CHAPTER 14

Jayla stayed in the same spot for two hours. She was beginning to wonder what had happened to everyone. Finally, she heard a loud gunshot, which meant she was the last person. She had won the game.

She jumped out of the tree that she was sitting in and started to walk back to the meeting point with a giant smile on her face. She was happy that she would get to yell in front of everyone. She started to think about her new iPhone case and AirPods.

Suddenly, a loud howl interrupted her thoughts. She shivered and looked around the woods to see if there was anything. She shrugged and minded her own business, but when there was a second howl, she started to walk faster. Then suddenly, she felt eyes staring at her.

She stopped and looked at her surroundings. She saw nothing except red eyes glaring at her. She gasped and ran faster. She bumped into someone. She turned her head and gasped at a pair of red eyes, leering at her.

"Who are you?" she asked shakily, looking at two men who were cornering her. There was a man behind her, waving at her, and a man in front of her, glaring.

"Hello, sugar! You smell good." The man behind her sniffed her and smirked.

"Eglantine," the man in front of her warned.

"What? I can't have a sniff of our food." He smirked mischievously and stared at Jayla, whose eyes widened.

"Shut the fuck up! Eglantine, she's our queen," he scowled.

"Queen? What the fuck?" she thought.

"I'm sure you are confused," Eglantine said to Jayla.

"I'm not. Excuse me, but I have to go." Jayla ignored his statement and walked away from them until the man glaring at her grabbed her arms.

"You can't just go like this. We finally found you, my queen," he said with a soft voice.

"I don't know what you are talking about, but I'm not a queen or anything!" she snarled and tried to loosen his tight hold on her arms.

"Piper, let's just kidnap her," Eglantine sighed, and Jayla shook her head frantically.

"Who the fuck are you guys? You can't just kidnap me!" she yelled at Piper.

"Do you know about werewolves?" Piper asked her suddenly, making her stop. She widened her eyes and stared at the ground.

"Werewolves?" she repeated.

"Yes, werewolves. Well, guess what? They exist," Eglantine retorted.

"Eglantine, that's not funny," Piper said sternly.

"I don't know what you want with me, but please, let me go!" she screamed as she kicked Piper's crotch. Eglantine widened his eyes and ran toward Jayla, but she held a knife out at him.

"Put that down, princess," he said, putting up his hands.

"Let me go first!" she added.

"Our queen is damn strong," Piper growled.

"I'm not joking. Let me go, and I'll leave the knife here," she said, pointing to the ground.

"We can't leave you when we've just found you," he reasoned.

"What are you talking about? I'm not a royal anything!" she yelled.

"Princess, we are werewolves, and you are our queen!" Eglantine shouted.

"Shut the fuck up, you psycho!"

"Did she call me a psycho?" he muttered to Piper, who growled.

Suddenly, there were several growls in the woods, and some of them were threatening.

"Shit, the Knights are here!" Eglantine said in frustration.

"Fuck, we have to go," Eglantine said, helping Piper stand up.

"What about our queen?" Piper asked Eglantine, who groaned.

"We have to let her go for now. We can catch her later," he snarled.

"I'm here, you stupid idiots. I don't know what you are talking about, but don't fucking bother me anymore," she threatened them.

"We can't just do tha—"

Jayla threw the knife just past Piper's face. He shivered and gulped nervously. Then, the three of them were surrounded by hundreds of wolves.

"Fuck," Eglantine muttered.

"Why the fuck are they here with our queen?" Piper whispered.

"I have no idea," he replied.

"So, they exist," Jayla said, stunned.

"I told you so, princess," Eglantine smirked. A large, beautiful dark wolf was coming their way, snarling at Eglantine and Piper.

"We have to go. Sorry, my queen, but we will have to leave you here," Piper said, holding a wand in his hand.

"See you later, princess." Eglantine winked at her, and they disappeared from the woods in a big puff of smoke.

Jayla was flabbergasted. She was shocked. It felt like a dream to her. She pinched her arm and let out a hiss of pain. She wasn't dreaming.

The dark wolf growled at the wolves that were surrounding her. They all changed into their human form.

Jayla gasped as she saw hundreds of males half-naked.

"Werewolves are real," she thought.

She tried to take a step away from them, but someone held her tightly. She looked at the familiar person.

"Giovanni," she breathed.

"Jayla, what are you doing here?" Jayla looked at him with his yellow eyes. He was mysterious and weird. She moved away from him quickly.

"Who are you?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Jayla!" a voice shouted. She turned her head to the familiar voice. It was Max.

Max glared at her with his red eyes.

"I know what you are thinking right now, so don't even fucking go there," he snapped coldly. It scared her.

"Brother, you—"

"Shut the fuck up! She's not your mate, is she?" he snarled in his naked form. He was only wearing shorts to cover his private parts.

"She's human, Max!" Giovanni yelled.

"She's my fucking mate, mine!" He growled and jumped on Giovanni, punching him in the face. Giovanni couldn't defend himself since Max was the Alpha.

"Max!" she yelled and came forward, but Marco held her back.

"You can't get in between them," he said with no emotion.

"I have to help h—"

"Why do you want to help people when you don't know what they are?" he snarled, showing her his white eyes.

"Your eyes," she whispered.

That was the last thing she said before passing out.

"Fuck," he muttered.

***

"Where were you guys when she was in the woods?" a voice growled furiously at Eleanor, Giovanni, and Peyton.

"She said that she was going to get a drink, and then she didn't come back," Eleanor said, feeling guilty about her actions.

"Now she knows about us. I was going to tell her when she was ready!" he yelled. "And what the fuck were you doing, Keaton?" he snarled.

Keaton sighed deeply. "I watched her carefully, but I looked away for a moment, and she was gone. I promised you that I would protect her. I swore on my life," he said with determination.

"Max, stop yelling and calm down. At least she's not hurt," Cole said calmly.

"What if she was hurt?" he asked.

"Well, that isn't the case," he muttered.

"I don't fucking understand why this bastard called my mate their queen," he snapped and tugged his hair.

"Thank god we were here before they kidnapped her," Marco sighed in relief.

"Cole, call the elders. We need their advice and their information about the rogues. It's not possible that my mate is their queen. And Keaton, you should report everything that happened to Blaze. He might have a clue about this." Max ordered them, and they nodded. They saluted him before leaving him in his office.

"You guys will be punished by Clayton. I will call him over here," Max growled to Giovanni, Eleanor, and Peyton, who hung their heads down in shame.

"Marco put them in the lockdown buildings," he said to Marco.

After they left, he was alone in his office. He called Clayton, the punisher of his pack, the Dark Knights, and the Blood Stone Pack.

"Alpha Max, what is it?" a deep, gruff voice said through the phone.

"I need you to come here and punish three people who failed to protect my mate," he said sternly.

"Sure thing," he said, and Max hung up the phone.

Protecting the future Luna was an important mission. He was wrong about assigning them to protect his mate. He would assign the mission to Keaton, who wanted to protect her.

Now that he had a moment, he was scared for his mate. Not the revelation but the rejection.

He was afraid that she would reject him because he was a werewolf. He heard a knock on his door.

"Alpha, the Luna is awake," Joe, the pack doctor, said. Max nodded and followed him.

They walked to the hospital wing, where Max had his private room.

"Jayla, Max is here," Joe told her. She looked at Max. She had bags under her eyes and a frown on her face. Max wanted to hug her right now, but he wanted to give her some space to figure out.

"How are you doing, Jayla?" Max asked her softly.

"I'm fine," she replied quietly.

"Can you leave us alone," Max said to the doctor.

Max walked towards her and sat next to her bed. She sighed and rubbed her hands anxiously.

He took her hands and caressed them softly, sending sparks rushing through their bodies.

"Do you feel that?" he said, referring to the sparks.

"I do, but how?" she asked, confused.

"Jayla."

"Please answer my question," she said, pulling her hands away. She wanted an explanation right now. "Is it true?" she added.

"What do you mean?" he asked, staring at her eyes.

"Your eyes are back to normal," she said, looking at his blue eyes.

"I'm not normal, Jayla," he said quietly.

"Obviously. You are not normal if your eyes turn red." She rolled her eyes.

"Jayla, I need you to be open-minded right now," he said, taking her hands and bringing them to his chest.

"Baby, I'm a werewolf," he said after a moment of silence.

She nodded and urged him to continue.

"I don't know the real story of why werewolves exist, but what I do know is that everyone you know is a werewolf," he said truthfully.

"What do you mean?"

"Eleanor, Huxley, Peyton, Marco, Giovanni, my parents, Jake, Keaton, Blaze, and Mia. And also your brother's mate, Sabrina. They are all werewolves," he explained.

"Sabrina is a werewolf?" she gasped. Max nodded.

"So then why didn't he tell me?" she asked, and Max rolled his eyes.

"Stop asking so many questions and let me explain to you," he said, and she nodded quietly.

"In Raven, there are a lot of packs. We have small, medium, and even the biggest packs in America. Packs are basically a group of wild wolves. They're comprised of several core families and additional members.

"In each pack, there is someone who leads the pack with someone beside them. It could be a woman and a man. We call them Alphas. Alphas are the leaders. They get the power to choose whatever they want for their packs. There are also other positions like Betas who are second leaders, Gammas who are third-in-command, and more."

"Alright, so what am I doing here?" she asked, narrowing her eyes on Max.

"Well, baby, there is something important that you should know about the tradition of werewolves," he said with a smile on his face. Jayla didn't understand why he was smiling at such a serious moment.

"What is it?" she said, urging him to continue.

"Soulmates."