Chapter 10

Annalise POV

After an amazing night of love making I was laying in bed with Tyler, completely lost in thought, drawing circles on his chest with my fingers when he broke the silence “why haven’t you marked me back?” He said catching me off guard, I fixed myself to answer his question but was cut off by a mindlink from Dahlia *Anna where the hell are you?! Dantè’s pissed and he’s giving us extra sparing sessions because of it. Get your Alpha ass down to the training grounds NOW.* She cut the link and I cursed “SHIT, I gotta go!” I started running around gathering my clothes and putting them on in a tizzy. Tyler made some noises of annoyance, I know he wants an answer to his question “Tyler I have to go, meet me at the pack house tonight, we’ll go to my favorite restaurant downtown and I’ll answer all of your questions. I promise.” I give him a look that says 'please pitty me and don’t be too angry’ he crosses his arms over his chest, I walk up to him and capture his lips with mine in a short passionate kiss “I love you” I blurted out without thinking. *ummmmmmm what?!* Amara said “What, what?!” I said back to her. I turned to leave amid the awkward silence when Tyler blurted out “wait!” I turned to face him giving away none of my awkward emotions in my facial expression. He walks up to me “do you mean it? You love me?” He said looking at me with anticipation. “I suppose I do love you.” I say back. *Do we?* Amara says to me as Tyler and I lock lips once more. “I mean he IS our mate, don’t you want him Amara?” She goes silent for a moment before piping up “Of course I want my mate, it’s just…. Nevermind” she says. I start to ask her what’s up as I’m leaving Tyler’s apartment when Marcus comes through the mindlink *damnit Anna, I’m not speaking to you as your gamma, I’m speaking to you as your cousin. Get your narrow ass down to the training grounds, if I have to spar with Dante one more time waiting for you to show, you won’t have a Gamma! He’s threatened to spar in rotation all day until YOU get here. PLEASE. HURRY. UP. And bring water I’m dying.* he cut the mind link. Shit shit shit, fastest way back is the woods, I’ll have to shift. I had a taxi take me to the edge of town, as soon as it was safe I stripped, shifted, and ran. It took me about an hour to get to pack lands. I shifted back and put my clothes back on. After carrying them in my mouth the entire way they were covered in wolf drool. *ew, gross* the black capris leggings and forest green sports bra should dry quickly. I quickly head to the training grounds. When I get there my warriors look spent. Some leaned against the trees nursing wounds that were quickly healing. A few resetting their bones from breaks. The good thing about being werewolf is that we heal quickly and have amazing endurance but by the looks of things our endurance wasn’t quite enough. I spotted Marcus in the corner with dahlia nursing a head wound. It wasn’t serious but he was bleeding a bit. I handed them a couple water bottles I grabbed before coming to the training grounds. Marcus snatched one greedily and gulped it and poured it over his head. “bit dramatic Marcus.” I eyeballed him trying not to laugh. “Oh yeah, SOOOOO dramatic. I’d like to see you spar with king stamina over there 6 times. See what shape you’re in then.” He quips in between gulps of water. Dahlia looks up at me “nice of you to join us, it’s not like you to leave us hanging so what was the emergency?” Damnit, Dahls pissed. She’s almost never mad at me. “I’m sorry Dahl. I was with Tyler and…” she cuts me off “Tyler? So you find your mate and forget about the pack is that it then?” She says looking at me dumbfounded. Amara got angry at her insinuating that we don’t care about our pack. Our pack is everything to us! “NO! it’s not like that Dahlia. Look, we are best friends but I’m your Alpha first. Don’t ever question my loyalty to my pack.” I stated firmly. Her aura softens and she gives me a stiff smile “of course Alpha Major” she bows her head slightly “excuse me.” She brushes past me knocking into my shoulder. If we weren’t practically sisters I’d let Amara have her head. A snarl left my lips but I didn’t go after her. No, I’ve got somebody else in mind I’d like to use as a punching bag. Where is the prince of darkness hiding anyways? I don’t have to look around long before my eyes settle on a huge wolf to the left of the training grounds sparing with one of my warriors in wolf form. The large black wolf grabbed my warrior, Marco, in his jowls and threw him against a tree. Marco’s wolf whimpered as his leg snapped. I quickly ran over to them “ENOUGH!” I bellowed letting my aura pour over the entire grounds. Almost every wolf in a 500 foot distance fell to their knees and whimpered at my aura. All accept one… “Dante. SHIFT.” I commanded. His wolf cocked his head at me and I could have sworn it snickered. He was amused. How annoying. “SHIFT PLEASE.” I said still with anger lacing my words. I lifted my aura and he shifted before me, He was fully nude, not a big deal in werewolf culture but I was not prepared for the body underneath the clothes. He was very built, and very lean. His abs were perfectly toned, v on full display and OH MY…. I whipped my eyes up to meet his trying to erase the mild embarrassment that crept up onto my face. He smirked “what do you think you’re doing to my warriors?!” I say as he walks closer. “Alpha Major, how nice of you to join us. Im afraid you’re a bit late, training started at 5:30am. Is nearly 10am. We were just wrapping up the last bit of our training. Your warriors learned a very valuable lesson today though.” I folded The my arms across my chest “yeah, and what’s that?” I said flatly “in battle, your Alpha won’t always be there to save you. When you’re on the battlefield you’re on your own.” He turned to walk away from me “wow, whatever happened to you must have really messed you up good.” I remark coldly. He stopped and turned his head over his shoulder letting out a menacing growl before stalking off towards the training ground showers. DAMNIT ANNA, you sure do know how to put your foot in your own ass don’t you. I mentally kick myself for being such a jerk. I can’t believe how I just acted and what I said really upset Dante. I felt a little guilty but he would get over it right? He’s a big bad alpha, a few hurt feelings wouldn’t cause a rift in this alliance already right? Amara covered her face with her paws mentally telling me I was going to eat my words. I needed a proper run to clear my head. “WARRIORS DISMISSED, Clean up and get some rest!” I declare as I stalked off towards the tree line to the east and removed my clothing just in time as Amara released herself and we sprung into the woods. Bounding through the trees, leaping over logs, and climbing the rocks. This is where we were most happy. When we were truly whole. We ran for miles careful to stay in our territory. We only stopped when we came to our favorite stream. Laying by the stream bed and lapping up some water before staring at our reflection. Amara was a beautiful brown wolf with golden tipped ears and a golden crest birthmark on her chest. She had 8 golden rings on her tail. That happens once an Alpha becomes Alpha major of the 8 moons. It’s something to do with the Goddess and how the 8 moons came to be. My grandmother used to tell me the story all the time when I was a kid. I don’t quite remember how it went now but man did I love that story. As I was getting lost in thought and being lulled by the sounds of the forest I heard a twig snap. Amara lifts her ears searching for the direction of the noise. I peer around alert as ever. There was someone here. I sniff the air and Just as I’m trying to figure out where that familiar scent came from a large black wolf stepped out from behind a tree walking in my direction. Amara got into a defense stance, hackles raised, then suddenly sniffed the air. “It’s just Romulus!” Amara changes into a play bow with her tail raised and waging. Romulus makes his way closer to us and just peers down at Amara in an odd curiosity. Amara ducked her head very low and studied his movements. Holding her chin to the ground but keeping her eyes on him. Her tail raised high still wagging about. Romulus scrunched up his snout and stared at Amara before walking over to the stream bed, putting his muzzle into the water and lapping up the cool liquid. Amara stood watching him for a moment before walking up behind him. She ducked down into a play bow before leaping up and pushing Romulus into the water. She fell over on her back in a fit of snickers, very pleased at what she’d just done. Romulus pulled himself out of the water and shook his coat out with a low annoyed growl. He peered over at Amara who was laying content on the ground before stalking over to her. Amara tried to get up but Romulus pounced, pinning her to the ground baring his teeth. Amara scrunched her snout at him, completely unphased. Suddenly she stuck her tongue out and gave him a big slobbery lick across the face. Romulus stunned peered down at Amara. They looked into each others eyes for a moment too long before I shifted back quickly. ‘Good Goddess Amara what the hell was that?!’ I screamed in my mind. ‘TYLER is our mate! Not Dante.” Dante shifted and rolled off of me as we both got up and began getting dressed in an awkward silence. “I’m…. Sorry. I shouldn’t have…” he started. “Don’t! It’s fine. Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen: I don’t know what got into Amara just now.” I cut him off. “Amara is a beautiful wolf.” He says making the awkwardness thicker. “Uh thanks, look I’ve got to get back to the pack. But I’ll see you at training tomorrow yeah?” I say as I finish sliding on my shoes. He sneers “if you bother to show up.” He spat disapprovingly. I cut him a look over my shoulder “5:30” I stated matter of factly before I took off sprinting through the woods.