Mates: Werewolf Short Stories

The Human Mate: Chapter 7

Elara POV

I don’t go straight home. I tell myself it’s instinct, nothing more. The kind that makes you slow your steps, take the longer route, keep your phone clutched too tightly in your hand. The streets are dim now, shops closing, lights flickering on one by one as dusk settles in.

The feeling hasn’t left me. It’s stronger. Heavier. Like a hand pressed between my shoulder blades, urging me forward while warning me at the same time. I turn down a side street, hoping to shave a few minutes off my walk. The alley is narrow, shadows stretching long and deep between brick walls. My footsteps echo too loudly. I slow, heart pounding.

That’s when I hear it. A laugh. Low. Male. menacing. I freeze.

“Found her.” a voice says behind me, amused. Too close. I spin around.

Three men step out of the shadows like they’ve always been there. Big. Broad. Their eyes glint strangely in the low light, too sharp, too aware. One of them tilts his head, sniffing the air like an animal.

“Well.” he says, smiling wide. “Aren’t you just delicious.” He says, licking his lips. My pulse slams into my ears. “What do you want?” I demand, even as every instinct in my body screams at me to run.

Another one chuckles. “You hear that?” he says to the others. “She doesn’t even know.” He said in an amused voice. “Doesn’t matter.” the first replies. His gaze crawls over me, possessive and hungry. “Alpha’s going to lose his mind when we bring her in.”

My blood turns to ice. “Stay back.” I warn, stepping away from them, my hand brushing the cold brick behind me. “I don’t know what you think this is, but…” my voice cuts off as they suddenly move. Startled, I turn and make a run for it.

The sound of their laughter explodes behind me as my feet pound the pavement and I immediately knew that they wanted me to run. I don’t look back. I can hear them now, boots hitting concrete, breath steady, unhurried.

They’re enjoying this. The realisation hits me hard, fuelling my growing panic. I burst out of the alley and onto the street, dodging startled pedestrians, my lungs burning as I push harder. My apartment building is close, so close, and somehow I know I won’t make it.

The forest looms ahead. Dark. Open. Terrifying, but somehow… familiar. I veer off the sidewalk and into the trees, branches clawing at my skin as the world changes instantly. The air cools. The sounds shift. My shoes slip on roots and damp earth, but I don’t stop. I can’t.

Behind me, the hunters howl. Not human.

My chest tightens painfully as I run deeper, the bond inside me flaring wild and frantic. THORNE!, I scream desperately in my mind, not knowing how or if he can hear me. The forest presses in, shadows thick and moving, the path disappearing beneath my feet.

Something grabs my jacket. I scream, twisting free, stumbling forward until my foot catches on a root. I hit the ground hard, breath knocked from my lungs as pain explodes up my leg.

Hands close around my arm. “Got you.” one of them snarls, delighted. Glee written all over his face. I thrash, fear ripping through me as the trees seem to lean closer, watching. Listening.

And somewhere deep inside, something familiar reacts in answer.

Thorne POV

The bond screams. Not fear alone, pain. Sharp and sudden, like claws raking down my spine. Elara’s terror detonates through me, raw and panicked, and the wolf doesn’t wait for permission.

I burst through the trees at full speed. The clearing explodes into chaos as I land in it… hunters surrounding her, hands on her, her cry still echoing in my bones. I don’t slow. I don’t think. I kill.

The first hunter never sees me coming. My jaws close around his throat with a sickening crunch, blood flooding my mouth as his body goes limp. I tear free and turn, already moving, already hunting the next.

My pack follows out behind me like a raging storm. Teeth. Claws. Snarls ripping through the night. The hunters shift immediately, wolves snapping into place with snarls of defiance. They are outnumbered, badly, but they don’t flee. They came for this. For her.

I slam into another, driving him into the dirt, my claws raking deep into his chest as he howls in pain. He snaps at my face, catching skin, but I don’t feel it. All I feel is her, fear pulsing, pain blooming sharp and hot.

“Elara!” I roar through the bond. She answers with a whimper that nearly shatters me. I wrench my claws free and spin, and that’s when I see it.

One of them is already moving away from the fight, fast and deliberate, Elara slung over his shoulder like a prize. Blood stains her sleeve. She’s conscious. Barely. Her fear spikes violently as she realises what’s happening.

NO!. I launch after them, fury blinding, but two hunters break from the fight and intercept me. One lunges, catching my flank. The other goes for my throat. They are desperate. They’ll die for it.

I rip one apart mid-shift, spine snapping under my jaws. The other gets my claws through his skull. I shove their bodies aside and surge forward… Too late. The forest swallows them.

I skid to a halt where her scent fractures and scatters, the bond suddenly stretched so thin it feels like it might snap. Her fear is still there—distant now, muffled by pain and movement, but she’s alive. Alive but still getting away from me.

My pack finishes the rest in seconds. The clearing falls silent except for ragged breathing and the wet sounds of blood soaking into earth. I shift back to human form as Marcus comes to my side, eyes blazing. “Alpha…”

“She’s gone,” I say hoarsely. The words taste like ash. The bond pulses weakly, directional now, pulling hard toward the north. Away. Fast.

I throw my head back and roar. A sound that shakes the forest, a promise of death carried on the night air. Every wolf in my pack answers. “They took my mate,” I growl, dominance flaring so hard the ground trembles. “And they are not getting away with it.”

I turn, already shifting, already moving. “Track them,” I command through clenched teeth. “No rest. No mercy.” My wolf surges forward, massive and lethal, the bond locking onto Elara’s fading warmth like a lifeline. Hold on, I send to her, voice breaking through teeth and fury. You are not alone.

We tear into the forest, a tide of death on their heels. And I swear—by blood, by bone, by the bond itself—that whoever dares lay another hand on my mate will beg for a mercy I will never give.