The black wolf continued to sniff at her neck and made a whimpering sound before he stepped back and looked directly into her blue eyes, it’s own burning in intensity.

“Hello Aila,” A low growl rumbled through the mind-link. It was Damon’s voice, but it was extremely animalistic. She looked into his eyes more and watched as the silver glow of his orbs flickered and hardened. This was the wolf she met that night.

“I’m Damon’s wolf, Darius,” His voice was deep and majestic sounding, causing Aila to be slightly in awe and in a daze. Malia stirred in the background, wanting to come to the surface, but Aila kept her at bay until Darius said, which made Malia grumble in agreement.

“Hi,” Aila heard the nervousness in her voice; she didn’t know what to say to him. He stepped closer to her again and licked her neck, making her realise her wound was slightly bleeding. 

“You are injured. You did not need to intervene; we would have been fine.” He grumbled in annoyance; the deepness of his voice vibrated through his chest. But there was also a hint of admiration rolling off of him.

“I was not about to sit by and watch you get hurt,” Aila exclaimed.

“And now you are hurt. It is our duty as your mate and your Alpha to protect you. But you are making it very difficult,” Aila didn’t know if his calm demeanour was the ‘calm before the storm’. Damon made it sound like his wolf was vicious and near enough untameable.

“Make no mistake, Aila. Damon has been very patient with you. If it was me, I would have marked you the moment we set our eyes on you,” Darius’s voice went dangerously low, sending a shiver down her spine. Malia whimpered in response which came through the mind-link to Darius; his eyes softened a fraction before they went back to normal as the glowing diminished. 

“You met Darius that night, Aila. He was the one chasing you; he found it incredibly hard to stay away from you. It was the hardest thing I had to do, reining him in,” Damon was the one now speaking through the mind-link. Aila relaxed more after hearing his voice return back to normal. 

She thought back to her first encounter with Damon or, well, Darius? And all she remembered was him growling at her and then attacking the crossbowman, which aided in her escape. 

A sigh then came through the mind-link, “Will you please go back to the mansion now?”

Well, seeing as he asked so politely… 

“If you replied to me in the first place, I wouldn’t be here,” Aila said stubbornly. 

So much for taking the high road.

“I was scouting for those rogues,” He growled.

“Well, maybe next time, tell me that!” She raised her voice. Damon was incredibly annoying. All he had to do was tell her that, and none of this would have happened.

“But then he would have taken on those wolves by himself,” Malia added as she continued to listen to their conversation.

“We didn’t really help that much,” Aila retorted.

“Hmmm, if I remember correctly, that wolf tried a sneak attack and didn’t expect us to go for him,” Malia scoffed, “as if we would let him do that to our Alpha. Seriously, how stupid?”

Aila smiled at her wolf; she was right, muttering, “How stupid indeed.”

“Next time!? Oh, there won’t be a next time, Aila. You deliberately disobeyed me! Those were type 1 rogues, AILA. Do you know what that means?!” Before she could say anything, he continued, “No, you don’t. Because you’ve only been in this world for a few fucking days!”

By this point, he toppled her over onto her back, his paws holding her down with his teeth barring.

Seriously? That needs to stop.

Malia rolled her eyes at Aila’s thoughts. However, Aila was fuming, she was back in the mud, and she hated being pushed around, especially by an overbearing Alpha.

“He’s our overbearing Alpha, though..” Malia piped in.

Two more wolves came into view by their sides, making Aila tense, ready for another attack but then relaxed when she saw their eyes were not red. She also recognised the golden-brown wolf to be Kane, though she guessed who the black wolf next to him was. It had fur missing on one side of its neck where there were clearly claw marks showing.

Damon released her and turned to face the newcomers.

“Train with me, and you’ll be invincible in no time,” A feminine voice she recognised came through the mind-link. It was Gamma Chiara.

“Take her back,” A low growl erupted from Damon’s chest, causing Gamma Chiara to bow her head in response. Aila did not realise that the four of them were in a mind-link together. She began to follow Gamma Chiara.

“And Aila,” Damon’s voice filtered through a private mind-link between them. She stopped to look at him while Gamma Chiara continued to trot off.

“I’ll deal with you later,” His voice was menacing, making her gulp. But instead of showing how nervous his words made her, she straightened up, tilting her nose slightly higher while her ears stood up.

“I can’t wait,” She said drily. The sarcasm did not go unnoticed by the Alpha. He growled in response as his eyes glowed again, showing his temper and his wolf coming forwards.

Oops, hey, Darius.

Malia whined in the background as Aila turned away and caught up with Gamma Chiara, who waited patiently deeper in the forest. Once she made it to her side, they set off at a fast pace Aila presumed was towards the mansion. The mind-link was quiet between them; Aila was unsure if Gamma Chiara was a quiet woman or if she was giving her some space; either way, Aila was grateful. She took the time to try and process her whirlwind of thoughts as her paws pounded into the wet earth.

She finally met her mate, who turned out to be Alpha Damon. Her strange attraction to him was making a lot more sense now; even before she had Malia, there was a peculiar electrical buzz between them. However, she still had a lot to learn; it was easy saying they were mates, but after the subject of marking her was brought up, she didn’t know what to expect or how to feel. As he mentioned, she has only been in this world as a werewolf for a few days, and although her dad gave her a rundown of the Cross history, she still didn’t know any more specifics on actually being a werewolf. 

Until this point, she had been improvising and figuring everything out as she went. That was only going to take her so far. Even with the rogue attack, she attacked the rogue without knowing how to use her strengths to her advantage. Aila looked to her side at Gamma Chiara, who pelted through the trees by her side; the Gamma said she would train her, so at least that was something she could tick off of her list of things to do. 

Then there was Darius, who seemed to have a darker edge to his personality than what Damon had. She was still trying to comprehend what that meant for her. He said he would have marked her by now. What did that mean? Would that make her submit to the Alpha? Malia certainly submitted to him quite easily, which really surprised her, Aila was a Cross, and she thought Malia would also be stubborn and strong-willed against an Alpha. She didn’t like to submit to anyone, yet here she was-

Malia growled at where Aila’s thoughts were leading her, “I don’t submit to anyone, Aila. But he is our mate and our mate for a reason. We should be able to submit to him and lean our trust into him.” 

Aila snorted, “Malia, unlike me, you haven’t been in any relationships. This, I don’t know how this will go but, in the past, if someone has been particularly bossy with me, I don’t tend to stick around. And Damon ticks that box massively! From what I can tell, it’s in his nature to be in charge, including in his relationships.”

Malia was seething at Aila’s words, “You forget I was stuck inside your head for most of our lives. Don’t tell me about your stupid relationships that I could almost immediately see failing. If you knew about me and the werewolf’s existence, I doubt you would have had a relationship until now. He is our mate. Trust the Moon Goddess’s choice!”

Aila blanked at Malia’s last words.

The Moon Goddess?

Malia sunk back into the depths of her mind again, almost as if she was running off and slamming a door in Aila’s face. But her wolf stayed quiet, letting her words sink in. Aila knew her life would be immensely different if she knew about this world she was now a part of. She also wondered if her personality would be the same or different.

Aila stopped and realised she was now standing in front of the broken patio doors. She did not pay much attention to her surroundings, solely relying on the Gamma, which, again, she was thankful for the escort. If there were any more rogues about, she would have definitely been easy prey. Aila glanced to her side, the spot now empty as Gamma Chiara was nowhere to be seen. She must have seriously been deep in thought; after all, she was arguing with Malia. 

A ‘humph’ noise came from the dark depths of her mind, indicating that Malia was still annoyed with her, but she could tell she was slowly warming to her again. Aila hopped over the shards of glass still on the floor and walked into the house in her wolf form. The last thing she wanted to do was shift and run around the house naked, so she planned to wait until she made it to her bedroom. Aila cringed a couple of times after hearing her claws scratch the floor; she hoped it wouldn’t be held against her. But there was no way she was comfortable being in the nude.

Unfortunately, SOMEBODY shifted too soon and tore her jeans apart. 

Malia snickered at her thoughts. With her bedroom door closed behind her, she shifted and went straight to the bathroom. After turning the shower on, she looked back in the mirror and gasped at her reflection. There was dirt smeared across her body, dried blood covering most of her shoulder and a wound that was nearly completely healed on the side of her neck. Werewolf healing really was something magical. She touched the surrounding area of it in awe but hissed at the slight pain she still felt.

When she met her eyes again in the mirror, a small smile crept up her face as she saw her eyes were lit with a wildness she had never seen before. The adrenaline from today’s fight was still pumping through her veins, and although it didn’t go particularly well, she was exhilarated by it. Malia howled in agreement; she was happy to see a wilder side of Aila. She used to play hockey before, and even then, she somehow didn’t get into that many fights.

“That’s because I was the captain. I had responsibilities..” Aila chided her wolf.

“As Luna, you will still have responsibilities. But if anyone challenges us, we don’t need to hold back from being physical,” Malia gleamed with excitement at the thought. This brought back the memory of Malia’s physical reaction to Lydia earlier. Aila nodded her head in acknowledgement as she climbed into the shower, welcoming the heated water on her skin. 

Malia surely was a violent beast. 

“I take that as a compliment,” She spoke proudly, “next time though, Lydia won’t be getting away.”

After showering and removing the dirt and blood from her hair and body, she changed into leggings and a hoody. Her ‘go to’ outfit, it now seemed. Malia was happier with this choice, in case she shifted unexpectedly. Aila tsked her and went down the hallway, her goal being the library to learn more about herself.

Unfortunately, once she made it to the bottom of the stairs, a bristling Alpha stormed towards her, wearing nothing but shorts. Aila stopped and drank the sight of him in. Her eyes wandered down his eight pack and to his ‘v’ muscles, revealing how low his shorts clung to his hips. When she looked back up, she expected a smirk to be placed on his face, but all she saw was his jaw set, lips thinned, and his eyes burning into hers.

Oh, he is pissed!

Without missing a beat, he grabbed her and flung her over his shoulder, her backside in the air. She immediately pounded on his back and began kicking her legs, embarrassed at being thrown over his shoulder like a doll, “Put me down!”

He slapped her on the bottom, hard, making her yelp. She looked up and realised Ajax, Finn, Kane, and Nairi had walked into the hallway and watched with amused expressions as the Alpha carried her up the stairs. Her face heated immediately, and she pounded even harder, but he slapped her again, this time with a low growl that vibrated through him to her.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, kids!” Ajax shouted after them. 

This earned her another slap on the bum, making her jump. It stung, but it was mixed with pleasure as her core tightened. 

“Hmmm, I can smell your arousal, Aila. But this is your punishment for blatantly disobeying me,” Damon’s voice was deep and husky after caressing her backside gently. She raised her head and realised he was taking her past her room and to his own. This made her suck in a sharp breath.

But not from fear. No, it was from anticipation at what her punishment could be.