Kade's POV

Joey sat with his laptop on top of his pillow that sat on top of his thighs as I laid next to him. I was scrolling through Twitter as I can hear him typing away while Lila's cooking in the kitchen. Cody, Conner, and Melissa were probably sitting in the living room watching football or something like that.

"Ready to hear what Elder Collins has to tell us?" Joey asks me, reminding me that today was the day that Collins was coming over to explain the whole situation between my boyfriend and I with how I got hurt when he did and I just hope that it's nothing too bad.

"I guess," I whisper, setting my phone on the nightstand as I close my eyes and cuddle the pillow to my chest.

"Have you talked to your mom lately?"

I nod my head, not looking up at him because I just know that he's just typing away on his laptop. "Yeah, she's been blowing up my phone when I don't answer after five minutes, so I'm basically forced to."

"Well, my mom told me that they're basically best friends now since they met," he tells me with a soft chuckle and I look up at him with a confused look to see his amused face. I practically facepalm when I hear that our moms were best friends now because they both had a mix of crazy and kind that made them completely compatible.

"Oh, great," I say with a small chuckle and as soon as I close my eyes to maybe get in a small nap, Lila's voice yells out that food's ready while the doorbell also rings at the same time. I groan, turning onto my stomach to hide my face in my pillow.

Joey chuckles, closing his laptop before basically laying on top of me to place rough kisses throughout the back of my head and the parts of my face that tickles my skin. I laugh, turning over underneath him so our faces are next to each other before wrapping my arms around his neck to pull his lips down onto mine.

He bites my lip before sticking his tongue into my mouth, lightly running it over mine. We break apart when someone knocks on our door, making Joey groan and set his head on my chest as Cody's voice is heard through the door. "Stop fucking and come eat!"

I push him off of me before getting up and using all my strength to pull him off of the bed into a standing position so we can walk out of the room and out to the living room where Elder Collins is now sitting with a plate in his hand.

"Good morning, boys," he tells us before looking back at his food.

We all grab food before sitting down on the couches in the living room. Lila comes in to hand me a smoothie before sitting down next to her husband who takes a bite of his waffle. He looks up at the elder with a clearing of his throat. "Have you gotten any closer to tracking down the rogue group?"

Collins shakes his head with a sigh. "No, we got a small lead three days ago, but when we had our tracker look into it, they were already gone. They're staying one step ahead of us at all times."

I notice the way Joey tenses when he hears that, but I set my hand on his knee to give him silent support. We switch the conversation to a lighter topic while we eat, but I realize how serious it was going to get when Lila and Conner took all the plates to the kitchen before sitting down. Joey wrapped his arm around my waist as we sat back against the couch while Collins pulled out his binder to flip through it.

"Alright, so I asked around the Elder Council to see if anyone knew what was going on with your mating bond because sharing each others pain isn't something most of us were familiar with," Collins tells us.

"But someone was?" Cody asks from his spot next to Melissa.

"Yes, I talked to Elder Gee," the head elder, "and he got out this huge book that had a small section dedicated to 'true mates'."

Everyone shared a look of confusion and when I looked up at Joey, he shrugged his shoulder like he had no idea what that meant. Elder Collins flipped through the binder before taking out a pieces of paper before handing one to everyone on the couch.

As soon as I grabbed it, I saw a black-and-white drawing of a wolf with a woman standing by it's side with it's hand on it's back with the background resembling the skies. The title said True Soulmates - "True Mates" with some text underneath that I scanned over to to start reading about this whole corny soulmate talk.

     "True mates" is another term for Soulmates - a person who is perfectly suited to another in temperament – within the bonding terms between a human and wolf-form. They are said to be limited to one every hundreds of years, needing approval of diagnosis within the patriarch. The Moon Goddess chooses those to be known as "true mates" due to their fusion of personality traits, choice of beliefs, and mental outlook.

     Those in a "true mate" relationship will have the abilities of a more powerful communication within the brain, higher chemical release of sexual endorphins, a sense of inner calm when skin blended together in touch, and compatible pain – each will feel the pain of the other in each severe scenarios.

     Compatible Pain is not limited to deep incisions and/or lacerations. Depending on depth of wounds, both parties may be inflicted – meaning when one deals a wound, the other will as well – and can be lethal to both. "True mates" will die as one.

I look up with a wide-eyed look as everyone also looks shocked at the bold line that we all must've just read. Joey's grip tightens on my waist before he puts his hand in his hand with a long sigh of stress as he lets the paper fall to the ground. Lila clears her throat as she sets her paper on the coffee table before leaning on her knees. "So if Joey or Kade gets injured to the point of-"

"Don't," Joey interrupts and his mom gives him a very sympathetic look as she seems indecisive about what to do. I pick up the paper again, needing to see what else it says about the bond that we have.

     The patriarch will need to produce an investigation on the severity of the bond considering each pair of "true mates" acquires a difference in compatible pain. The investigation should include a initial exam to create a base on the pain levels of each individual, a reversal shock to each individual and assess how the other handles the electricity, and any more means of deciphering the situation.

I looked up at Collins. "We'll need to go through some sort of testing?"

He nods at me. "Yes, we looked through some documents and books and realized that every time a pair of true mates surface, then they have to go through a round of testing for the elder council to figure out how severe the bond is."

"How severe?" Joey asks, lifting his head and I notice the slightly terror on his face along with the way his knee shakes up-and-down on the ground. I reach over, setting my hand on his that's running up-and-down his pants covering his thigh.

"With each bond, the severity of it is different. If it's really severe, then just one cut can also affect the other. There has been one recorded bond where that happened and for the most part, it was a very delicate situation. But for you two, from what we've seen, just intense wounds will affect the other," he tells us.

"Do we need to be worried about this?" Conner asks.

Elder Collins lets out a sigh, leaning forward to set his elbows on his knees. "Keep reading."

     Chasers will continue on their quest to find "true mates" due to the rarity of their bond. They will do their own experimentation on each pair they find to inspect how their bond works. "True mates" should be worried when in the presence of the chasers because the experiment can easily become fatal.

A chill ran through my whole body as I set the paper down on the coffee table and Joey slid his arm around my shoulder before kissing the side of my head when he noticed my feelings. I set my head against his chest as I feel everyone's eyes staring at us once they finish reading the paragraph. Melissa clears her throat. "Chasers are hunters, right?"

"Yeah," Collins whispers and I can hear movement before feeling the couch dip down next to me. The smell of Lila's perfume assaults my nose as her hand sets on my shoulder. I move back from Joey's chest to look at her and she gives me a soft smile.

"It's going to be okay, we're going to make sure you're okay. We have protection and plans in place that will prevent anything from happening," she whispers to us. "but we have to be strong, alright?"

I nod my head, lifting my head up to show a small sense of pride in the pack and the protection that we have on our side. Joey looks up at Elder Collins after scanning the paper one more time. "Does this mean that if one of us gets hurt then he'll heal the same way that I do?"

Collins shakes his head. "Not necessarily. After reviewing the documents, we found out that if Joey is the one to get hurt, then yes, you both will be healed using his werewolf side. But if Kade is the one to get hurt, then Joey will heal using his werewolf side while Kade will heal just like a normal human."

"Is it only between a human and a wolf?" Cody asks.

"That's what we believe, yes."

"We're going to take a second to breathe, we'll be back," Joey says, grabbing my hand and pulling me to the backyard that was chilly, making me pull my sweatshirt over my body more. I watch as my boyfriend moves towards the picnic table where he sits and places his head in his hands. I walk over to him to straddle the bench so I'm facing him before setting my hand on his back to lightly run along his spine.

"What's going on? Talk to me," I tell him, making him look up at me.

"If something happens to me, it also happens to you, Kade. I'm the alpha, things are going to happen that I can't control and-" he starts, but I interrupt him by placing my hand against his cheek.

"You just said it, Joey, it's things that you can't control. There's nothing that either of us can do to control any of it, except implement more protection, but other than that, all we can do is hope for the best," I whisper to him, brushing some of his hair out of his face.

"I don't want for you to be hurt," he whispers and I hate when I see the glistening of tears forming in his eyes, pulling at my heart strings.

"And I don't want to see you hurt, baby, but it's nothing that we can control. We'll do the best we can, but we can't be afraid of everything our whole lives, alright? That'll take all the fun out of life."

He turns on the bench to face me, reaching out to place his hand on my neck to pull our lips together as a tear falls down his face. I tighten my grip on his hair, never wanting to let go of him. He pulls apart, setting his forehead against mine as he sniffles slightly as wet trails continue to drip down his cheeks. "I love you so much."

I smile, giving him another soft kiss. "No, I love you so much."

"Why us?" He blurts out after a minute of silence.

I shrug my shoulders, continuing to rub my fingers through his hair. "Like the book said, we were perfectly suited for each other. We don't have to let this be a bad thing, there are some good things about it."

He smiles. "Like what?"

"Well, we have a better mind link, when we touch, it'll make both of us feel better," I tell him as I let the tips of my fingers lightly run over his arms to make goosebumps appear on his skin. "we'll have better sex."

He lightly chuckles, giving me another kiss. "Well, we already do that."

"And it also means, we were truly meant to be together. We weren't just randomly chosen by the goddess or... I don't remember what you say," I tell him.

"Moon Goddess, it's believed that she picks all the mates. Some people even call her 'the spirits'," he tells me, bringing his hand up to wipe his cheek free of the tears.

"Yeah, that, but it just means that she didn't just randomly choose us," I whisper to him, making a huge smile appear on his face before he pulls his lips back to mine in a passionate kiss. I smile against his lips as his hand ran past the side of my neck to lightly set against my back.

When he pulls away, I set my hands on his knees before setting my head against his chest as all the stress of the past few weeks leave my body because of this moment. Because of being with the man I was destined to spend the rest of my life with, the man I can't dream of ever being without.

"I'm just worried," he whispers, making me lift my head to look at him again.

"About what?"

"Being alpha is a very risky job and there's always a high probability that I'll be killed in the fights," that sentence makes my body shake with chills and my heart beat rise in fear. "but now I know that if I die, so do you and that worries me. You have so much potential to do great things in life and the last thing I want to do is cut that off."

I shake my head, standing up to sit on his lap before wrapping my arms around his neck as his go to my waist and hold me up as I stare into his eyes with a fierce look. "No, don't even think that because even if we weren't true mates, if you died, I would never do anything except celebrate you and celebrate what we had. You're my life, Joseph, and nothing will change that."

"I don't want-"

I shake my head, cutting him off. "Don't think like that because now, no matter what happens, we'll always be together. If you die, I die with you."

He takes a big breath before letting it out, his eyes fluttering closed. My index finger lightly runs over his cheek bone, waiting to see what he was going to say. His eyes flutter open to show their electric blue, which shocks me. "My wolf didn't like that."

I give him a confused look. "Why?"

"Because we spend our life protecting you and this just means we have to protect our self even more," he whispers, a low grumbling appear in his voice.

I give him a soft smile. "I never said that we weren't going to fight for ourselves because that's our to priority; to live together for a long time. We deserve that. You deserve that – years of me loving you and holding you and showing you how incredible you are."

I watch as his eyes fade into back to their hazel color before he gives me a soft kiss. "I love you."

I go to say it back, but the back door is thrown open to show Elder Collins standing there with a worried face along with Conner and Cody standing behind him. Joey immediately tenses up again as he knows that something's wrong. "There was a sighting of a rogue around your pack by our tracker and the guards just told us that there's a breach in the perimeter."

Joey stands up, which pushes me off of his lap while he pulls me into a standing motion as we hear rustling in the woods. He looks up at his beta who looked like he was already in high alert. "Get Kade inside."

All of a sudden, I heard a loud roar as all the men standing to the side of me immediately shifted into their wolves while Joey grabbed me as quick as lightening in his arms, but it was too late. A huge pain spreads throughout my leg as I let out a loud scream as Joey feels the pain too, falling to the ground with me. I look up to see huge red eyes staring at me with blood dripping down his snout before it's hit by an even larger wolf and I'm assuming it's Elder Collins by the unfamiliar color of the fur.

The pain grows as Joey finds a way to stand up and grab me before pulling me inside as he limps from the pain in his leg. When we get inside, Melissa jumps up to grab me while Lila went to her son. I was sat down on the couch as I bit my lip to keep myself from screaming from the rogue bite that was bleeding a lot on my leg. I wasn't able to keep in my scream when a towel was pressed to my wound.

"Melissa, call Dr. Moore," Lila demands as she focuses on her son, who was groaning on the ground while a different towel was pressed to his wound. The pain in my body was going down as my skin turned cold and white as my heart kept beating as fast as it could inside my chest.

My body felt like jelly as my head starts to feel dizzy, making me want to just go to sleep. I notice the way Melissa is looking at me before she presses her hand to my arm. My eyes start to flutter as I hear heavy footsteps on the floor before a warm hand presses to my skin as the front door creaks open before slamming shut. Dr. Moore's voice travels up to my ear. "What happened?"

I ignore what they were saying to just let my eyes focus on my mate that was laying on the floor a few feet away, whispering something to Melissa who kept pressure on his wound while the two adults focused on me. All the pain washed away as my body went into shock as Dr. Moore tried to find a course of action that would help me. I let my eyes close as my heartbeat started to fill my ears and I fell into a dark sleep.