Chapter ten

Tessa’s POV

My morning with Lucian was amazing and I could feel the bond between him and me grow.

We sat on one of the rocks in human form by a beautiful lake.

“Where were you this morning?” I asked remembering the longing I felt when I woke up and Lucian wasn’t there.

“I was with my mother.” He said bluntly and I looked into the water before putting my toe into the surprisingly warm liquid.

He looked into the trees and I decided to drop the topic. I hadn’t seen his mother around the pack house because most of the people who lived there were males.

Well, except the few females who belonged to the males.

I saw the ripples that my feet were making and was suddenly fascinated.

I watched the ripples grow bigger and eventually disappear.

“Are you even paying attention to me?” Lucian said, breaking my deep concentration with a slightly amused tone.

“You said that you’d need to go around to the different pack units to check on the recent activities,” I said, and he was silent, before nodding.

I smirked and bumped my shoulder against his upper arm. He grinned and nudged me back, obviously not realizing that he was bigger than me, and pushed me right off the rock.

I screeched and hit the warm water. I was still wearing my shorts, T-shirt, and zip-up hoodie.

I heard a sudden splash above me as I began sinking lower into the dark water. I looked up and saw Lucian swimming towards me frantically.

I tried kicking and waving my arms, but I didn’t know how to swim.

A pair of big arms came around me and started bringing me closer to the surface and I think I started crying because my lungs burned.

By the time we reached the surface, I was seeing stars and my vision became blurred.

Lucian placed me on my back on the soft grass.

“Are you okay?” He said and I nodded.

I tried sitting up and instantly regretted it. Pain shot through my skull like a bullet and everything went black.

“Is she going to be okay?”

“Is she dead?”

“No, you idiot.” And then there was a sound like flesh hitting flesh.

“Oooh. She’s so pretty.”

“What’s all the noise abo—” There was a slight pause. “Oh.”

“Will all of you just shut up!” It was Lucian and he didn’t seem very happy.

I groaned and my hand went up to my throbbing head.

“She’s waking up.”

“Nat, keep quiet.”

“Shhhh. Her eyes are opening.”

All six voices became quiet and my eyes fluttered open. Six pairs of eyes were looking down at me and I blushed.

They blinked a few times as if waiting for me to do something.

“Are you okay?” Lucian asked and kneeled down to put the back of his hand on my forehead as if testing my temperature.

“Of course, she’s not genius. She nearly drowned.” The girl said and pushed Lucian away and kneeled, staring down at me in fascination.

“Hi! I’m Natasha.” She said with such enthusiasm and her big brown curls bounced with her.

“Hi?” I said awkwardly and a man around Lucian’s age stood behind Natasha and placed his hand on her shoulder.

“And this is Nathaniel.” She said and smiled up at me with adoration in her eyes, which immediately told me that they were mates.

“And these douchebags are Braxton, Harry, and Tyler,” Nathaniel said and all of them sent him glares which he laughed off. Me being awkward sent them an awkward smile.

“Guys, you’re scaring her,” Lucian said and knelt down to pick me up.

“I think I can walk,” I said in defense. He blatantly ignored my statement and started walking away from the lake.

As I sighed in defeat, I placed my head on his chest, listened to the deep thrumming of his heartbeat as he carried me bridal style.

“It’s so nice to have another fellow female around!” Natasha said walking next to us. She stood where my feet dangled so she could take a look at me.

“Isn’t there other she-wolves in the pack?” I asked, my head perking up in curiosity.

“Not really. There are about six other she-wolves who are mated to some of the pack worriers, but they formed their own little group and excluded me. Even though I was so nice.” She said and her big round eyes were clouded with sadness.

“Natasha. It’s alright. I’d love to be your friend. We don’t need other she-wolves. Two makes an awesome team.” I said and her face lit up with happiness.

“Oh goodie. We’ll have sleepovers and watch soppy romantic movies and pillow fights and—”

“Natasha. My sunshine, give the girl some room to breathe.” Nathaniel said, walking up next to his mate and grabbing her hand.

She gave me a small wave and smiled before walking ahead of us with her mate.

“That was very nice of you,” Lucian said, and I looked up at him pursing my lips.

“Why thank you Mr. Who-almost-got-me-killed,” I said and crossed my arms.

He growled in irritation and stared straight ahead.

“I’m sorry.” He growled with an animalistic tone. I stared up at him in shock and watched his eyes that were glued to the path ahead as his face started morphing.

“Lucian,” I said slowly. “Put me down.” Something erupted deep from within his chest.

“No. I’m fine.” He said and shook his head. His voice was a growl that shook me and made me scared.

I searched the group of men, looking for any signs of the beta.

My eyes landed on Nathaniel who was quite a few feet away from us and talking to his mate. I took a deep breath and used my wolf’s abilities to find out his pack status.

The beta.

“Nathaniel!” I screamed. He turned around and his smile faded away when he saw Lucian’s morphing figure.

His claws were beginning to dig into my side and legs.

I screamed and tears began to fall.

“Lucian,” Nathaniel said cautiously and had his hands up.

“Lucian you’re hurting her. Drop her now.” He said and Lucian’s eyes snapped to Nathaniel.

“Who do you think you’re talking to pup?” His voice wasn’t his. It was something so different from a wolf tone.

“Lucian. Put me down.” He looked at me and his eyes scared me.

“Please,” I begged in a half-whisper.

He lowered me slowly to the ground.

“Tessa. Run to me now!” Nathaniel said and I ran behind him as I watched his body twitch and began morphing into an animal.

His roar shook the inner wolf in me. And not in a good way.

There stood the biggest wolf I’d ever seen. He had a brown coat with small white hairs in between.

I took a cautious step back and Nathaniel took a step forward.

The wolf sat, groaned, stretched, and sat on the grass, making the ground beneath me tremble slightly.

I took a deep breath in when I saw his face. Half his face was covered in black scales and his eyes were white orbs with black pupils that nearly took over all the white.

“Finally to be let out,” a voice boomed, and I looked around at the males around me and realized it wasn’t them who had spoken.

But the enormous wolf in front of me.