Yil

White wolves get mated to none other than white wolves.
I was the only exception and in all sincerity it wasn't all that surprising seeing as I had always been peculiar from birth.
But Alpha Kali came from a lineage of white wolves so it's normal isn't it?
It shouldn't be though, that's what I was taught.
Also when did lone wolves start having mates?

All these conflicting voices raved, restlessly, as a whirlwind in my head to be exhaled, forcefully, from my slightly parted lips. As I watched the events unfold before my eyes.

"Mate," Dina whispered again, a soft smile caressing her cherry red lips and the translucent moonlight enhancing her pristine features. "It was you all along," she drifted on the grass in light steps towards Kiba, anticipation shining radiantly in her eyes as she yearned to touch him.

However, Kiba took a small step backwards and evaded her touch. "I'm certainly not in the mood for games," he stated, gruffly, avoiding her mesmerizing gaze. "I'm a lone wolf. I don't have a mate," he refuted.

His tone wavered, slightly, at the end of his words and I knew precisely why. He had also felt the pull of the mate bond towards her, the minute she had uttered the word. At the moment, he was trying to convince himself that what was happening could not be true and who could blame him? For it would mean that he'd have to reorient himself of all that had been taught to us as white wolves.

Did lone wolves exist because they didn't have mates? Or because they had been separated from them?

"I don't know who told you, you don't have a mate but you felt the bond just now. I know you did," she insisted, moving closer to him as he still kept his eyes glued elsewhere.

She grasped his hands, gently, when he was unaware of her intention and the irises of their eyes could be seen to glow. As their wolves acknowledged the presence of each other and the bond engulfed them in its fiery passion.

Kiba snacthed his hands away upon impact and moved even further away from her. "I don't have a mate," he enforced again with shaky breaths. "I wasn't given one much less an outside wolf," he forced out, flinching slightly when he saw the hurt expression on Dina's face.

Aryn stiffened next to me and I held his hand to stop him from marching outside to meet Kiba.

"He didn't mean that," I placated as I watched Kiba turn his back on Dina and walk out of the veranda, hurriedly.

"And how would you know that?" He growled, angrily. "Absolutely nothing gives him the right to talk to my sister in that manner," he seethed, staring heatedly at the direction Kiba had walked off in.

"I know Kiba and trust me that hurt him more than he let on," I replied, simply.

He was trying to dissuade her from thinking that anything could develop between them because as much as we'd love to disregard the elephant in the room. The fact still remained that the standing animosity between our kinds was still ever present and pulsating with energy.

Me coming here solely to bargain and not for my mate was a classic example of that. She'd just never be accepted by the clan.

"Now you're just giving excuses to save him from catching these hands," he disregarded, his mind unwavering from his intent to rain havoc on Kiba.

"It's obvious I won't be able to persuade you for much longer. However, give me the opportunity to speak with him while you console Dina," I negotiated, looking towards Dina who had sunk low into the grass with tears flowing down her face. Her hand was clutching her chest in a fist hold and I understood quite well the pain that she was experiencing.

His reluctance to bond with her wolf was equivalent to a rejection. The only difference being that at the moment the mate bond was still intact.

"This was meant to be a happy day for her and the Sky Lordians just had to ruin that by granting her a dickhead for a mate," Aryn ran a hand through his hair, roughly, in distress and moved out of the kitchen in a flash.

This gave me some time to look for Kiba and wrapping a shawl over my shoulders, I ventured out in search of him. Finding him wasn't a hard feat at all for his familiar scent guided me into the woods and towards the crystal-clear lake, Aryns' favourite spot.

The more I moved closer to him, the louder his grunts became. Excruciating pain flowed down, mercilessly, through the pack link in powerful waves and I had to take a deep breath to steady myself against its impact. His muscled physique stood, determinedly, in front of a large willow tree and with an arm poised for attack, he repeatedly hit the bark with bare knuckles.

"Hey Kiba that's enough!" I commanded, alarmed.

As a throl he was much more connected to nature than any other element bender and as such it was a taboo to hurt the very essence of his power. He was trying to deplete his energy source as an outlet for his pain. However, continuous damage was going to be detrimental to his health and I couldn't stand by and let that happen.

"Kiba, I said that's enough. Are you crazy?" I screamed, rushing to his side when he disregarded my words.

He continued his determined assault on the trees' bark. Shards of wood flew about him to puncture his exposed arms and chest. Nevertheless, he continued, sweat and blood pouring down his physique.

I was convinced he wasn't ever going to stop until he got himself damaged beyond repair. So with great concentration, I commanded the water body, flowing undisturbed next to us and encapsulated him in a suspended bubble.

"Princess please leave me be. This hurt is nothing compared to what I feel within," he rasped, rolling about as he fought, viciously, to free himself.

"Trust me I understand perfectly well what you're going through but if you think I'm letting you out of there to kill yourself. Then think again," I replied, resolute in my conviction as I fortified the bubble with hardened rims.

"Why are you trying to save an already dead man from dying princess?" He questioned, stopping his futile attack on the bubble to look at me with soulless eyes. "I've craved a mate ever since I turned sixteen. Can you even imagine the pain I felt when I learnt that I was a lone wolf?" His voice cracked at the remembrance and my heart bled at his pain. "I wasn't complete like the others and I never would be. But day by day, I learnt to live with that pain and survived fourteen years alone," he whispered, clutching his chest.

I lowered the bubble to ground level and stayed silent as I waited for him to continue.

"Then all of a sudden, I portal into this world for the sole mission of protecting you just as I've always done. What I didn't expect, however, was that I'd scent my mate a few hours later. A cheerful, gorgeous and smart she-wolf who was destined for me," he smiled slightly, looking in the direction of the pack house. "She never scented me, however, and I believed my infatuation with her was as a result of the loneliness that I had harboured within for so long. So I had gone to great lengths to avoid and act cold towards her but the feeling only grew," he added, sitting down in the bubble and slumping his shoulders forward in exhaustion.

My earlier intuition concerning his knowledge of the fact that they were mates all along proved true. Now I understood the repressed attraction that buzzed, feverently, between them. The jealousy, the possessiveness, the need to protect, the conflicting feelings. Dinas' subconscious had always known that he was her mate, she just wasn't developed enough to be able to scent him.

With a twirl of my wrist, the bubble dispersed and released Kiba from its hold. He leant his back against the tree and with one bent knee, closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

"Princess, lone wolves don't have mates right?" He asked, quietly. "This is all still a dream and Dinas' playing a cruel joke on me,"

"I really don't know anymore, Kiba," I sat down next to him and hugged my knees to myself as I watched the reflection of the moon on the euphoric river. "Apparently white-wolves were mated to normal lycanthropes before the separation era. Alpha Kali is a classic example of that along with many others. Now we've always been taught that lone wolves aren't destined with mates but what do you know? You have one," I mused, trying hard to contemplate the oddity. "Or maybe you're an exception just like I am," I joked, laughing dryly.

"I am not an exception and neither are you. This is what has always been, the only difference is that we're just finding out now," he replied in a monotone voice and I looked towards him for deep down I had always thought the exact same thoughts. "My only question is why would the elders lie to us?" He spat out. "Do you know how many "lone wolves" have died alone never once meeting their mates? Heck! It doesn't even matter that they are born in every century. They still face the fate of a forever broken heart," he plucked the grass roughly from under his feet and I placed vine restraints on his wrists to stop his assault.

"Look at me Kiba!" I thundered, grasping his face in my hands and angling it towards me. "I understand your pain alright and I know where your battles lie. How could they never tell me that I had a mate? Why didn't they prepare me for meeting my outside mate who happens to descend from ancestors who caused our forefathers pain? Why this? Why that?" I rambled on as the tears fell freely from his eyes. "I'm pissed as hell too but I understand their reasoning behind it, however, stupid that might sound," I sighed.

"The white-wolves went through much suffering at the hands of the normal lycanthrope race just as you know and their last resort was to distance themselves magically from them. Not only by world but by relation as well lest they all perished. It's a painful past, one that if documented would have surely caused a revolt by subsequent generations who were much stronger. However, in their ever peacekeeping ways they had erased it from our history books and instead replaced it with vague information. We don't even know the full extent of their transgressions and we hate them this much. Imagine if we did,"

These words were thoughts that I had constantly ruminated on for the past few weeks. As I learnt more about their world. Their history documents also contained information on the amiable relationship between normal lycanthropes and white-wolves before the seperation era. However, just like in our case the triggering events behind the era had been either omitted or thorn out. Instead it had been replaced with words that made little sense: They just upped and left. There was more to all this and it was almost as if someone was trying to keep a dark secret buried.

A quiet, lonesome silence descended over us and we both looked onward at the river that flowed, unbothered by the tempest within us.

"What am I going to do now?" He whispered a rhetorical question and I rested my chin on my knees. "I want her so bad but I can't betray the clan and she's probably going to reject me now. Especially after what I said," he choked out in despair.

"Choose your path," I interrupted, still looking ahead as he turned towards me. "Life, I'm learning now, is all about choices. If you want to be with her then be with her and if you don't want to then reject her. But don't for anything be influenced by what the clan thinks. It's not betrayal, it's just destiny. Tell them to blame the shitty Sky Lordians," I kicked the dirt with my foot, absentmindedly, and sighed heavily.

The 'balance of life wheel' that we held dear had been disrupted by the everpresent essence of truth. So at this point it was either we opened up our minds to its utterances and learnt more about the secrets of the erased past or resisted the change and paid dearly for it both emotionally and physically.

It was a choice that I was still struggling to make.

"As a white-wolf and future Alpha of the clan, I didn't think you'd say that," he shook his head in disbelief and gave me a quizzical look.

"Trust me I didn't think I would as well," I shrugged, giving him a fleeting look before I turned my gaze back to the stream. He waited for me to comment further on the matter but only received silence in return.

I had nothing else to say for newer battles had risen up within me upon the discovery of this new information.

If lone wolves were indeed not destined to be alone then this meant that a certain wolf who held the strings to my heart had a mate as well. I was supposed to be overjoyed at this fact. After all, I wouldn't need to be so conflicted anymore and finally I could welcome Aryn, wholly, into the warm abode of my heart. However, the waves of uneasiness that stirred up inside me were contradictory to the order of nature.

Wolves were supposed to feel this way towards their mates and no one else. Or had my heart missed the memo?

The gust of wind that ruffled my hair drew my attention away from my internal deliberations and towards the presence that attacked Kiba. Kiba was caught off guard and coupled with the fact that his energy was somewhat depleted, he didn't stand a chance against the vengeful jabs of Aryn.

The jarring sound of broken bones spurred my speedy ascent from the ground and towards the towering, testosterone-fuelled builds of a crazed Alpha out for blood and a defeated, sombre wolf who took all the vicious hits without any complaint.

"Stop it Aryn!" I screeched, my voice turning hoarse. "You'll hurt him," I cried, wedging myself forcefully between them.

"Oh hurt him?" Aryn mimicked in disgust, breathing heavily as he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to reveal forearms that crackled with electrifying intensity. "What do you think he did to Dina? Huh?" He spat out rounding me in an effort to get to Kiba who was splayed on the forest floor behind me.

"Beating him up to a plump isn't going to change anything. Instead you'll only hurt Dina more," I reasoned, blocking him from getting to Kiba who breathed, laboriously. "Please stop this. He's hurting even more than you think," I continued to implore unto Aryn who kept walking restlessly from side to side in an effort to evade my protective block.

"Yil move," he growled out, dangerously, with dark blue eyes. His wolf was out with malefic intentions. Kiba had crossed a line with his sister and he would make him pay.

"Princess please heed his words, I can take care of myself," Kiba swayed to his feet and pushed me behind his back, protectively, upon hearing Aryn's threatening growl.

His handsome features had been tainted with the scarlet of his life source and disfigured by the broken cheek-bones, angled in odd positions. One of his eyeballs had been glued shut by a thick curdle of blood and the cuts and bruises that lined his exposed chest spoke of the brutality with which he had been dealt with.

Aryn wasted no time in getting him acquainted with his fists once again but I was faster this time and shoved a faint Kiba to the side as I deflected Aryn's hefty blow. The impact disbalanced me, momentarily, from my stance but I fought hard to stand my ground.

"If you need to take out your anger on anyone then fight me," I growled back, realising that with his wolf unleashed, I would never be able to reason with him.

"Princess please don't protect me. I don't deserve it," Kiba pleaded before he gave into a fit of dry coughs.

"Just stay out of this wouldya," I snapped, training my heated gaze on Aryn.

Ava resisted my determination to fight Aryn if push came to shove. However, despite this inner reluctance to go head on with my mate, I also couldn't sit and watch as he hastened Kiba's death. Kiba would love nothing more than that but I wouldn't allow his suicidal thoughts to come to manifest at the hands of Aryn or anyone for that matter, including Kiba himself.

The bloodlust dimed to a throbbing pulse in Aryn's eyes as he finally registered my brazen defiance. We stood facing each other for a span of seconds that felt like an eternity. Otherworldly feelings of animosity overtook the atmosphere between us and settled upon our shoulders with mist-like gentleness. Feelings of rage and hatred brewed gradually within me. Almost as if an apparition had ignited the repressed switch of my wild lycanthropic side.

"Destroy the outside wolf! You finally have reason to. Do to him as he had done to your ancestors," The grim, eerie voice chanted.

"I'm so sorry," Aryn's soft apology wafted, forcefully, into my hypnotic trance and I blinked my eyes to rid myself of the presence that had taken root in my thoughts. "I didn't mean to hit you," he moved cautiously towards me but stopped a few paces away from where I stood when he met my eyes.

The erratic beating of my heart drew my attention to my predatory stance, tightly fisted palms and elongated fangs. No doubt, my facial features had been distorted to resemble the crazed look of a murderer. The fight reaction of my body to Aryn's threat had been instantaneous. Therefore, plunging my instincts into the depths of a ravenous fire.

The disconcerting part was that under normal circumstances, I would never react like that.

"Please just stop all this," I exhaled, tiredly, retracting my fangs and straightening my hunched stance. "There's no denying the fact that he hurt Dina but no amount of beating is going to change that," I covered the distance between us and touched his arm, lightly. "And despite what you might think of my protectiveness of him, the fact stands that you would never understand that by virtue of us coming here, there have been internal battles that have awoken in us that we face. And for that, as absurd as it sounds, you have no right to inflict so much pain on him," I whispered, holding his gaze.

I could sense his confusion and feel his unspoken need to understand the clearer meaning behind my words. However, I wasn't sure if I was ready to divulge such information to him.

"I might not understand whatever battles he faces but I'll have to disagree with you on one point," he ground out through a clenched jaw as he resisted the urge to tackle Kiba who was behind me. "I have every right to inflict as much pain as I want on him because not only did he hurt Dina emotionally but now she's having a crisis and it's all because of him," he growled, menacingly, training his gaze on Kiba who stood alert at the revelation.

I finally understood the motivation behind his actions. He had explained all about the regressing lycanthropes to me and had stressed on the fact that they experienced bouts of excruciating crises that often times determined whether they survived or not. In short, Dina was in a critical state at the moment and looking back at Kiba's worried look, I could tell that he understood quite well what this meant.

He could lose his mate and not to rejection but to death.

"Where is she at the moment?" Kiba fretted, disregarding the fact that he and Aryn were not on friendly terms.

"Funny you should ask," Aryn chuckled, darkly. "I don't want you near her ever again and if not for Yil, you would be dead or out of my pack right this minute," he enforced, baring his fang. "Take it that you don't have a mate because she'll never be yours not after what you've done. In fact you'll never be accepted," he seethed, flaring his nostrils before he turned around abruptly and walked off towards the pack house.

Kiba fell with his knees to the ground and plunged his fingers into the sand as he shifted right before me. Shaking himself free of his thorn clothes, he rose his snout to the moon and howled, mournfully before bounding deep into the forest.

"Kiba wait!" I called out but he was long gone.

The day had taken an unlikely route, one that I would never have envisaged in a million years. I understood the pain he was going through perfectly well and I knew that shifting into my wolf and running after him would do more harm than good. Therefore, against my better judgment, I trudged back towards the pack house.

He needed to be alone and as much as it pained me to think of what he might do to hurt himself further, I let him be. He had to face his afflictions.

"Yil, where have you been?" Llyod met me by the stairs and hugged me, hurriedly. "In fact, what the hell is going..." she started before she caught sight of my soiled gown. "What happened to you?" She asked, alarmed. "Did you get hurt? Who dared to lay a finger on my Luna? Just give me a name and their goners," she rambled on, dusting off my gown, frantically.

"Lloyd, I'm fine. I promise," I waved off, bunching up the gown in my hands so that I could make the last ascent to the landing of the first floor. "How's Dina? Hope her condition has stabilised?" I steered the conversation away from me and towards the source of my anxiety.

"The pack doctors won't let me into her room and Alpha Aryn is being very silent on the matter but I overhead them saying that she is much better for now," she sighed. "Why is all this happening anyway? Everyone was happy a few hours ago but then I went away for just a little while and when I came back to check on the clean-up progress, I found Dina experiencing a vicious seizure in her room with Alpha Aryn running around nervously. Not knowing what to do," she hyperventilated and I pulled her to me for a hug. "I sincerely thought she was going to die," she sniffled, her voice muffled against my shoulder.

"It's alright, okay. Just breathe. She's going to be fine," I pacified, petting her hair, slowly.

"But what triggered the reaction? She's never had a crisis that bad before," she disengaged herself from the hug to look at me for answers.

"I'll tell you all about what happened tomorrow when you are rested," I promised and seeing that she sought to argue, I added. "We all need to be in top shape for her and that's not possible if we aren't rested. It's been a long day and trust me all I want to tell you can wait till tomorrow,"

I hoped that she would let it fall at that and thankfully, she nodded and silently agreed to my plan. I hugged her one last time and we both parted ways as I walked towards Aryn's room. On my way to the double mahogany doors, I passed Dinas' room and from the slightly parted doors, I caught sight of the intravenous drip that was attached to her.

The room had been converted to a mini hospital ward as the heart monitor continued to give off rhythmic beeps and the ventilator strapped to her face continued to fog up with oxygen. Pack members in lab coats moved about with rapid steps and talked in hushed tones. A brunette she-wolf with a straight back and a serious expression caught my gaze and with a forced, clinical smile aimed at putting me at ease, she closed the door.

I continued my walk towards the double doors in silence and getting in, I shrugged out of my soiled gown and took a slow bath. The days events flittered past my closed eyelids and I sighed heavily at how the sunny, bright day had been overshadowed by such gloom. Once the water had turned cold, I got out of the bathtub and changed into Aryn's oversized t-shirt. I had gotten proper nightgowns on our shopping trip, however, nothing beat the comforting aurora of the black cotton piece of clothing. Unconsciously, I took a deep whiff of his scent and smiled.

"I take it that I'm never getting that shirt back," Aryn rumbled from the shadows. I had not switched on the room lights, content to bask in the moonlight glow. Taking a few steps out of the ensuite bathroom, I traced the sound of his voice to the foot of the bed and rolled my eyes.

"Whenever you want your baggy t-shirt just let me know," I sassed, letting the neck of the shirt fall from my nose.

"I'll keep that in mind," he replied in a sultry tone, watching my every movement from his position on the bed.

I moved to switch on the bedside lamp so that I could discern where exactly he was seated on the bed when he pulled me, gently, towards him with a grab of my outstretched wrists.

"I'm sorry once again for hitting you," he apologized with a sombre tone as he hugged me to himself with his head against my stomach. "I was blinded by rage and when Dina went into a seizure I just lost it. I was afraid I'd lose her," he choked out, showing his vulnerable side to me.

I caressed the root of his scalp in a soothing massage and allowed a moment of silence to pass before I replied. "It's okay Aryn, I understand the reason behind your earlier actions. I would do the exact same if I was in your shoes," I admitted. "Dina will be alright. I'm sure of that. She's after all a Vanquez and you guys have one of the most resilient genes," I joked and he chuckled, lightly.

"Of course," he agreed. "However, most regressing lycanthropes don't live up to sixteen and she broke that cycle. I'm starting to think that even our superb genes won't save her from death," he sighed. "I mean she has only been sixteen for some hours and she's already having a crisis. It might have been triggered by her weak wolf's despair, concerning Kiba's rejection, but even I know that this was inevitable," he confided his fears to my patient ears and I continued on with my soothing massage in silence.

"Yil I need you now more than ever. Not just me but the whole regressing lycanthrope race. Only a white-wolf can save them," he raised his head and looked up at me with hopeful eyes. "I'm not sure of how this will be accomplished but Hunter, the pack druid, is certain that it is possible to reverse the effects of the diminishing gene in current regressing lycanthropes as well as the future generation of normal lycantropes," he explained. "But of course you have the choice..." he started but I cut him off.

"I'll do it," I announced. "You've fulfilled your part of the bargain by stopping your search for my clan so it's only right that I fulfil my part. Besides after spending some time here at your pack and experiencing the hospitality that your members have consistently shown me then I'd love nothing more than to help you wherever I can," I proclaimed, softly.

"You really mean it?" He questioned in disbelief, probably expecting that I'd refuse especially after what he had done to Kiba. I nodded in the affirmative and he smiled, gratefully, before he looked at me again with a serious expression. "So after helping my pack out, will you be going back? Seeing as this was all on a contract basis," the hurt in his tone was repressed, cleverly, but I had spent so much time with him to be able to tell when his moods changed. "Did we ever even have anything real?" He whispered.

"Of course we formed a pretty tight friendship. That's progress," I refuted, smiling as an intense heat settled at the base of my abdomen.

"As much as I appreciate that progress, friendship is not what I want and if my heated stares aren't any indication of that, then I don't know anymore," he rumbled, pulling me towards him as he placed a soft kiss by my nape.

The action caused a surge of intense heat up my cervix and I jolted at the contact.

"Whoa tigress. I promise I don't bite unless you want me to," he murmured, chuckling before he inhaled my scent. "I really want to go as slow as possible with you but I can't do that if you're driving both Adolf and I insane," he growled, grazing my nape with his fang.

"I don't know what you're talking about but you're making me hot," I breathed, pushing him away as the heat became too unbearable.

"Fine then princess, two can play that innocent game," he smirked before he tackled me to the bed.

"Aryn for real let go," I whined as the heat kept burning up within me before it gradually subsided as Aryn spooned me from the back.

"I just want us to stay like this for a moment. It's my desperate attempt to get myself out of the friendzone," he joked, wrapping his arms around me.

"You didn't ask for permission so that's one strike. Then you forcely tackled me unto the bed, that's strike two. And that's not even the final offence, you also dared to..." I rambled on nervously as I tried to calm my racing heart at his closeness but his soft snore cut off my statement.

I turned around, slowly, in his arms and faced him. His curly hair had fallen unto his face and parting it away, I traced his features with the tip of my fingers and smiled, softly. He was so cute when he was asleep.

"Sweet dreams Arynator," I whispered his nickname before placing a peck on his forehead. Then I got up, gingerly, from the bed and went in search of a desperately needed item.

Locating its icy cold package behind the fridge, I placed it to my abdomen before my legs gave way resulting in me slumping down towards the kitchen floor. The feeling was very new to me and I couldn't quite place my hand on a plausible explanation.

The world around me spinned, continuously, as I became dizzy with each passing second. Images of a joyful Rae and his dashing mate whirled along my vision and I almost puked at the depiction. It was too revolting. I tried to wave off the holographic visualizations from my line of sight but I was too weak to lift even a finger. I needed Aryn but he was far off from where I lay, breathing through the pain.

What would he even think if he woke up alone and found me here, hugging an ice pack like my life depended on it?

He'd be shattered, no doubt, at the fact that I had left his side even after he had opened up about his feelings towards me.

In this situation it was safe to conclude that I didn't deserve both Aryn or Rae. I was too selfish and for that I was suffering the consequences.
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