***
PRESENT DAY…Alpha Jeremy Stanton was in a very bad mood. The fact that it was a full moon that night was making his mood even darker. The Stanwood Pack, which was the biggest pack in the country, was getting ready for a run and that never ceased to bring a feeling of excitement and anxiety amongst the pack. The air was charged. It was usually the most important event that occurred every month because newly turned wolves got to take their first run to the joy and pride of the grown-ups.Just as Alpha Jeremy always insisted on, the warriors had scanned the parameters to ensure that the pack would be safe during their run. These checks were important as rogues or hunters could be waiting to attack. Rogues werewolves with no packs. They were usually broken from customary behavior and killed indiscriminately and heedlessly. Hunters on the other hand were that group of people who had made it their life’s mission to destroy supernatural beings such as werewolves from existence. When Jeremy heard word, mere hours before their run, that some hunters were lying in wait for them, he’d growled with fury. And when he was told that the hunters had managed to escape, leaving just one man behind, he’d gotten even angrier. He’d ordered his warriors to bring the hunter back to the camp. Jeremy wanted to personally kill the hunter to placate his furious wolf.As Jeremy paced impatiently waiting for his warriors, the pack got ready to move. Jeremy’s house was a modern-day castle. It was huge and breathtakingly beautiful. A lot had gone into the magnificent structure. To some, the house was a five-star hotel as it could easily house about three hundred people. There were hundreds of acres of land around Alpha Jeremy’s house, all belonging to the Alpha. Though the werewolves lived anywhere they wished… amongst regular human folk, they always converged in Jeremy’s mansion once every month to run as a pack. Wolves from other packs who owed allegiance to Jeremy usually joined the Stanwood pack for their runs. For the wolves, it was the best place to be on a night of a full moon because they got to run to their hearts' content in the forest surrounding the property. Jeremy was therefore particular about security as he was responsible for not only his pack members but non-pack members too.‘We’re here Alpha.’ Jeremy heard his lead warrior say through their mind link and instantly felt his fangs drop. He couldn’t wait to see the hunter who dared come that far to hunt his pack on such a night.‘I’m out here,’ Jeremy responded and turned to face his five betas. They were the most important people after the Alpha and his mate if he had one. Their job was to take over command and enforce the law whenever the Alpha wasn’t present. The betas were so important and respected that their position couldn’t be challenged without the alpha’s approval. “They’re here.” He informed the anxious betas.Jeremy turned to face the direction he knew his warriors were going to emerge from and promptly gasped when a strong wind blew. Fuck! He groaned silently as his eyes widened in shock and confusion. Where the fuck had that scent come from, Jeremy asked himself as he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. His mouth watered and he felt his cock go instantly hard. No fucking way! From what he’d been taught, only one thing could cause his current reaction. His mate was close. But who, Jeremy asked himself as he opened his eyes and looked around, hoping to see a strange female standing close.It could be someone from the visiting packs. But Jeremy noticed that there were no women around where they stood waiting for the warriors. They were all at the southern part of the property, getting ready for their run. He turned to face his approaching warriors and felt his knees weaken when the scent got even more intense and delicious. Jeremy swallowed as he felt his eyes shift. His wolf was dying to get out and go to his mate and Jeremy had to do everything in his power not to let that happen as he didn’t even know who the said mate was. By the time the warriors got to their alpha and his betas, Jeremy’s skin had broken out in sweat despite the chilly nature of the weather.“Are you alright Jer?” His best friend and head beta, Philip asked quietly beside him with concern in his eyes.“I’m fine.” Jeremy rasped curtly. “Let’s just get this over and done with.” He said as he turned to fully face the warriors.Behind the warriors, with his head covered in a sack and his hands in cuffs was the caught hunter.“Here he is, Alpha,” Stan, the head of the warriors said as he pushed the apprehended hunter forward. “We haven’t questioned him at all but he keeps saying he means no harm,” he reported as he yanked the sack off the head of the hunter. “Those who escaped left their weapons behind.” He said pointing at the guns in the possession of one of the warriors. “They’re filled with silver bullets. I think the ones who escaped are kids. This one was probably training them.”“I told you I’m…” The hunter began but shut up when the alpha turned his angry eyes on him.Jeremy had to suppress his groan as he stared into the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen. They were glassy green with flecks of amber. The man looked to be in his early twenties, around five ’nine in height, lean and had the whitest blond hair Jeremy had ever seen. It was cropped short on the sides and slightly longer on top. The hunter was drop-dead gorgeous. And he was his mate.“Fuck!” Jeremy swore as he stared into the frightened eyes of the hunter.There was one thing everyone knew about Alpha Jeremy Stanton. He hated hunters with a passion because hunters had killed his father and kid brother. He always told his pack that it was sick to simply kill someone when you had no proof that that person was causing harm to other people. Since he and his pack always made it a point never to cause anyone any harm, hunters were to Jeremy, foolish murderers who needed to be taken out when caught. He never killed them though. He rather made his resident witch work on hunters who got caught. And by the time his witch was through with the hunters, their thirst for the hunt was no more.It was also a known fact that Alpha Jeremy had never understood the concept of same-sex relationships. He would accept it if anyone felt they had to be gay, but had never understood what could possibly be nice about that whole orientation when the couple could not even make babies. He thought it was a waste of time and sperm. So for Jeremy, the universe had dealt him the nastiest blow by giving him a mate who was not only a hunter but was also a man.Jeremy got so mad he didn’t just see red, his eyes turned red.***Everyone stepped back in fear, except the hunter. Even if he knew just how deadly the man standing in front of him had just become…which he didn’t…he couldn’t have moved because the power from those red eyes inexplicably had him rooted to the spot. The warriors and betas on the other hand, knew that a red-eyed Jeremy, was a lethal weapon. The last time their alpha had unleashed his Ojah power, it hadn’t been pretty and they all remembered very clearly.Jeremy was not just an alpha but was also one of the three Ojahs in the Were kingdom. That made Jeremy the only alpha who was also an Ojah, making him the most powerful supernatural being in the Were kingdom. Ojahs were a rare form of shapeshifters who were both ruthless assassins and conjurers. An Ojah was so powerful that they couldn’t be controlled when their powers were unleashed. Unleashing that power meant the Ojah in question had turned off his humanity. Just one Ojah could slaughter an army within mere seconds. It was theref
***“Take him to the dungeon and lock him in cage two,” Jeremy growled. “And Alex, tell our hunters to lead the packs out.” He ordered. “Are the pup watchers in place?” He asked, referring to the sitters of the pack who kept watch over the pups whenever the others had to go for runs, hunts, or battle. Anyone who had not attained the age of fifteen and therefore hadn’t had their first shift yet was classified as a pup. One would be a fool to think that pup watchers were weak and soft. On the contrary, they could be the most vicious members of the pack if anyone messed with the pups.“They are Alpha,” Someone answered.“Good. Let’s run.” Jeremy nodded and abruptly turned to go, followed by his lead beta, Philip.A completely stunned Philip turned to watch as the warriors picked up the collapsed hunter and rushed to fall into step beside his alpha. “What the fuck just happened, Jeremy?” He whispered, not as scared of the alpha as the others because he knew Jeremy would never harm him…wel
***Professor Ryan Hicks moaned in pain as he slowly opened his eyes. “What the fuck!” he muttered as he got to his feet and looked around.He realized he was in a huge cage in a very dark place. The only light was the moonlight that was streaming in through the small window. He didn’t have his glasses on so couldn’t see very well. The idiots who had taken him must have thrown his glasses away. But even without the glasses, Ryan could tell that he was alone. He felt a painful throb at the back of his neck and raised his hand to touch it. What was it with that man anyway…biting him so painfully, he thought, touching the still wet sore. One minute the man was stalking towards him with an angry look, and the next, he was biting him. Ryan had never felt such excruciating pain in his life. What the fuck was the man’s problem anyway? And they didn’t even clean the wound. What asshole actually treated people like that, he wondered.“Oh my god,” Ryan groaned as a bolt of pain flashed through
***According to the boys, they had to wait a while for the strange species to show up. Although Ryan doubted Timmy had anything interesting to show him, he wasn’t really bothered because he knew he could use the opportunity to look around himself. After all, for a zoologist, the most fascinating place to be was in the forest. He should however have listened to the boys and stayed close to them. They’d specifically advised Ryan to stay close to them because according to them, they’d come prepared with tasers with which to daze wild animals should they encounter any. Ryan had thought at the time that, that was a really smart thing to do. So why the fuck had he wandered off, he asked himself for the umpteenth time. If only he’d stayed with the boys, he wouldn’t have been caught, seeing as none of the boys had been caught except him.Now he was in pain in some dark cage God knew where and didn’t know what to do. He’d tried to explain to the men who had caught him that he’d only been rese
***Ryan looked up at his tormentor as he came to stand in front of his cage. He was still processing the fact that he was a wolf and no longer a man. He had a lot of questions but the last time he checked, wolves couldn’t talk so Ryan simply stared at the man who had caused him so much pain. To say he hated the man would be an understatement. The man was around six ’five in height and built like a rock. His beautiful smooth skin glowed under the bright light, the colour of rich coffee laced with cream. He had really soft-looking low cropped dark hair and eyes so strangely red and intense they just pulled you in. What was with the red eyes, Ryan thought. Maybe he was wearing contacts. Who does that though, Ryan almost snorted. But despite the strange eyes, the man was strikingly gorgeous.From the colour of his skin, either he spent a lot of time outdoors or he was mixed-race. Ryan thought the five o’clock shadow made the hunk look sexy. Was it even normal for a man to be that gorgeou
***“What have you done to me?” Ryan finally asked. “Whatever you did to turn me into a wolf, you better undo it before I leave here, do you hear me?”Ryan somehow had a strong feeling that that wasn’t the last time he was going to turn into an animal because even as he stood there as a human being, he could feel a powerful presence inside him. He could feel the restless movement of another being within him and that scared the shit out of him.“I didn’t do anything wrong. If I trespassed on your land, I’m sorry but I didn’t mean any harm. I’m a professor of zoology at UCLA. My name is Ryan Hicks. Please google it or something. I don’t know what kind of cult you people are running here but I’m sure that just as you were able to turn me into a wolf, you can take away whatever…curse this is.” He definitely couldn’t afford to turn into an animal in front of his students or any other person for that matter. “And if you have any intention of keeping me here as your prisoner or killing me, I
***Ryan followed Philip inside and did a quick sweep with his eyes. “Impressive.” He mumbled. The room was big and classy. Though it surprised Ryan that he’d been assigned such a room, he didn’t question it. Maybe they’d realized that he’d been truthful after all. Why else would Philip address him as prof? “So…do I take it you’re all werewolves?” Ryan asked, his face expressionless.“I thought you didn’t know who we were.” Philip retorted. “Isn’t that what you told the men who brought you in?”“Dude, get real. Of course, I’ve always thought creatures like werewolves didn’t exist. I mean hey…I live in the real world. Then last night, Mean man…Jeremy bites me and I turn into a wolf. Hello-o-o. I’m not stupid.”“I forgot you have four PHDs. Sorry Prof.” Philip laughed. “I guess your world is not that real after all.”“So you did google me. Thank God. Does that mean I can go?” Ryan looked hopeful.“I will leave that for Mean man…Jeremy to answer when he’s ready to talk.” Philip said with
***Ryan came awake in his bed suddenly. His eyes remained wide and unfocused. Ryan couldn’t shake off the vision of Jeremy. He rubbed at his eyes and groaned when he finally remembered. He was Jeremy’s prisoner.“Fuck.” He swore when his eyes landed on his twitching hardness. “Seriously?”Ryan knew that his state of arousal was a result of the dream he’d had about Jeremy. Why the fuck was he even dreaming about that monster, Ryan groaned. Why Jeremy and not someone else? In his dream, Jeremy had blue eyes instead of the weird red, and he was as sexy as all fuck. He’d been naked and was staring at Ryan with so much hunger in his eyes.“Shit,” Ryan muttered, turning his head to look at the time on the clock on his bedside table.Ryan groaned when he realized he’d only slept for about thirty minutes. Fuck, after what he’d been through, he needed his sleep. After his bath, he’d been served the most delicious meal which had left him wondering whether Philip had been truthful with him. The