DARIUS POV “We need to talk.” I tell her. Unable to take my eyes off her. She is 5 feet away from me, in her most natural form. All I want to do is wrap my arms around her and feel her body pressed against mine. But I force myself to maintain eye contact. I remember there is a stash of clothing in a tree near me and I get up to fetch us some clothes. As I stand up and turn around, I hear Daya gasp at the sight of my ass. I chuckle to myself and shake my head. Don’t tell me this girl is shy. She’s a top warrior. She’s obviously seen naked dudes plenty of times. Though, I do pack more than most. I get to the tree and grab whatever clothes are hidden within the trunk. I slip on a pair of shorts, even though they are a couple sizes small, they cover me up enough. I toss Daya the sweatshirt. She snatches it out of the air, quickly exposing her perfect, perky tits to me and my wolf is about to lose it. I force him back and wait for her to cover herself. The sweatshirt hits her mid-thigh.

DARIUS POV Chaos. Utter and complete fucking chaos. I don’t know how I didn’t see this sooner. I missed all the signs right in front of me. Justin fits the bill for everything Lucas and Emmy said we should be looking for. He’s been irritable, slacking with his duties, forgetful, and demotivated. I don’t understand why. I guess the why doesn’t matter. We just need to find him because I sense he is part of something bigger and ominous. “Mara’s injuries are healing, Alpha. I’m not sure why she isn’t awake yet. I’ve run her blood for drugs and toxins. I should get those results by the morning.” Richard says, his hand already running through his hair. He was slumped in his chair behind his desk. His office is cluttered with books and medical diagrams on the wall. I nod in appreciation for his attention to detail and his initiative. “Let’s hope she wakes up soon and can provide us with some information about Justin and the rogues he was with.” I drop down into an empty chair across

DARIUS POV I’m going to kill Mara. First, she behaves like a clingy ex-girlfriend, who is hell-bent on being my chosen mate and Luna. Then she’s attacked by Justin and his crew. Now she’s somehow missing. Where the fuck could she have gone? Is she involved with Justin somehow? To top it all off, me and Daya were finally getting closer, and we had to stop because of Mara. I’m going to rip her heart out. Daya may be in denial about the mate bond with me, but I know she feels it. She feels those sparks and tingles. I can tell her wolf likes being around me. She just needs time. Hopefully, all this craziness can be dealt with before the next full moon. Daya and I arrive at the medical clinic, and I can sense the unruliness in the air. I see Tobias rushing down a hallway, shouting orders to a few warriors. “Comb sections 20-30. That’s where we last tracked Justin and his crew. She can’t have gone far. Send a couple people to scout her home and check for anything that can lead

DARIUS POV Tobias wouldn’t shut up about Sage. He’s used to hooking up with the occasional pack member. They are drawn to his position and title and enjoy being submissive for him. He’s never complained about that before. “I’m telling you, Dare, I’ve never been put on my ass like that. And the fact that it was done by that little vixen. Fuck dude. I had to stay on the ground for a minute just to give my dick time to calm down. I don’t know what that girl has done to me, but I like it.” He kept talking about her like this for the entire morning. He wanted to go back to the afternoon training session in hopes that Sage would ask him to help demonstrate more maneuvers. I had to burst his bubble though. I needed him to help me conduct perimeter checks. There have been no leads in a few days and the quiet makes me nervous. We checked in with the warriors on patrol. We ran by Logan and Carlo; they were our most senior warriors now. They help out extra at their training sessions a

DAYA POV “You want me to pledge to your pack?” I ask him. Suddenly feeling my throat dry up and my stomach twist into knots. There have been a couple of reasons why I decided not to join Darius’ pack. One, with all this fated mate stuff, I just don’t want to take the risk of either of us being hurt or falling victim to the plague. I may not show it well, but I do care about Darius, even if he hurt me. I know he didn’t know he was hurting me. Second, I can’t stay here knowing I was planning on challenging him. If I stay, whether we accept the bond, or not, he will find out and hate me. And who knows what he would do to me and my sisters if he found out. Third, in order to join his pack, he has to learn my full name- my real name. He still thinks my last name is Tannerman. When he realized me, Emmy, and Saph were sisters, he didn’t ask us what our real names are. If he learns my last name, it won’t take him long to put the pieces together that my father was the original Alpha of this