QUILLA
I flop face down on the luscious bed, my body and psyche wrecked from the long ass drive.
I feel like I've been emotionally pancaked by an asphalt Zamboni. Right now I barely know up from down.
In the peace of the guest suite of the pack we have stopped at for the night, I finally have a moment to myself to truly gauge the extent of the last few days worth of trauma.
I roll over in the bed to stare at the plain white ceiling.
My skin tingles in a way it never has before. I feel Kyra move lazily about inside me as she investigates the mate bond continuing to grow inside of me.
I've tried to ignore it and it helped having my attention focused on my parents and learning as much as possible about the family I never knew I had.
But now, alone in this quiet room the mate bond practically screams at me, and Kyra scratches at my psyche like never before.
"Okay bitch, I'm going," I grumble, knowing exactly what she wants without even knowing how I know. This sudden awareness of my wolf's individuality is beyond bizarre but I've always been a roll-with-the-punches kind of girl so that is exactly what I do.
Rising off the bed I walk to the en suite bathroom flicking on the light to stare at my reflection in the mirror.
With a trembling hand and a heavy sigh, I tug my t-shirt off and swoop my long hair to one side, gasping at the dark, elegant, tattoo-like swirls weaving from behind my ear, down the left side of my neck across my shoulder, and sweeping downward.
"Great balls of fucking fire," I stare, stunned, at the massive as fuck mark.
Viggo might as well have pissed on me while he was at it, the damn thing is huge.
I squint at the stray vine-like swirl curling above my breast disappearing into the cup of my bra.
"Oh for fucks, sake," I reach behind me to unclasp my bra, my jaw dropping as I peel it off.
The offending vine curls around the side of my breast and underneath framing my left breast to end smack bang in the center of my chest with a distinct curling V.
"You have got to be kidding me,"
A fucking V.
For Viggo.
"How about very, very, fucking, dead," I mutter, reaching up to touch the monstrosity in the center of my chest only to gasp as hot tingles sizzle straight down to my damn vagina.
"By the gods!" I cup myself to contain the sweet throb between my legs, glaring at Viggo's mark in the mirror.
"So fucking dead," I swear.
I glare at my reflection as a multitude of emotions storm inside me. Anger and outrage clash with fear and outrage culminating in an outpouring of frustrated tears.
I wipe them away angrily stepping away from my offensive reflection to strip and head for the only thing that is likely to soothe my turbulent spirit.
I'm almost a prune when my ears catch a familiar sound in the bedroom that has me rushing out of the shower. Wrapping a towel quickly around me I follow the sound and grab my phone out of my bag while dripping on the floor.
A massive smile breaks across my face as Jensen's handsome face appears on the caller ID.
"Miss me already?" I choke down the crackling line as I collapse on the edge of the bed, tears choking my throat as I hear my brother's voice. I'm just glad there's even reception in this pack, wherever the heck we are.
"Just making sure your cuntwaddle mate gets you to his pack safely." He scoffs and I chuckle.
"Gods, I miss you so much already," I sigh, "How's Udyr?"
Jensen pauses.
"Not great. He went to the cave."
I nod, my heart aching.
"Tell him I miss him and I love him." I choke down the line.
"You can tell him yourself. I'll make sure he calls you when he gets back." Jensen promises me.
"I'll call Aunt Mishka and Uncle Borra in the morning, I hope she's not baking up a storm." I hear Jensen chuckle but the rest of what he says fades in the background as the bedroom door swings open and Viggo walks in, sucking the air out of the room.
I clutch the towel around my chest, my jaw dropping as he rolls in a suitcase and places it on the floor next to my rucksack then heads toward the bathroom.
"Dinner is in an hour." He says casually over his shoulder before disappearing into the bathroom.
"Kyra, you still there? Is everything okay?" Jensen's voice in my ear jostles me back to reality.
"Um yeah all good. Hey, thanks for calling Jen. Can we do this again tomorrow night please, I gotta go."
"Sure thing. Send me a text when you're settled and I'll call," he promises and I hang up, rushing angrily to the bathroom door just as it swings open. I almost crash into a might-as-well-be-naked Viggo in a minuscule towel around his waist.
The death threat forming in my mouth turns to dust as I find myself eye to eye with the most perfectly formed pectoral muscles I've ever seen.
My eyes trace the soft smattering of dark hair down the center of his chest between the raised bumps of washboard abdominals disappearing beneath the towel to a rather obvious swelling under the towel.
I'm pretty sure I've fried some brain cells. Kyra whimpers and I stumble backward as his heated pheromones swarm around me and uncontrollable, explicit thoughts wreak havoc between my thighs.
"What the hell are you doing?" I manage to choke through the thick fog in my brain.
"Getting my body wash, it's scentless." He says nonchalantly as he brushes past me to stride across the room. He squats to dig in his suitcase and the towel hangs on by a thread. Kyra suggests I sever it and I kick her horny ass back.
"You know what I mean. What the hell are you doing in my room?" I snap as he rises, brandishing an unlabeled bottle triumphantly.
He stops in front of me, his eyes raking my bare neck and shoulders, a smirk tilting the corners of his perfect mouth as he assesses the damage on my neck and chest.
"Our room. This is a small pack and they only have two guest suites. Your parents got one, we get the other."
He turns to enter the bathroom and I slam a hand on the door before he can close it.
I've never felt the tininess of my five foot three height before, but with Viggo looming over me I feel like a damn smurf. Fortunately, my temper and big ass mouth make up for my lack of stature.
"Did you want to join me?" Viggo asks with faux innocence dripping from his voice.
"Hell no!" I snap, "We are not sharing a room. I'll sleep elsewhere, even in the damn woods but I am not sleeping with you." I grit my teeth, trying my best not to let his swarthy scent destabilize me.
His annoying chuckle makes me want to take a four-by-two to his head.
"Is the first thing you do as Luna Queen going to be insulting the first pack you've visited by not staying in their best room?" He tuts and my jaw drops.
"My mark looks stunning on you by the way. I can't wait to see the rest of it. See you at dinner mate." The door shuts in my face.
"I'm going to kill you," I grumble at the door knowing full well his stupid lycan can hear me.
While the shower runs I go through my bags and dress then leave the room making sure I slam the door hard enough for Viggo to hear.
A quick scent of the hallway directs me to my parent's room down the other end of the short hallway.
Their door opens before I knock, my mom smiling at me.
"I thought you'd be getting some rest." She says as I barge in to find her alone and dressed for dinner in a beautiful blue cotton dress. She looks amazing with flawless minimal makeup, hair braided and pulled off her face to accentuate her regal bone structure, she is a picture-perfect Luna. Combined with her powerful Alpha scent I am struck by how amazing my mother is. A Luna and an Alpha.
I sit on the end of her bed with a huff.
"I'm not going to share a room with Viggo."
Neo looks up at me sharply.
"I thought you were given your own room?"
"Yeah, that's what I thought too until Mr. Alpha King just barged in. He said there are only two suites and I would be insulting the pack if I didn't stay there with him."
My heart sinks as she groans and sits next to me.
"He's right." She says.
"This is one of the smallest packs in the nation, less than eighty wolves. They are a very traditional pack and completely self-sufficient. Everything they eat they either hunt or grow themselves and they don't have a lot of excess, including rooms. All of Viggo's warriors including Costas are sleeping wolf outside tonight and these are the only two guest suites available."
She pauses then continues.
"If you are worried about Viggo I'm pretty sure despite his actions marking you he won't do anything you don't want to do."
I groan internally. It's not Viggo I'm worried about.
"This is a huge honor for this pack to be the first ever visited by the Alpha King and his Luna." Neo adds.
I growl a little sitting straighter.
"That's not fair! I did not ask for this, I only just found out I have a mate, and who the heck is telling them I'm Luna Queen."
She stares at me with pursed lips.
"That mark on your neck did, which if you haven't realized has also changed your scent. You smell more like Viggo already than what you did this morning."
I make the mistake of touching the mark in reflex and jolt in shock as the same reaction as before gets my panties twisted up.
"Fuck." I curse squeezing my thighs together, my face flaming in embarrassment at the thought of my mother being able to smell whatever the heck is happening to my body.
She throws me a sympathetic smile, "Exactly what that mark was designed to do," she says drily then leans forward to squint at the part of Viggo's mark that can be seen above my shirt neck line.
"Damn. It's big." She says with a frown.
I look at hers which is significantly smaller, quite elegant and very beautiful.
"It's hideous," I grumble then wince as Kyra snaps her disagreement in my head.
Neo shakes her head and grasps my hand.
"Don't do that honey. It's beautiful and so are you. Don't let your anger blind you to the possibility of something good happening between you and Viggo."
I stare at her surprised and yank my hand out of hers.
"I thought you were on my side?" I grumble standing up angrily.
She frowns and follows me as I head to the door.
"I am, and will always be on your side Quilla. I'm just saying that you have every right to be angry at Viggo, but don't let that anger make you bitter. The mate-bond can be a good thing."
"Well that sounds very much like you are on Viggo's side to me." I snap and rush out the door slamming it on Neo calling my name.
I just don't know who I can trust any more.
Certainly not myself or my wolf.
My compass is well and truly fucked.
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