When they started visiting Black Devil pack with a regular schedule, Beta Crucifero was back at his broody freedom. Or also call “I-never-leave-the-side-of-mate, stay-10-meters-away-from-him-or-I-cut-your-head”. Marco was like a character from one of those movies where the injured person was entirely covered with plaster, from head to toe, with legs and arms kept elevated. Where you can only see eyes, mouth and nostrils. He looked kind of funny like that.

The irreversible aspect was his left hand. He had lost it forever, thus he would have had to learn to live without. Thanks to his Beta blood and strength from his mate, always at his side, Marco was recovering at a steady pace. At least physically. The bitchy and lovely annoying sides weren’t back yet, still under induced coma to allow his body to recover faster.

A strange feeling hung over Elena every time she entered Black Devil. And for several reasons. 

Firstly, her best friend in the world was healing under the same pack that was the cause of nightmares among werewolf’s packs and its reputation always spoke before them. Secondly, the historical conflicts between Full Moon and Black Devil weren’t a minor detail. Thirdly, Marica’s disappearance (the cousin of Elena) may be associated with their frontier warriors and her body may still rot somewhere in their darkest woods. Lastly, but not for importance: their current Alpha was Elena's mate, making her their future freaking Luna. Plus, he was same Alpha that her pack was dreading.

Could it get more complicated??

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It rained mercilessly that afternoon and the school week progressed slowly. Elena hadn’t seen Mirko since exactly 6 days (not counting half a day today!), to be exact since they had almost kissed outside the Medical Facility. He was busy with pack matters, Lord Skull’s negotiations and wild wolves that were infesting his territory. At least so she had heard from random conversations at school or from her dad’s office. As far as she knew, he could be serenely in his secret harem enjoying all his fans. Elena pressed her lips, jealousy filled her soul like a green poison.

Why hadn’t he contacted her yet? How difficult could it be to move a finger and send a message, in 6 full days? In other words, in 8640 minutes he hadn’t been able to find a single minute for a quick call or a 30 second message.

Elena was angry at herself for being the exact type of girl she had always mocked. That desperate and needy one who constantly checks her phone, whatever she’s doing. Titilas had begged her many times to just call him and got rid off it, but it was a matter of principles ... well, this resolution had only lasted until the third of those 6 days, when she finally called Black Devil Pack House.

With an undercover number, just in case.

Long story short, their Gamma had answered the phone, demanding coldly to state her/his name, pack and business and Elena had invented a fake identity and insisted that she must speak to their Alpha only, as it was a very personal matter. With a little more persuasion, that rude of a Gamma eventually accepted, but Elena ended up waiting for over an hour on the phone, since ’Alpha is a very busy person’. And her poor heart had popped out of her chest every time she had heard a sound on the other line.

When he had finally picked up, with a simple ‘Alpha Mirko speaking’, his icy voice with a hint of impatience had panicked Elena, who had just managed to stammer some incomprehensible words and ended up hanging the phone in his face.

Very angry with herself, she really hoped to meet him by chance somewhere, at school or during a visit to Marco.

So, she could have ignored it pointedly.

At that moment, Elena was heading towards her favourite rock, in the middle of the woods of her pack. Running in the rain had always satisfied Titilas. Freedom and wild nature flowed through her veins when her paws were devouring kilometre after kilometre, avoiding trunks and bushes along the way and jumping on fallen trees.

Elena wanted to meet Herculi and check his unstable health, especially after the strange event in which he had almost eaten her arm. In the past, the lone wolf had always disappeared for long periods, only to appear suddenly again, bleeding heavily, or extremely thin and very tired. Elena had always fed and cared for him like a giant personal pet.

Nearly there, she shifted back, hurrying to dress in some clothes from one of her hidden spots. For some reason, Herculi preferred to interact with her in human form.

When she finally reached her final destination, in the depths of Full Moon woods, what was waiting for her scared and excited her at the same time, like a thunder that had just hit the floor next to her. Two piercing blue eyes shone in the fog and a massive shadow stood completely still. Even Titilas was in awe at the sight in front of them.

Her mate will never stop stealing her breath away.