I abruptly reached up and yanked Haiden's suffocating hand from my mouth, catching him off guard. "Lookit, I have a lot to say about all of this! First off, I want absolutely no part of your Acer P. Anus pack! And I'd like to be released or brought back to the town at once! Or better yet, a populated city. And secondly, what is with you people and all this talk about a sinister curse!? Like, are you just trying to freak me out for the fun of it!? Because if so, there's really no need. This brainless bozo already succeeded in terrorizing the living shit out of me last night!" I angrily pointed at Haiden.

"You haven't told her about the curse yet?" The blonde councilwoman asked with a raised brow.

"As I already said, I haven't gotten the chance to explain much to her just yet. She's having a hard enough time with all of this as it is, and I didn't want to frighten her any further." Haiden softly spoke, only frightening me further.

"Well, let's explain it then!" Costache excitedly pounced on the opportunity to explain something. "First though, I'm sorry, but no, we can't let you leave. You've already seen too much, and are now legally bound to Haiden." He apologetically explained, then went right back to being jolly.

...God fucking dammit... This is complete bullshit. 

"So, about the curse!" He continued. "Once a lycan is eighteen years of age, they are forced to shift into their beast form every full moon, from dusk until dawn."

"Not us girls though! We're immune to it!" Crina happily chimed in while pointing up with her pen.

"Yep, that's true. Not the women. They don't even have a beast form, only a human and wolf form." Costache nodded before continuing. 

"During the forced shift, we fall victim to an insatiable and all-consuming bloodlust for the flesh of man. Although we are well aware of what's happening around us, we have absolutely no control over what we're doing. It's like we're trapped inside of our beastly bodies, forced to watch ourselves commit heinous atrocities. It doesn't matter if someone's an infant or elderly, if there's human blood running through their veins, we will try to devour them. It's terrible. Highly, highly terrible." He solemnly shook his head with a look of penitence, as if he were haunted by the things he'd done. "Our mates are truly the only things that keep us going, having to live with such a dreadful curse, and all."

I stared at him blankly for a second, with my brain sputtering and struggling to process the horrifying information. "Let me leave right fucking now!" I abruptly thrashed and tried to break out of Haiden's grip like a madwoman. He quickly pulled me onto his lap, restraining me. "No! Let me go! I can't be stuck here with a pack of man-eating lycans!" I hysterically screeched. "This is nothing like the books!"

"Shh, it's okay, dragostea mea. This is why we're going to find a way to protect you. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you." He tried to gently soothe my worries away... He failed. Miserably. "I've been thinking about it, and I say we build a safe house. Make it three walls thick with stone, and mix silver dust and powdered wolfsbane into the cement." He assertively spoke to the others. 

"I think that's a smart idea, but I also think that we should mask her scent with rosemary oil so we don't even try to go near her in the first place." Sorin spoke up again. "It's not just Isabelle at risk here. We all know that Haiden is by far our strongest and most fearsome warrior. And if he's protecting his mate, none of us will stand a chance against him. Let's be mindful that he killed Codrin without a single scratch." A bunch of concerned murmurs resounded throughout the meeting hall. 

"Excellent point, Sorin! I completely agree." Costache nodded. "To add to that, I think we should also try to shift far away from the village to reduce the risk of catching her scent, making it safer for everyone." He held up a hand. "Does anyone else have something they'd like to add to this?" The only sound heard was someone awkwardly coughing. "Alright then, all in favor of this course of action?" 

The majority of the pack seemed to raise their hands, uttering in agreement. Haiden smiled against my cheek from behind and planted a little kiss there. I wanted to vomit.

"It's settled then! We'll build a safe house, mask her scent, and shift away from the village!" Costache enthusiastically clapped his hands. 

"Now, let's plan for our Mabon celebration!" Crina excitedly redirected the meeting. "Since the Lughnasadh wicker man was such a splendid hit this year, we're going to have to really go big to make this one just as good!" She began going on and on about some weird holiday celebration that involved fruit bread.

We were stuck in that wearisome meeting for another agonizing hour and a half. Haiden never let me leave his lap, and inconspicuously ground his erection against my butt a bunch of times. Unfortunately, my body had reacted by becoming painfully aroused, despite my seething anger. It wasn't until some random guy shouted, "Just get out of here, and go fuck her already!" that we actually left.

Haiden had happily thrown me over his shoulder and marched out of there with a beaming smile, turning around right before exiting to excitedly exclaim, "I finally have my mate!" Joyous howls had filled the room while we left through the double doors, with me angrily grumbling and cursing the whole way.