Chapter 4
“Dylan!” I whisper yelled.
The halls were empty, but there were classrooms on either side of the hallway we were on.
Dylan’s Wolf growled loudly. The doors to some of the classrooms were just opening when Dylan stormed out of the building using inhuman speed, breaking the doors in the process.
Humans—both teachers and students—only got to see the flash of something dark, before the double doors were ripped apart from their hinges. Most were looking at me with terror in their eyes, while others stared in amazement.
“What happened here…?” Vice Principal Harris slowly asked, looking at me like if I was responsible for most of the wall that had previously held the doors, being gone. I just couldn’t help but wonder how that lady was all over the place.
“Uh… it was… an animal…?” I repeated, slowly and sounding unsure. I cringed after the words left my lips. It was a stupid lie, and I didn’t think anyone would believe me.
“Was that a huge bear?” some guy from one of the classrooms asked, fully walking out of the room.
I wasn’t even sure how it started happening, but the hallway was getting filled up with students, all murmuring how I had “survived” the apparent attack of a creature that was most likely a bear.
“I think it was,” I said, hoping that would appease them.
It only raised more questions. How did a bear move so fast? What was it doing in school? Jokes about bears wants to learn, they were “human too”, started circulating the area within minutes. Most of them wondered how the bear had been so strong, why it was so huge, and how it had gotten so far out of the woods. Others were wondering if there were even bears in the area.
I had no answer. More than anything, they were all wondering why the bear hadn’t eaten me alive, and how I had scared it away.
Jace, Dylan’s Beta, appeared with a group of guys. A crowd had already formed around me. Vice Principal Harris had been trying to reach me, more than likely to send me to the office. Jace grabbed my hand and began dragging me away before anyone had a chance to ask me more questions.
“What happened?” Jace asked. He looked more surprised than worried. He, along with his little posse, had walked me outside, to the back area of the school.
It was the first time Jace and I spoke directly to each other, although we both knew who the other was.
Jace was, like most of the other shifters, a good looking guy. Unlike Dylan, Jace looked a lot more relaxed. The few times I’d seen him, he had been looking cheery. He was cute—with a build similar to Dylan’s, sandy blonde hair, and hazel eyes. I could imagine his as a Beta, which was his title. He was commanding and his Wolf felt powerful.
“Dylan and I were talking. He got mad and shifted,” I replied, completely simplifying and understating what had really happened.
“Why?” he asked, curiously. He didn’t have to know, and I was sure he was aware of that.
“Disagreement,” I shrugged, casually.
I noticed Jake was jogging towards us, his eyes focused on me. He looked worried. He must’ve heard about the “attack”.
“Everyone is saying that a bear attacked you?” Jake asked.
“Umm…” I muttered, looking at Jace for help.
“Are you okay?”
“Dylan got mad and shifted into his Wolf. He wants me to take Leila back to the pack,” Jace replied.
“Right now? School’s not out yet,” Jake said, frowning.
“Well, he’s pissed. He wants Leila, so I gotta take her. It was a direct order. He wants her out of here,” Jace said.
“He wants to see me?” I asked. I was surprised by that. I had assumed that Dylan was really mad at me. I didn’t think he would want to talk, especially after he shifted into his Wolf and ran away from me.
“That’s what he ordered. We should get going,” Jace nodded.
“You’re not leaving,” Jake told me. “If Rainen finds out that you ditched, I’m gonna be the one in trouble.”
“Tell Rainen that Dylan wanted Leila to go see him,” Jake shrugged, like if it was that easy. “We gotta go and Leila’s coming with us.”
“Are you staying here in school?” I asked Jake.
“Leila, you haven’t even been here a full day,” Jake said, frowning at me.
“I know. But I need you to cover for me, please?” I asked him.
I was trying not to pout at him, although I knew it always made him feel guilty. Jake was used to arguing with me. He couldn’t handle me when I was being nice with him.
“Leila,” Jake said.
“Come on, Jake. I always cover for you. I just need to talk to Dylan,” I said, getting closer to him.
‘I’ll start doing what we’re supposed to be doing. Rainen won’t be opposed to that,’ I said to Jake, through our mind link.
I noticed that Jace and the rest of the little crew of guys were all frowning, looking between Jake and me. They looked at us suspiciously. I had nothing to say, so I ignored them until Jake nodded ‘yes’.
“Thank you! I owe you,” I told him, playfully punching his arm. “I’ll pay you back later, okay?”
“You better. You owe me a big one for this, and don’t think I’m gonna forget,” Jake said. He finally smiled at me. “Just call me when you’re out so I know what to do.”
“I will,” I told him.
On the way to Jace’s car, I had the little group staring at me. Jace was full on frowning and glaring. He had been like that since Jake and I were still talking.
Jace opened the passenger door for me to get in. He was polite, but he didn’t speak. The rest of the guys, who each had their own car, were acting the same way. They looked pissed off.
“You and Jake are pretty friendly with each other,” Jace said.
We were already on the way to the pack. I imagined that it was going to be a free afternoon for Midnight Moon Wolves.
A bunch of other students, all of which were Wolves from the pack, were also taking off. The principal and the teachers, it seemed, were distracted trying to figure out what to do with the big hole in their hallway. They still couldn’t find an explanation for what had happened. The popular theory was that it was a bear attack and I had survived it.
Just before taking off, I focused on hearing the humans. In just a few seconds, I had heard my name whispered hundreds of times, with crazy stories, all which were made up.
“Definitely,” I replied to Jace, who had been patiently waiting for my answer.
Jace, to my surprise, growled at my words. “You are my Luna now.”
“I guess,” I replied. Hearing him or anyone call me their Luna sounded so bizarre to me. I didn’t want them to start using the title with me. It made me feel guilty—like a traitor. I knew Alpha Jackson’s plans for Midnight Moon.
“Leila,” he said.
“I know who you are. You’re Jace, and Dylan’s Beta. That is as far as my knowledge of you goes. We’re not best buddies trading secrets about our friends.”
Jace narrowed his eyes at me, barely focusing on the road, but still managing to drive perfectly well.
“I am watching out for my Luna, and my best friend’s mate. This friendship between you and Jake, I wasn’t the only one who noticed it was more than just ‘friendly’,” he said, air quoting with one hand on the last word.
“I don’t owe you or anyone an explanation,” I snapped.
“You owe one to Dylan.”
“He’s not asking me for one.”
The rest of the drive to Dylan’s house was quiet. Jace seemed angry. The few words I’d spoken with him, and I already felt like he did not like me. It was a shame, since he had seemed friendly to begin with. I wasn’t surprised though. I was a great people repellant.
I hadn’t seen Dylan’s house since we arrived at Midnight Moon. It was the typical home of an Alpha. His parents lived there, which I had been expecting. He was still young. The place was huge, nice, and welcoming.
Jace parked the car, and got off with inhuman speed. I thought he was trying to run away from me, until he opened my car door. He didn’t say anything, but he nodded at me and motioned for me to walk.
It was awkward and silent. Jace was walking a few steps away from me. He seemed calm. His heart was beating at a normal rate, and his breath was even. Despite that, I could feel his Wolf.
It was strange. He was anxious. It didn’t look like anything was wrong, and he had an impassive expression on his face. But something about him was off—my Wolf could feel it.
Dylan was waiting for me inside.
He had been in the living room, standing by the tall windows that had the view of the front area of his home. His eyes were on me as soon as I entered the room. He must’ve seen when Jace and I arrived.
“You’re dismissed,” Dylan said, without removing his eyes from me.
Jace nodded and started to walk out. Before he left, his eyes focused on Dylan. It was obvious they were mind linking. It became even more obvious they were talking about me when Dylan’s angry eyes found me and he growled. Jace only shook his head, and walked out.
“What did he tell you?” I asked.
“What is going on between you and Jake?” Dylan asked instead.
“Jake?”
Dylan nodded. “I know about him. What is going on between you two?” He was trying to sound calm, but the growls were slipping through his voice.
“What do you know about Jake?” I asked, flatly.
“I know that he’s into you,” he stated.
I laughed. I didn’t do it to piss him off, but I genuinely could not stop myself from laughing at his words. Jake and I were as far off from having anything romantic between us, it was comical.
“Jake…” I repeated.
“Don’t act stupid!”
“Tone it down, and quit the name calling. I came here, to you, even after what you did at school,” I told him, glaring. I definitely did not appreciate the way he was looking or talking to me.
“What you said….”
“What about what you said?”
“What did I say?” Dylan asked, sounding angry and confused. “Don’t try to make this about me, Leila. You know why we’re here.”
“We’re here because you’re an unfair jerk.”
“I am not!”
“I hate to break it to you—no, never mind. I am surprised that I have to break it to you, but you’re a freaken sexist. I know one when I see one, courtesy of my father and Alpha Jackson,” I said, knowingly.
“What about them?”
“Nothing!” I snapped, but only because I panicked.
I kept doing it in front of him—oversharing. It bothered me that my mouth had no restraint whatsoever. I felt as if all the restraint I had kept my entire life disappeared around Dylan because my Wolf trusted him and I had no control when he was around.
“What happened between you and Jake?” Dylan asked again. “I know it was him.”
“What was him? What are you talking about?” I said, exasperatedly.
“Leila, you’re young. I had certain ideas about us, about you,” Dylan said, finally appearing to be calming down. “I never thought I would find you right now, or that you’d be a few years younger than me. I thought that since you were young, you and I… you know,” he said, nodding and giving me a look like I should understand where he was going without having to explain himself.
“No, I don’t know,” I said, flatly, because I didn’t.
I understood that he didn’t think he’d find me. We were lucky to have found each other so young. We weren’t so lucky that I was who I was, and I belonged to the pack that I did. Just thinking about the future that was waiting for me—my thoughts turned bleak and I felt like I hated myself and my pack.
“You know, I thought that since you were fifteen, it could be a great way for me to have you, all of you.”
“Because you don’t have all of me right now?” I asked, trying really hard to keep my voice from wavering.
Dylan sighed, and nodded. “You’re mine, Leila. You’ll always be mine.”
He started walking towards me. It had taken him a while to approach me. Even though I was trying to keep a straight face, it hurt. It hurt that he was staying away because he was mad over what I had said.
“You are unfair.”
“I know,” he said. “I shouldn’t have gone off like that. I just want you. Thinking about someone else having you,” Dylan said, and I saw the shiver that went through his body. It was clearly not a pleasant thought for him.
“Now you know how I feel,” I told him.
“It’s not the same,” Dylan said.
He was a few steps away from me. His grayish blue eyes had been dark, but they were slowly going back to their beautiful color.
“It’s the same, whether you agree with it or not.”
Dylan shook his head. “I love you,” he shrugged. “I wanted to say that last night when I was leaving, but you seemed kind of freaked out. You’re still a pup,” he said, not that he could be talking. He was a pup himself.
I was only barely able to think about anything because his ‘I love you’ was replaying over and over in my mind. I had not expected a declaration of love from him to come so fast. But it should not have surprised me. We had just met and I already felt like he was fully dedicated to me, despite how closed-minded he was about some things.
“I have the type of parents who mated the day after they met,” Dylan said, looking embarrassed for the first time since I had met him. “I expected the same to happen between my mate and me.”
“Right,” I mumbled, feeling my own blush creeping onto my face.
“You’re fifteen, I know. I was willing to wait. And then I found out…”
“You call what we did in the second floor of the school—willing to wait?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
Dylan chuckled. “It was fun,” he said, grinning. “We didn’t have sex. I wanted to, but not like that, not there. I would’ve gone for it if you wanted to, but it wasn’t what I wanted for us.”
“I wouldn’t want that for us either,” I said, agreeing with him.
“When you told me that you had already… it was unexpected. You’re so young,” he said, taking a deep breath and shaking his head, looking like he was barely able to get the words out. “It’s fine. You were right, I didn’t wait for you either. I’m sorry,” he said, and he finally closed the distance between us.
Dylan wrapped his arms around my waist, and he pulled up from the ground. We both held on to each other tightly, but I could tell it was for different reasons. I felt nostalgic for several reasons. Dylan seemed like he’d been holding back throughout our talk.
“You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen, and I am not just saying that because I ruined things earlier. I love you, Leila.”
I nodded. I didn’t know what to tell him. I didn’t want to start throwing love words at him, not when I was so uncertain of our future together.
I was freaking out. As soon as the thought entered my mind, I only began panicking more. Being in Dylan’s arms was heaven. He was warm, and we fit together perfectly. He smelled so good, and he was so strong. I didn’t want him to let me go. I didn’t want to let him go.
But I was terrified of my father. I was terrified of Alphas Jackson.
I held on to Dylan even tighter, and nuzzled my head against his neck. He was peppering kisses on my hair, inhaling my scent, and pressing me impossibly close to his chest. That was how I wanted to stay, in his embrace.
Dylan began walking us over to the one of the sofas. He sat me down over the seat, and pulled up the coffee table to take a seat directly in front of me.
Once he was sitting down, he placed his hands on my thighs, casually. He didn’t try anything else, but I still felt the small pressure of his hold. It was nice, tingly.
“I just have two questions, and we can forget about this entire thing,” Dylan said.
Again, I noticed him trying to act casual. I had a bad feeling about his questions, but I sighed and nodded either way. I was wondering if it would simply make my life easier to tell him the truth—I had been watched so much in my pack by my father, people had looked but no one, not even humans, had dared to approach me.
“You and Jake…”
“Jake is like my brother,” I replied.
“The day I found you—you two were…”
“We were wrestling. Don’t look into it and find things that are not there. Jake and I are comfortable enough with each other, when we train and fight, he will kick my ass to prove that he’s stronger. That is the type of relationship Jake and I have. He’s annoying and bratty but I love him. We grew up together.”
I exaggerated, only a little when I talked about the fighting. Jake was rough, but he more or less took it easy on me. I was weaker than him and he knew it. But I wanted for Dylan to see that there was nothing between Jake and me, especially because I didn’t want him to start hating Jake. I cared too much about Jake, and I had already seen how angry Dylan could get.
Dylan gazed at me for a while, his eyes scanning my face, probably trying to gauge my reactions. I didn’t look away from him. What I had said had been mostly true. I didn’t feel nervous under his stare.
Before asking his second question, Dylan ran his hands up and down my thighs, pulling up my dress a bit. I had the tights, but I could still feel his hands like if they were practically over my skin.
He seemed hesitant. “This is something that I need to know,” he said.
“Okay,” I nodded, but I felt distrustful. The way he looked so nervous wasn’t exactly reassuring.
“How many?”
“Oh my God! Please tell me you’re not asking what I think you’re asking.” I closed my eyes and sighed.
“I need to know. Tell me and I’ll drop this subject.”
“Dylan, you’re not seriously asking me that?” I didn’t have an answer for him because I wasn’t sure whether to feel offended or caught.
“Just answer my question,” he said.
I felt like we were going to start fighting again. When I heard voices outside his home, Dylan looked away from me.
“My parents are home,” he said, frowning.
I was saved, thankfully, from having to answer his question.
“My mom has been asking about you non-stop,” he continued
“Yeah,” I mumbled.
“We will continue the conversation later, okay?” he asked, placing his hand on my neck and making me look up at him. His other hand was still over my thigh. “I need to know.”
I nodded, and Dylan leaned in to kiss my lips. It was a small, soft kiss. It felt like an apology on his part, although he had already apologized.
His parents walked into the room just as Dylan was pulling away. Our fight was in the back burner, for now.
I had their attention as soon as they entered the room. I had met Alpha Benjamin, of course. He smiled at me warmly. He had seemed like a nice man the first time I met him, but I noticed a change in him now.
Before, in his eyes, I had just been another girl. Now I was his son’s mate. It made me feel welcomed. When Dylan’s mother Emma walked up to me and embraced me in a hug, the feeling intensified. She told me her name, although I already knew it.
“I thought you were going to come home with Dylan last night. I wanted to meet you,” she said, making it sound like it was perfectly normal for me to move in with them the same day I had met Dylan.
“I wanted some time to breathe,” I said, smiling, but feeling my emotions going crazy inside of me.
Emma went on about the time when she met Benjamin. She talked a lot, and all I had to do was nod or say a few words here and there to acknowledge what she was saying.
While she was talking to me, Dylan stood up and began quietly speaking with his father about some pack business. It was weird—too… normal. Dylan was smiling at me, like if he was happy that Emma and I were getting along or something like that, when Emma was the only one really talking.
Me? I was thinking about my life, my parents, and how things were completely different for me.
Unlike Dylan’s parents, my parents had not gotten together after just one day.
My mother had belonged to Staten Pack all of her life, just like my father. When my father turned thirteen and received his Wolf, he recognized my mother as his mate. She was part of the pack, but two years younger than him. He had claimed her then, when he was thirteen and she was eleven.
My father told the story like he couldn’t stop himself from claiming her. He wanted every Wolf to know that she was already taken.
After claiming her, he had waited. When my mother turned thirteen, her Wolf instantly felt the bond. She already knew they were mates. She had the claim. My father was a Beta. My mother’s family had been overjoyed, and desperately waiting for her to grow up so that she could take her position by my father’s side. My father had been seventeen and my mother fifteen when he took her away. I was born a year later.
Sometimes I felt like she resented me—that was why we never really talked or got along. In the dinner table, it was usually a quiet affair. My father spoke. But if anyone else could interrupt him, it was me and not her.
My father had been the one who shared the story of the first time they met, and how things had been for them. Despite how harsh he was, I was a lot closer to him than to my mother.
My mother was complicated. She had spent most of my life shutting me out. My father hadn’t. I always felt bad for feeling like I loved him more than I did her.
He was kinder to me. He was strict, and I feared him. But at the end of the day, I was his little girl, who was going to follow in his footsteps. I was used to being overprotected by him, of being kept in a cocoon where my life consisted of being with my family, the little freedom I enjoyed with Jake and Joel, and training for when I became Beta. I wanted to do my father proud. As fearful as I was of him, I respected him too much to do anything else.
That was why when Emma was talking about life in Midnight Moon, and how things had been for her, I didn’t identify. I didn’t understand. What she was explaining, it felt foreign to me because it wasn’t at all how things were done in Staten.
I felt exhausted by the time Dylan interrupted his mom and told her we were going up to his room. Both Emma and Alpha Benjamin had given us knowing looks, which made me blush like crazy. It didn’t help that Dylan was grinning at them, while wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me to his side.
“They’re nice,” I said.
“They love you,” Dylan told me, nuzzling his nose against my cheek before pecking my lips.
We were on our way up the stairs when I felt Rainen trying to talk to me. I had blocked everyone from the pack, mostly because I didn’t want Jake to be bugging me or reminding me that I owed him one.
“I need to use the bathroom,” I said to Dylan as soon as we were in his room.
“In there,” he said, pointing to what I assumed was the bathroom door.
I could feel Rainen, pushing to get into my mind. I didn’t want to mind link with him in front of Dylan. Dylan had been noticing every time I mind linked with anyone—I made it too obvious. I only felt bad because I didn’t get a chance to get a good look at his room.
I turned on the sink faucet. Dylan was in the room. I was sure that he wasn’t going to focus on me if I was in the bathroom, but I imagined that if I was in there and there was no noise, he’d know something was up.
The water was loud enough that I felt like it could be distracting.
‘You’re with Dylan?’ Rainen asked as soon as I brought the walls down in my mind. He sounded demanding, but worried.
‘He had his Beta bring me to his house.’
‘You skipped school,’ Rainen said. Even through my mind, I could hear the annoyance in his voice.
‘I went to my morning classes.’
‘Where are you?’
If I lied, he was going to find out. Dylan and Alpha Benjamin wouldn’t know that I was trying to keep things from Rainen and they would probably end up getting me into bigger trouble. I figured that telling him the truth was the best thing to do.
‘I am at his home. His parents are here. We’re not alone,’ I quickly added.
If Rainen had been there, I pictured him nodding. He didn’t like to talk, it seemed. He didn’t really have to talk a lot. Rainen was the intimidating sort—easy to shut you up. Since he wasn’t there, he had to say something.
‘Every Alpha has something—binders, documents, or folders in their system. Those have some lists, statistics, accounts, and numbers in the pack. We want that,’ he said.
‘You want it?’ I repeated, and I could hear how weak my voice sounded, even in my mind.
‘You’re there, make it count. If anyone can get those things, it would be you.’
‘What lists?’
‘I want a count of the Wolves,’ he replied.
‘You already know how many Wolves are in the pack. Everyone knows it’s the biggest pack in the country.’
‘I want a count of fighters and trackers. It’s not only about that, Leila. Alpha Jackson is curious. He wants to know what we’re going up against—I’m talking bank accounts and things like that, enough to be able to bring the pack down.’
When I came out of the bathroom, Dylan’s room was empty and the door was open. I could hear him downstairs, talking to his parents. I took a seat on his bed and waited for him. My mind was still thinking about what Rainen had asked for—what Alpha Jackson wanted.
I needed to talk to my father. I was scared of talking to him, but I had to give it a shot. I wanted Dylan. I wanted to stay with him, and I wanted to become his mate. I didn’t want to give him up. As much of a cool guy Jake had said Alpha Roderick was, I just didn’t care. I wanted to be with my mate.
Dylan walked in a few minutes later holding a tray with some drinks and snacks.
“You didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast,” Dylan said, walking over to the sitting area in his room. I followed after him. I imagined that was what he wanted.
There was a couch, a recliner, and a small coffee table over a dark gray rug. In front of it, there was a flat screen TV. It was a cozy little area. His room was as big as mine was at my home in Staten. They were both big and spacious.
“I could eat,” I nodded. I hadn’t realized that it was late. He was right. I had not even had a drink of water since the day before.
When Dylan saw that I took a seat on the floor, in front of the coffee table, he took the spot next to me, sitting very close. I kept expecting for him to bring up our earlier conversation, since his parents were downstairs. He didn’t.
I wasn’t sure if he had prepared the snacks, but I could no longer hear or feel his parents in the house. When he noticed me looking around, he explained.
“They left. I want to spend some time with you. I didn’t know if you would feel uncomfortable having them around. My father left to the pack building, and my mom went to visit some friends.”
“They didn’t have to leave,” I told him, but I felt bad for being relieved that they were gone.
“They’re fine. I had been thinking about getting my own house. I have no intentions of sticking around here for much longer. Now that I found you, I’m going to start working on that. I have to speak with Saul too,” Dylan said, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.
I rested myself against him, and made no comment. I had nothing to say. I didn’t want to lie and start making plans about the perfect life we were going to have. I wasn’t sure what Dylan and I had to face.
He had brought sandwiches, chips, homemade chocolate chip cookies—which I was sure his mother had made—and sodas. Dylan turned on the TV, found a movie that we both agreed on, and we settled down for the afternoon.
Every once in a while, Dylan would ignore the movie and started kissing my shoulders, my cheek, or my neck. I kept telling him to stop, but I was smiling or giggling, and it only pushed him to keep doing it. Although I complained, I loved it. I loved that he was touching me, and that his attention was on me.
Once the movie was over, he found another one, and we stayed there for another two hours. Dylan was sitting on the floor. I had started off sitting next to him, with his arm around me. Sometime during the first movie, I ended up in his lap, with Dylan’s arm around me, and his hand resting on my thigh.
It was a comfortable position. I liked that we were spending time together without arguing or disagreeing about something.
It was strange to think that I had just met Dylan the day before, but it felt like I’d known him for a long time. There was still a lot I had to learn about him, but my Wolf and I—we were both comfortable around him. We trusted him.
The second movie was about to ended when Dylan slid me off from his lap and sat me on the floor. His face grew serious, and he sighed loudly.
“I have to go,” he told me, shaking his head. He looked upset. “My father tracked some Rogues near the border and he wants me to go check it out.”
“Is everything okay? How many Rogues?” I asked, taking his arm in my hands, and pulling myself closer to him.
Dylan grinned at me and gave me a cocky look. I rolled my eyes at him, but I still wanted him to answer my question.
There were different types of Rogues. The twisted ones that wanted to create problems and the calm ones that were simply passing through.
It was weird, but even though Alpha Jackson was a stickler to pack law, he didn’t have too many problems with Rogues. He and my father had a decent relationship with most Rogues that had ever wondered close to our pack. As far as I knew, other Alphas weren’t like that.
“Tell me,” I said, pulling on his arm. “Is everything okay?”
“It’ll be fine, Leila,” he replied, nuzzling his nose against my cheek, before he playfully bit me. “I want to claim you.”
I pulled away from him so fast—Dylan growled at me and pushed me back against his chest. It had been a random time for him to tell me that.
“I’m not doing it right now,” he growled at me. He was getting mad.
“Good,” I told him.
I didn’t want to be marked. Well, I did. But I knew what the mark was going to do to me. As it was, I wanted to stay with Dylan. If he marked me, it was going to be harder for my Wolf and me to let him go. Just thinking about it made me want to cry.
“You don’t want my mark?” Dylan asked, pulling on my arm until I was sitting once again on his lap.
“I didn’t say that.”
“Why did you say that it was good?” Dylan asked, narrowing his eyes at me. His grip on my arm tightened, becoming nearly painful. “Answer,” he said.
“I don’t know. Don’t you have somewhere to go?” I said, sounding annoyed.
I was panicking. I felt like I kept digging a bigger hole for myself. I hadn’t done anything yet, but I already felt guilty. I wanted to tell Dylan everything that was going on in my pack, with Alpha Jackson, and Alpha Roderick.
But I didn’t know what he would say. Dylan got so angry over any little thing. I felt like he and I already had enough things to argue about without adding the real reason of why I was in Midnight Moon.
“I’m going to claim you tonight. I want my mark on your neck. No one else is going to be touching what’s mine,” he stated. His eyes had grown dark. He was mad. “I have to go.”
Dylan didn’t even kiss me before leaving. He simply sat me down on the couch, handed me the remote control, and took off.
I was feeling down. I had no idea what I was going to do, but I had to come up with something. I was not ready to receive his claim. I felt like no matter what I said, he was still going to do it.
I was thinking about Dylan and what his claim would mean for me when Rainen mind linked me.
‘I created the distraction. The Rogues are with us. Find what I told you now that you’re alone,’ he said, before cutting up the connection between us.
I didn’t even know how Rainen knew that Dylan had taken off. I imagined that he was with them, or that he had seen Dylan leave. There was no way Rainen was going to risk walking into the Alpha’s mansion—his scent was going to stay there and Dylan or his father would recognized it.
I tried to talk to him again, but he was fully blocking me out. I tried Silvi and Jake, but only received silence on their end as well.
He wanted me to find information about Midnight Moon.
I walked around Dylan’s room, not knowing where to begin. I didn’t want to do anything to hurt him. I didn’t want to hurt Midnight Moon either. I just began pacing around the room, feeling stupid, but not knowing what else to do.
‘I can see you, Leila. I’m outside,’ Rainen mind linked.
I had been standing right next to the French doors in Dylan’s room that led to a balcony. I walked out. Dylan only had a chair out there. There was enough space to create another small sitting area, but the space was bare.
I spotted Rainen as soon as I walked out. He was looking up at me, not necessarily angry, but with serious eyes.
‘Find what I told you. Start in his room. If you don’t find anything, go to the study. I have to go. Silvi needs help with the Rogues. If you don’t find at least one useful thing, Alpha Jackson will make us leave sooner. We are only here to gather information. Do not forget that, Leila,’ he said. It was a warning. He nodded at me once, shifted into his Wolf, and then he was off.
I stayed outside for a little while. The sky was gray. It looked like it was going to rain. It had been warm and sunny earlier, but it was starting to get fresh outside. When I felt a shiver run through my body, I walked inside.
I started snooping around in Dylan’s room. My efforts were weak. I only ended up looking through a few drawers before I gave up and walked downstairs.
I was mostly checking out the huge house. I could tell Dylan’s mother had made an effort into decorating it. Everything was neat but homey. I loved how it felt. It was nothing like my house or the Alpha’s home back at Staten. Dylan’s house truly felt like a happy home.
I opened several doors before finding the one that led to the study. It was huge, much like the rest of the place, but it was nothing too impressive. I had liked Alpha Jackson’s study a lot more.
Alpha Benjamin kept several pictures of him with his mate, him with Dylan, or him with members from the pack, on his desk and shelves. Just like the rest of the house, his study felt homey and lived in.
I was used to my father or Alpha Jackson’s offices—which were dark, eerie and clinical. Those actually felt elegant and imposing.
Alpha Benjamin’s office felt like the office of a regular human. It was somewhat underwhelming.
I could smell Dylan’s scent all over the place. I imagined that he spent a lot of time in there. I started off with the idea that I was only going to check the place out.
I wasn’t sure how twenty minutes later, I found myself with folder after folder scattered on top of Alpha Benjamin’s desk. I was curious. Every time I found something, I just had to know more.
Some of the things I found amazed me. I discovered things that I didn’t even know about my own pack.
Midnight Moon also had every Wolf in their pack profiled—from simple stuff like their height and weight, to their skills and strengths. Those were definitely things that Alpha Jackson would want to know. It was wrong that I was even considering handing him that information. I also wouldn’t know how to get it to him. There was a computer on top of Alpha Benjamin’s desk, but it had a password.
The rest of the things were all in folders or binders. It was too much for me to carry out without anyone noticing. I had Rainen’s words in my mind. I had to give Alpha Jackson information. But I didn’t want to. I ran my hands through my hair, and finally rested my head against Alpha Benjamin’s desk. I didn’t know what to do.
I was in there when I heard the front door opening and closing. I started panicking. I could hear my heart beating faster in my chest, and I knew that if I didn’t control it, whoever had walked into the house would be able to hear it.
It took only seconds for me to feel him—it was Dylan. He had returned. I didn’t know how much time had passed by, but I’d obviously taken too long going through Alpha Benjamin’s things.
All of the things I had taken out were scattered on top of his desk, which had previously only held picture frames and his computer. I quietly began piling up the papers, folders, and binders, hoping that Dylan wouldn’t hear me.
Of course, there was no such luck for that. Dylan walked into the room a second later, his eyes on me, while I was holding on to a pile of things that I had stupidly thought I could put back.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, frowning, before his eyes landed on all the stuff I was holding in my hands.
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