The Alpha and his Mate
Chapter 18

Jax PoV

“There you are Annabelle” Alpha Parker growled as he advanced towards her with his arms outstretched and an evil grin on his face. No way was this sorry excuse of a man taking my mate away from me, not after I had just found her.

I growled at him; a growl so load it even shocked me as my pack mates beside me bowed their heads due to the sheer strength of it. “You touch her and I will take that as an act of war Alpha Parker”. I could tell my eyes were glowing a bright gold as I tried to suppress my wolf as much as I could. He wanted out for threatening our mate.

Parker squared up to me on the territory line, not close enough to physically cross but still close enough to get in my face. “Alpha Jax she is my property so I will be taking her home with me”.

“She is not your property Parker, nor will she ever be, now leave my land before things get ugly”. I could feel my pack members gathering around me, word had obviously gotten out about the possible threat to their Luna and everyone wanted to come and support. I was instantly proud of my pack members, warriors and non-warriors alike had dropped everything to come and show their support for their Alpha and their new Luna, even if the ceremony hadn’t made it official yet.

Parker growled, trying to threaten me but with only a handful of wolves behind him I was less than afraid. “What gives you the right to keep that girl from me”.

I growled back and reached behind me, where I knew Annabelle would be. I could feel her terror and wanted to comfort her in any way that I could. “This girl is my mate and no longer your concern now leave before I get the counsel involved, especially after what you have done to her”. No way was he getting anywhere near my little mate ever again.

“She’s not your mate, she just a human little girl with parental issues” Parker laughed as he rolled his eyes. “What meds have you been taking to make you believe that this little girl could ever live up to being a Luna?”

My pack growled behind me, furious with the insult to their Luna and I growled along with them. I’d had enough of this joker. Annabelle was still shaking behind me, her heart rate going a mile a minute and I was worried she would go back into her old self and we’d lose all the valuable progress we had made together if I didn’t get rid of him soon.

“Last warning Parker, leave now peacefully or leave by force...it’s your choice”.

“What’s it like Jax? Having a mate, a Luna, that can’t shift?” He sneered, trying to get a reaction out of me.

I was just about to pounce on him and end his miserable life forever when a scream was unleashed from my mates lips. I spun around just in time to catch her before she hit the floor.

“Annabelle? Annabelle are you okay?” I could feel my pack creating a protective ring around us, making sure Parker and his pack couldn’t get to us.

All the response I could get from her was another agonising scream. Her skin was hot to the touch and flushed from the pain she was in. My wolf whimpered at the sight of her in this much pain and not being about to do anything to help.

All of a sudden, I saw fur start to sprout on her hands and her nails had grown into long claws. Her teeth were also poking through, her lips not being able to contain their size as they slightly pierced her skin on her chin from the force of her clenched jaw. My mate was shifting.

I suppressed the slight excitement I felt bubbling inside of me, trying not to get to caught up in the moment and tried to focus on the situation in front of me. “Come on Annabelle you can do it, just ride through the pain and I promise you it will get easier”.

“Have fun with your sorry excuse of a Luna, I will take my leave but just know I will be coming for her. I’ll come when you least expect it, she belongs to me, to me and no one else, no matter what some stupid Moon Goddess says”.

I looked up to see Parker smirk at me before turning and walking into the shadows of the trees.

“Jax I think you should move her from the border, we’re vulnerable here and I think the pack would feel more comfortable with their Luna deep inside the pack lands where it is safe”. I hadn’t even realise that Xavier had turned up but in that very moment, I was very thankful to have my friend by my side.

I nodded and reached down to pick up my mate as she writhed in pain. I remember my first real shift and it was the single most painful experience of my life. This wasn’t her first shift, but it was the first time she was shifting whilst being aware of our world. Her wolf was now unlocked from her brain and I am praying that she will remember this shift and finally get to meet her wolf.

When we got to my house I went straight to the back garden, not wanting her to shift in the house. Her wolf would probably panic at the four walls encaging her.

I placed her down onto the soft grass and a groan escaped her lips as the shift in position.

“Jax w-what’s happening to m-me” she whimpered as the pain increased.

“Your shifting my little mate, just let it happen and it won’t hurt so much I promise”. I sat down next to her and started to stroke her hair, trying to comfort and relax her in any way that I could.

“It-it hurts” she gasped as another wave hit her. Her back was arched oddly and I knew from countless times of coaching the pups of my pack through this that her shift was nearly over. I stood up and took a step back, preparing for anything that her wolf might do.

Wolves reacted differently to the shift depending on who they were and who was around them. Some because frightened and tried to run off whilst others because aggressive and tried to fight of whoever came close. It was completely natural, I just had to make sure I was prepared for everything.

After a few more minutes of Annabelle shifting to and from her wolf she finally shifted one last time and with a tear of her clothes, in Annabelle’s place lay a mesmerizingly gorgeous wolf with fur the same colour as her golden locks.

My wolf was going crazy in my head at the sight of his mate but I suppressed him as much as I could, above everything else I needed to make sure that she was okay first. “Annabelle...Annabelle are you okay?” Her ears rotated, signalling that she could hear me, but she made no other move to get up.

I cautiously took a few steps towards her, making sure that she was comfortable with me approaching her. When she didn’t growl or make a move to attack me I crouched down and started to stroke her fur, trying to reassure her in some way that everything was going to be okay. As I stroked her I could hear a kind of purring sound come from her, she was enjoying the attention.

“Did you want to go for a run with me little mate?” All newly shifted wolves wanted to go for a run. It was as if the wolf that had been trapped inside of us for sixteen years had finally been freed and couldn’t wait to explore everything that they could with their new body. For Annabelle it had been nineteen years, a whole three years longer than most, so I could only imagine what her wolf would be feeling right now.

Her tail wagged slightly and I smiled down at her, happy that she was doing okay, before looking into her eyes. When I got a look at them I could see what Xavier had been trying to tell me when he had seen me last. She had eyes that almost glowed when the sun hit them, looking more translucent than anything I had seen before.

“You are incredible” I whispered as I slowly bent down and kissed her on her fluffy snout.

She smiled a wolfish grin up at me before slowly starting to stand up. She reminded me of a new-born calf as she shakily got to her feet but once she was comfortable she had her balance she smiled as if she was proud of herself and shook out her fur. My wolf growled in my head and I couldn’t hold him back any longer. I slowly shifted into my wolf, not wanting to scare her with any sudden movements, and when I felt like she was comfortable with me being near her in wolf form I lowly walked over to her.

I let my wolf have his time with her, this was an important moment for the both of them and I didn’t want to interrupt. I would have my time with her when they were good and ready to let me.

After they had finished circling each other and getting used to each other’s scents they finally decided to make their way into the forest for a long overdue run together.

In this moment, I couldn’t be happier.

We ran for hours, just getting to know each other in wolf form. Annabelle’s wolf was seriously mesmerising, I caught myself on more than one occasion staring at her instead of where I was going and ended up either tripping or running into something, usually a tree.

I showed her the whole territory, from the lake that we usually swam in during the warm months of the summer to the dense forest where game such as rabbits and deer usually roamed. Annabelle wasn’t very good at hunting yet, it being her first time and all, but she had a knack for it. She didn’t seem to think so though because she huffed and got annoyed at herself every time she missed a kill. I couldn’t wait until she learnt how to mind link so that we could properly communicate with each other, body language and the occasional bark wasn’t really enough for me to express how proud I was of her. Not many people could go through what she went through and come out of it the other side, I was seriously in awe of her, her beauty and her strength.

After a while we slowly started to make our way back to the house and I could tell that Annabelle was getting nervous about shifting back into her human form again. I tried to convince her that it wouldn’t be as bad as her last shift but that still didn’t seem to call her fears.

As we broke through the tree line that separated the forest from my back garden, I heard a small whimper from behind me and I knew that Annabelle was lagging behind, trying to stay for as long as she could in her wolf form.

I trotted up to her and buried my head into the fur of her neck, trying to reassure her that everything would be okay. This was where the skill of mind linking would really have come in handy.

I whined when the bitter smell of fear tinged the air and I nuzzled her neck again, trying to reassure her as much as I could that she would be okay. I sighed when my actions weren’t doing enough to reassure her and so I stepped back from her slightly and prepared to shift back into my human body.

Annabelle’s eyes grew wide when she realised what I was doing and quickly turned her back before she caught a glimpse of me naked. I laughed and shook my head at her innocence, mostly everyone around here was fairly comfortable being naked for short periods of time. I mean you kind of had to be if you were going to be stripping in and out of clothes to change into your wolf most of your life. It was either that or spend a fortune on clothes that would just get trashed the next day.

I shuddered at the idea of having to do that much shopping but quickly brushed it aside and took a few steps into the woods to replace some shorts and a shirt I knew I stashed there. There are always emergency clothes hanging around the forest that outlined my pack’s territory, just in case an accident happened and the person didn’t have any clothes to change into.

I slipped into a pair of shorts as I carried the shirt out to Annabelle, knowing that she would need something to change into as well.

“Come on my little mate you’re going to have to change eventually, I promise you it won’t hurt as much as it did last time” I pleaded with her as I looked into her moonstone eyes. I still couldn’t get used to the colour of them. Every wolf I’ve ever met has golden eyes when they shift, so why didn’t she?

Annabelle just shook her head in response before getting comfy on the grass, resting her head on her paws and closing her eyes.

I sighed, we weren’t going anywhere anytime soon so I got comfy next to her and lay back in the grass with my hands above my head.

“I remember the first time I shifted, it was at Hannah’s thirteenth birthday party and she hated me for months after because I had stolen all of the attention away from her” I laughed at the fond memory. “She had been planning this party with mum for months, had everything planned down to a T... or so she thought. As soon as it was time for the cake to be bought out and for everyone to start singing happy birthday to her my wolf chose that exact moment to come out. I think we even have it on film somewhere” I laughed.

Annabelle’s ears were facing towards me, telling me that she was listening to my story, but if it wasn’t for that telling sign I would have assumed she’d had gone to sleep, she was so still. “Do you want to know the kicker of the whole story? Hannah’s birthday is actually a week after mine, but she wanted to plan it before my birthday because she knew as soon as I turned sixteen all the attention would be on me and my wolf and she’d get none” I laughed. “Apparently my wolf didn’t like that idea very much and I shifted a week before I was supposed to. She blames it on my inner Alpha but I think my wolf just knew how much I loved to mess with her and decided to help me out” I chuckled, I hadn’t thought of that memory in years.

We stayed silent again for quite a while after that, just enjoying each other’s company, but when the sun started to set behind the trees I sat up and stroked the soft fur on top of Annabelle’s head. “Come on little mate, it’s time to shift. Every werewolf had been in your shoes, scared of shifting back from fear of the pain but it won’t be as bad as last time and the more you shift the easier it is. It’s kind of like your body is learning how to shift and the more you do it the more you replace little short cuts to make it easier and less painful for you until it’s like breathing, like it’s the most natural thing in the world to you”.

Annabelle grumbled, obviously not happy with the fact that she would have to shift, but slowly got to her feet and stared at the ground in concentration. We stood there for a few minutes but after a short while of nothing happening she growled in frustration.

“Just picture your body Annabelle and all the little quirks it has. The way it feels to wiggle your toes, to pick something up in your hands, brushing your hair, all the things that make you human and make you, you” I explained.

We stood for a few more seconds before slowly her body started to shake and I knew she was shifting back. I grabbed the discarded shirt that was beside me and held it up so that I couldn’t see anything I wasn’t supposed to.

My wolf was sad to see her wolf go but was happy that they now had her in our life and she now had the opportunity of feeling the mate bond.

I came back to reality when I heard gasping from behind the shirt and I knew that she was in her human form again. I swiftly put the T-shirt over her head and caught her before she could fall to the floor in exhaustion. Shifting, especially for the first few times, was extremely tiring. It took a lot out of you, both physically and mentally and I knew that she was going to sleep for a long time once I got her in.

I cradled her close to my chest and held her tight as I moved into the warmth of the house. Even though she was covered in sweat I knew that if I didn’t keep her warm she could get very sick. It was important to keep her muscles warm after everything they had been through today.

“I feel it” I heard her mutter as I continued to walk through my downstairs and towards the staircase. My heart skipped a beat at the sound of her voice, hoping beyond hope that she was going to say what I thought she was.

“Feel what my little mate?” I whispered, not wanting to startle her with any sudden noises.

She smiled and snuggled into my chest, as if she couldn’t get close enough to me, “the mate bond”.

A grin spread across my face at the thought of my mate finally being able to accept me and me finally being able to claim her as mine, mine and no one else’s.

I kissed her forehead before making my way upstairs and into my room, to our room. “Sleep well my little mate, I’ll be right here when you wake up” I whispered as I laid her under the covers, making sure she was all tucked in and warm.

She shook her head as a cute little V appeared between her eyebrows “sleep with me” was all she mumbled, her eyes remaining closed.

I chuckled before getting under the covers with her and pulled her into my chest. If possible the sparkles between us had gotten even stronger and I smiled at that thought before sleep overtook me and I was out for the count with my beautiful mate safely wrapped in my arms.

Sooo what did you think?