Page 14 of Meeting Her Mate

None of us were allowed to venture that far under orders from our alpha.

But this smell and this airborne taste of blood weren’t coming from as far as Fiddler’s Cove. This was right here. I had barely even left the outer limits of Grimm Abode. What were the vampires doing here?

The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I caught the first glimpse of the shadows moving through the trees and heading into the clearing. There was no doubt in my mind that they were the same vampires I had encountered in the forest last night. I couldn’t just stand there and ogle as they approached the Grimm Abode.

This was what I had always feared. It wasn’t always like this. When I was a kid, the vampires did not hold sway over the town as they do nowadays. I couldn’t believe the sight that I was seeing. They were so brazenly walking up to the commune as if this was their turf.

But they were still half a mile away, which gave me enough time to run to the Grimm Abode and warn everybody.

And so, begrudgingly, I raced back to the commune, my heart palpitating, my extremities going cold. The events of last night played like a reel in front of my eyes.

I burst through the gate, running past Vincent, who was sneaking a cigarette by the entrance.

“Alexis? What’s up?” He called after me, running behind me to catch up.

I had no time to stop and explain the entire situation to him. I stormed past the cottages and came into the clearing, where I could see that Will was still sitting in front of the bonfire, covered in a warm shawl, surrounded by the pack members. Maurice was standing in the far back, eyeing everything with disdain.

“Guys! The vampires are approaching the commune!” I yelled.

“Oh look, it’s the wolf who cried vampire!” Maurice, who I presume had been stewing all the while the pack members were crowding around Will, spoke angrily.

“I’m not lying!” I said, reciprocating the anger. “You only need to go out and look at them approaching. They’re packing guns and everything.”

Maurice stared daggers at me and stomped past me with some of the pack’s able-bodied, young members following him. I was not one to simply stay behind. I raced behind them as they stepped out of the commune’s gates and came face to face with the sight that I had been warning them about.

Maurice took one look at the approaching vampire, then came hurtling back inside, looking panicked and crestfallen. He was rubbing his chin and muttering something to himself while all around him, the werewolves were clamoring and demanding a plan of action.

“What are we going to do, Maurice?”

“Maurice, should we fight?”

“We can’t all fight!”

“Do we meet them in battle out in the field?”

So many discordant voices and so much chaos. I shot a look at Will, who was still sitting at the bonfire, staring deeply into the flames.

“Flee,” Maurice spoke slowly, in a voice so quiet that most wolves stopped shouting to try to understand what he had just said.

“What did you say?” I called out loudly from across the bonfire.

“I say we don’t spill blood. I say we pick and choose our battles. This one is not in our favor. The vampires outnumber us. They have weaponry we don’t possess. Flee! Run to the town and seek shelter there. Abandon this commune. We are, after all, not defined by where we live but by who we are!” Maurice said.

There was confused silence throughout the pack as they stood there, trying to perceive what their alpha was commanding them to do. My blood, on the other hand, was boiling with rage at the cowardice that Maurice was showing.

“No.”

Everyone turned around to see who had spoken. It was Will. He had taken off his shawl and was standing dangerously close to the flames. He was wearing a loose pair of nondescript jeans and a t-shirt.

“Excuse me, did you say something?” Maurice, who had so far avoided any major confrontation with Will, asked loudly. “Are you questioning the alpha’s decision?”

“You are as much an alpha as much as I am Fenrir,” Will said quietly, but each word he uttered carried powerful weight. I could almost see myself forgiving him for his outburst earlier, given that he was standing up to Maurice. It was about damn time that someone did.

“Fenrir?” Maurice growled confusedly.

“A man who is unaware of our lore, unaware of the great wolf Fenrir, the Norse mythological being whom werewolves all over the world venerate. Is this the man who is assigned the alpha of my pack? A man who would choose to run in the face of a fight instead of standing his ground?” Will said, taking giant strides across the ground and coming face to face with Maurice. He easily towered above Maurice with his physique.

“I’m sorry, who are you to give commands to my pack? You may have been alpha once, but you’ve been presumed dead for more than half a century, and now you come here, in my commune, barking orders, tarnishing my character with your words?” Maurice spat back.