Ahskkajs I KNOW IT SWITCHES POV's too many times in one chapter, but I don't EVER change POV's without reason so.... there's a reason!! Also— this is kind of a short chapter (double annoying) but we'll live. 😂. Thanks for reading 💚

Dalia
Dalia thought she was going to murder her brother and Seymour, but after she murdered her wolf for shifting before she could tell everyone that Leif... that Leif wasn't her mate.

She didn't know who was. But she smelled him. He was so close. She jumped over Leif, the guy who she thought was her mate, and sprinted into the woods. He was like cinnamon and apples, that's what he smelled like. Her favorite smell and her favorite food.

Everyone was probably confused. She herself was confused. But she knew he was close. She could feel it.

She continued sprinting, pushing harder and harder until she stopped. A brown wolf was staring her down, licking his muzzle. He was completely brown, everything except his chest, which was the color of Dalia's hair.

She shifted back into a human the moment he did and the smile that overtook her face was equivalent to a thousand laughs.

He was tall, almost as tall as Arlis. Only a couple inches shorter.

He had short brown hair with errant curls that she had a feeling would never stay down, and green eyes that made her stomach do flips. He had a body that made her ogle him with no shame.

In her eyes, he was perfect in every way possible, no flaw. Not even the blonde piece of hair on the left side of his head, a hair birthmark, she realized.

Arlis and Seymour burst next to them. Dalia shifted back and turned to face her brother and Seymour, growling at them.

Someone came to stand next to her, and she brushed his side with hers.

Dalia. Is that—

Her brother popped inside her head, and her wolf nodded slowly, licking her mates ear. He brushed up against her.

Shift and we'll bring you some clothes. Arlis ordered her. He didn't sound happy.

A jet black wolf sprinted to them, one ear white. The scent was familiar, a scent she used to bask in. Leif.

Her mate turned and got low, growling at Leif.

Leif completely ignored him as he stared off into the woods, alert and his ears poked up.

Finally, a little pure white wolf came shyly into the clearing, one ear a jet black color.

If Dalia was a human at the moment, she would have chuckled. What were the odds?

Dalia shifted into a human, watching her mate as he did the same. She could stare at him all day.

Arlis came by and dropped some clothes on the ground a little too angrily. Who shoved a stick up his ass?

He looked her mate up and down, snarled, and snapped at him, a small brotherly warning.

He looked back to Dalia, who was hiding a smile, and gave her warning eyes.

"You have the most beautiful smile I've ever seen." Oh and his voice. It was the sound you hear after finding a river, or the shushing of ocean currents. It was the twitter of a birds song.

Dalia blushed and covered her face, but he slowly pulled her hands away.

"I'm Travis. Travis O'Connor." He said, not taking his eyes off of her face.

She let the name glide of her lips likes a fallen leaf, letting every letter stay on the tip of her tongue for a moment.

"I'm Dalia. Dalia Barron." He didn't even seem to notice the last name as he smiled.

"Dalia." He repeated and her heart swooned. She wanted to mark him, take him... but what did mom teach her?

"You guys should finally change." Arlis coughed, now a human.

Kate finally caught up, and Dalia didn't miss the way Kate licked her lips when she caught an eye of Arlis's shirtless torso.

Dalia couldn't help but feel a little pained for her brother. It was hard having an underage mate, rare cases that happened once in a blue moon, but it was probably even harder having a human mate which had never happened.

And he was going through the pain of holding back. That was hard, Dalia understood that now as she watched her mate pull on a pair of grey sweats.

She wished he'd take them off again.

Leif

Leif thought he was going to die. In fact, Leif wished he had. That was the pain of changing.

But after the pain... after the snapping and breaking of bones, after the fire that consumed his body, he felt another type of passion overcome him.

Seymour was growling at Kate, Arlis was fending her off, but Leif... Leif didn't care about that. Not his problem.

He jumped up onto his four feet, and sprinted towards the smell of his grandmother's cookies and his sister's favorite flowers, Gardenias.

He could faintly hear barking behind him, but once again, the meaning of the word "care" didn't matter to him. He just kept running.

He saw a familiar blonde wolf ahead of him, and for a single millisecond, he let himself think "ouch" before he tossed her to the back of his head and chased the euphoric smell down.

He stopped when someone tackled him, Arlis.

He snapped at Arlis's broken leg, got up, and fell as someone dug their teeth into his back.

He whined out, shocked himself at the sound of his wolf, and ran from the fight, moving faster and faster until he burst into a clearing like a free bird. He thought that once he turned it would take some time to get used to the wolf but honestly, it felt so natural. He wasn't a baby deer, he was a full grown beast.

He stopped when he felt someone running to him.

Dalia was with someone new, someone Leif didn't know. They growled at Leif. Two percent of him wanted to rip the wolf a new one, but the other 98% was hungry. Hungry for something that was his and his only.

A small white wolf with one jet black ear walked into the clearing slowly, obviously having more control than he did, and stared at him.

Leif found the person that mattered most in the world. He didn't even have to see her to know, that he'd never let her go anywhere.

KATE
My hand hurt.

Punching a wolf hurt.

Getting bit by a wolf hurt even more.

I couldn't even follow Seymour's wolf as it spun around, trying to bury it's sharp teeth into my thigh.

As soon as he latched, he tumbled away, a sharp growl, louder than Arlis had ever growled, filled the entire woods it seemed like.

I fell backwards, but onto someone. A large blonde wolf. I looked over and Arlis was tearing after Leif and Dalia, despite his broken leg.

A silver wolf laid in the dirt, blood pouring from a huge gash in his side. He whined and his legs twitched.

The blonde wolf let me fall and nodded behind him.

I looked down at my thigh to see that Seymour barely scraped my skin. Some blood poured, but not enough to make me wince as I stepped.

The big blonde wolf bit my shirt and pulled me to him a little bit. "Jonah." I hissed and he nodded behind him.

"Wait... you want me to... like a horse?" I raised one eyebrow and he nodded.

I felt extremely awkward as I crawled onto his back like a horse-rider. Add this to the list of things I never thought I'd ever do.

I looked back to Seymour, a white wolf— Chleo— was hauling him up with another wolf helping him.

Jonah lurched and pretty soon I was walking up to Arlis as he stood shirtless with a low-hanging pair of sweats on his waist.

I licked my lips, drinking him in like a fine wine. I noticed my action and cleared my throat, looking forward.

Dalia was laughing as a naked, attractive, guy talked to her. I had to admire his respect, she was starch naked and all he did was look at her eyes.

I looked to the right and Leif was just watching a wolf smaller than even Dalia walk carefully too him.

When she reached him, it was like instincts sparked to life, she rubbed her head under his chin and Leif did the same.

I looked to Arlis who had sad eyes, but then he smirked and crossed his arms over his chest, his muscles bulging.

Finally, Dalia's mate threw on a pair of sweats and he stood up, helping Dalia up. They smiled as their hands lingered on each other.

"You okay, Kate?" Arlis looked to me, his hand on my shoulder. I took a step closer to him and sunk under his arm.

I looked up. "Yeah. Yeah I'm fine. His teeth barely even sunk in."

His jaw clenched. "I swear I'll kill him if he touches you again. I almost killed him then and there but... my sister here has a mate. And I couldn't miss the introduction if I wanted too."

Dalia scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Yeah. Yeah you really could have."

Arlis gave her a dumb look and sighed softly. "Sis. I'm the Alpha. I literally have to be here, otherwise when he comes in, everyone will attack him."

She took a step in front of him and the guy chuckled, shaking his head, making her chuckle and shake her head.

"As the Alpha, I now allow you to enter my pack. If you by any chance break any pack— I'm not going through the speech. I'm too tired." An energy that barely effected me wafted in the wind, setting itself on the new guy, and the new girl.

The new guy suddenly gulped, bravely putting on a facade of strength. "You're an Alpha?"

Arlis nodded smugly, enjoying the way he scared the new guy. He liked his importance, his fearsomeness, his intimidation.

I remember the way he intimidated me. Not in the bad way like he did now with the new guy, but the good way that made my heart moan.

"Yes I am." Arlis replied, kissing my head. "This is my mate, Luna Kate.

I held out my hand and two separate people growled when he held his out to shake it. Dalia shook her head and gave me an apologetic look, but Arlis still held a heated gaze.

"Where are you from?" He asked roughly, almost accusingly. "Why are you here?"

Two people came to stand next to us, Leif and a short girl stood there.

She was much prettier than I thought Leif could handle, with long black hair and cat like green eyes.

She held out her hand to me. "Hi, Luna. I'm Madison O'Connor and that's my twin brother, Travis."

Dalia gasped and everyone turned to her. "YOU'RE A TWIN TOO!?" She asked, asking Travis.

Travis nodded slowly. "Yeah... yeah I am."

Leif tried to throw his arm over Madison's shoulder, but she grabbed him and flipped him over her, practically slamming him to the ground.

She covered her mouth with her hands as he tried to breathe, the wind knocked from his lungs. "I am so, sorry! It's just my reflex I didn't—"

Leif started laughing, looking up at her upside down, he was smiling and chuckling, holding up his hand for her to grab. "I— I think I'm in love."

Arlis smiled sadly. "I didn't get an answer. Where are you guys from? And why are you here?"

Leif stood up, brushing himself off and held her hand, clearly not trying to put his arm around her anymore.

"Well... nowhere." Travis looked to Maddison and blinked slowly, a sad memory falling over his face. "Our pack was killed and survivors became slaves when our neighbor's attacked us. Our mom sent me and my sister away and we've just kind of... been loners."

Dalia never took her eyes off of him, and Leif never took his eyes off of her. It really was sad, their story.

"What pack was it? Yours and your attacker's." Arlis asked, licking his lips.

Travis scratched the back of his neck. "It was the Lestia Pack, but now it's held over by Riumine Pack."

Arlis bit his lips and frowned. "I knew the Alpha and Luna of the Lestia Pack." He nodded solemnly. "Good people. That was a good Pack. I gave them some of my warriors to help."

Travis's head hung down as he smiled. "Yeah... they were pretty good people. My dad was the Beta. Anyways," he clapped his hands together, standing straight. "Second part of that question, we were wandering through, trying to find Sovereign pack, but I guess... now we don't need to." He smiled.

Arlis sighed. "Yeah, it's pretty good here. Why were you looking for us?"

If Travis was intimidated before, I don't even know what to think now. "This is Sovereign. You're Alpha Arlis Barron?" He asked, shocked beyond comparison. "My mate is the sister of thee Alpha Arlis Barron?"

Arlis raised an eyebrow. "Yes? I didn't think I was that special but... yeah."

Madison looked at Leif and back to Dalia. "Are you her twin?" She asked.

Leif widened his eyes in alarm and blinked at Dalia in a silent understanding that their mates must never know what happened.

In my opinion, there shouldn't be anything wrong with what they did, but I guess here that means more than just a casual hook up.

"No. Dalia and Arlis are just my friends. I don't have any siblings." He ran a hand through his hair nervously and coughed in his arms. "My parents are the trainers here, well... specifically my mom."

Arlis groaned in annoyance. "Sorry to leave, but I have business to discuss. You guys can... get acquainted and I'll uh— see you all later."

I waved and started to walk but Arlis shook his head at me. "You stay here."

I narrowed my eyes at him. He never made me leave him. "Why?" I asked suspiciously.

He kissed my forehead, a goodbye kiss. "I have someone I have to talk too.

"I can't go with you?" I didn't want to be third or fifth wheeling. I didn't want to leave him. I mean I also didn't want to come off as clingy, but I mean I really wanted to be clingy to him. A straight man would want to be clingy to him, to be honest.

He shook his head. "Leif, can you handle her?"

He shrugged. "God I think so, I mean she looks sweet and innocent and shy, but she flipped me onto my back. Not that I don't find that hot as hell bu—"

"Kate, Leif, I'm talking about Kate." He shut his eyes. "I'll be back, I just have... business."

He kissed my cheek and walked away, his hand grazing my arm.

????
"JUST LISTEN TO ME!" The man screamed in his ear. "I just need you to do this one thing for me son."

The son shook his head, his eyes as dark as the shadows bending to him. "I can't. I can't do that. Not to her."

"Please." The man scoffed, his voice muffled from the barrier of life and death between them. "You don't actually care about her."

The portal flowed in a circle the size of a small nightstand on the wall. The electricity of it lighting the dark room in an eerie blue. The gray souls of the damned were traveling with it, moaning and groaning.

But the son could still hear his father on the other end. Sadly.

"I'm supposed to protect her. She's mine. She's a part of me, I can't just give her to you!" The son yelled.

The dad growled out in annoyance. "It's either her, or you kill your brother yourself."

The son stayed silent for a moment as he thought. He couldn't take down his brother. His brother was too powerful, everyone knew that. "Neither." He said sternly.

"It is not wise to be foolish, boy." The Dad said, and the son could imagine his dad glaring. It had been a good, freeing time, without his dad's glares.

"What correlation do my brother and her have anyways!? Plus we all know you want the honor of killing him." The son snarled, his teeth bared. He did not want to bring the girl in. She was too special to him.

"Because, she's special. You know that. She's powerful. Of course, if you used the blade I gave you, you could absorb your brother's power and we could skip this altogether so pick one. Give me the girl, or kill your brother." His father cackled out a laugh that chilled his son's bones.

The son nodded slowly. "I'll bring her to you."

His brother could end him in a second. The son knew the true powers of his brother, along with the side that his brother never brought out. And if for some reason he did start beating his brother in a battle, his brother could easily go Atrax. And he did not want to face his brother in Atrax mode.

So, handing his father the girl would be the next best thing, no matter how much he cared about her.