THANK YOU so much to everyone who has voted and supported 'She's One Of The Boys' in the Waty Awards - I was shocked to find out I had made it into the second round and even more surprised byt the percentage it had on the first day! You guys and girls are amazing!! xo
(not fully edited....I got lazy)
~ ~ Chapter Twenty Five ~ ~
Saxon was leaning on his large desk, the muscles in his arms becoming very prominent as his eyes were transfixed on the map spread out before him, “I have a cabin up here,” and his finger tapped a spot on the map. It was a large layout of his lands and the surrounding territories.
“That’s nice to know,” I mumbled while spinning around in his chair again – I love this chair.
“Could you care any less?”
Nodding my head slowly, “Yeah, I could actually.”
“Alright, I’ve got what I need. You ready to go now?” He abruptly stood up, rolling the map back up and slipping it into a hard cylinder.
“I was ready when I first howled for you, you’ve just been slowing me down,” I gave him a pointed look as I stopped the chair and stood up to my feet, ready to go kick some she-wolf butt.
He smirked cockily, “You weren’t complaining about me slowing you down,” and I blushed immediately, scowling at him in the process.
“Shush.”
Saxon chuckled, the sound deep and contagious because you rarely heard the boy laugh. So when you did, it made you automatically want to join him, but I was stubborn and kept the scowl glued to my face as I led the way out of his office.
“Hang on a second, I just need to leave a note for Vance,” Saxon called out and I paused, impatiently, in the doorway. Glancing back at him as he quickly scribbled something down on a slip of paper before folding it in half and scribbling one word on the front, he sat it in the middle of his organised and clean desk.
“What does your note say?” I raised a curious eyebrow as we started walking down the hallway together, all finally ready to leave and go hunt this wolf down and find out what her problem is.
“That I’m taking my mate on a special trip,” Saxon smirked again, casually throwing his arm over my shoulder.
Grinning as I looked up at him, “I expect a cool gift then.”
Stepping down off his front porch, I toed the dirt with my bare foot and sighed softly before looking up again. “Ready?” I asked and he nodded once, and then motioned for me to go first. Rolling my eyes I did lead the way to the edge of the trees before shifting into my wolf form and without waiting for him, I started running.
We all knew he would catch up anyway.
The tranquillity of the trees and wildlife all around us calmed my thoughts down a bit, as we ran in silence, side by side. The sound of our paws thumping against the soft earth was the only disruptive sound, but then again, wolves are a natural part of Mother Nature.
I still couldn’t believe that the she-wolf was Brody’s newfound mate. He was going to be so angry when he finds out that she was just stalking us for some other ulterior motive – one that I think I already know. My bigger problem is; how do I tell him this?
‘Eva?’ I yelp of shock escaped my mouth, followed by Saxon’s deep chuckle inside my mind as my racing heart calmed down.
‘Don’t do that,’ I grunted back, not wanting to admit that I forgot about how we could now mind link again.
‘Do what?’ He feigned innocence, to which I scoffed at and nudged him in the side with my head. I had been secretly hoping that my nudge would put him off balance and make him trip over or something else hilarious for my entertainment, but no, he just kept running as if I hadn’t even touched him.
Stupid balanced wolf.
‘Warn someone first when you’re about to jump in their mind,’ I muttered, picking my pace up a bit more.
‘Slow down tiger, we have miles to go still,’ Saxon called out, still sounding way too amused for my liking.
‘I’m not a tiger,’ was my awesome comeback.
‘Beep, beep!’ Saxon practically screamed inside my mind, causing me to jump in shock again and quickly snap in his direction as a warning.
‘What the heck is wrong with you?’
His lips curled back in a wolfish grin and I rolled my eyes, ‘That, babe, was your warning.’
‘You sir, are a genuine douche bag.’
‘That was mean,’ he mumbled, causing me to chuckle a little at his serious tone.
‘And beeping in my head wasn’t?’ I countered.
‘Just warning you that I was about to speak,’ he chuckled again as he dodged a low hanging branch and I couldn’t help but wish he had ran head on into it. Not that it probably would have stopped him though, he does have a massive sized head to store all that self-loving in.
‘What do you want Saxon?’ I groaned loudly, letting him clearly know I was not amused.
‘I'm just curious why you didn’t go to your family for help?’ he asked softly and I rolled my eyes as he continued, ‘You only gave me a vague answer before.’
I thought about it quickly and for some reason I didn’t want to admit that the girl we were hunting is Brody’s mate, Brody would kill me if I gave Saxon that kind of ammo against him.
‘You were just the one I wanted. I didn’t even think of my family at the time, only just getting to you,’ I admitted, it was the truth, just the truth with a huge chunk of information left out of it.
‘You’re leaving something out,’ he grunted, almost angrily and I glanced over at him, staring at his face for a bit too long and almost didn’t see the big boulder I was approaching at a fast pace until he motioned with his head for me to turn and look.
Crap! Using my back legs, I pushed up off the ground and sailed over the large jagged rock, my paws never missing a beat as they touched back down and I continued running. I chose to ignore Saxon’s little comment and see if he would just drop it or not.
If he didn’t, well then I would have to come up with a quick responded and awesome lie.
The sun was starting to set in the distance, casting a dull orange glow over the wide opened fields spread out before us. A gentle breeze blew the long strands of wild grass, creating a Mexican wave effect. Saxon was keeping in contact with Vance, who was ringing ahead and asking certain Alpha’s for permission for us to pass through with no hassles.
So far, two of them had given us permission and we had no encounters with wolves defending their territories. I think they appreciated the common courtesy of us asking before we entered their lands.
‘Heard back yet?’ I asked as I stared out over the field, searching for where it ends, but I couldn’t see.
‘Permission has been denied so far, the Alpha has heard of me and thinks I’m here to start trouble,’ Saxon mumbled, not very impressed as a low growl vibrated through his chest.
Smirking widely to myself, ‘So being a jerk all these years has finally come back to bite you on the bum, hey?’ I chuckled, finding it slightly amusing.
‘It bit me on the butt when you came along,’ he grunted and my jaw fell open as I spun around to glare at him.
‘You know what Saxon? I'm not you, so I don’t need to wait for permission,’ I snapped and jumped to my feet with such quickness, Saxon was to slow to grab on to me with his teeth. I spared him a quick glance as I stood on the other side of the invisible territory lines and hung my tongue out my mouth as me ‘poking it out’.
‘Eva!’ He hissed as I strolled forward, scrunching my nose up with disgust.
‘Oh this is gross Sax. Why do guys feel the need to pee everywhere? Don’t they realise how horrible the stench is?’ I grumbled and complained to myself while still moving forward, staying low in the long grass and keeping out of sight of anyone who may be secretly watching.
‘I hope you still remember all the fighting techniques I taught you,’ Saxon growled and I heard him quickly moving up behind me until he was cutting me off. I head butted the side of him as he passed me by and continued to keep walking directly in front of me. ‘They pee to mark their territory, don’t you know anything?’ he added after a second.
‘There is enough space for you to move over a bit,’ I muttered and stepped to the side, gaining a little more of a thing called ‘personal space’.
‘Stick close Eva, I want you within my sight at all times,’ he snapped, glaring back at me with dark eyes, ‘We are trespassing right now.’
‘Trespassing mespassing, who cares?’ I rolled my eyes and took another step away from him as he closed the distance I had just made. ‘I'm too ninja like to be caught, so just follow my lead,’ and I quickly leapt over top of him, chuckling to myself at my smooth move as I landed in front and hurried my pace up so he couldn’t take back the front position. ‘I'm the Alpha now, deal with it,’ I chuckled again and he growled in response.
‘You’re so infuriating at times,’ he grunted from behind and I just smirked to myself, knowing that me being in the lead who be eating away at his Alpha pride.
‘Slow down, you’ll give us away moving like that,’ he spoke up a few minutes later and I looked back at him over my shoulder, shaking my head a little.
‘You can slow down if you want, but I don’t exactly want to spend the next ten years trespassing,’ I smirked and looked back in front of me. All I could see was long grass after long grass and it was boring.
He snorted softly, ‘What happened to trespassing mespassing?’
‘You killed it.’
He went to argue back, I know he did because I could feel it – as weird as that sounds, but he was cut off by a low and warning growl from a good distance off to the left of us.
Snapping my head back to look at Saxon, he had gone in defensive mode, ‘Well done, you gave us away.’
Saxon didn’t even look in my direction as he replied, ‘I gave us away?’ He snapped, clearly not agreeing with me.
Nodding, ‘Yes, but what are we doing? Fight for our honours?’
‘Sometimes Eva...,’ he spoke slowly, his head snapping around at each sound we could both hear, while I did the same along with sniffing at the air. At least five wolves are onto us right now – we can totally take them all down and win. ‘You need to shut up.’
‘We will continue this when we don’t have company,’ I warned him and quickly bolted away, ignoring Saxon’s loud and furious protests inside my mind, and the growls vibrating through the earth from him.
I knew he was going to blast me for this after, possibly even skin me alive after he’s chewed my head off, but the boy will deal. Somehow. I know what I’m doing and I also know that I can be more stealthy when I’m not standing alongside the very angry, and very defensive Alpha who was gaining all the attention.
Blocking his annoying voice out of my head, I weaved my way quietly and slowly through the long grass, my ears flicking back and forth in every direction to listen to what was going on all around us. My inner wolf was growling quietly inside of me, and I decided to give her some control and help guide me.
I'm guessing I’ll soon find out of this move pays off or not.
The growling grew louder and held more warning in them as they moved closer to Saxon, who was still standing in the same position. I bet he wasn’t even moving and was just raised up to his full height as he kept track of their positions and mine, not showing any signs of weakness by looking all around him – like I would have been doing.
Sneaking around in a wide circle, I knew at the back of my mind that the new wolves would know exactly where I was seeing as they had the same senses as I do, but I was hoping they were too distracted with Saxon to pay any real attention to me.
I was wrong.
A smallish looking grey wolf landed right in front of me, causing me to spring back a step and away from his snapping jaws that had been right in my face. I lowered my head slightly, baring my teeth as I growled back at him.
‘Eva?’ Saxons panicked voice flooded my mind again.
‘I'm fine,’ I reassured him, not that it would until he could see me with his own two eyes.
The wolf took a threatening step towards me and I matched it with one back, not really wanting to, but I was still waiting for Saxon to confirm what we were doing – fighting or flighting.
The wolf lunged a little at me, snapping those powerful jaws once more, aiming for my throat and most likely with the intent to kill. Oh heck no! I bared my teeth even more as I dug my back paws into the ground to get a good run at it.
‘Fight!’ I yelled at Saxon, lunging forward the wolf that stood before me, I refused to back down and run away now, that he tried to for my throat! That’s like cheating!
‘Eva no!’ Saxon roared back, but it was too late, my teeth were scraping through the wolves fur, just missing his meat by mere inches as I flew past the side of his.
He spun around to bite into my back hind legs, but I was a lot quicker than what he had thought and dodged off into the long grass with the hopes he would follow.
‘What? Can’t you handle a few wolves on your lonesome?’ I teased Saxon, trying to lighten the situation up a bit.
‘Not funny – come here now!’ he snapped back.
‘What am I? A dog?’
‘Just do as I say!’ he snapped again while I quickly dodged to the side, because as fast as I am on my feet – this wolf is as well and his jaws got a little too close for comfort.
‘Yeah, yeah,’ I grunted back while doing a quick circle and ending up behind the wolf and creating myself as the pursuer and not the pursued. I'm so clever like that, but it turns out the wolf didn’t appreciate my mad skills as much as I did.
He abruptly spun around to face me head on and I barely had enough time to spring up into the air and over his head. The feel of his teeth and hot breath on my belly was a clear indication to how close he had come to ripping my guts open on me just now.
Panic finally set into my system, up until now, I wasn’t taking this very seriously. Now I am, these wolves were serious and from the sounds of Saxon’s growls and ferocious attacking, they were trying to kill us.
‘All this because we cut through their lands, come on!’ I shouted out as I eyed the wolf up and down, trying to determine what his next form of attack was going to be.
‘Yes!’ Saxon roared back, obviously blaming me for this.
I couldn’t really reply to that right away because the one wolf who was determined to foil my plans, sprung at me again, snapping furiously, his growl echoing all around me as he crashed into me head on, knocking me off my feet.
Pain shot through my body and I gasped to get some air back into my lungs, rolling to the side and springing up to my feet as he lunged at me again. Just missing me and plunging his face into the ground, getting a mouthful of dirt and grass roots.
He was quick to jump back up and spin around so he was facing me again, both of us with lowered heads, ears pinned back, and baring our teeth as we growled.
My inner wolf was taking back over now and I smirked on the inside knowing she was much better at this fighting to actually injure the other thing better than what I was. I'm a fighter, but not like this. I fight with words more, rather than fists...or jaws, but I will use jaws if it meant the other or me.
A loud yelp sounded out from behind me, but I didn’t bother to look, already knowing it wasn’t Saxon as I walked in a slow circle, eyeing my opponent up and down, while he did the same to me. I was clearly out-matched in a way, this dude may be small but he is a fighter.
He wouldn’t have come out here to cut us off he wasn’t.
I noticed he was moving in closer inch by inch as we continued circling one another, and I was going to have to make my move before he did – you know, get the upper hand and all that jazz.
My only problem was, where the heck do I start?
Another yelp was quick to follow, and again, I ignored it. I was solely concentrating on the darker grey wolf who was more likely going to get the better of me anytime soon.
I should have paid more attention to the yelping though, but I didn't.
My inner wolf took a little more control from me, zoning in on the threat. I felt the position of my entire body change immediately when she gained hold of the reins a little, my growl deepened, my movements were slower and with more precise direction, but mostly, I felt like I was being shoved on to the backbench.
Everything happened so fast after that, teeth snapping, flashes of fur, paws flying dirt and grass strands up all around us, creating our very own cloak of some sort.
I felt the presence of teeth just miss the side of my face as a hot breathe blew across my fur, sending a repulsive shiver through my mind. My own head followed the movement of the other wolf passing by, snapping my jaws and sinking my sharp teeth in through further than fur.
The rich, unique, taste of blood touched the tip of my tongue a second before my entire mouth exploded with the taste. I wanted to spit it all back out, but she wouldn’t unclench her jaws with teeth still pierced right into the meaty flesh of the side of the wolf's face, growling as she hung on with everything she had.
Finally he tugged away hard enough and was free, minus a small patch of fur attached to a little meat, which my inner wolf spat out instantly, but he was more than furious as she spun back around with such vengeance that it took me by surprise. I could only watch as his deadly jaws grew closer and closer to my face.
A deep booming growl echoed around the area, sounding like thunder erupting in the shy and vibrating through the grounds and a snarling flash of pitch-black fur speed by my eyes, taking the grey wolf with it.
Deep down I knew it was Saxon, but my inner wolf was furious he stole her kill and she sprung into action, racing up behind the viciously rolling wolves as they tumbled along through the grass, creating a flattened path for me to follow.
Before I even reached them, Saxon had stood back up, tall and on all fours, and surveying the damage he had just caused as dark stains showed through in the wolves grey fur.
The problem right now was, my inner wolf was still in control and she was furious. Growling threateningly she ran for Saxon still, mate or no mate, she wasn’t appreciating him taking down that wolf.
Saxon's big head snapped in my direction, his eyes a frightening black as he took in the situation, noticing the difference in my behaviour. Which I’m thankful for. She hasn’t taken full control that I don’t understand what’s going on, but she has enough to keep me as just a spectator...refusing to even allow me to communicate back to his mind link right now.
'Get control back Eva,' he warned lowly inside my mind and I felt like screaming certain abusive and foul words at him for being such an idiot - of course I’d get control back of my own darn body if I could! I can’t believe I’m mated to a moron.
'You won’t like what I’m about to do,' he warned again and I cocked an eyebrow (in my mind) as I stared at him, and what the heck does he plan on doing right now? I’m in wolf mode, I’m basically just a mind with no body right now.
I stalked forward slowly, she was weighing him up and down, wondering what her best approach of attack should be...while I was realising what Saxon had meant.
Oh no he wasn’t! I thought in horror as I watched him walk forward, rising up tall and showing his dominance as my Alpha and my mate.
He was too! I’m going to murder him when I get control back. Who does he think he is? Seriously.
A low growl rumbled through his chest and I felt my inner wolf hesitate slightly, shifting her body back a little and struggling to not bow down to him already. It was hard for her pride, and she wanted to put up a good fight for her kill he stole.
A growl vibrated through my chest as my ears pinned back and she gave one last fight before he closed the distance between us and loomed over top like a dominating skyscraper, showing his full height and strength.
Still growling and in defensive mode, my wolf slowly lowered to the ground with Saxon following every inch of the way with his body and just before she laid down one hundred percent - she gave full control back.
I hate my inner wolf with a passion. I wonder if you can swap inner wolves somewhere. I’m sure there are others out there like me who has a grudge against theirs...there has to be.
'Get off me,' I growled loudly in his mind and shoving at his chest with my head while I attempted to get back up, but he wasn’t letting me.
'Nah, I must prefer you down on the ground like this,' he teased and I knew if he was in human form right now then the douche would be smirking. 'You look hot down there.'
'Urgh, you animal, just let me up already,' I grunted against his weight as I struggled to get out from underneath him to no avail. Why must he be so much bigger than me? It seems unfair at times.
He chuckled with amusement in my mind, then stepped back and I lunged to my feet, snapping my teeth in his direction, 'Not funny at all.'
'It was from where I was standing,' he smugly replied, 'Are you all okay though?' his tone suddenly turning very serious and I smiled a little on the inside. It was nice having someone care about you in the way that he does - even if he is a douche bag at times.
'Yeah, apparently I’m not allowed to attack my own attackers - way to steal my thunder Sax,' I mentally rolled my eyes at him before turning my back to him to continue cutting through this territory.
'Oh yeah, I’m all okay too - thanks for asking,' he sarcastically responded and I felt guilty. It never even occurred to me that he could have been injured though, I just imagine him as some immortal being who could never be harmed like that.
Turning around to face him again, I felt myself smirk and I knew I was about to say something stupid, but I couldn’t help myself, 'Toughen up princess.'
He kind of glared at me for a minute with a low growl rumbling through his chest and then he pushed past me, causing a chuckle to explode in my mind at his almost sulking behaviour.
'Keep up Eva, this was your idea remember?' he snapped back as he walked away with a quicker pace than what we were originally going at.
'Eye eye captain!' I mocked him and jogged to catch up.
'Really? You're really playing it like this?' I asked, astounded as he started running the second I had caught up to him.
'Playing what?' he faked innocence, 'I’m just trying to get through here before they send the entire pack after us. Not only are we trespassing still, but I did what they thought I would - kill some of them, so move your little butt along,' he growled angrily at the end and I didn’t argue back as I ran like the wind right behind him.
We made it safely off the lands and onto the next which was unmarked territory - thank goodness too, I was exhausted and just wanted to collapse. Saxon slowed right down until he was walking, leading us further into the deep trees and shrubbery, also giving me the silent treatment.
He plopped down on the soft dirt under a large shrub and closed his eyes, I sat down and watched him, curious if he was really just going to go to sleep on me or not.
Apparently, it was a yes when fifteen minutes later he still didn’t open his eyes or move a muscle, let alone speak to me. So sighing loudly, and starting to shiver a little from the cold that the night brought in with it, I stood back up and walked over to him.
Lying down along his side and nuzzling my head in under his leg so it fell across my back while my head ended up resting underneath his and I closed my eyes.
'Night Eva,' was the last thing I heard before the empty blackness of my dreams snatched me away for the next few hours.