Alpha Rolf's Haunted Mate

ADELE'S POV

The bar was almost empty by this time. There were just a few patrons left with one drunk guy who would soon be kicked out by Davey sooner than later.

I prepared my account and kept my tips in my purse. It has been a good day so far.

"Who's that slumming at the corner?" Davey asked me. He pointed a beefy finger at the drunk guy.

I shrugged, "Drunk Fella,"

"He's new here," I added.

I knew everyone that came into the bar from the town. This guy with his sandy-coloured hair and deep-rounded face wasn't from around here.

Davey flexed his wrists in preparation to boot him out. Experience taught us that drunk guys always started trouble when left alone so it was safer to kick them out early.

"I'm off," I said, patting his heavy shoulder.

He responded with a smile and a curt nod. Davey was a nice guy with few words. He was more of an action guy always getting things done.

I swung the leather jacket over my shoulders and braced myself for the cold waiting outside. I got out into the street and shivered a little as I took in a deep breath.

The walk to my apartment was long and it allowed me to checkmate a lot of things swimming in my head. My rent was almost due and I had some bills piling up that would bite a big chunk out of my ass very soon.

I got inside and put on the heater first before taking off my bag and shoes. Exhaustion had fused into my bones like hot fluids and I could feel some of them seep out as my shoes came off.

Feeling the relief wash through me, I took off the rest of my clothes along with my bra. I walked around in my panties to the kitchen, mixed some of my herbal tea, and left it to boil in hot water.

I sat on the counter and fingered the golden amulet around my neck. It was the one thing I could never take off even as a child. It was attached to me like a limb. I tried to take it off on several occasions while growing up but the damned thing wouldn't come off. What surprised me the most was how it felt as if the amulet grew with me.

Just before the tea got ready, I poured myself a glass of whiskey. I took the alcohol in one gulp. The drink hit me hard. I winced from the recoil of the drink and cursed hard. It was just what I needed for the cold. The hot tea would help with the exhaustion.

It was time to check the tea. I got up and stretched out my tired bones. Just as I was about to make my way to the kitchen, a strange feeling sent chills through my entire body. I shivered.

I turned to face the back door. I couldn't explain what was happening but I felt a serious pull tugging at me. Something wanted me there. It was a strange feeling but I managed to shut it off for a while.

Just when I thought it was over, it came back in full force. I grabbed a spatula, just in case, it came in handy before I moved cautiously toward the door. I looked out through the glass but there was nothing there but darkness.

I opened the door and walked out with my spatula held tight in my left hand. It was my strong hand so I felt confident that one swing from it would be enough to knock out any attacker that might be hiding in the shadows.

The first thing I saw was a trail of blood that disappeared around the corner. Someone was hurt and whoever it was had lost a lot of blood.

I followed the trail and saw a man resting against the wall. His breath came in labored gasps and he held his side where I could only guess he was hurt judging by the huge concentration of blood there.

He looked like he was in so much pain by the way he winced and bit his lower lip. In his current state, he couldn't harm me even if he tried but there was something about him that made me scared. He had a very powerful aura and there was a certain darkness about him. I could tell.

I walked over to where he rested and when I was close enough, he noticed me and became alert. His eyes went cold.

"Who are you?" He asked, biting back the pain of his injuries.

I raised a brow at him. "I should be the one asking that question. What the fuck are you doing bleeding all over my backyard?"

His eyes fluttered in confusion and vertigo I was sure he must have been experiencing at that moment. The coldness in his eyes slipped away and for the first time, he looked harmless.

"I'm sorry," He said in a barely audible voice. "I'm hurt and I need to rest."

"I can see that, but that doesn't answer my question, not even in the slightest," I said, giving him my cold hard stare.

"Does it matter? I'll be dead in some minutes if I don't get help."

I knew how that could end up making things unnecessarily complicated for me. The last thing I needed was to spend my morning answering questions from the police about how a dead body appeared in my backyard.

"How do I know you won't hurt me if I tried to help you?" I watched him closely for any telltale signs of hesitation.

He scoffed. His breathing was erratic from the cold and pain of his injuries.

"I couldn't hurt you even if I wanted to." He winced. "Not like this."

A thought passed through my mind. What if he was part of a dangerous mob or worse, a gang member and he had been dumb enough to piss off the enemy gang. Maybe they were gunning for him and would trail him all the way to my backyard to finish the job. They'd have to tighten every loose end and take me out too. I went pale with fear immediately.

"Do they know you're here?" My eyes bulged out. "Answer me, goddammit!"

"Who the what now?" He regarded me in confusion.

It was too natural to have been faked. So he wasn't part of a gang that had been gunned down by another gang. What was his story then?

"How did you get those?" I gestured at his bloody wounds.

"Look, lady I - "

He growled in pain and shut his eyes tight. For a minute I thought he was going to reel over and die there but he didn't.

I walked closer to him and stretched out to turn his flesh to see if he was burning up. He was faster than I expected and grabbed my wrist before I could touch him.

Our eyes locked at that moment and I felt the amulet around my neck shift and the symbol across it unlocked. It all happened so fast and I pulled my hand away and held my wrist.

My whole body resonated with energy and power coursing through me with so much potency.

"What did you do to me?" I asked as I touched the amulet and felt it was lighter than it had been before.

He stared at me in almost the same confused way I stared at him. He touched his side where his injuries were and a shocked expression crossed his face.

"My injuries," He muttered. "They're gone, How did you do that?"

I felt light-headed as if I had somehow been drained of the newly found energy I'd just experienced only moments ago.

Just as I opened my mouth to say something, it all went dark for me and I collapsed beside the stranger.

ALPHA ROLF'S POV

I took a deep breath and struggled to stay conscious. I'd lost enough blood to donate to a clinic for a week. I raised my shirt once more to have a look at the nasty wound by my side and winced at the sight of it. It was a miracle I was still breathing.

The breeze from the cold night kept me awake even though I felt like having a little nap. It was a bad idea to have a nap in the condition I was in. Those were the kind of naps you don't wake up from, I thought bitterly.

Just as another wave of pain shot through my entire being all at once, I looked up at a sound to find a strange woman staring at me. She wore a white robe that was thick enough to make me feel better in my condition. She held a spatula as if it was the most powerful weapon against any foe. I grinned.

"Who are you?" I asked, biting my lips.

"I should be the one asking that question. What the fuck are you doing bleeding all over my backyard?" She tilted her head to one side giving me a look over.

Dizziness clouded my vision and for a while, I was sure the darkness would take me away for certain but I managed to get through it and focused on her once more.

"I am sorry. I'm hurt and I need to rest." I said. My voice was so low that I could barely hear myself.

"I can see that. But that doesn't answer my question, not even in the slightest." She gave me a cold stare.

"Does it matter? I will be dead in a few minutes if I don't get help."

She regarded me for a few minutes with keen eyes. It was as if she was trying to weigh how much of a danger I was to her. In my current state, I couldn't be a danger to anyone even if it meant saving my life. The stab wound on my left side was just too deep. I would have passed out from shock and blood loss hours ago if I hadn't been applying pressure on it.

"How do I know you won't hurt me if I tried to help you?" She asked me.

Even though she looked serious and maintained a cold expression, there was a glint in her eyes that showed she had a soft side. A side I wouldn't live long enough to see.

I sighed and then winced from the bite of the pain.

"I couldn't hurt you even if I wanted to. Not like this."

She watched me looking at the amulet around her neck. It was obvious she was trying to understand my story on her own and how I had ended up in her backyard, bleeding like a fucking blood bank.

She gasped finally coming up with something.

"Do they know you're here? Answer me, goddammit!" Her eyes were round and they reminded me of a caged animal.

"Who?" I was confused by her question.

Her eyes softened a bit.

"How did you get those?" She waved a finger at my wounds.

She wouldn't believe me even if I told her the truth. It was just something about humans that made the possibility of the existence of species outside their scope of understanding an impossibility.

"Look, lady I - "

I shut my eyes tight and roared in pain. My whole body shook from the pain that passed through me. I controlled the urge to curse out in every language I knew I could.

The strange woman moved closer to me and I could only imagine she was watching me with a worried expression on her face. That was how I imagined it.

I felt it happening rather than saw it as she reached out for me and I instinctively stopped her by grabbing her wrist.

I opened my eyes at that moment and our eyes locked. She gasped at me as if she had somehow witnessed me slaughter ten rogues after they attacked my pack house. She pulled her hand away and touched the weird amulet around her neck.

Something felt different but I couldn't place my hand on it.

"What did you do to me?" She asked, taking labored breaths.

I watched her talk and I got more confused than I'd been some seconds ago. I felt even more confused as I saw a faint glow coming from the amulet but she didn't see it.

That was when I noticed that I could breathe without wincing through every breath and the pain at my side was no longer there.

As an afterthought, I felt the injury at my side to confirm it was gone. Somehow it had magically disappeared completely. How the fuck is that even possible? I thought, staring at the woman standing in front of me.

"My injuries." I gasped in a low voice. "They're gone. How did you do that?"

She opened her mouth to speak but instead of doing so, she collapsed beside me. I stared at her for a while thinking she would get up any minute but she didn't.

Oh! I thought. She was out cold.

I got up and felt my full strength almost as if I hadn't been in the grip of death just some minutes ago. Somehow she was responsible for my miraculous healing and I was going to find out how she had done it.

I picked her up and that was when I felt her scent. My wolf howled at me in confirmation. The woman in my arms was not just an ordinary woman. She was my mate. It was as sure to me as the air I breathed.

Inside the house, she stirred while in my arms and I dropped her on the couch before she had the opportunity to freak out and run me through with one of her spatulas.

I looked around at the small apartment to get a feel of the place while she slowly regained consciousness and sat in an upright position.

"Wait! How did you get in?" She asked in a tone that made it look as if I had violated her most sacred grounds just by being inside the place.

"You passed out for a few minutes there. I thought it would be better if I helped get you out of the cold." I shrugged.

She sighed, placing a hand against her neck to feel her temperature. Just as she was doing that, she jerked and touched the amulet on her neck just as she had done back then. She took it off slowly and stared at the damned thing as if she had just completed an impossible task. I watched all this happen in confusion.

"Well, thanks for that but I think it's time to go." She pointed toward the backdoor I had passed through to bring her in.

"Wouldn't it be better if I go through there?" I asked, pointing toward the front door.

She looked in the direction of both doors simultaneously and then she sighed. "Does it matter?"

"Sure it does," I said with a nod. "Following the back door out would be ideal if I was a lover you wanted to sneak out."

She thought about what I'd said for a while then she chuckled.

"Okay then. Go out through the front door."

I wasn't ready to walk out of my mate's life just yet especially since I just found out about her. I could tell she was a human but there was something different about her and I was going to find out what it was.

"I would gladly leave but remember I'm wounded." I pointed out to her and grabbed my side.

She cocked her head and raised a questioning brow at me. "You looked just fine a minute ago."

"Did I?" I faked a wince.

She nodded. She gave me a look to indicate she wasn't buying the fact that I was still hurt. I was no longer pale and my breathing was much more steady than it had been when she found me.

"I'm sorry but I can't let a stranger into my house." She said looking around.

" Who hurt you? How do you end up at the back of my apartment? She asked with narrowed eyes.

"Some dangerous guys stabbed me," I said, hoping she believed me without asking questions.

" But you looked dangerous yourself. See, can you please leave? I have a lot on my plate already then adding more to it," she replied.

" I am not dangerous, I am not from this city, just let me stay for a few days then I will leave," I said, making an innocent face.

She sighed. "Hmmm,"

"I have an offer," I said thinking of an idea that would make her let me stay longer.

She replied with wide eyes. "An offer?"

"Sure." I nodded. "I will tell you all you need to know about me. That way we won't be strangers anymore but friends. But if you decide to kick your new friend out, then it's fine too."

" Okay, I think that's better," She replied, walking to the kitchen.

"I'm Rolf. What should I call my savior?"

She hesitated for a while giving me a hard look over. I could tell she was trying to decide whether she could trust me or not.

"Adele. You can call me Adele."

ADELE'S POV

It had been some days since I found Rolf wounded outside my backyard. We had gotten closer and my affection for him had deepened to the point that I couldn't think of a time when he wasn't around. I knew he had somehow healed completely during the night my amulet had unlocked but he used the disguise of still being in pain to stay and I let him because I had gotten used to him being around.

I needed to talk to someone about the weird things that had occurred during the past few days so I went to the only person in the entire world I knew I could tell anything about- my best friend Ivan.

He listened to me till I was done speaking then he gave me a look that made it feel as though I had committed the greatest sin in the world.

"What?" I asked, feeling a little self-conscious under his scrutinizing gaze.

It was like being put under a gigantic microscope.

"So you mean to tell me you let a man you found wounded outside your apartment who also happened to get healed that same night live with you, for days now."

The way he said it made me consider the stupidity behind my actions. It was as if I had been blinded this whole time and now he had somehow managed to clear my blindfold.

"You make it sound like it's a bad thing," I said, ruffling my blonde hair.

He sighed. "Make me understand what he's still doing there, especially since the miraculous healing happened the same night."

I shrugged. That was one question I didn't have the answer to. I just knew I wanted him around and it felt so normal to have him around.

"Oh, God! You like him." He gasped.

I blushed and denied it at the same time. The way I did it made it obvious he had been right. I'd gotten emotionally attached to Rolf. It was something I couldn't explain. I was cold to men in my life but Rolf was different. He had unlocked a side of me I never knew existed.

"Focus on the weird shit with my amulet," I said, raising it to his view.

He sighed again. I knew he would go on and on about how much of a gullible fool I'd been for letting a stranger live with me for so long but what he didn't know was that apart from him, Rolf was the next best thing I had to a friend.

"I don't know what to say about that. It is weird though, I have to admit." He massaged his beard.

"You're sure it comes off now?"

I took it off as an answer to his question and he blew a whistle in response. He had been with me for so long and he was the only one who knew about the amulet that refused to come off since my childhood.

"I still don't like the idea of you living with a stranger. It's dangerous as fuck." He said going back to his concern about Rolf.

I growled in frustration. "Let it go, Ivan. I know what I'm doing and I appreciate you looking out for me but you know I can take care of myself." I breathed out. "You know."

He nodded.

We talked for a while and he offered to follow me back to my apartment. He said he wanted to use the opportunity to catch up but I knew he just wanted to see Rolf. I knew Ivan too well.

Rolf was surprised to see me with Ivan but I was quick to explain to him that Ivan was my best friend. I made him understand that I trusted Ivan more than anyone else.

The both of them were hostile to each other for a while but Rolf made moves to break the ice it was obvious Ivan was there for a different motive. He didn't trust Rolf and he didn't hide that fact.

Later that night when Ivan had gone, something strange happened. I swore I had noticed the chair I sat on levitating a little before dropping back with a thud. I called Rolf to tell him about it even though it sounded crazy but he wasn't surprised. The crazy thing was that he believed me and that made me wonder if Ivan had been right about him. What sane person would believe a chair levitating?

I went to bed early and woke up abruptly in the middle of the night to find I was suspended above the air. It took some minutes for me to confirm I was indeed floating and my screams made Rolf run into the room fast. He gasped and stared at me in surprise.

"What is this!" I asked. My heart was beating fast. I was so scared of what was happening.

"How am I supposed to react to this?" He asked, waving his hands in the air.

"I don't know! Freak out, maybe. Not act like I'm a reincarnation of Wonder Woman."

He grinned with his brown eyes glowing. Seeing him grin at a time like this should have made me infuriated but he looked so handsome whenever he did that with his face.

"Relax. Just try to calm down." He gestured with his hands. "Maybe that would make it stop. Calming down."

He had a point. I tried to relax but looking down at the distance between my floating body and the bed took away any chill I had in me.

"Breathe. Just breathe." He said.

"In." He took in a lungful of breath and urged me to follow his lead. "Out."

We repeated the process together for a while and slowly I could feel my body lower itself till I hit the bed.

He moved to the bed and held me in his arms while I trembled from the overwhelming fear I was feeling.

"How? How- How the hell is that even possible."

He patted my blonde hair.

"This might be hard to hear. It will be harder to believe but I think you're a witch."