21

"Why exactly am I here now?" Damian followed me confused. His meeting with the other alphas was just over when I fetched him over. Of course he immediately agreed to follow me, but he was still irritated. "I'm not exactly sure either. Delia wanted to speak to us." He jerked his head towards me. "I thought we needed to speak to Aurora or Amelia."

"No, they left." I watched him closely before a grin crept onto my face. "Are you nervous?" "How could it not be me? This woman is over eight hundred years old and treats me as if I were a small child." I giggled.

"Well, she liked me." "Great. Then it can only be good." Damian made no effort to hide his sarcasm. Together we went back into the narrow room. Apparently we were expected, because Delia was sitting up in her bed with her head turned to the opposite wall. The scent of lavender was automatically in the air again and enveloped me.

"There you are." I walked towards her and sat down on the floor. Damian also came closer with cautious steps, but leaned against the wall. "Hello Delia." "Damian, how nice that you are visiting me again. Your companion must have told you that I would like to discuss something with you." "That's correct." Damian spoke loud and clear, yet somehow softly.

"Alina, my granddaughter told me everything about your conversation, after revealing your true form. Your function, your weaknesses, as well as how everything around us works." I felt Damian's eyes on me, but said nothing. "Likewise, she reported to me that you don't know why you and our alpha are mates here."

"I have to just ask that now, where exactly will this conversation lead?" Damian asked. "Wait and be patient. You're going to have to put off your role as Alpha a little bit because what I have to say to you is very important," Delia answered slowly. She turned back to me. "You have weaknesses because there is a balance to everything got to. However, there has to be something like that for you personally. All your life you have carried an incredible burden that you have never been able to share with anyone. You lacked someone you could confide in."

"And you, Damian, even when you were little you were very impulsive and also aggressive when something went against the grain." I gave Damian an irritated look.

In my early days I ran into her and her pack once as an alpha. I wanted to attack her, but her alpha convinced me not to. Yes, that sounds a lot like you.

"Your behavior has certainly changed through your experience changed, but you still have... certain moments when you fall back into certain behavior patterns." She paused for a long time, during which neither Damian nor I dared to say anything. "These are just a few examples, that I can give you. I don't know your connection well enough, but after that, what Amelia told me, you are a very well-rehearsed team." Delia paused again.

But this time she seemed to be waiting for us to understand something. For us to have the big aha moment. But she didn't have any with us Luck. Damian was quite at a loss and also a bit irritated, but still didn't dare to speak. I felt the same way. Delia sighed.

"My pack at that time believed in an everlasting balance. For every sacrifice there would be a gift. A new life for every dead person and the right half for every person. Soulmates complement each other. That was always clear. But you two are special. Damian has built himself up with little and he's still doing very well to this day. But very few know what it means to be an alpha. how relieving it is to share this burden with someone.

Apparently such a werewolf was never born." She pointed in my general direction. "And we probably don't have to discuss that Alina is something special." She cleared her throat. "In my pack at the time, you both would fit perfectly into this one match pattern. you equalize You understand each other because you both have an incredible burden to carry. And you are so extraordinary that a power unknown to us has connected you." She frowned.

"But you don't handle it properly. You hide your bond as if it were another weakness." "While that is exactly why you are bonded. Because you strengthen each other and respect and acknowledge your weaknesses. Don't see your soul mate as a weakness, but as an opportunity. And live it out, kindly, while you can. You never know how quickly things can end."

"Just so I get this straight," Damian began once we were back in his room. "Amelia's grandmother just kindly asked us to close our connection break up? Not that I mind." He let his eyes wander lasciviously down my body. "Because I definitely haven't, you should be concerned about that." I laughed before opening the door to the terrace and the moon looking up, who was already quite tall. "I definitely didn't think about that. And yes, I think that's what she meant to tell us. Though she probably meant it less for your pleasure than for the general good." Damian approached me with gentle steps and wrapped his arms around my waist to pull me to his chest.

"It amounts to the same thing for me . I'm glad there's nothing to fear from the world," he whispered in my ear. Damian nibbled on my earlobe. He started placing feathery kisses down my neck and then slowly moved to the back of my neck.

His tongue on my skin elicited me a soft gasp and I leaned into the touch, but as his teeth slowly brushed against my skin I had to stop him, escaping his touch and taking a few breaths to regain control of my arousal. Damian grinned at me, knowing what his touch triggered in me. "I have a suggestion," I said. Damian groaned in annoyance. "No matter what comes next, it's not right for me. Not what I want now." "I have one more thing to do and then I'm totally open and ready for whatever you want." Damian raised an eyebrow.

A malicious grin spread across his full lips. "You think so, don't you? But okay, work seems to come first as usual." I nudged his chest angrily. "Not at all. Normally nothing could stop me. But," I had to emphasize the but as he took several steps toward me, "actually, there is one thing that needs to be done first."

"And that would be?" " It's Amelia's birthday tomorrow and she'll be sixteen." "Aha, and you want to make her a present or what?" Now I looked at him irritably. "Of course not. From the age of sixteen, werewolves can be assigned a soul mate. And that's exactly what I'm going to do. Or at least hope that the right person has already been born for them." Damian turned his head to look at me again afterwards.

"It's 11:57 p.m. Was she born exactly at midnight or why can you do it directly?" "Very funny. I don't know, but it doesn't matter either. My birthday counts as the whole day." "So theoretically you could do it tomorrow night too?" he asked hopefully. "Yes," I replied. "In theory yes. But only theoretically." When I noticed his disappointed look, I had to smile.

"The faster I can start, the faster we can move on to the exciting part for you." Immediately his eyes began to shine and he pushed me further onto the Terrace." Then hop hop. Be a moon goddess so that afterwards I can do what I've been dreaming of since I first saw you."

"Shall I go in? Am I distracting you somehow?" Damian asked cautiously. I just laughed in response. He seemed very insecure because he had no idea how to handle the situation. I grinned at him and finally said, "You can stay out here if you want. As long as you don't say anything, I don't mind."

He nodded once and then sat down on the floor. Damian wasn't looking at me, however, instead turning his head sideways away from me as if afraid even his gaze might distract me. But since I had never connected soulmates in front of an audience, I didn't know if it would actually bother me. So it was a good thing if he played it safe.

I took a deep breath before turning my attention to the moon. A waxing moon shone in my face. Not perfect, but still sufficient, since my powers were fully at my disposal and therefore I didn't need too much additional help from the moon.

"All right," I mumbled softly. I was aware Damian could hear me but ignored it. "Let's see if I can find someone for her." I let the rays of the moon and its attendant power sink into me and waited for a person to connect with someone. In fact, Amelia was suggested to me straight away. Or rather, a memory forced itself into my thoughts. Amelia's memory. She was sitting on a grassy ground surrounded by three small children who were grinning at her.

I even recognized one of them. It was the redhead boy who had been so brave in the attack. A girl with two plaits in her hair began to laugh exuberantly, revealing the gap in her teeth. In the next second she threw herself on Amelia. Both of them rolled around a bit and eventually all the kids threw themselves on her to tickle her.

The picture faded and was replaced by a room painted yellow. On the bed I knew, Delia lay with bright blue eyes. Perched on the edge of the bed in front of her was her granddaughter, gently cradling the old woman's wrinkled hand. Amelia looked worried and watched her grandmother's movements closely. Another memory emerged. Amelia was standing in a gray room that was unfamiliar to me this time with Aurora and a strange man. The familiar way they treated each other I concluded that this was her father. The man with shoulder-length brown hair reached out to his daughter and pulled her into a tight hug, which was matched by her mother.

This is how a lovely family portrait came about. I smiled and watched that memory slowly fade away. "Okay," I said, "who is her match?" I smiled hopefully at the moon. The bond between us formed by the joining of our powers began to vibrate until a person not unfamiliar entered my mind.

"Honest?" This unwanted question escaped my lips before I could really finish the thought. It was only increased by my unbelief. Especially when I fixed Niklas again. One of his memories pushed itself in front of the picture, which didn't let my skepticism go away. Niklas annoyed another person. A boy, I found. In his hand the slight boy held what looked like a test. A red one had been drawn in with a bold circle.

Niklas pushed him around and laughed at him for a reason completely unknown to me. The boy ran away and promptly Nikla's mouth twisted into a rigid line. He pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket. He unfolded it - as best he could - so that I realized that it was also a test. Unlike the boy, however, a red five had been circled here. In the next second, the test ended up in the trash can.

Had Niklas teased the boy because he was jealous of him? Or did he just want to feel better? The image faded and was replaced by a familiar situation. It was the moment after Niklas and his friends attacked us in the forest. All the boys sat on chairs. But Niklas attention was on me. Or the way Damian and I looked at each other at that moment. I sat on the sofa while Damian looked at Niklas annoyed.

But then he fixed me again. Seeing our gazes from an outsider made me more than uncomfortable, especially as I now realized how loving our gazes were. Niklas apparently saw it that way too, because envy crept in under his anger and displeasure. Envy of the connection Damian and I had. Before I could think about it further and maybe even philosophize, I saw a horrific scene in front of me.

A woman with blond hair was lying on the floor. A round bloodstain was pilloried on her white waistcoat and the apparently associated blood collected on the floor. Before her lay another dead man in wolf form. The mouth was gaping and the body lay half on the woman, as if he had wanted to protect her. I couldn't see why he died.

But I noticed Niklas, who expressed his shock at his dead parents in a bloodcurdling scream before he fled. Niklas was maybe eleven or twelve years old at the time, which is why I hadn't heard anything about such an act. I wasn't in town at the time. He kept running on and on. Into the forest, where he transformed as he ran and appeared to be fleeing his demons.

The next moment Niklas was squatting in a small room with a dirty kitchen and a small armchair. His home, I realized. His new home. Since the death of his parents he lived there, alone. Without anyone noticing. No wonder he'd accepted Damian's offer to join the pack so quickly. It was the first home he'd had since his horrible experience.

Amelia was a fun-loving person who would always put her own needs ahead of those around her. She was concerned about her family and eventually wanted to start a family like her parents'. Niklas had not found peace since the death of his parents. He was constantly looking for a home and trying to prove to himself that he wasn't bad.

His jealousy of others was eating him up and he wished for someone who would understand him and accept him for who he was. I swallowed hard and let that realization settle inside me. It was amazing because it seemed like the two really complemented each other. They could give each other what the other needed. I could only hope that both would give in to their need. However, if I thought of Nikla's looks and actions when it came to Amelia, she would probably be the refusing part. I closed my eyes and held my palms out from me.

A familiar tingling spread there and I put my hands together. There was a tug before I slowly pulled them apart. Silver threads played around my fingers and the rest of my hand. Now I also felt Damian's eyes on me. When I was certain that the threads had completed and intertwined, I opened my eyes and watched the threads move away and gather as a brief twinkling star in the night sky.

Luckily I didn't have to hope that the two weren't on different continents this time. I briefly waited for a new image before my eyes, in case there were more werewolves that I could connect, but when nothing came, I unlinked our powers and the moon let me feel its rays again, before both left me and my glow faded.

I looked briefly into the night sky, but then turned to Damian. He looked at me blankly but then said: "That was unbelievable." I smiled and got up. I held out my hand to Damian and pulled him to his feet. We entered the room together. "And were you successful?"

"Yes, but I'm curious if Amelia will be happy about it." "Will you tell me who it is?" he asked, smiling innocently. "No," I replied. "You'll see that soon enough." I answered.