inside. Then he’d waited another hour, until almost dawn, just to be sure he the jerk wasn’t watching from inside.

He was still furious with the man for frightening his mate the way he had and then laughing at her.

It had taken all of his concentration to keep from charging out of that shed to attack the oaf.

“You bellowed, Alpha?” Mark said sauntering into the room, his stride long and confident with a little uplifted movement at the end of each which gave the impression that he was goofing off, which he usually was. His blond hair was cut short and he was clean-shaven for a change. He came up to the sitting area and put both cups on the coffee table before taking a seat.

“Not for you. I called for coffee, not Beta.”

“And you scared the young Omegas right out of their fur so I brought your coffee up. They need to get lunch served to everyone else in the pack house. We can’t all sleep ‘till noon.”

Jake grabbed the largest cup and downed the first half as quickly as possible. He’d only had a few hours of sleep this morning, maybe with enough coffee, he could get on with his day without taking his frustration out on his pack. Mark raised one eyebrow when he saw how much of the coffee was gone in one swig.

“Out later than usual?” Mark's teasing tone was normally a great mood changer, but today it was just getting on his nerves. “Are your hunting skills slipping already?”

“I found my mate,” he growled in response, then winced, running his fingers through the short auburn curls on top of his head. He hadn’t planned on sharing that information until he’d actually spoken to the girl.

Silence filled the room for a moment.

“I don’t smell anyone new here,” Mark said, “You finally find your mate but you leave her the same night? Was she that horrid to look at?” Jake bristled, scowling at his beta. He took another drink from his coffee cup before answering.

“She’s gorgeous. Just...young.”

“Ah, so that’s why she hasn’t been presented by anyone yet. Well that’s alright then, you’ve got a young one! Lucky old fart. That happens sometimes I’ve heard. Usually, it’s only discovered after the guy has chosen a mate. It can get nasty then. Good job your stubborn ass decided to wait it out. How long before she’s of age?” When Jake didn’t answer right away Mark leaned forward and picked up his own mug. “Come on man. I need to know so I can tell everyone how much longer we have to put up with your grumpy ass.”

“I’m always a grump compared to you.”

“Well, yeah, but for the last couple of years, you’ve been getting more sour and snarly by the week. Supposedly that’s common when a wolf doesn’t mate, but most of us do, so people forget about the consequences of loneliness. So how long?”

“I don’t know.” There was another moment of silence.

“I don’t follow man,” Mark said at last.

Jake winced and rubbed one hand over his face before admitting the truth to his Beta. “She was scared of me.” More silence. Jake sighed, not sure how to explain something that he still didn’t understand himself. “She was in human form and scared of my wolf.”

“She was frightened, but didn’t change? That’s...strange. Usually, a werewolf would shift if they were startled by another werewolf. She is wolf, right? You aren’t mated to a human, are you?”

“She smelled wolf, yes.”

“Good. The pack wouldn’t like being told they have a human Luna.”

“The thing is, she didn’t seem to know who I was...what I was...am... I don’t know. I think her family might be rogue and she was raised as a human.”

Mark’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Holly shit. Did my Alpha go into No Wolf's Land as a wolf?” Jake glowered at his Beta but didn’t answer. “She was in human form, on human-owned land, and scared of you, but didn’t shift...are you absolutely certain she’s the werewolf? Maybe there was a werewolf nearby and you got mixed up.” Jake snarled. Mark put his hands up in the air and leaned back in his chair. “Just asking.”

“She was scared, not terrified, and she was getting more curious about me the longer I sat there. She had just started to calm down when we got interrupted by a hunter.” Mark sniffed again, checking for the scent of blood this time before he said, “It isn’t hunting season, why was there a hunter?”

“He lives in the house beside hers. He came out with a gun and she sent me to hide in her shed. Well, she said to hide out loud and I saw an image of a hole in the shed, which I’m guessing came from her wolf since I didn’t know about the hole until then.”

“Okay, so your wolves met at least. Why did the guy come out armed?”

“I howled.”

“You howled in No Wolf's Land! Dude, you’re killing me! How do we discipline anybody with you breaking all the rules?” Jake growled and downed the rest of his coffee.

“My mate was scared of me, Mark. The goddess lead me to her, but the woman was too scared to get near me. I certainly couldn’t claim her as my mate like that. I had to call for the goodness' help. I had no idea what to do. My instinct was to run up to my mate and claim her but I could hear her heart racing and smell her fear, so rationally I knew that was a bad idea, not to mention against my own laws against forcing a pairing. It was all I could do to hold myself back, I wasn’t thinking beyond how to get close to her. I couldn’t go human and be standing naked in her yard, that would get me thrown in jail if anyone saw me. Or maybe even scare her more since she didn’t seem to know I was a werewolf! I couldn't stay wolf and talk to her unless our wolves were mind-linked, which she didn’t seem to want to do aside from the image of the shed. I needed guidance.”

“You needed someone to boot your ass right back home! Did it ever occur to you to just leave and go back in the daylight?”

Jake glowered at Mark but ignored the question. Going back in daylight was of course the logical answer, but it hadn’t actually occurred to him until he’d been stuck in the shed for a few hours. Only in there had reason had been able to completely overpower his instinct. It was a lesson he would have to keep in mind should he ever find himself needing to reprimand someone for a similar infraction. Apparently, boundaries got fuzzy when instinct kicked in, even to the person who had made the rules. “Maybe she is just scared to change so close to the hunter’s cabin,” He said instead, still trying to work out why his mate hadn’t come to him. Even if she was too young to scent him as a mate, she should have scented him as a werewolf. “Or maybe it was just that I surprised her. Living among humans, maybe finding a werewolf is rare enough to be shocking. She was starting to calm down and had taken a few steps towards me just before the hunter came out. I had to hide in her shed all night! Which reminds me. We need to check if one of the packs is trying to expand into the human buffer zone.”

“I still can’t believe you went wolf in the human territory.”

“Shut it! That’s the only way I could follow her scent. The humans have expanded a bit. More than a little bit actually, there are too many foul odors up there now covering everything up. We’ve not been keeping a close enough eye on the boundary. She lives there, in a little log cabin. That cabin has been around a while, the gardens looked familiar too, but maybe a bit more extensive. Most of the nearby houses are new though. Some of them seem to be on land that was ours last time I checked. Well, not the houses, but the people using some of them have put up sheds and removed trees, expanding the space they use. We might have to invest in some fencing to keep them out of our space. I scented at least one other female werewolf, her mother I’m guessing, inside the shed. There were really faint traces of at least two others by the door, but those could have just been other werewolves checking the place out. There weren’t any obvious territorial markings from wolves, just dogs, but if one of the other packs is moving its members to homes near our land we need to know why and keep a closer eye on their movements too.”

“On it,” Mark said as he stood, “should I have more coffee sent up for you? Maybe a sandwich?” Jake nodded. “Don’t bite the help, okay Jake? They keep the place running.”

“You’re just worried I’ll stick you in the kitchens if they all take off.”

“You should be worried about that. I can’t even boil water, so that would mean no more coffee unless you know how to make it.”

“I could probably you-tube it,” Jake grumbled to himself, “it can’t be all that hard to work a coffee machine.”