- " lan o ake ou lustered n hole ifferent ay."

I wake up to a pair of lips placing kisses across my chest, the person's short nails running through my scalp as they slowly make their way up.

I grin sleepily, my hand finding it's way to the back of her head, fingers enjoying the texture of her silken red curls, "I could get used to waking up like this," I mumble, letting my eyes drift open slowly.

She looks up, meeting my eyes with a devilishly sexy smirk, "Who said that you'll wake up like this everyday?" She raises one haughty brow, bending down and biting playfully near my mark.

I groan as a jolt of arousal zaps through me, feeling the opposite effect of what she expected me to feel. "Your insatiable appetite," I challenge, smirking right back.

She blushes, her cheeks taking on that cute shade of red I'd missed seeing in the last few hours.

I choke on my own breath, bursting into fits of uncontrollable laughter. "Y-you're act-actually bl-blushing after everything you d-did last n-night!?"

"Shut up," She sits up, pulling the sheets to cover herself, "You enjoyed it." She accuses with humor in her eyes, pulling the sheets closer.

Her insecurity around me still pinches something inside me, but I do my best to not show it in my expression.

Hopefully, she's too preoccupied in her own feelings to notice that I felt it.

"Of course, darling. That was the best night of my life," I sit up too, not making an attempt to cover anything. Her eyes automatically drift down, and my smirk widens. "Now, I was just wondering if you could make this morning the best morning ever..." I trail off, slowly pushing myself up and leaning forward, one hand cupping the side of her neck and the other one trailing down he shoulder to the smooth curve of her bare hip.

She looks up at my eyes with a smitten of uncertainty, but I close the gap between our lips, sealing mine to hers.

I'm rewarded with a breathy moan that sends a shudder of need and stirs up my lower region.

She's still clutching the sheet to her chest, so I gradually let my hand other wander down her neck down to her hands, my fingers locking around her tight ones. I deepen the kiss as I gently pry them away, placing her hands on my shoulders and letting the sheets drop down.

She gasps slightly, but I distract her by pulling my lips away from hers and showing my full attention to the mark on the left side of her neck.

My mark.

It's nothing but the mark of my fangs permanently embedded on her skin, but when you go near her, the Mated scent that wafts from her, the primal mix in her smell that's supposed to ward off males, is warning enough to let you know that she's taken.

I nip and lick at the tender flesh, making her grab tufts of my hair and moan out in mind numbing pleasure.

I feel a profound sense of satisfaction.

I push her down to the bed, covering her with my body as I straddle her, kissing up her throat, my lips trailing up to her pink, swollen ones.

"You're the most beautiful woman to me, Seneca. The best creation of the Goddess, you never have to hide yourself from me," I whisper against her mouth, my lips brushing against hers with each word.

And then I kiss her, hard.

I pull back, pushing away strands of wayward curls from her face, "Even if you had a cross eye and a bell shaped nose, I would still love you, because guess what? You made me realize who I am, what I'm meant to be. Never cover yourself up," I shake my head, smiling down at her.

She opens her mouth to explain, to say something, but I place a hand over her mouth, covering it.

"No, you don't have to explain anything. This . . . this constant doubt you're having, it can be removed only with time . . . I can only promise you one thing, I'm not leaving until you tell me to, so just, hang in there and believe it, you'll eventually stop doubting me and my love for you."

Crap. I couldn't hide the hurt from the last few words.

And with the way her face shrinks in shame, I think she felt what I felt through the link. "I'm so sorry, Cage. I never should've let myself think all this, I'm so sorry—"

"Nah, It's fine—" I start, pushing myself up,

"No, Cage. I'm never gonna second guess anything between us again, I've got to stop doing it, and I promise, I'm never doing it again—"

I place a palm over her mouth again, covering it to stop her cute rambling. She stops breathing and looks at me with wide eyes, waiting for me to speak. I just shake my head and smile at her, unable to help myself despite the situation.

I know it's gonna take her some time to get used to it, and I think I won't die if I wait.

"It's okay, Red, it's okay. Don't get all worried and flustered. 'Cause, I plan to make you flustered in a whole different way," I wink again, and she exhales loudly, her breath hot and heavy against the inside of my palm.

Her cheeks flush at the implication in my sentence, yet the desire brings that familiar sheen to her granite grey eyes, making it darken subtly and dilute. I remove my hand slowly as I lean forward, my lips closing the distance—

"Seneca, Micajah! We're—Oh fuck!" An ever-so-familiar voice yells, just as the door flies open without even a cursory knock.

We should've locked the damn thing last night.

Hey, you can't blame me. You know very well what was in my mind, and let me assure you, locking the door was the last thing in my list since the house was empty.

We jump apart and scramble to cover ourselves, which is thankfully not hard as the sheets are already up to my waist and I'd covered most of her from the intruder's gaze with my body. But still I yank the sheets higher and pull it over us, hurrying to tamper down the red threatening to darken the skin on my cheeks.

Nothing wrong with being in bed with your Mate, Micajah. Don't you blush for it.

But no matter how much I try, I can't help the dark red stain coating my cheeks when I finally turn to meet the azure eyes of our interruption.

Our Beta.

"Ezra, what the hell?" Seneca yells the same time I comment, "That's what we were about to do." in the driest tone I could pull.

Ezra is standing in our doorway, his eyes covered with both hands, shocked and frozen in place.

Slowly, the tips of his ears and neck turn red, and then he's cautiously peeking from in-between his fingers, before he quickly covers his eyes again, "You guys decent?"

"Yes," We chorus, drawing the sheets closer to us.

"Uh, no, I'll just go and—"

"Ezra, just cut the act and get to the point." Seneca groans, letting her head fall back against the headrest of the cot.

I grimace at the loud 'thud' when her head meets the wood.

She, on the other hand, hardly even winces.

"Um...I-I'm going, I'll be back—"

"Ezra, you came all the way, because I'd blocked the Telelink for obvious . . . reasons," She stresses the word, making me lick my lips at a particularly sweet memory, "And now you're gonna leave without even telling me the actual issue?" Seneca asks sarcastically, and the question seems to slap him on the top of his head because he recovers and drops his hands from his eyes, his features turning serious once again.

I do not like that expression on his face.

"Alpha . . . we . . . um, we've found some sightings . . . "

". . . And?" Seneca prompts, sitting up straighter and holding the sheets properly, the embarrassment of being caught long forgotten.

"And we think that Daemon might be on his way to invade our Pack."

* * *

"I don't like this." Seneca says when she enters the living room, showered, dressed and ready to take on the day as she sits next to me, pulling my hand into hers.

Whether she's trying to comfort me or herself, I'm not sure.

"Oh, it's not like I'm in love with it, either." Ezra's sarcastic voice drawls, as he crosses one leg over the other, leaning back on the huge couch.

Seneca shoots him a sharp look, pushing her hair out of her face as she tugs it up in a ponytail. "No, I couldn't bear to do it the first time when he attacked." Her fingers tighten in my hand, and she turns to meet my eyes reluctantly, "Even if he did go as far as trying to hurt Cage, I don't think he would've had to balls to go through with it—I just, he was a friend! Now, to think I might have to kill him with my own hands . . . "

"Don't go all soft now, Seneca. When the situation presents itself, you've got to do, what you've got to do." Ezra says, stressing his words as he meets her gaze steadily, a volume of hidden words passing between them in that single glance.

She swallows slightly, but nods. "I will. For the sake of our Pack and the safety of everything I love, I will."

"Oooookay, this is getting a little too heavy for my liking. Let's not worry 'bout what might never happen. For all we know, he might never come—" I start, trying to be optimistic, when I'm interrupted rudely by a voice through the Telelink.

'Alpha we think this is it. They're approaching close to the Northern Border.' It's one of the guards stationed at the borders, alerting everyone in the Pack.

The three of us share a look with each other, my face reflecting my shock while the other two's faces don't show anything except grim determination.

And then we're out of our seats, sprinting out the door while handing over the reins to our Wolves by shifting on our way.

* * *

The moment we pounce into the clearing, all we see is chaos.

All the trained Warriors of both the Packs are going at it already, none of the untrained Wolves in sight—because this is a War, not a massacre.

I send a silent thanks to the Goddess for that.

Seneca-Wolf scans the mini-war going on before her eyes, before she turns to me and nods her Wolf-head, before turning back and jumping into the bloodshed, lunging at the first Wolf she comes across.

That's when I feel someone trying to catch me off guard from my peripheral vision, and I spin, ducking at the last minute to avoid the fangs grazing my neck. The Wolf clearly hadn't expected me to turn in the last minute, and my sudden move catches her off guard, making her stumble. I take the minute's hesitation to my advantage, leaping onto her and latching my fangs on her neck easily, biting hard enough to knock her out, but not kill her.

'Should we kill 'em or knock 'em out?' I ask Seneca through the link as I jump onto the Wolf coming at me, my paws deflecting his violent jab as I assess his moves for a weak point.

'Knock 'em out!' comes her clear reply, and I let her feel my assertion as I quickly jump back to avoid a chunk of myself being bitten off and take a swipe at the Wolf's face, which he avoids at the last millisecond.

Hm, must be a well trained one.

'We'll see how trained he is.' My Wolf comments, smirking and almost rubbing his hands in anticipation of a well-matched fight.

We go on like that, trading blows back and forth, ducking under each other and that's when he gets lucky and clamps his jaw around my hind leg, making me yelp in pain as I struggle to get out of his hold.

You can do it, Micajah. He's smaller than you and you're the Aleph, don't forget that!

And that reminder sends enough adrenaline coursing through my veins to send him flying backwards with a kick to his midriff, as I inspect my leg for a second.

Nothing too bad, you can manage.

Before he could recover from the fall, I leap forward and land on all fours on top of him, not hesitating before knocking him out with a bite hard enough.

Two down, many more to go.

But as I turn around to inspect the war-ground, I realize that the pandemonium has started to die down, and Wolves I recognize as my Pack are winning.

Thank you, Goddess.

My eyes then fall over that celestial silver Wolf, that Wolf that commands the attention of everything and everyone without even trying. She's fighting mercilessly with that huge Black Alpha Wolf that attacked me the last time, who I now recognize as Daemon.

My feet carry me forward on their own, ready and amped up to go and help my other half to finish him off for good, when unexpectedly I'm thrown to the side by a Wolf.

Ahh, fine. I'll deal with you.

I leap to a stand in one swift move, turning around to circle the gray Wolf stupid enough to tackle me when I'm on a mission.

She—wait, it's a he, He backs away for a second when I turn my intimidating glare on him, his instincts automatically forcing him to bow down before he controls the natural urge and takes a step forward, puffing out his chest.

Silly lil' boy.

I spring forward and take him down in a second, hesitating for a second before I could lock my jaws around his pulse because something about his dark brown eyes, despite his huge size, tells me he's not older than 16.

Has Daemon stooped down to this level to bring in kids?

But that hesitation is a mistake on my part because the pup-Wolf shoves me backwards, probably hoping to knock me sideways, but I catch myself and skid to a halt, deciding to not feel any remorse.

When he plays dirty, you have to play dirty too.

With that thought I dive for his exposed neck region and knock him out cold.

After pushing the unconscious Wolf to the side, out of the way of getting trampled, I turn around to see that Seneca and Daemon have shifted back to the human forms—thankfully clothed—and Seneca is holding her silver dagger across the neck of a severely injured Black Wolf, already on the brink of passing out from all the cuts and blood across his fur.

I get a sense that he might've just woken up after being knocked out.

"Kill him if you want, it's not like I care!" Daemon yells, rolling his eyes.

Without hesitation Seneca drags the dagger across the Wolf's neck, silver digging at least a couple of inches inside and cutting off his vital supplies in a second. I wince internally at the gallons blood gushing out of the cut, as the Wolf falls to the ground in a puddle of his own gore.

And then I realize who that might be.

Daemon's father.

So that was the Black Wolf she was fighting with earlier, and it was not Daemon, but in fact, his father. That's why he'd seemed a little different from the Wolf I remember from the attack.

Seneca lets the dagger fall next to the corpse, her face devoid of any emotion. "That was the dagger that was protruding from my Father's heart." She says, her voice so chilly I can feel her shutters closing one by one.

Dammit, dammit, dammit all!

"Why are you here, Daemon?!" She yells all of a sudden, startling everyone, as she steps forward and punches him square on the jaw, "You let me kill your own Father without even a fight, and to think that the reason you betrayed us in the first place was because you were too loyal to him!" She points to the dead Wolf on the ground, glowering at a confused Daemon, as he takes a moment to recover from the unexpected blow.

"Funny to hear that coming from you, because you were the one who befriended me in the first place to go and babble everything I said to your sweet lil' daddy." Daemon counters with poison in his words, getting into position to defend himself, as he swipes across her gut, missing by a thread.

Seneca's glare deepens, "Hardy har har, Dae—" She stops but realizes after a moment that she probably called him using an old nickname, because she continues quickly, "—mon, Daemon, I never knew that you were Alpha Kyler's son until that day we met in the meeting. I had no idea of ever playing the snitch for my father—" She spits out the word with hatred, as strikes him against the right side of his ribs, but not too hard, "and you should stop and think about all the things I've told you he did to me. If it occurs to you that I might've still taken his side—" She huffs, bending backwards to lean away from his fist, "then you can call me a spy."

Daemon freezes, his face contorting as he thinks for a second. His adam's apple bobs as he gulps, "S-so everything you said was t-true? It wasn't to gain my sympathy?"

"I never lied to you, Daemon. Not one fucking word I said was a lie." She leans down and sweeps on leg across his feet, sending him falling down on the rubble covered ground.

The other Wolves don't pay attention to their Alphas, everyone too busy to notice this moment that might change the future of these two Packs.

Just when Seneca says something, I'm pushed to the side by two fighting Wolves that are fighting with everything they have.

The power that they're oozing is enough to let me know that they're the two Betas.

Ezra-Wolf bites and snaps at the Pale Gold other Beta, who's fighting skills are no less than Ezra's. I watch, mesmerized as they fight like it's the only thing that matters, like it's what they were born to do.

And that's when I see, Delta Wolf —or Gamma Wolf, I'm not sure, but someone with enough power— charging towards the fighting duo after finishing off one of the Wolves from my Pack.

His gaze burns with fury as he runs toward the Beta, and before I know what's happening, I'm leaping up and charging forward as well, blocking the Delta's path as I fall like a shield between the two of them.

And that move, costs me my life because the next second, sharp fangs are sinking into my ribs and a jaw clamps around me hard enough to tear off a huge chunk of me from my body.

The last thing I hear is a distant howl that's so pain-filled, so full of hurt, before my eyes fall close, fatigue swallowing me into an abyss of darkness.

* * *