Battle Field

Later that night Ryder left to attend a ‘pack meeting’ which was apparently about me. Unknowing to me I was still considered a rogue against his pack; he needed to initiate me into his pack apparently. Although there was one catch to that, he needed to clear it with them. I had tried to push me being able to come with him because I felt like that were more app to accept me if they were able to meet me, but he said that they will not need to meet me because I was their ‘Luna’. Ryder said that even if they decided not to accept me he had ‘alpha jurisdiction’ and he would override their choice. I had expressed my feelings about that being unfair, but he just told me not to worry about it. Something about it would be suicide to reject your Luna. I don’t know, honestly I was beginning to think the only good things about becoming a werewolf were Ryder and getting away from my mother. So far all I have done while being a wolf is get lost, starve, almost loose my virginity, and meet my mate. Moving a little to fast for me…I need to monitor my actions from now on. I need to make sure I don’t loose the one person that is actually attracted to me because of my new wolf hormones. Know that I think about it, was this the moon goddess’ plan for me? Make me completely unattached to any other man until I met my mate? Did I somehow know in my subconscious that I was going to have a mate?

Groaning to myself I forced myself off from the couch. Ever since Ryder had left I found myself literally lying in the spot he had been sitting, just to be able to smell his scent. God, I was whipped. This mating thing was kicking my ass. The human side of me was completely confused by it. How in the hell could I be falling head over heels for a man that I had meet this morning!? For one, I have NEVER wanted to sleep with someone. In all honestly I have never even really had a sexual thought about someone. All I have ever been worried about was winning those competitions, which was all I ever had time to worry about. Now I was jumping this boy’s bones. I don’t even know how to kiss! What had come over me? If we had gotten further then we had what would I have done? Pure embarrassment washed over me, good lord I need to start thinking things through. Forcing myself the rest of the way off from the couch I found myself stretching. My sore bones cracked loudly and all of the blood rushed to my head. Suddenly becoming dizzy I fell back onto the couch. Curling right back into Ryder’s spot and pressing my face into the cushion. Inhaling his vanilla mint scent, god it was so good. Pandia began to purr inside me, awakening in my head for the second time today.

‘Hmmm.’ She hummed inside my head, for once I actually agree with her. If she had given me anything that I needed to be thankful for, so far it was Ryder. ‘I can’t wait for this.’

I opened my eyes then, curling closer to the cushion. What in the hell could she mean now? I don’t want her to get me into something that I cannot fix. ‘You can’t wait for what?’

She purred in my head, sounding like a vibrating motor of a car. She was so excited to finally be part of my life, but she was taking over to much of it. I wasn’t used to this so far, parts of me wanted to be alone some times. There were some things that you wanted to do in privet, and now those things were shared between her and I. ‘Sex, I miss it.’

My lips pursed then and my nose pulled up in disgust. ‘Please, let me do that on my own. At least once.’

Again her purring inside of my head echoed through my ears. She wasn’t listening to me. Here I was, nice enough to share my body with her-not that I really had a choice-. You would think that she would be grateful enough to let me have this one thing. ‘Avery, you are not really grasping the whole werewolf thing. I do not just disappear, I am always here.’

My heart pounded in my chest heavily. My love for this voice in my head was almost as much as much as the love I was feeling towards Ryder. I wanted to be furious with her, but everything she said to me makes sense. So far she has been the one to protect me, if it weren’t for her I would’ve never left what must be a crime scene at my mother’s house, I don’t understand how I can’t remember what happened there. ‘That is not what I mean; I just want you to not take over during that one first time.’

For once she didn’t purr, she actually sighed heavily. Not clawing to get to the surface, not laughing inside my head, she seemed to actually be thinking to herself. It was calming to feel that she was actually taking into consideration something that I wanted. Ryder was ever someone that she wanted more then I did, if she hadn’t taken over my life I probably would feel no emotional attachment to Ryder. The werewolf thing almost seemed to have changed my life for the better in that way. That I could at least realize, so far the pain and sharing my body was the only downside. I have been saved; I am no longer a prisoner.

‘Avery, I am a goddess. You need to realize that I do not take second in most anything.’ She whispered, seeming to lie down inside my head and start to settle. Was she going to deny me this? ‘I understand that some things need to be left alone for you humans, and loosing your virginity would be considered one of them. I have brought you to the man that will love you no matter what, the very least I could do was let you have that one thing with him. I will do my best, because if you are happy then I am happy.’

A smile the size of Mount Olympus grew onto my face. I would be able to have the most important thing to myself, which was all I wanted. Thank god. ‘Can you tell me something?’

‘Of course.’ She seemed less drowned in thoughts of her mate now that we had that talk, now would be the right time to talk. Especially before Ryder came back and both of our brains got drunk off from his scent.

I took a deep breath and sat up of the couch, swinging my feet off from the couch and onto the plush carpet. ‘Did I-…what happened to my mother.’

She was the one to take a deep breath then, and I could almost feel her suppressing the memories in my head. ‘She had a gun; I did what was necessary to get us out of there alive. You need not worry.’

I stood up from the couch then, accepting that answer. My mother was dead, I killed her. There were probably wanted posters littering every town with my face on them. I will never be able to show my face in another human town, especially when I am probably wanted for the murder. Or at the very least I am wanted for running away. My age is not yet 18 and I am not emancipated. Meaning that I am a run away, and the cops are probably looking for me. I was not someone who would’ve disappeared without a trace, I was a ballet champion. In fact I had a competition coming up when I left, if they hadn’t found it odd that I didn’t show up to it then they did not know my mother.

One thing that I hoped to find in Ryder’s pack was a place to dance. I am already feeling the need for an escape, but not the run away kind but the mind kind. Sniffing out an empty room with wooden or cement floors could not be hard. I wanted to be able to close my self and feel myself twirl again, not even I could run away from the addictive feeling of that. Maybe while Ryder was away doing ‘pack stuff’ I could find a room that would be able to work, this house was huge there had to be a room.

Beginning to slowly leave the welcoming living room I found myself slowly creeping around. Honestly I was a little worried that would find something that I wasn’t supposed to. He didn’t seem to want to share anything about his pictures. Yet now that he was not here, it didn’t hurt to look. As I walked down the narrow wood paneled hallway I found myself looking at the pictures. There weren’t many of Ryder when he was young, and where there were it was with that old lady again. It was clear to see that woman was someone close to him, and by the looks of it she was his mother. What had happened to her for him to avoid my questions about her? Mental note to figure that out.

As I crept down the hall way I searched for any doors that could possibly lead to a potential ballet room. Most of the wooden doors were shut, and when I pressed my ear to them I could tell that they weren’t in use. I just couldn’t bring myself to touch the cool metal handle to open it. For some reason it felt like an invasion of Ryder’s privacy. That was his house, not mine. Even though I was his mate did not mean that I needed to be snooping around in all of his things.

I made my way to the largest door, carefully creeping up to it. Ryder’s scent was prominent in even the hall way surrounding this room. It was almost like he was here. That couldn’t be possible though, I’m sure I would have heard him enter this house. I mean there is not way I couldn’t have, its not like the cabin was that big. As I reached the door I pressed my ear to it, listening for anything that could tip me off that someone was in there. Even Pandia was curious inside of my head, was it possible for his scent to be this strong?

Voices sounded softly through the oak door. They were speaking in a hushed voice, and one of the voices was clearly Ryder’s. The other voice was clear to be Jessie, the man that had saved me from the forest. I would never forget his voice. It was soft, yet demanding. So far it only brought memories of anxiety. Even though he did save me, I was still tied up and dragged to Ryder’s pack because of him. That was a traumatic experience, no matter what the out come. It wasn’t long before I found myself eavesdropping on the conversation; I want to make sure I can trust them.

“Is she really your mate?” Jessie asked, clicking what sounded to be like a pen. I imagined his large build standing next to Ryder. I could almost see them standing next to a window or something, leaning against it and looking out at their pack.

Ryder sighed deeply then, the creaking of a chair echoed out through the door. “Of course she is, I have never felt so attracted to someone in my life. Her scent is so prominent to me that I have to fight the urge to claim her when ever I am near her, I almost did it forcefully earlier.” He sighed once more. “I wish she knew more about us though, it may take a while to get her up to Luna material.”

Well that sort of hurt my feelings a little. It wasn’t my fault that I didn’t know what it was like to be a werewolf; I wasn’t supposed to be one. Of course I am going to need to learn the ropes, but he was right sadly. Learning on how to become a werewolf is going to have to happen before I can learn how to run his pack.

“That’s not her fault; it’s Aetes’ and Pandia’s.” Jessie stated quite loudly, almost like he was offended by them.

Pandia gasped inside of my head and started growling loudly. Her growls made my ears feel like they were about to bleed. It was so high pitched and angry. ‘The human part of our mate has a big mouth! He should not be sharing that information!’ She hissed, I shushed her so I could hear more.

“I am in the same position as her; I should be a human as well.” Ryder growled deeply. The power in his voice radiated through the door, leaving butterflies in my stomach. Holy cow, the power in his voice is a turn on. “It makes me so angry that Pandia would let her wonder like that so far, she came from Florida to Michigan. That’s a ridiculous amount of distance to cover. Not to mention she didn’t even care enough to find her food!”

Pandia growled once more. ‘I care!’

Jessie chuckled. “I think she did quite well actually, we were lucky to catch her.” That was something that made Pandia a little happy. She knew that was true at least, she had leaded me through countless territories without allowing me to get caught. Ryder’s pack was the only one who got close to me, and they just happened to be the ones to catch me. “What are we going to do about the pack? If she goes outside they’ll kill her.”

I almost gasped out loud. His pack didn’t accept me, they didn’t trust me. If they planned on harming me then they are never going to accept me as their Luna. Would it be better if I just left?

Ryder growled again. “I don’t know, I need to get the process started for her to be accepted into the pack. Maybe I’ll assign some body guards, and if I have to I will take her away with me and leave you in charge until this is sorted out.” That actually sounded like a terrible idea, I knew that if I was alone with Ryder for long enough that I would defiantly end up having sex with him. “I am their alpha; they should be accepting her no matter what.”

I heard Jessie stand up then, beginning to walk slowly towards the door and stopping just before it opened. My heart pounded loudly against my chest and I crept away from it quickly. “They will, especially when they see that she is not a threat. She is just a child Ryder, they won’t hurt her.”

The door flew open then, and they caught me red handed. Jessie stood in front of me, a smirk creeping onto his face. My cheeks heated up and I smiled back. Unsure what else I could do, I had been caught eavesdropping on my mate. It may make him think that I didn’t trust him. My eyes traveled past Jessie’s tall build to see Ryder sitting at his desk, piles of papers littering the floor next to him. Jessie walked towards me then, his messy blonde hair shifting in front of his sea blue eyes as he walked up to me.

“Have a nice night, Avery.” He chuckled, tousling my hair before walking past me and down the hall towards the front door.

Ever so slowly I lifted my eyes to Ryder’s, expecting a hateful glair. I expected to be screamed at for having my ear pressed to the door, and I expected him to do exactly what my mother would’ve done. I expect him to hit me. When I looked up at him I saw him walking towards me already, a fake expression of sympathy on his face. The human side of my screamed at me to run, but for whatever reason I couldn’t. The smile on my face had now long disappeared and was replaced with the look of fear and panic. Having someone that I was falling for so hard hit me would be the worst thing I could imagine right now. If it happened like I think it is going to, at least I haven’t been here long and I can literally just pick up and leave. Believe me when I say that I would, I would never be able to live with someone like that again.

The thoughts that coursed through my head had Pandia freaking out a little as well. I could feel her confusion on why I was thinking these things, so may be inside my head but I knew for a fact that she does not know everything about me. Not to mention her confusion on why I would think that our mate would hurt us, in fact she was repeating it to me as I watch him cross the wooden floor to me. His hand lifting up from his side and coming towards me, out of habit my eyes squeezed closed and I flinched. The impact never came though; I was shocked to feel him rest his palm on the side of my face gently. My eyes shot open to look over at his hand, surprised to find that it was actually happening.

Ryder was standing in front of me as he smiled brightly at me. The shock that I was feeling had not worn off yet, and I still found that my heart was pounded inside of my chest. Happiness was slowing taking over the shock; thank god he wasn’t the man I was expecting him to be. So far he was just being a soft, gentle person who proved to care deeply about me. I was beginning to realize that I need to be more open to him; I shouldn’t second guess my feeling about him. If this was the man that the goddess planned on me being with for the rest of my life then so be it. Now was the time to enjoy it.

“Come, we need to discuss the rules of my pack so you will be able to follow them.” He hummed, leaning into place a soft kiss on my forehead then walking away from me.

Ryder sat down on the huge plush chair that belonged to his desk; almost seeming to sink into it was exhaustion. I followed slowly, bending down to pick up some papers that littered his floor. My eyes quickly scanning a crossed the top words as I quickly handed them back. They were maps of the area, ones that marked secret passage ways that would lead you out of his city. Ryder took them from my hand gently and slipped them into the front desk drawer. Mentally I made a note of where they were, I would need to remember that if I ever needed an escape route.

I placed myself in front of his desk, crossing my arms over my chest. Hugging myself and trying not to look out of place. “So…what are the rules?” I said quietly, looking at the floor. I was still embarrassed about getting caught eavesdropping and I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t angry with me for doing so.

He started then, talking loudly and boldly. He was talking in the voice of an alpha, the voice the no one dared deny. Thankfully I was not part of his pack yet, so although his voice scared me, I wasn’t controlled by it. Ryder did not have access into my mind yet and he did not have a way into my thoughts. “Rule number one, you are to stay in this house unless accompanied by me until this whole pack issue is resolved.” I looked up at him with wide eyes, how was I supposed to find a place to dance now? I finally get my human body back and he requires me to sulk into this little cabin unless he felt the need to go out?!

‘Don’t say anything.’ Pandia warned, I could feel her pacing in my mind. That put me at ease for a little bit, I knew she could find a way for us to roam. It’s not like she wants to be cooped up in my mind either. She would want to run eventually.

“How long will that be?” I questioned, trying to sound a little braver then I actually was. Although I would tell that he could see right through me. A hint of a smirk was playing on his lips, and his eyes were proving to me that he was trying to get me too corporate.

“I don’t know, as long as it takes.” He informed, straightening in his chair. “Rule number two, you are to stay inside the pack limits. I cannot have you running off into the woods, I have enough enemies as it is and I do wish to have to win you back from them.”

My nose scrunched up, that even pissed Pandia off. She wanted to be able to run in the woods, and if she wanted to she would. ‘That insignificant little human!’ She snapped. ‘I am the moon goddess’s daughter he will not keep me cooped up inside of you like some dog!’

“Do you think I cannot take care of myself?” I half growled, getting a little agitated. I could feel Pandia’s emotions swirling inside of me; I knew that they were affecting my judgment.

Ryder stood up then, placing his hands on the table and growling at me a little bit. “We had an easy enough time catching you; any other pack could do that same.”

I could see the anger forming in his eyes, and I could also see his eyes turning a depthless black color. Meaning that Aetes was taking over. Pandia was forcing herself to the surface quickly as well. The only difference is that she would completely control me still; Ryder could hold his wolf back for the most part. The fear of her taking over was still strong, I didn’t know if she would make me shift and it still hurt my body a great deal to shift. The cracking of my bones and the stretching of my skin still left me screaming out in pain. I did not want to shift again yet, I want to stay human! Pandia took over then, forcing me to the back of my mind.

“I will not be bossed around by some spoiled alpha!” She snapped at him, holding my will against me. I was trapped in the back of my mind. Someone else speaking for me, someone else controlling my limbs.

“Bring her back, Pandia!” He snapped angrily, slamming his fist down on the desk. He knew that Pandia was going to win this argument, he cannot argue against a god. “Unless you want your vessel to be killed by some rouge out in the woods or this own pack for that matter you’d better follow these rules.”

Growling at him once more she forced my body over to him, stomping her feet and shoving her finger into his strong buff chest. The touch sparked a feeling through out my body that had me humming in excitement. Even while we fought I still wanted him. Good lord. “You listen, and you listen well. I have protected this body and the soul that inhabits it for far longer then you have been here. Avery is more then just a vessel to me, she is my best friend. If you want me to keep you with your mate then I suggest you give us some freedom, or I will suppress her until you do and you will be stuck with me. I am not so fun to be around Ryder, and I can guarantee that if I’m out like this all the time then so will Aetes. We have been apart far too long for you to think that you can keep me locked away in this head.”

The next thing I knew Ryder had my body pushed against the desk, and when I saw his beautiful golden eyes they were pitch black. Aetes’ had taken over now; it was two wolves inside a small room. When Ryder had sank into his own head the tension in the room had almost disappeared. Now it was full of love, and longing.

Aetes’ pushed my body up onto the desk, pulling my small face into his hands. Pandia’s excitement was stronger then my own and now that she ad complete control of my body I had no say in what was happening. Aetes lips pressed to hers, strong and possessive. I couldn’t stop them from doing what they want, and that frightened me. I didn’t want them to have sex…I felt his lips start to trail down my neck, pin point the spot that Ryder had been kissing earlier. The same reaction happened, Pandia moaned out his name and before I knew what was happening I felt him clamp down onto the nape of my neck. Marking my body as his possession.