~
To say I was agitated would be an understatement. After hours of walking around trying to sniff out my mate I still hadn't found a strong enough scent to follow. The last scent I had picked up had been out the front of some kind of ice-cream parlour in the first hour of my search. I was beginning to think that maybe I was too late and she had already left town. Left town with that arsehole ex-friend Baydon. The dirty, sticking, mate-stealing jerk. Just the idea of that arse being anywhere near my girl made my blood boil.
My wolf growled in my mind, ' She is still here. Find her or I will.' I really didn't want to relinquish my control back to him, this was the longest I had been in control for weeks and I was planning on keeping it that way.
A breeze picked up and blew some leaves in my direction. Ducking my head to prevent them from hitting my face, I couldn't help but lift it almost immediately. That scent, the same scent I had been seeking out for hours, was now filling my nostrils, invading all my senses and setting both my wolf and I into a giddy excitement. This trail would be strong enough to follow and I would find my angel at the end of it.
My Roxy.
Moving my feet as quickly as I could, a new scent entered my nose causing me to freeze in my tracks. Baydon. That arse was still hanging around my mate, but I planned to put a stop to that. Once I claimed Roxy as my own I would banish him from the pack.
'No-one touches what belongs to us; he is definitely dead if he has touched her.' I couldn't help but agree with my wolf on that one.
Picking up my pace again, I began jogging in the direction Roxy's scent was coming from. It was getting stronger so I knew I was closing in. I hadn't really been paying attention to my surroundings so when I came to a large, stone archway; I was more than a little surprised. Still, Roxy was in this direction so I continued on, actually paying attention to my surrounds this time. She had to be here, the scent was completely blanketing me. So close, she is so damn close.
Following the quaint cobblestone path through what I now recognised as a park, an idea struck me. Veering slightly off the path, I picked a bunch of flowers from the surrounding gardens, mostly roses and lilacs. Battling with them for a while, I plucked a stalk from a nearby fern and luckily it was strong enough to tie around the stems of my makeshift bouquet. Girls like flowers, right? A good mate always had a gift for his love, didn't he? Well either way I was prepared now.
Heading back to the path, I followed it until it led me to a grassy clearing near some play equipment. Sitting on a blanket, surrounded by flickering candle light, was the most beautiful sight I had seen in weeks. Roxy. She had her head thrown back and her infectious laughter was filling the space around her. I was so happy to see her, not wanting to wait to hold her; I took another step forward before halting in my tracks. Roxy had just lowered her head towards the figure resting on her lap. It had to be Baydon, why I didn't notice before I have no idea. He was feeding her something, staring intently, I realised it was a chocolate covered strawberry. The sight of him there sent both my wolf and I into overdrive, but the killer was when Roxy let out a moan as she bit into the treat. Only I should be able to extract that sound from those precious lips.
At that I was running at them, the flowers now discarded and forgotten. Anger was pumping through me and my wolf was itching for control. They noticed me when I was about half-way there, both jumping up quickly. Baydon pushed Roxy behind him protectively, before stepping into a defensive stance.
Launching myself at him, I threw two quick punches at him before he had a chance to re-act. Roxy took off running as Baydon and I settled into a wrestling match. There were punches and kicks flying between us and I felt my control being lifted away from me as my body started to shift. Sensing what was happening, Baydon shifted into his dark brown wolf and the battle continued in wolf form. We were snarling, biting and kicking at each other with such fury it was near impossible to tell which hits were connecting. I tensed when I noticed Roxy come back into my line of vision and Baydon used that moment to latch onto my right hind leg and bite down hard. Struggling to free myself, I dropped to the ground and rolled so I was covering his body, successfully blocking his airways. Eventually we broke apart and Baydon moved in front of a horrified looking Roxy, protecting her again. At this moment three more wolves ran into the clearing and flanked him either side. Still determined to take what was mine, I charged towards them all. Two of the new wolves stayed back with Roxy while Baydon and the third wolf returned attack.
A scream filled the air stopping the three of us instantly. The scream had come from Roxy who was advancing towards us with the two wolves flanking her protectively.
"You need to stop this bullshit Blaze. I don't want you. Leave me alone, stop chasing me and for the love of God stop this ridiculous fighting. Go home and find someone else to mate because I will never want you. You're nothing but a selfish, out of control Alpha." Roxy was pissed, hands on hips she stood unwavering in front of me. Admiration for her filled me until I realised what she had said.
She disrespected me, her mate and Alpha, and my wolf really didn't like it. Before I knew what was happening my wolf had tackled the still human Roxy to the ground and was snapping in her now fear-filled face. When she froze underneath our body, he stopped snapping and leant down to her shoulder, bared his teeth and went to mark her. I felt it as our teeth grazed her skin before we were tackled off of her and pinned to the ground by two of the wolves.
A teenage boy was standing where one of the wolves had previously been, and he was shouting at Baydon. "Baydon, you need to take Roxy and run. She's knocked out cold and you both need to get away from here now. We got this, so go."
I watched almost helpless as Baydon shifted and raced over to Roxy, picking her up gently. Yelling thanks over his shoulder, he took off at a sprint, carrying my Roxy in his arms.
She was getting away again and I had to stop her. I picked up my struggling to free myself and give chase before the teenage boy directed his attentions to me.
"Blaze, you need to stop. You have Roxy terrified of you and you just attacked her, tried to forcefully mark her again and knocked her out somewhere in the process. That's not what mates do to each other."
He turned his back in disgust as the guilt flooded me and I stopped struggling. Maybe he was right. I glanced at the boy again to see him on the phone. Catching snippets of the conversation, I determined he had called my father. Back to the prison room I go. Strangely enough my wolf was silent and staying in the background of my mind, feeling the same guilt that I was.
"Dad, Alpha Aston asked if we could lock Blaze in our packs prison room until he gets here tomorrow, he is calling our Alpha now to confirm."
One of the wolves on top of me nodded before they all changed into their human forms. They grabbed a hold of me and carried me away to what I could only assume was the pack house of the territory I was in.
Baydon
With a quick glance over my shoulder at the disastrous scene I was leaving behind, I gripped Roxy close to my chest and dashed the last few metres to my car. I placed her carefully in the passenger's seat, reclining the chair back slightly and pulling her seatbelt into place. Anger flooded me as I made my way over to the driver's side, pulling out my phone as I walked. I made a quick call to Alpha Aston to inform him of what had just occurred, but it seemed like Vince had beat me to it. Plans had already been made to collect Blaze and return him to the pack house. Relieved that he wouldn't be following us any time soon, I raced out of the car park and headed to the motel to collect our possessions.
Grabbing all of our belongings as quickly as possible and shoving it all into the back of the car, I ran over to the office to pay for our stay.
My mind was overloaded as I tried to think of where Roxy and I could go. The fact that, for the second time in less than a month, we were fleeing from her dramatic, out of control mate was infuriating me to no end. Because of Blaze, Roxy was now unconscious and I'm sure when she woke she would be even
more terrified of the jerk than before.
Heading out of town with no destination in mind, I decided to just drive until I felt we were far enough away. 'I'll help you; I'll know when we will be safe.' Even my wolf wanted to protect her, and wolves very rarely went against an Alpha. The human side of us could defy the human side of an Alpha, but once the wolves in us got involved there was no chance of disobedience.
Shadows of trees were flying past the car, small snippets of moonlight occasionally making its way through the shadows to light up the otherwise deserted road. Roxy was showing no signs of waking up and I was starting to get really worried about her. As soon as I find somewhere safe to stay I'll find her a doctor, one who can help shed some light on what's going on.