Chapter fifteen

(Matthew's POV)

It's almost over, just to round up the ones that escaped and there'll be peace for a while at least.

I leave my gamma and his mate in charge of the rest and I and Michael run towards the Alpha residence.

We had already changed back into our human form but we are still covered in blood.

So I run to a bathroom in one of the guest rooms downstairs while Michael takes another.

I take the fastest bath in history and change into neater clothes. I run out and join Michael in the elevator before it closes. This thing is so slow!

It opens up on the third floor and we step out only to find Michelle sitting on a chair and Gary standing behind her. They both look worried and a painful dread settles in my heart when I look around with no signs of my mate.

Michael runs to his mate but I ignore them and match over to Gary. I am going to burst that bald head of his if something happened to my mate. I know she's not dead since I'd be in horrible pain if that happened.

"Alpha we didn't expect..."

I cut him off as I lifted him and threw him at the wall. My wolf is so close, so close. I'm going to kill him.

"Where is my mate?" I growl and lift him before throwing him at the opposite wall.

He lands with a loud omph, making a man sized dent in the wall and falls to the floor with pained grunts.

"Alpha wait, we didn't expect her to run. She looked pale and tired so we didn't expect it. She....."

"What kind of stupid excuse is that, why would she run away, you didn't expect it? What the hell Gary?"

I am over him in an instant, holding onto his collar and i raise my hand to punch his lying face in but Michael drags me off him.

"Matthew calm the fuck down, Michelle is getting scared," he growls.

I push him off and jump at the groaning warrior but Michael catches me again. Since he's my beta, we're almost equal in strength.

"My mate is missing! And the person I trusted to protect her is giving me stupid excuses, where is my mate, you bastard!" I'm about to lunge for him again but Michelle speaks up.

"It's the truth, Matt."

"What?...." I turn towards her to find her glaring at me as if it was my fault.

"After you left, she had a panic attack and we had to sedate her. She woke up a few minutes later and said that she wanted to go to your room because it would help her cope. We left the hidden room and she ran. She ran to go look for you. This is all your fault for not reassuring her of your return," She says and tears spill from her eyes and Michael goes to comfort her.

Without Michael's support, I fall on my knees in disbelief.

"How long has it been?" I whisper after a few miserable seconds.

"Twenty minutes, give or take. James went to look for her and I stayed to protect her," Gary answers and points at Michelle.

Twenty minutes.

Some hunters are still somewhere around, oh shit.

I run to a window and jump out while transforming in the air. I land on my paws and howl.

Everyone should receive the message and start searching. In the meantime, I'll look for her and if I see a single bruise on her, goddess help me, I'll hunt them all down and end their miserable lives in the most painful way possible.

(Cassandra's POV)

"Matthew! Matthew!"

I've been yelling his name for the past fifteen minutes but no one's answering. Is he ignoring me?

It's probably a stupid idea to be yelling when I know some dangerous men are around but I can't seem to give a f**k.

He had no right to just leave like that, he said he likes me and he even told his mom that I am his girlfriend.

That should count for something right? I mean I hear some girls in class yapping about how their boyfriends made them the priority, so why isn't Matthew doing the same?

Uurrgghh, all this relationship nonsense is so complicated, and it doesn't help that this is my first relationship.

Wait, he didn't even ask me out, so how? You know what, I give up, my brain is starting to hurt. I'll just focus on looking for the man who by some miracle has me desperate to be by his side.

I had ventured further into the woods without knowing and now I'm confused. Everything looks the same, like some kind of magical maze.

How did I even reach here? The packhouse is in the middle of this large community surrounded by a beautiful small forest and now I'm all the way here. Well, I hope I'm not lost to a point of no return.

I hear a crack behind me as if someone stepped on a branch and my heart leaps to my throat.

Shit shit shit, I forgot about the wild animals that we were warned about.

My heart starts beating a mile a minute, I'm sure a hummingbird would be jealous of how fast it was beating. I hear another crack and I let out a terrified squeak.

I am still standing in place, maybe if I stand as still as possible, it will go away. It works on people at least.

It's just sad that the self-defense lessons I learned as a teenager were useless against animals.

Now I'm gonna die and it's going to be all my fault for being stupid enough to walk into a densely populated forest unarmed.

Mom's going to be so heartbroken, Michelle is going to ball her eyes out and him, would he care? He didn't look for me after we left so that's a no.

As for Matthew, well, he'll move on pretty quickly I'm sure.

I hear the third crack and it's much closer. Okay, let's do this. I turned back as slow as I could manage and I gasped.

Oh my goodness, it's a friggin wolf, just my luck. Though I don't think wolves are supposed to have red fur, but it's features, yeah that's a wolf.

"H..h..hey th..there," I stutter stupidly and it growls in response making me jump and my spirit felt like leaving my body.

Somehow I feel like if I keep talking to it, it would... umm I have no idea. Well, at least talking might delay my imminent death.

"H..hey Wolfy, y..you're a g..good boy r..right?" I say softly and it growls again. I think it's annoyed, hmmm I wonder why. I take a deep breath.

Don't annoy the wolf Cassandra, think think think. It's unnaturally huge so maybe it's the Alpha of its pack so it should be proud and wouldn't like to be talked to like a dog. Ha! I'm going crazy.

"You're a big bad wolf huh?" I say more steadily and It growls softly and I saw what looked like amusement in its impossibly expressive eyes. It's a trick of light, yup. But somehow I don't believe that.

"You didn't happen to stumble onto my boyfriend, did you?" I ask and almost facepalm at the utter insanity of asking a wolf who by the way cannot talk and is probably waiting for its pack to come and join it for lunch. FYI, I'm lunch.

A thought pops into my head and I gasp in horror and take a step back. My breath starts coming in short pants and my chest starts to feel tight.

"D..did y..you e..ea..eat…" I can't complete the sentence as I fall to my knees and tears start to stream down my face.

It's not possible, no no no, the one person I start to fall for was eaten by a beautiful wolf. I've always been fascinated by wolves, almost got a tattoo at some point but mom will kill me. The fucking irony almost made me laugh.

Suddenly I feel a hairy nuzzle on my cheek, rubbing or perhaps sniffing my face.

I freeze and my heart does the same. I might die of suffocation before the wolf would be able to sink its canines into me.

It starts to lick my face like a dog, as if cleaning my tears and I just stare at it, speechless.

I hear a deep rumble coming from its chest and it sounds comforting and I inexplicably start to relax. It continues to lick me all over as if grooming me and I couldn't stop the amused giggles that fell out of the mouth.

"That's enough, stop, stop" I say in between laughs and it finally stops and lays down in front of me with its eyes on me and something that looks like pride in them.

I sit beside it and drape my upper body on its back as I stroke its odd body. Weird color, really soft fur, really expressive eyes and it hasn't eaten me yet. Maybe it's my lucky day.

"If you ate Matthew, I will be very upset," I mumble absentmindedly, feeling quite languid and comfortable. It just growls softly in reply.

"You know what, I don't care if you ate him. He deserves to be eaten for leaving when I begged him not to. He doesn't even care about me," I say though I knew it wasn't true, I know he cares but I feel really bitter about his departure so I'll say what I want. It's not like the wolf would tell Matthew or anyone else what I say.

I looked at the it's eyes which looked sad and its ears were flat on its head for some reason. "Aww don't look so down, you're not the one who left me to go fight some battle that could have been done by the others. I mean, I know he's the boss and his presence would help but I needed him too. He just walked away as if my feelings and opinions didn't matter."I say and huff in frustration.

The wolf whines and I am about to comfort it when I hear two pairs of feet creeping their way towards us and I turn to my left which is where the noise is coming from.

"Who is there?" I yell but I get no answer and I look down at the wolf. I've heard that wolves have a keen sense of smell and really sensitive ears, I think.

But it's just staring at me in what looks like confusion. I hear the sound of feet on dry leaves again and this time the wolf perks up and starts to sniff the air. I notice the exact moment when it finds the source because it freezes and growls menacingly.

Its unusual eyes held an alarm and something akin to hate I think or maybe the fear of being eaten is getting to my depressed brain.

Two men suddenly jump out from behind a cluster of trees and point their guns at my wolf friend. I can see no fear nor hesitation in their eyes as their fingers immediately move to trigger and pull.

"No!"