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When I Heard You

Benjamin

"No, no, no! Stop!" an unknown voice suddenly groaned and screamed in my head, startling me into a complete stop near the Lafleur hardware store. "Turn around," the compelling voice then begged me, and before I could even think, my feet gave way to its commands a second time.

My stomach instantly knotted, my heart fluttered inside my chest, and, of their own volition, my eyes scanned the town square. They were frantically searching for that voice: for the place and, perhaps more importantly, the person from whom it came. Who the hell was that? A friend, an enemy, someone in need of my help?

"Benji?" my Gamma Anderson spoke, jolting me back a few steps when he placed a hand on my shoulders. "Whoa! What the hell, Benji?" he called out again. "Are you okay? What happened?"

I stood, disoriented and confused, in front of him, the Patrol Captain and the younger Delta to his right, and all three men looked back at me with wonder and worry.

"Did you hear that?" I asked them, suspecting they hadn't but unsure of what else to say. "Did you hear someone talk just now?"

"No," the young Jason confirmed before looking to the Captain.

"We didn't hear anything," Craig added after him.

"Why? What did you hear?" Anderson asked me. "Did someone link with you?"

"No… it wasn't a link, but…," I paused to think.

Mind-linking was a different way of communicating, a passive power that werewolves possessed and gained on the day we met our inner beasts. And since Silas came to me when I was but eighteen, I had become more than familiar with my telepathic abilities over time. Indeed, ten years was long enough to understand the ins and outs of linking, so I knew that this, today, was something completely new.

The voice was haunting, irresistible, and both overwhelming and unsettling in the way it controlled me. It stunned me, rendered me speechless, and Silas, hitherto always impassive, was doing no better. He couldn't stop pacing around inside my head, in total disbelief that the voice had overpowered him too, even if for only a second.

"But what? Benji?" Anderson's voice drew my focus back onto him and the others. "What happened?"

"Nothing. I, umm- It was nothing," I mumbled unconvincingly before slowly heading towards the shop. "Let's just get inside and find Ryan," I added with a sigh, looking over my shoulder one last time.

I didn't know who I expected to see. At the sound of her voice, a girl sure, but which one? A she-wolf and maybe even-

'A mate,' I thought to myself as the store's front door dinged open.

For years, I had prayed to the Moon Goddess she would finally grant me love, and I waited, searching the earth, pack by pack, to find the one woman whose heart and soul sought me as fervently as I did her. I wanted to be mated, hungered for it even, and now, as my wolf grew more and more restless in the back of my mind, I couldn't help the overflow of anticipation that came over me. Could this truly be happening? Could my mate and future Luna indeed be here?

"A- Alpha Benjamin," the young cashier behind the counter greeted me nervously as he smoothed the top of his apron. "We weren't expecting you today," he then said, hurrying to meet my men and me at the door.

"So I take it Ryan's not here?" I asked of my best friend and second-in-command.

"No, Alpha," the teen answered. "He went fishing."

"Typical," the Gamma scoffed. "Blackwoods' finest Beta, gentlemen!"

"Lay off him, Andy, would you? He didn't know we were coming," Jason jumped in Ryan's defense.

"Well, he knows about the attacks on the pack and that we needed to talk about 'em," Anderson said. "He just doesn't take anything seriously."

"Oh, right, and how about you go and tell him that in person," Craig interjected, laughing as Anderson's face turned pale, and his eyes widened. "Yeah, I didn't think so!"

"Enough!" I snapped, weirdly running out of patience for my friends' bickering, and with an anger-laced voice, ordered the cashier to call on Ryan’s father.

I was known to be generally more restrained and able to contain myself better, and so the befuddled looks my unusual outburst elicited around me came as no surprise. I was rattled, distraught more than I cared to admit, and particularly anxious about discovering my mate, or worse, not finding her. My nerves were unraveling and I knew I couldn't be here anymore. I needed to leave, get out there and scour every inch of Jester for her.

"I- I can't, Alpha," the teen stammered in fear, lowering his eyes. "Beta Ronan is fishing with his son, and I don't know when they'll be back," he said hurriedly, seeing me turn back towards the exit.

"Benji, what are you doing? Where are you going?" I heard Anderson's protests fade as the door closed behind me.

I had no idea where I headed, but as I marched purposefully towards my pick-up truck, I realized that, in some ways, I wasn't entirely clueless either. My mate was here somewhere; I could feel it. I needed only to find her.

I have to be at my parents' tonight, so meet me there—all of you. I mind-linked my men before starting my truck's engine. And have one of you tell Ryan to show up.

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