Chapter Two

Hayden

It had been a long night since I had been running around the forest. I was restless and annoyed and my pack members had just added fuel to the fire.

I needed a break from it so I decided to go for a run. I let my wolf, Luke, take over for the time being and take me far from our territory. 

I was lost in thought and didn’t even realize that he was taking me close to the other pack’s territory and none other than our rival pack, the Black Forest pack.

“Why are you taking me there?” I growled at him when I realized I was close to their borders.

“Why not?” came Luke’s snark reply. 

I shook my head and was about to tell him off when I heard noises of someone shouting. I didn’t want to walk into any trouble since I had enough going on in my pack already, but somehow my feet carried me towards the backyard of a house.

It was there that I saw a girl who was lying on the ground, possibly bleeding from some wound. Her face wasn’t clearly visible as her hair covered most of it but she appeared to be in a lot of pain.

“Is she alive?” Luke asked me and I decided to find out even though I knew that I was breaking into the territory of another pack.

And that is when I saw a man walk out of the home with a bottle in his hand. 

The girl was cowering and probably injured because of him and he had the nerve to go and try to hit her again.

Despite not being my pack or my business, I couldn’t help myself from jumping on the guy when he raised his hands to hit her again. The girl had looked at me with so much hope that even though I didn’t like to play the hero every time, I just couldn’t resist.

Thus I jumped straight into something that was going to change me and my life forever.

In one swift move, I lunged through the bushes and pounced on the man who was hitting the girl.

My pent-up frustration needed a release and he seemed to be the perfect prey for this. Baring my teeth, I growled at him and his eyes went wide upon seeing me.

“What…what are you doing here?”

He asked me in a voice that was confused but scared witless. Of course, he had recognized me. There was hardly anyone who didn’t.

Except possibly this girl who had stared at me as if I was a ghost. 

I growled again and I could swear that this good-for-nothing werewolf must have peed his pants. He was an omega of the pack, who neither had the strength nor the guts to fight a man.

“This…this is my pack’s territory and my property. Back off.” He said to me but his voice didn’t hold the conviction he hoped for. It merely came out as a croak.

Stepping away from him, I placed my paws on the ground but my eyes were fixated on him. With wide eyes, he scooted away from me and got up though he could not keep himself up on his feet.

My werewolf eyes were trained on him while my ears were alert to catch even the faintest noise if other wolves of the pack would come at me. 

Thinking that I had taught him a lesson, I began to turn around when he spoke,

“I…I will tell this to Garron, he won’t be pleased.”

Garron was the alpha of the Black Forest pack, an alpha I didn’t see eye to eye with. If I had been annoyed before, hearing Garron’s name just made me murderously angry.

I was not even aware of when I turned or jumped on him, almost tearing his ear apart. Blood dripped from my jaw and he howled in pain as he ran away from me.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Luke spoke to me.

“Oh, pretty late to tell me that, don’t you think?” I snapped back at him and he fell silent.

Looking back, I saw the girl trembling and staring at me in shock. I wanted to comfort her but I guess I couldn’t do so in my werewolf form.

Thus, I walked into the house and looked around before locating the bedroom. Opening the wardrobe, I shifted into my human form and wore the first thing that I found- jeans and a t-shirt.

To say that I was disgusted to wear an abuser’s clothes was an understatement, but I didn’t really have a choice. I could still smell the alcohol from his clothes though they were washed and ironed. Luke growled at the idea too, but I tried to calm him down.

It didn’t fit me perfectly but it would have to do for now. I knew I had made a mistake by entering a rival pack member’s house, meddling in their affairs, and breaching their territory. 

But, I had been angry with the discussion back home and had been running around aimlessly to let out the heat. I had accidentally stumbled upon the incident and, I couldn’t take my eyes off the face of the girl who was bleeding and crying alone. 

That thought reminded me of the girl and I quickly rushed outside to check on her. I had put on the clothes just to not terrify her in my wolf form further. As I ran into the backyard, I saw that she had somehow gotten up on her feet and was trying to walk but fell on the ground.

I moved forward to help her but before I could, the man, if I could even call him that, to begin with, stormed through the gate, with two other men in tow.

“Shit” Luke muttered.

The alpha of the Black Forest pack, Garron, and his beta, Peter were staring at me, dragging the man who was called Steve along with them, whom I had injured.

“What a pleasant surprise, alpha Hayden. I didn’t expect you to be so eager to attend the ball. Though, I must say it is going to be in a week from now. Are you excited to find your Luna as well?”

Peter snickered behind him and Steve made a choking sound while holding one hand to his ear. It had stopped bleeding and as far as I remember I had not even grazed the ear.

‘Such a weasel,’ I thought.

Luke growled and I had to use force to make him not lunge at them.

Answering in a casual voice I spoke, “I was just passing through and saw this guy hitting that girl. She asked for my help so I obliged.”

When I said that, all the eyes turned to look at the girl for an answer. She was cowering in fear while clutching her stomach which was bleeding.

‘Why wasn’t she healing yet?’

I looked at her wounds and then at her face in shock before turning to look at the werewolves.

They seemed to have mind-linked with each other because nobody spoke a word. So I presumed that they were having a discussion amongst themselves about what to do with me.

Meanwhile, I received a mind-link from my beta, Charlie.

“Just checking on you. Are you fine?”

‘I couldn’t be in more trouble than I am in right now, Charlie.’ I thought but I knew that if I said that to him, he would have come running all the way here to help me.

As such, I only sent him a short message and closed the mind-link, “I’ll be late, don’t worry.”

Being an alpha born on a blue moon gave me the ability to mind-link over long distances, something other alphas lacked.

Something Garron lacked. And, something I couldn’t help but rub in their faces.

“Done discussing right in front of me without making it look like you are actually doing it?”

I asked with a smirk. As expected, their faces grew angry at what I had said without saying it explicitly- that they were too afraid to discuss things out loud in front of me.

Alpha Garron let out a low growl but before he could say anything, I heard a voice from behind me.

“He is right….I asked him for help but he didn’t know what I needed help with. As such, he just jumped at Steve to protect me…it was….a misunderstanding.”

The girl said in a weak voice and I knew that if she didn’t get any medical attention, she would fall unconscious due to blood loss.

Thankfully, after hearing the loud voices of us bickering, a woman ran into the backyard and helped the injured girl get back on her feet.

While she was being taken away, our eyes met just for a second and my heart skipped a beat.

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