###Chapter 67- Are you sure?

Nikolai's POV

As soon as I blinked the sleep out of my eyes, I instinctively reached out for Liyah, jumping up when my hand touched empty sheets. On sitting up, I saw that she had rolled to the edge of the king-sized bed, her head nearly touching her knees as she folded into herself.

I let myself breathe. At some point I had began to wonder if last night had just been a dream. Because it actually felt like it. But there she was, lying right beside me in nothing but a flimsy piece of lingerie. She was mine. I couldn't help the smile that spread on my face. Liyah was mine; my mate, my own.

Reaching out, I gently pulled her into the bed, pulling the blanket over her and getting up gently to avoid waking her as I made my way into the kitchen.

I chuckled as I opened the cabinet. Drew and Anna had really outdone themselves. The cabin we had expected to be thick in dirt and dust was sparkling clean when we arrived, the cabinets were stocked with so much food items I wondered if they had planned for us to live here.

Assholes, I laughed quietly to myself. But I couldn't say I wasn't grateful. It brought Liyah and I closer than we had ever been. And last night...well, I've never had better, hotter sex. I swallowed at the thought. It was amazing. I pushed the image of her shy smile and full boobs away from my mind as I began to make breakfast for her. I wanted to surprise her.

When I finished making only breakfast food I knew how to: bacon, eggs, toast and coffee, I carried it down to the bedroom. She was already awake when I stepped in.

Her face lit up when she saw me. I gently placed the tray onto the bed. "Hey beautiful," I whispered, leaning in to kiss her.

"Hey," She responded, trying her best to smoothen out her messy hair. God, she was adorable.

"What's this?" She grinned looking up at me.

I folded my arms. "Breakfast in bed, of course."

She laughed. "Wow. I didn't know you could cook."

"I can't."

Eyeing me warily, she placed a piece of bacon in her mouth, nodding a little as she chewed. Before I could ask how it was, she had stabbed a piece and brought it close to my mouth. My eyes widened in surprise at the taste.

"Wow. This is chef level right there."

She nearly choked on her coffee as she began to giggle. "You wish." From then I watched her eat in silence, not sure exactly why I was gushing so much. I just wanted to pull her into my arms and protect her. Take care of her...kiss her forehead. She was such a blessing.

"You didn't tell me." Her voice made me look up.

"What?" I asked.

"Last night...you marked me. We're mates. How long have you known?"

Oh. I reached out to grasp her hand. "Honestly, I've known for a while. But I was too angry and full of pain that I flat out refused to acknowledge it. But now... there's no one in the world that I'd rather be with."

When she started to blush, I knew the explanation was good enough for her.

"Why are you letting me eat alone?" She suddenly asked. "When do you plan on eating?"

I shook my head. "I'm hungry. But I don't feel like bacon and eggs."

"Oh. What would you like to eat then?"

"You," I replied simply, smirking as she began to blush, reaching out to smack my arm as she put a hand over her face shyly.

I roared with laughter, leaning forward to kiss her once more as I continued to watch her eat.

***

"Ready?" I asked, after we had gone through some practice moves and I was sure she remembered all I taught her about defence. She had insisted on a training session today because she'd said she felt useless sitting around all day. I wanted her to get some rest but she insisted. After she pleaded, I had reluctantly agreed on the condition that it would only go on for an hour.

"Ready," She nodded, pulling her hair into a ponytail as she faced me. As I took a moment to make sure she was doing the right posture, I froze when my eyes landed on her neck. I did a double take.

What on earth...

"Nikolai?" I heard her call out as she noticed me staring. "Is something wrong?"

"Liyah, your...your neck."

Her hand flew to her neck. "My neck...? Speaking of, there's something I forgot to tell you. When you marked me last night, I had this strange feeling. It wasn't pain, it was something else. Almost like...like a burning sensation. It was so weird."

I moved closer to her, rubbing my thumb gently on the spot where the mark should have been. I didn't want to stir up any false hope within her with my theories. But she had to know. "Liyah...I think it's healed."

As I expected she staggered back in shock. "W-what?" She stammered, touching the spot on her neck. "But.. that's not possible."

I studied her neck. There wasn't a trace of the mark. She-wolves usually heal after the mating process, but never this immaculately where the mark completely disappeared without leaving a scar, and certainly never this quickly. And Liyah didn't have a wolf yet.

Unless...

"This can only mean one thing," I finally said, trying and failing to cover up my smile.

I could see the nervousness in her eyes as she rubbed her sweaty palm over her sweats. "What are you saying, Nikolai. What does this mean...?"

I took my time, wanting to build the suspense within her whilst trying not to burst into laughter at the expression on her face.

"I think the mating process might have awakened your wolf."

Her hand slapped over her mouth in shock. I let her be as she stood motionless for a while, staring into space and rubbing her neck.

After a while, she looked up again. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. That was the only reasonable explanation for this. All I had to do now was teach her how to summon her wolf at will, transform, and get to her full potential as her wolf unleashed. I was sure.

I heard her let out a soft cry as she placed a hand over her eyes. "I have a wolf... I have a wolf..." She kept on repeating as tears leaked from her reddened eyes to the front of her shirt.

I wrapped her in a tight hug, my heart clenching when she began to sob bitterly. "Shh, it's okay... it's okay..." I cooed, kissing the top of her head.

As I began to rock her back and forth, smiling when I saw that she had begun to laugh, I knew everything would be okay.

###Chapter 68 - Jonas

Jonas' POV

As I got into my car, I exhaled deeply, starting the car and driving off. If I had my way I would rip the throats of those ridiculous, disgusting humans who worked at my company. Being around them irritated me to the core, although I had done it for years. But today I couldn't stand it. Especially the idiotic new business partner. He was a talkative, overweight moron who I was sure would make a good meal. When he made his presentation today, I envisioned snapping his neck just for the satisfaction. He had kept on making stupid jokes that no one could object to, because of course he was bringing in cash.

But I knew better. If I had been alone with that blundering fool for one second, he would not have walked out alive. It would have been the highlight of my day. But I was powerless. I hated feeling like that. Which was why I supported the motion that humans should be eliminated and werewolves to rule. Their presence only limited us. Their only good use was as a nice meal.

Unable to stand his presence before I did something I would regret, I excused myself. Hissing, I started to drive back home, stopping at a jewelry shop to get something for Mira. Barbara had reminded me that it was our anniversary. I didn't care about that of course, but I couldn't show up empty handed. I would surprise her. And then as usual when I got her gifts, she would offer a good fuck.

I was sure Barbara would have informed her about my knowing, so she would probably prepare for it. Good. I hated half done events and surprises.

I tugged on my tie as I got home, parking outside the gates as I would go out for drinks in a while. I needed it. My eyes roved the lawn. I needed to fire that fucking gardener, always doing messy jobs. A week in the dungeon would do him some good.

My ears twitched as I walked up the stairs. Erotic sounds emanated from one of the rooms upstairs. I wondered if it was one of the new mates at it. If it was I would make sure they never had another chance to fuck. How dare they disturb the peace in my house? And so indiscreetly at that? I would teach them a lesson. After all I had not tortured anyone in a long while. It would be a good chance to get that thrill.

My steps slowed when I got upstairs and realized it was coming from my bedroom. For a second I wondered if Mira was watching porn to set her mood for the anniversary. But the grunts I heard were clearly coming from a male who was definitely inside that room.

I kicked down the door of the bedroom, my chest heaving as I stepped in. Mira lay on the bed stark naked, her eyes wild with fear. She shook from head to toe, grabbing up a duvet that didn't do much in hiding her nakedness.

"What the fuck is going on here!!" I yelled, walking toward her and gripping her by the neck and squeezing until she began to gasp for air.

Letting her drop back to the bed, I scoured the room. The bastard who had the guts to fuck my wife had apparently disappeared. "Where the fuck is he?!!"

Instead of responding, she broke down into tears, her voice cracking as she sobbed. "I—I can explain... baby.."

I landed a heavy slap to her face. "Don't you dare!" I contemplated strangling her at the spot. How dare she cheat on me? I was Jonas Verbeck. No one dared make a fool of me. And this bitch had the effrontery to...

Tearing my eyes away from her before I would change my mind about strangling her, I continued to turn the room upside down in search of the man. "You have the guts to fuck my wife, why don't you come out and face me you bloody coward!"

My eyes moved to the corner of the room close to the window. It was slightly open. Finally. I took two quick strides to get to the window. When I did, I outstretched my arm. When my hand grasped what I was looking for, I pulled the stark naked man who had been hanging on for dear life at the window into the room, dumping him hard on the floor.

I caught a glimpse of his face as he tried to escape and my eyes widened in shock.

"Mario?!"

Rage boiling up within me, I easily made it to him, grabbing him right by the neck and smashing his head repeatedly into the mirror until blood oozed out from his forehead.

"A-alpha," His voice shook."I'm so—"

"Silence!" I yelled, aiming a kick at a spot in his chest and repeatedly landing heavy kicks to it. When it didn't seem like it was doing enough harm, I shifted up to my arms, digging my claws hard into the same spot. But the scream that escaped his lips still did not satisfy me. "How dare you! My own Beta, fucking my wife? And apparently on a regular basis? You fucking traitor!"

Mira screamed as I slashed halfway through his neck. Halfway, because I surely could not let him have such an easy, quick death. I would make him suffer... slowly, painfully. And when he could not take it anymore, life would slowly leave him.

"Silence!" Mira's sobs were beginning to irritate me. Anger pumped through me as I glared at her. I had never been so disrespected! When I heard Mira begin to sob afresh, I flung Mario's dangling body to the bed, making sure he landed heavily on her.

"Fucking bitch!"

The anger in me was not pacified yet. I walked to the other side of the room and opened the bottom drawer. When I found it, I pulled the hammer out.

Perfect.

Chapter 69

Liyah's POV

"Okay, that should be enough for today. Well done, Liyah, I really didn't expect you to grasp all of this so quickly," Nikolai grinned as we rounded up today's lesson, pulling me forward to plant a kiss to my forehead. As expected, I melted into a puddle.

"Thank you," I muttered, looking down at my feet. Sometimes I suddenly became an idiot around him and I forgot how to form words. He had that effect on me. Every single time.

"You're doing great," He grinned, pulling me forward for a kiss which ended way too soon. He had a meeting he had to run off to. But I didn't mind. The fact that he was this impressed with my progress was enough to take me through the day.

I could hear and smell basically everything within a thirty metre radius from where I was standing. At first it was frustrating as I could smell so many different things at a time it was distracting, but Nikolai had taught me how to channel it to a particular source at a time and now I had totally mastered my senses.

He had also trained me on how to use my speed and strength to my advantage, and he was very pleased with the progress I was making. I was still in awe of everything that I hadn't had time to be impressed with myself. Walking felt like running now. It was so strange how I could easily glide from one place to the other. It was amazing. I felt healthier, happier, stronger, faster and more confident. I felt like I could do anything... achieve anything. And that I no longer had to be scared of anything. I had never felt that way before. And honestly, I was loving it.

But the best part was transformation. We started lessons last week and we just wrapped up right now. At first it was all so foreign; shifting back and forth. The most frustrating part was the clothes ripping. Although that was Nikolai's favorite part of training. And mine too, admittedly.

I blushed as I remembered all the lessons turned lovemaking that had gone on in the past week. I don't think I'll ever get used to ruining my clothes myself but it was all part of the process.

After training, I decided to freshen up before joining Nikolai for lunch. He would take a while because he still had to round up his meeting first. A cold bath would do me a world of good right now. I quickly stripped and got into the shower.

'I think it's about time we met.' I suddenly heard a female voice say. Surprised, I stopped the running water and listened.

Nothing.

Nikolai was in his study and apart from him I was sure there was no one else in the room. Waiting for a few more seconds and not hearing anything, I reached out to turn the tap back on when I remembered something.

Was it my inner wolf? Nikolai had mentioned an inner wolf.

'That's about right,' Came the same voice.

I grimaced. Nikolai had said something about my wolf speaking to me but he never said it would sound so real. It sounded like someone was standing right next to me. It felt strange talking to a voice in my head.

"Umm... This is a bit new to me, I'm Liyah. What's your name?" I finally managed to blurt out.

'I don't have one. I'm supposed to be a voice only you can hear remember? You were supposed to name me when we turned eighteen, but I was muted for so long you went on without me. So here we are,' She or It blurted.

All this was still very new to me. I wasn't sure what to say. What she said about being muted for so long...if anyone could relate to that, it was me.

"I'm sorry you were silent for so long," I apologized, not knowing what else to say.

'It's okay. I've been silent for so long, it feels weird talking again. I've always been here though, watching. Everything.' She said with what sounded like mischief.

I smiled, having a feeling that we would get along quite well.

"Well that's not creepy," I laughed. "So what should I name you now?"

'Your choice, just nothing too cliché, if you know what I mean.'

I began to wrack my brain for all the nice names that I knew. But none of them seemed suitable enough. "How about Natasha?"

'What? No!' She groaned. I grimaced. She was actually laughing. This wasn't as bad as I thought. It felt like talking to a real person. The only difference was that they were in your head.

'Just call a list of maybe four or five, I'll pick the least embarrassing.'

I was actually laughing, alone in the bathroom, chatting with my wolf.