ALEKSANDR “Alpha Aleksandr Volkov, please explain to everyone what plan you’ve come up with to expand and protect our territories and continue to grow our finances.” “Of course, Alpha Reece. We know that the human population keeps growing and as the towns expand, they inch closer to each of our territories. This means that our pack members have to be more cautious when letting their wolves out for a run. It also puts our young pups at a greater risk of being exposed to humans before we have properly prepared them. I proposed we expand our immediate territory and the human areas we also protect through investment properties. We can run some businesses ourselves providing additional jobs to pack members, and some properties we can rent out to humans for their own business ventures. We can help the humans by offering them reasonable prices on their leases, while also controlling how close they set up to our official pack lands.” There are seven different North American packs repr

UNKNOWN My lungs feel like they are on fire, but I keep pushing forward. Running is my therapy. When I’m in a good mood, it’s a way to express my joy. When I’m stressed out or struggling, it’s the best stress reliever. It's a beautiful day in late September, but today has been a bit stressful, and I really needed this run. My usual route is just barely under 4 miles, and by the end I’m exhausted. I always run through the park last because there are more people there. It’s not that I really care that much about what others think, but when I know others can see me, I’m less likely to slack off and be lazy. This means less walking breaks, and I push myself a bit harder. I set small goals for myself while I’m running to keep me moving. I’ll often pick a sign in the distance and tell myself that I can’t take a walk break until I reach that sign. Then I immediately pick another object like a specific tree and tell myself that when I reach that point, I need to start running again

ALEKSANDR I smirk at my mother, knowing full well that she likely already has some sort of inkling about what’s on my mind. Instead of asking her one of my many questions, I start with one that will give me a frame of reference to start the conversation, “What do you know? You’ve been giving me looks all evening, so I’d rather start with the information you already have.” My mother beams at me as she says, “So you HAVE found her.” I chuckle at her excitement, “Yes, my wolf recognizes her as our mate, but I’m confused about something…” My mind wanders back to earlier today when I first caught that faint but heavenly scent. “When you first scent your mate it’s usually overwhelmingly strong, but her scent was so weak that I couldn’t smell it until she was very close to where I was. I’ve never heard of a mate’s scent being almost undetectable. Do you know anything about this?” My mother has a far off look in her eyes, as if she is searching her almost 2 centuries of memories and

ALEKSANDR I barely slept last night. I tossed and turned thinking about my mate. I have so many questions, so much to figure out. Around 5 AM I roll out of bed unable to take it any longer. I know Dustin said he would find more information about my mate, but screw it. If I can’t sleep, I might as well do my own research. I quickly shower and throw on a pair of dark blue jeans and an ocean blue button-down shirt. I get to my office and shuffle papers out of the way so I can open up my laptop and begin my search. Now that I have her address it was actually quite easy to find information about her. Her name is Rieka Haas. Being in Real Estate makes it easy to confirm that I’ve found the right person because her professional picture is all over. It also helps that her name is very unique. There can’t be very many women named Rieka around here. The first thing I notice are her ice blue eyes. They are beautiful on their own, but they stand out incredibly framed by her dark bro

ALEKSANDR After further discussion with my mom, I’m even more nervous about meeting with Rieka, but my wolf is just thrilled that we finally get to talk to her. He doesn’t worry about silly little details such as whether or not we can actually be with her right now. He just wants to be calmed by her presence. It’s 1:30 pm, and I can’t focus on anything. I want to just leave for the meeting now, but what if she is there early working on something else and I interrupt her. Then it occurs to me that she doesn’t know what I look like. She’ll be waiting on me to approach her. I could hang back and watch her for a bit before our meeting. Dustin was planning on going with me, so I mind-link him to let him know that I’m ready. He laughs and links back that he’ll be out in front of the pack house with his truck in 5 minutes. As I climb into the truck Dustin gives me a cocky smirk. “You just couldn’t wait any longer, huh?” I don’t respond but give him a low grunt as I hold back my o