Chapter 55 - Healing the Broken Alpha

I paused in the woods, my lungs burning, and cursed my dull senses. I’d found her clothes near-by, but no sign of Lenora. I couldn’t sniff out her trail, and no matter how I strained my ears, I couldn’t hear any movement in the forest around me, beyond the chatter of birds and chipmunks, and the moaning of trees swaying in the light breeze.

I took deep breaths, forcing my breathing to slow, and I closed my eyes.

Even though I didn’t have a wolf, I felt a connection to Lenora, a connection that was beyond explanation. I was always drawn back to her, like a compass point being drawn to the polar north. That’s what she had become to me, my North star. And with eyes still shut, face lifted toward the sun, I turned a slow, careful circle. When I was facing the stream, I felt it.

Maybe I only imagined it, that tugging sensation in my chest, and in my throat. I opened my eyes and started walking in that direction, taking care to step as quietly as I could in human form, not to snap branches underfoot or disturb the bushes and low hanging tree branches. If I was forced to live in the body of a man for the rest of my life, I had to learn to adapt.

After a hundred yards I felt the sensation veer left, and I followed it, zig-zagging around the stately pines and young oaks that dotted this part of the forest. Finally, I caught sight of movement in the underbrush, and there emerged my mate, in her wolf form. Small, perhaps, for an Alpha’s daughter, but no less beautiful. Her fur looked soft and shone with good health, while her deep brown eyes looked at me full of knowledge and curiosity.

She trotted up to me, fearlessly, and sat at my feet. I took that opportunity to squat down, to run my fingers along her neck, down the strength of her spine, to her full tail. “What are you doing out here by yourself?” I whispered, as I continued to stroke her. My heart twisted in my chest with longing - longing to shift into my own wolf, to run together, to hunt together with Lenora.

I had lost a part of myself, half of my being. I would never feel whole or complete again.

She whined slightly, and then the air around her became thick, and instead of a small wolf, a small woman crouched before me, beautifully, breathtakingly naked. Her honey-gold skin shone softly in the dappled light, her long, dark hair spilled down over her shoulders, creating a natural shawl over her full breasts. As she rose to her full height, her nipples peeked from behind the curtain of hair.

“I needed to run,” she said softly. And when I was about to object to her running alone unguarded, she raised a small hand to stop me. “I needed to be by myself.”

I didn’t like it. I wanted to keep her safe at all costs, and I couldn’t do that if she disappeared on me at will, but at the same time, I felt her restlessness, I felt her need for solitude and peace. I reached out, and moved her hair back behind her shoulders so that nothing was hidden from my hungry gaze.

She didn’t move, but stood confidently, letting me look my fill.

Lenora had changed, I realized. She was not the shrinking girl who had stepped into my room just a few short months ago. And her newfound poise was alluring, to say the least. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to take her, right there in the woods, but the day hung between us, her displeasure with me was like a chasm between us, and I knew I couldn’t simply jump across it like nothing was wrong.

I slid my hands down her arms, and took her small hands in my own. “I want you to know that I have given a lot of thought to what you said in the office, about the take-over of the smaller packs,” I smoothed my thumbs over her knuckles, and found the contact strangely soothing and calming. “And you are right. What Blackstone is doing…” I shook my head, searching for the right words. “It’s not right. I’ve suspended the program, and stopped all new acquisitions until I’ve had a chance to thoroughly review everything.”

She watched me solemnly, and nodded. “I’m glad you are doing that,” she said, and I felt a little bit of the stiffness leave her shoulders. “It pained me to think you would act so coldly, with so much greed…”

I cringed at her assessment. “I trusted my cousin too much, I let him run the program with very little oversight. I’m not going to tell you I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but it was convenient to look the other way, to be busy and distracted by so many other things.” I sighed and lifted her fingers to my lips, kissing the tips of them. “Zachary isn’t the man I thought he was.”

“Mhmm,” she hummed in agreement, and her body swayed toward me.

I released her hands so that I could touch her body, running my hands down her back to the perfect curve of her backside, pulling her closer, until our bodies melded together, separated only by the clothing I still wore. She tipped her head up, and I lowered to meet her lips, hungry, desperate to taste her again, eager to close the canyon that had opened between us since I so arrogantly walked away, and left her at the mercy of my sick brother.

I was lost in the heat of it, unaware of anything but the woman in my arms, but she pulled away suddenly, and cocked her head slightly, like she was listening for a sound that my ears could not detect, and then she twisted in my arms and faced the direction of the mountain.

Finally, I heard it too. The subtle movement through the forest, the sound of footsteps, the movement of a man, not a wolf, through the woods. I pushed Lenora behind me, shielding her nakedness with my body, prepared to defend her at all costs, even if it meant my life.

Out of the underbrush, a strange man appeared. He was wearing rags tied around his waist like a loincloth, his hair and his beard were heavily matted and dirty, full of pineneedles and even a bit of moss. His skin was so caked with layers of dirt and sweat and grime that I couldn’t tell for sure what color he was. There was blood smeared around his mouth and his chin, almost like clown make-up, making his too-wide smile even creepier. He still held the half-eaten remains of a rabbit carcass in his hand.

As he approached, he lifted the thing to his mouth, ripped out another bite of raw flesh with his teeth, and chewed thoughtfully while he looked at the two of us warily. He pointed the rabbit at the two of us. “I wanted to find her,” he said, his words slow, and deliberate, as though speaking was strange and foreign to him. He shook the rabbit in agitation. “Not him!”

He was close enough now that I could see his eyes, and I had a strange sensation. His eyes were storm-green. Like my own. Like my father’s. “Who are you?” I growled, tensing, ready to fight at the first sign of aggression.

The man tore another bite from the mangled rabbit carcass and looked at me, his gaze absent and dreamy.

Lenora stepped out from behind me, apparently not caring that she was still unclothed. “He is Dardanos,” she said, watching my face closely as she made the strange introduction. “He is the wild man in the woods.”