Chapter 6

• Callan POV
• The night air feels crisp and fresh, there’s a small chill on the breeze that feels refreshing, I can hear crickets chirping all around me and the small birds call out to each other in a beautiful chorus that takes me back to my childhood, to the long summer nights that I would spend hidden in the gardens of the pack house or roaming the forest searching for something, anything that would protect us from Alister. Summer is almost over and the autumn nights will set in fast. The waxing crescent moon hangs perfectly in the cloudless sky, bright twinkling stars fill the black void, giving it warmth. The smell of pine and wet grass mixes with the fresh water and moss from the rocks that line the bed of the small stream that runs along the small dirt path joggers and dog walkers use during the day. Droplets of rain still linger on the vibrant green leaves that hang above me, I feel them dripping onto my black fur as I move beneath the thick, ancient trees that surround me. I can almost feel the history and the magic that once consumed this land thrumming from them deep within me, like a beating drum calling me home. Leaves bristle against my legs as I brush past the bushes that fill the forest floor along with tall grass and bluebells. The sweet scent fills the air, but it does nothing to hide the small rabbit scurrying into its burrow to avoid me. Bats fly around above me looking for their prey. I can hear their wings as they flap frantically.
• The sound of an old bell clanging echoes in my ears. It sounds broken, more like a clank than a chime. Something dashes past my right. It makes the leaves of the bush rustle and the dry twigs on the floor snap. I stop and dart off after the thing. My paws hit the soft ground, sinking in and leaving my trail as I followed the chiming of the bell ahead of me.
• *I can’t get a scent on this thing!* Micha, one of my best friends and my future beta, says through the mind link that I share with the wolves from our pack. Every wolf can do this, it is how we communicate when in our wolf form, but we can only mind link with wolves from our pack. I can see his wolf to the right of me, a large brown brute that looks strong and fearsome. His powerful muscles push him forward after the thing we are tracking close to our territory and even closer to our home.
• *It's fast. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything this fast before.* Eric, my other best friend, and future gamma added.
• His wolf runs to my left, a large black and white beast who is fast, nibble, and intelligent, a perfect combination for my second and third in command.
• The creature we are currently chasing has been stalking women across the country. I say creature, because this thing is definitely supernatural, we just don’t know what type of supernatural. It has been making its way closer to the town that our pack inhabits. We have heard whispers of it from different packs all around the country. This thing is roaming the UK searching for something or someone and is leaving a trail of terrified young women in its wake, and now the local news is reporting on it, showing CCTV of the blurred creature as it stalks its target, petrifying them whilst moving around unseen. Not a single person who has fallen prey to this creature can describe what it looks like. The news has begun to call it The Shadow Stalker and, to be honest, I think that’s what it could be, a shadow that disappears into the night unseen and unknown. No one from our world knows of its existence, or what it could possibly be, but tonight is the first time we have managed to get close enough to almost find out. I knew it was only a matter of time before it made its way to us, and now it falls on our shoulders to stop it and protect the humans from its sinister motives.
• The sound of the bell disappears, and I know that whatever it was we were just chasing is now long gone. Vanished into the darkness of the night.
• *We lost it. Let’s head back home.* I decide.
• I slowed down and came to a stop. I see Micha and Eric turn around and make their way home, but I want to make sure that the creature really has gone first. I scan the trees and the bushes surrounding me, wondering what the creature wants and why it’s here, before turning and catching up with my friends. Micha and Eric both live with me in the penthouse at the top of an old house. It used to be a home for old miners, but it was sold and redeveloped a few years ago, and it was my big break. I managed to buy the old home and with Micha’s and Eric’s help, we redeveloped the building, keeping the penthouse for ourselves. It was perfect. The pack house wasn’t that far away, so if we were ever needed, we didn’t have far to go, but it was far enough that I didn’t have to worry about running into my father all the time. Alister, even thinking of him, makes my fury surge; the mighty Alpha of The Bloodclaw Prowlers. He was a ruthless and merciless man; he ruled the pack with his barbaric and brutish ways, and he was adamant that I make it on my own first before I became Alpha of his pack. I was fine with that. Alister is a dick. The less time I spend with him, the better. My mum is the only reason I’ve not killed him, because she has something with him, no other wolf has, something that seems to be a fairytale now, told to children to give them hope. A true bond. I have never heard of any other wolf having a true mate bond, given to them by the moon goddess, but my father, the di­ckhead, did. This meant that their lives were intertwined, making them one. Meaning, that if anything happened to one, it happened to the other. Many believed that the true mate bond had died out years ago, that the moon goddess had forsaken us, but I knew that wasn’t true because the goddess had given Alister a fated mate, someone she thought worthy of him, but he chose to abuse and diminish her self worth, making her become a shell of herself. Alister is adamant that the true bond has died out because wolves have diluted their bloodline with the humans, if anyone from our pack tries to take a human mate, my ruthless beast of a father slaughters them, he makes the wolf watch as he rips the human limb from limb before killing the wolf brave enough to take a human mate. It kills me to see how he has broken the faith the pack has in him as alpha, and in me. They all see me like him, but I will be damned if I end up like him.
• I’ve been tempted myself over the years to take a chosen mate, plenty of the she-wolves from the pack have offered, but then I think of the woman who fills my dreams every single night. Her face is that of an angel, and it haunts me. Her eyes are a baby blue. They look like the deepest ocean but surrounding her pupil is a light purple ring, it’s like the colour is leaking from the black spot creating what looks like a beautiful flower floating on the ocean of blue. Her lips look so sweet and full, I ache to taste them, her body is voluptuous and sexy. I’ve spent many hours picturing myself exploring every inch of it. Her hair looks like velvet; it falls over her shoulder and down her back in thick and luscious light brown waves. I try to forget about her and allow myself the pleasure of other women, but they never really satisfy my needs. It always feels empty, and the pleasure is short-lived. I find myself longing for someone who isn’t real except when I am in the land of dreams.