Once my eyes became clear again, I faced the sight of my home, the one I hadn't seen in a few months. I breathed in the forest's smell, feeling giddy to see both the boys and my parents who had also been living in Midnight. I looked behind me to see Arius have an impassive expression on his face, which only softened a little when he looked at me.

Arius said, "Go ahead, I will meet you there amare."

Looking at him suspiciously, I asked, "What are you going to do?"

Arius rolled his eyes and replied, "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill anyone. Just fly around the perimeter in case of any dangers."

I nodded and walked forward, towards the community area of the pack. Once I got into the area of residence, I couldn't see anyone around, so there must be a pack meeting going on now. I walked to the main house where all the pack meetings are held, to see that everyone was sitting in the auditorium with Aiden, Lukas, and Xavier in the front.

When everyone heard the door open, they looked behind to see that it was me that had entered. They all bowed their heads in respect towards me as I bowed my head back in return, a sign of acceptance.

"We will pause this meeting for the time being once we figure out what is going on. Please remain in your seats as we go to my office to talk," Aiden said, addressing the pack quickly.

Since I was closest to the door, I exited first and made my way back to Aiden's office. I sat down in one of the chairs in front of Aiden's desk as the three boys entered. Aiden went to his seat as Xavier took the other, leaving Lukas taking the sofa in the room.

Before Lukas walked to his seat, he kissed me on the forehead and said, "Missed you, squirt."

Smiling at him, I turned to the other two boys, who I knew had multiple questions for me.

Xavier started and said, "Where the hell were you, Ana? Sinclair and Adonis exited the forest with neither of you, Karisa, and Leo just saying that you guys were gone."

Aiden interrupted him and said, "God Ana, you have no idea how worried we were."

Lukas was silent during all of this as I said to them, "There were complications."

Before I could continue a pack member barged into the room saying urgently, "The black smoke is back."

The boys ran out of the house as I followed behind them slower.

"What the hell is he thinking?" I thought.

Once we got outside, the boys were in front of the pack as we watched the smoke in front but not moving forward.

"Behind me now" Aiden screamed out to the pack.

Everyone followed his order but for me as I stood there waiting for what I knew would come next when the smoke cleared.

"What the hell-" Aiden said quietly as something crashed to the ground.

When the smoke cleared, Arius stood there in his godly glory with him fully shifted into his form. Red eyes, horns out, and full-length wings looking as deadly beautiful as ever. Walking towards the pack, his black smoke trailed behind him. Looking at all the members of the pack, their faces were both in awe, fear, and lust of the man before them.

"Stay back," Xavier told him, raising his weapon.

Arius reached in front of me smirking as I lazily asked him, "Of course you needed to make a dramatic entrance."

Shocked that I had known the dangerous man in front, Aiden asked, "Ana, what the fuck is going on?"

I turned around to look at him and said, indicating towards Arius "Enter the complication."

"Uh, we should talk about this back in the office," Xavier said to us all.

Lukas guided the pack to return to their homes as Lukas's mate, Isadora walks up to me.

"Hello darling," she said to me.

I smiled at her in return and then greeted her. Lukas and Isadora were a bit older than us and have always been more like my older siblings. She was one of the few female friends I had in the pack when I was here.

"Now tell me, who is that gorgeous man that came from the sky?"

My eyes darkened as I growled in return to her question, looking at her with jealousy. Isa looked at me with her brows raised and just gave me a knowing smile before joining us back in the office. Lukas behind me took his pregnant mate to the sofa to sit down while the three of us took our original seats. The exception to this time, I was on Arius's lap. I could tell he was on edge due to the fact that there were unmated males around me. I moved closer to his body for reassurance and I may lie to myself, but I hated the fact that all the females outside were looking at him with lust.

"So Ana wants to explain now?" Xavier asked me.

"We found Abia who turned out to be this one's sister," I said, pointing towards Arius.

Arius stayed silent letting me continue "Sin and Adonis turned out to be something that they are not, but that's not important now. Arius took Leo, Rissa, and me to his kingdom where we have been staying."

"What about the black smoke, what does he have to do with it?" Aiden asked, indicating towards my mate.

"The smoke stops once my mate is found, but will continue if we are far apart, unmated," Arius said silently.

"Ok, so if we help you find your mate, Ana can come back, and everything can go back to normal," Xavier said.

I looked over to Isa and Lukas, who knowingly knew where this conversation was about to go. I looked back at my two friends who had so much hope in their eyes that I would come back.

I answered sheepishly, "Yeah one problem with that."

Before I could break it to my two friends easily, Arius went ahead and got to the point "Ana is my mate."

Xavier and Aiden laughed thinking that Arius was joking but soon stopped when they saw his face.

They turned to me and Aiden asked, "Is he serious, Ana"

Silently sitting there, the two of them got their answer, and we continued to sit in silence for a few more minutes before Lukas broke it.

"How can he possibly be your mate? What about Axel?" Lukas asked.

"That boy is not her mate?" Arius said with his eyes darkening and his smoke swirling around us.

Explaining to them, I said, "Long story short, Axel was never my mate but someone the moon goddess paired me with against Arius because of her jealousy. Arius placed a curse so I would have never ended up with him."

Aiden asked, "Why would the moon goddess be jealous of him?"

Arius smirked and answered, "Maybe because I'm the most powerful person ever and her power is just a minuscule compared to mine."

"Cocky much" I replied to him, raising an eyebrow.

"Now my darling, you have heard the stories about me."

Isa blanched "How can the goddess be afraid of you?"

"My mother, Gaea, birthed me right before she bore herself into Earth and I have been alive for an eon ruling the underworld. Every death powers me, and the closest thing that you can call me in the human language is a demon."

"So you're telling me that mother earth is your mom," Xavier said.

Arius nodded as everyone in the group paled at the intensity of his powers. I looked to see Arius's face who had a bored look on his face, but once he looked down at me he softened.

"How does Ana come into the play here?" Lukas asked, curious.

"As I said, she is my mate and is the same for all shifters like you. The only difference is that once we mate, her wolf will be replaced by a beast like mine and will have the same transformation as me."

Wait, what?