The first thing Ayla does when she came home was to collect all the tools she might need to fix the shower. Preferably she would have want to run right back to Nathan, but she had promised Nara and Kat to meet up with them, and she didn't want to let them down.
She walked the short road to the village and had just arrived to the square when she met the very two she was about to visit.
"Hey, just the two I was looking for."
"We were on our way to you too, we thought that if you hadn't woken up by now, it was time to wake you." said Nara.
Ayla smiled, very thankful that they had not tried to wake her up earlier when she wasn't there.
"Shall we go with you and eat some breakfast?" Kat suggested.
"I have already eaten."
"What happened with "we'll meet as soon as I wake up?" asked Nara but Ayla heard she was joking.
"Let me explain everything, and I'll think you will understand."
Nara widened her eyes. "Why do I get the feeling you did not sleep in your own bed tonight?"
Now Kat looked as surprised as Nara. "What? Tell us!"
"I will, if the two of you would just shut up and take me to a place we could talk undisturbed!"
"Chris is at the hospital, so our house is free."
Chris was one of the packs doctors, he and Nara had met for the first time when she had problem with the appendix. She was not that happy to realize she had found her mate when he five minutes later had to examine her rectal opening. Chris had told her later that he had a very hard time controlling himself when she took off her clothes and bended over it was without doubt the hardest time for him to keep his professionalism. The both of them agreed to not tell this story to anyone. The official story of how the two met was that he was the doctor she had asked to show the way to her granny's room when she was enrolled for a broken hip, which also were true, but that happened the day after. As best friends you had other premises and after a while did Ayla and Kat force the truth out of Nara, and they had never let her forget it since.
They entered Chris and Nara's house, it was not that big, but it was newly renovated and fresh. Nara went to make some coffee while Kat and Ayla sat down on the couch. When Nara came back in with cups she sat down in and armchair and looked exited at Ayla.
"Okay," Ayla started "So you know that me and Connell meat sometimes."
She saw on their faces that they knew that this would be good, and quite juicy, they nodded, but they didn't say anything, probably afraid to interrupt Ayla so she would not tell everything.
"We have not have sex, believe whatever you want, but I want to wait for my mate and I could never see myself with Connell. I thought he was on the same page and that we just used each other to blow off some steam. We're good friends, we respect each other, but it was just some fun, or at least so I thought."
Ayla sighed. "I don't think my father know about this, if that was the case I guess he would act differently. Anyway, I heard from my brother that the Alpha wanted to talk to me and it seemed like he had a plan to make me go through with a mating ceremony."
"But what? You don't have a mate!" seemed like Nara wasn't able to keep quiet any longer.
"Yeah, I know, apparently he doesn't give a crap about that."
"So what? You're gonna get mated with some stranger?"
Ayla shook her head. "No, with Connell."
"WHAT?" both exclaimed.
"Yeah, I understand why it's a good match. He is Keane's best friend, probably his Beta when Keane takes over the throne. He is captain in the army and the strongest wolf in the pack."
Nara shook her head in disbelieve, stood up and walked out to the kitchen to see if the coffee was ready.
"But you have never felt anything for him?" Kat asked.
"No, he is a good friend, he's like a brother to me, a brother I kiss occasionally, but it has never been more. I didn't think it was something from his side either."
Nara came back and poured the coffee and handed the milk package to Kat, since she knew she wanted some.
"What does Connell say about all this?" Nara asked when she sat down again.
"I don't know, I haven't talked to the Alpha yet, but even though he doesn't care about my opinion, I hardly think he would plan something like this without having Connell on board. I just don't understand what he has threatened him with."
"Threatened?" asked Kat.
"Connell must want to find his mate to. Why would he settle with me?" asked Ayla and sipped on her coffee.
"Settle." Nara snorted.
"Okay, I know my worth, I just mean that he also should see that we are not right for each other."
"You will never for sure know what Connell thinks unless you talk to him. Maybe you can fight this madness together?"
"I don't know Kat, I'll guess I hope so."
"Alpha or not, he has no right to force you into a partnership you don't want! Ayla, I promise you, you will not go through a mating ceremony with anyone but your true mate. I'll do anything in my power to stop that."
"Me too!" said Kat.
Ayla looked at her friends and smiled at them. "Thank you! It means a lot."
"We can smuggle you out to another pack!" Kat suggested.
"Yes! Up north somewhere! Where they would never find you."
Ayla laughed, it was nice to do so, but she stopped quickly. She had still just told them I small piece in this mess.
"There's something more I need to tell you."
Nara and Kat immediately stopped planning Ayla's escape and turned to her with curious looks.
"I ran away from the meeting with the alpha, and I got to my cabin."
"I still think it's baggy that you haven't told us where it is." Said Kat bitter.
"How will I ever get a quiet moment of everyone would know where it was located."
"Not everyone, but your two best friends maybe?" said Nara clearly as offended as Kat.
"Okay, if I promise I'll show it to you next week, will you hear me out now?"
They both lighted up and nodded.
Ayla snorted and drank some more coffee before she started. "When I got to the cabin I discovered that someone else were there. It has been a guy there before and I got quite upset with him to always use my cabin as some sex-lair to bring girls to. So I thought that I would prank him, I walked in, and since I had been wolf I was naked. When I got in to the bedroom to get some clothes I realize it's not the same guy and he is alone."
Kat sat and put her fingertips together like she was a super villain who planed her next heist. Nara leaned more forward for every word Ayla said and their eyes totally shone.
Ayla though they handled her walking in to a cabin with a human surprisingly good, when it hit her, that they of course thought that it was a werewolf who had borrowed the cabin. Well, that was a bomb to drop later.
"Anyway, we talked to each other and shared some jokes, he had seen me naked, from behind. But it was less awkward then you could think, we had flow. It was natural."
"Oh, is it that someone is a bit smitten with this guy? What's his name?" Kat teased.
"Nathan, and I don't know..." Ayla answered and she understood that that was not the answer they had expected.
"Wait, you're serious?" said Nara and put down her cup on the table so she could take Ayla's hand. "Ayla, tell us."
"We're having fun together, we laugh a lot, he if thoughtful and he respects me. I miss him when he's not close and when we're together I just want to be even closer."
"Ayla, it sounds like he would be your mate, but that you should know at once. And it sound like you have met him some time, or wait, how can you have?"
Ayla knew what Kat meant. It had only got a little more than 2 days since she first met him. It felt so much longer. And she had also been away for the whole day yesterday with her brother. They had actually just met two nights and one morning.
"I went back yesterday too and we fall asleep together on the couch, when we woke up he made me breakfast and..."
"I knew it! Didn't I say that you didn't slept at home, but Ayla, it doesn't sound like you to cuddle in the couch with someone."
Ayla shrugged. "With him it's really cozy."
"And you are sure he is not your mate? I mean that would facilitate everything with your dad."
"Don't be stupid Kat, you know at once when you meet your mate."
Ayla nodded. "He can't be my mate, and it would hardly help if he was, only making it worse."
"How come?" Kat looked honestly confused.
"Because Nathan is a human."
Now came the reaction she had expected.
"A HUMAN!" Nara yelled and jumped out the armchair and walked back and forth on the floor in front of them. "Are you insane? That you even think about walking into a house where there is a human!"
"Even though Nara is a bit too hysterical right now, I have to agree with her. It could have gone really bad."
"How? He thinks I'm a human too, why would he want to harm me?"
"Yes, why would a human ever harm someone? Maybe because, I don't know, they have an evil nature!" shrieked Nara who didn't seem to have a though of calming down any time soon.
"Ayla, you have heard the stories, you know what humans a capable of."
Ayla rolled her eyes. "Are you serious now Kat? Don't you think that I, the Dark Wolf could overpower a human if I had to? Nathan also happens to be one of the nicest people I ever met."
SMACK!
Nara's hand hit Ayla across her chin. "It's enough! You can't seriously defend a human in front of me."
Ayla was so astonished, she had never seen Nara like this, she had never raised he voice towards Ayla and she had never hit anyone, ever. She had not even wanted to participate in the fighting lessons in school because she didn't want to hurt any of her friends.
Ayla did understand what this came from though. Nara had a history with humans, a history that didn't show them from a good side. Nara's mum, Jeno, had been one of the hunters in the pack and one day she had come across a poacher far over the territory boarders. Jeno, who was the leader in the hunting team had tried to distract the shooter so that the other could have a chance to retreat. She didn't want to kill him, just scare him so he would not come back. He had peppered the whole case in her, and before she had time to heal he had gone behind her and sliced up her back. That coward wouldn't have stood a chance if the wolf had attacked him. Jeno's good heart towards the human had gotten her killed. Nara had just finished school and would just a week later turn17 and be initiated into the pack, she never got the chance to share that ceremony with her mum.
"I'm sorry." Ayla whispered. "I didn't mean to make you upset. There are humans there is disgusting creatures and I'm so sorry that your mum met one of them. But in the same way there is good and bad wolf, maybe not every human is poachers."
"I know," said Nara, who seemed chocked herself that she had hit her friend. "But why take chance? Ayla, nothing good can ever come from associate with humans. The pack would never agree to it, your father would definitely not agree to it. You expose both you and Nathan to danger. If he is one of the good once, you don't want anything to happen to him, do you?"
Ayla nodded. "I know, I didn't plan to go back yesterday, I just couldn't stay away."
Kat who had been quiet for some time now came up to Ayla and put an arm around her. "You can sleep at my place tonight. I wake up very easy, so there's no chance you can by accident sneak out."
Ayla nodded. She knew her friends were right, on the other hand she could not bear the thought to not say goodbye to Nathan. Maybe she could go there in daytime that maybe felt less intimate in a way, and just try to explain. He knew she had an overprotected family, maybe he would understand. But she knew she could never see him again and then leave him and knowing it was forever. No, she might be a coward and awful, but she just had to break the promise she made Nathan. She would not come back soon; she wouldn't come back at all.
Onceagain Ayla lay in a bed tossing and turning. How would she ever be able tosleep tonight? Kat lay in the bed beside her and slumbered, but Ayla knew thatKat had told her the truth; she did wake very easy, so there was no idea to tryto do anything else then try to get some sleep herself.
The thoughts were swirling around inher head and it was in particular one that etched like a brand. It parched anditched and she just could not get it out. It burned like the hope which hadbeen lighted inside her again, a hope she was scared to death for.
YOU ARE READING
Because You
Werewolf(The English version of "Orsaken är du") As daughter to the Alpha, Ayla knows her place in the pack, it's just that she is rarely there. Fact is she tries to be anywhere but right there. When she one night breaks the werewolves most important ru...
