"Wanna go freshen up?" Caroline asked Kat after the Redshadow's Alpha and Luna had finished their toast.

"Yes." Kat nodded before giving Zach a quick peck on his lips. "I'll be right back." She found it the perfect opportunity to ask Caroline the question that had been haunting her for a while.

Pulling her hand to his lips, Zach gave her knuckles a kiss. "Be safe."

****

"You and Ryan are so cute together. How long have you been mated?" Kat asked as she washed her hands.

Caroline giggled. "Not long, just a few months. I used to absolutely hate his guts, you know? But what can I say? He won me over." She sighed happily.

Kat moved her eyes around the bathroom, making sure that no one was around before taking a deep breath. "I wanted to ask you about something."

Caroline frowned slightly at Kat's serious tone. Turning to face her instead of the mirror, she nodded encouragingly. "Sure."

"It's kind if personal, though. But I'm really confused and I wanted to know if someone else had gone through what I'm going through now." She mumbled nervously.

"Okay." Caroline nodded with a smile. She admired how cute Katie was, strong and beautiful and really cute. It had been a while for Caroline since she met someone she felt comfortable around and close to. Even if they had just met, Caroline knew that Katie was a great friend, one she'd be honored to have.

"Have you ever had difficulty controlling your wolf when you and Ryan got... uh, intimate?" Kat cleared her throat, blushing at the question once it left her mouth.

"What do you mean, controlling my wolf? Like shifting?" Caroline asked.

"Not a full shift, no. Like..." Kat moved her fist between them, clenching her french painted nails against her palm, then opening her fist again with long sharp claws.

"Wow, I could never do it that fast. Nice. But, no, I've never let my claws out during sex if that's what you mean." Caroline shook her head with a smile and Kat groaned.

"I'm sorry if I'm intruding. I know this is personal." She shook her head in embarrassment but Caroline stopped her with a grin.

"It's okay. We're friends now, aren't we?" She asked, her heart happy that she could finally feel the happiness of a sister once again.

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't believe we were. Well, how about Ryan's fangs? Had they ever just got out on their own?" Kat asked, her mind wondering why she was the only one experiencing this.

"Not that I remember, no. But if you think about it, I guess it's normal. You guys haven't mated yet, so the closer you two get the harder it becomes to keep the urge to mate at bay. It explains Zach's fangs; he must be dying to claim you, his wolf just as equally desperate. Maybe your claw get out because your wolf wants to have her mate as well." Caroline shrugged. Her theory did make sense if Kat and Zach were still mates, but now it only confused Kate further.

"You're right." Kat smiled and cleared her throat. "That must be it." Turning back to the sink, Kat checked her make up, her mind elsewhere. No, that couldn't have been it. Drying her hands on a paper towel, Kat waited for Caroline.

"You go ahead. I still have to pee." Caroline entered one of the empty stalls. Kat smiled before making her way out of the bathroom.

"There you are. I've been looking for you." Kat froze in her tracks with a frown.

"Peter." She breathed out. She hadn't even noticed that he was among the crowd and now he stood only a couple of feet away with so much desire in his eyes that Kat cringed.

"God, my name sounds delicious on your lips, sweetheart." He licked his own before taking a step forward. After that punch, Peter woke up with a new sense of determination, a new goal to live for.

Kat took a few steps back, increasing the distance between them. "What do you want? Revenge? Because I could easily knock you out again if you dare touch me."

Kat's heart beat faster as she saw him chuckle with mischief. "I want you, Kat."

She frowned at the nickname he addressed her with. "Don't call me that. No one gets to call me that but my mate. It's Luna Katie to you." She held her head high, refusing to let him win.

Peter's heart skipped another beat at her defiance. He was going to make her his if it was the last thing he ever did, he decided. It was now his life mission to make her submit to him, love him, and please him. "Very well, Luna. But that mate of yours will never have you. You're mine, sweetheart. I'll make sure of it."

Kat almost gagged as his words. "I'd rather pull my own throat out than spend another second in your company and listen to you call me Sweetheart or yours." She glared at him, sick of his unwanted attention and arrogance. "And as of my mate whom you speak so carelessly about, he would kill you if he saw you come near me again. And if he didn't then I gladly and easily will. So back the fuck off before this gets bloodier than it already has."

Peter's lips broke into a wide grin. Oh, he was obsessed with her. The first woman to ever lay a punch on him. She was strong enough to knock him out cold, beautiful enough to make his heart skip a beat, powerful enough to make deadly threats, strong-headed enough to keep defying him, and hot enough to make him throb against his pants. She was absolutely perfect for him and he'd be an idiot to let her go. And if Alpha Zach tried to get in his way again, then Peter would gladly take him down, his whole pack too if needed be. Nothing was going to stop him from having her.

"What's happening here?" Caroline's voice broke the staring contest Kat was having with the pervert in front of her. "Peter." Care spit out.

"Luna Caroline." Pater smirked as he nodded his head. "Luna Katie. Enjoy the ball."

Kat let out a deep nervous breath once he left, turning around to face a frowning Caroline. "Is he always that much of an asshole?"

"I have met him only twice before, but from what I gathered, yes. Why didn't you knock his ass out again? We need to tell Zach that he's obsessed with you." Caroline huffed in annoyance.

"No." Kat shook her head. "We can't. If Zach knows he came within a mile from me again he'll kill him." Possessive wasn't strong enough to describe Zach, and starting a war was the last thing they needed now.

"Yeah, that's the point, Katie." Caroline scoffed. She had heard wicked stories about Peter whose own father never trusted to run the pack. His mother too preferred him abroad than here.

"With the whole rogues issue at our hands we can't afford making enemies now, Care. This has to wait until we're done with rogues, and then I'll tell Zach all about it if I needed to." This was for the pack, Kat believed. They were here to show everyone their pack was strong, to have everyone in line for their alliance, not the opposite.

"As you wish." Caroline shrugged in defeat. She didn't agree with Katie but it wasn't her decision to make. "Let's get back."

****

"I mean absolutely no disrespect by asking this, Zach..." Alpha Ryan scratched the back of his head as he cleared his throat. "But, if the rogues did form a move against your pack, are you ready to take them down?"

Zach knew for sure that his pack was strong enough to slaughter anyone who dared attack them again, so he confidently nodded. "They won't make it out of my lands alive."

"Well, I'm still one phonecall away." Ryan looked Zach in the eyes, his promise serious. "Don't hesitate to call if you need anything. I meant it when I said it will be my honor to fight by your side."

Zach grinned. "Likewise. If you need anything, just say the word. Kat would personally stomp all the way to your bedroom just to make sure your Luna is well." He chuckled.

Ryan laughed along with his friend, nodding his head in agreement. "Did you know that Care threatened me last night that if I ever do anything to jeopardize her new friendship with Kat she would chop off my balls?"

"What are you two laughing about?" Kat asked with a grin once she made her way to her Alpha, Caroline close behind.

"Just how lucky we are that we have the two most beautiful women in this mansion to call ours." Ryan winked at Care, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"Oh, he's good." Kat laughed, nuzzling Zach's neck.

"Are you good, love? I felt my stomach knot a few minutes ago. Did something happen?" Zach asked, his hand caressing her back softly.

"Everything is fine." Kat swallowed, shaking her head.

"Hold on." Caroline frowned, her mind registering what Zach had just said. "What do you mean you felt your stomach knot? What does that have to do with Katie?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Kat giggled, a little blush reaching her cheeks. "We just have that kind of connection. When something happens to one of us, the other feels it, you know?"

Care and Ryan shared a look before Ryan frowned and shook his head.

"Like for example if Zach got really mad about something, I'd feel it in the pit of my stomach. I don't know how but I'd just know that something was bothering him." Kat explained, her hand traveling to her lower stomach.

"Yeah, when she got attacked in the woods last week I felt my own flesh rip open when hers did. It scared the fuck out of me." Zach's hands tightening around Kat's waist, pulling her against his chest as the memory shoved itself to the front of his mind.

"Oh, my god." Caroline's eyes widened and she covered the squeak that escaped her mouth with her hand.

"Fuck, man." Ryan grinned like an idiot. "You guys have a soul's-link? I'm so jealous."

"I can't believe I met someone with a soul'slink! I'm gonna brag about this forever! Do you know how rare that is?!" Care laughed, her face as bright and grinning as her mate's.

Kat and Zach, however, had matching frowns between their brows.

"What the hell is a soul'slink?" Kat asked, her heart skipping a beat.

Care shrugged. "It's pretty much self explanatory."

Ryan nodded in agreement. "It's a gift from the moon goddess even more precious than a mating bond, that's why it's extremely rare. It's when the souls of two mates are literally linked together, so whatever one soul feels the other automatically does as well. Shit, man, you guys are the first I've heard of. My parents claim to know a couple who had one too back in the day, but I've never met them."

"And it only happens to mates?" Zach asked the question that haunted him the most.

"Of course." Care nodded, her smile still perfectly intact. "It makes your mating bond so much stronger too."

Kat shook her head in confusion. "But don't we have to have actually mated for that kind of link to click between us? Like the mind link?"

"Apparently not." Ryan shrugged a shoulder, his hand absently playing with his mate's rainbow hair. "The soul'slink is honestly so rare that almost no one knows much about. All I know is that it's a one in a million, and you guys are so damn lucky to have it."

Zach appreciated the couple's enthusiasm, yet it didn't do much to his frown or confusion.

This was getting weirder by the minute, Kat thought. They had broken the mating bond, yet apparently they now had a soul'slink, something so rare than no one had much information about. They had broken the mating bond, yet the need to claim each other was so fierce that they have started losing control over their wolves instincts. And to add to all that, they couldn't heal when it came to one another.

There were so many unanswered questions traveling across Zach's mind right now, but he could only thing of one person to help them. His father.

"We'll talk to dad about it when we get home. He might give us a couple of answers." Zach promised Kat quietly, trying to ease her confusion a little.

Kat nodded, yet her frown only deepened. So if they weren't mates, what were they then? How could their souls be connected if there was no longer a mating bond between them?

Despite the thousand surprises that keep popping up daily, Zach couldn't help but enjoy this one the most. His Kat's soul was linked to his. Mating bond or not, he knew the connection they had was much deeper, and now he knew what to call it. A soul'slink. A gift so damn precious, he knew he didn't even deserve, but it only made him so much happier and prouder.

Pulling Kat even closer, he gave her forehead a kiss, before leaning down to whisper in her ear, "maybe the goddess is not as mad at me as I thought she was. You're not just my mate, love, you're literally linked to my very soul."

Kat shivered as Zach's breath tickled her neck and rolled her bottom lip between her teeth. As much as she wanted to look at the bright side as he was doing, it was just all a little too crazy for her to wrap her mind around. They needed answers, and they needed them quickly.

Looking up at him, Kat couldn't help but giggle at the childish proud grin Zach had on his face, as if he was just saved from a scolding. "You're crazy."

"For you, I am." Zach nodded and her heart jumped in her chest. Swallowing, she looked back at her friends, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Back to my question, though." Zach pulled her attention back to him, turning her around so her front touched his, and locked his arms around her back. "What happened that got you all nervous earlier?"

"Nothing." She shook her head, avoiding his eyes. "I'm alright, I promise." Kat gave him a reassuring peck on his lips before flashing him a beautiful smile that hoped would hide the truth behind her lie.

"Tell me, baby." He insisted, obviously not letting it go. Kat wondered if she should truly tell him. She worried if she did he would lash out and she wasn't sure if even she could control his anger this time.

"Promise me you'll let it go then. Promise me you won't do anything reckless." She sighed. No, she didn't want to stir trouble and worry Zach about Peter's intentions. But she also knew that Zach won't let this go if she didn't tell him just, as much as she was sure he'd flip out if he heard about this from elsewhere.

"What happened, Kat?" Zach was now just as nervous. He had told her before that she never needed to worry about telling him anything, that she could just easily talk to him, but being that nervous about spilling whatever that was worrying her made him believe it was truly bad.

"It's Peter." As soon as his name left her mouth Zach's worried expression turned into pure anger. "He didn't touch me, Zach."

With a deep angry growl, Zach looked around them and pushed her to the side, ready to kill Peter once he spotted him. "Where the fuck is he?"

"Zach," Kat warned, tugging at his arm to gain his attention while both Ryan and Care had stiffened as if getting ready to stand beside their friends in a fight. "Listen to me. We can't cause trouble with RedShadow."

Zach snapped his eyes to hers, a deadly rage flashing through his irises. "I'm not causing shit. Their fucking son is the one who brought this on them, not I."

Kat rubbed her forehead, catching Care's sympathetic look for a fraction of a second. "He didn't touch me, Zach. He's just an arrogant idiot who needed to be shown his place, that's all."

His place was seven feet under, Zach decided. "I'll show him his place alright." Taking a step towards the restrooms, Zach felt Kat spin him around to meet her eyes again.

"Baby, please, just stop. I don't want to make a scene. He's not worth it and we're leaving tomorrow anyway. We won't see him again until next year, and then we could just skip this whole ball if we want, okay? Please." She pleaded softly. Seriously, the last thing she needed was to give the rogues possible allies.

Zach's breath was knocked out of him along with his rage as he blinked at her worried eyes with so much love, he wondered if she could feel it. Next year. She thought they had a future together, just like he so desperately wanted.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Kat's eyes widened a little as Zach smiled at her and shook his head.

"Nothing." He blinked, unable to hide the happiness from his face. "Come here."

Kat sighed and let him pull her into his welcoming embrace, their scents calming them both down. "I wish I could let this go, love, but I can't let him walk around when I know he wants you. You're fucking mine, Kat."

"But it doesn't matter what he wants." She pulled back enough to rest a hand on his cheek, her gaze piercing through his. "All that matters right now is you and me, Zach. I'm yours, and you're mine, we both know that. Screw anyone else. Please don't let him ruin our night just like I didn't let her, even after she dared kiss you."

Zach winced at the mention of Lucy, but he understood what Kat had just said. With a heavy sigh, he nodded and shoved his face in the crook of her neck. "I'm sorry. I've never been this possessive before. I just can't stomach the idea of anyone trying to take you away from me."

Kat might have already melted then and there. "No one on this whole planet can take me away from you, Zach." She promised in his ear sweetly and he groned in approval.