Chapter 12

“Kim- I mean Tila. Good morning.” Ken spoke, he raised his hand up in his golden hair back, squirming slightly under my intense gaze. For an Alpha wolf this was seriously not you get to see often in someone like Ken. A moment there the word ‘cute’ flashed across my mind. Horror filled my thoughts at the sudden thought. I quickly killed such thought and gave him my best poker face I could muster.

“Hello, Alpha Ken Tendo.”

“Please just call me Ken.”

“Well Ken. What brings you in this lovely morning?”

“I was wondering if you and I could catch lunch together or maybe talk.”

I thought it over. Lunch sounds good, especially because I didn’t break my fast yet. Just when I was thinking over what I should do, Adam came up from behind and placed his hands on my shoulder.

“Hello, mutt.”

Ken froze and then growled. “What are you doing in there?”

“Waking up my little angel here.” He snickered and kissed my head. “I am her lover after all.”

I coughed. Why Adam? Why? Do you like to instigate a fight so late in the morning? These question stormed in my mind. Yes, I hate Ken’s gut, but at the same time I didn’t want any more trouble. It was best not to get more angry every single time. It was very bad for my health. Plus maybe it would be better just to listen to him once and getting this over with. Having him follow me every where was a very bad idea and very irritating. I was surprised such calm thought crossed my mind, maybe that scuffle in wolf form did a lot of justice that I actually needed. It was like a fresh new breeze that came into my mind, making me think in a more calm way.

“Adam, not now please. I’m hungry and you’re conjuring up bad fantasy.”

“But my dear little angel, how can I be conjuring up fantasy when it’s the truth? You were squirming in bed when I had a sweet taste of you. Your moans was music to my ears.”

“Okay, too much information. You need to stop putting strange thoughts into people’s head, including mine.” I grunted in disapproval.

“But, sweety~ That’s the best part. Putting dirty thoughts into your head makes it all the more delightful. Plus it gets me hot all over.” He snickered. I got the feeling he was totally into ruffling my feathers at the same time making Ken cringe. He was doing a fabulous job on it too, because Ken was already tense to the point where he wanted to deck Adam in the face.

“Well than. I’m going to eat.” I pushed Adam’s hand off my shoulder and squeezed past Ken.

My feet quickly carried me through the hallway, making my way towards the common area. Sharp, sweet smell of chicken slinked through the air, catching me off guard. My stomach grumbled, my mouth watered, I made my way across the partially empty room towards the counter.

Jaz was standing behind the counter, cooking up a small meal for Ray and Samantha, who was sitting in front of her. I plopped myself down next to Samantha, she was nibbling on a sandwich happily.

“Hey sweety.” I ruffled her hair, and a smile erupted out on Samantha’s face. A piece of egg stuck to her cheeks as she giggled. “It seems like you enjoy Jaz’s famous egg sandwich.” I winked.

Samantha nodded her head furiously and continued to eat.

“Hey, good to see you guys are awake. I would like the same thing Samantha’s eating please.”

“Good morning, Tila~” Jaz sang bubbling with happiness, while Ray nodded at my entrance.  “I see you’re up late.’

“I was way too tired.” I huffed, slouching over onto the countertop in defeat.

“I guess it's because of the guys?”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

“Come on Tila. You got two smoking hot testosterone infused males right next to you fighting for your attention. Give them a bit of your time. For example that sexy Vampire, Adam that just oozes with masculinity. Take him to bed and your worries will all wash away.” She giggled and winked at me.

I couldn’t help but shake my head at Jaz for being so blunt. She had a wonderful personality, also my best friend and someone to confide into, but sometimes she gets a little to sex crazy. I’m honestly surprised that she hasn’t have a child yet with her mate, Terran.

Ray snorted. “He’s a vampire, Jaz. Who in the right mind would sleep with a vampire?”

“There are girls out there who would.” She pouted. If she didn’t have a mate, I put money on it that she wouldn’t bat an eye getting into the same bed as Adam. He’s a lady killer for sure.

“Sound like you’re going to cheat on your mate.”

Jaz gasped. “I would never. Terran is just as sexy as either one of them. No even better.” She puffed then she longingly remembers her mate, giving her a goofy smile.

“Then it would be a wise to stop putting such ludicrous thoughts in our Alpha’s head and focus on your mate.” Ray spoke in disapproving tone of voice. “The thought of having another hybrid spawn sounds like a very bad idea. Look what happened to the last one. Destroyed half the city.”

Jaz handed me a finished egg sandwich with orange juice on the side.

“I’m sorry hybrid what?” I couldn’t help but ask in confusion. My hand reached over towards the plate of food and picked up the sandwich. I took a repetitive bites as I savored the food.

“What’s he’s talking about is an hybrid or a werevamp.” Jaz spoke up. Another sizzling sound of egg touching the frying pan could be heard over her voice. “Once in a blue moon, somehow or another we have two interspecies mingling creating a hybrid to be born. So far not all hybrids are considered to be on the good side. The famous ones in history that we know of have caused mayhem is during the Black Death in 1346,  Great Chicago Fire in 1871, and also the mastermind of the infamous 911 in 2011. The list just goes on if you get what I mean.”

“Wait. Wait. Wait. Hold up. You’re saying that all those crazy events were done single handedly by a hybrid?”

“Yep.” She popped her ‘P’.

“That’s crazy. How is it possible that humans haven't found out about this?”

“Well humans are easy to fool you know. You just need to shift the blame onto a human and they’ll forget that it's done by an inhuman creature.”

“Before we go in more depth, we need to back up a little bit. I thought Vampires can’t reproduce. Don’t they like suck your blood and turn you into their kind with just a bite?”

Jaz shook her head. She flipped the egg and started to add salt and pepper on it. “The Vampire virus doesn’t transfer like that. Yes, one needs to be bitten first, then the exchange of blood by a powerful vampire, but the easiest way is to be born into it. They don’t reproduce like bunnies, so they don’t have a lot to begin with. The ones that has been forcefully changed can’t reproduce, but the originals that’s a different story.”

“I thought they were dead.”  I seriously must’ve gotten my definition of vampires mixed up somewhere, because I was sure that all vampires were dead in the beginning. Was it hollywood movie that filled me up with these thoughts? Yes, but at the same time I had to wonder why I haven’t asked about vampires in the first place.

“There alive just like you and I. Like I said, it's a Vampire Virus that exchange their mortal life for eternal damnation on Earth. The earlies recount of it every happening is Cain. He is the first ever vampire in existence.”

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I frowned. Her explanation of legends just seem a bit too simple, but I didn’t complain.

“Wait, should we be talking about this...you know there's humans here.” I glanced around hoping that no one heard us talk, but then realized that all of them were werewolves that weren’t from my pack.

“The humans all left last night. The people here right now are from the Blood Moon Pack. The Blood Moon Pack just arrived in the morning and we’ll be stopping by at night to pick up a handful of the Silver Wolf’s Pack.”

I was surprised that there was a different pack on board. I know that Werewolves are very territorial and having large numbers of Alphas and their pack on board could cause some issues.

“Don’t worry too much about it, Dr. Everston has already negotiated with every single one of them.” Jaz seem to read my thoughts without even me telling her. “What you should worry about is what are you going to do with those hunk of delicacies? You can’t keep them both waiting on you forever.”

“What are you talking about?” I look at her strangely. “I’m not keeping anyone waiting.”

“Uh huh. Wolf boy last night was mooning over you every second. He’s been star struck ever since he laid eyes upon you and don’t get me started with the Vamp. He’s become all possessive and touchy feely since the day you met him and it got worse when Wolf boy entered into the picture. I swear half the time I worried he won’t pounce on you, before you even had a chance to scream out bloody murder.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not answering to anyone of them nor am I going to entertain such thoughts. Our mission is to get Samantha to YellowStone National park without a single problem.”

“That’s easier said than done. You got one month to figure out what you want to do during those time we stay on this boat.”

Orange juice got caught on my throat as I coughed.

“Are you okay, Tila?” Ray asked with concern. He shot Jaz a disapproval look towards her, but she shrugged it off like it was nothing.

“One month? It takes one month to get to where we need to go? That’s ludicrous. It doesn’t even take three days on road to get from Chicago to Wyoming.’

“My best bet is that he has something else planned from my understanding, we got a couple of places we need to stop by before we make it over there. Something about it being a necessity. I don’t know you have to talk with Adam about it.”

I couldn’t phantom why he would need to go so slowly towards our destination. Wasn’t this a priority mission to get Samantha from one location to the next? When I glanced towards Samantha, she didn’t seem to be phased at all by the long trip. Instead she seem to be enjoy ever second of the trip as if it was a very long vacation.

“Tila, I’m telling you. Stick with your mate. He’s the only one who could truly keep you happy.” Ray spoke.

“Are you out of your mind? Did you forget? He rejected her.”

“Yes, but like you said. He was mooning over her. You know just as well as I that the first sign of the mate’s pull and the mate’s pull is always right. The Moon Goddess didn’t create your other half for you for no reason.” He grumbled. “I would give anything to have my mate with me right now.”

I felt a little bad. Ray was an hopeless romantic and he always droned on about, waiting to meet his mate. If it isn’t half the time sleeping around, he would shake every girl's hand to meet his destined one. Sometimes I think he goes over the top in sleeping with other girls, but hey that’s his preference. Majority of the other male pack members aren’t as sex crazy as him, but are more respectful. My guess is his desperation has increased over years, worrying about dying alone or something like that.

“Did you get any call from Jayden?” I asked Jaz, trying to change the depressive topic.

“Yes, they said that they would be arriving near the closet town in four days. We already sent someone to build the pack houses yesterday with the help of Adam. Plus we got the territory on the east side of the Yellowstone National Park, where the other werewolves haven’t claimed yet. From my understanding we’re a six hours away from Blood moon’s pack and eight hours away from Silver Crow Pack. Plus If I remember correctly, Adam’s is creating a secondary headquarters alongside our pack house.”

I stifled a groan. He seriously going to follow me everywhere I go. I should’ve just cut him off in the beginning before it became like this. Sighing, I gave up in thinking too much about it. What was done was done. There wasn’t anything much to it than this.

“So what time is the Silver Crow’s pack coming?”

Ray look down at his watch. “In four hours.”

Suddenly I heard loud yelling and shouts of excitement on deck. All of us whipped our heads towards the direction of the sound and looked through the glass towards the deck. Large number of werewolves were climbing up the side, shaking hands with Adam, and a blond female jumped into Ken’s arm as if they were long lost lovers.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. Jaz caught that look, and gave Ray the I-told-you-so face..

“I take that back. They're here.” Ray didn’t answer to Jaz’s look.

“Well than why don’t we go greet our guest shall we?” I took the last bite, and got up. Jaz picked up Samantha and both of them followed behind me. We made our ways towards the deck, watching and carefully checking out our allies. It didn’t take long for ten people to get on board.

Suddenly I heard a whimper followed by an excitement from behind me.

“Mine!” Ray sweeped past me and stood right in front of a petite asian lady. Her long black hair swayed back and forth behind her, while Ray scoops her up in one go. Compare to Ray who was literally towering over her in height, she seem dwarfed in comparison.

Both of them had their eyes interlocked with their face inches away from kissing each other. What was more surprising was that Ray didn’t just go dive into a kiss right there and there like he always do to every female he see, but instead he was very gentle with her as if she was the most precious thing in the world.

“Mine.”His voice sent out a chilling but sweet tingle that made me shudder. Every time I see an werewolf find their mate, I could feel the wheels turning and the magical pull of love at first sight clicking into place. It was as if the whole world was bent on pairing the two together as if they were long lost lovers that had finally reunited themselves here and now and nothing else mattered.

I was especially happy for Ray, he had finally found his soul mate that he was desperately looking for. Bubbles of happiness reel up in my heart at the sudden thought of a new pack member entering into our midst. I knew he wouldn’t let her go, he wasn’t the type to throw away the chance that he was looking for, especially because of all that whining that he had done to the point where I felt like my ear would bleed off.

“Hello,” The asian lady spoke with a shy smile, while she gazed upon Ray. Her cheeks turned bright red from the intense stare that Ray gave off. “My name is Jang-mi or you can call me Rose.”

“Ray.” Ray was breathlessly as if he couldn’t say anything else but swallow up everything about her. He inhaled her scent as if she was some kind of addictive drug.

“Okay, you two love birds. Please keep your public affection to the minimal and keep your clothes on for now. We all are thrilled that you have found your mate, but we don’t want to see what happens next.” I clapped my hands, catching both of them out of their trance.

Ray turned so red that I was shocked.

“Did you just blush?” I stared at him stunned. “Holy cow, the world is ending. Jaz hurry up and take a picture of him now!” I blurted out.

Jaz actually fumbled around and pulled out her phone. With a click, she took a snapshot of him. Both of us grinned from ear-to-ear as our gaze met instantly understanding what we were going to do with the picture. This is why Jaz was my friend, we hit it off effortlessly without even having to attempt to speak it out.

Ray was squirming under embarrassment as he hugged Rose closer. He tried his best to hide behind her, but he was failing spectacularly. Rose giggled as her hand rubbed Ray’s hair, causing him to shiver in bliss.

I felt an intense gaze directed at me. Turning around, I saw Ken staring at me with longing. I turned away and noticed that they were others staring at Ray, Rose, and I, making me feel embarrassed as well. With a cough, I cleared my throat. “Anyways with that being over, Adam what exactly is the plan?”

Adam was jerked out of his stupor. He shook his head followed with a knowing understanding.

“We got a couple of day trip down south before we hit Mississippi River. I need to make a stop at the nearest town to meet with someone.”

“Wait, why stop now? Aren’t we in a hurry?” I couldn’t help voice my opinion at the sudden change of plan.

“Yes, but there are things we have to get done before we make it to our destination. Without it we might be set back for awhile.”

“Such as?”

“Not now, I’ll inform you guys in due time. So with that being said, I hope you all enjoy your little vacation while we cruise down the river.”

“I need to talk with all three of the Alpha’s here: Alpha Ken, Alpha Ted.” They stepped forward towards Adam. Alpha Ted reminded me of a grizzly bear with his large body and heavily bearded face. One look at him, anyone would’ve run the other way, especially those thick muscles that intricately laced his whole body. I was afraid one bear hug would squash a man’s bone if he wasn’t careful. Plus he didn’t look even past thirty years old. Werewolves age slowly, every five human years we grow by one.

“And finally Alpha Tila.”Adam finished off his sentence.

Everyone was caught off guard when they heard my name and saw me step forward. It was very rare to see an female Alpha leader without a male Alpha at her side. No more can I pull Ray as my escape goat for him to pretend to be my mate. Those days were over and it was my time to step forward, showing who I am.

“The rest of you are dismissed.” Adam turned towards me. “Please bring Samantha and  follow me to my studies.” Adam turned around.

I nodded towards Jaz and Ray, telling that everything was okay. Jaz handed me Samantha who latched onto my shoulder, wondering what was going on. We headed down the stairs, walked through the hallway, and ended in the captain's quarter. It was a cozy room without any luxurious items that I would see in all the other rooms.

I was quite surprised that they weren’t any high class chairs, curtains, tables, or possibly decorated diamond statues or something on that line.  It just seem way to simple that it contradicted Adam’s persona. He was a flamboyant vampire, and to see him humbled to a simple single room was mind shocking. I wasn’t sure if the other notice, but man was I blown completely away. This was a side that I never knew about Adam and it made me wonder why?

Adam pulled back his comfortable cheap piece of chair and sat down with his hands crossed in front of him. He glanced towards us three, standing a distance away from each other, but still close to one another.

“Well then, it’s time to get on with business.”