Claws // Colby Brock

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"I'll admit it's mainly alphas who fail to realise their wolves could easily lead their own lives. You've shown through your actions that it is not only possible, but actually beneficial. Do you think, if you'd stayed in your pack, you would have turned out the same way, Amira?"

I hesitated. "Is this a trick question?"

"No." She smiled. "I do know the answer, though."

Glancing at Colby, who was intently listening in silence, I said, "If I'd stayed in my pack, I wouldn't be as physically strong or as strong-willed as I am now. I was limited and combined with my history in the pack, my options were slim for my future."

Mama Luna watched me as I spoke, never interrupting or displaying her reaction to my words. It was only when my lips pressed together that she finally sighed. "You're wrong, but not entirely.

"Certainly, if you'd stayed in your pack, you wouldn't be as strong. Training in packs isn't very personal, it's generic, and so it's hard for one to grow in their strongest area to become the best they can be when the alpha's attention is so widely spread. However, if you'd stayed in your pack, you also would have been more fed up. Your need for independence would have only grown over the years and by now, you'd be pulling your hair out in frustration... that is, supposing you weren't alpha."

"Alpha?" The word came out before I could stop it, but she didn't look offended, only amused.

"Did you know that not all wolves are able to speak to the Goddess the way you do? Sure, in a pack, the combined spirits of the wolves are able to call her to you, but a lone wolf who is not connected with an alpha in any way shouldn't be able to call her at their will. Yet you can." Mama Luna leaned back in her chair slowly, never losing eye contact with me as though we were in the middle of an interrogation. "Alphas are appointed by challenge — you know this, of course. Some wolves, though, are born to be alpha, and you are one of them."

"We've just talked about how much I dislike pack life and that being a lone wolf is better for me," I muttered in confusion, frowning. "How does that make sense?"

She chuckled. "As I said, your life would have turned out much differently should you have stayed with your pack. Though, like all lives, your fate will be the same. I cannot disclose what I know, but I can assure you that no matter your decisions prior in life, this young man would have come across your radar at some point."

I felt Colby tense slightly beside me. His leg shifted enough that it touched mine and I found my eyes drifting toward him. He was looking at Mama Luna thoughtfully, though behind his pretty eyes were a million thoughts I didn't have access to. I couldn't tell if he was feeling good about our dates being entwined regardless of our choices, or not.

"Mates will almost always find each other anyway, and even if he doesn't believe it, he was always going to become a vampire one way or another. So no matter what, the two of you would have met. I'd have liked to see how you'd react to an alpha One, young man. Alas, Amira has led you both to this present."

"Why are we paired?" I found myself asking in a whisper, afraid that Colby would take it the wrong way. I could see our chemistry right from the start, hidden between the lines of our bickering and glares. The way we interacted with one another was equal, fair, and that was exactly what I wanted in a relationship when I eventually went for one again. However, for the two of us to be destined— and for him to be fated to an eternal life regardless of anything else, there had to be a reason.

Mama Luna shifted her gaze into the fire, blazing orange flames dancing in her deep brown, comforting eyes. "Everything the world is slowly coming to, with all the acceptance of different things and the belief in self-importance growing, the Goddess needs someone to lead the supernatural world into a similar outcome. A powerful vampire who needed to be knocked off his high horse and a strong, independent wolf with or without a pack was the perfect way to do such a thing.