Arina lifted her bent self to wipe the sweat that trickled down her forehead. Her eyes met with mine and she immediately rushed towards me. "Selene! Look here, the dispute is solved." She huffed as she almost had run to me, "It was a simple misunderstanding as the land was previously divided in half, so we measured and distributed it in half again. I hope it is fine with you"

That was a very logical thing to do, but in a case that I had no access to the previous files, this was nothing but a rash decision in which both Arina and Sam could get stuck.

"Arina! This is not what was supposed to be done, it is an officially filed case." I said in a calm tone as I could. "Please call Sam here and if you have recorded everything, then it is time to leave"

"Yes, we did a voice recording of the entire conversation." She handed me the rectangular tape and turned around with panicked feet to call Sam.

Sam arrived with muddied clothes and sweat that showed how hard he had worked. "Everything alright Selene? The farmers said they are ready to take the case back as it was sorted."

"Yes Sam," I whispered loudly, "it is an official case. That too, a confidential one. If the farmers are not here, leave everything as it is now. Let the elders' decide on this. We don't know what exactly is going on inside and I don't want you two to get involved." I held up the tape-recorded in air, "If this little agreement is in here, let me see what I can do to justify your actions, but leave the half-done work as is now. I don't want you to get stuck in something wrong."

Sam rubbed his forehead with his fingers, "you are right. Luckily, we had just started, so the change done is insignificant. Thanks for coming down here"

My lips set in a thin line, "Yes, now let us go from here. Clean yourself and come directly for training in the evening, both of you." I hushed them away with my hands. Arina still looked fine, but Sam was drenched in mud.

"Yes ma'am," Sam gave a grateful smile and wiggled himself to get the mud off him. But it was so much that he had to remove his shirt and dust it in the air.

I always knew Sam was very well in shape and buffed. His dark skin glistened with sweat under the sun. He used the cleaner side of his shirt to dust off the mud from over his taut abs and his heavy built-in chest. He was unknowingly flaunting his muscles as he walked away from us faster. My attention shifted immediately to Arina. The girl was red as a beet and her eyes were frantically trying to catch his glimpse in a not so obvious manner.

"So you like Sam," I said. My eyes were fixated on Arina this whole time, and it was now obvious that she liked him. During Sam's duel against Hailey, I thought Arina simply cared about him, but I had seen the tears in her eyes then.

"W-Who?" Arina quickly shifted her eyes to me.

I smirked in a teasing way, "Don't play coy now, since when do you like him?"

Arina fiddled with her fingers and her shoulders raised as if to hide her body inside herself. There was so much blush as she spoke, "I-I think for some time now. I t-think he is my soulmate, but he doesn't know yet"

I put my arms around her shoulder, "Some is blessed. He will know soon enough. I can't wait to see you both become the power couple of our pack"

It must feel lucky to have a soulmate that she can freely accept, with no ritual to bother about and at least someone who will not irritate her every minute of their time together. And there is my soulmate, that most obnoxious man on the face of this planet. How was I even supposed to give a chance to Fang if all he did was sit on my head and dance?

"So how does this soulmate thing works?" I asked her. There was so little I knew about it and Arina was one who could always fill in my curiosity.

Arina hummed, "There is not a lot. Soulmates know each other by their unique scent and when they know each other, the male marks the female as his mate. This way, if anyone else comes close to the female, they know she is taken. Females don't need to mark as all the male's desires are shifted to his mate, but if the lady wants, even she can mark her mate letting other girls know that man is taken."

"Ooh, so the man's desires are only towards his mate? He can't have anyone else?" I asked. Something like that even Fang had mentioned to me after he had gone ahead with that other girl.

Arina looked around before speaking, "After the man marks his mate, he gets extremely attracted towards his companion and his desires, especially sexual urges, reach the peak." Hearing her words, I gulped as incoherent thoughts flooded my mind. Arina continued in an oddly excited tone, "The females become more emotionally bond to their mate after the marking and, of course, the tension between them rises. And the bond is finally completed and strengthened after both of them become one by mating."

I coughed, asking for her to stop. Only marking the mate can bring intimacy in the partners and there was not much I wanted to know of what would happen after mating.

It wasn't that I was totally unknown to the mating process. I had accidentally read about it in the library as a child. My then naïve brain did not understand, but as I grew up, it did not take me long to figure out what I had read. And with Arina describing so much, Fang was flashing in my head in a very wrong way.

"I-I will go now. I have to make a report out of this recording. All the best to you, Arina!" I hurried my words and bolted out of there.

I reached home panting with a parched throat. It was a long distance that I had run and I drank some water before going to the sofa and relaxing my legs. This Fang even influenced my thoughts when he wasn't around.

Stupid idiot!

My phone rang in my pocket, breaking my chain of thought, and I checked to see Fang Warchild flashing on it. Instantly, my thumb clicked the red button, ending the call.

Why did he call now of all the times? It is like he was here to haunt me.

My mobile pinged, and I saw a text from Fang-

'pick up the call or I will cancel your permit'

Why!

This man has no other job but to irritate me. I screamed internally before typing in a response to him-

'only if you promise to not put any price for anything and force me into it'

If he had his rules, then I wasn't going to bend for it. He will have to take a step back and I had to find some good ways to get rid of that smug attitude of his, at least away from me.

His reply was fast-

'your permit time is moved from afternoon to night, have any more excuses? Let's shift it to cancelled'

"AHH! I want to kill this man" I threw the phone on the bed. He just danced on my nerves as if it was nothing.

But then a thought popped into my mind; I got up and took my mobile to reply to him. A smirk spread across my face, ready to give him a taste of his own medicine as I typed my next message-

'Go ahead, it is so nice to see you are no longer eager to meet me. Give me a promise you won't put things on barter with me and I might consider coming to Waterwoods.'