Dawn's light flashes through the window, dancing around the room and trying to get under my eyelids. I yawn, snuggling closer to Mark. Skin.

Suddenly last night's memories flashed through my mind. Heat rises up in my face as I pull away from Mark, trying to cover my naked body. A hand rests on my wrist and I glance up embarrassed.

"Don't," Mark says quietly. His hair was everywhere and his eyes held a sense of tiredness in them. My face flushes again as he glances over my now exposed body. "I love seeing my love bites all over your body, darling." He mutters, pulling me closer to him again.

"Mark!" I whisper. "I'm so embarrassed!" he nuzzles my neck.

"Don't feel embarrassed, Jackaboy. You're beautiful and you should be proud of that," I sigh, relaxing against him, cuddling even closer.

"How are we gonna tell our packs that I'm now your mate?" A chuckle rumbles through his chest.

"I think they already know, trust me."

"How?"

"Instincts."

===========

It was kind of embarrassing, but Mark was right, my pack knew that Mark was my mate.

"About freaking time," Alika was all she had to say about it.

My pack seem to accept it. Well most of them, but Cassidy kept shooting Mark dirty looks.  But I never thought about it. I was more focused on holding Mark's hand than a few jealous glances.

Shannon knew right off the back because when I came down for breakfast, wearing Mark's over sized shirt on me, she grinned.

"I see you two went to town last night," she says. I blushed deeply. "For the record, I'm not cleaning the sheets, you guys are. That is, if you can stay untangled for a couple of minutes."

========

The rest of the day seemed pretty okay. Everyone was relaxing, having fun and then it turned serious really quickly. So serious that I never even noticed that Cassidy was gone until Felix said something.

"Hey, where's Cassidy?" He asks. All of us look up from our plans on finding Lady Celeste. I glance around.

"Yeah, where is Cassidy?" Eden asks, looking around.

"She wasn't kidnapped that's for sure," Mark says as I sniff the air, picking up a scent trail.

I follow it towards the window and climbed out of it. Her vanilla scent was strong within the air. How unusual, considering everyone else's scent when they disappeared was never this strong. I continue to follow.

"Jack!" Mark yells and I freeze, lookin at my mate, eyes flashing. Everyone else scrambles out the window. I raise an eyebrow as Mark and the others catch up. "Okay, lead the way."

==========

Thirty minutes later, we were standing in front of a worn down cabin that even Mark has never seen before.

"But why would she come here?" I ask quietly carefully opening the front door. My hands flew across my face as I saw the scene in front of me.

Three chairs, holding three people bound by their wrists. It was Ken, Phil, and Cal.

"Phil!" Dan shouts, trying to step forward. A low giggle cuts him off.

"Damn, should've killed these three sooner," a voice I have heard since I was little. A voice I have recognized so well.

"Cassidy!" I growl. "How dare you?!" She throws her head back laughing.

"How dare I? How dare you for falling in love with someone you're suppose to hate?"

"Times have changed!" Mark growls.

"No they haven't," a cool eerie voice I have never heard before growls. Mark stiffens beside me as a lady with silver hair and in torn clothes step out and joins Cassidy, pointing a gun straight at Mark. My heart beats fast as I grab my mate's hand.

"Lady Celeste," he whispers. "Why?"

"Because it's your destiny Mark. That's why," and she pulls the trigger.