The Alpha's Awkward Rut

Separate ways

Vern and the rest of the team were at a loss without their Alpha. Since Alpha Garret fell due to a landslide, taking Danielle with him, the two teams had decided to kill two birds with one stone and search for them, as well as scouting the perimeter of the two territories for any trespassing Order members.
Suspicions grew when the Alpha wouldn't respond to any mind links from Vern or Nick, and no one could get through to Danielle through her intercom nor phone. They had tried tracing Danielle's watch but that had also come back negative.
They had actually come across a large army of Order scum just off the border to their lands as they reached Fiesora, a day and a half after Garret and Danielle fell. Rhianna had had to call in reinforcements from FREE due to how much they outnumbered the teams and Garrets entire pack. The battle hadn't lasted very long, especially when a couple of green and brown of Dragons arrived through the portal.
The respect for Alpha Harry, his pack and FREE grew tenfold for Garrets pack. They had seriously been impressed by how quickly and efficiently they had reacted and overpowered the bastards.
Sadly, their victory didn't bring any feeling of safety for the Alpha-less pack. Instead it made them more concerned, particularly when one of the Order members had a faint scent trace of being close to Garret and Danielle.
Their concerns for Garrets welfare became fear when the two teams had continued to the shore of Fiesora, where the gorge met the sea, the day after the battle and there was no trace of them.
The search switched to looking for bodies on the river bank, to see if they had been washed up, rather than looking for them.
Vern was adamant that Garret was still alive because he hadn't felt the Alpha bond sever, but he seemed to be the only one holding out hope of finding them both alive.
With Alpha Harry's team, only Maria was concerned for their missing female. Everyone else just seemed to be pleased to get rid of her.
The group tracked along the river inside the gorge, heading back towards where the two were last seen. The light was fading fast on the second whole day since they were last seen, and the gorge was shrouded in shadow due to the angle in which the light was coming. They'd soon have to stop and camp up.
"Ruthie won't be too happy if you don't come home with Danielle, you know." Maria quipped, cheekily, at Luna Rhianna. "Don't want to upset the Queen of the Dragons, dooooo we?"
Rhianna scowled at her. "For fuck sake. Darren doesn't even like her, and he's her brother! If anything, the whole reason she was sent on this call was so those at FREE could get rid of her!"
"You were hoping she would die?" Stanley blanched.
"Not exactly... just get lost." Alpha Harry chuckled then sheepishly cleared his throat when Maria narrowed her eyes at him. "Anyyy way... Umm, there's caverns too, so be sure to check them too, lads."
The troop trudged on. Micha, Stanley, Edwards, Ryder and Tim were stalking close to the rivers edge, while Alpha Harry, Maria, Leopoldo, Vern, Nick, Arthur and Caroline stayed in the centre and Luna Rhianna, Lewis, Brian and Jason kept to the base of the cliff.
"God, it's cold!" Ryder shivered, pulling out her cloak and throwing it across her shoulders. "Do werewolves feel cold?"
"Of course we do! What kind of stupid question is that?!" Vern snapped, getting irritable due to his frayed nerves.
"It was just a question. There's no need to bite her head off, you wanker!" Edwards spat, defensively.
"We best be stopping soon, Harry. I need to update Rebecca and the others on how we're doing." Leopoldo called over, pushing his grey hair out of his eyes.
"Right you are..." Harry replied, rubbing his forehead. "I need to speak to Ruthie, anyway. This just isn't looking good. There's no trace of them anywhere! Even if they had died in the water, their bodies would have left behind a slight trace and we'd know where they fucking went!"
"They must be still alive then." Maria chipped in, confidently.
"That or washed up further up the river." Rhianna added, bluntly. "Sorry, Maria, but this river is full of rocks and boulders. If a body fell from the cliff, they'd get stuck on them before they reached the sea."
"Ahhh, but how can you be sure?"
"It's what happened to Alpha Rhys when Luna Rhianna had finished him off." Vern responded on his Luna's behalf in a nonchalant way. "He was the fishes food for weeks."
"Eewww!" Ryder complained. "Why didn't you just move the body? That must have stunk!"
Rhianna shrugged, flippantly. "Couldn't find a stick long enough?"
Suddenly, Nick started sniffing.
"Does anyone else smell that?!" He asked, blocking his nose with his wrist in disgust.
The werewolves all sniffed and gagged as a wretched stench of rotting fish reached their nostrils.
The humans could also smell it. It was such a pungent smell, it had the whole group almost vomiting. Rhianna marched ahead and bent to pick something up from the floor outside a cave.
"This is the culprit!" She said, holding up a fish that looked like it had been impaled on a wide stick and she was looking very green. "Wait..."
She sniffed, begrudgingly, at the fish before abruptly throwing it away from her as if it had burned her.
"It reeks of Garret too!" She gasped, appalled. "The way it smells of him and, judging by the fact it has been completely gutted, it looks like he fucked the thing!"
Alpha Harry burst out laughing. "Sexy, that's just wrong! I worry about your mind sometimes!"
"Actually... I smell Danielle too..." Rhianna sniffed the air again.
Now the stinky fish had been thrown away from the area, the air began to clear slightly. Both Garret and Danielle's scents were near, very near in fact, that along with another stench, this time of sex.
The Luna wrinkled her nose and head towards the small cave in the cliff, withdrawing her huge blade as she went.
She took a defensive pose and slowly encroached inside, while the others stayed back, their hands on the hilts of their weapons just in case they were needed.
"Ohhhhh, dear... oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! For shame!"
The troop heard Rhianna announce then she re-emerged with a snide smirk across her face, her blade now sheathed and she had her hands on her hips, cockily swaggering towards them.
The werewolves each exchanged looks of alarm and dread, guessing what she had seen from the evidence so far. They hadn't, had they?
"What's those looks for?" Edwards asked, curiously. "You all look like you've seen a ghost."
Rhianna's smirk widened and she turned to Vern and his team. "You do realise the penalty for having sexual intercourse with a human is punishable by the Elders, don't you? If they have, and he's not her mate, then we will have to make them aware."
"Say what?!" Edwards blanched. "She seduced the Alpha?! HOW?!"
Vern pulled a disgruntled face. He doubted that the Alpha would have had sex with her unless she was his mate, Garret had a lot of self respect than to resort to that... unless...
"Are they awake?" He asked.
The Luna slowly shook her head, now grinning at the drama that was about to unfold when the Alpha woke to see they had found him in the most awkward position.
"They're knotted. Danielle is face down with her arse sticking up in the air and Garret is bent over her, out for the count."
"Knotted?" Maria repeated, warily. "That's not what I think it is, is it?"
Harry snorted. "In bondage terms, no. In werewolf terms... have you ever caught two foxes shagging in your garden then scared them?" Maria's eyes grew huge when she caught on to what he was referring to. "Yeah... that's knotting."
"Dude! GROSS!" Ryder exclaimed, looking thoroughly ill.
"Here, Harry..." Edwards said, cockily. "Does that mean you can knot Rhianna too when you're bumping uglies?"
Rhianna let out a savage growl at the man. "Mind your own business!"
He burst out laughing and turned to Micha. "She's such a prude bitch, isn't she?"
"I can fucking hear you, you Vexwraith! You mind your tongue or you'll have to live on without it!"
Harry reached his arms around his mate to calm her down. "Right, well... we better tell everyone at base we found them. Darren's going to be overjoyed." He added with sarcasm.
Rhianna snorted and looked back in the cave. "I'll do the honours, thank you very much!" She grinned, pulling out her phone.