I had to actually hide my face with my hands to stop Valente from seeing me turn into a tomato.

"Real classy Rayne," said Imadis.

"Do you only exist to make fun of me Ima?" I asked her.

"Your insides are exploding with butterflies, and it's getting kinda cramped for me. So you really need to stop with the feels," she said, clearly annoyed, but with a hint of amusement.

That was the thing though. I couldn't stop feeling like this. I felt amazing and, a little anxious at the same time. As if, I didn't deserve this happiness.

What if something goes wrong?

I peeked through my fingers at him, and instantly forgot that my anxiety was getting to me again.

His smile was so beautiful as he looked at me. As if he was waiting for my reaction to this and it was worth it.

I put my hands down.

Act cool. Act cool. Act cool.

"So," I said, trying to act cool. "You're telling me, that you could have anybody in this entire world, all you have to do is mark them and they'd be your mate," I said, still half processing.

"Mhmm," he said, nodding his head.

"And you'd still pick me?" I asked.

He nodded again.

"Why?" I said, unbelieving.

He sighed as he smiled fondly. Then he looked back at me again.

"How do I tell you in words Rayne? I could show you if you'd let me," he said, putting his hands around my neck, his thumb softly rubbing small circles at the nape of my neck.

I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to see how it felt, how he would make me feel. I could guess it would be a beautiful feeling, if his simplest touch right now was anything to go by.

I wanted to kiss him. I could see he cared about me, he wanted me. But actually doing it seemed just as difficult as it seemed easy.

I wanted to kiss him. But in all honesty, I felt shy.

"And what about my mate, the real one?" I asked him, trying to distract myself a little from how close he was to me, and how attractive he looked with his muscles on display.

His demeanor suddenly turned to that of irritation at the mention of someone else being 'my mate'. His grip was tighter on me, not hurting, just tighter.

"You can have only one mate at a time. When you're mine, you can't be anyone else's. Whatever bond you may have had with someone else will be broken, and they will be blessed with a second chance mate," he told me.

"And you will be mine," he added for good measure.

I laughed at the way he was getting possessive already. We still had two years till I turned eighteen.

"A lot can happen in two years though. What if you hate me by then?" I asked him, teasingly.

He didn't seem to catch on to the joke.

"I've never hated you. I could never hate you. Ever since I first saw you, I was transfixed. If you ever end up hating me, I'll wait till you don't anymore," he said, his face very serious.

I couldn't help but smile.

"So what till then? Till my eighteenth birthday?" I asked him.

"Aunty's going to push me to choose a Luna immediately after I turn eighteen. She probably has some girls in mind that she'll put in front of me as potential mates, but putting her off for two years is going to be a challenge," he said.

"Because you can't tell her about me," I said, thoughtfully.

"I can. I mean, it's not like she can say anything to stop me once I'm Alpha. But I know what she'll think. And I know what she'll say. She'll probably name me traitor too, give me a guilt trip about how she raised me and I still fell in love with the one girl she told me to stay away from," he said.

I was stunned. There was too much information in his last sentence, and I could tell by the way his eyes went wide that he realized the same a bit too late.

He started scrambling for words to try and cover up.

"I mean, you know, like how, mates are, and I-"

"Valente," I said to him softly, "Stop being so adorable. Please."

His eyes immediately turned to slits.

"I'm not adorable. Handsome? Yes. Adorable? I used to be, as a child. Now? I'm a beast," he said, flexing his biceps to try and prove his point.

Poor Valente, he failed to prove anything and just seemed increasingly cuter.

"So what are we going to do till I'm eighteen?" I asked him.

His face was suddenly serious.

"Prepare. We need to build our warrior force to avenge our lost ones against Sgriosaire. Once I become Alpha and am able to shift, I will be capable enough to lead the warriors into battle. They need a leading figure to proceed. I've been planning this for some time now with Delta Osvald, and it must be done," he said.

"Why?" I asked him.

He raised an eyebrow, questioningly.

"Why must you fight Sgriosaire? It was such a long time ago Valente. There's hundreds of innocent people there too who have nothing to do with this feud. How many people are you willing to sacrifice?" I asked him.

Valente sighed.

"It's the only way to show the people of our pack that you aren't responsible for anything that happened. It was an attack and we were caught unprepared.

"But even if I was doing this just for you, so that these people stop hating you for being in our forest that night, I'd probably, in better conscience, let it go. Because no one would dare say a word to their Alpha's Luna, even if they didn't accept you.

"But Rayne, it's more than that. Fathilagt needs to find a peace in their hearts, that their loved ones have truly been avenged. And they look up to me to do it. I can't turn away from this responsibility," he said.

"Valente. It took us fifteen years to reach a point where we can consider taking them on. But they're much stronger than us, and always have been. Who's to say, we fight them, even if successfully, we'll be able to hold off an attack on us if they decide to take revenge back?" I said to him.

"Then we'll have to make sure they don't get back up again for a long, long time," he said, with anger and hate in his eyes, the kind I hadn't seen in him before. His Alpha blood showed in the way he spoke.

I placed my hand on his heart gently.

"Is that you speaking, or your wolf?" I asked.

It took him a second, the anger in his eyes slowly dissipating. He placed his hand on mine, gripping it tightly.

"We'll figure something out which wouldn't involve civilians. But, it needs to be done Rayne," he said. "I feel like, I've been raised to do this. To fight. To protect my pack and bring them justice."

I knew Valente was an Alpha, and the way we thought on a pack matter could differ because of this.

"Once it's done, no one will blame you. And everyone will be more accepting of you as their Luna, even Aunty" he said, placing his hand on my cheek again.

He stretched his legs and put them on either side of me.

"Till then, I guess we'll have to be a little discrete so Aunty won't be hearing too much about you and me," he said.

"So, just friends?" I asked him, a yawn escaping my mouth.

I could tell by his face he didn't like the sound of 'just friends' at all.

"I can work with 'just friends who kiss sometimes'?" he said to me, tracing my lips with a finger.

His eyes were trained on his finger on my lips.

I giggled.

I didn't mean to. I never giggled. It was so uncharacteristic of me, I actually started to laugh.

"Sorry," I said, "It's probably the punch."

Maybe it's just me, or does the drink kick in after a couple of hours for everybody?

I could tell my eyes were drooping too, and it became increasingly harder to stay awake.

Valente lifted me up from underneath my arms, and I wrapped myself around him, hoping he wouldn't let go.

Just a few seconds later, I felt cold, soft sheets underneath me, a thick blanket on top of me, a warm arm around my waist from behind me, and a soft kiss on the base of my neck as I finally fell asleep in a peaceful sleep.