The Ardor Pack was widely recognized for their strong connection to emotion, particularly that of passion and enthusiasm. We were instructed that their wild nature was dangerous, being as open and passionate as they were could only result in trouble.

The more and more I thought about it, everything made sense. Of course, Matteo would be interested in the alpha of the Ardor Pack, Isabel was probably everything he was looking for and then some. It might be that Isabel's preference was murderers, maybe that was her thing but it certainly wasn't not my type.

I told myself that I didn't care about Matteo and that whatever he did with his life, or whoever, would be more accurate. Because I truly didn't.

Amias walked along side me and gently nudged me with his elbow, "You're turning green." He did his best to conceal the enormously smug grin from his face but the effort was poor.

I scoffed softly with indignation, "Hardly."

"Mhm, sure." Amias nodded sarcastically, clearly not believing my denial. "So, since you're not going to give me a juicy admission of guilt you're going to have to entertain me some other way."

Honestly, every minute I was around Amias it was more and more difficult for me to believe that he came from Malice, he was the exact opposite of...nevermind.

"Alright," I tucked my dark hair behind my ears, I dimly remembered Amias mentioning to me in the car during our first encounter that he had a mate, "How did you meet your mate?"

Instantaneously, Amias' eyes lit up, he struggled to keep himself from bouncing up and down it seemed. "Felix." He said his mate's name dreamily, breathing it out with a lovestruck sigh. "It was that cliche moment that every wolf dreams of, everything was absolute perfection. We met when were both seniors in high school, these kids were roughing me up and shoving me against a locker and Felix ran over to my rescue. He pulled them off of me and offered me a hand and the moment our hands touched there was this intense spark that ran through my entire being. I knew from then on, I would spend the rest of my life loving that man."

There was goodness and hope in this world after all, certainly not for me but Amias' wonderful tale of finding his mate was definitely affirming to the rest of the population who weren't facing impending doom. "That's magical, Amias. I am so happy for you."

His giddy smile faltered for a split second, "It was like Felix and I were on cloud nine until the rest of our pack kicked us out after they discovered we were together and in love."

Immediately I glared over at Matteo's back, "He kicked you out for being gay?" I knew Matteo was bad, no doubt one of the most awful people walking the earth but that was definitely an all time low for him.

Amias quickly shook his head and signaled for me to lower my voice, "What? No, no, Alpha Matteo took us in when no one else would. He gave us a home in Malice."

He picked up on my confusion easily, "Alpha Matteo gave us all homes, he took us all in."

"All?" I asked slowly but things were falling into place on their own. It made sense really, that would explain why everyone in Malice seemed so drastically different from one another.

Amias slung an arm around my shoulders, "Sure, there are some original Malice members but once Alpha Matteo was voted in alpha, he opened his pack to those in need and created a stronger Malice Pack with a diverse population of wolves form all packs and walks of life." It was an explanation but it did nothing to help alleviate my questions. "Has he not told you any of this?"

I shook my head.

"Alpha wasn't born a true alpha wolf, we vote on our alphas in Malice. He was just an ordinary wolf with an eye for strategy and a soft spot for those in need until he was voted into power. Ever since then, he's easily become the greatest alpha in Malice history, certainly the greatest wolf I have ever encountered." Amias continued on and on about how great Matteo was, it was as if he was conveniently forgetting what Matteo was really known for.

"And taking over packs, killing innocents was just a hobby then?" I found myself getting irritated at Amias, he was clearly exceptionally biased and unable to see the reality of who his alpha truly was.

Fran for the first time took notice of what we were discussing, she furrowed her brow and rolled her eyes. "Innocents?" She shook her head, looking at me as if I was some poor, misguided little child. "Secretly selling wolves to Lysander for money doesn't really seem innocent to me but then again my definition of the word could be different than that of Grace Pack's."

Every time I felt like I was slowly getting a stable footing in this new world I found myself immersed in, it was taken out form under me with new information. There was no way my pack could have been selling our own members without anyone not knowing about it, it just couldn't be.

"People disappearing into thin air, never to be seen again? That's how Alpha knew where to find your father, we've been tracking this situation for years now. It's one of the easiest ways to see if a pack is dealing with him, look for numerous unexplained disappearances. We trace down each and every pack who has ties with Lysander and eradicate them, effectively stopping the slave trade taking place. We don't attack innocents, we punish those who deserve it." Fran spoke with her eyes trained forwards, carefully avoiding me. "We save innocents."

I rubbed my temple, trying not to get frustrated this early in the morning. "What happened to my pack was wrong, even if what you are saying is true...What I saw was a bloody massacre, it was sick and disturbed, there has to be another way for you to go about saving the world without spilling blood and torturing wolves."

Fran rolled her eyes once more while Amias was uncharacteristically quiet, "You have your alpha to thank for that. It wasn't as if we ambushed your pack, we sent him a declaration weeks ago informing him that if he continued working with Lysander we would have no other choice but to intervene by any means necessary." She shrugged, "It's not our fault that your alpha had no regard for those in his pack."

My hands balled into fists on their own accord, I felt my lip trembling in utter and complete rage as I leapt towards Fran but an arm encircled my waist and intercepted my attempt to pummel her.

Matteo appeared out of nowhere, pulling me back and set me on the floor behind him, "As a general rule, you don't go picking fights with someone who you know could kick your ass." He obviously had missed the majority of our conversation as there were no hints of anger anywhere on his features. Matteo almost looked content.

I rolled my eyes and stepped away from him, keeping at least an arms length between us seemed to be appropriate considering we were approaching his lover's pack any moment now.

"You can go and f:ck yourself, how about that for a general ru--" My voice dropped immediately as one of the most beautiful people I'd ever seen suddenly emerged from the forest.

She was tanned and had perfectly styled blonde hair, she was trimly muscled and wore a coy smile as she neared our little group. The woman clasped her hands behind her back as she came to a stop in front of us, well, more like in front of Matteo. "Welcome to Ardor, we are so pleased to have you visiting us."

Matteo left me and literally parted the seas to embrace her, this must be none other than Alpha Isabel. Of course she'd look like a f:cking real life barbie doll. Subconsciously I found myself staring down and examining my body for a second before I realized how dumb that really was.

He lifted Isabel off of the ground in a tight hug, she was beaming as he set her back on the ground. I frowned and turned away from them before they started doing the dirty right then and there, Amias smiled over at me and made a puking gesture with his face. It was nice to know that I wasn't the only one dying here.

"It's been too long." Matteo glanced over at us and crossed his arms across his chest, it was enough to sober us without even really having to say anything. "Unfortunately, we are only here for the night. We have some unfinished business in Freeman's Land but we are deeply grateful for your generosity, Bel."

Bel? Sorry, where was the evil Matteo I knew and what had this blonde witch done with him?

She smiled warmly at Matteo, "Of course." For the first time, Isabel turned her soft gaze over to the rest of us as if she was just realizing that Matteo and her hadn't been alone this entire time. "Well, if we only have you for the night, let us show you how Ardor likes to celebrate. Let's give you a good time before you have to leave to attend to your business."

I shook my head to myself, spending one of my remaining nights partying with my captor and his play thing did not sound like an ideal way to squander my time but Matteo's resounding voice agreed for all of us. It was decided just like that, with no consultation from any of the other members to his party, that we would be spending the night the 'Ardor Way'.

Isabel and a few of her wolves lead us the rest of the way through the woods, which was a feat in itself. The terrain was treacherous, sporting far too many steep hills and canyons to be legal in my book. She babbled the entire way there, talking Matteo's ear off about anything and everything that had taken place in their time apart from each other. He seemed genuinely interested in every word that left her lips, he kept up the conversation easily and not once lost his temper with her. By the time we arrived at her pack's complex, my legs were burning. Yet another reason I didn't want to do anything tonight other than sleep.

After Isabel arranged for us to be settled into our own individual rooms and given time to rest, the sun was already long gone from the sky. I was curled under the covers of the comfiest bed I'd ever been in when the blankets were roughly torn off of me by Amias. "There's booze and apparently Ardor drinking games awaiting us just downstairs, you are not going to hole yourself up in this exceptionally tacky room all night. You need fun. Alcohol and lame drinking games equal instant fun."

I tried to yank the covers back over my head and ignore him but Amias just dragged them off of the bed entirely. I groaned and slipped out of the bed, I didn't bother throwing on a change of clothes before I padded downstairs following close behind Amias.

There was soft music filling the open room and a fireplace crackling somewhere in the distance of another room. True to his word, there was an obscene amount of beverages laid out for us. I sighed and wandered into the dimly lit room just as Matteo, Isabel and Fran entered. They were all laughing with one another and appeared surprised to see Amias and I standing there before them.

Isabel gleamed and came straight for me, throwing her arms around me in a happy little embrace, "I'm so glad you decided to join us, Matt said you weren't feeling up to it. Happy to see you've changed your mind!"

Matt? Spare me.

She was so happy and surprisingly authentic, it was difficult not to wince after every word she spoke. When I glanced away from Amias and over to Matteo, he looked like he wanted to murder me on spot. Now that I learned Matteo had intentionally tried to keep me away, I was determined to stay and have a good time just to spite him.

Isabel pulled out some cushions and took a seat around the table on the floor, not bothering to explain exactly what she was making us, she poured us all these strange pink drinks and waited for us to drink. I stared down into my fizzing cup suspiciously but when I saw that the others had taken sips and hadn't keeled over from any kind of poison, I decided it was safe for me to at least try it.

It was delicious, it was annoyingly perfect. Just like someone else...

Isabel gleamed at us all, she must not get visitors that often. "Alright, this is a game we invented in Ardor many many years ago. It is called Fact or Fiction and to play it you must--"

"So it's truth or dare?" I knew that interrupting her was rude but I couldn't help myself. Ardor did not pioneer one of the most widely known games of all time, it gave me a small sense of satisfaction in correction her. A sense of satisfaction that was quieted significantly when I saw Matteo glaring down at me.

Serves him right for trying to leave me out.