Found

HAZEL

“Finally,” a voice called, suddenly breaking the tension. “I thought you forgot about tonight!”

“C-Crystal?” I stammered, my heart still racing.

“Who else?” she walked up to me, saw how pale I was. “Are you okay?”

I took a deep breath to calm myself. I’d completely forgotten that we were having a movie night sleepover. She knew where the spare key to my apartment was hidden.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Just a little spooked.”

“Ah, you were to distracted by Mr. Dark, Brooding, and Handsome.” She waggled her eyebrows at me. “How was dinner?”

I rolled my eyes and walked past her into the living room, collapsing onto my couch. “It was fine.”

“Oh, don’t be like that,” she whined, sitting next to me. “Details!”

“It was nice,” I admitted. “But I either tell you about how my completely normal dinner was, or we watch your silly horror movie. Choose.”

Crystal bit her lip. She was a big fan of cheesy b-rated horror movies, and she’d finally convinced me to watch one with her.

“Okay, okay, fine. We can’t miss WereVamp Chronicles! Buckle in, girl.”

I shook my head and smiled as she started the movie, rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all.

I watched as an actress screeched as a beast of the night chased her in the woods. A man warped into a monster at the touch of the full moon.

I settled in, munching on some popcorn and turning my brain off. It was going to be a long night.

SETH

Seth was doing a perimeter run with Nate, marking his territory. It was customary for the alpha and beta to do this once a week, to make sure everyone in the surrounding areas knew where the alpha’s turf began.

The scent of an alpha was overpowering, and few dared pass another alpha’s perimeter line without permission.

The familiar sounds of the forest were comforting, and the alpha felt lighter than he had in a while as he ran in wolf form.

They ran in companionable silence for a long time before Nate’s voice broke through Seth’s thoughts.

“So Mom said you brought a girl to the diner the other night,” Nate said using their own private mind-link, one reserved for the alpha and beta alone.

Seth sighed. He should have known June would go to Nate about it—the beta was her son, after all, and she must’ve hoped he would know something.

“She shouldn’t have.” His tone was perhaps harsher than it needed to be, but Seth was frustrated.

He didn’t like people in his business, especially in an uncertain situation like this.

“Dude, come on, she was just curious, you know my mom. Besides, you’ve never brought a girl there.”

It was true, and he should have realized that bringing her there would be cause for gossip and speculation.

The other werewolves there had probably been wondering about it too—in fact, two of them had been openly discussing it while he was there with Hazel.

“Is she the one?” Nate asked when the scent of anger had faded from his friend.

Seth took a left turn, starting to loop back toward the pack house.

He considered not answering, but maybe talking about it was what he needed. And Nate was his beta and his best friend. He was supposed to be able to lean on him, go to him for advice.

“Yes.”

“Dude,” Nate’s voice was filled with wonder.

“I know…but she’s human and she doesn’t know. I don’t know how to approach this situation,” his tone was distraught.

He’d been worrying about this ever since that day in the park when he’d realized he was mating and the word mine had slipped out before he could stop it.

She’d been so confused, and he’d beaten himself up about it later.

“Werewolves mate with humans sometimes, it happens. I mean it’s not that common, but it’s not unheard of. We have a few cases in our pack,” Nate reasoned.

“Alphas don’t. Our mating is different from regular werewolves, more intense, you know that.”

This was another cause for concern. If only he’d been a regular werewolf, then it wouldn’t be an issue. It would still be difficult, but considerably easier than his current circumstances.

“I can’t mark a human.”

They were back at the pack house now, and they quickly shifted and grabbed their clothes from the lockers.

“What are you going to do? It’s not like you can stay away from her, and you took her out to dinner. That must mean you intend to keep her.”

Seth had wanted some time alone with her, to talk to her and get to know her better. Maybe if he spent more time with her he’d know what to do.

Since she had failed to choose a place for them to have dinner, he’d initially wanted to take her to his place, where they would have more privacy and the members of his pack wouldn’t see them together and start gossiping.

But she’d refused, and the only place he could think of taking her, that felt safe, was June’s diner.

“Keep her? She’s not a pet,” Seth grumbled, then he sighed.

“But yes, it’s not like I have a choice anyway. Like you said, I can’t stay away from her, every instinct in me screams for me to be near her, to watch over her. It’s impossible to ignore.”

He had tried of course, to stay away, but every night he found himself outside her home, keeping watch, like an invisible force pulled him to her—like she, and not gravity, was the thing holding him to the earth.

Nate looked at his friend curiously. He had never seen him like this before, so unsure of what to do.

He was the type to always have a plan, so certain of what his next steps were. It’s what made him such a good alpha, but mating was a tricky business, especially if a human was involved.

***

Later that night, when Seth was on his own and free to think without interruption, he tried to plot his next move, to figure out how to handle this situation.

He wandered the town and, as he did most nights, he ended up outside Hazel’s apartment building, as if she was a beacon leading him home.

He looked up at the sky, as if the answers would somehow reveal themselves, be written up there in the stars, but he came up short. How could he protect her when he himself was part of the danger?

And then there was the matter of the rogues, the ones who’d attacked her and the ones who were skirting his borders and killing innocents that were out hiking in the forest.

Rogues were known for being more aggressive—more beast than human—than werewolves in packs.

They were uncivilized and could be highly dangerous, but they tended to keep to themselves, not usually banding together to target specific areas.

Seth had never experienced them like this. There were too many of them in one place, and he didn’t understand their motives.

There was no logical explanation for their current behavior, and it put him on edge.

He scaled the wall of Hazel’s building, easily finding grips in the small gaps between bricks, and ended up on the roof.

He looked out over the town. There were so many innocents—both humans and wolves—and he felt the heaviness of the responsibility settle more firmly on his shoulders.

They were his people, even if the humans didn’t know, and he’d be damned if he let anyone else come onto his territory and try to hurt them.

He took a deep breath and isolated Hazel’s scent among the scent of the town.

If he listened very carefully, he could hear the faint sound of her heart beating below him, and he let himself relax just a little.

She was alive and she was safe. For now that was all that mattered.

But that could change if he ever revealed his true self to her.

He was a werewolf. An Alpha. And even if she accepted him, even if she wanted to be with his mate, that could be lethal for her.

The Mark of an Alpha was powerful. It was known to scar even werewolf mates, their improved healing not enough to completely heal it. Seth had never heard of an Alpha mating with a human.

If he ever claimed her...if he ever marked her…

Hazel could die.

Was that something he could risk for love?