Mine

Chapter 3 - A Real Pack

Cadi's POV

Sunlight shining against my face woke me, my eyelids were still heavy and at first, didn't want to co-operate. When I finally opened them, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. My body was like my eyes and took me a little while to get it to co-operate, so I was in a sitting position. Where the hell was I?

My brain slowly joined the rest of me, and I started to remember what had happened. The wolves in the diner, the Alpha showing up, him being my mate, that I started rejecting him, and then it was all blank.

"Genevieve" I called out silently, "are you there?"

When she didn't answer me, I started to panic. I closed my eyes and concentrated harder, "Genevieve, where are you? Please don't leave me."

"I'm here Cadi" she responded softly, "I'd never leave you, but I owe you an apology. I shouldn't have tried to take over like that. That was dangerous, but I couldn't let you reject our mate, not without giving him a chance. I felt his wolf, I don't think he's like our pack."

"Gen, I know you wouldn't purposely hurt me but what about our plans, New York? You know we are supposed to mate to strengthen our pack, what makes you think this pack is any different?" I stated.

"He's our mate Cadi, I feel his wolf he wants us" she replied firmly.

I cut her off before I said something I would regret later.

I looked down and noticed that I was not in my uniform anymore which meant someone had changed me. Considering all I could smell in this room was salted caramel popcorn I had to be in his bed, this was confirmed when I looked over and saw the Alpha asleep on a couch near the large windows.

I quietly slipped out of the bed and snuck towards the bedroom door, I thought I was being stealthy enough but as soon as my hand gripped the handle, I heard his smooth voice call out from the couch, "Always running away from me, little wolf."

I muttered swear words under my breath again but once again forgot about werewolf super hearing. "Such a dirty mouth, too" He joked as I heard him get up from the couch and walk towards me, "please give me a chance."

His words sounded like a plea, I had never heard an Alpha plea before. It was always a command and the sound of it broke my heart.

I sighed, pressing my head against the door before releasing the handle and turning around.

"Why do you want me? You don't even know me." I asked quietly.

"You're my mate." He answered quickly, "and I want to get to know you, just like I want you to get to know me."

He reached out to me slowly and caressed my cheek causing me to jump as I felt little sparks flicker across where his fingertips touched.

"What was that?" I exclaimed; I was freaking out.

He chuckled softly but removed his hand, "That's the mate bond, I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt it. Did you want to come and sit down? I could have some breakfast brought up."

The mere mention of the word breakfast made my stomach rumble loudly, so I nodded and walked around him towards the couch, trying to keep a little distance between us to avoid the spark thingy happening again.

I took the furthest seat on the couch and I was grateful to see that he left an empty seat between us.

I watched his eyes cloud over and knew he was mind linking someone, "Breakfast will be up shortly, I didn't know what you liked so they will bring up an assortment. I'm Dante Rivers, Alpha of the New Moon pack, do I get to finally know your name, little wolf?"

"Hayden" I answered, a little too quickly.

He chuckled softly, "I know that's what your ID said, but I know a fake ID when I see it. What are you running from, little wolf?" I shifted in my seat, not sure how much to trust him. "I'm not going to hurt you, nor will I let anyone else hurt you. I'm also not going to push, you can tell me when you're ready but I'm hoping you will trust me enough with your first name."

"You can trust him Cadi, he speaks the truth," Genevieve assured me.

I took a deep breath, "My name is Caydence, but my friends called me Cadi."

"That's a beautiful name, Cadi, and I'm assuming since my Beta could only sense you yesterday that you just turned eighteen." I nodded. "Well, happy birthday for yesterday. May I know your wolf's name?"

That question made Gen purr in my mind, she liked the fact that he wanted to know her too, "Genevieve."

He smiled broadly, "My wolf's name is Dominic. I can tell you that he's very excited to meet you and Genevieve. But I've told him he will need to wait for your first full moon, there is no way she's coming out again before that."

I hadn't been keeping track of the lunar circles since I left. I left my phone behind and didn't have enough money to buy a new one or a computer. "When is the next full moon?"

He arched his eyebrow a little as if he thought I was joking. "Next Friday, so a week from today."

A knock on the door made me jump slightly, "It's okay" he said softly, "it's just the Omegas' bringing up breakfast."

A few moments later the door opened and in came three omega females carrying two trays piled with food and one with drinks.

The first woman laid a tray down on the coffee table and the other two followed.

"Good morning Alpha, Luna" She bowed softly to both of us which I didn't understand, "The Alpha didn't know what you liked, so we made a little of everything if there is something you like that is not here, please let me know. My name is Julie and I'm glad to see you're feeling better."

Without another word, they all turned around and left the room.

Dante seemed to sense my confusion, "What's wrong Cadi?"

"They called me Luna, and they bowed to me, why?" I queried.

"You are my mate. That is your title and even though you are not marked that still means something. They are showing you the respect you deserve" he explained, pulling the tray of drinks towards him, "so what will it be, little wolf? Coffee? Tea? Or Juice?"

"Coffee, please, black" I replied, "Why me? You don't even know me! Don't you choose your mate?"

"Why would I choose my mate when the Moon Goddess had already sent me the perfect partner?" he answered passing me my coffee, "now please eat, you must be starving you were out all of yesterday."

And as soon as said that, my stomach grumbled loudly again. I picked up a knife and fork and cut into some pancakes dripping in maple syrup that looked too good to resist and as soon as I placed them in my mouth, I knew they tasted as good as they looked. It wasn't long before the plate was gone. I stared down at the other food on the trays in disbelief there were mounds of bacon, three different types of eggs, grilled mushrooms, pastries, muffins, and tons of fruit.

"This is way too much food for two people," I exclaimed.

He picked up a croissant and tore it in half before putting some it in his mouth, "You haven't eaten since your wolf woke, Cadi. Trust me when I say, between the two of us, we could finish this off but no pressure. Just eat what you want."

Before I knew it, we had finished off most of the food, he was right.

He stretched his arms above his head which made his top ride up slightly showing off the bottom of his eight-pack. Genevieve was practically drooling in my head and to be honest I wasn't much better, I wasn't blind.

His soft, sure of himself, chuckle brought me back to reality, "See something you like little wolf?" My glare only made him chuckle louder, "If you're up for it, I'd like to show you a bit of our territory. I took the liberty of having some clothes and other necessities brought up for you, if you want to go get cleaned up."

I nodded and headed towards the bathroom, grabbing the bags on the way through. Once I reached the door frame I paused, turning back to Dante, "Whose clothes am I wearing?"

"Don't worry, Cadi, our female pack doctor and the female wolf you met at the diner took care of that." he explained, a broad grin on his face. "I'd prefer to see you without clothes when you're conscious."

I ran into the bathroom and closed the door behind me, hoping he hadn't seen the blush rising in my cheeks or the warmth spreading throughout my body. God damn, this man was sexy beyond belief and knew all the right things to say to get my body to respond, I had never felt this way with a man before.

"I'm just going to shower in one of the other rooms, I'll meet you back here once you're done with your cold shower." He teased through the wooden door.

And just like that, I was swearing under my breath again.

"Language, little wolf" he called out, his voice a little further away.

"That man is perfect! I cannot wait to see what he looks like naked, his body covering ours" Genevieve purr in my head.

"Gen, you are such a perv." I teased her silently.

She pranced around in my mind, "well I'm your wolf which is part of you so if I'm a perv, so are you girlie."

After a nice, long, hot shower, my aching body took precedent over my raging hormones. I wrapped a large fluffy towel around my now relaxed body and proceed to look through the bags that Dante said one of the Omegas had brought me. I searched through the bag exploring my options I settled on a pair of navy, skinny jeans, a simple black tank top, that was more fitted than I would normally wear, and a pair of black leather boots. One of the bags contained a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and every beauty supply you could ask for. I wasn't a real girlie-girl, so after drying my hair, placing it into a high ponytail, and brushing my teeth I settled on applying a little lip gloss, mascara and eyeliner. Satisfied with how I looked, I packed all the extra supplies back into the bags and headed back out to the bedroom.

As I exited the bathroom Dante was just walking out of his walk-in closet dressed in a simple pair of jeans like me, a navy, button-down shirt, and black boots. I felt my body heat up again as his eyes raked over my body from top to bottom, "You look lovely, little wolf."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" I asked, "I'm not exactly little! 1’m 5'10."

He smiled moving closer until we were only inches apart, lifting his hand and running it down the length of my arm, sparks shooting along the trail his fingers left. I didn't know if I could ever get used to that feeling.

He leaned down until his mouth was against my ear, "If I have to lean down this far to whisper in your ear then you are always going to be my little wolf. Are you sure you want to explore? We can stay here and get to know each other, I'm good either way?"

"STAY" my wolf screamed in my head.

After putting the wall back up to shut my horny wolf out, I looked up at him shyly, "let's go see your territory."

He went to grab my hand, but I pulled away, not ready to feel the sparks again, I was half expecting him to force it and was pleasantly surprised when he didn't.

As he took me on a tour of the packhouse it was a little unnerving how everyone bowed their heads not only to Dante but to me as well. I was the Beta's daughter at home but that title never yielded any respect within the pack, even Alexis, as the Alpha's daughter, earned her no respect. Unless you had a p***s to go with your title, you were completely ignored.

When we went downstairs and went through the kitchen, the Omega named Julie that had brought the food up to us this morning approached us, "Alpha, Luna." She greeted, "I hope breakfast was to your liking."

I gave her a warm smile, "Thank you Julie, it was amazing, I don't think I have ever had such a wonderful meal."

This was the truth. Females at home only ate after the males of the pack and the way they ate there was barely much left which is why Alexis and I always pile our trays at lunchtime at school. It was the one time of day we got to eat a decent meal. After she went back to work, I noticed how happy all the Omegas seemed to be, they were all laughing and chatting amongst themselves as they worked. Omegas back home were the bottom of the food chain in a pack, I was always taught that it was their job to serve the pack and nothing more. They were to be seen and not heard, but here I watched them interact with the pack in a completely different way. While the Omegas at home did their job because they didn't want to get punished, here it seemed like they enjoyed what they did.

Dante led me towards the main table in the dining room where I was greeted by three familiar faces. All of them stood when we arrived at the table and once again bowed their heads to both of us.

"Cadi, I would like to formally introduce you to a few people." He pointed to the man that grabbed my wrist yesterday. "This is Nolan, my beta." His hand moved to the surfer looking guy who couldn't even meet my eyes, "This is my Gamma, Tristian." Finally he moved onto the young woman who couldn't stop grinning at me, "And this is one of the best female warriors in our pack and Nolan's sister, Hailey."

She laughed at his introduction, "I think you mean one of the best pack warriors, full stop, Dante. It's a pleasure meeting you again, Luna. I'm glad you are feeling better."

"Please, call me Cadi. This whole Luna thing is still a bit weird to me." I pleaded, catching her scent now that I was close enough, "and thank you for the change of clothes, I'll make sure they get back to you."

"It was no trouble, Cadi, thought they might be more comfortable than that uniform of yours. If the Alpha's testosterone gets to you too much, make sure you come to find me for some girl time." She joked smirking at Dante.

I waited for him to snarl or reprimand her, but it never happened he just rolled his eyes. "Come on, Cadi, there is a lot more that I want to show you.

While we walked, he filled me in on the workings of the pack, and to say I was floored was an understatement. The Omegas only worked reasonable shifts and were paid for their hard work, something unheard of back home, where they worked until they dropped and it was just for the food and lodging they received, which was not much. In this pack, all omegas and their families lived with the rest of the pack in the pack village. All children started training when they were ten regardless of gender or rank, however, once they reached eighteen all wolves got a choice as to whether they wanted to continue training to become pack warriors or whether they wanted to explore other avenues to assist the pack such as the pack school, daycare facility, hospital, farm, etc. Everywhere we went wolves stopped to talk to Dante and he made sure he gave all of the attention and didn't just ignore them.

"Wait" I exclaimed as he was telling me about the females fighting, "so all your she-wolves train? As in, train to fight?"

He nodded, "Are you telling me they didn't at your old pack."

"No" I responded, my head still overloaded with the information he was giving me, "she-wolves back home don't learn to fight whether they wanted to or not. It wasn't something that they allowed. I was a little different, one of my best friends was a male who was training as a warrior and he taught me and my other best friend in private. In saying that it was only on the odd occasion when we could do it without being caught so I assume even some of your younger wolves would be able to put me on my ass"

"If it's something you want to learn, Cadi, I would be happy to organize for Hailey to continue your training. My grandfather implemented this practice when he was Alpha, he thought that everyone should know how to defend themselves and I wholeheartedly agree. Hailey was right when she corrected me and said she was one of my best warriors, regardless of gender."

"I'll think about it and let you know" I replied, to be honest, there were a lot of things I needed to think about.

As we continued to walk around the property my stomach growled, I hadn't realized how long we had been walking and talking.

Dante led me to the lake in the center of the property where there was a picnic basket placed on a picnic rug as if it were waiting there for us, "I hope you don't mind but I thought we might eat lunch down here,"

I sat down on the rug enjoying the peaceful view as he unpacked an assortment of sandwiches and salads.

Whilst I was hungry, I couldn't bring myself to eat much, I had way too much on my mind, "Dante, can I ask you a question?"

He looked up at me, placing his half-eaten sandwich on the plate in front of him. "You can ask me anything, little wolf."

"Is this pack normal?" I queried, the look of confusion causing me to ask my question differently, "By normal, I mean, is the way you run your pack common practice amongst other packs? You know true mates, female warriors, the way omegas and she-wolves, in general, are treated? The way you talk to the pack and the pack talks to you?"

"As far as I'm aware most packs operate in similar ways to us" he answered, the look of confusion still plastered on his face, "why do you ask?"

I looked down picking at my plate of food internally debating whether I could bring myself to talk about my pack.

"You can trust him, Cadi" Genevieve purred inside my head, "I promise."

I felt his finger under my chin, tilting it up until my eyes met his, "Please talk to me, Cadi, I need to know what's got you so tied up in knots inside."

I took a deep breath to try and calm myself, "My pack is very different from yours. As you already know she-wolves don't train. They also eat last, apart from the omegas who are not paid and worked to the bone. Basically, a she-wolf’s only job in our pack once they turn eighteen is to mate, have, and raise pups, and be invisible whilst doing so. Our Alpha does not believe in true mates and demands us to reject ours if we find them and will only agree to unions that create stronger pups or strengthen the pack's relationship with other packs."

I could feel the anger radiating off him, but I also knew he was trying to keep himself in check so his wolf didn't get out of control, "Is that why you left?"

I nodded, "I ran a month from my eighteenth birthday because two months before that, the Alpha had announced that he was going to step down and pass the pack down to his son. Once he was mated and he had an heir. He had decided that I was to be his mate and I couldn't stomach the thought of that. I knew it would be harder to leave once my wolf was awake as I would no longer be allowed off the pack lands to finish school."

"Is that why you told me to reject you and why you tried to reject me?" he queried.

I nodded, "I grew up believing that this was common practice. If you found your mate and didn't reject them, you were deemed a traitor to our pack and executed. I planned to stop here as my funds were running low, work for a bit and then move on to a big city where there was less chance of getting caught by my pack who I'm sure are probably still searching for me or meeting any other wolf."

"What are your plans now?" He queried through gritted teeth. I could see the black pooling in his eyes as his wolf was coming to the surface.

I reached out and grabbed hold of his hand, squeezing it tightly, the sparks so strong that they were coursing through my entire body and I was surprised to see his eyes return to normal. "Now that I have seen this pack and spent time with you, I don't think I could leave even if I wanted to. You saw what my wolf did when I attempted to reject you. I could only imagine what she would try if I walked away. She's currently screaming ‘stay’ in my head as we speak."

Dante gripped my hand tighter as if it was anchoring him in place. "They are instinctual animals, so of course, she is acting that way. I'm asking you, Cadi. I'm not a monster, if you truly want to leave and do as you previously planned, I won't hold you here against your will. As much as it would shatter my heart to let you walk away, I would, if it was what you truly wanted."

"I don't want to leave," I answered honestly, for once in my life someone was letting me control my own choices and it felt good.

He smiled as he released my hand, moving both hands to cup my cheeks and pulling my face flush against his, placing a light kiss on my lips that left them burning for more and resting his forehead against mine. "You have no idea how happy it makes me hear you say that."

After what felt like forever, Dante pulled back, and a frown formed on his face. It looked like he was having an inner debate with someone whether it be his wolf or a member of the pack.

"I hate to do this, little wolf, but I must leave you for a little bit. I've linked Hailey to come and spend some time with you while I go take care of some stuff." He explained.

As soon as he saw Hailey headed towards us, he stood up, walking towards the tree line, stripping his top off as he went. This could only mean that he was shifting into his wolf and sure enough moments later I saw a wolf's face poking through the brush and staring at me. If I thought his human form was sexy as hell, his wolf form was just as gorgeous. His rich, warm brown fur was glistening in the sun. Genevieve was prancing and purring in our head in approval. In the blink of an eye, he was gone, leaving me confused as hell. Had I done something wrong?

Hailey plopped down next to me, stuffing a grape into her mouth, "I know that look hon, he's fine."

"Then why did he leave?" I fired back not sure why I was getting so emotional about it. Every fiber of my being wanted to run after him.

"You gave him a lot of information to digest" she explained.

My mouth dropped, "He told you?"

"Just the cliff notes version. But whilst Dante the man is somewhat calm about this, his wolf isn't. He needed to let Dominic blow off some steam to calm him down."

My eye's started to fill with tears, "His wolf hates me?"

Hailey pulled me in for a hug, "No, Cadi, he doesn't hate you. Wolves are more protective of their mates than our human side is and, as an Alpha wolf, Dominic is worse than the common wolf. I think if you had told him where your old pack was, he would have run to wherever they were and taken them all out. If you hadn't run away, he never would have found you and he blames your pack for that. From the basics he told me, I don't blame him either. most wolves would feel the same way. Dante just needs to get his wolf in check."

I pulled back from her and wiped the tears from my eyes, "Sorry, I don't know why I'm acting this way."

She smiled warmly at me, "It's the mate bond, especially now that you've agreed to stay. It's completely normal. Now since you're staying, I think it's time for us to go shopping."

"I don't think so" I advised rejecting her suggestion, "between my stuff that one of your lovely omegas picked up and the stuff I have at my motel in town, I should have plenty. Besides, I don't think my wallet could handle a shopping trip right now."

I had some money saved up from tips, but it was my safety net. I didn't want to blow it. Whilst I trusted Dante and had no intention of running again now if I could help it, it was nice to know I always had a backup.

Hailey laughed as she held up a black credit card, "This trip is on the Alpha, he ordered that I take you shopping and get you anything you could need, and I can't disobey the word of my Alpha can I? You wouldn't want me to get in trouble?"

Oh, this girl knew how to play dirty.