The Mating Rules

Caden reaches up and grabs my hand, pulling my fingers down to his lips so he can k**s them. ‘You have a lot of faith in me’ he murmurs softly, his breath caressing my palm.

Caden reaches up and grabs my hand, pulling my fingers down to his lips so he can k**s them. ‘You have a lot of faith in me’ he murmurs softly, his breath caressing my palm.

I lean over him, pressing my lips to his, ‘because I know you’ll never give up protecting me or searching for Hadley’ I reply. ‘Now please get some rest’ I say quietly, ‘you are worrying me with how tired you are.’

The Alpha huffs out a breath before reluctantly nodding, ‘maybe a couple of hours wouldn’t hurt’ he agrees, ‘just a cat nap before I get back out there.’

Closing his eyes, he holds onto my hand until his breathing evens out and I know sleep has taken him. Carefully, I extricate my hand from his, inching off the bed and pull a blanket over his body, tucking it around him.

Moving back to the table, I take a seat and pull the tablet back toward me, continuing with my search. I’d been using the internet to try and find information about this Avrilak guy, so far I’d found nothing which didn’t surprise me. If there was no reference to him or the Spirit Wolf in Werewolf books it was doubtful that I’d find anything via a search engine. Rubbing my eyes, I brought up the keyboard and started to type in random thoughts, witches brought up millions of references to the Witch trials and sites that had been created that promised witch like abilities. Warlock brought up similar results and Spirit Wolf gave me lots of drawings of what people thought this creature might look like. Some people thought it imaginary, some believed it real, especially in the human world and it seemed there were tribes that were deeply connected to nature and had whole theories on the sacred wolf.

I delved deeper into the online articles, explaining this wolf spirit animal that the humans revered a part of me wondering if despite everything, did their stories indeed filter down from my own wolf.

It seems a wolf spirit had both positive and negative symbolism, it offered sharp intelligence, courage, resilience, wisdom, leadership and determination. It also procured Isolation, greed, dishonesty and dominance.

I tapped my chin with the pen I now held in my hand that had been hovering over a pad, noting down anything I found of interest. Was this all just human make believe? Or were these people somehow connected to the supernatural world on some level? Did they have knowledge of Skarla and those that came before her? The different symbolism, were these all attributes that Skarla and in turn myself possess? Maybe I have the ability to lead with courage but also maybe greed and isolation could steer me into a negative, dominant path of destruction.

The more I read, the more uncomfortable I was feeling, the weight of what the Goddess had bestowed on me weighing so heavily that it was suffocating.

‘Baby?’ my mate’s voice calls out groggily from across the room. I lift my head, turning toward Caden to find him propped up on his elbows, looking over at me worriedly, ‘you OK?’ he asked.

I nod, pushing a smile onto my lips as I stand and walk over to him, ‘I’m fine’ I reply, sinking down onto the carpet next to his head and taking his hand in mine, ‘you should be sleeping.’

The Alpha yawned tiredly, ‘I could feel your anxiety through our bond’ he mumbled, ‘was worried. What time is it?’

I glance over at the old fashioned alarm clock beside the bed and am surprised to realise that over two hours had passed since Caden had fell asleep. ‘A little after five’ I reply, running a finger down his stubbled jaw with my free hand, enjoying the roughness.

‘What has you worried baby’ Caden rumbles, ‘is it Hadley? I told you, he’s a tough bastard, he’ll be fine until we get him out.’

I nod, I know that, my mates are both bad asses, ‘no, I was looking things up on the internet’ I sigh, ‘trying to find anything that could help us.’

The Alpha sits up further, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and pulling me up so I’m sitting beside him. ‘You looked up the warlock?’ he asks curiously, ‘you find anything?’

I shake my head regretfully, ‘no’ I admit, ‘I didn’t really expect too, we have nothing in any of the books at the pack. Dad, Isaac and the Alpha have scoured the shelves for any mention of him and come up emptyhanded, it was unlikely I’d stumble across information on a human search engine.’

Caden’s arm wraps around me, holding me into his side, ‘what did you find that upset you so badly then?’ he asks, staring at me pointedly as I open my mouth to say I fine, causing me to snap it shut again.

‘I found some information about a wolf spirit’ I mumble, ‘the humans, they have stories about different animals and one was a wolf spirit, it had a whole information section about this mystical wolf and it’s attributes.’

My mate frowns as he processes my words, ‘the humans’ he starts slowly, ‘they don’t believe in us, are you sure it’s not just stories they pass down?’

I shake my head, ‘that’s the thing, they don’t believe in us but all their stories about us come from truth’ I argue. ‘They think werewolves are made up but they have stories about how we shift from human to animal, how we talk to our wolves and even how we fight. Those stories come from vague memories of our kind before they were wiped away by the Entities. Maybe these people did know my wolf, maybe these stories are about previous versions of Skarla.’

‘Baby’ Caden starts but I hold up my hand, pressing my finger to his lips.

‘Do you know how many groups of people out in the human world believe in my wolf?’ I ask softly, ‘there are thousands Caden! All with stories about a wolf spirit who was a role model and somehow helped others in times of need. Some even talk about our need to howl at the full moon, they know we are acknowledging Selene, they call it singing to the Gods.’

My mate sighs, rubbing his chin, ‘OK’ he agrees, ‘show me what you found.’

Jumping up, I pull the tired werewolf to his feet and drag him over to the table where I push him into my abandoned seat and pull another round the table to sit next to him.

‘Look’ I rush out, scrolling the page back up to the top, ‘read what it says and tell me that there are not similarities to what Luella told us in your father’s office.’