Call of the White Wolf

Logan stared dejectedly out the window of his bedroom, silently cursing the snow that had picked the wrong day to fall. The cold and lonely weather was doing all the wrong things to his already black mood. He grunted and raised a hand to his head, raking his fingers through his black shoulder-length hair. Dammit, where was inner peace when you badly needed it? He hated feeling like this.

He turned abruptly from the window and began pacing the room. He had gone to see his invalid father as a last resort this morning, hoping for some much-needed advice on what to do about the rogue attacks at their boundary. As usual, his father had barely recognized him, then after he finally did, had screamed a load of gibberish, capping it up with cries for Jessica to be brought to him. Jessica had been his mate and Logan's mother before she was killed years ago.

As if that wasn't enough, there had been pressure on him of late to find a mate. He was always steadily reminded that he needed a Luna chosen for him by the Goddess, someone to bear his children and be a mother to his pack. He had no desire to find anyone to spend the rest of his life with though. His father was enough example. Pressure or not, he wasn't willing to go down the same route his father had gone.

The recent rogue attacks had been his headache for several weeks now. He had sent a number of his pack members to their deaths trying to curb the attacks. There was a cloying feeling about the attacks, something strange and eerie that gnawed at his mind and made him lose sleep thinking about it. This was not their first rogue attack, and neither would it be their last. Why did this one feel so different?

A rude voice interrupted his thoughts and he stopped pacing, trying to zone in on the intrusion. It was his beta trying to reach him through the mind link.

"Still all cozy in your blanket aren't you, Alpha?" his beta's teasing voice resonated in his ears. Logan rolled his eyes and sighed.

"What do you want, Casper?"

"There's a situation with the patrol. You might have to join us. We're short of men here, and we need more wolves to cover more ground. Maybe leave your bedroom and join us?"

Logan groaned. "Do I have to do this?"

"Yes!" Casper insisted. "It would boost the confidence of your subjects if you showed up. You can't stay holed up in that room all day, you know."

"Alright, fine. I'm on my way".

Casper closed the mind link and prepared to join the patrol team. Several minutes later, he walked out of his room decked out in a gray fur coat fit for the weather. His raven-black hair was pulled back in a ponytail that accentuated his sharp jawline and dimpled cheeks.

He moved from the hallway of his bedroom to a large foyer that joined all the rooms in the pack house together. Heaving a sigh of resignation, he opened the foyer doors and walked out into the cold winter air.

The packhouse was situated in the middle of a large expanse of land, the tallest building in miles around. To the right was the small gathering of houses where his subjects lived, and to the left was the woods that stretched for miles around. Directly in front of the pack house was an empty training site. All the trainers had been recruited for patrol.

The alpha trudged forward in the snow, silently cursing as his boots got stuck several times in the muck. One more reason why he hated winter. He got to the border a few minutes later. The patrol team was arranged at intervals along the borderline. They were so scanty; Logan had no idea how they could take on another attack. His heart ached with worry and fear as he contemplated the depleted number of his pack.

Their border was located at the edge of the woods, with the forest behind the patrol team and a wide expanse of land to their front. Everything had been made white and bleak by the falling snow, but Logan could sense the enemy as surely as he could see his own hands. He knew they were lurking in the snow, waiting for any sign of reluctance before making their attack.

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by Casper's voice in his head. He sounded excited and scared at the same time, and Logan was finding it hard to make sense of his words. His voice was frantic and incoherent. Logan waited for him to calm down before speaking.

"You might want to repeat all that you've said, Casper," he said calmly.

Casper paused and took deep breaths. Then he started again. "Alpha, there's a bit of a situation. You might want to check this out. Meet us at the northern border." Logan murmured an excuse to the men around him, then walked over to the northern border, wondering what Casper was all excited about.

He reached the northern border and saw a group of men gathered around something on the ground. His sharp wolf eyes caught a glimpse of white on the ground, but before he could look further, Casper appeared in front of him, his eyes full of excitement.

"Bad news again?" Logan asked, bracing himself for the worst.

"Not particularly. At least not yet." his beta answered. "Come see this."

Casper led the Alpha to the group of gathered men. They all parted to show him the center of their attention.

It was a white wolf, half buried in the snow. Immediately, Logan's eyes fell upon the wolf, and his body reacted violently. A hot, searing flash of connection went through his body, igniting something inside him that he couldn't identify or control. He found himself drawn to the white wolf, and suddenly something in his mind clicked and became right, as though he had been waiting for this moment all his life. Suddenly all he wanted was to get on the ground and wrap his hands around the wolf, whisper in her ears, and tell her she would be fine. Suddenly, it felt as though they were the only two people in the world. The feeling was unbearable yet comforting. Unwelcome, yet desirable. And immediately, the Alpha knew what had just happened to him.

He had found his mate.

He gasped at the realization and turned his back on the wolf, trying to regain his composure. His men mustn't notice any form of weakness in their Alpha. Casper placed a hand on his shoulder worriedly.

"Alpha… What's wrong? Perhaps–"

"No." he replied, righting himself. "I'm fine." He counted the seconds slowly, then turned back to the wolf and crouched before her. This time, he was a little more prepared for the onslaught of desire. His wolf cried out in excitement as he looked at her again, but he ignored it.

The lone wolf on the ground had her eyes closed, apparently unconscious. Her fur, which matched the snow perfectly, was partially buried under all the white. Logan reached his hand out and brushed a few flecks of snow away from her body, revealing her left shoulder.

There was a branded mark there, just below her neck. A crescent-shaped tattoo-like mark, barely bigger than a bottle cap. Logan fought the urge to reach out and touch it. The mark looked like none he had ever seen. It looked ancient, as simple, and as confusing as a hieroglyph. He frowned, wondering how she got the mark and why it stood out to him.

He stood without another word and turned into the forest, ignoring Casper's call behind him. He wanted to clear his head and rearrange his thoughts; everything that had just happened was starting to get to him.

He had just invited his mate into his life.

Little did he know he had also invited trouble.

Logan continued to walk through the forest, paying no attention to the direction his steps were taking him. He felt as though he was moving against a tide, as though he was leaving all he had always wanted behind him. All that his heart and wolf wanted was to turn back and see his mate again, but his brain needed a break from everything that had just happened.

He reached the edge of a creek and sat down on a tree stump beside it. The creek was his comfort spot, a place where he could offload and recharge. It had been his favorite spot as a young werewolf, and now, with all the responsibilities of an Alpha on his shoulders, he found himself coming here more often.

The creek was frozen over due to the weather, its surface shining like a lake of glass. Logan stared into it, seeing his reflection look back up at him. His was the face of a tired young man who had been dealt the rougher side of life.

From a very young age, he had been made the Alpha in his father's stead, having to rule over people who were older and more experienced than him. It wasn't easy being a teenage alpha. He'd had to put aside his own needs and emotions for the good of the whole pack, and the years had taken a huge toll on him. All his life had revolved around being an Alpha and taking care of his people, and he paid little attention to anything else, including finding a mate.

He didn't want one, period. He had seen what having and losing a mate had done to his father, how the old man had given himself slowly to misery till he became a shadow of his former self. He didn't want to ever experience that—to love someone so much that losing them felt like death. But somehow the goddess had decided to make his life worse by giving him the one thing he least wanted: a mate, even though he'd rather do without one.

She was his responsibility now, more because of the situation in which he'd found her. He wasn't so callous as to abandon a lone wolf in need of help, whether she was his mate or not. With that thought in mind, he opened the mind link, trying to reach Casper.

Within a few seconds, his beta answered.

"Alpha..." Casper called.

"Casper, take my... Take the white wolf to the pack's clinic. Make sure she's well taken care of".

"Alright, Alpha. We're on it". Casper paused, as though contemplating what he was about to say. Then he spoke up again. "Alpha, are you sure you're okay? You looked a little put out the other time."

"It's alright, Casper. I'm fine. Thanks for acting concerned."

"It wasn't an act, Alpha. I was genuinely worried. I've never seen you like that".

"Well, there's a first time for everything, isn't there, Casper?" Logan answered in a not-too-kind voice.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I exceeded my bounds, Alpha". the beta replied and cut off the mind link.

Logan closed his eyes and let the cold air wash over him, soothing his frayed nerves. His mind went back to his mate, and he wondered how she was faring. Every time he thought of her, his wolf would jump in excitement and impatience to see her again. Suddenly, he found himself wishing he was by her side instead of by this lonely creek.

A thought crossed his mind uninvited, and he paused, opening his eyes. What if she was a spy, planted at the pack's border by the rogue wolves? The crescent mark he had seen on her shoulder pointed very convincingly to that fact. In his ten years of being an Alpha, he hadn't come across any wolf with that mark. It was strange and looked eerily ancient, like a long-forgotten hieroglyph. What if she wasn't really in pain and in need of help?

What if he had imprinted on the enemy? His wolf groaned in defiance at that unwelcome thought, and he stood abruptly from the tree stump, moving towards the pack house. If that were the case, if she was a spy planted in his territory, he would have no choice but to kill her.

Immediately this thought crossed his mind, his inner wolf snarled dangerously. Don't kill, mate. She's the Chosen! His wolf screamed.

"Shut up!" He growled out loud, and his voice scared a couple of birds from the trees. Thank the Goddess, he was alone in the woods. His subjects would think he had finally lost it if he was found talking to himself.

His wolf reared its head and reminded him. "She's your mate!" Killing her would bring you unbearable pain! You'll regret it for the rest of your life!

"But accepting her as my mate would cause more harm than good. She might be a spy; she might have been planted here by the enemy. And I cannot risk falling in love and going through everything only to be left miserable at the end of my life. Have you seen what losing a mate did to my father?"

His wolf snorted in derision and asked, "Are you your father? Last time I checked, you were not!"

"I'm not." he replied, frowning, "That doesn't mean it can't happen. And I'm not willing to take that dangerous risk with my life. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to end the subject there."

His wolf growled in rebellion and retreated into a corner of his mind, still muttering threats. Another voice replaced that of the wolf in his head. It was the voice of Casper through a mind link and he silently swore. He was sick of everyone getting into his head so much in one day.

"If you mind link me again, Casper..."

"Alpha… Sorry for disturbing your quiet again. There's news". His beta's voice was slightly amused. He probably thought his Alpha was overreacting.

"Bad or good this time?" Logan asked. His thoughts immediately traveled to the white wolf that was now his mate, and despite his resolution to end her life, he found his heart skipping a beat as he contemplated the thought that something had happened to her.

"It depends on how you want to look at it". Casper answered, his voice still amused. "The lone wolf we found, She's awake."

He looked up and towards the pack house in excitement. "She is?"

"Yes. She's morphed back into a human too. You should come to see her".

"Keep her there". he replied to his beta after several seconds.

"Restrict every effort she might make to escape. I'm on my way right now". He concluded and closed the mind link.

His wolf became excited again as he walked away from the frozen creek and towards the pack house and his mate. He tried to shush his wolf, but deep down, he was excited too. He would finally meet the she-wolf that had made him feel so many unfamiliar emotions in the space of a few hours.

God help him if he had to kill her in the end. He was too deep into this already.