Chapter 8

“Dylan,” I said, stepping in between him and the guy slumped in the floor.

Dylan’s dark eyes turned to me for a second, before shifting back to the stranger. Although the music was still going on loud, we had attracted the attention of people around us. I could see Jace and John and a few other members of the pack making their way towards us.

“You’re here,” I whispered against Dylan’s ear, pressing myself closer to his chest, trying to distract him.

Dylan wrapped an arm around me. I expected him to say something back, but he just picked me up from the ground and easily moved me out of his way.

“Dylan, stop,” I urged, tugging on his arm to get him to back off.

I kept trying to pull him back, but Dylan was stronger than me. He walked towards the stranger with inhuman speed, and punched the guy’s jaw with more force than he needed to use on a human.

I quickly ran towards Dylan. Jace and John circled around him and the other guy, who was just lying there, unconscious.

“Dylan, you need to calm down,” I said, crouching down on the ground, next to him.

Dylan closed his eyes, which were much too dark for my comfort. His canines were out, his claws had extracted, and he was breathing hard.

We all waited tensely to see what Dylan would do. He needed to calm down. He couldn’t go Wolf in the middle of a place full with humans.

“Leila,” Dylan growled breathlessly.

I wrapped my arms around his neck as best as I could. Jace, John, and Eric stood up from the ground, but their eyes were concentrated on us.

“We should get out of here,” John spoke up.

They created a wall around us, hiding us from the eyes of the humans. I was going to tell Jace to help me convince Dylan to leave, but Dylan spoke before I did.

“I’m fine,” Dylan finally said, getting up from the ground and picking me up from him.

If the situation hadn’t been so nerve wrecking, I would’ve laughed when Dylan kicked the human guy that was still on the ground out cold. John, Jace, and Eric waited until Dylan started walking away before scattering.

Dylan’s grip on my waist was really tight. I could feel his claws sinking into me, ripping through my dress. I was glad that at least his canines were hidden.

When we reached the second floor, we had the eyes of every pack member on us. Jace had followed closely behind. When he noticed Dylan sat on one of the couches around a small table, he finally relaxed.

“The Alpha’s here!” Jace yelled.

After Jace did that, everyone began relaxing. Although I was surprised when they cheered, I felt Dylan’s tense body calming down by my side.

“I can feel him,” Dylan growled against my ear.

I didn’t complain when he wrapped his arm around my waist and brought me over his lap, pressing me impossibly close to his chest.

“The human?” I asked, frowning.

From where we were, we could see some of the dance floor, but not the area where the human had been left.

“No, I can feel my Wolf. He wants out,” Dylan replied, squeezing my waist roughly.

I nestled my head in his neck, nuzzling my nose against his skin.

“Calm down,” I whispered, blowing my breath softly against his ear.

I could hear him trying to steady his breathing. His heart was still pounding too fast in his chest, but he seemed to be calming down.

I ran my hand over his chest in a soothing motion. I smiled when Dylan groaned, and shuffled me around so that I was straddling his waist.

I was glad that the area we were sitting in was darker than the rest, but I knew that if any of the Werewolves wanted to see us, they would be able too.

“I don’t like this dress,” Dylan grunted.

I was surprised when an oversized jacket was suddenly placed around my back.

“Where did you get this from?”

I would’ve fought with him about it, but I knew I couldn’t. He was still too worked up and his Wolf was at bay. Any little thing would trigger a shift and that was the last thing I wanted.

“After Jace told me to come, I spoke to John. He warned me to keep calm when I saw you. I didn’t think he was talking about how you were dressed until I saw you in this,” he said, pulling on a piece of the dress.

“I think it’s nice,” I said, defensively.

“It’s sexy,” Dylan surprised me by saying.

He bit down on my shoulder, his teeth lightly grazing my skin.

“Too sexy for you to be out in public,” Dylan continued, while sliding his hand over my thigh, under my dress.

I let out a small moan and snuggled closer to his chest.

“You ran away from me.” His voice sounded huskier, like it did when his Wolf wanted out.

“I didn’t run away.”

“You came here without permission.”

“Permission from you?” I asked, laughing.

Dylan cocked an eyebrow at me and gave me a curt nod.

“It’s Eric’s birthday.”

“You could’ve told me about it,” Dylan said.

“You knew it was his birthday.”

“Yes, but I didn’t know you were planning to sneak out in the middle of the night.”

“I didn’t think you’d let me out if I told you about it,” I admitted, shyly.

Being so close to Dylan gave my mind other ideas, none of which included fighting with him. I could tell the way I was sitting on his lap was having an effect on Dylan too. It didn’t help that I was wearing a dress, which made me more exposed to him.

“I wouldn’t have minded if I knew that other members were coming. I don’t have anything against celebrations, Leila,” Dylan said, in a reprimanding tone.

I groaned, and bumped my forehead against his lightly.

“Now you make me sound like a bad person,” I said.

Dylan chuckled huskily, and he brushed his lips against mine for a second.

“I want to know where you are at all times. I need to know that you’re safe,” Dylan said, in his Alpha voice.

“I know,” I sighed. “I won’t do it again.”

Dylan laughed at my words, loudly. The Wolves that were around us turned to look at us. Dylan didn’t seem to mind. He looked carefree, and I was enjoying that.

“I don’t think you will ever stop running from me. You like to do that,” he said, playfully.

“Maybe I like having you chasing me,” I suggested, smiling at him teasingly.

Dylan smirked at me, while running his hands slowly up and down my sides.

“I like a good chase,” he said, before crashing his lips against mine.

We took a few more shots throughout the night. After Dylan arrived, most if not all of the pack remained on the second floor. Although it was private, it had been occupied by other humans.

Somehow, Jace and John managed to get every single human out. Around half an hour after Dylan’s arrival, the second floor had become exclusive to our pack.

Dylan had a drink in his hand most of the night. I had a few fruity drinks, but most of them either had no alcohol or hardly any of it.

I didn’t move from my spot on Dylan’s lap throughout the night. We were both asked to dance with the rest of the pack, who had made a small dance floor after moving the couches and low tables out of the way.

It was well over midnight, but everyone seemed to be really awake. Even Dylan, who had been chatting with members of the pack, seemed excited. People from the pack were enjoying that Dylan was in a more approachable mood.

Once in a while he would stop talking, and just focus on me. I liked those moments best. He would start with some teasing, like biting my lower lip or sucking on his faded bite mark in my neck. Dylan knew what that did to me, and it seemed like he enjoyed it.

“We should go back to Midnight Moon and wrap this party up over there,” Jace said, grinning down at us.

“More?” Eric asked.

He had been drinking, but I was glad it was nothing compared to how he’d been before. At least he wasn’t drunk.

“We should have a cake,” Lilly, John’s mate, proposed.

“A cake sounds good,” I added.

“What about tomorrow?” Eric asked, referring to our trip to Locus Pack.

“We’ll leave later in the day. Don’t worry about it,” Dylan reassured him.

I wasn’t the only one left in shock with Dylan’s words. We all assumed that at the mention of the trip, Dylan would tell everyone to wrap things up and call it a night. He was usually very diplomatic, prioritizing when it came to pack plans.

“Then to your house it is,” Jace said, grinning down at Dylan.

I was surprised when everyone made it to the mansion. Hardly anyone had gone home. I was glad that they seemed happy. I wanted them to have a good time. Although the plans had been for cake, Jace and Eric stopped by and bought a bunch of other snacks.

Lilly took over setting things up in the kitchen, and helping Eric cut the cake. Dylan and I mainly stood around, while everyone else found a place around the mansion.

“At what time are we leaving?” I asked Dylan, lazily resting my back against his chest.

Dylan was carrying most of my weight. I had already lost the heels, just like most of the other girls. We were all walking around barefoot. Some of the guys had even shifted into their Wolves, mainly to play fight one another. Only Dylan and a few others were still in dressy clothes.

I couldn’t deny that I enjoyed looking at him. His hair was sticking up all over the place, because I kept running my hands through it when we were at the club, but his clothes were still neat.

“We were supposed to leave at six in the morning,” Dylan calmly replied.

“What?”

He smiled down at me and pecked my lips. “Not anymore,” he assured me. “I know you don’t like waking up early.”

I rolled my eyes at him when he made that comment.

“Why would I wake up early? I have nothing to do,” I shrugged.

“And you don’t like that?”

“I’m simply stating that there’s no reason for me to wake up early if all I do is sit around the house all day waiting for you to get home, only to sit around all day after you do get here.”

Dylan shook his head and tightened his arms around my stomach.

“As long as you stay within Midnight Moon territory, you can go wherever you want,” Dylan said, against my ear, before kissing my neck.

“You say that now.”

“I mean it.”

I shook my head at him. There was no point in arguing with him about it.

It was almost three in the morning by the time Dylan and I went to bed. Eric, Jace, Scott, and a few others were still awake, drinking and joking around.

Some of the other Wolves had slept over. It was a strange arrangement, but somehow, it made me happy. I liked that they were there. It was the liveliest I had ever seen the mansion.

“You didn’t tell me at what time we were leaving. I want to give myself enough time to get ready,” I told him.

“Get ready for what?” Dylan asked, frowning.

I hadn’t bothered to change when I jumped into bed. I only took my dress off and slipped on one Dylan’s shirts.

Dylan was still dressed, and he was staring down at me expectantly.

“I want to dress nicely. I’m not about to meet a pack looking like I overslept and possibly have a hangover,” I commented, thinking that it was just how Eric and Jace were going to look.

“You hardly drank.”

“Still, I want to look nice. I’m kind of excited,” I admitted.

I hadn’t been excited before. I knew what the visit meant. Caine and Dylan would have all the time in the world to plan every which way they would attack Knight Pack.

“You don’t have to look nice for anyone,” Dylan said, still frowning at me.

“You’re getting jealous, already?” I asked, teasingly.

Dylan got on the bed and swept me up in his arms. Somehow I ended up straddling his waist, while he lied down fully on the bed.

“You’re mine,” he growled, tightening his arms around me.

I hovered over him, teasing him yet not lowering myself enough for him to reach me.

“I’m all yours,” I replied, before bringing my lips down on his.

I was the first one in the mansion to wake up. Dylan was still peacefully sleeping next to me, and everyone else in the house was quiet.

‘Wake up!’ I yelled in my mind, opening my mind link to Jace and Eric.

I heard growls coming from down stairs, and easily distinguished them as a very annoyed and slightly pissed off Jace and Eric.

I chuckled when Eric started cursing, which woke Dylan up.

“It’s almost nine,” I said, running my hand over his bare arm.

Dylan nodded at me, and closed his eyes for a few seconds.

“It’s late.”

It was almost ten in the morning when we finally got on the road.

Dylan’s parents had been there to say goodbye to us. Both Benjamin, Dylan’s dad, and John were going to take over while Dylan and I were away.

As usual, Jace was driving, Eric took the passenger seat, and Dylan and I sat in the back.

We had two black SUVs in front of us and two behind us, each filled with four Wolves.

I didn’t think we needed so many Wolves to travel, but Dylan cut me off before I even tried to change his mind. When he explained why we were traveling with such a big party, I was left speechless.

Dylan told me that Derek, one of the two Alphas of Knight Pack, was around Locus Territory. Caine hadn’t been able to get rid of him.

Even though the plan was to attack Derek at one point, Caine didn’t want to do it just yet.

When I tried to ask Dylan more about it, he just shut me out and changed the subject. Typical.

“Are you okay, Eric?” I asked him. He looked like he was ready to doze off.

Jace laughed at my question, and looked at me through the rearview mirror.

“We went to sleep like at five in the morning,” Jace said.

While Dylan chuckled at his words, I moved in between the driver and passenger seat, to get a better look at Eric.

“You want to sleep in the back?” I asked him.

“I’m fine,” he mumbled, before groaning. “I just have a killer headache.”

“Did you take anything?”

“No,” he replied, closing his eyes.

I sat back, and started rummaging through the very back seat, where my bag and our suitcases were at. Once I had my bag, which was filled up with anything I thought I might need for the trip, I sat back down next to Dylan.

“What are you doing?” Dylan asked.

Jace turned back to look at me. Eric was the only one who seemed like he just wanted to go back to bed. He had dark bags under his eyes, and he looked really tired. I didn’t like it.

“Looking for some aspirin,” I replied.

I had been about to dump the contents of my bag in the seat, when my hands landed on the small container where I kept some of the contraceptive pills the pack doctor had given me.

Lately, I hadn’t been using them. They had been my very first option, but I had changed them for the injection. It had been a while since I had last used that bigger purse— it had slipped my mind that I was even carrying them.

“What is that?” Dylan asked, reaching out for the container.

I put it back in the bag, and moved it out of his way.

“It’s my stuff,” I defensively snapped.

Dylan cocked an eyebrow at me, giving me a questioning look. Even though he couldn’t guess what was running through my mind, I felt like he would somehow find the pills.

“Did you find the aspirin?” He asked.

“I’m still looking for them,” I replied, and continued to look through the bag, while making sure that Dylan didn’t see the contents of it.

I had another small container with the same pills at the house. I had forgotten to get rid of them.

Dylan kept his eyes on me, which only helped to make me more nervous. He must’ve heard my heart rate picking up, and my hands had gotten slightly shaky.

“Found them,” I muttered, trying to steady my hand as I passed them to Eric.

Eric took four pills, even though I told him to only take two. He then passed them to Jace, who took two of them.

“You look wide awake,” I told Jace, smiling his way.

“It didn’t get to me as much,” Jace said, giving Eric a sideways glace. “But then again, I hadn’t been drinking all day yesterday.”

Eric grunted and shook his head.

“I learned my lesson,” he said.

“You said the same thing yesterday,” I reminded him.

He told me he wasn’t going to drink anymore after the hangover he’d gotten. Now he was in the same position.

“Well I mean it this time.”

By the time we made it to Locus Territory, it was already late in the afternoon. The trip should’ve taken a lot longer. If it weren’t for the fact that the guys sped any chance that they got, we would’ve done hours more on the trip.

“Alpha Dylan,” a guy said when Dylan lowered the window on his side.

I didn’t know who he was, because I hadn’t seen him before, but I could tell he had a rank. His Wolf was exuding power, even in his human form.

“Victor,” Dylan nodded.

“Luna,” Victor said, lowering his head.

“Hello,” I greeted, nodding at him once.

“Caine is waiting for you. We have Wolves in different posts. You can tell your men to take it slow from here to the mansion,” Victor said.

Dylan nodded at him, and signaled Jace to move forward.

“That was Victor. He’s the Beta of Locus Pack,” Dylan told me.

“And a hardass,” Jace added, laughing.

It took us another while to reach Caine’s house. We might’ve done less time if our cars hadn’t been driving about ten to fifteen miles per hour.

Just as Victor said, there were Wolves on several parts of the territory. Each of them nodded when our truck passed in front of them.

“Will you two be in meeting tonight?” Jace asked Dylan.

Dylan turned to look at me after Jace’s question. It seemed like he didn’t want to say anything about his plans with Caine in front of me.

“Will you?” I asked.

“I want to get planning as soon as we can,” Dylan answered.

“Eric,” Dylan called.

Eric, who had woken up a little while ago, turned back to us.

“You and Scott will stay with Leila during the visit. No Wolf gets near her, whether he belongs to Locus Pack or not. Caine tells me he had trespassers a few days ago. We will be cautious.” His voice was a firm order, and a warning to all of us.

“Leila,” Dylan said, sighing loudly.

“I know, I need to behave,” I said, rolling my eyes at him.

“Do as you please, you always do,” Dylan said, shaking his head at me.

“No I don’t,” I retorted.

“Yeah you do,” Jace interrupted, grinning back at me.

I glared at him, but Dylan’s growl got my attention.

“I don’t want you running off. You are to stay by Eric’s side at all times, especially if I am not there. This isn’t like home. We aren’t in Midnight Moon.”

“I know that!” I snapped.

“Good, then we won’t have any problems,” Dylan said.

He took my hand in his, and kissed it.

“I want this trip to go by smoothly. I’m not expecting any fights to break out, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen. We have to be ready for anything.”

“I know,” I mumbled.

“We’re here,” Dylan said, just as the road started to clear up, and Caine’s house came into view.

The set up for his place was very much like ours. The only difference was that his mansion was made up of darker colors. The front area was much more intimidating than ours as well.

Even before getting off of the truck, I could see Caine. Wolves were standing at different points of the front area, but all for security purposes.

Some shifters, who I imagined were some of his fighters, were standing directly behind him. Victor, his Beta, had taken a spot on Caine’s right, about a foot behind him.

No one was on his left, which should’ve been the position of his third in command. I didn’t see any other girl around either.

‘Where is his mate?’ I asked Dylan through our mind link.

Dylan’s eyes roamed the area, before a frown took over his features.

‘She should have been here,’ Dylan said, shaking his head disapprovingly.

“Dylan,” Caine greeted, walking towards us.

He and Dylan hugged, before Caine turned towards me.

“Luna,” Caine said, bowing his head at me respectfully.

“Caine,” I greeted back, offering him a warm smile.

Caine greeted some of the members from our pack that he recognized, while ours started saying hello to some of his members. It seemed like the packs were familiar with each other. The last and only time I had seen Caine, I had been more worried about Nicolas and Jackson.

“How was the trip?” Caine asked.

While Caine and Dylan started up a conversation, I noticed some of our pack members were talking with Locus shifters.

“My mate will be here shortly,” Caine said, more to me than to Dylan.

“Congratulations,” I said. “Dylan told me you had found her.”

“I did— a few weeks ago. Thank you,” he said, sounding very formal.

I had noticed that Caine was usually serious, so I was starting to get used to that.

‘His mate is starting to remind me of you,’ Eric said to me in my mind.

I turned to look at him, raising an eyebrow.

‘She isn’t here yet. Remind you of anyone?’ He finished, and grinned at me.

‘I’m always on time,’ I retorted, playfully.

‘That is if you aren’t running away.’

It was almost ten minutes later when a girl started making her way towards us. She had to be Caine’s mate. Slowly, she started attracting the attention of everyone around us.

My eyes, just like everybody else’s, were on her as soon as she came to stand by Caine. She was nothing like I imagined, even though I didn’t know what I had expected.

For some reason, I though Caine’s mate would be tall and intimidating, just like he was.

“Charlotte,” Caine said, looking down at his mate disapprovingly.

He kept calm about her tardiness, and I figured that was a good sign.

Caine wrapped his arm around her waist, and she was smiling up at him. When they did that, I felt Dylan tightening his hold on me.

‘I love you,’ he said to me in my mind.

I looked up at him, and smiled teasingly.

‘I love you too,’ I replied.

It felt like he was mainly doing it because Caine and his mate were staring at each other lovingly.

“This is my mate, Charlotte,” Caine introduced, finally breaking eye contact with his mate.

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