Asher glanced at her sharply. The question was never one he had expected from her or even asked himself. Their eyes locked and he tried to see what could have prompted the question from her but all he saw were clear beautiful hazel eyes. Seconds ticked by before he answered in a whisper, "I don't know. I have never been in love, so..." he licked his lips softly, his eyes traveling to hers. "To reject your mate, you have to be feeling a bond stronger than the mating bond with someone else, otherwise, there is nothing stopping the mating bond from claiming you the first day."

"Never been in love you said," Naomi whispered.

"Never ever."

"Does that make you a virgin?" she asked, her face coloring over with her question as she chided herself in her mind.

Asher chuckled, "that word is very far from me." The look in her eyes made him laugh softly, "it stopped applying to me from my sixteenth birthday."

"So you are like a playboy?" she raised an eyebrow.

Asher smiled and shrugged, "that's one way of putting it."

"Oh," she said, feeling dejected and also cussing at herself at why she should feel like that. Obviously he has the looks to get any girl he wants, it was obvious from the way the girls at school throws themselves at him and she could imagine how beautiful she-wolves would be throwing themselves at him back home too so she is really stupid if she expects any other thing from him.

Asher watched her, he couldn't figure out what she was thinking and knowing he can't compel her to find out made him more curious about her origin. "You interest me, Naomi," he said, bringing her eyes back to him. "There is something about you I can't quite figure out yet, something I don't think you know yourself. But you interest me none the less and I just want to open you and read you to figure it out. You know about me now, I want to know about you."

"What can be so interesting about me, I am just...plain."

Asher leaned toward her, so close that their lips were almost touching and her scent attacked his nostrils. "You my dear are anything but plain."

"Do you think there is something special about me?"

"I know there is something special about you and I will figure it out." His eyes went to her lips once more and even though he was reading it from her that she won't judge him for anything he does to her at the moment, he wasn't ready to take the chance. He stood up without warning and walked towards the window. "I have to go, I'm sure my people are worried about me."

Naomi still lost at how close he was to her earlier blinked at his words, "oh shit, I have forgotten. Your father said you should come meet him once you wake up."

Asher raised an eyebrow, "my father?"

Naomi nodded, "yes. Personally, I think he is your elder brother but he said himself that he is your father and he looks too scary for me to doubt his words."

Asher chuckled at that, "well, all the more reason I have to go home then."

"Will you be coming to school tomorrow?"

"Hopefully. And by the way, don't worry about your father asking you about tonight," he added as he placed his hands on the window, ready to leap out of it.

"What did you do?"

Asher turned to her and grinned, "nothing," and then he winked and jumped out of the window.

"Wait," Naomi said and rushed to the window but he was gone for there was not even a single sight of him. She sighed, staring out the window and feeling the loss of his absence in her heart. She glanced up at the moon, the big white ball was so bright and if she didn't know better, it felt like the light was illuminating the night for her. Glancing at the pine trees that made up the forest where the moonlight fell on the tip of the trees, she couldn't help but think about the cave Asher had taken her earlier and she actually found herself longing to visit it once more. Perhaps this time in the day time so that she could see her surroundings.

Heaving a deep sigh when she was sure that Asher wasn't coming back, she turned and went to her bed, climbing into it and placing her face on the pillow, hoping to breathe in his scent from when he was sleeping on it. From the first time she had set her eyes on Asher that morning in school, she had always felt like she knew him and today, she had confirmed that she really does know him. After all, how can she forget the sliver-fur wolf that was starting to add meaning into her life. With a soft smile gracing her lips, she went to sleep with the hope of seeing him tomorrow and who knows, get to talk to him like she did tonight, after all, she knows his secret now.

***

"Father," Gideon called as he stepped into the slightly big hall that was used to hold council meetings with the alphas of Eastwood packs.

"Son," the middle-aged man sitting on the high chair sighed when he saw him, "do you have good news for me?"

"Actually father, I have questions."

"Oh," the man nodded, "get on with it then."

"Why haven't you ever told me about the Alpha king? An Alpha who creates alphas and can mind link every wolf and can get alphas to bow to him?"

The man's head hung low hearing the question.

"I met him the other night didn't I? It was why you were asking those questions. You are afraid of him, it was obvious that night. Tell me father, if I am going to lead this pack and the other Eastwood packs as their leader, I need to know everything. From my findings, this Alpha king resides in the West and is addressed as High Alpha. If he is the alpha king that rules over every pack, how come I have never seen him and he has never shown his face in the woods. He is meant to protect us as our king, why didn't he come to our rescue before you swore allegiance with that woman, knowing how she got us to obey her?"

"You ask too many questions Gideon."

"Because I want to know. Tell me father, it would have been understandable if his powers don't work on us but he got me to obey him and if it weren't for whatever happened to him that night when he bit me, he would have killed me. I would have been dead father and it would have been because of your ignorance."

"Speak with respect son, I am not only your father but also your alpha," the man said with his alpha command and Gideon was forced to bow his head in respect.

"I am sorry, alpha."

The man heaved a long sigh and stood up, "perhaps you have come of age to know of our origin." He climbed down the stairs to meet his son and he placed his hand on his shoulder. "Take a walk with me." Gideon accepted immediately and they walked out of the hall. "Have you ever wondered why wolfsbane don't affect us? Which is also why the human hunters can't really hurt us with it on their traps unless they coat it with Garuda poison?"

Gideon frowned, he had always asked that question but he had figured it was just how they were created and the humans were wrong with their information thinking it could hurt them.

"Actually," the man began, "it was a mutation caused by humans."

"What?" Gideon was shocked.

The man nodded, "centuries ago, the Night Howlers resided in one area, differentiated by packs. The alpha king, High Alpha, ruled us all but in these packs, there was a group of wolves called rogues, they don't have a pack. You see, rogues are normal Night Howlers that once had packs but because they committed an offense that breaks the law and the rules of the Night Howlers, they were banished. Denied the right to have a pack to shelter them and an alpha to protect them. That made them a quick prey to the Nightwalkers and even though the alpha king knows of how the nightwalkers killed them, they didn't care."

Gideon listened attentively, he had read that part in the books but he felt like there was something his father would tell him that was not in the books.

"One day, five future alphas broke the rule and they were declared rogues. The Alpha king was to take their alpha powers on the next full moon night before they would be thrown out of their packs. However, these young alphas came up with a plan and ran out of their packs that very night. They went to the rogue fields and convinced as many rogues as they could to run away with them. Even though they were future alphas and had the potential of becoming alphas, a lot of rogues doubted that they could go any far before they would be caught. One can't underestimate the power of the alpha king. So only few numbers of rogues left with them, about a total of one hundred or a hundred and ten. They journeyed to the human lands, unfortunately, they were more hunters then than of now and so they were caught. Every night the humans would inject wolfsbane into them so that they could punish them without them healing fast."

"That is horrible," Gideon said.

"The humans are horrible and they derived joy in being that."

"Some of the rogues were pregnant as of that time and the future alphas all had mates then and coincidently, they were pregnant as well. They lost a good number of wolves in the human clutches, those who couldn't survive from the pain inflicted on them while carrying wolfsbane in their system. It went on like that till one night, the future alphas couldn't take it anymore, they didn't care about their lives for they knew they had to give the rogues the life of protection they had promised. So, they went crazy and fought the humans. They couldn't take their wolf forms because of the wolfbane but there were still stronger none the less. Seeing that the alphas were attacking, some of the rogues who were once alphas as well, joined the fight. They won the humans though, and was able to escape with what was left of them, about fifty or so. However, they lost two of the young alphas that night."

Gideon closed his eyes as he felt his anger and hatred for the humans growing some more.