Grace managed to make herself smile. The shock to her wolf had been so sudden that she wasn't able to recover in time. Danielle frowned. She had always been sensitive to changes in emotions. "Is something wrong?" She asked in a low tone.

Grace merely pursed her lips and shook her head. Sean caught on to what she was saying. "Grace? You don't have anything against Dani, do you?" He asked in a deceptively soft tone.

Grace's eyes widened. She had never heard such a dangerous tone from him directed at her. "Of course not!" She said shrilly. "I have no problem with the woman who was able to touch my mate and calm him down just like I can."

Sean's anger soared. He was already feeling indignant on behalf of Dani, now he had to deal with his mate's irrational jealousy. He was about to growl at her and then some when he felt a small hand on his biceps. He stopped immediately. Grace's panic and jealousy shot up at this scene and she growled, shifting. Danielle sighed. "You wouldn't want to do that." Sean was about to shift to calm his mate when Danielle shifted even before he did.

Sean never got tired of looking at Lupa, Danielle's wolf. There was something about Lupa that calmed him, consoled him and made him be at peace. She was huge, huger than his wolf, and white and magnificent. It would make anyone be awestruck.

Danielle didn't want to use her Alpha's Absolute Will on her friend's mate, but it did seem like she had no choice. But before that, she wanted to try something. Her wolf was much bigger than Grace's, but the smaller wolf was determined to fight over her territory — her mate. Lupa went closer to the wolf and touched her nose to Grace's nose in a gesture of affection. Danielle licked the other's face and snuggled into her neck affectionately.

Sean's eyes popped out of their sockets. What made him even more shocked was that Grace was calming down quickly. How was she able to do this? Was this one of her powers? If that was the case, was this all of her powers? Sean didn't want to think too much about this until she spoke about it to him herself. Now, the priority was getting Grace to not misunderstand. He knew he had made a mistake of getting angry at her without explaining to her what had actually happened.

He had a feeling she would be more amenable to listening to him now that she had experienced Dani's powers first hand.

Danielle shifted back and so did Grace. Grace wasn't stupid by any means. She immediately understood that Danielle's and Sean's relationship was truly platonic. "I'm sorry," she whispered to Danielle. Her face was red and flushed with embarrassment. She couldn't believe that she had lost control of her emotions that quickly.

Grace turned to Sean, her face burning. Danielle slowly slipped away from the room, unnoticed. Sean mock-glared at his mate. "Did you have to cause such a scene?" He demanded. "Do I still not have your trust, for you to jump to conclusions like that?"

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"Sorry, sorry, sorry." Grace buried her face in her hands. She sat down on the couch and peeked at him from behind her fingers. "I'm sorry, this won't happen again. I promise. I trust you. I really do. It's just that my wolf lost control seeing her domain encroached."

Sean raised an eyebrow. "Domain?" He said. "So I'm a part of your domain, now, is it?"

Grace stuck out her tongue, realising he wasn't angry anymore. "Just like you claim that I'm your territory."

He ran a hand through his hair. "You're so fucking hot when you stake your claim like that." He pulled her against him until their chests were pressing against each other. She sucked in her breath. He lowered his head and kissed the tip of her nose. Then her cheek. The other cheek.

He peppered small kisses across her face until she moaned, "Sean, stop teasing me!"

And so he stopped.

Then the real deal began.

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Danielle walked outside the room and managed to find herself on the grounds where the young wolves usually practised fighting and working with weapons. She lost herself in the battle arena, amongst all the weapons, types of equipment and implements for training. This is what she was good at. She was a warrior. Not a nurturer like earlier. There was nothing wrong with being a nurturer, but it was a very... different experience for her.

But she couldn't deny the twinge of envy she felt when she saw the interactions of Sean and Grace. It wasn't exactly the romance of it that she yearned for. That was the last thing on her mind. Rather, she wanted someone to have her back, someone to have a deep sense of camaraderie with, someone who wouldn't make her feel like she had the world's weight on her shoulders anymore.

She shook her head swiftly, waving away all those thoughts. She knew better than to go off into flights of fancy. She hadn't done that since she was seven. She quickly began her training regimen. She held the pistols, the swords and the spears and attacked an invisible prey with them. Slowly, a group of people started to gather around her. Such was her focus that she didn't even notice them near until she could hear their breaths.

Furious to have been disturbed, she moved quickly and leapt to where they were, pointing a sword at the neck of the nearest one. The poor girl's breath hitched and her eyes widened with fright. Tears welled in her eyes. "Not your pack, Danielle. This isn't somewhere you can do whatever you please."

Taking a deep breath, she took the sword back, curbing her instincts. "I'm sorry," she apologised to the girl, "I was in the middle of practice and when you suddenly came..."

She looked around with a bizarre look on her face. Why were there so many people? Had they... had they come to see her? One man gulped, swallowing his fear and stepped forward feigning bravery.

"I r-remember you," he stuttered. No one laughed at him. The way she was swinging those weapons... those were hands that had killed. "You're the alpha of the Jade Pack."

Danielle turned to him and looked at him with piercing eyes. That look was so intimidating that he had to take a step back. "We won't tell anyone," he promised quickly. "But can you... can you teach our warriors w-while you're h-here?"

Danielle raised her brows. That... didn't seem like a bad idea to repay Sean. She had trained contingents before. It wouldn't be long before she whipped them up to shape. Blinking twice, she nodded. "Okay," she said firmly. "All of your warriors must meet me at six in the morning sharp. From tomorrow onwards, we begin your training."

The man, Kit, was ecstatic. Trained by this alpha... there would be no better qualifications.