Chapter 7

I turned around and started running up the stairs to our room.

I felt him walking behind me, his heavy footsteps making me aware of how close he was. As soon as I got to our room, I shut the door and locked it.

My emotions once again got the best of me and I started crying tears of anger. This time my Wolf was on my side. She felt hurt by the way her mate treated her, even when we hadn’t done anything.

My chest hurt, which made it harder to control the tears rolling down my cheeks. Dylan was banging outside the door, telling me to open it.

I sat down on the edge of the bed and allowed myself to weep. I hated how out of control my emotions were.

Since Dylan marked me last night, I spent all my time crying, craving his company, or making out with him.

Dylan was threatening to break down the door if I didn’t open it. I was preoccupied with feeling depressed, that I paid no attention to him.

With one hard push, Dylan managed to break the lock and come into the room. He was about to yell at me, when he caught on to my state.

He abruptly stopped himself from yelling and I almost laughed at how funny his expression looked.

Seeing Dylan, made my Wolf almost shift. In the past week, I had only shifted two times for about twenty minutes each. I hadn’t made time to go for a run and I knew if I didn’t take control of my Wolf, I would shift.

Dylan standing in front of me, in the state I was in, caused mixed emotions with my Wolf and me. She wanted to be with her mate, but still felt upset by his words from earlier.

“Leila, what’s wrong?” Dylan asked softly as he kneeled in front of me and positioned himself in between my legs. I shook my head and looked away from his gaze.

In the background, I heard Dylan talking to me. But my mind was numb. I ignored him and moved away to lie down on the bed.

I was facing opposite from where Dylan was at. He moved himself to lay down behind me. I felt his arm around my waist and he pressed me closer to his body.

“I want you so much. I want to have an assurance that you are mine and no one will come between us,” Dylan said, as he started stroking the side of my waist.

“How could you possibly think that what happened downstairs was flirting?” I asked him, my voice sounding shaky.

“Jace is my best friend. I have known him my entire life. He’s a good guy,” Dylan said, now moving away from me.

I turned to face him and searched his face for answers. He no longer looked mad, jealous, or apologetic. Dylan looked serious.

“If you know he’s a good guy, then why are you so upset?” I questioned him, feeling confused.

“It is because of that, that I fear him the most when it comes to you,” Dylan solemnly replied.

“What are you talking about?” I asked him, as I placed my hand on the side of his face.

“Any other guy in the pack wouldn’t consider going after you. I know Jace wouldn’t either because he respects me and we have been best friends our entire life. But if anyone had a shot at stealing you from me, it would be Jace. I can see the way he looks at you,” Dylan finished saying. His eyes were turning dark, but it was caused by anger this time.

“Nothing will ever happen between Jace and me,” I assured him, with a small smile.

“I know that. I would never allow it,” Dylan replied.

He grabbed both my wrists on his hands and laid me down on the bed, getting on top of me in the process.

“You are mine,” Dylan stated, as he crashed his lips on mine roughly. In the kiss I felt all the jealousy he felt for Jace and how possessive he was of me.

It was late in the afternoon when we left the room and went downstairs to eat. I was starving and from the sounds of it, Dylan was too.

“It’s your entire fault,” I told Dylan while we sat in the dining room eating spaghetti I had prepared.

“How is it my fault? I hardly do anything to you,” Dylan defended himself.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but ever since you claimed me, I’ve been a river of tears,” I told him.

“You know, I noticed you had been… different all day. I thought it was because you missed your home or something like that,” Dylan replied, looking thoughtful.

“Well, I do, but I’m sure it’s not that.” I quickly answered, trying to divert the subject from getting back to my home.

“So you think the mark is causing all this?” Dylan asked, raising his eyebrows.

“I’m sure of it. Not only that, if I’m not crying, I have spent the rest of the day making out with you,” I told him as I ate a meatball.

“Now that, I did notice,” Dylan said, smirking.

“Of course you would notice that,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

“With us making out all day, I assumed you had finally come to grips about being mates and needing to be together.”

“Well, it has. The main reason is because you claimed me.”

“Me claiming you is a good thing. I took my time doing it, you should be glad I didn’t claim you right after we met,” he said, in a condescending tone.

“You’re a jerk,” I replied, while glaring at him.

“It’s supposed to happen,” Dylan said after silence had fallen between us.

“What is?” I questioned, not understanding what he meant.

“My dad told me that after he claimed my mom, she didn’t want to be away from him.”

“Yeah? And what did they do?” I asked, now curious to know more about his family.

“They mated the day after,” Dylan casually replied, shrugging.

“What?” I asked, almost choking on my food.

“And, even though I really didn’t want to know, my parents said that after they mated, it was hard to stop… mating,” Dylan finished saying, uncomfortably.

I looked at him a little scared and completely surprised.

I knew a lot about mates, but there were some things I had chosen not to find out about.

I had seen my parents, and they were really close. I should have expected Dylan and me to be really close, maybe even more than my parents since we had just met. Our Wolves would want to be together all the time to celebrate that they found each other.

“Regular Wolves have a very strong bond with their mates. Alphas, they practically become the same person. I have no idea why, but you emit power. It’s almost like if your bloodline is of an Alpha or a Beta,” Dylan said, looking too curious for my liking.

Since I met him, he hadn’t straight up asked about my past, but lately, he’d been dropping hints. He wanted to know where I came from and who I really was.

I wasn’t ready for that yet.

“Can we go for a run?” I asked Dylan while we sat in the living room watching a movie.

“You want to go out?” Dylan looked surprised as he asked that.

“I haven’t been for a run and my Wolf wants to be let out,” I told him, shrugging.

“Let’s go right now,” he said, getting up and pulling me with him.

“Okay,” I replied, as we made our way to the front door.

“If you don’t want us to run into the pack, I know a route where they are not allowed to be in,” he explained.

“Actually, I have another space in mind,” I told him, a smile playing on my lips.

“You do?” Dylan asked me, frowning.

“The second day I got here, Jace took me for a run in the space between this pack and the neighboring one,” I told Dylan, with a grin on my face.

Just thinking about running there had me really excited. I wanted to let my Wolf out, but more than anything, I wanted to swim in the beautiful lake.

“Why were you and Jace there?” Dylan asked.

He had been heading toward the forest, but now had completely stopped to look at me.

“I told you. We went for a run.”

“Why hadn’t you told me that?”

“I didn’t think it was important. All we did was run, swim, and then come back,” I told him, feeling annoyed. He was starting again with the same thing about Jace and me.

“You two went swimming in the lake?” Dylan asked, sounding outraged.

“Was there anybody else with you?” He questioned, clenching his jaw.

“No, we were alone. But we didn’t do anything,” I said casually, trying to not let his jealousy get to me.

“If anything happened while you were there, I want to know now rather than be surprised later,” Dylan told me.

He was pretending to be fine, but I could see right through him. I decided that it was now or never. Besides, Jace and I really hadn’t taken our relationship far.

“There was never anything between Jace and me, but,” I let the sentence hang, trying to find the best way to tell Dylan.

“But what?” He asked, starting to shake from anger.

“Jace proposed we start something. He wanted me to ask you permission to stay. And- we kissed,” I told him, honestly.

“So you lied to me? To cover up what you two did?” Dylan’s shaking got worse and I knew he would shift at any moment.

“We didn’t do anything else, and besides, I had already told Jace I didn’t want anything to do with him,” I defended myself.

“I am going to kill him,” Dylan said as he started walking toward the road.

“No, you’re not,” I stated, catching up to him and wrapping my hand around his wrist.

“Why are you defending him?” He asked, with an accusing tone.

“I am defending him because Jace and I didn’t do anything. And if we had, that would’ve been before I met you.”

“You are mine!” Dylan yelled.

“You will only ever be with me,” he said while grabbing me by the waist.

He pressed me closer to him and started kissing me roughly. I felt his Wolf within him, trying to show his mate who was in charge.

When he pulled away from me, I was out of breath, yet Dylan looked unaffected.

“If I see Jace talk to you in a different way than a Beta to his Alpha, if I see him try to touch you, or if he even looks at you in a way that I don’t like- I am kicking him out of the pack,” Dylan threatened.

He looked deadly serious so I simply nodded my head and followed him to the car. In my mind all I was thinking was ‘plan escape from my crazy Alpha mate’ was back in session.

We got to the lake just before the sun was setting. Dylan and I had been running for almost an hour, and I wanted a break. I hid behind a tree and changed back into my shorts and singlet.

I was sitting down on the edge where the lake started. Dylan still hadn’t changed into his human form, so I was admiring his wolf. He was a pure black Wolf, bigger than any I had seen before.

Even Alpha Nicolas or the Alpha from my former pack weren't as big as Dylan’s Wolf. My Wolf was feeling pride in how strong Dylan was.

I was resting my back against him. After about twenty minutes, he started moving around. I moved away and Dylan got up and left into the woods. He came back a minute later in human form.

He wasn’t wearing a shirt, so I got a chance to marvel his muscular chest.

“Do you want to go for a swim?” Dylan asked me as I sat in between his legs, on the ground.

“It’s cold,” I told him, shaking my head.

Dylan chuckled and pressed me closer to him.

We left home from the lake almost at midnight. As soon as I hit the bed, I fell asleep. It had been a tiring day and the emotional rollercoaster had worn me out.

I woke up the next day and Dylan was gone. It was unusual to have him leave without waking me up, but I let it go. He usually left when he was taking care of pack business.

When I reached downstairs, Eric and John were sitting in the living room, watching TV. They turned to look at me and lowered their gazes.

When I looked down, I noticed I was still in my pajamas that weren’t exactly appropriate for company. The looks they were giving made me blush, but were my cue to go upstairs and change.

“Uh… I’ll be back,” I said to them, as I quickly left the room.

In my hurry to go upstairs, I bumped into Dylan who was just getting home.

When he saw me, his eyes shifted from their grayish blue to black. Dylan was busy staring me up and down that he didn’t noticed when Eric and John appeared. When he did, his head quickly snapped in thier direction.

“Should we leave?” John asked Dylan casually. Dylan looked between the guys and me, a frown forming on his face. He was clenching and unclenching his hands and his jaw hardened.

“Go upstairs and cover up. Now!” Dylan said with a deadly voice. Eric and John turned to look at me. I stared at Dylan, narrowing my eyes, not appreciating his tone. I admitted that my clothes were a bit inappropriate, but they were shorts and a tank top. He was making it worse than it really was.

“You two, step out of the house. Wait for me out there. If either of you gives my mate another look, I’ll make sure it’s the last one you give,” Dylan said as he shoved me behind him.

He was glaring at the pair of guys, his Wolf surfacing with each passing second.

He kept a hold on my hand while I stood behind him. As much as I tried to yank out of his grip, I couldn’t. Eric and John quickly made their way outside. After they closed the door behind them, Dylan turned to face me.

“Why were you downstairs with them, dressed like that?” Dylan asked. He looked calm, but his voice was imposing.

“I just came downstairs right now. I didn’t know they would be here,” I told him, still trying to pry my arm from his hold.

“I ordered you to go upstairs, it would serve you right to listen to me,” he said as he brought me closer and looked into my eyes. He was trying to intimidate me.

“Whatever,” I replied letting my arm hang loose seeing as I couldn’t remove it from his hold.

“I’m dismissing Eric and John home, so if you want to stay like that, you can,” Dylan said after calming down.

I raised an eye brow, amused by his change in mind.

“No, it’s fine. I’m going up to change into something that covers me up better,” I replied.

“Leila, you know I only did that because they were looking at you. You are their Alpha as well and they should respect you, and what belongs to me.”

“Okay,” I replied, shrugging and making my way upstairs.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to change,” I replied, not turning back to look at him.

“I just said that you don’t have to,” Dylan replied, sounding frustrated. It was just too easy for him to get mad. In many ways, it was starting to amuse me.

I stopped mid-way up the stairs and turned back to look at him. He had a serene expression, but I wasn’t sure if he was pretending to be calm.

“Actually, I was thinking maybe today we should go to the city,” I told Dylan causally.

“Why do you want to go to the city?” He asked me, looking confused. I figured confused was better than suspicious.

“Well, if I’m getting presented to the pack, I need something nice to wear,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

He grinned at me and I almost faltered with what I had in mind. Seeing him happy was making me want to stay with him.

“It’s good that you’re taking an initiative on something when it comes to meeting the pack,” Dylan said, looking proud.

“I know,” I replied, getting a smile of my own.

If I played my cards right, this time tomorrow I could cover another two states and be free from Dylan. I was walking up the stairs while thinking of how I’d try to escape.

When I thought about leaving Dylan, my Wolf whimpered. It made my heart ache a little, but I ignored it.

In the long run, I’d be doing both Dylan and myself a favor by running away from him. 

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