William and Blake watched with curious eyes as Catherine dragged me from my chair and clear across the lawn to the lodge.

"What's the matter? I'm sorry I wasn't speaking!" I cried as she pulled me.

"Can't talk here." She stated and opened the lodge door, shoving me in.

She then pushed me towards the bathroom in the lobby, ignoring the watch of the receptionist.

She closed the door and locked it behind her.

I looked around at the basic stalls and sinks bathroom. "I need to powder my nose?" I asked confused.

"What's this?!" She pushed the hair away from my neck.

I went wide eyed with realization. "OH!" I tried to pull my hair back over my shoulder.

"What. Is. It?!" She demanded.

I gulped an answer, "ah, well, it... is... a bite mark."

She rolled her eyes, hands up in defeat. "I know it's a marking! Why are you marked? Who marked you?!" She then stepped back in realization. "Beta William." Her hands came to her mouth in awe. "It was him. Wasn't it? He's going to be in so much trouble."

I objected, not wanting him having any problems. "No he's not."

"Yes, he is," she countered. Then she took a step back. "Is he your mate?"

I stood straight with my own shock at the word coming from her mouth. "I... I guess? Yes."

She shook her head. "He can't mark you yet. It's the law!" She pulled her collar away and showed the similar set of marks on the base of her neck. "I was only marked last night. Werewolves have to wait until after marriage to mark humans."

"Werewolves?" I gasped.

"Oh freak. He didn't even tell you!?" She worried. She grabbed my hands, trying to beg me to believe. "Werewolves are real Caroline. This is a packhouse full of them. William is one, but you can't tell anyone. You are a mate and he's marked you."

I yanked my hands from her. "You're crazy."

She sighed and threw her hands down to her sides. "This is why you can't mark someone before marriage! They're just not ready."

My brow furrowed. "I was ready."

"Clearly not! If he didn't tell you anything!" She paced the room. "When did he even do it? This morning? After Rick left?" She went wide eyed. "Rick left because of William?"

"He bit me the first night here. We just ran into each other."

She gasped. "He just did it? The... the..." she stammered as she was trying to think of words harsh enough, "the viking! That's disgusting!" She grabbed my hand and started dragging me to the door.

I dug in my heels.

"Come on. We're going to the Alpha. He'll reverse the mark for you."

I stilled completely, mind filling with clarity. She couldn't budge me anymore. "No. It won't be reversed. I gave him permission. I submitted to his mark."

"You couldn't have Caroline. You didn't even know what it was."

"I did," I countered.

"It doesn't matter. He's still going to be in trouble!"

Tell her you gave the absolute submission. William's voice was in my head again.

My eyes dulled and darted around suspiciously and then to her. "I gave the absolute submission?"

She gasped, hands cupping her face in horror. "No! Caroline. Tell me you didn't."

I shrugged. "Maybe? What's the absolute submission?"

She pushed my hair away and looked toward the bite marks high on my neck. She sighed, then showed her neck. "See? I don't even have the second mark. The absolute submission is like it sounds. You've given everything to your mate. Heart, mind, words, deeds, everything. It means you can't be separated; you'll feel his emotions, his pains. You'll die when he dies. It means you'll never be able to have children or any kind of relations with any other man. He can command you like an Alpha. Stronger than an Alpha even! He could even like, turn off your lungs if he wanted to! It's trust to the extreme! It means that you two are connected in a way that doesn't make sense for our human world. You'll be dependent on him for everything. It's crazy old fashioned. Even most of the wolf mates don't do that ceremony anymore!"

I shrugged again. "Doesn't sound too bad actually."

She groaned. "It is bad! Don't you understand? He's going to jail for it! He could get banned from the community and branded rogue for it! He is a criminal!"

Suddenly my shoulders pressed down angrily, and the room went electrifyingly clear. My voice was hardly even my own. "Don't you say that about my mate."

She stepped back in shock. "Caroline, your eyes?"

I growled, a low and harsh sound.

Sweetheart? What about your eyes?

Huh? I shook my head, the rooms edges blurring.

Get to a mirror, now.

Okay? I stepped to a mirror and looked into it.

"You're not one of them, are you?" Catherine panicked. "No. I've been with you on full moon nights, you never changed. So you couldn't be."

Ask her what she saw, please Kara.

"What did you see?"

"It was a trick of the light. I didn't see anything."

Kara, get her to tell.

"No, what did you see?" I turned to her.

She shrugged. "Your eyes, the edges, just the color looked funny. Nothing at all."

Kara, look back in the mirror. Get close.

My eyes went skeptical, but I pressed myself to the glass.

Do you wear contacts?

Yes.

Colored ones? Even at night? Last night?

Yes, they're monthly. I only take them out at the end of the month to replace them with new ones.

His voice marveled. That's why your eyes don't change. That's why we can't see the gold.

I shrugged to my reflection. What do you mean gold? My father got me contacts when I was sixteen so I could drive.

No Love. Your inner wolf presence must have been starting to show through your eyes. He wanted to hide it from the world. You have perfect eyesight don't you?

No, I don't. My dad said I needed contacts to see.

Kara, sweetheart. I think he's hidden your true self from you.

"Oh my goodness! He's mind-linking you isn't he? Marking can open the link."

I turned back to Catherine. "What's the link?" I asked her nervously.

"Is he talking in your head?"

HELP! ANYONE! TO THE DUNGEONS! WERECREATURE ESCAPED! NEED HELP! GUARD BITTEN!

I gasped as if someone threw a bucket of icy water across me and the world quieted. Everything felt like it zoomed in and I needed to go. My muscles moved pressing me to a sprint before my mind was prepared to understand the words flashing across my eyes.

It was like I was someone else.

I dashed through the bathroom door and beyond the receptionist, down the hall and through the lower level door. I raced down three more sets of stairs, following the intuition in my head demanding me where I was needed. Darting every which way in surety.

When I hit the door I was surely to use it was locked and I didn't know where that key was held. But with my vision now razor accurate I could see through the viewing window to the floor below where a sick creature was clawing its way through transformed wolves.

I had to be there.

I had to.

My teeth bared a growl and I took a running leap into the glass and it smashed around me. I fell with the thousands of stinging shards to the floor below, landing in a crouch. My body had taken over, my own mind in a casing at the back of my head.

As I stood slight words tried to echo through the link from my mate, but I was focused on this task alone.

The sick werewolf snarled at me. Mane fluffed on end in a panicked fear. His bone thin arms held out black razor claws, slashing the air. Beady black eyes pointed at me, teeth bared and foaming.

The transformed alpha and a warrior wolf stepped in between us, ready to guard, but I moved sandwiched between the wolves and pressed them away, sending them flying into the cages that lined the walls. "No."

The wolfcreature charged, and my feet positioned ready for the fight. My back hunched in preparation.

My hands came up in offense but suddenly I was hit into from the side. Me and the body flew across the floor out of the reach of the wolfcreature.

When my mate's arms held me, my mind was released to me. I took a deep breath like coming from an ocean dive, the world coming back to me. My eyes skitted around the room like I'd never seen it before, settling on each barred jail cell and even wolves surrounding me. My head pounded in alarm.

"Are you crazy?" William's loud voice at my ear, him wrapped around me from behind. "Get out of here!"

I turned in a panic and sought his face. "William?"

"What are you doing down here?!" His eyes were frantic with worry as his hand pulled on my cheek.

"I...I don't know..." I stammered looking around.

But a cry of pain pushed me back into my own head again and the world again solidified into something stronger. In a trance, I peeled from William's embrace and strode to the transformed creature who had bitten into another guard.

"No!" My mate tried to grab around my center.

I turned slowly, but purposefully and placed a delicate hand to his cheek. My eyes met mate's and I spoke the quiet word to him, "stay." Then I turned back to my work.

The wolfcreature turned its sight on me and charged again. This time I would stop it.

In some aerobatic move only my body knew, I twisted its own charge around me and flipped it with my legs to the ground. I tumbled down after it. My hands, now nearly healed of their own injuries, pressed into its snapping face with ease.

Within seconds the movements from the creature slowed. The snapping ceased and the wailing limbs quieted to the floor around him. Within a minute more, the fur inched back into the body. The limbs shortening and muscles building around the bones. The face pulled back from snout to human mouth. And in another minute a fully nude, fully healthy, unconscious man was before me.

But I was not done.

I spun off the man and back to the bitten guard. His shocked form stood rigid as I pressed a hand at his cheek and another over the new bitemark at his bicep. My forehead touched over my hand. "Heal." I could feel the tears of skin reforming under my grasp. When it was cured, I performed the same ritual on the first guard who was bitten when the creature escaped.

When my forehead came away, I spoke wornly to the gawking crowd. "It is done."

Then everything blurred to black.