Refusing my Alpha mate

Arthur

It's been 3 days since she came to see me after the ball, and I had to contain all my instincts to see Clair, it was almost impossible to stay away from her, my wolf, and in fact, my whole being was crying out for her. But I used all my self-control not to go, I couldn't go, I couldn't stay close to her without touching, kissing, and all the things that my brain tried to imagine, but that gave me more agony knowing that none of that would probably happen.

But to my misfortune or happiness, today was game day, it was Rabbit Hunting, I actually didn't know for sure if I wanted to go, but I had already won two medals, one more and I would win the right to make the first deal with Clair, and I would soon be Alpha, Clair's Pack was immensely larger than mine, and we shared a border, it would be the difference I needed for the prosperity and security of my people.

And for them, only for them, I was going.

My father was better today, but I mentally hoped that Clair would ask him to be the referee again, the Rabbit Hunt consisted of us simply running after a rabbit, in the form of wolves, I hadn't seen my father transform in a long time, since the illness, if he was weak, his wolf would be too, he would stay behind and especially in today's game, he could be in dangerous.

We arrived at the Troffendoll pack, and usually, we arrived normally. But now, everyone, simply all eyes, were on me, including and especially, Clair. I hadn't thought that after being rejected and not publicly accepting it would leave me in the spotlight.

"What? Are you afraid that it will be easy for me to win another medal?" I asked with a smile on my face, the hardest I had to form, but I couldn't let them think I was shaken, it was hard enough being the rejected Alpha, and being the rejected Alpha suffering, was worse. I tried my best to maintain my posture, and from the smiles I received in return, it was working.

"I have one for being on your team in the last game," Tommy said, approaching and opening his arms to hug and greet me. And within seconds of greeting the other Alphas, the atmosphere improved considerably.

But I didn't dare touch Clair, seeing her in the guard's uniform, smelling her, it was torture enough, I just gave a short nod and she reciprocated.

Then she turned to my dad, smiling, and damn, it was the most perfect smile in the entire universe.

"Alpha Augustus, can I count on you to be our referee again? I think your Pack already has a great representative." Her comment made me swallow hard, I exhaled and my gaze went to Clair who was looking at me with a smile, I went into a trance when our eyes met, it was something without explanation, which was only interrupted by my father talking.

"Of course Clair, you can count on me." He smiled and patted her on the shoulder twice.

"Then we can head to the starting line, while Augustus releases the rabbit and takes up his position at the observatory," Clair said as my father walked to the starting line and looked at the observatory, which was a tower made of wood next to the forest.

We all positioned ourselves at the starting line and took off our vests and holsters. When we transformed, this entire uniform would be ripped apart, there was no point in keeping anything extra on our bodies. My father opened the small cage and the white rabbit ran out, while he pressed the timer. We always gave the rabbit a full minute of advantage, and as soon as my father screamed, everyone transformed and we went in search of the little animal.

As everyone there were Alphas, the wolves were all bigger, with different colors and coats, but Clair's wolf, being female, was slightly smaller, just because of that I would already recognize her, but in addition, Clair's wolf's fur was exactly the color of her hair, the reddish fur shone in the rays of the afternoon sun, and with each step, her muscles became visible due to the movement, she was trained, beautiful, and I had to shake my head to be able to focus on the rabbit again. I smelled him, and it was easy to follow a path behind him, the younger wolves were all left behind and at a certain point, it was just me, Clair, Ethan and Clark left behind the rabbit.

Then a flash of the dream with Clair came into my mind, her in danger and then dying, I thought about slowing down, but I screamed inside my head, I called out to her, it was something instinctive and desperate, and to my greatest surprise, Clair's wolf turned back, her blue eyes caught me and she frowned in confusion, but before she turned forward again, a figure of a black wolf came towards her.

I just saw that he wanted to go for her neck, but as she was turned away, he bit her back thigh, making her wolf give a loud scream of pain, and that scream hurt, it hurt the deep down in my being, feeling her pain and despair was the worst feeling I've ever had. I felt the pain of the bite in me, but it was like it was 10 times worse, it was agonizing.

The next movement, I made with so much strength and will, that it was quick as a second. I bit the neck of the wolf still trapped in her, which made him let go, and in two movements I shook his head with force, making the wolf break his neck, but it wasn't enough, I clenched my jaw tightly, until I felt his bones next to my teeth, the metallic taste of blood invaded my mouth, but I embraced it, I let his blood fill me and only let go when the wolf's head separated from the body.

I turned my gaze to Clair, just about to see her return to human form, and at any other moment, I'm sure I would leave my body, seeing her naked, the perfect body, it was a perfect mix of muscles and curves. But in that moment I saw her vulnerable, and more than anything I just wanted her safe.

I wanted to be able to take her place, I wanted to be vulnerable just to see her well. And my wolf gave way to me, I transformed and fell to my knees beside her.

"Clair, you?" I didn't know what to ask, obviously, she wasn't okay.

But her response was just to put her hand on her thigh and let out a loud moan of pain, my eyes went to the white skin now stained with blood, and the cut was so deep that I could see the muscles, the bleeding was intense and I needed to act quickly. My eyes went around and I found a leaf that I could use as a tourniquet, at least for now.

At that moment Ethan and Clark were already beside her, they said something, but I didn't listen, I came back with the leaf and completely ignored Ethan beside her, when my speech went directly to Clair.

"It's going to hurt, but trust me?" She looked at me with wide blue eyes and nodded.

I just rubbed the leaves on her thigh, before the bite, made a small knot, and pulled it in one movement, the scream that came out on Clair's lips hurt me so hard, that I squirmed in place.

"Clark runs to the hospital and tells the doctor on duty that we have a muscle bite with laceration of the vastus lateralis and biceps femoris muscles." I just ordered in his direction.

"Ethan, where is the quickest way out of the forest?" I asked him firmly, he opened his lips to say something but closed them again, so he closed his eyes and said.

"Going back and heading straight." He just spoke, and I bent down and as gently as I could, I picked Clair up, she grimaced in pain and I felt, in addition to her pain, fear, shame, and shyness. My heart writhed, first because the worst thing in the world was for your mate to be scared, my biggest job in life was to keep Clair safe, and feeling her fear destabilized me, but even worse than that, it was her feeling shame and shyness with me, with me her mate.

"Hey, it's okay. It's going to be okay." I said in a whisper, against her hair, and pulling her small body tighter against mine, desperate to erase those emotions from her, but careful not to hurt her even more. Clair then put her hands on my neck and snuggled even more in my lap, and even with the pain and still a little shyness, she was no longer ashamed or afraid.

She was no longer afraid.

As we hadn't gone very far, I soon left the forest, I ran with her in my arms without looking back, and I ran towards the hospital. Strangely I knew where it was, it was as if Clair, within my thoughts, guided me there, and when we arrived there was already a stretcher waiting for her and two doctors. I put her on the stretcher and two nurses pulled her away from me, and at that moment I felt the physical pain of needing to move away from her. I struggled and looked at one of the nurses, but she held me back.

"I...I need to come along." I said trying to gently pull away from the nurse.

"Alpha Arthur, you need to at least clean yourself up, you can't stay in that state in the hospital." And at that moment I turned around, and faced my reflection in the glass, I practically didn't recognize myself. I was almost completely covered in blood, on my face it was probably from the wolf I killed, there was more in my mouth, but it was all over my face, down my neck, and dripping down to my chest. The blood in my abdomen was probably Clair's, and that scared me, there was a lot of blood, and it ran from my abdomen to my feet. After that, I let the nurse guide me, and she took me to the showers I leaned my forehead against the tiled wall, turned on the shower, and let the water run while watching the reddish mixture of water and blood go into the drain.

"Do you have any injuries? Do you want me to take a look? Is any of that blood yours?" She asked me but I just didn't care.

"No, I'm okay." I said but I knew I was just not okay.

Strongest chapter today. But tell me who is your favorite character?