Matteo wasn't moving, it was like I was kissing a statue. After a while longer of embarrassing myself I stepped away with cheeks burning in shame. F:ck.

We stood there in silence, the awkward tension was so painful I just wanted to die on the spot. Maybe like spontaneous combustion or something instantaneous like that...

All I knew was that I was the stupidest person to ever walk the face of the earth.

He reached out and awkwardly pat me on the arm before dropping his hand. I mean, I knew that I was going to regret kissing Matteo but I hadn't expected it to be this soon. I felt sick to my stomach and I turned away from him because the very sight of him was just one big reminder of my epic failure and it tormented me to the point of genuine nausea.

To my complete surprise, Matteo's hand lightly wrapped around my wrist and prevented me from walking away. "Olive, I know what you're thinking and it's not that at all."

What exactly was I thinking anyways?

He dragged his other hand through his hair, "You're still transitioning, I can't--"

I cut him off with my lips. There I went again, deliberately f:cking up my life as if I needed more things to be upset and confused about as it was.

Despite the stance Matteo had been laying out seconds before I'd ambushed him with my lips, he eagerly responded to my kiss. His hands automatically moving to my ass where he lifted me up and wrapped my legs around his waist.

Maybe I was acting this way because all the disdain I had for him that was pent up inside of me was finally lashing out into the form of unhealthy behaviors and decisions?

Honestly though, with how good Matteo's lips felt crushed against mine in that moment I didn't give a sh:t about what was right and wrong for me to do.

One of his hands moved from my butt and up to my neck. Matteo's touch stopping short of the mark on my neck as he tugged on my lower lip, pulling it between his own teeth.

He tentatively reached out and placed his hand over the spot on my neck as a comforting gesture.

But the moment his hand met my mark, a resounding crack boomed across the forest. It was only when intense pain tore through my body seconds later that I realized the cracking noise had come from me. My back was arched and contorted as my spine continued to crack and break, bones loudly combusting within me that sent me falling to the ground screaming.

Matteo prevented my fall, catching my body and cradling it in his arms as every bone in my body soon began to follow in suit. "You're shifting, Olive." His lips were pressed against my ear through my hair as he ministered over my strangled screaming. Matteo tried his best to keep my body calm but when you're entire body is forcefully reorganizing itself it proves to be quite the task.

Amias burst through the trees, sprinting over and grabbing Matteo's shoulder. "Alpha, you need to let her go."

Matteo looked from Amias back at my twisting frame and hesitantly released me just as my ribs began shifting within me, throwing me to my side away from their view. But just as suddenly as the shift had begun, my body began to reverse the process and return back to normal just as quickly.

I writhed on the grass for a few more lingering moments before I was stilled and was left just laying there thoroughly exhausted and confused and very much still human.

Matteo rushed back over to me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into his body and delivering me over to Amias. "I can walk, I'm fine." My voice came out as a course croak, it sounded even more exhausted than I felt in the moment.

Naturally, he ignored me.

Amias worriedly looked over my body, checking my pulse and going through my vitals to make sure that I wasn't dying before he came to a stop in front of me with his hands resting jauntily on his hips.

"What just happened to me?" I looked from Matteo to Amias, waiting for one of them to speak up.

Amias appeared to be in the same situation as I was, he stared pointedly over at Matteo. "I could ask the same thing, you know what? In fact, I will." He clearly was no longer tolerating any sh:t from Matteo, "What the hell did you do this time?"

I cringed as I felt Matteo's arms that were holding me tense up, I leaned my head against his chest and just as quickly he relaxed. "I touched her mark and she just started shifting out of nowhere."

Amias pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose in frustration, had he always worn glasses? I guess he noticed my confused peering and quickly explained, "I dropped my contacts when I heard screaming so I had to grab my emergency glasses." He grumbled, still miffed about the loss of his lenses.

Matteo wasn't interested in our conversation, "Amias she didn't shift, you saw it too. She should have by all accounts fulfilled the transition but it is almost as if she--"

"As if she resisted the shift." Amias finished for Matteo, I scoffed aloud and immediately Amias amended careful to not offend me, "Involuntarily of course, it's your body's fault not yours."

So I am an actual wolfless werewolf now, lovely.

I ambled out of Matteo's arms, setting myself back onto the ground gingerly. "So what do I have to do?" They both stared at me blankly, "What is it going to take to get my body to accept it?"

Amias' face instantaneously flushed red as he looked between Matteo and I, "You've got to complete the process." He peeped.

Both Matteo and I looked quizzically at one another, "What process, Amias? Keep going." I pressed while motioning him to go faster with my hands.

He looked so uncomfortable, his glasses even began to fog up ever so slightly as Amias perspired in discomfort and suddenly it clicked. It was too late though because he was already starting, "The mating process...you've got to...y'know..." He raised his eyebrows suggestively and as discretely as one could, Amias mimicked the banging motions with his hip thrusting again.

Matteo scrunched up his nose and looked away, "Definitely did not need to see that." He muttered as he pinched the bridge of his nose tightly. "I don't see how any of this is applicable to Olive not shifting, the fact that we haven't..." He glanced over at me before darting away the moment I met his gaze, "It just doesn't make sense how it should affect anything."

"This is all new to me too, I'm only spitballing here!" Amias exclaimed as he started pacing, "It's just the only thing I can think of that could meddle with things, don't you think if there was another way I wouldn't be standing here talking about your lack of sex life with one another?"

"Oh my god." I groaned and buried my face in my hands.

Amias turned towards me exasperatedly, "Think about it, normally the whole mating sha-bang takes next to no time. You meet, you mark and you...eh consummate the bond." He pointed between the two of us, "Since Grace Pack the two of you still know next to nothing about each other and you've yet to seal the deal, if you know what I mean."

We all knew what he meant.

"It has got to be real for both of your sakes." Amias pulled his glasses off and clean them on the hem of his shirt, "Both of you are going to be without a wolf until you figure out how to be each others proper mates."

"Sorry about your wolf." What even was the proper etiquette for when an alpha wolf loses a significant amount of hope in his quest to restore the connection with his wolf?

I looked over to Amias for backup but he'd skittered off no doubt to avoid discussing our personal lives anymore.

To my surprise Matteo snorted lightly and I noticed that any indicators of anger had since vanished from his chiseled features. Instead he slung an arm around my waist, "Looks like the Wolfless Werewolf Club just gained a new member after all, what's going to be the first order of business?" He remembered and it was enough to excuse the low jab about me officially becoming a member of the wolfless werewolf club.

I took a deep breath, "I suppose we need to get to know each other better." I glanced over at him and I thought I saw a ghost of a smile trying to tug at the corner of his lips, "For club purposes, of course."

"But of course." Matteo agreed and the first assembly of the Wolfless Werewolf Club was in session.