Innocent Little Runt
Chapter 5

“M-m-mates?” It couldn’t be possible. I was just a useless little runt. How could I have a mate?

“It’s okay little one. There’s no need to be scared.” I backed up on his bed but I g*****d at the pain that was still coursing throughout my body. I glanced up at Xavier, fear in my eyes. He gently steps towards me and sits next to me on the bed. “You do know what that means, don’t you?” I nod but wince. This pain was really starting to get annoying.

“Of course I do. It’s just that. . . I thought I would never have a mate. The elders that were left of my pack said that it is rare for a runt to have a mate.”

“That doesn’t matter. You need to rest little one.” He reached his hand out towards me but I flinched away from him and then flinched from the pain of flinching. Does that even make sense? He sighed and smiled gently at me.

I laid down and closed my eyes, easily falling into a dreamless sleep with Xavier’s scent floating around me.

~~~

Xavier’s POV

I look at her as she falls asleep on my bed. She is so tiny, so fragile, so opposite of me. How can she even be my mate?

She is so beautiful though, even with the leaves that were in her beautiful long brunette hair. I reached out to brush the leaves out of her hair and she nuzzled her head into my hand. I sighed and sat down next to her on my bed. I picked her up in my arms and I felt her try to move closer to me and smiled. I frowned when I realized that she probably wouldn’t do this if she was awake. I had barely met her but she seemed terrified of me. Then again, who wouldn’t be at first? I set her back down.

I glance around my dark room. The walls were a dark brown mahogany wood. The dressers, wall trims, and the curtains were all black. My bed was in the center of the room, taking up a small fraction of the room considering how large it was. There was four doors. One to the hallway, one to a closet, one to a bathroom, and the other was a sliding glass door that lead to a balcony that I could look over the pack on. I feel like I have to change my room’s colors. If the room is too dark in her opinion, then I will have it changed. I would change the entire pack house for my mate.

Celeste. Her name is beautiful, just like her. The way it easily rolls off of my tongue only reassures me that the tiny girl sleeping is actually my mate. I never really expected to have a mate. In fact I was sure that I didn’t have one until I caught her smell in the woods.

What was she even doing there in the first place?

She’s a rogue, that’s why she was in the woods. What you should be asking is why our mate is a rogue in the first place? My wolf growled in my head.

I thought about that. She’s a runt, so if she was born a rogue then she would have been killed when she first shifted.

My wolf growled at the thought.

I shook my head. That is not my top priority right now. I need to figure out what is going on with her. I need to figure out why she couldn’t shift back.

I walk down the stairs and bump into someone. I quickly reach my hands out and grasp the person’s shoulders. Their shoulders are small so I know it’s a woman. Not that I am saying women are weak. In fact, there are a few women in my pack that could take on some of my top fighters. When I look at them I realize that it’s Zay. Zay has been my friend since childhood, she was the last beta’s daughter and is the current beta’s sister. My father had wanted me to marry her until he realized that we have too much in common, one of those things being that we are both into girls.

“Alpha Xavier.” She bows her head in respect and I chuckled. I have always hated how she did that, calling me Alpha and bowing her head. The only time that I was okay with it is when my wolf is on edge, like earlier when Celeste was in pain. Besides that, I would prefer if she would just call me Xavier. I would remind her of that later, right now I was still worried about Celeste.

“I will bug you about not calling me Alpha later but for now I need to know what is wrong with Celeste. Have you figured anything out yet?” She nodded with a sad smile that made my insides squirm with worry for Celeste.

“We will have to make sure that she rests until the new moon is no longer in the sky.”

“Why?”

“Most werewolves get hurt and heal almost five times as fast as a human would. Runts aren’t in that group of most werewolves. I was just going through a few books to see if I could find anything that would help and I found a few pages on runts. Runts, unlike most werewolves, do rely on the moon for strength. Say there was a full moon tonight then she would heal almost instantly but tonight there is a new moon, as well as for the next two days.

“The new moon is not allowing her to heal properly and it is most likely making it harder for her to connect with her wolf. I don’t know if this has happened to her before but if it hasn’t then you should stay by her side. Can you imagine just one day not being able to connect with you wolf or heal properly? If this has never happened to her before then she must be terrified.” I nodded, my jaw locked in anger.

I took a few breaths, trying to calm not only myself but also my wolf. I looked to the ground for a few seconds before looking back up at Zay. “Thank you Zay.”

“No problem, but I do want to see her when she wakes up to wrap up her other injuries. I wouldn’t want them to get infected or get worse.” I nodded and walked back upstairs as Zay headed back to her office. I got to my room and sighed, leaning my head against the door.

It was a few minutes before I cracked open the door and walked in, her scent instantly going up my nose. I looked at her. She was still asleep, so peacefully with even breaths coming out of her mouth. I walked to the bed and gently picked her up, being careful of her ankle. It has a large cut on it that I can’t see, due to a quick bandage Zay had put on it, but it definitely doesn’t look good. She struggles to move closer to me and bumps her ankle on my side. Her eyes shoot open as a yelp escapes her mouth.

She struggles in my grip but I hold on tighter, trying to calm her down so she won’t hurt herself. I eventually grab the back of her head and move her so she is looking into my eyes. She freezes as she looks into my eyes, calming down instantly.

That’s the thing about mates, you get lost within the sense of them. The way they look, smell, feel, and everything else about them. Once you touch them, you want to hold them and never let go. Once you get their smell to even be near you, you just want to bottle it up and have it be sprayed all around you. Once you look in their eyes, you never want to look away. Their eyes are a never ending abyss that you feel the need to search every inch of. They are your ultimate weakness, a pleasurable destruction.

I force my gaze away from her eyes. I check her for other visible injuries to make sure nothing got worse while she was thrashing around. I could only see the small cuts and a few bruises and they haven’t gotten any better but on the bright side they haven’t gotten worse.

She started to thrash in my arms again and I brought my eyes back to hers, my wolf liking how she once again calmed down instantly. “Are you done now?” I asked in the calmest voice that I could manage, but it still came out a little rough. She nodded but her eyes never left mine. “Good.”

“Can you put me down?” Her eyes look fearful but I can see a hint of challenge in her eyes and it goes along with her steady, strong voice.

“Do you think you can walk down the stairs? We need to have Zay wrap everything up.” She nods and I set her down gently on the bed. She slowly slides her feet to the floor and winces when her hurt ankle touches the ground. “Are you sure?”

She glares at me and, in a strong voice, says, “I’m fine.” She slowly pushes herself off of the bed and walks/limps to the door. I walk two steps behind her, so I can catch her if she ends up falling or she can’t walk the rest of the way.

When we come to the stairs she takes the first step down and almost falls, but luckily she catches herself on the banister. I sigh in frustration and pick her up bridal style. She sequels in surprise and then steadies herself by grabbing my shoulders. A cute blush spreads across her cheeks and she quickly removes her small hands, almost falling out of my arms. Almost.

“Can you stop fighting me right now?” I ask, a hint of frustration in my voice. “Let me just get you down to Zay’s office and I’ll set you down. Okay?” She nodded but her cheeks turned red once again. I smirked and headed down the stairs. About halfway to Zay’s office she leaned against my chest. I looked down at her and saw her eyes slowly closing. That’s when I noticed that her forehead was warm, really warm. My eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. She was just fine a minute ago.

“Keep your eyes open for me,” I commanded softly.

She nodded tiredly, “I’ll try.” I smiled as her brown eyes sparkled just a bit, her hair starting to fall into her eyes. My steps became faster but I tried to keep my heartbeat down, as to not worry my beautiful mate.

When I got to Zay’s office I didn’t even knock, I just barged right in. I quickly set Celeste, who was quickly passing out, on the bed. A light coat of sweat started to cover her forehead and her breaths became uneven and raspy.

Zay’s blue eyes were wide, fear clearly within them. Even though Celeste just got here today, she was still the Luna-to-be and that automatically is going to make Zay worry in this situation.

“Zay,” my voice came out strained. Her worried blue gaze snapped up to meet mine, her blonde hair flying around her head because of how fast she snapped it up. “Help her. Please.” She nodded furiously before rushing to Celeste’s side. I was to dazed in a trance of worry to figure out what she was doing.

“Alpha,” my head snapped up to meet Zay’s blue ones. “Can you get me one of the rags from the first drawer and wet them with cold water?” I just stood there for a minute, not actually contemplating what she said. “Alpha, now! She could end up being in serious danger and I need them, now. Actually- make it two.” I nodded, walking to the drawers that was in the corner of the room, taking out two of the rags from the top cupboard. I wet them in the sink that wasn’t too far away from the drawers. Quickly walking over to Zay, I put them beside her.

She put one on Celeste’s head and the other under her neck. Celeste’s beautiful brown hair was covered in sweat. I went around to the other side of the bed and held Celeste’s hand. I kissed her knuckles and leaned towards her ear. “You will be alright, I promise you. I only just met you and I’m not letting you go so soon.”

“Alpha.” Zoe’s obviously worried and startled tone made my head snap up. “You may want to leave the room.” My wolf took control for a second, letting a large growl escape my mouth. I took control again but stayed still. “Fine, then at least don’t get angry.” I nodded.

Zay removed the simple bandage that was on my mates leg. The cut on her leg was really swollen and looked really. . . Well, to put it lightly, it looked disgusting. Her cut was infected. I mumbled a few choice words under my breath.

“Zay, what’s going to happen?” She let out a shaky breath.

“I don’t know.”