Chapter 25

ALEXIS

"I still–need to–do something," Hudson whispered between kisses. I pulled away a little so I could see his face properly, "What is it?"

He pressed another chaste kiss to my lips and give me a small smile, before letting go of me completely. I cocked my head and gave him a questioning look.

"My family sort of has this obsession with dog tags and I don't know if you've noticed but we all have one with our names engraved on them," he said.

I paused briefly to think back to all the times I saw him shirtless. I had noticed that he had a chain around his neck, but I didn't give it much thought at the time.

"I've noticed. What about the dog tags?" I asked curiously, wondering why he was bringing it up.

He cleared his throat, "This is going to be really cheesy and you might hate it but I still wanted to see if you–"

"Hudson," I interrupted gently, "Whatever it is, I'm sure I'm not going to hate it."

"Right," he licked his lips nervously, "so the male wolves in my family have this tradition for when they accept their mate. They give a personalized dog tag to them and add another one to their own chain. I don't think you've noticed this yet, but.." he trailed off slowly to pull his chain out.

A smile grew on my face as I stared at the new dog tag that was hanging from his neck. I reached forward and held it up so I could see what was written on it. The words 'Her one' were chiseled at the top of the tag with a little heart centered beneath the statement, and under the heart, were our initials.

HB + AC

"Aw, this is sweet," I said softly, "But why is there this hole here?"

I ran my finger around the hole that was shaped like a puzzle piece. Hudson chuckled and reached into his pocket to pull out a small flat box, "I thought that instead of giving you a huge dog tag to wear. I could give you this."

He opened the box up and my eyes widened at the silver chain that had a puzzle piece hanging from it. The words 'His only' were written down the middle and a little heart was on one of the corners.

"I asked my dad to cut a piece out from my dog tag so the two go together. The initials are on the back along with the date we met."

I flipped the little piece around and nearly burst into tears again.

HB + AC 10.27.17

"Hudson, this is beautiful," I whispered, tracing the little indents. He kissed the top of my head and turned me around, "It will look even more beautiful when it's around your neck."

I shivered slightly when I felt his fingers graze the nape of my neck as he moved my hair to the side. He quickly put the chain around my neck and hooked the ends together before pressing a kiss to the back of my neck, "Perfect."

He continued to kiss the side of my neck until he reached the back of my ear.

"You're officially a member of the Bennett family. " He whispered, kissing the back of my ear.

My heart warmed at the thought, and my wolf was wagging her tail happily.

Let's mate with mate now.

What? We literally just accepted each other.

So? Just seduce him.

Yeah no.

"Is your wolf being funny as well?" Hudson asked. I turned back around and chuckled at the look on his face as he seemed to be arguing with his wolf.

"Yes. We should let them out for sometime," I muttered, pulling a few strands of hair off his forehead.

"We should, but after my meeting with the Deltas. I've been postponing this for days now," he said, giving me an apologetic smile.

I shrugged and let him take my hand as we walked towards the pack, "Sure. But can I train while you're in the meeting?"

"Train? With who?" he frowned, looking at the field where the warriors were training.

"I don't know. Boston? Or maybe Matthew? I just want to do something useful while you're in an important meeting."

He pursed his lips in thought, "Fine. You can train with Matthew. I don't want Boston putting his hands all over you and giving me smug looks."

I laughed, "You know he's like a brother right?"

"Perhaps, but he likes to annoy me. He thinks it's funny to rattle my wolf until I've almost shifted from anger."

"That sounds like him."

"Unfortunately," he sighed, stopping in front of his parent's house, "I've got to go now, but Lucy will give you some clothes that you can train in. I'll let Matthew know that you want to train."

I nodded and kissed his cheek, before blushing when I saw a few pack members staring. I cleared my throat and moved up the stairs quickly, pretending I didn't hear Hudson's laughter.

***

"Okay, good job," Matthew said, helping me up after I collapsed on the ground from exhaustion, "Now, I want you to fight someone."

"Who?" I panted out, taking a quick drink of water.

"Hmm....... I want you to fight Boston."

"What?" I sat up and watched as Boston approached us.

"So who am I fighting?" He asked, cracking his knuckles threateningly. Matthew nodded at me, causing him to grin.

"You up for a friendly duel, shortie?"

I stood up slowly and brushed my hands against my shorts, "Uh, sure."

He cracked his neck and whipped his shirt off so he was only in his undershirt, "Alright, let's go."

We stepped into the chalk circle and waited for Matthew to give us the signal.

"Remember," Matthew said, standing along the edge, "You two aren't friends. You two are enemies in this ring. No playing nice. The first person to get their claw to the person's throat is the winner."

We nodded in understand and I cracked my ankle while narrowing my eyes at Boston.

I wasn't going down without a fight.

As soon as Matthew said go, Boston let out a loud roar that made all the warriors stop and stare at us as he lunged toward me. I rolled to the side and quickly kicked the back of his knee, but he grabbed my foot before I could reach him. I threw a punch at his jaw, which he dodged, but I took his distraction as a chance to yank my foot from his grip.

There was a reason why Boston was Gamma, and I could definitely say it was because he was an amazing fighter. He was absolutely relentless, and there was no sign of the playful Boston at all, which was actually quite terrifying. All I saw was a fierce look on his face as we fought ferociously.

In the end, however, we both ended up on the ground with our claws at each other's throats. We looked at Matthew, who seemed quite surprised by the outcome.

"Well?" Boston asked him, spitting some blood out of his mouth. I noticed that he had a large cut on his forearm so I bit my hand and swiped it across the claw mark. He gave me a grateful smile and pulled me in for a side hug, making sure not to touch my injuries, "Good job, shortie. You're a tough one."

"Thanks," I grinned, "You too."

"Well," Matthew drawled, making us look at him again, "I have to say that was probably a stalemate. Both of you managed to get your claws on each other's necks at the same time which was quite astonishing. Nice job, Alexis."

I gave him a thumbs up as I guzzled down my water.

"Now," Matthew started, "I want you to–"

He was cut off by a powerful male voice.

"I want you to fight me."

We all froze, and I turned around to Hudson, who had a determined look on his face as he stuffed his hands into his sweatpants. He raised an eyebrow at me, the smile he usually gave me gone, "Well?"

I gulped and licked my lips nervously.

I was going to fight Hudson.