27

~Aurelia Williams~

"Where do I start explaining?" Inala said with a sneaky smile. "I think Steven can explain that to you better."

My gaze drew back to Steven, who was staring open-mouthed at Inala. Such a bad topic?

"O-okay, a-so mar-tag." Steven started to stutter and he blushed. "A-well, once a wolf has found its mate, it can bond with it. That way they can feel what the other is feeling and they're mentally bonded forever. Any feelings you already have towards your mate become even more intense. Plus she smells like him, so everyone knows who she's with. So he's kind of showing ownership."

He probably thought he had closed the topic, but I wanted to know: "How do you tag yourself?"

Steven's blush, which he was losing, returned and he avoided my gaze.

"How am I supposed to say that now. Um, so the male wolf has to bite the female's neck and they're having sex along the way."

"Well, maybe I didn't want to know that exactly." I blushed now too. Sex was still a huge topic for me, after all I didn't know much about this area. That's why I was embarrassed to talk about it So I went back to my 2nd question: "And what about the full moon? Do you have to transform?"

"Well no. This is a superstition among people. As you have already established, we can transform at any time. But on a full moon..." Steven paused, seeming to think about how to explain it. "Well, on a full moon, every werewolf is particularly agitated." He said the last words so quickly that I could hardly hear them.

"So, on a full moon, everyone suddenly goes into heat or what?" I asked that just for fun, though.

"The girls yes," Inala answered me this time. "The cycle of female werewolves adjusts to the moon, so we usually ovulate on the full moon. Having sex unprotected on that day doesn't necessarily mean that, though you'll get pregnant right away. So Savanna will be in her 3rd month soon."

I didn't really want to know when Savanna and the Alpha had their baby.

"Then why don't you have any children yet?" I suddenly slipped another question.

“Well, our kid will be the next beta. We just wanted to wait until Arsen had a son. So that our children are not that far apart in age. Just like Arsenic and Costa. Costa is only a year younger than Arsen."

Arsenic. She says arsenic. She pronounces his beautiful sexy name.

Immediately my heart started beating a little faster. So I try to distract from that. "When is this ball?"

"In 4 days," she replied.

"Then we'll stay until the ball and then we'll get out of here."

-----

When we returned to the packhouse after this walk, we went into the common room. There were already some ultrasound pictures on the walls here, because Savanna thought everyone should be happy about them.

Since everyone has known that she is pregnant, thanks to the hormones, she has become a mixture of a crybaby, a bitchy dragon, a bitch or a much too nice over-concerned mother. At the moment she was apparently the latter. Because when she walked in she just defied her good mood and pulled the perfect smile to show everyone in the room how great she was.

She just let me roll my eyes though.

But apparently today wasn't my lucky day because Savanna noticed and came towards me before pinching the tear duct.

"Do you have something against me?" she began, sobbing casually. "I want to be a good Luna. Everyone should like me."

By now I was wondering if all that hormone shit was just an act of hers. How can you be so oversensitive? Is she looking for attention or what?

"N-No not at all," I tried to talk my way out of it. Unfortunately, Savanna noticed my underlying irony. She went from crybaby to dragon and the next moment she was spreading her claws. And literally.

"You little bitch! You're always interfering in my life and trying to ruin everything. I WILL KILL YOU!" she yelled before starting to flail her claws like a fury.

Oh dear, now I had done it. She was far superior to me as a werewolf and could bleed me to death with a claw pull.

She walked towards me and I could already feel the first pain. Steven tried to intervene, but Savanna fought him off. Inala tried it too and tried to talk to her, but Savanna was too busy waving around and hurting me with her sharp claws.

Suddenly chaos erupted throughout the common room, and then a loud voice broke through the tumult.

"STOP IMMEDIATELY!" yelled the alpha himself, who was standing at the entrance. Immediately there was silence and Savanna also stopped attacking me.

But there he was. Arsenic. I mean the Alpha of course... He looked even hotter than I remembered.

My heart leapt and I almost smiled dreamily if he wasn't looking so sternly in my direction.

Then he came up to us. I would probably take the blame now that Savanna is his mate.

~Aurelia Williams~

Any wolves he passed bared their necks and bowed. I did the same when he got to me. I wasn't anything special, after all, and I never had the right to call him by his name.

"Alpha," I said barely audibly. Arsenic just growled at that.

I had upset him. What had I done wrong again?

"EVERYBODY OUT who has nothing to do with this!" he ordered, leaving only Savanna, Inala, Steven, the Alpha and myself in the room.

Beside me, Savanna smiled innocently and snuggled up to him.

"She offended me. Me and our baby," she said, feigning hurt. I never hurt her? Why is she making it so difficult for me?

I rose from my position, wanting to defend myself against the lie being told, but when I met the Alpha's angry glare I lowered my head again. Of course he believed her. Why should he also believe a man?

"Is that true?" he asked sternly.

I nodded. Only 4 more days then I'll be away from here anyway, so I don't need to care what the alpha thinks about me. Or his mate. She already hates me anyway.

The Alpha let out an annoyed breath. I assumed it was me. He probably wants to get rid of me soon anyway. It's a good thing I'm not here much longer. Because I'm just unnecessary ballast in the pack anyway, without understanding the meaning of my task here.

"You're bleeding," he stated, picking up a napkin from a table next to us.

Then he lifted my head with two fingers and dabbed blood from my cheek. I didn't even realize Savanna caught me there. The places where he touched me immediately began to tingle. It was such a magical feeling that I closed my eyes for a moment.

When I opened my eyes again, my eyes caught his beautiful green eyes. These fixed my cheek, which he was still dabbing at.

Then his eyes suddenly shot to mine. Time started to stand still. But before I could lose myself in them, I broke eye contact and walked away from the alpha.

"Where are you hurt?" he asked very softly this time. However, you could hear the desperation he had. He was desperate because he didn't know how he was going to kill me yet. He was fed up with me and when he cared about my hurt me, it just annoyed him.

How many times has he had to save me now? How many times have I become a burden to him over and over again?

I looked down to check for injuries and found that I was bleeding from both my arms and chest.

"What am I going to do with you?" the alpha asked more to himself than me. I knew it. I knew he wanted rid of me. So I didn't answer, letting my head wander to the side to avoid him to look at

"Inala please take care of her injuries and then take her back to her room!" he ordered her and then turned to leave the room. Savanna put on her bitch smile and then followed him to the door, like a lapdog.

"Come on!" Inala said with a sad smile and led me to my room. There I took off my broken t-shirt so that I was only wearing my bra. Inala meanwhile got a rag from the bathroom.

When she came back she crouched in front of me and tried to wipe my blood away, but I took the rag from her hand.

"I can do this on my own, but thanks for the help." Then I started washing my blood away.

Inala just watched me quietly and didn't really know what to say now.

"I have to leave here. You need to create a distraction right after the ball and smuggle Steven and I out of here. You heard the alpha. He wants to kill me and I don't know how much time I have left." I broke the silence.

"Maybe he didn't mean it like that." She gave me a hopeful smile.

"You know I'm human. He would never let me go. Because before he ever lets me go, he'll kill me." At least that's what everyone here tells me. People get killed when they know too much. And I really did know too much.

"I will support you. I promise you that everything will be fine." Even if I have a bad memory of that last sentence, it really sounded like it this time. I would get out of here and this with Steven. I could finally start the life I've always wanted wished.

When I was done washing off the blood, I put on something loose and then waited for Inala, who went to get something from her room.

When she finally came back, she did so with a large blue suitcase.

"We can start packing and getting everything ready," she began to talk. "We'll pack as much as we can and just load everything into Steven's car so that when the time comes, you can just get in and have to drive off."

I thought that was a great plan. We packed everything up and ended up hiding the suitcase under my bed. All we need now is a plan to get him to Steven's jeep inconspicuously.

All this had lasted half the night and Inala said goodbye and finally went to bed, just like me.