His words snapped her out of the spell that enthralled her, making her very aware of how quick everything was going between them. It hadn't been long since she discovered that she was a werewolf princess- if none of this was true, she would have laughed at using the term. Now, she had an Alpha who seemed to be very controlling on such a small matter of her friend putting his arm over her shoulders.

Aila growled at Damon in response, who in turn growled louder as the power of his Alpha's voice pushed down at the defiance rippling behind her eyes. Malia was cowering and wanted to submit to her mate; however, Aila only smirked, causing him to narrow his eyes at her. Although she struggled to push back against his will, there was still a sense of power behind her disobedience. She was, after all, a Cross.

With that thought, she swiftly pushed him and rolled him on his back, immediately straddling him. She slammed her fists into his hard chest to gain his attention. But his eyes were already wide with excitement as he placed his hands on her hips and squeezed roughly.

"You need to get a grip, Alpha. Ajax is a friend and has not touched me in any romantic way," She growled while yanking his hands off of her and jumped up before turning away.

His response was immediate as he leapt up and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her against his chest. He lowered his head next to hers, the wavy locks of his raven hair brushing against the side of her neck as he whispered in her ear, "Fuck the Alpha, was it?"

Damon's words made a shiver go down her spine as Malia groaned in response to the words Aila said to Kane after Ajax hugged her.

"You cannot control me, Damon. And you're not being fair. You and Lydia.." Aila whispered. She was afraid of raising her voice any higher in case it betrayed how she was feeling. Not only was she hurt by the thought of Lydia, but his scent and hands were distracting her, and she feared it might lead to something more.

He scoffed, "Lydia lied. There is nothing between us. But you are very lucky that my wolf hasn't tried to kill Ajax. He is more feral than most, and I won't stop him if he feels the need to put him in his place. As for you.." His claws elongated and dug into her skin, causing her breathing to hitch, "I am a very patient man, and you WILL submit to me."

He sniffed her hair again and breathed out slowly as though he was savouring her scent. If this was any other situation, she would think he was weird for smelling her, but she was completely content. The fact that he and Lydia were not a thing made her relax further in his embrace. He brought his lips to her neck and left a featherlight kiss that made her melt and almost made her relent to his domineering words.

NO, NO, NO! Control yourself, woman!

However, once his lips left her skin, he released her and walked to stand in front of her. Aila tilted her head back to keep her eyes locked with his, knowing too well that if her eyes strayed down to his chiselled body, she would lose her bearings. He took a step forwards, closing the small gap between them, and put his hand on her cheek gently, his eyes softening as he gazed into her own, "I am not your enemy Aila. I am your mate."

She looked away from his molten silver eyes, still trying to understand what being a mate meant.

"I'm not going to mark you YET. But don't make me regret that decision," Damon continued, as his hand glided down, and his thumb brushed against the length of her lips slowly. Aila looked back at him and saw his eyes darkening as he lowered his head and brought his lips towards hers. That was until he stopped abruptly and straightened, letting his hand fall by his side as his eyes misted over.

Leaving her to stand alone in silence while he spoke to someone via mind-link. Aila sighed as she eyed his full lips that nearly touched her own; she bit her lip then crossed her arms against her chest. She suddenly became fully aware of how she was standing nude in front of this beautiful naked man she had only known for two days.

Damon glanced back down at her once his eyes cleared again. His face hardened, and the muscle in his jaw ticked. "Go back to the house and stay inside," He demanded in a growl; his voice was laced with his wolf's. The command forced Aila not to fight against his words. She could, if she wanted to, but she felt exhausted and relented to his wish.

"Why? What's happened?" She asked, her voice firm as she searched the Alpha's eyes.

"I don't have time to explain myself to you. Now, go! Darren will meet you on the way for protection," He abruptly turned and shifted into an enormous, majestic black wolf. He turned his head, showing his silver eyes glowing. Aila's eyes widened after recognising the beast before her, who sprinted off in the direction of the mountains.

Aila was still in shock as she stood there, the wind blowing across her, causing her to shiver and her hair fall over her face in a mess.

Was he the wolf she came across on the night of her kidnapping?

Instead of waiting to find out, she mind-linked him while she watched his retreating form shrink into the distance, "Damon."

She waited a while, but there was no response, so she blurted out what was on her mind, "Did we meet on the night of my kidnapping?"

Once again, there was silence on the other side of the mind-link. This only made her irritated at his blatant choice of ignoring her. She could still see his wolf and the direction he was going in.

Fine. If he wants to ignore me, then let's see him do it to my face!

"Aila, he ordered-"

Aila shifted into her wolf form before Malia could complete her sentence. It came naturally to her now, the cracking of bones swift enough that it only took a few seconds until she was entirely covered in white fur and on all fours. She ran after the Alpha, making Malia moan at her blatant disrespect for his orders.

"If we die.. it's on you!" She whined.

Aila rolled her eyes, "You've been spending far too much time with Ajax. So dramatic."

"There must be a reason why he ordered us to go back to the house," Malia tried reasoning with her. Aila didn't disregard her comment, she knew her wolf was right, but her stubbornness won over reason.

"Well, we will soon find out!" Aila continued to push harder and faster to catch up to Alpha Damon. Her wolf didn't want to admit it, but Aila could feel how she was excited to see her mate again, even though he only just left them.

It didn't take her long to catch up to Damon; he took a sharp right back into the forest, which she followed and immediately stopped when she couldn't see him anymore.

What? Where did he-

OOF!

She was slammed into and tackled to the hard surface of the ground. Damon's beast of a wolf stood over her, barring his teeth with a loud growl.

"Aila, what-" He stopped his mind-link after the noise of footfall caught his attention. Turning, his ears stood up alert along with his fur standing on end. Aila rolled to her feet and searched their surroundings. Damon growled in the opposite direction to where Aila was looking.

"Aila, stay behind me. That's an ORDER!" He put a lot of emphasis on the last word, his tone making her instinctively bare her neck, a sign that she would follow his command. He stepped forwards and was met with five wolves; Aila knew from his body language that they were not a part of their pack.

There was also the fact that all five of them had glowing red eyes matching the dried blood around their muzzles. They growled at them and began to disperse and surround them. But as soon as two of them went past Damon towards Aila, he lunged at one, immediately snapping his teeth into its neck and ripping flesh away, leaving the wolf to fall at his feet. He looked at the other one and growled, challenging him to take another step closer; this made the other wolf halt its actions.

However, the leader barked at the remaining two by his sides, and all three of them came charged towards Damon. He, in turn, growled at each of them. It was then, Aila decided she needed to help, training or not; she was a werewolf and a Cross for that matter. Wasn't the Cross bloodline meant to be the strongest?

Although Malia was petrified of being reprimanded by their mate after, she agreed to Aila's thought process. She wanted to please him at all costs, even if it meant her staying behind him but then she also didn't want to see him get hurt.

"ENOUGH. Let's help!" Aila barked to her wolf.

Their thinking only took a matter of seconds before all the wolves lunged simultaneously at Damon. He jumped head-on towards the leader, straight away going for his neck while Aila tackled down the wolf to his right, who tried to sneakily assault Damon. The wolf paid no heed to Aila as the black wolf was a much bigger opponent to take down. The brown wolf stood back up immediately after being tackled.

Aila and the wolf in front of her circled each other slowly, both sussing the other out. It was clear that she was the bigger and more powerful wolf from the size of her in comparison. Her growl was a warning not to mess with her, but instead of backing away, it only became provoked. Even though she was stronger, the brown wolf was more feral and did not think twice about attacking her.

They crashed into each other, both going for the other's neck. When neither could get a good hold on the other, the brown wolf tackled her to the ground. A yelp left her lips as she hit her head on a rock, her eyesight became blurry, and in an instant, the brown wolf had the upper hand and pounced on top of her, going straight for the jugular.

It clamped its teeth into her neck, immediately making Malia roar to life, pushing the dazed Aila out of the way and taking over their body. At the last minute, she used her legs to kick him off of them; rolling to the side, she jumped and clamped her jaws down into its neck. It yelped and tried to move her off of it, but she clamped even harder, and the sound of bones cracking was enough to make Alia nauseous. With a last whimper, it fell slack to the ground.

Looking up, she saw Damon taking down the last wolf of the group. Malia stayed alert, searching their surroundings; once she sensed there were no more threats, she merged into the back of Aila's mind, knowing that she was now capable of moving. It was bizarre for Aila; although Malia has taken the lead before, this was the first time she paid more attention. The thought of dying by the other wolf was reason enough to watch what was happening.

But in those final moments between Malia and the other wolf, it was as though she was watching it through a T.V screen. Like an observer of sorts. Now she was back in control, and she was pacing along the mud; her white fur was now filthy with blood and dirt covering it.

The last wolf fell, and Damon turned to face Aila. His eyes shone bright like two full moons. He walked towards her and sniffed her neck before giving her a lick on the nose.

What the hell?

Was that an action of endearment?