Free as a Bird

Chapter Three

                  

~Jax~

It was no secret among my pack that I got the worst alpha-delegated jobs. While my elder brother was out leading hunts and attending important meetings, I was always left standing out in the cold.

At this particular moment in time, I was standing impatiently on the border of shifter land waiting for my father and his guards to scout out the area ahead. We were on our way to meet a foreign werewolf ambassador and guide him onto our pack territory - in the middle of winter, no less - so that he wouldn't accidentally run onto shifter land; they didn't leave their scent on their territories as wolves did. Shifters were a peaceful species, granted, but we didn't want any delays for the ambassador if he ran onto royal territory. Provided there were no changes to the plan, we would be perfectly safe, which was why glancing into the Griffin territory could have ended up as one of the biggest mistakes I had ever made.

So sue me, I was curious. I wanted to know what the big, fancy royal territory looked like. I'd been in the area before, once or twice, but had never plucked up the courage to actually look towards the castle itself. The building itself was shielded by a wall, along with most of the gardens, but the territory extended beyond the barrier and was accessible from the forest, in theory. No werewolf had ever dared place a foot beyond the treeline unannounced, however.

After a brief moment of hesitation, I stepped slightly further out of the cover of the trees until I could see into the grounds. At first I just saw a lake and slightly undulating ground covered in lush green grass and early snowdrops, and with my werewolf senses I could tell a male figure was retreating into the cover of some trees on the opposite side of the lake. Just as I was about to turn away and retreat back into the cover of the trees, curiosity satisfied, I caught sight of a familiar-looking girl standing up and moving towards the lake, a bunch of lettuce in her hand. My mind drifted absently to images of rabbits in vegetable patches, but my thoughts weren't arranging themselves properly as I stepped further out of the cover of the trees.

I knew I was being stupid - I was practically on shifter territory - but it was as if something was pulling me forwards. I stopped short as a gust of wind blew in my direction. I could detect two dominant scents from the direction of the lake. One was the girl's, and the other was from the male in the trees. And I could sense his claim over her. He must be her mate, I realised with a jolt. This was not good at all; I could feel the attraction towards her that my father told me I would only feel when I found my mate. This couldn't be right. I knew that werewolves and shifters could be mates, but this shifter already had one. Worse still, I recognised her from about six years ago, when I had met her in the woods. I had felt something then, too, but had brushed it off at the time because she didn't appear to have noticed anything. It seemed I had been wrong.

I tried to command my legs to work as I began stumbling backwards in the direction of the trees, falling backwards into the cover of some evergreen foliage as the girl began to turn around. I felt her inner being calling to me but ignored it, shuffling further backwards as she began to scan the tree line. I shifted to wolf form in order to better blend in with the mottled brown tree trunks.

She had a mate. How could she have a mate? Did that mean I'd lost my one chance?

As I sat lamenting over this, I suddenly realised that the girl had started forwards and was walking straight towards where I was sitting. I panicked, turning tail to run deeper into the woods, hearing a male voice call out for "Mia" somewhere behind me. Mia. That was her name.

I'd made it maybe thirty metres before I almost ran into my father and his guards. Coming to an abrupt halt, I hid outside the clearing they were entering, hoping they wouldn't catch my scent. As they shifted, I spotted Mia peering into the clearing from a little way off, eyes widening when she saw the five wolves occupying it.