A/N The cover shown as multimedia was done by @Tish_the_Reader... thank you so much!
My chest felt heavy and the tears that fell from my eyes were hot, I couldn't breathe. I looked around and saw feet coming at me and with every blink another foot hit me; in my chest, head, legs, stomach; anywhere they could reach. My screams landed on deaf ears but they increased the pounding that I took, I felt fists this time. I opened my eyes to see who was doing this and I met eyes with Aaron so I let out an ear piercing scream.
"Maddie!" A familiar voice called and I was pulled away from Aaron's threatening gaze, "Maddie!"
The second time I heard my name it was in a high-pitched, panicked voice. When my eyes fluttered open I saw Lily; I breathed a sigh of relief.
"You were screaming in your sleep. You're so sweaty." Lily stated, her eyes filled with worry and her voice a scratchier than usual.
"If we don't do something soon, Aaron will kill us." My breathing was loud like I had just come from running a marathon.
"What do you think we should do?" She asked as she sat on my bed, I moved over so that she would be more comfortable.
"If you can't beat them; join them." Was my simple reply.
We decided that we should go to Aaron as soon as possible, I always had good instincts but I usually never followed them since I believed that I was a rebel. I took a shower, brushed my hair and teeth then threw on some clothes while Lily just brushed her teeth and put on normal clothes- we needed to have a talk about her refusal to shower. The nerves started to kick in when I thought about facing Aaron again. The feeling of disgust overwhelmed me when I thought of having to beg in order to join their pack.
I picked up my phone to check the time, it was 5a.m which was too early for any normal person or wolf to be awake on a Saturday morning but a demented freak like Aaron surely would be. We went outside and slowly headed into the woods before shifting. Both of us were nervous but we knew that this had to be done. Surely enough, I could hear the sound of other wolves approaching us after we got deep enough in the woods, we were very close to the cabin where I was beaten. We stopped and waited for the wolves to approach us but this time it was only two instead of eight. The girl Aaron snapped at was riding on one of their backs; Aaron must have known that we weren't here to fight, we would have lost anyway.
"We know why you are here, I brought both of you some clothes for you to change into," She said while she pulled a plastic bag of clothes from behind herself "We will wait here while you change. Choose any tree that you like."
The people in the Infinity Pack were very sarcastic so I think I might actually fit in. We changed very quickly and walked the rest of the way to the cabin since it was only half of a mile away. No one spoke but it was not an uncomfortable silence. For some reason I felt slightly at peace and I didn't understand why, I was about to try to convince Aaron to let me join his pack and knowing how sadistic he was, he might want to beat me first then let me in.
We reached the cabin relatively quickly and as soon as Lily, the girl and I stepped through the door, the wolves ran away and left us. The girl led us to the same room that Aaron and I had our little altercation in. It was very clean and Aaron was sitting in a chair with two other chairs facing him which I assumed were for Lily and me. The nerves started to kick in but I still felt at peace. I scanned the room to see if anyone else was here other than the three of us since the other girl left.
"Catalina is a beautiful one, isn't she?" Aaron asked but I was confused which he realised, "The girl that brought you in here." He continued.
"Oh, yeah, she is pretty." I agreed. Hearing him compliment someone was very odd especially someone that I saw him be rude to.
"I assume that you came here to join the Infinity Pack," He began with a smile, "and if this is true then you need to tell me why you think that you deserve to be inducted into this pack."
I opened my mouth to speak but Lily cut me off before I could say anything, she probably thought that I would have said something rude and messed up everything for us but that was not my intent. "Yes, you are correct. I believe that you should allow us into your pack so that you do not feel as though we are a threat to you and your home. We do not care for living life as rogues anymore and would feel safer if we were with a pack as powerful and dominant as yours."
Lily was playing the suck up card and I knew I had to do the same because it would be unexpected. Aaron would love the thought of me being submissive but I knew that eventually my life would be in danger and I would need this pack. The two of us could only protect ourselves for so long.
"I agree," I said which made Aaron take a sharp breath in shock but I continued anyway, "we need you and we need this pack. I also believe that we can be valuable assets since we are able to fight but also do domestic things. If there is a war we can contribute and if there is a friendly get together, we can also contribute to that. We have multiple skills and we would love for you to take us in so that we can show you."
Bile rose in my throat and I fought the need to gag. It was disgusting acting vulnerable especially to this animal. Lily and I were a lot stronger than we showed but we know it's better to have a pack to help you than to have to protect yourself against two threats as rogues. He smirked but I forced a smile on my face and choked my sarcastic comment down. I could almost feel it weighing on my shoulders.
"The two of you sound very convincing but in order to join this pack you have to do two things. You have to agree to and go through with the execution of both of these things today." Aaron stated with that stupid smirk still plastered on his face but he was only looking at Lily, "Those are my conditions."
He said that those were his conditions but he never actually outlined these conditions. I knew that it had to be something awful. When I thought that Aaron could actually be semi-tolerable, he pulls a stunt like this. Being this cryptic made me uncomfortable but I kept my discomfort internal, Lily on the other hand, was fidgeting in her chair trying to avoid Aaron's stare. We needed to work on her poker face.
It seemed as though Lily was not going to speak up anytime soon so I decided that I would take the lead. "What are these conditions exactly?"
"The two of you have to get the pack's tattoo on any part of your body that you choose and..." He trailed off and turned to look at Lily again so I waited a couple seconds for him to finish but when he didn't I grew irritated.
"And what?!" I snapped which brought his attention back to me.
"And she has to kiss me." He said pointing at Lily with his thumb. The sheer terror and disgust in Lily's eyes made me protest.
"What? No!" I shouted, "She is not some sort of prize, she is not kissing you."
"Those are my conditions, failure to comply will result in you being escorted back to your home and you will have to continue living as rogues. If you change your mind you may come back here to ask to join again but the conditions will be the same." He smirked at me when he finished and I knew that he was serious. It was evident that he liked Lily from the very start and he disliked me but I didn't think that he would have done this.
"Kiss me instead." I sighed and the look on his face was priceless. He looked as though someone hit him with a truck.
"I thought that you hated me."
"I do hate you but my love for my best friend trumps that," I sighed again, "if you have to kiss someone then kiss me."
"I don't want you, I want her." He bared his teeth at me. It would have looked more menacing if he was in wolf form but in human form he just looked dumb.
"It's not like I want to do this so don't flatter yourself."
"Maddie, it's okay, I will do it." I looked at Lily and I knew that she didn't want to do this.
"No, Lily, you don't have to. We could just move somewhere else."
"I don't want to move, I like it here. I will kiss him but it will only be a peck, five seconds at most... those are my conditions." She stated in a stern voice. Aaron's eyes lit up and he walked over to her and pulled her up from the chair.
Lily was hesitant but she allowed him to pull her up nonetheless. She kept her hands straight down at her sides and closed her eyes tightly. She was bracing herself.
"Are you ready?" He asks in a gentle tone and I focus on his face, he was genuinely interested in knowing that.
"I guess so." She said.
He cupped her face in his hands and tilted her head up. He brought his face down to fill the face between her and him before bringing his lips to meet hers. It was off-putting seeing my best friend have to kiss this Alpha just so we could join a pack. As soon as their lips met I started the stopwatch on my phone to time them. As soon as the five seconds were up I shouted.
"Time's up!"
My voice pulled Aaron out of his little fantasy and Lily out of her doom. It seemed as though Aaron didn't feel like he had his fill because he started to lean in to kiss Lily again. This time Lily turned her face so his lips met her cheek.
"Are we in?" She asked shyly.
"Yes, as soon as you get the tattoos."
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