Maeve lunged at Dusk and sank her canines into his left foreleg, a gesture which Dusk repeated, biting her in return. Drew and Arla felt a bond form, like an invisible tether connecting the two of them, and their two wolves, together.
“What the fuck?” shouted Lorenzo, opening a mind-link between the three of them.
“Maeve just said ‘mine’, then lunged at Dusk,” replied Arla, her voice shaky. “What does that even mean? I can feel the bond, but I’m not old enough for a mate. We can’t be mates, Drew.”
Lorenzo’s chest felt tight, his heart raced, and even though he was in the back of Marcel’s mind, he felt dizzy, as though the ground beneath him had given way, his entire world crumbling around him. Bond? Mates? Arla had to be wrong.
An entire month passed with Arla no closer to figuring out how to control the channeling of her wolf, and she was growing more and more frustrated each day. Alpha Lorenzo and Drew were taking turns shifting with her, and were both unbelievably patient, but she still felt like she was letting them down and wasting their time. They had an entire pack to run, and here she was, throwing an hour of their morning every day, right down the drain. To top it off, some of the pack members had also begun questioning why she was still absent from training in her wolf form. The smear campaign was, of course, started by Violet. Violet had casually asked the teachers at school how Arla’s tutoring sessions were coming along, and when they thought she’d be caught up. The confused looks on their faces had her questioning whether Arla really was being tutored.
“What the fuck, Violet!” Arla roared in pain. Milo blew the whistle again, loudly. “VIOLET, the session is OVER,” he yelled. “Oops, sorry Milo, I guess I didn’t hear it,” Violet purred at him, an innocent look plastered on her face. “No excuse. You will sit out of wolf training today and the Alpha will be notified. Get outside,” he shouted. “Are you ok, Arla?” “Yeah, I’m fine thanks Milo. I’m sure it will heal quickly, the pain is already easing up,” she replied, rubbing her face gingerly. “You don’t say,” he mumbled, his eyebrows raised as he watched her cheekbone and eye socket move back into place under her skin. The bright red mark on her face disappeared, along wi
“SHIFT BACK, NOW!” roared Alpha Lorenzo, his heart felt like it had stopped beating in his chest. The power of his Alpha tone moved across the field like a shock wave, making every one of his wolves feel the authority and the immediate compulsion to do as commanded. Those who had been watching the altercation in wolf form shifted back to their human bodies, their knees hitting the ground as they bowed and submitted to their Alpha. Violet fell to the floor naked, her shoulder torn and bleeding where Maeve had clawed her, her head lowered and neck bent in submission. Milo wrapped a towel around her to cover her up and put pressure on the wound. One wolf remained standing, with all eyes on her. Maeve stood tall, meeting the Alpha’s firm gaze. “Shift back, Maeve,”
By the time they’d reached the packhouse, Felix’s dad was already there waiting to assess Arla’s injury. Alpha Lorenzo walked inside and placed Arla on the couch in the lounge room, and Dr Thompson began to clean the dried blood from the area so he could take a better look. “Dr Thompson, thanks for coming so quickly,” said Alpha Lorenzo, coming back from his office and putting on a spare shirt. “No problem at all, Alpha. When I heard it was Arla, I came as quickly as I could.” “How does it look?” “I’m amazed,” replied Dr Thompson. “Do you mind if the Alpha has a look, Arla?” “Sure,” she replied with a shrug. He’d seen it anyway. Lorenzo squatted on the floor next to the couc
Arla woke from her nap several hours later, feeling much better. She checked her side in the mirror and it was as though nothing had ever happened. Her stomach rumbled loudly, informing her that she’d missed lunch, and she decided to head downstairs to the kitchen to see what she could rustle up. With any luck, Betty would have kept a plate in the warmer for her. As she approached her bedroom door, Maeve growled a warning in her mind. “There’s someone out there,” she cautioned. Arla took a deep breath in through her nose, trying to recognise the potent scent, but couldn’t place it. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it wasn’t a wolf, that much she knew. She stilled and listened for movement, but whoever it was did not move an inch. She threw open the door, surprising the behemoth of a man standing in the hallway, wh
When Lewis had been approached to take on this assignment, they had made it sound like a babysitting job. The thought of shadowing a sixteen-year-old she-wolf was not a very enticing prospect for a twenty-one-year-old werebear who was used to being a hired killer, not a protector. He had only agreed because it had piqued his interest when they mentioned she was a witch hybrid. He owed a debt, and handing over a hybrid would certainly pay that off and free him. On top of that, once he’d accepted the job he learned she was also a white wolf. She’d be worth enough to set him up for life. But now that he’d met her, he’d all too quickly learned that she definitely wasn’t the tiny, weak wolf that these men had painted her to be. “Are all bears this talkative, or just you?” she asked, looking at him from the
Alpha Lorenzo leaned back in his office chair, stretching his arms above his head and tilting his neck from side to side. He’d spent all day cooped up and it was making him antsy. Add to that, Marcel had been bugging him for the last hour to see Arla, and he could no longer ignore it. It was Arla’s seventeenth birthday, and Lorenzo had been so caught up in work and meetings, he hadn’t had a chance to see her yet. He opened his desk drawer and pulled out the gift he’d asked his mum to wrap for him. Running a pack was one thing, wrapping a gift was a whole different ball game, one he was out of his depth with. He strolled out to the garden; it was always the first place he looked for her and he loved to try to sneak up quietly and watch her in her element. She usually sensed him quickly though, and today was no exception. She stopped working to greet him
They left their clothes in the greenhouse and shifted, allowing Maeve and Marcel to bound into the forest line. They teased and chased one another playfully, jumping over rocks and ducking beneath branches as though they had no cares in the world. Lorenzo could feel the stress that had been weighing on him disappear further and further, the longer he spent in Arla’s presence, and Arla felt more content than she had been all week. Maeve screeched to a stop, sniffing the air. Marcel slowed down and circled back to her, taking in a deep breath also, but not picking up anything out of the ordinary. “What is it, Maeve?” asked Marcel. “Rogues.” “I can’t smell any rogues. Which direction?”