Ghost in the Woods

The ground trembled beneath my paws as I bounded through the forest, locked onto Sienna’s tantalizing scent.

I found her resting in a clearing. The moment she spotted me, she bared her teeth, snarling in a way that made it clear I’d better back the fuck off.

I locked my eyes on her blue ones, as stunning in wolf form as they were in her human form, readying myself to pounce.

Logic had abandoned me. All that was left were instincts willing me to do the one thing I utterly craved.

I let out a low growl, but it wasn’t meant for Sienna. It was a warning to myself.

If I didn’t back down, Sienna was going to think that this was all I wanted. It was going to ruin everything I was working toward.

But before I could even rein myself in, paws pounding through the brush nearby made my ears perk up.

A few moments later, a blond wolf, Josh, padded into the clearing, with Rhys, Nelson, and two guards flanking him.

I was in no mood for interruption, so I snarled, glaring at him, telling him to get lost, or he would feel my wrath.

That was when I realized he was agitated, his fur ruffled. Something was wrong, and it had nothing to do with either me or Sienna.

With the Haze riding me as hard as it was now, it took every ounce of the power that made me alpha to shut it down, put it under lock and key.

There was something going on that required another set of my instincts, the darker, more violent ones, and for that, I needed a clear head.

As much as I hated to be interrupted while I was with Sienna, maybe it was just what I needed to distract me.

I walked toward Josh and the others, growling to let them know I was ready, signaling with one look to lead me to where the danger was.

I turned to tell Sienna that she should head back home, that it wasn’t safe here—but she was already gone, taking the opportunity to flee the moment I was distracted.

My fur bristled, and fear flared inside me. The need to protect my mate became overwhelming.

With my head clearer than it was before, I admonished myself for letting our date get to this point, for making our Haze flare, making hers so strong because of the mark.

~I really fucked this date up.~

But there was no time to regret what I had done because there was something in these woods. Something that wasn’t supposed to be there.

And now, with Sienna gone and my head clear, I could finally sense it.

~We have a roamer on our hands.~

Searching the forest proved to be futile, however. The roamer was gone, leaving only a trace of their strange scent behind in a clearing.

We had no lead, nothing to go off. I shifted back into human form to survey the scene, and Josh followed suit.

“Whoever this is,” I said, crouching near the bushes where a single, long black hair rested, “they’re not a wolf.”

“No,” Josh agreed, voice tight. “They aren’t. And they should’ve never slipped in unnoticed.”

There was blatant distrust in Josh’s voice. What he really meant was that I should’ve never let this happen. As alpha, I should be aware of every new scent that enters my territory.

But I was distracted. There was only one scent on my mind, and it clouded everything. And that fact was not lost on my beta.

But I wasn’t going to let him challenge me right there in front of Rhys, Nelson, and my guards.

So before he could say anything else, I barked, “Everyone head back to the pack house. We won’t find anything else here tonight.”

***

My office was starting to feel like a prison cell. I was more restless than ever, but I couldn’t run off without someone noticing.

Even if my instincts were screaming at me to go to Sienna, make sure she was safe and sound after what had happened in the woods.

Jeremy told me in a brief phone call that she’d made it home, but I needed to see her with my own eyes, needed to see she was unharmed.

And yet, under Josh’s expectant gaze, I knew I couldn’t do anything but act according to my responsibilities.

It infuriated me that he had questioned my abilities in the woods, but unfortunately, he was also right. I had slipped up, and it was because my focus was on Sienna and not my pack.

Sienna might’ve been my mate, but until we were officially mated, my alpha status and responsibilities to my pack came first.

And that included dealing with the situation at hand.

It wasn’t abnormal to have a stranger cross into the pack territory.

Humans and wolves often did so—wolves much less so since they required a written approval if they belonged to another pack—but what we smelled in the forest was neither wolf nor human.

It was something else entirely, and that made me nervous.

What really bothered me about it, however, was the fact that the thing, whatever it was, could mask its scent.

Had it not been for that stray hair, we wouldn’t have had a scent at all. Everyone who knew about it was rattled.

And by everyone, I meant Josh, Jocelyn, Nelson, Rhys, and the other soldiers who’d been in the woods, all of whom were sworn to secrecy.

The last thing I needed was for this to get out before I had any answers.

“Well?” Josh broke the silence, folding his arms as he met my gaze. “Are we just going to sit here in the pack house and wait?”

I did not appreciate his tone, but I was too worn out to call him up on it. “What else would you suggest?” I asked, trying not to show how tired I was by this entire day.

“I can’t send everyone combing the woods if they don’t know what they’re looking for. We don’t even know what we’re looking for.”

“Well, whose fault is that?” Josh mumbled, beginning to pace as he usually did when he was upset with me.

My anger suddenly overcame my exhaustion. “Yours, technically,” I said. “It falls to the beta to keep our borders secure.”

“You don’t need to remind me what my job is,” Josh snapped.

“I did exactly what I was supposed to. When it was clear we were dealing with something new, I went to find you. You’re the one who’s forgetting his duties.”

So we were going there. “Stop talking in circles and say what’s on your mind,” I said, growing impatient.

I was sick and tired of Josh questioning and challenging everything I’d been doing lately, as if I didn’t have enough on my plate without my beta acting as if I was the bane of his existence.

“You’re compromised, Aiden,” Josh’s voice grew louder, seeming to take the opportunity to speak his mind, as told. “An alpha at full strength would have been able to track the roamer.”

“You said yourself we don’t know what we’re dealing with,” I replied.

“If it’s powerful enough to mask its scent, of course it makes my powers look diminished by comparison. Or is this still about Sienna?”

He stopped in his place, eyes shining defiantly. “You tell me.”

I growled. “I lost control of my Haze. It was temporary.”

“My point exactly!” He threw his hands in the air.

“You lost control. That’s never happened to you before. If what you told us is true, why aren’t you honest with her? You’re wasting her time and yours.”

He took a deep breath.

“If you let things carry on like this, one of you is going to get hurt. You need to be at your strongest now more than ever. I’m not just saying this for the sake of the pack, Aiden. I’m speaking as your friend.”

Josh didn’t understand. He had no mate, and even if he did, he wouldn’t face what I was facing: knowing who my mate was before she did.

It was exactly why I chose to keep it a secret from everyone—they couldn’t understand the conflict that was brewing deep within me, tearing me apart from the inside out.

If I lost Sienna, it would be a fate worse than death. And unlike most wolves, for alphas, the magnetic connection of matehood isn’t instantaneous for ~both~ parties.

And to make it even more difficult, Sienna was resisting me, fighting all her urges and instincts. And she was winning.

If it wasn’t so frustrating, so terrifying, I’d actually find it pretty remarkable. The fact that she could fend off her most primal desires, the Alpha, and the Haze all at once was unheard of.

Sienna was not your ordinary she-wolf. She really was something special. And so I had to handle her differently, even if it seemed ‘weak’ to everyone else.

I wouldn’t force her to be my mate until she was comfortable making that choice on her own.

I would have to tell her eventually, but that moment could wait until she was ready, which she was clearly not.

“I hear your concern, but I’m going to do it my way.”

Josh let out a growl and slammed his fist against my desk in a blatant show of aggression.

“Damn it, Aiden, we could be under attack right now, and all you care about is some girl,” he snarled. “A girl who’s ~refusing~ your advances so far.”

I shot him a warning look. “Careful, Josh.”

“The point is, Aiden,” Josh continued, fuming, “is that we were this close tonight to uncovering something new. I know you scented what I scented. Not human. And not werewolf.

“So if it is something new, what are its strengths? What are its weaknesses? Does it even have weaknesses?”

His eyes glowed with the wolf within. “I feel like you’re not taking this threat seriously enough.”

Contrary to what he believed, I was concerned, but I couldn’t show it.

A true alpha would remain calm and collected even in the most dangerous of situations. It was to offer stability, to be a rock, even as everything around me crumbled.

It was hard for me to maintain such a cool, collected persona, though. That was something Aaron had always excelled at. I was far more short-tempered, a lot more like Sienna than she even knew.

~I’m just a pale imitation of Aaron.~

He would’ve handled this situation far better than I did—both with the roamer, and Sienna.

“The thought of this roamer being something new has crossed my mind,” I said, “but there is nothing to do except wait.

“Whatever it is, the last thing I want is to make it feel threatened. If it is peaceful, I want it to stay that way. Like you said, we have no idea what this roamer’s powers could be.”

Josh seemed only slightly mollified when he asked, “And if it hasn’t come here on peaceful business?”

The answer was obvious. “It would have attacked us by now if that weren’t the case,” I said quietly. “It likely masked its scent to avoid confrontation.”

But Josh seemed to be itching for some action because his eyes lit up with fire as he said, “Or it’s preparing a surprise attack.”

I was done. “That’s enough of your theories, Josh,” I growled impatiently. “Go check on the patrols and let me know of any new intelligence.”

Josh gave me a mock-bow. “As you wish, my alpha,” he murmured, but then he gave me a serious stare. “Remember, you have a job outside of getting this girl to sleep with you.”

I didn’t reply, dismissing Josh with a simple nod.

Once the door was closed behind him, I turned to look at Jocelyn, Rhys, and Nelson, who’d been quiet throughout the entire conversation between Josh and me.

“Anyone else have something to add?” I said in a more threatening tone than I’d planned.

Rhys’s lips twitched. “Josh just wants the best for you. He’s known you since you were kids.”

I growled. “Well, maybe it’s time for him to fucking grow up. We’re not kids anymore, and I’m his alpha.”

“Look, Aiden,” Nelson said, his voice quiet. “He’s concerned for the pack. He’s under a lot of pressure. This new threat? It couldn’t have come at a worse time.”

“He feels abandoned,” Jocelyn added softly, giving me a gentle gaze. “He thinks you don’t trust him anymore. When was the last time you two sat together, just as Aiden and Josh and not alpha and beta?”

They were right. It had been a long time since we’d last hung out as friends.

I’d been stuck so deep in my own head for the past few months, carrying this grief with me, grief that would never leave, and then Sienna had come along, and everything was going to shit…

And I was keeping secrets from him, from everyone. Maybe he was right to distrust me.

“I’ll take care of it,” I said, wanting to stop feeling guilty. I dismissed the rest of them and slumped in my seat, putting my head in my hands.

Nine years. I’d been at this job for nine fucking years. Calling or no Calling, Aaron should’ve been the one in this chair.

Aaron would’ve known how to navigate friendships, leadership, and his mateship. Aaron was just that kind of man.

But instead it was me here, as unworthy as I was.

It was me bearing these responsibilities on my shoulders.

It was me who was so afraid to push my mate away that I’d ended up pushing everyone away.

I could see Aaron in my head, looking at me with that calm and confident expression of his.

~This kind of behavior is threatening the pack as a whole,~ I could almost hear his deep voice say. ~You can do better, Aiden. I know you can.~

“But I can’t,” I whispered into the silence. “Because I’ll never be you.”