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I follow him back to the house. I walk a couple steps behind him, admiring the way the muscles in his back move as he walks, they show through his tight t-shirt. He isn't the size of a bodybuilder, but he isn't slim, either. He's somewhere in between and I find it awfully attractive.

He looks over his shoulder, catching me checking him out. A smile spreads across his face and I quickly drop my eyes to the forest floor.

"Do you want to take your car or are you happy for me to give you a lift?" He asks when we get to my aunt's back garden.

My eyes land on his car; a black Subaru that looks like a rather pricy boy-racer car. I like it straight away.

"Um, we can go in your car."

He smirks, as if he knows why I agreed to being in a confined space with him. He opens the door and holds it for me. I thank him and slide into the leather seat. The car smells like pine trees, sandalwood, and cinnamon. It's a spicy, warming scent that becomes stronger when he gets in, too. He smells like an autumn candle but it's weirdly sexy.

He drives quickly, handling the stick with the ease of someone who drives a lot. His confidence on the road is obvious even during the short two minute drive it takes to arrive at the coffee shop of his choosing. He rushes around the car to be able to get the door for me again.

It's a different coffee shop to the one I went in, it's bigger and seems to be more of a café. When we walk in, people stop talking and stare at us. They don't seem so much surprised to see Asper, but more surprised to see me with him.

He stares each of them down, waiting for everyone to look away. One man in particular lingers a little too long. Asper lets out a low growl that starts in his chest and moves up his throat out of his gritted teeth. The man hurriedly looks down at his coffee.

"What do you want to drink?"

I haven't realised that Asper has turned to face me because I'm watching the man awkwardly stir his coffee. I turn back to him. "Um, a cup of tea, please."

"Milk or sugar?"

"A little milk, no sugar, thanks."

"Why don't you find a table? I'll bring the drinks over."

It seems so normal, choosing a table in a café while the other person orders. I pick one at the back because everyone has returned to staring. Apparently, Asper is the only scary one, they're not scared of staring at me.

I take a seat and rub my hands together, trying to picture in my head how this conversation is going to go. I have an idea of what is going on, but it is too crazy to be true and I don't want to say it out loud without knowing if I'm crazy first.

Asper comes back over with our drinks. From what I can tell, he has ordered a cup of coffee.

"Decaf," he comments when he sees me looking.

I slide the mug towards myself from where he set it down. "Thank you."

"So, where to begin," he starts. "Hundreds of years ago, there was a time of bellum, which means war. Shifters and humans fought in this area and eventually came to a truce. It was decided that the shifters would move their packs to secluded areas and keep away from humans. In return, the humans would forget that wolves existed, and we would live separate lives."

"That is why our town is in the middle of this forest and, as you probably noticed, it's not on any maps and we don't have any signs for it. We try to keep ourselves as far as possible from humans."

"But, what about scouts?" I interrupt to ask a question.

He smiles, clearly pleased with my query. "Each generation, or whenever they're required, an alpha and a scout are chosen by the pack and by the elders. We only have one elder left at the moment, we haven't replaced the ones that eventually passed on. I imagine our alpha, Satura, will become an elder."

"My mother was a scout."

He nods and his face turns sombre. "I know...I was her replacement. I'm so sorry for your loss, Felicitas."

Hearing that name again makes me feel strange. I'm not used to it, and I can't imagine myself feeling comfortable with it anytime soon. It's a weird experience, finding out you have another name of sorts. I almost feel as though I need a different personality for it, like it comes with a whole other person.

But hearing the name from him isn't so bad. I actually kind of like it...but I quash that thought to focus on what he has said before my name.

"You replaced my mother?"

"When she died, the scout position was left open, and I took it."

"You've had the role five years then," I comment and Asper nods.

"Yes."

I think of a question that came up when I was reading her diaries and decide to ask it. "How old do your kind live up to? My mother's ageing was all off in her diaries."

"We tend to live about 200 years. Your mother was in her 90's when she passed, I believe."

It seems crazy to me that the woman I'd known most of my life was actually a good 40 years older than I thought her to be.

"She was listed as being 50 years old on her death certificate," I mutter, feeling overwhelmed again.

"We age a lot slower than humans after twenty-one, that's why it's hard to tell that we're much older than we look."

I rub my temples with my fingertips and Asper gives me a sympathetic look.

"I can't imagine how crazy this is all sounds to you, but I promise it will make sense with time."

"I hope so," I reply and start drinking my tea.

A comfortable silence settles between us. I sense that Asper is giving me some time to mull things over. I take a moment to admire him again. He is sitting back in his chair, drinking his coffee, and looking across the room. He is obviously deep in thought because there is a furrow between his eyebrows from concentrating.

He has such a square jawline, it's so hot. He licks his lips to remove a stray drop of coffee and I press my thighs together under the table. I mentally tell myself to get it together. As I do, a random thought of the second man in my dream, the one I saw in the flashy red car, pops into my head.

"You mentioned my dreams earlier and said you had dreamed of me, too. In my dream, there was another man with short dreadlocks. Do you know him?"

Asper's reaction answers for him. His shoulders tense up and his lips purse together as though he has tasted something bitter.

"That man is Altus Vinco. We grew up together in this pack. Five years ago, when your mother died, we fell out." It appears to be difficult for him to talk about this, his expression is pained as he drags his hand down his face. "He was angry at me for choosing to become the new scout. I had been selected by the elders as the next alpha and he thought it was disrespectful -and crazy- of me to turn down the position."

"Why did you turn it down?" I ask gently.

"Because I've never been interested in that kind of responsibility. Power doesn't have the same allure to me as it does to Altus. He wanted to be my beta, my right hand when I became alpha."

"Who is going to be alpha now, then?"

He sighs heavily. "This is another reason why he was angry. Satura and the elders, of which they were two at the time, chose Altus as the next alpha. He never wanted full responsibility, he only wanted to be a beta, not an alpha. He was angry at me for putting him in that position where he had to choose none or all."

He pauses to take a drink of his coffee. "At the start of summer, Satura is going to step down and Altus will be named alpha. It is easier for alphas to lead when they have a partner, a mate, beside them. Altus has chosen a woman from our pack to be his mate, even though they are not fated together. He chose her five years ago before I left and I...did not take the news well because I know he is fated to someone else."

The burning sensation of jealousy blossoming in my chest at the sound of Altus with another woman suggests to me that I am the 'someone else' he is fated to. I don't know this Altus or much about him, but my body seems to recognise that he means something to me.

"Who is he fated to? Do you know?" I ask, dying of curiosity to know if my gut instinct is right.

Asper looks at me, our eyes locking and our hearts beating fast. "I thought your dreams would have answered that question for you."

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