"Why can't you just listen to me for once?" I shouted throwing a suitcase at Matteo. He ducked it, obviously—Alpha reflexes. Curse them, but bless them. I'd hate to see such a glorious face as his with a massive bruise or worse.

"Maybe if you said something sensible, I would!" He remarked making my blood boil.

"It was sensible!"

"Kaia, you need a guard!" He reminded me by saying what caused this whole argument in the first place.

"I'll be in a room full of Alphas! In what world does it make sense that I need a guard?"

"You may not be able to understand this through that thick head of yours," Matteo hollered pointing his finger at my forehead. I swatted it away like the psycho that I am causing him to take a few steps backward, no doubt trying to avoid an accidental slap to the face, "but not every Alpha out there likes me!"

"Huh, wonder why!" I deadpanned throwing my arms up.

"You're unbelievable."

"Thanks, I'll take it as a compliment," I snapped, chucking a remote at his head.

"God! Just pack your f--king bag!"

"Then leave me alone, so I can!" I shouted back at him causing him to storm out of the room and slam the door shut. I'm surprised it was still attached to the hinges after that one.

Things were going pretty smoothly lately until Matteo told me I was being assigned a guard for the Leaders' Conference in two days. I was okay with it until he told me that it was going to be Daniella. I tried to calmly reason with him and explain why it would be much smarter to assign Jack to me instead of the blonde she-devil, but he just would not listen. He said Jack needed to stay with the pack and look over them while we were gone.

I hope Dan kills me just to prove him wrong.

Extreme and highly unnecessary. I know.

"Sure, have the one person who wants me dead protect me. Thanks, mate. Why don't you just squeeze lemons into my asshole while you're at it?" I muttered to myself as I retrieved the suitcase that I had thrown from the other side of the room. I groaned heaving it up off of the floor and carried it over to the bed.

Oh, man. I didn't realize how heavy this was.

"I'm more of a 'when life gives you lemons, make lemon water' kinda guy, but whatever you're into, I guess," Jack suddenly piped in which managed to scare the crap out of me. My eyes flew to the door to meet his bright emerald ones showing a great amount of amusement within them. No doubt, he found it hilarious that he just managed to almost make me pee myself.

"When the heck did you get here?" I asked him. His tall, muscular frame was leaning against the door frame watching me unzip the suitcase.

"You were talking to yourself, and I slipped in. I was heading to the kitchen, but I passed Teo in the hallway, and he told me to get up here and watch you. He looked like he was having a hard time controlling himself," Jack commented. "You guys lose your 'not arguing' streak?" I groaned in frustration and tiredly belly flopped onto the bed. I just laid there with my face buried in the blankets that Matteo and I didn't care enough to correct after sleeping. "I'll take that as a yes," Jack sighed. A few seconds later I felt the bed dip beside me as Jack sat down. "What happened, now?"

"Weh juh nerr aree," I mumbled into the bed, not bothering to pick my head up.

"Wet jets near Harry?" Jack asked. Confusion was obviously laced in his tone causing me to groan. I lifted my head up just to repeat myself, and then let my face smack back into the bed.

"We just never agree."

"Oh," Jack drug out in realization. "Wow, I was really off," he chuckled. "You guys were doing decent there for a while. What happened?" With another groan, I rolled my body over so I was now laying on my back with body sprawled out on the bed staring at the ceiling.

"He's assigning Daniella to guard me at the Leaders' Conference," I grumbled, glaring holes into the white ceiling.

"Oh, yeah. I was informed," Jack said slowly. I wasn't sure, but I think he was trying to think out what he was going to say before he said it, so I didn't get mad over something stupid and attack him. "Daniella is the Gamma. It only makes sense to assign her to be your guard, Kaia. He just wants to make sure you're protected to the best of his ability."

I knew he was only doing it for my safety, but honestly. I get that she's the third strongest pack member and all, but I feel like she can't be much better than the fourth. Can't we just go with him or her instead? I definitely didn't trust Daniella with my life, and I couldn't wrap my head around why Matteo did.

"There has got to be someone else—someone who doesn't want me to choke on a razor blade, at least," I said as I ran my hands down my face.

"I get that you and Dani don't exactly have the best friendship," Jack stated the obvious earning him a look from me and a quick 'oh, you don't say', "but she takes her position in the pack very seriously. If she's given a task from Matteo to protect you with her life, she will. She might not favor you, but you're still her Luna." I cringed. I cringed ridiculously hard. It probably just looked like the ghost of Jesus Christ shoved his finger into my eyeball.

"Don't say that word," I commanded. Jack's brows knit together in confusion, and his head tilted to the side.

"What word?"

"The L one."

"Luna?" Again, cringe.

There were some rogues that craved power. They spent their entire lives trying to take down Alphas and overthrow packs just to lead them themselves. I wasn't like that at all, though. I just liked to cause destruction, watch everything crumble, and then get out of there as soon as possible.

Being in an authoritative position just didn't sound appealing to me.

It sounded like a lot of work.

"Don't," I warned lowly making Jack roll his eyes.

"What a dramatic," he sighed. "You can't just avoid what you were born to do—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fate, I know!" I snapped. Jack just laughed lightly at my obvious frustration.

"You should be proud of yourself." Now, it was my turn to be confused.

"Proud of what?

"There are a lot of girls out there, and for some reason you were chosen for Matteo. He's the Alpha of Caedes, Kaia. Being his mate isn't just a job that could be fulfilled by anybody."

"Well if you haven't noticed, I haven't been able to fulfill it either," I muttered returning my annoyed gaze back to the ceiling. "All we do is argue and make out. That's it. We fight until we get in bed and the clothes come off. We kiss until things get out of hand, and then we stop."

"Alright, so I'll admit that you two tend to butt heads, but I think that's why you two work."

"We don't work!"

"You're the only person who has the balls to constantly challenge and stand up to him. I feel like that definitely counts for something," Jack reasoned. I thought about it for a second, but it still didn't matter. I mean what good is being able to push his buttons if nothing really comes out of it?

"Doesn't matter, anyway. He never listens to anything I have to say," I retorted.

"Have you met an alpha? Since when do they like to be proven wrong?" He had a point. It was stupid point, but still a point.

"That's still no excuse," I argued adamantly.

"He's just stubborn."

"Well he needs to be less stubborn," I stated becoming frustrated with Jack who seemed to have an answer to everything.

"Because you're any better?"

"Okay, I get it!" I snapped flailing my hands in the air above me. "I just don't see much compatibility between us, and I'm sure he doesn't either."

"You practically have him wrapped around your finger," Jack scoffed. I narrowed my eyes at the ceiling. I don't know what Jack thinks the phrase 'wrapped around your finger' means, but it's definitely not a way to describe Matteo and I's relationship.

"I don't think you know what that phrase means, Jack."

"It may not seem like it, but the Matteo you know is the softest, mushiest Matteo I've ever seen," he said a-matter-of-factly.

"Matteo? Soft? Mushy? No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't think so." I know for a fact that Matteo is neither soft nor mushy emotionally or physically. I would know. I've felt up his well defined abs many times. Two words: rock solid.

"He lets you get away with so much," Jack exasperated. "Like going into his office. No one is allowed in there unless requested, but there you go—just sauntering right on in, and he lets you! Not to mention, you bust his balls every chance you get, and he hasn't even tried to make you submit to him. God forbid, if I would tell him no and walk out of the room, he would throw me through a f--king wall. He's practically putty in your hands." I stayed silent. For the first time, Kaia Aalish didn't know what to say. Shocking. Someone call the world news or maybe a doctor. Yeah, probably a doctor. "It may not seem like he listens, but he does. Trust me. He does."

Again, I stayed quiet. I silently cursed Jack for always knowing what to say. I would never quite understand how he knew how to comfort and understand people so well.

He should have been the Luna.

With a sigh, I pushed myself up from the bed. Jack's eyes were glued to me as I made my way over to the door and yanked it open.

"What are you doing now?"

"Going to find my mate," I mumbled, catching a proud smile cross Jack's face. Smug little bugger.

"I'd check the training rooms—first floor." I nodded, not bothering to say thank you. I actually was thankful he had told me to check the training rooms. It saved me a trip to Matteo's office where I figured he would have been.

I'd been to the training rooms twice with Jack. The first time I went, Jack got a new pair of boxing gloves and wanted to see how they felt. After practically proclaiming his love to them, he let me try them. I told him a few times that I didn't need them. I preferred to fight with my fists bare, but Jack insisted. He said it made for more fun seeing as how you don't leave a scrap with busted knuckles when you're just messing around for fun. So, I put the gloves on and punched him in the gut. I'd never seen Jack want to murder me so badly.

The second time we went there, Jack wanted to show me that he could indeed to 207 pull-ups straight. I got bored when he hit 150, so I ended up pantsing him. He ultimately let go of the pull-up bar and collapsed into a heap on the floor with his shorts around his ankles.

Since then, Jack hasn't taken me back.

I could smell the training room before I saw it. The training room was much different from the training fields. The fields were just some grass with some random padded areas barricaded off for sparring. The training room was more of a room for lifting weights, running, and stuff more of that sort. There was a ring to fight in which is the place where I punched Jack in the gut. There was also air conditioning which was something the fields didn't have. I enjoyed that tremendously.

I stepped into the training room feeling sticky from the sweaty atmosphere almost instantly. Immediately, everyone's eyes fell on me. I did my best just to act like they weren't all staring at me as if I just pooped on the middle of the mat.

I figured Matteo would be punching a punching bag, but instead he was benching a massive amount of weight shirtless.

Oh, Lord.

Matteo was definitely a god, but looking at him in that moment made me feel anything but holy.

"Holy shit," I gaped. "That's like four of me." Matteo placed the bar holding the various amounts of weight on it onto the rack and sat up on the bench to look at me. His Mediterranean blue eyes held a whole lot of confusion.

Well, he obviously wasn't expecting me to show up here.

"Kai, I'm not arguing with you—" he began to say, but I interrupted him.

"Let's go take a nap." He looked completely thrown off. Crap, that was a bit aggressive—maybe too aggressive.

At this point, I was ready for another argument. It could honestly be about anything. We were always finding something to argue about. Maybe he'd get mad because I interrupted him? Maybe he'd get mad at me for trying to boss him around. I mentally cursed myself for starting yet another fight. I should have just followed our normal routine, and we could be making out later and be pissed at one another tomorrow.

I turned around to leave without saying anything. 'Jack, I hate you and your advice,' I thought to myself just before I was lifted up and thrown over a shoulder.

"Matteo!" I hollered, automatically knowing who was man-handling me. He didn't answer me as we exited the training room, and he carried me through the house. I knew he was ignoring me because there was no way he didn't hear me scream. I'm pretty sure the entire house probably heard me.

"Put me down, you animal! Your shoulder is pressing into my spleen!" I groaned as he opened a door. "Matt—ugh!" I grunted as I was tossed onto a bed—Matteo's bed. "What was that for—"

"If I come back here and you aren't still sitting on this bed, I will drag your ass back and tie you to it," Matteo stated before turning around to go into the attached bathroom for what I assume is a shower. I had a feeling he wasn't bluffing. I bet he never bluffs. I hope he's not bluffing.

Matteo probably figured his threat was going to scare me into staying put. Jokes on you, buddy. That sounds like something I'd actually enjoy!

I didn't know why he felt the need to threaten me to stay in the room. He was probably just worried I'd try to run, again. I wasn't going to push it. It's Matteo. He always acts like someone pissed in his Cheerios.

Matteo was in and out of the shower extremely fast. I wasn't complaining. I was actually quite impressed. He abruptly opened the bathroom door, and I immediately noticed his eyes scan the room to find me. I think he was expecting me to move at least a little bit, but I remained exactly where he had placed me. I'm pretty sure by this point his mind was blown due to the fact that I actually listened to him for once. I on the other hand, could feel my ovaries practically exploding within me like little firecrackers seeing my mate enter the room with nothing but a towel hung lowly around his waist. Don't even get me started on his dark, wet hair and the little droplets of water cascading down that perfectly defined chest of his.

And all this time, I thought just his scent was orgasm-inducing.

I figured my oogling session would be cut short once Matteo grabbed his clothes. I assumed he was going to put them on in the bathroom, but no. He dropped his towel right then and there.

All I could think was, 'Yes! That's mine!'.

Bless Matteo for being so blessed in every way shape and form. Just, bless.

It would be a lie if I said I was okay with Matteo putting pants on. I wasn't, but I dealt with it.

"You really have no shame do you?" Matteo asked, obviously noticing me staring. It was hard not to.

"Not really, no, but I mean you were standing naked in front of me. Was that not an invitation to stare?" I asked.

"No, it was."

"Well," I drug out earning me a slight chuckle from Matteo. Whoops, I almost got him to smile. How tragic would that have been? Matteo wandered over to his closet and began reaching for a shirt before I stopped him. "Ah, don't even bother. It'll be off anyway."

With that, Matteo made his way over to the bed and got in, pulling me down with him. I was never much of a napper. I slept long enough at night that I didn't have to, so I wasn't tired at all. Matteo on the other hand, looked more than happy to pass out at three in the afternoon.

His arm was wrapped protectively around my body which happened to be pressed directly against him. I could practically feel every divot in his chest against my back. I seriously wanted to take my shirt off, but for once I didn't want things to take a sexual turn. Well, my heart didn't. My body was more than willing to make babies.

"What's your middle name?" I asked randomly.

"What?" Matteo sounded half asleep. I felt kinda bad for keeping him up when he wanted to nap.

"What's your middle name?" I repeated. A moment passed before Matteo answered.

"Oriano."

"Different," I commented. "Matteo Oriano Nerezza. Sounds very Italian."

"It is very Italian," he concluded what I already knew. I waited a moment for him to ask me what mine was, but he never did.

"My middle name is Parker after my dad, Parker Aalish," I continued talking. "It was going to be Aleksa after my mom, but they decided not to for some reason," I mumbled off, not really feeling like talking about how my brother was named after my mom—Kaden Aleksei. Yeah, I didn't really feel like mentioning him at all.

"You seem very talkative today," Matteo commented. I sighed and rolled over in his arms so that I was facing him. His eyes were opened watching me squirm until I got comfortable. My head laid itself on his bare chest .

"I just want to talk. We don't talk much," I muttered.

"We talk all the time." I sighed and shook my head.

"Screaming at each other doesn't count. The only thing we learn from that is how loud we can be."

"Okay," he sighed as he rubbed my back with his large hand. I could tell this was getting really uncomfortable for Matteo. He didn't seem like someone who enjoyed opening up very much.

Then again, neither was I.

I have more secrets under my belt than I can count. Some of the biggest ones including my brother, the fact that I was in a cell for the past four years, I murdered countless people, and was on my way to murdering Jack when the mate bond decided to swerve on in.

"What do you want to talk about?" He asked hastily.

"I don't know. Anything," I shrugged. We sat in silence for a little bit just thinking about what the heck to say to each other. When we were mad, the words just seemed to flow from our mouths in an abundance, but times like these had us completely brain dead.

"Uh, what's your favorite color?" Matteo eventually asked, breaking the silence. I laughed lightly. All that time he spent thinking, and the question he comes up with is 'um, what's your favorite color?'.

"Orange because it's a fruit, and the fruit is also orange. You?"

"Black." My brows inched together.

"Black is not a color. It's a shade," I defied.

"Well, then I don't have a favorite color," he put bluntly. I huffed and picked my head up from his chest, so I could look him in the eye.

"You have to have a favorite color," I stated. Matteo lazily rolled his eyes and groaned.

"Fine, blue."

"Well, why?" He groaned, again.

"Does everything have to have an explanation for you?" I didn't bother answering him. I just gave him a look. "Ugh, alright. It's your eye color."

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" I mocked making him scowl. The hand that was rubbing my back stopped for a second just before he used it to tuck my head back onto his chest. "If you could shift into any other animal besides a wolf, what would you want it to be?"

We continued going back and forth. I often times had to really force an answer out of Matteo. I think he said 'I don't know' and 'does it matter' more than anything. I didn't exactly get an answer to the 'if you could shift into any other animal besides a wolf, what would you want it to be' question. He just argued with me that answering it with anything other than a wolf would be an insult to our kind. I told him I'd be a giraffe.

That one was the only one I really couldn't get him to answer. Everything else he ended up answering eventually, even when I asked him what was his biggest fear. I was expecting something really manly or deep like drowning or tornadoes with some big explanation as to why it's so terrifying, and it doesn't make him any less of a man for fearing it, so one can only imagine the look of shock on my face when he hit me with a one word answer.

Children.

I really wanted to laugh, but I got scared he wouldn't answer any more of my questions if I did, so I did my best to hold it in.

He didn't bother holding anything in when I told him my biggest fear was public humiliation. His exact words were, "That's stupid. You publicly humiliate yourself everyday." In return, I punched him in the stomach. I expected him to yell at me or something, but instead he laughed like a real, genuine laugh. I think my ears had an orgasm.

Matteo was actually kind of simple in a complex way. He had such odd answers, but after he explained himself, it made sense.

His biggest pet peeve was when people talk over him because it gives him the impression that people find what he has to say irrelevant. I shyly smiled at that one. Guilty.

He hates surprises. He went on an entire tangent about how he can't stand to be surprised because it completely throws him off. He feels like he loses control of a situation.

In high school, he played hockey. He said he played football, too, until his sophomore year. He quit because the coach was a 'prick'. He then went on to say he hoped his coach would go deep throat a cactus.

The list goes on from why he doesn't like to eat cereal to what he finds most fascinating in the world.

I had told him that what I found most fascinating was how plants can breathe without lungs, but after our conversation was over and we began to doze off together, I changed it.

The thing I found most fascinating was Matteo.

__________

Long long long long long long chapter.

4,055 words long actually.

I hope you guys enjoyed getting to know Matteo a little better. He's interesting. I dig it.

Kaia is beginning to mellow out a little bit. She's definitely not as psychotic as before and she's actually starting to think a little bit. WOAH SHOCKER.

Hahaha, I love Kaia.

Hasta la Pasta 6/8/17