Being on a different pack's land felt wrong to me, especially when I didn't exactly feel welcomed in the first place.

Running alone with Mason felt a bit more comfortable. I wasn't worried about the pack joining up and rebelling against what we were here to do.

I felt safe with him as we explored the new lands. I would have gotten lost without him. It was a good thing that he had a good sense of direction. I, however, did not.

Mason didn't seem as lost as I was, but he had been here before. That was something I still had to figure out. When had he been here? Why did he visit this pack? How well did he know the pack? He was very familiar with the lands. How long had he stayed here?

I suppose it didn't really matter, but I was still curious.

We ran up a hill that felt more like a mountain, but wasn't high enough to be considered one. I could hear running water in the distance, which didn't surprise me. With all of this vegetation around, there had to be a lot of streams and a few lakes in the area. That was the only way they could all survive.

We ran for an hour before taking a break. I closed my eyes and drifted off to the sounds of a stream. We weren't right next to it because Mason didn't like to be exposed when we were alone. He was always so cautious with me. We were under a bush, hidden from anyone that might be out looking for a victim.

Mason bumped me off of him. He jerked his head in the direction of the stream. I got off of him and stretched as I stood up.

We were going to go check something out. After a couple of steps, my ears started working. I could hear voices, three of them, having a casual conversation.

Creeping out, following Mason as quietly as I could, we spied on the men.

They smelled of stag urine, but they were human. They had the rifles to prove it.

If we were caught spying on them, we would be shot at. We didn't need that right now. Mason flicked his tail at me when I tried to get closer. We were in a great spot; he didn't want us to attract any attention.

The three men were in camouflage clothing. Their pants were heavy and thick. Their jackets were thrown on a log, next to their propped up rifles. Their shirts were the good kind that looked like the backdrop of a forest.

These guys were seasoned hunters. They could've used a good dip in the water to rid themselves of their stench.

Mason huffed at me, and I shrunk down again. I hadn't realized that I had risen up to get a better view of the men. I didn't often see hunters, there had been none in Los Angeles and there are none on our pack lands. This was new to me, a learning experience.

No playing with the hunters, his wolf's voice rumbled in my head. It wasn't often that he spoke to me through pack bonds when we were wolves, his wolf made him more antisocial than normal. We don't need the community out hunting for wolves right now.

We mostly communicated with our weird werewolf body language, which consisted mostly of head bobs and growls.

He was right though, we didn't need the problems that would come from a community looking for rabid wolves encroaching on the town lines. That would be a headache. Pack members would be put in unnecessary danger.

Maybe if we ever found some hunters on our land we could scare the hell out of them. At home, the land was considered private property and a refugee for the wild wolf pack. Our lands had been chosen carefully. Even the real wolves didn't bother us much.

We were backing away from the hunters when the worst thing that could've happened, did. A shot rang out and a howl of pain echoed towards us.

Mason growled lightly before heading south and running. We couldn't cross near the hunters. That would pull their attention towards us.

Patrols, dumb mother— He cut himself off so I didn't have to. We had other things to worry about now other than his bad habit of cursing all the time.

Mason leapt over the stream in a single bound. It was impressive. My paws landed in the water. He glanced back at me before going into the trees.

He wasn't happy about this. He didn't want me here. I could feel his trepidation through the pack bonds, but there was nothing we could do now. We had a wolf to save.

We found the shot wolf with his partner. They both looked panicked. The unharmed one growled at us before he realized who we were. I could see the relief through both of their eyes. They weren't used to this.

Mason nudged me towards the hurt one. I needed to hide him somewhere until his partner could change.

The second wolf ran into the trees, to presumably do that. It was that or he had abandoned us. If he had, Mason's anger would've been enough for the humans to feel.

With some help from Mason, I managed to get the wolf onto my back. He had to hold on, which meant that I would have claw gouges when I changed back. It hurt, but it was what we needed to do.

Once the injured wolf was secure, Mason went to work distracting the hunters and leading them away from us.

I found some nice thick bushes and dumped him there. The jostling didn't make him happy, but that was too bad. He was heavy and I had just ran for a very long time. I heard two more shots ring out and jerked my head in that direction. They were shooting at Mason because of these two idiots.

I had to wait for the second wolf (now in human form) to show up before I could leave. I couldn't leave him if I wasn't sure that the three hunters were running after Mason.

The human lifted the wolf and started taking him towards the alpha's house. At least he had that much sense.

I checked the hunter's base before chasing after Mason. There was only one hunter left. He was guarding the camp and looked a little nervous. He wasn't going anywhere. The three had brought too much with them.

I backed away slowly and went in the direction I had heard the shots. I made sure I was out of earshot before sprinting. I had an uncontrollable need to get to Mason.

It didn't take long. The humans were slow and Mason wasn't really trying. It gave me time to catch up with him.

When he saw me, he knew that we were free to escape for real this time. He kept his pace at one that I could keep up with. We ran along the pack's territory for ten minutes before we stopped running.

I couldn't hear anything other than the blood pulsing in my ears. We had run long and hard. Some of it had been uphill.

They're gone. He caressed his body alongside mine. I rubbed my muzzle along his. It was time to get back and shower. It was starting to get late now.

I wasn't fooled by Mason's seemingly calm mood. I had been around him too long not to feel the heat of his anger, he was always angry. The excitement made it feel like it had been a long day.

We didn't run so hard this time, it would take us a while to get back to the alpha's house. There was no point in exhausting ourselves.

Mason's pace slowed and he became silent as he ran. The only sounds were my paws running through the forest and the crushing of the brush under my feet. Not even the woodland critters made noise with an angry werewolf nearby, those hunters shooting at him had ensured his grumpy mood. I wasn't nearly as experienced as Mason and it showed.

When he slowed to a walk, so did I. He stopped and breathed in deeply. I mimicked the motion, but didn't smell anything other than vegetation and Mason. My nose wasn't up to Mason's level.

I was better at using my nose than I had been, I could follow some scents, but I couldn't pick out what didn't belong. That was something Mason was great at.

He looked back and growled. I knew it wasn't directed at me. He only playfully growled at me.

This one had been a threatening one. Someone had followed us, someone that Mason didn't know. The hunters was my first thought, but I couldn't hear their heavy footsteps or smell the gunpowder of their rifles.

I heard a rustle behind me a second before Mason leapt. He crashed down on something, leaving me clueless about what was happening. I didn't hear a gun discharge or cursing, so it wasn't the hunters. It was something else.

I peeked through to see Mason on top of a grey wolf, snarling in his face, daring him to make a move. If Mason planned on killing this wolf, it would've been already done.

The grey wolf bucked once, but learned his lesson when Mason sunk his teeth into his neck and drew blood. The smell of it was immediate. Blood was the one thing that I knew how to scent. The wolf went still. It was obvious that this wolf didn't want to die.

This wolf didn't smell like any pack member I had ever met. This wolf brought the smell of filth and death. He needed a good bath.

Before I could gather my thoughts, another wolf came out of nowhere and tackled Mason off the wolf with the force of a train.

I had to help Mason, even if he was going to yell at me about it later. When the grey wolf started standing up, I barreled through him with as much force as I could gather.

Fighting as a wolf was much different than fighting as a human. There was a lot more to look out for.

The grey wolf snarled at me as I readied myself to jump at him again. I hadn't ever really been in a fight with a wolf who wanted to hurt me, so I was nervous, and it showed.

The wolf lunged at me from the ground. This wolf was much faster than me. I could hear Mason and the other wolf tussling and biting, they weren't growling much. The time for warnings was over.

I had maybe a second to brace myself when the wolf tackled me. I bit down on the meaty section where his front leg met his body and held on by digging my claws deep into his skin.

I could taste his blood and feel it starting to ooze over my paws. There was a second where I was actually proud that I could hold my own.

But then he slammed me into the ground, jarring me momentarily so that he could get me off of him. It worked.

On my back and stunned, I could do nothing as be brought his sharp teeth around my neck and squeezed.

The only reason he didn't rip my throat out was because he could smell that I was a female. There weren't very many of us. Being unmated, the pheromones that my body let out called to him strongly.

His eyes told me what he was thinking, 'I can take this one as a prize'.

But that didn't last long. The idea smothers itself and he bit down harder. I bucked, trying to get him off of me, but that didn't work. His bite-hold on my neck was too strong. He was choking me, killing me slowly so that I knew what was going to happen before it did.

Why did I have to find all the wolves suffering from a psychotic break?

Before I could really start to panic, Mason saved the day. He bit down on the wolf's muzzle and face. The wolf let go of me by reaction and Mason pushed him away from me.

The wolf jerked away from Mason hard, ripping the skin away from his muzzle. Blood flowed freely from the wolf's nose and mouth.

I slowly stood on all fours. I hurt all over and it was hard to breathe. Mason kept glancing at me, but kept his attention on the wolf that was running away, bleeding.

We needed to chase him. We could be done with all of this now if we could just follow.

I took one step and fell. I couldn't bear any pressure on my front left leg. He would have to leave me behind, but he wouldn't.

He let out a frustrated snarl as the wolf escaped. He paced, wanting to follow, but not letting himself. Today was going to be a failure and a missed opportunity to stop the murders. Whoever died, from now until we caught them, was our responsibility.

---

When we got back to the alpha's house, we went straight to the infirmary where I got checked out. My elbow had been popped out of place, but that was simple enough to fix. It was something Mason knew how to do. It was a common injury back home. I was sore all over and had a limp, but there was no major damage.

Mason was mad at me. Once I was given a clean bill I health, he left without saying anything to me. I understood his anger, but it still hurt my feelings. I changed back to a human before leaving the infirmary.

I wore a set of scrubs to the room. I needed a nice, long shower to wash off the filth I could feel all over me.

I could see Mason sitting, shirtless, on a couch in the living area, alone, staring off into nothing with that mad look on his face. He only wore enough to cover the goods after a change.

I had scared him and this is how he was coping with it. Sulking angrily in the corner was his specialty. I could've been hurt or easily killed. He was probably rethinking his decision about bringing me here. I could only see the back of his head, but I could imagine the scowl on his face as he thought.

I quietly came into the house. I didn't want to disturb his thoughts, but I shouldn't have worried about being quiet.

Jenna sauntered in gracefully. She really was a very pretty woman, when she wasn't sneering at me. She thought she was alone with Mason; she wanted him and made it obvious.

He brooded, paying no attention to her, until he had to. And that was when she straddled his lap. It took everything I had in me to make no sounds and not to move. I could trust Mason, I knew I could.

She wrapped her arms around his neck awkwardly since he didn't uncross his arms over his chest. She had to work around that.

"You look like you need some stress relief, baby," she purred in his ear.

I was having a hard time wrapping my head around a cheating mated couple. Wasn't the point of the bond to stop that kind of thing? Couldn't her mate feel her infidelity? Maybe he did and he just didn't care.

"You want to get off of me before I do something that will hurt." Mason’s voice rumbled with the harsh edge of his wolf. She was teetering on a very thin wall.

She pouted. "Oh, don't be that way Mase-y. You know we can have a lot of fun together."

He shook his head. "Get off of me," his voice had deepened even more. His wolf wasn't having any of this and ordered the woman off. I didn't have to see his eyes to know they were completely golden now.

She looked like she had been slapped, leaving me feeling oddly giddy.

The woman thought she could have what she wanted, but she couldn't have what was ours, my wolf said, satisfied with his reaction to her.

"You're denying me?!" Her face contorted in rage as she stepped away. "No one denies me!" She stomped off angrily, muttering to herself.

When she was gone, he raised his arm and waved me over. "You spying on me? Seeing if I'll slip up?" He asked angrily.

I cautiously walked over. Like I had guessed, his eyes were golden and furious. "Yes to the spying, but no to the slip up. I trust you with everything I have."

He huffed and looked at me. "You don't trust me with everything."

I sat down next to him. "We will be mates soon Mason."

He looked away from me, anger obviously rising in his eyes. Jenna had been right about one thing; he did need some relief before he popped his top.

I scooted closer until we were touching. "I'm sorry about earlier. I was just trying to help." The muscles in his arms flexed. "I wasn't trying to get in the way or get myself hurt. There were two of them and you were busy enough with one."

His bright gold eyes turned their gaze to me. They weren't often so bright, which suggested he was very mad. "And you thought it was a good idea to get in a fight with wolves who are giving me some challenge?"

"I didn't think of it that way."

He shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair, obviously frustrated. "You need to start thinking in dangerous situations."

I nodded once and leaned against him, since he left an opening for it. I rested my head against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. "I'm sorry."

He sighed and brought his arm down around me. "I'm still not happy."

I smiled against him. "I know."