HUNTED

Aila skimmed through the different books; she didn\'t realise that some of them were actually diaries from past generations of werewolves. They were of men who were not aware of what they were, such as herself, and noted down everything they experienced. She was absorbed in what they wrote. Some spoke of how they were cursed by the devil, others praised their newfound gifts, while some presumed they were mad and ended up taking their lives. Aila bowed her head in sadness and commiserated before putting the diaries to the side.

Aila did not realise how the time flew by. When it became dinner time, she stayed in the library while Darren left to eat; he never returned, for which she was thankful. By this point, she was sprawled across the floor on her belly, legs kicked up as with another opened book. Ajax and Finn waltzed into the room and took a seat on the leather couches; Aila was aware of their presence, but she did not look up from the book she was now searching through.

"Hey, little wolf, you weren\'t at dinner," Ajax spoke up from his relaxed position. 

Aila shrugged, still flicking through pages before closing the book and picking another up. She wanted to know more about her mate bond with Damon, but so far, she found more about the history of the tribes and how the hierarchy was forming between packs. This she did not feel the need to learn; her dad summed it up nicely for her. 

"Alpha Damon was there.." Ajax teased playfully, which made her lookup. Aila felt her heart clench at the thought of missing him at dinner but dismissed it. She needed to know more about the bond before she saw him again. Aila looked back down after a few seconds of staring into space with her own thoughts. 

"Earth to Aila.." 

She jumped back from the hand waving in front of her face, making her look at Ajax with a scowl forming on her features. With a sigh, she put the book down and gave him a hard stare, "Yes?"

Ajax put on a charming smile that did not dazzle her one bit. He shimmied down to the floor and placed his hand behind her, leaning in close, too close to her personal space; as he did so, he continued to stare into her eyes. Aila narrowed her own as she wondered what he was up to. He moved his hand forwards slowly, his eyes still holding hers as he placed some stray locks of her hair in his fingers before scooping it back behind her ear.

He sighed dramatically and flung himself on the couch, his back on the seat and legs sprawled out as he placed his hand over his face. Aila looked across at the other couch where Finn sat and gave him a questioning look, which he returned with an almost identical confused expression.

"She\'s mated alright!" Ajax spoke gravelly from under his hand, "My charms didn\'t even make her blush. No one can resist this face! No one!" He waved his hand around his face to prove a point before hiding under his hand once again. 

Aila rolled her eyes at his vanity and went to grab the book again; as she opened it, she spoke quietly, "Yes, I found my mate, and yes, it is Alpha Damon."

"I knew it!" Ajax exclaimed as he swung his feet back around and sat back up. He leaned his chin on his hands that balanced on his knees, putting on a mocked dreamy expression on his face, "it was the way he threw you over his shoulder that gave it away. Well, along with growling at any form of touching on my part. Playing with your hair in front of him was the funniest-"

  "You did it on purpose!" Aila slammed her book down, looking at him flabbergasted.

"Of course, I experimented with the theory I had," Ajax smirked, unconcerned with his bold actions.

Before Aila could reprimand him, Finn interrupted, doing just that, "Jeese, did you lose some brain cells while in that cell all those years? You\'re lucky he didn\'t attack you or worse, kill you."

Ajax sighed, "This is why I don\'t hang out with werewolves. You guys are so dramatic."

"Did he just say WE were the ones who are dramatic?" Aila mocked astonishment as she looked at Finn.

"Yeah, he did." Finn shook his head in disbelief.

Sighing to herself, she grabbed the book up again and looked back down to the page that was titled, The Mate Bond.

Before she could continue, Ajax snatched the book from her fingertips. This time her patience flipped, and she got up and kicked him in the shin.

"Ow! What was that for!?" He screamed in pain.

Aila rolled her eyes again, "Such a baby, I didn\'t even kick you hard. I warned you, if you kept interrupting my reading, I would kick you!"

"I didn\'t think you\'d actually do it!" 

"Well then, that\'s your mistake for underestimating me," Aila retorted.

"Such a cruel woman to me," He moaned but then raised his hands up in surrender when he saw her glare at him, "Okay, maybe that was too much."

Aila took the book back and sat in the armchair next to the lit fireplace.

"What are you reading anyway?" Finn asked politely; Aila began scowling at the interruption again, but it didn\'t irk her as much coming from Finn. He didn\'t intentionally go out of his way to annoy her.

She looked up at him and replied, "I have so much to read, Finn. I need to learn everything there is to know about being a werewolf, the mate bond, being a royal, a luna.." She whispered the last word as though the term could sting her. But both men perked up at what she said. The pair stared at her in wonderment, making her self-conscious.

"What do you want to know?" Finn asked, "I can help with some of it."

Closing the book shut with a thud, she didn\'t think about asking an actual werewolf about these things. Even with the books\' reliability, if Finn could provide the information in less time than reading the books, she was happy to accept his offer.

"Tell me everything I need to know about the mate bond and being marked. I presume you haven\'t found your mate?" She queried. 

Finn scoffed, "Well, I\'ve only seen the inside of that cell and the rooms we were experimented in. So no, I have not found my mate." 

Aila eyed him; although he joked, she could also see the sadness behind his eyes. Was it the years torn away from him or because he has not found his mate? 

"The Moon Goddess gifts us with a mate. She pairs us with the other half of your soul. That is why it is a gift. Unlike humans who may or may not find their actual soulmate, werewolves nine times out of ten always will. The goddess aligns our paths with each other so that we will one day meet," Fin began explaining the finer details of the mate bond. He stood up and walked over to the fireplace, placing his hand on the mantel as he looked down into the flames. Aila patiently waited for Finn to continue, crossing her legs in the armchair as she did so.

"Once you find your mate, you have the option to reject them. Although it is a gift, our goddess would never force it onto us. However, the pair always tend to end up together. There are no mistakes when it comes to a mated pair, you see, and from what I have heard, it is very hard not to accept your mate. The bond immediately pulls the pair together. The longer they go without being marked, the harder it will be to go without the other. Their wolves become harder to control, and if they are already quite feral, then it won\'t be long until the mark is forced onto their mate." 

Aila instinctively gulped; she already knew from meeting Darius that this was the case. From what she could tell, both Darius and Malia were quite feral; but she could only compare them to the other werewolves she had briefly met. There was not enough to look more into the matter. At some point, she will be marked either way unless she rejected her mate. Malia growled at the idea, but she settled down again, realising that Aila was only acknowledging the idea. 

"That\'s it?" Ajax asked, his voice almost bored as he went back to lying on his back.

"Well, the basics. You can only have one mate. Once the pair have marked each other, it becomes official, the pact is sealed for life. They can tell how the other feels, and they can sense when their mate is nearby. Another thing, mates are very protective and possessive of each other. An Alpha is even more possessive over their mate than the average werewolf. I have heard of Alpha\'s killing for their mates in the past. Something as small as touching has caused brawls between werewolves. As for a royal couple," Finn stopped and looked at Aila with uncertainty, "I am not sure if that makes you both highly susceptible to fighting or not. Your position is even higher than that of a normal Alpha and Luna."

"In other words, Ajax," Finn now looked at Ajax sternly, "you should not be pissing Alpha Damon off."

Aila began playing with the sleeves of her hoody while she glanced from Finn and stared into the flames of the fire. Finn and Ajax continued chatting to each other while she was lost in thought; she couldn\'t help but have mixed feelings about the mate bond. On the one hand, Aila couldn\'t see herself with anyone else. Damon already felt like a piece of her that she couldn\'t go without. But then, the human side of her rebelled against the idea of being tethered to someone against her will.

Malia snorted, "Against your will? Really? Come on! Damon hasn\'t kidnapped you and forced this onto you. It\'s a natural process. Stop being scared."

"That\'s easy for you to say. This feels like the equivalent of getting married. Almost like an arranged marriage by the Moon Goddess herself," Aila grumbled, although she felt warm butterflies in her stomach by the thought of having Damon by her side always. 

She immediately shook the idea away, her rational self taking form. That man was the reason why she couldn\'t release any tension in her lower region; she really would go off to her room and sort the \'issue\' out, but at the same time, she didn\'t want to see how much further he would take her teasing punishment. 

Aila looked up then, after realising the room, became quiet. Ajax had stormed out, leaving Finn to take his spot on the couch by her side. 

"What happened?" She asked.

"Ajax being Ajax," Finn sighed. She couldn\'t help but giggle, imagining Finn ageing before his time solely because of Ajax. 

For the remainder of that evening, Aila and Finn stayed in the library. She still did not leave to get anything to eat, which caused her stomach to growl every five minutes. But her stubbornness to stay away from Damon for the night outweighed her hunger. Finn didn\'t comment on it, sensing there was something she was annoyed about. 

When the clock hit 11pm, Aila was on the floor again, reading a book about her roles as a Luna and Queen. She turned the page to see that there were ceremonies in place for both in the Silver Crescent Pack, but her mind and body finally caught up with her, and before she could read further into it, she found her eyes drooping and her face buried into the book. 

The next moment, Aila stirred after feeling intense heat and woodsy scent wrap around her like a cosy blanket. Her body immediately relaxed and snuggled closer into the scent. Her mind tried to resurface to reality, but her body pulled her into a cloud of darkness, weighing her down like an anchor. 

Before she was wholly consumed by her peaceful dreams, she heard a silk-like voice vibrate across her body, sending small tingling kisses across her skin.

".. you finally burned out. My little spitfire."