Un.Requited (Claimed Series) (24 page)

Growling at his intentional ignorance, Hayden bumped her muzzle into his broad chest. In retaliation, he swiped a heavy paw at her head, more playful than threatening. His eyes were bright with amusement as she continued to dodge around him.

Appearing unbothered by her antics, Cole tipped back his head and howled to the moon.

The action stilled Hayden’s wolf shortly before something stirred to life and urged her to follow her Alpha’s lead. Unsurely, and rather quietly, she joined in his greeting to the moon.

As the rest of the pack sang along, Hayden grew more confident and climbed above all the others to match Cole in volume. His howl was a deep baritone and possessed a rather dark undertone, while her call was confident, wild, and clear. In the distance, cries from the other packs sounded as they created their own song, a start to the night’s celebrations.

As soon as Cole ended the song, the others followed suit. He got off his haunches and prowled closer to Hayden, nipping her ear playfully and rubbing his body against hers. She sniffed at his claiming gesture and bumped back into him, wanting to be close to him, but enjoying the chase so much more.

Digging her claws into the soil in order to gain velocity, Hayden began racing through the woods, bathing in the sensation of complete freedom. She was aware of her Alpha keeping pace beside her, sometimes pulling up ahead and sometimes lagging behind. Behind them, the pack sprinted to keep up, unable to match strides with the two leaders.

It was easy to get lost in the run. Her mood soared to higher
levels
as she became one with her wolf. She felt unrestricted,
so
carefree as she pushed her legs to their limit. The wind rushed
through her fur, pulling it and caressing it. The wonder of nature dressed and decorated their trail, lightened by the reach of the full moon. There were so many reasons she could lose herself, yet Hayden was still consciously aware of each pack member and their location behind her.

She imagined this was what Cole felt all the time, mindful of each member of the pack and his or her mental state. Never before had she felt so connected to them, but more especially, she had never felt this connected with Cole. Her place was right by his side, no one would be able to take her position.

Throughout most the night, they ran. Addie had been the first to stagger back to their den, too fatigued to continue. Exhausted herself, Hayden’s tongue had fallen out of her mouth, but she never failed to keep up with Cole’s demanding lead, too stubborn to let him take full control of the pack.

Hours later, she began to feel the wear and tear on her limbs. Her strides grew shorter, eventually stopping altogether. The rest of the pack began to regress in speed, hesitating at her abrupt absence. Hayden turned away from them, a small pond snagging her undivided attention. She eagerly started lapping up the water, ignoring Cole when he bumped shoulders with her to drink his own share.

The twins, both possessing a pelt of mixed grey and white, were quick to dunk their paws in the pond to cool off. They
were forced
to make room as Blake shouldered his way through, his status as beta allowing him a decent amount of room around the small body of water.   

Everything was fine until Devan made her arrival, attempting to push Hayden over and away from the pond. For the majority of the night, Hayden had been under control, almost human-like until now. Primitive anger clouded her senses and she was powerless to repress it. Despite her persistence of wanting to refrain from challenging Devan’s position as Alpha, it seemed as if her wolf had other ideas.

Water dripped steadily from Hayden’s muzzle as she turned and shouldered the female Alpha. The calico-colored wolf staggered backward from the shove, trying to regain her footing. With her ears flattened defensively, Devan snarled, growing even more vicious as Hayden bared her teeth in retaliation.

She circled Devan, searching for an opening and taking it as soon as she spotted it. Hayden lunged, her smaller body easily gaining agility. Forced on the defensive, Devan yelped, trying to fasten her teeth around Hayden’s neck.

The white wolf dived lower, just barely avoiding the other female’s teeth as they scratched her neck. As she had lower ground, Hayden used her upward momentum by knocking Devan to the ground. Rolling, Devan was quick to react in defense as she threw her paw out.

It happened so quickly, Hayden could do nothing to prevent the claws that came at her. She flinched, pain blossoming across her muzzle and cheeks as the claws swiped across her face. Because of her distraction, Devan was able to get the upper hand by leaping and tackling Hayden to the ground. The current female Alpha snapped her teeth near Hayden’s neck, a show of dominance, and an attempt to get her prey to surrender.

Not willing to accept submission so easily, Hayden brought up her hind legs and dug her claws into the other female’s vulnerable belly. A piercing whimper escaped Devan’s toothy mouth and she rolled off her prey in order to protect her stomach.

Hayden never gave her a chance to recover. She climbed on top of Devan and encircled the female’s neck with her jaws, teasing the thin throat with her sharp canines. As a result, the calico-colored wolf immediately went stiff and arched both her stomach and neck up to Hayden in compliance.

With the act of submission, Hayden had climbed the ranks as the new female Alpha.

Easing off her pack mate, Hayden wagged her tail conceitedly, turning her back on the watchful spectators. As she made her way toward the den, Cole hurried to match her strides. The sky indicated it was almost dawn. They had run all night, which would explain why her muscles were far too sore to continue.

Next to her, the Alpha occasionally rubbed his fur against hers, his natural wolf odor a claiming gesture that would mark her as his territory. Rebelliously, Hayden nipped his neck to put a stop to his antics before she raced toward the resting area.

A short burst of adrenaline riled Hayden when she realized her Alpha was right behind her, his teeth nipping at her heels and tail.
Though
, even with the extra bit of adrenaline supporting her, Hayden wasn’t fast enough to outrun the looming predator behind her.

His teeth caught her tail, pulling at it to stop her in her tracks before tackling her cleanly to the ground. The oxygen
was knocked
out of Hayden’s lungs as his heavy weight settled on top her. He rubbed their bellies together and playfully gnawed at her muzzle, a gesture of pleased affection. Hayden endured it, surprised he hadn’t done this earlier, this act of dominance.

Much to her growing anxiety, he continued to hold her down, as if sensing her unease with submitting. The longer he was over her, the more difficult it was to remain docile.

His teeth wrapped warningly over her muzzle as she thrashed underneath him, hating how long he required her to be submissive. Her hind legs tried to claw his belly, as she had done with Devan, but he positioned his body expertly and avoided her flying claws in the process.

Fatigued and exhausted, Hayden reluctantly ceased her attack. This
was
her first moon and she spent the majority of it running. Attacking her this late into the full moon was a cheap shot from Cole. He had to have known she had no energy left.

As if to prove her suspicions, the Alpha’s eyes were entirely human and completely amused as they looked down at her submitting form. Gently touching noses with her, Cole released his hold over Hayden and prowled toward the rest of the pack.

Upside down, she focused on the grassy mound near their nesting place, noticing Cole’s scent over it, obviously declared his personal perch. Sending a defiant look in Cole’s direction, Hayden noted that the Alpha was currently preoccupied with checking up on the rest of the pack before they settled down for the night.

Rolling over, Hayden got to her feet and trotted over to the hill. She crawled on top the mound and sat proudly, aware of most of the pack’s watchful gazes.

Almost if sensing the defiance, Cole slowly turned around. He flashed a predatory grin at Hayden before slowly prowling closer to the mound. His shoulders rolled as he climbed up the
steep incline, his eyes intense. Not affected, and eager to see what he’d do, Hayden threw him a stubborn glance as she kept her position solid and unwavering.

Surprisingly, or rather disappointingly, he didn’t push her off the hill as she’d suspected. Instead, he thumped to the ground behind her, curling around her body protectively. His muzzle placed itself on Hayden’s shoulder, giving him an angle that would allow him to look out at the pack.

Secretly satisfied, Hayden lowered her head on her front paws and closed her eyes.

_______________

“You and Cole seemed remarkably cozy last night.”

Hayden offered Devan a look of quiet disdain as she escaped her bedroom. Across from her, the brown-haired female leaned against the wall, her arms crossed defiantly over her chest.

“It was my first full moon,” Hayden reasoned. She then paused, realizing she was being defensive and wondering
why
she felt the need to defend herself from Devan. “I latched onto Cole just like you latch on to Nathan all the time.”

Waking up this morning had been uncomfortable to say the least. Hayden was beginning to realize that werewolves lacked a sense of modesty, but her human instincts were still a pressing weight in her mind. If she had even the slightest shred of modesty last night, she would have never allowed herself to sleep so close to Cole.

Because in the morning,
their
bodies had shifted back to human and everyone had been lacking an important necessity; clothing. Suspiciously enough, Hayden hadn’t needed to dwell on it for too long, as Cole had entered the pack house as soon as her mind regained proper consciousness.

Devan grinned at Hayden’s poor excuse. “That’s because he and I are the only sane ones in this house,” she argued. “Besides, Cole is hardly the first one in the pack to seek comfort from. In fact, I’d almost say he’s standoffish. Just admit it, Hayden, you’re attracted to him.”

After Tracer’s attack, Devan had tried starting up this same conversation. At the time, Hayden had been able to avoid answering. Unfortunately, it looked like she couldn’t elude addressing it any longer.

“Believe whatever you’d like, Devan. But I can’t answer for my wolf’s actions last night.” With an air of cool nonchalance, Hayden brushed past her.

“It must be hard,” the other female quipped behind her, “to be the center of attention of so many male werewolves.” There was a slight undercurrent of jealousy beneath her practiced casualness.

Hiding her real annoyance, Hayden smirked at Devan from over her shoulder, appearing unbothered and unaffected by the subtle insult. “It’s not at all how you’re suggesting. I just think men are a lot more straightforward to be around than territorial women who have ulterior motives.” She then turned around and looked pointedly at Devan. “Speaking of territorial females, you didn’t put up much of a fight last night for the Alpha position.”

For her part, Devan didn’t rise up to the bait. She stood defensively, her shoulders the only part of her body that tensed when Hayden stepped forward.

“I didn’t stand a chance,” she admitted unexpectedly. “As much as some of us hate it, we all know your wolf was meant to be the female Alpha. Actually, you even had Cole lying in the weeds, silently pushing you into the position.” She reached out and patted Hayden mockingly on the shoulder. “Congratulations, you now carry a title that holds empty promises.”

Without another word, Devan breezed past Hayden and down the staircase.

Amber eyes looked after her, mildly amused and entirely frustrated. Devan liked to act bigger than she was. The front she put on was painfully obvious.

Hayden only wondered what kind of vulnerability she was hiding underneath it all. Did she take her frustrations out on Hayden because she was insecure about her relationship with Joseph?
Or
did she truly not like another female in the pack and felt the only way to express it was through hostility? 

She shook her head, running a frustrated hand through her hair. While Devan and Hayden weren’t at each other’s throats, they weren’t exactly on friendly terms either. Maybe it was time for Hayden to try to close the gap and mend whatever damage
had been inflicted
.

If she was going to stay with this pack, and if she was going to honor the position as female Alpha, then she wanted to get along with everyone. Unfortunately, that meant Devan as well.

“It’s not fair!”

Hayden paused on her way back to her bedroom, immediately identifying the source of the voice as Devan. As she overheard the ensuing words coming from the living room, Hayden’s earlier misconceptions about mending her relationship with the other female abruptly crumbled. 

“Why don’t you just assign Hayden as Nathan’s mate?”

It took Hayden only a second to register the words before she ran down the stairs, her heart in her throat. There was no way Cole would ever agree to that.

Did this pack really need a mated pair? Even after weeks of staying with werewolves, and growing accustomed to the werewolf traditions, she still had trouble wrapping her mind around the whole ‘mated pair’ ritual. It was the farthest thing from a proper marriage, the kind of marriage that involved two people who were unconditionally dedicated to each other.