Luka's POV:

She didn't come back for the rest of the night.

Which was understandable, but had my inner wolf pacing back and forth for hours in my head.

We'd been looking for her for what seemed like forever, and then once I had her in my grasp, she pulled back.

Although I guess our circumstances of meeting were out of the ordinary.

Not to mention the fact that she wasn't even aware of what she was, or what we were.

Which is exceptionally strange since her wolf was what called out to me and led me here.

Either way, I wasn't going to let that get in the way.

I was just happy she was here, that she existed at all.

The fact that she seemed absolutely clueless about our species was a drawback, of course, but it was one I could work with.

I could walk her through this.

Her blatant confusion and hesitance about me overall hurt, seeing her draw back after the years it took me to finally find her, so I'd be sure not to let that happen again.

She felt the mate bond, so I can start from there.

"Al...Alph...Alpha!" The sound of my beta rang through my head with our pack link.

He didn't sound pleased.

"Yes?"

"Thank goddess," He blew out, "This link only has a twenty-mile reach, you know, and I've been searching for you for hours! Where the hell are you!? Why did you just up and leave?!"

I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment at the volume in my head.

"Relax, Milo. If you're out looking for me then who's looking over the pack."

He was silent for a moment.

"I left Eren in charge," He answered finally.

His mate.

Which was fine. We were living in peace right now, so my short absence wouldn't be detrimental.

Usually, my absences didn't last more than a couple hours why I usually searched for my mate, but this was a different story.

"Good enough," I began, "Go back to the pack. I'm fine and I'll be back soon, something just came up."

"Tell me where you are first," He insisted.

My eyes lazily wandered, sending back the first words that came to mind.

"A cage."

"A fucking WHAT?!"

I snickered a bit.

"It's fine, trust me."

"How the hell did you of all people end up in a CAGE, LUKA?! Are you trapped?"

I glanced down at the venison rib I twirled between my fingers.

"Not exactly," In fact, anything with opposable thumbs could open the door to it. It's not like it was locked.

That whole fact seemed to completely slip Lydia's mind.

But she left a perfectly good hunk of meat sitting there, so obviously I was going to go retrieve it.

"I'm sort of here voluntarily."

"You WHAT?"

Milo was a great beta and all, but if there was one thing he was good at, it was overreacting.

Maybe its because I mess with him too much.

Nah.

"What the hell do you expect me to tell the pack? That their alpha decided to sit tight in a cage for a little bit while-"

"I found my mate."

That shut him up real fast.

Again, there was a long silence.

"I swear, Luka if you're messing with me right now-"

"Why would I mess with you about this?" I countered.

Both of us knew it had been one of my top priorities to find her ever since I became alpha. It wasn't really something that we joked about.

"Oh my Goddess... Luka that's great! Where was she? What pack is she from?"

"That's the thing," I tossed the bone to join the others in the opposite corner, "I found her amongst humans. She didn't even know she was one of us until I told her myself."

"And you're sure she's not human?"

"I'm positive," Luna rarely mated us with humans to begin with, but I knew that wasn't the case with Lydia, "When I was out checking the perimeter last night, I got this feeling to start heading east. I ended up going further than I've ever ventured before, and right before I was going to turn and start heading back, I heard her wolf call to me."

"Call to you?"

"It was like a whimper that echoed through my head. I didn't know what it was at first, but my wolf certainly did and ended up booking it further east until we found this village."

I ran a hand through my hair, still trying to piece all of this together.

The one thing I will admit about Milo, was that he's more knowledgeable than me when It came to the psychological and biological workings of our kind.

Especially when it came to the relationships between our two halves.

"She doesn't have the eyes of a werewolf, nor does it looks like she's been aging like one. Have you ever heard of anything like this?" I asked.

The only thing she did have, was the build, although even that wasn't the same as the rest of our females.

She was tall and slender, but one look at her and you could tell she could hold her own.

Even just standing idle I could see the lean muscle she kept in her arms alone.

Unfortunately, the rest of her sun-kissed skin was covered, but I could only imagine it was like that across her whole body.

Not to mention the mocha hair that fell down to her breasts and the eyes that reflected the exact color of the deep blue night sky

She was absolutely stunning.

She was definitely worth the wait, regardless of her circumstances.

"Has she lived in this village her whole life?" He asked.

"I don't know. I didn't really get far enough with her to ask but overhearing her conversations, I can only assume."

"It's possible that she's never encountered her wolf half because she's never come in contact with another one. Like the same reason werewolves born from rogues never discover their human side. Both wolves and humans need socialism from each side in order to thrive, so if she's never encountered another werewolf, that side of her could just be lying dormant."

I thought this over.

I already planned on somehow getting her back to my pack.

With that man she was speaking with leaving for a while, I hoped there wouldn't be a problem with getting her to come with me.

She felt the pull from our bond, so I'm hoping she wouldn't mind a surprise game of chase.

All I needed her to do was give in to the chase itself.

In fact I already had a plan.

"So, bring her to the pack, and her wolf half will begin to show? Easy enough. Do you know how long it'll take?"

"I don't. I've only heard of such encounters, but never actually seen it. Although I'm assuming that as her mate, you can do an awful lot in speeding up the process."

I could think of a number of things right off the bat that would probably help, but none of which I can imagine she'd let me do immediately.

If just touching her caused her to shy away.

I knew I'd have to restrain both halves of me until she got comfortable.

I'm hoping my wolf got the idea too because neither of us wanted her to pull away from us again.

"Got it. Thank you, Milo."

"Of course Alpha. Do you know when you'll be back?"

I thought for a moment, relaying my plan in my mind."

"Tomorrow morning at the latest."

"Copy that. I'll head back and relay the message. I'm sure the pack will be thrilled to hear that you found her."

I'm sure they will, but I needed to make sure that they didn't put too much pressure on her right away.

They've been waiting for an alpha female for 42 years.

My head turned up as I heard her footsteps approaching, followed by the door upstairs opening.

She was coming back.

I promptly stood, immediately attempting to calm myself despite the involuntary racing of my heart.

I took a couple steps closer to the bars, waiting to meet her as she descended.

A smile took over my face as she did, that warm sensation rising in my chest again once she let herself meet my eye.

Which she did for only a moment, her body language just barely showing that she was feeling what I was feeling.

I was about to greet her, but she held out something before I could, making sure that she was still an arms distance away from me.

"Trousers. Put them on." She stated, the pink I spotted across her nose betraying her stern command.

I bit the corner of my lip to stop myself from reacting.

She was cute.

I reached through the bars, taking the tan pair of trousers before fulfilling her wish.

How it managed to fit moderately well was beyond me. A little short, but it worked I guess.

"I hope you know nudity isn't a norm amongst werewolves," I explained, "You just happened to catch me at a time where I had none nearby."

That color on her face deepened, but she let it fade before she looked at me again, her arms now folded.

"I um..," She began again, that same nervousness from last night showing in her voice, "Yesterday wasn't a dream."

It seemed like she was having some sort of internal dilemma.

Which made sense.

I just nodded, deciding to just let her talk.

At least she was feeling comfortable enough to do that.

Or maybe it was our bond taking effect.

"So, if it wasn't," She paused for a moment, swallowing hard, "And what you said is real then... What does that mean for me?"

Her eyes were wide with uncertainty, the tips of her fingers digging into her biceps.

This was my chance, and I really didn't want to mess this up and freak her out again.

I nodded over to the chair that sat on her side of the room, as I prepared my next words to come out as calm as possible.

"Sit down and get comfortable. I'll answer every question you have."