His scent, the first one my wolf could smell after getting free was his.

I still couldn't wrap the idea around my head. And it seemed like Almec didn't know how to react either because after dropping the bomb he slammed the door in my face.

Maybe he was expecting another reaction from me, that would explain why he looked so disappointed at my silence.

Whatever the reason, it made our relationship turn upside down. Almec began to distance himself from me, he used different excuses to postpone our reading sessions, but I knew that in reality he was escaping from me.

What did I do to deserve that treatment? I didn't understand why the fact that I could smell his scent bothered him, maybe it was the fact that I didn't tell him first that made him angry.

No matter how many times I tried to confront him, Almec always denied my accusations, saying that he was just busy with the pack. For a moment I believed him until Geldra told me that Almec barely appeared in town.

He was returning to his old attitude, hiding from everyone, and locking himself in the forest. I couldn't allow him to lose the joy he had regained and I was willing to fight for an answer.

Crossing a limit that I never thought I would cross, I waited for him inside his room. Sitting on the edge of his bed and with my gaze fixed on the door, I prayed to the Moon Goddess to soften Almec's heart.

"What are you doing here?" It was the first thing he asked me after getting inside the room. He didn't sound angry, but curious.

"I'm trying to get answers," I answered, walking towards Almec. "I'm sorry for coming here without permission but I had the feeling you would have run away from me if I didn't surprise you."

"I already gave you the answers to your questions." Almec untied his hair and, ignoring my presence, entered the bathroom.

"You only gave me lies," I raised my voice so he could hear me from the other side of the door. "I talked to Geldra, I know that you are actually running away to the forest. If I did something wrong, I would like to know what it was so I can make it better. Even if you don't want to see me anymore, you could at least be honest with me."

The bathroom door opened a few millimeters.

"You didn't do anything wrong, it's not your fault. Don't beat yourself over it."

The vulnerable tone in his voice made me want to break down the door and hold him in my arms.

"So you beat yourself over it instead?" I tried to pull the handle but my strength was not enough. "Why do you always have to lock yourself up to suffer to not bother others? I am here to help you, to listen to you talk about your problems, and if you need to find a solution I assure you that I am a very creative person."

The silence that came in response to my words was more exasperating than hearing a rejection. I didn't know how to react, I felt devastated but hope was still alive, and that impulse to continue fighting fearing that everything would be in vain was what made me suffer the most.

"Are you really going to keep ignoring me?" I asked him.

Still no answer.

There was a way to get him to react, at least that's what I thought, but it wasn't going to be pleasant for any of us. It was going to hurt, but there was still a chance to make amends later.

"You always act like a coward." I blurted out my words accompanied by false contempt. "You always choose the easy way out instead of trying to fight for what you want. Do you even know what you want? Did you ever really care about me?"

The tears that fell down my face told a different story than my words. It pained me to have to attack him, even though I had to somehow get him out of hiding.

A crash spread through the room as the door slammed against the wall.

I was expecting Almec to yell at me, for him to take it out on me, however, his voice didn't change the tone.

"I choose the best path for the others. Why can't you see it?"

"I can't see anything if you don't show it to me." I approached him slowly observing his reaction. "You have no idea how terrified I am when you leave me in the dark. From one day to the next you ignore me without any explanation and I don't know if I did something wrong or if something happened to you. I don't know whether to run to your help or yell at you."

"I thought you would understand everything after smelling my scent, but everything is still the same." Almec looked away to the ground. "Maybe that's how it should be, it's safer for you to stay away from me."

"What can't I understand?" My tone of voice rose almost to the level of a shout. All my frustration was beginning to come out without breaks. "Does this have anything to do with my wolf? I'm tired of always being left out. If there was a way to be a normal werewolf I would take it no matter the consequences."

"I know and I'm sorry." Almec approached his hand carefully towards my face, after some seconds he started to dry the tears that fell down my cheeks. "You are not to blame for anything, and I am not angry with you, in fact, it is quite the opposite. But the pain made me walk away. I thought that this way I could clear my mind and not harm you because of my own weakness."

"Even though it's not my fault, it feels like it is. I can't control it but what's causing us suffering still comes from me, and I don't know how to fix it. If all it takes for me to get better is time, why did I make so little progress? I don't want to spend years feeling lost." I hid my face in Almec's shoulder and let my tears release completely. "Maybe if you told me everything you know that could help me heal faster."

"Will you believe me if I tell you?" He hugged me tight.

"Of course I'll do it."

Almec caressed my back in a soothing rhythm. Whatever he had to say to me must have been difficult to express, he lifted my face and looked me in the eyes, yet the words seemed stuck in his throat.

"There is a reason why you can smell my scent. I knew it from the first time I saw you in the forest. I was so happy at that moment, I thought that finally my punishment was over and that I could have the normal life that I always dreamed of, but destiny apparently wants to play with us."

I had never heard him sound like that, so vulnerable.

"Maybe we can beat fate together." My proposal was ridiculous, however, being with Almec I felt that anything was possible.

"You're right." He rested his forehead against mine. "We can do it together, because you are my—

"Almec, why aren't you answering the fucking phone?" Geldra's scream interrupted us, causing us to immediately pull apart.

Almec sighed and hid me behind him before the beta opened the door.

"What happened now?" he asked.

"There is an emergency at the entrance of the pack, you have to come now. There is no time to explain anything."

"I'll be there in a minute, just let me finish talking to Valentina."

"What part of the emergency are you not understanding? We need you now, and Valentina has to come too."

"We can keep talking later," I whispered to Almec, squeezing his hand.

"Alright, it better really be important."

The speed with which Geldra guided us to the entrance must have been a record, and it also made me realize that I was out of shape.

The alpha and beta ran like it was the easiest task in the world while I could barely keep up with them without losing my breath.

"Are you going to tell me something about what's going on?" Almec asked Geldra when we were near the entrance.

"It's the Hunters Order, they killed three of ours and they are making threats."

"The hunters?" I asked, stopping running.

They always appeared when my life started to improve, even though I had started to think that I could be happy without having to destroy them. It seems I would never get rid of them.

"Are you okay?" Almec held my hands, stroking my knuckles with his thumb. "You don't have to come with us if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay, I want to go."

"Then let's go together," he said.

Almec continued holding one of my hands as he resumed his walk. I wasn't surprised when he covered me with his body, it was like having a personal bodyguard, always ready to protect me from danger.

The gate was surrounded by a crowd, screams and insults flying through the air as the guards and Feinid tried to calm the pack members.

On the outside of the pack three men stood next to a pile of bodies. They looked at the werewolves with disgust, one of them even had the audacity to call them a group of savages.

The atmosphere was so chaotic that the inhabitants did not even notice Almec's arrival until he spoke.

"You are not welcome in my territory." He stood in front of the three humans, only the gate standing between them. "You better leave before you start a war you can't win."

One of the hunters started laughing so hard that he silenced the crowd.

"Do you really think you have a chance against us?" he said, running a hand through his red hair. "Werewolves are on the brink of extinction, and your entire pack will die if you don't hand her over to us."

A collective gasp filled the air as the hunter pointed at me.

My body began to shake and I grabbed the back of Almec's shirt to calm myself. That was my way of begging him not to let me go.

"She's not going anywhere," Almec answered.

"Are you sure about that?" the human insisted. "Many more bodies can come to keep company to those three. It was very simple to get rid of them even though they were warriors, I wonder how simple it would be to kill one of the elders or the children."

"Let them take her," one of the pack members shouted from the crowd.

"Yes, it's just an outsider in exchange for our children's lives," another added.

"Are you out of your mind?" Adira shouted. "She and her sister are part of our pack now."

"Exactly, we can't let them take them," Wina said. "Besides, we are not cowards, we won't allow ourselves to be threatened by a group of humans with a god complex."

I turned my head to see them. They both gave me a smile, that small gesture along with their words made me feel like I had finally found a new home.

Opinions were divided, with every second that passed a new cry was added to the discussion. Instead of worrying about the people who asked me to be kicked out, I preferred to focus on the wonderful inhabitants who were fighting to defend me, which was much more than I had expected.

"Silence!" Almec shouted. "I'm not asking your opinion, Valentina stays in the pack. And if anyone tries to lay a finger on my mate, I'll rip apart each of their limbs and feed them to the coyotes."

My mind short-circuited.

I must have heard wrong. There was no way Almec would have called me his mate.

Or was there?