FINLEY

‘Are you going to be able to keep your paws to yourself? Or do I need to stay in and not go on the pack run, Nox? You can not touch Annalise, or her wolf Larissa. Do you understand me? It is her wish for us to stay away from her.’

‘I’m not making any promises. She is our mate, Finley.’

‘She is merely sixteen years old. Once I turn eighteen in a few months, I would be forbidden to touch her, Nox. There are some human laws we shifters abide by. We are not permitted to touch her until she turns eighteen. That’s two years. By then our true mate would be revealed. There will be no further arguments on the subject. Am I being clear enough for you? Or would you like to see us being thrown in the dungeon and being shackled with silver?’

‘That would not happen if we were to give proof that she is our mate, Finley.’

Growling with frustration, I practically rip my formal wear to pieces and fling the contents to the ground. Shaking my head, I try to rid myself from my anger towards my wolf. He’s not thinking clearly and lust has taken control of his thoughts. Not that my thoughts haven’t gone in the gutter, but at least I’m thinking clearly enough to know that what he’s wanting with Annalise is wrong. Not only does she have a boyfriend, but she’s only sixteen.

‘We’re staying indoors. You were let out for a run this afternoon, Nox. I can’t trust you at this point not to do something stupid that we would both regret later.’

‘I’ll keep my paws to myself. It would satisfy me enough to be able to see her wolf. You know you want to see Larissa for yourself. The thought was in your mind to follow them earlier this afternoon to catch a glimpse. But you were too cowardly to do so, Finley.’

Quickly rummaging through all the luggage that I failed to unpack today, I plucked some gym shorts from the bottom of the fourth suitcase and pulled them on. Was supposed to have unpacked, but passed out instead. To keep myself from going out to search for Annalise and her wolf. Guess it was a good thing I stayed in or I would have come across her and Xillon getting it on.

Yet another reason I must stay away from her. But what I really want to do is kill Xillon for leaving those horrendous marks on her sunkissed flesh. What the hell was he thinking?! Not even I would do something so barbaric. No matter how much I wanted other males to stay away.

‘Fine, we’ll go. But we’re sticking with our crowd.’

‘Thought the point of this pack run was to acquaint ourselves with the blood moon howler pack and familiarize ourselves with the pack's territory.’

‘Do you want to go or not, Nox? If so, keep your thoughts to yourself from now on. I’ll let you out for the run, but I’m not allowing you to take complete control.’

‘My jaws are sealed.’

***

‘How are we to stick with our crowd, if our crowd is hanging all over girls from the blood moon howler pack, Finley? More so, what are your thoughts on Calissa hanging all over Alpha Max's son, Jarek?’

Clenching my fists in anger, I search the crowd for Annalise. It was nice to see her off to the side conversing with Alpha Gabriel. Further inspection showed that Xillon wasn’t amongst the others. In fact, he’s nowhere to be found.

‘Suppose Alpha Max whipped Xillon’s ass. He doesn’t seem to be around anywhere,’ I said while closing in on Calissa and the group of teenagers all conversing with one another.

‘Wouldn’t blame him one bit if he had punished him in some way. Those marks were hideous. On her neck, I’m a wolf so I could understand. But all over her chest, that was uncalled for.’

‘You’re right on that one Nox. Now we can only hope that Annalise will join the rest of us. Surely, she’s not going to stay glued to Alpha Gabriel throughout the run.’

“Sorry, I’m late.” Shaking Jarek’s hand, I pull him towards me and ask, “What are your intentions with my sister?” Then pulled away furrowing my brows.

He blows out a breath and motions for me to follow him. Once we were far enough away for some privacy he grins and says, “Crazy as this may sound, Trex believes that Calissa and her wolf Starla are our mate. He insists, quite strongly. He and I have been arguing all day about it. As an alpha… well… you know how it is. I’m not to know the answer to that until I’m nineteen. But I feel a profound connection to her. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.”

“No issues here, man. Would be hypocritical of me to object. I’ve been going through the same issue with my wolf Nox over your sister Annalise. Just be respectful of my sister, is all I ask. Hope you aren’t like your beta Xillon. I’d rip you to shreds if Calissa showed up with bruises all over her, like your sister did this evening.”

“If Xillon has knowledge of a bond with you and Annalise, that explains a lot. He hasn’t so much as touched a woman until Annalise. He’s been in love with her since we were children. Thought I could trust Xillon with Annalise, but after she showed up to dinner the way she did… “ He shakes his head, growles, and his eyes flash gold. Then says, “My father dealt with him. He knows better than to ever do anything like that again. As for me, no worries. I plan on staying a virgin until I meet my mate. I’ll have the utmost respect and will be a gentleman towards Calissa. I would hope that you would do the same for Annalise. If you ended up together, or whatever.”

“Calissa and I will be turning eighteen soon. So I’m going to do the right thing. No matter how difficult it may be, and stay away from Annalise. Plus, I have a girlfriend back home. We’ve been together for four years. She’ll be arriving, in a month's time, with crescent moon packs, warriors and extra omega’s to accommodate us.”

“Your girlfriend is an omega? I’ve always been under the impression that higher ranking shifters, normally mengaled with other higher ranking shifters?”

Chuckling, I rolled my eyes, shook my head and said, “Her family is of gamma blood. Has your father not explained the dynamics of what's going on? There are five separate gamma families in the ancient crescent moon pack. We’ll have two families here and three that will stay to protect our pack in Scotland. Same with the beta families. However Alpha Gabriel will be the only alpha from our pack to reside here. But he has two grown sons, and two sons born of his true mate that are taking over as alpha once they turn eighteen. His oldest sons would have taken over had Luna not come into the picture. But they don’t care to be alpha. So it all evens out in the end.”

“He has explained some, but not in great detail. But yeah, it would probably be best for you to steer clear of Annalise, if you are turning eighteen soon. Anyway, we should get back over there. We should all be shifting soon,” Jarek said, twisted and walked away.

***

I’ve never stripped and shifted so fast in my life. Nox and I were anxious to get out there and find Larissa. It didn’t take long to find her. Like most ancients with alpha blood, Larissa stands out amongst the rest of the shifters from the blood moon howler pack.

Larissa stands taller and is far more massive than her father and brother who are also alpha’s. But her fur instead of being pure black like all of the other alpha bloods within both packs, stands out gorgeously: with light grey and brunette undertones highlighted throughout.

‘Where do you think the grey comes from, Nox? Even the late tyrant king didn’t have grey in his fur? Shifters with alpha blood are always black. You know what I’m saying?’

‘Does it matter? Larissa is beyond any beauty I have ever seen.’

He turns abruptly, when Larissa turns and glances in our direction. Growling at him, then yelled out, ‘What the hell are you doing, Nox?’

‘Trying to hold up to my end of the bargain. Looking into her eyes will make that impossible, don't you think. Wouldn’t be able to stay away from her afterwards. Starla’s right over there, let’s go,’ he said and trouted over to Starla.

Turning his head to get one last glimpse of Larissa before taking off, Nox halts and whimpers. ‘It’s going to be hard to stay away from her, if she’s the one who comes to us, Finley. What do you want me to do?’

‘Stop whimpering like a fucking coward for one!’

ANNALISE

For what reason would Jarek be taking Finley into the forest? What could they possibly have to talk about, they couldn’t say in front of others? Hum…

“I’m sorry uncle, but could we carry on this conversation tomorrow. I would like to go hang out with Calissa and the other girls for a while before we head out on the run.”

“Of course, Annalise. We’ll have plenty of time to catch up later. Go do whatever it is teenage girls do these days.”

We were conversing in more detail on what is to happen over the next few years. Which would be much more interesting if I wasn’t so preoccupied with everyone else having a good time in front of me. He embraces me then walks over to father who is conversing with mom and Uncle Gabriels mates. Then I trudge towards Calissa and the other girls.

I’m unsure how I managed. But I’m able to pick up on Jarek and Finley’s conversation, as I tune out the chatter going on around me. It seems that Finley is being genuine about having a girlfriend. Someone whom he has been with for four years. Also found out that he’ll be turning eighteen soon. If we are mates, would he know, even if I’m not of age? No one has ever explained that. I wonder if anyone knows the answer to that question? Do both mates need to be of age to know?

“Annalise? Hey girl. Where’s your head at? I’ve been trying to catch your attention for five minutes now.”

“Uh… sorry Xena. In all honesty, I’m just tired I suppose. Ready to shift and let Larissa carry the weight for a while. Whatever you were saying, can you repeat it please?”

“It’s no big deal really. We were all conversing about the shifters from the ancient crescent moon pack. We’ll clue you in on everything later. Alpha Max has sent a mind link for us all to shift. So we should get on that.” Xena said and yanked me towards the forest.

Quickly stripping and hanging my garments from a low branch, I call on Larrisa and we shift. We decided to stick with mom and dad, thinking that was best. In order to stay away from Finley as Xillon had asked. I couldn’t see any other way around it, because the whole group of teenagers were all together trudging along with the shifters from the crescent moon pack.

Our curiosity got to us full force though and Larissa couldn’t help but glance around looking for Finley and his wolf Nox.

‘That has to be him, going towards Starla, right?’

Nox’s fur looks nothing like Starla’s. It’s a dark brunette with beige undertones throughout. Curiosity killed the cat, but that doesn’t matter to Larissa and I as we approach Nox and Starla. We want to see what his crescent moon and eyes look like. Why won’t he look at us, when we clearly caught him watching us before? He has his head bowed and it looks as if he is fighting a war with himself.

On arrival Larissa and Starla converse for a moment, then Starla leaves to unite with Jarek. Leaving Nox and Larissa to connect, but the damn fool won’t open his eyes. She nudges his snout, whimpers and his eyes burst open. They shine even more brightly and are more of an emerald green with gold nearing the pupil. Were also take in the green crescent moon shining before his eyes.

‘Mmmm… ‘ Larissa hums in pleasure.

‘Don’t touch her. Don’t do a damn thing. Stay away. I promised. Damn she’s so fucking beautiful. Finely, help me out here. I can’t do it. I can’t stay away from her. You feel that, don't you.’

He’s supposed to know how to keep his thoughts in check. But like him, I can feel the magnetic pull connecting us and binding us together. It’s stronger than the connection I have with Xillon and Xavier. Larissa nuzzles her nose into his fur, purring and growling in pleasure as she sniffs his intoxicating, sweet but masculine scent of cedar, rain, and marshmallow's roasting over a campfire. That's the best it could be described and it and he smells amazing.

‘What now?’