The Unclaimed Human Luna
Chapter 46

Conner POV

Atlas was tracking Eliza all through the pack’s woods, she was definitely out in the woods. She had gone up to the lookout and then down into the valley below, then was following the pack’s border tracks. There was no patrol here, on this particular section. The border patrol was right down near the edge of the woods a few kilometres away.

Finally, they picked up her footsteps and then they could see her. She was strolling along coming back down the trail, and probably hadn’t liked what the hike up the ridge looked like. Then he realised she was only carrying a water bottle, no backpack or anything. Would have been out here for hours to get this far from the packhouse.

Huffed, she’d not been prepared to come on a long hike, was going to have to talk to her about hiking out here, especially alone right now, so many rogues about on the northern side, though today they’d not seen any on the eastern side, too close to humans, he guessed.

Conner nearly laughed at Atlas’s behaviour towards her, he was acting like a puppy would, trying to befriend her. She clearly had no idea what to do about it, was just staring at him the whole time, more than wide-eyed.

Then she was just shocked, as he pawed at the air and whined at her, he was trying to make himself look small and friendly, trying to get her not to be afraid of him. Atlas, it seemed, had decided it was time to play with her, in as a friendly and non-threatening manner as was possible. Rolling around and belly crawling towards her.

Conner wasn’t a hundred percent sure, Atlas padding over to her and purring to her was a good idea, did chuckle at his wolf smelling her, when she tried to shoo him away, laughed at his wolf whining at her when she wouldn’t pat him, and his head was suddenly nudging her hand. It was his way of trying to get her to actually pat him.

Though the breeze that hit him as Atlas was doing his best, ‘I’m a good wolf impression’, had the distinct smell of rogues on it. It snapped his and Atlas’s attention away from her. She was in danger from that rogue. Not only could they smell it, they could see it now. As they looked down the valley, it was standing watching them, its head tilted to the side.

Which meant it knew what Eliza was to him. It would not mistake his wolf’s behaviour towards the girl. Not even a rogue would miss that. She would smell human to it, though hopefully it was unable to scent her at this point, the wind was blowing in the wrong direction.

Though the fact that she was standoffish and backed up against a tree, not interacting with him, could also allow that rogue to know not only was she human, but that she had no idea what was going on either. Likely didn’t know about werewolves at all.

Atlas shot off down into the valley after it, to deal with it, to get rid of the threat to his Mate, that beast had somehow managed to get past the border patrol and was in pack territory and not just inside it, several kilometres inside the border at that. That was a rare thing to happen.

He was going to have to replace out why that was, how that had happened? Conner and the boys had tested the pack borders only a few weeks ago and this area was secured. Nothing got through.

It turned and ran from him back towards the border, but it was no match for Atlas’s speed, and they ran it down in short order, only to replace it wasn’t the only one inside pack territory, this beast was likely the scout wolf of the group. There were several down here, sent out an all alert via a pack wide mind-link that there were rogues in the territory eastern border section 4. As Atlas was ripping into that beast while the others were all now coming for him. It was going to be four on one in less than a minute.

Then Adam’s Wolf Kade was suddenly right there next to him, and both their wolves set off to take down the others, using all that training they had all their lives, to work together and dispatch those rogues quickly, two to one.

Where Kade had come from Conner didn’t know, didn’t bloody care right this minute. A four to one fight was not good, even for an Alpha Wolf, he’d have power and strength, but they had numbers, could all attack at once and he’d only be able to defend so many at a time. Atlas and Kade knew how to team up and take down, trained all their lives for this kind of fighting. Did what they were trained to do. Protect the pack, protect his Mate, he could only hope that El was smart enough to run away from the sound of the fighting that was going on. He and Kade took on all the rogues in the territory. He knew others from their pack were coming this way. He had heard his father’s response.

Atlas shifted back to him when the last rogue was dead, as did Adam. His eyes moved back to the valley behind him and up to the track he was looking for El, searching the path up there for any signs of her. He needed to know she was alright.

“El is fine, ran away down the path.” Adam told him.

Conner looked right at him, he could feel his father and many others coming this way, were still aways off but likely would be here in less than 10 minutes or so. They were coming at full wolfen speed.

“That’s some unusual behaviour your wolf was displaying today.” Adam looked right at him, his Beta, it seemed, was out tracking him, still trying to get that answer to his question. Now he had it.

Conner sighed, that was not going to be explainable in any other manner at all. Wolves did not act like that around just anyone, their Mate’s yes. Though, to be honest, he’d never seen a wolf belly crawl around anyone before, it was odd to say the least.

Conner stood staring at the man for a long minute, who just smiled at him and shook his head. It was not lost on his Beta at all.

He muttered “We have to check the border, there was no alert.”

“Your father didn’t get anything either, I don’t think. He would have had all of us out here to replace out what happened, if a pack member was severed from him.” Adam agreed and fell into step with him. They were headed off at a run to replace the border patrolman “No wonder you don’t like Marlo around her. Or that Xavier guy.”

“Shut it, Adam. I’m not discussing it out here.”

“But we will be right?”

“I guess so.” Conner muttered. The man was not going to let it go, not when he now knew El was his human Mate, and wondered what Adam’s thoughts on it were. He knew Conner didn’t like humans. Likely he was thinking a lot right at this minute.

They found their border patroller pinned to a tree, a silver arrow right through him. He was alive but disconnected from his wolf, and weakened to the point that he couldn’t pull the arrow out, therefore unable to connect to his Alpha to warn him. “I’m sorry Alpha.”

“Not your fault.” Conner told him as he turned and followed the line of sight of the arrow, out onto the lake itself.

Heard him grunt as Adam pulled it from the man, he also heard Adam hiss at the pain himself of grabbing onto it. “Missed all your vital organs,” Adam told him.

“Not looking to kill him, just disconnect him from his Alpha, so we’d be none the wiser on incoming.” Conner frowned, and looked at Al, “You’ll need the pack doctor to look at that, it’s gonna scar as well in all likelihood.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Al muttered, “It came from a couple on a boat out there, once I was out of action. Rogues came from the lake path.” He pointed up the trail. “They didn’t even care about me.”

Mostly, down here, this place was visited by humans. Al was dressed in board shorts and a single top, a pair of sand shoes and sunglasses so that he could blend in with the humans. Be seen as just a tourist walking about down here.

“It’s a risk doing this during the daytime,” Conner muttered. This place was very popular with humans. They loved being on the lake, especially in the summertime. They didn’t deter the humans around the lake’s edge. It would seem odd behaviour and might bring curiosity to humans. They only deterred them from getting close to the pack, reminding them it was private property. Some of the hikes the humans did wound in and out of the territory from the lake. Their pack allowed it mostly. Just kept track of the humans was all.

“The raspberry festival started today; most are down in Garden City.” Adam reminded him.

“Lots of boats out on the water then.” He nodded. “Which way did the boat go, Al?”

“Circled back towards the festival, I don’t think they were wolves. They could have been hunters.”

“Don’t get those much around here though.”

He could hear wolves coming now, turned and saw his father’s wolf Hale approaching, shifted when he arrived and looked at Al, and frowned “I’ve got a few bikes coming, we’ll get you off to see the doc.”

Al nodded “Yes Alpha.”

“Conner, Adam. What are you both doing out here?”

“Couldn’t sleep.” Conner told him. It was the truth, he’d not been able to sleep originally.

“El was out here, I saw her.” his father was handed clothes by his Beta, and he dressed.

“She got an eye full of Kade, Alpha. My apologies, I was heading to assist Conner and Kade shot right in front of her.”

Conner watched his father frown, but that was about it. “Did she freak out?”

“No kind of just skidded to a stop and stared at him, then we moved on passed her, only like two seconds of being face to face. We were of no threat to her.”

“Wouldn’t want to be,” he muttered.

Conner could hear the bikes coming, they had a discussion about where the rogues came from, and that they would send a bunch of warriors up along the path to source out just what was going on. They’d been seeing more and more of them this week. Which was unusual considering the sudden explosion of humans in the area, for the three-day raspberry festival.

His father headed out with the warriors, as did Jared, and sent them back to the packhouse, saying they’d be too tired and not so alert, seeing that neither of them had slept yet. Sent them back to sleep for the rest of the afternoon before their patrol tonight. Neither of them argued, they didn’t have clothes anyway.

Conner also wanted to make sure El was alright, shifted back to Atlas and headed back to the packhouse. Showered and changed into a tee-shirt and shorts. Adam was watching him. He knew that man wanted to ask a million questions of him. Though he’d not so far as done that, perhaps he was still trying to decide on what he wanted to ask.

“Kade is hungry, we should eat before sleeping.”

Conner nodded, they’d both gotten bitten and scratched in wolf form, both were healed up now but their wolves were in need of food, now after healing them. He was more than relieved to see El sitting with her mother having something to eat. Both he and Adam grabbed food and sank down right at the same table as them. Brittney looked right at him, he nodded “Everything is fine, dad’s gone out for a bit. Won’t be back till late though.” He knew she would be worried.

“Alright.”

“Clayton and Parker are still here.” He told her, Clayton was the current Gamma and Parker was the Delta. They were both casually leaning on the island bench right behind Brittney, doing their job. Waiting on having to lock it down or not.

That could be interesting, having this place suddenly influxed with all their wolves and children and then it be locked down with El inside it. She’d not understand any of it. But it would be an eye opener for her, and she’d probably get a full crash course into their world. Not something he particularly wanted.

She wasn’t settled enough yet to deal with that. Likely take one look at him and freak the hell out, considering he was all over her, might very well make her think about all their interactions out in the woods. She might actually realise it wasn’t just him mating her. That could be bad, needed to talk to her first about that.

Though Atlas had been doing his best to show her he was of no threat to her, she’d been weary of him but not afraid to the point he could actually smell fear on her. Looked right at her “I hear you were out in the woods. Are you okay, Eliza?”

She nodded at him but that was it. He narrowed his eyes on her and wondered what she was thinking. She’d not only had Atlas play with her, but had come across Kade as well. Heard wolves fighting. Wanted to ask her questions. But he couldn’t do that without her asking how he knew those things, had to let it go. She looked fine to him.

Knew his father would have had her escorted back, would not have allowed her to walk back on her own with Rogues on the territory. She’d have had a full escort being Brittney’s daughter. He could also see just how close attention Brittney was paying to her, talking to her a lot. Though El just appeared a little annoyed with all the attention.

Heard a couple of teens talking about going to the Raspberry festival this evening. It was likely there were some there now, he realised. That could be bad, stood up, “Adam, I need a meeting.”

“On it.” he nodded and got up himself.

He excused himself and looked right at Parker. The man fell in step with him, he knew Clayton wasn’t likely to move from Brittney, had orders from his Alpha to stick to the Luna like glue. They walked all the way into his father’s office and Adam shut the door.

“Let’s presume, on that boat were rogues, and those rogues, Al said they were headed back to the festival. We’ve likely got pack members down there as well.”

Parker frowned at him, “I’ll get some warriors down there and have them all brought in.”

“I want anything out of the ordinary reported. Any parent with a child they can’t replace needs to take priority. Anyone that suddenly can’t be found is to be considered taken by the rogues. We need to prep a retrieval team just in case the worst happens.”

“On it, Conner.” Parker nodded and then he was gone from the office.

“I don’t like it, Conner.” Adam muttered “Mum and Kitty were taking the girls to that festival today.”

“Parker will know that. They’ll be mind-linking to everyone the minute they get close enough.”

“Pack wide text will be quicker.” Adam stated and Conner could hear the stress in the man’s voice.

“Your right.” Conner nodded, “My phone is upstairs,” He turned and hunted for his father’s phone, found it in the trop draw and did just that, called everyone back and stated they had rogues in the area of the festival and anyone missing or not seen in a while needed to be reported immediately.”

Then they sat and waited. The phone was lighting up with incoming texts to report “on our way back Alpha.” He was looking at the names as they came through, both Kitty and Lorna responded, and he saw Adam sag with relief.

His little sister was only 13, no wolf yet and Kitty had two girls, 16 and 14. They were all vulnerable to being stolen by rogue wolves. Perhaps this was the reason they were dealing with rogues of late. They were out there waiting for the festival. The only real problem was that he had no idea how many had gone to the festival in the first place.

Pack members could come and go as they pleased, and that three-day festival was one that all the little children and young teens liked to go and attend. Even some of the newly Mated couples enjoyed spending quality time with each other down there. Things could well be about to get out of hand, and they could see themselves with kidnapped she-wolves or teens without wolves, the pups. They could well see full-grown she-wolves get taken down there at the festival.

This was not good.