Her possessive alpha
SEVEN

Shielded scent

Ava jumped right out of the bed the minute she realized this. Did it really happen? Did I lose my... Oh no! she cried within herself.

'Layla! Layla!!!' she called out to her despairingly.

Layla always tends to be inactive mostly in the mornings, sometimes Ava wondered why she had a wolf if she couldn't get to her when she needed her.

Was he here? If he was, where had he gone? She tried to pick up his scent, and then she noticed that he was in the cabin too, just outside the room. They were alone in the small building and he was sitting by the fireplace, playing a guitar, she could hear the charming melody right from where she stood in the room and it tempted her to go outside to go and meet him, or to continue from where they finished last night. No! She scolded herself, doing that would just add more fuel to the fire, would worsen the situation, last night wasn't even supposed to happen and it did. She had to replace a way to escape before he came here; and she had to do it now.

She glanced at the window; it was big enough to let her fit through, thank goodness. But what was the point of escaping if he was still going to follow her wherever she went? She slumped on the soft bed in frustration.

One of her wonderful ideas suddenly came in at that moment, in an attempt to rescue her from the situation. She could shield her scent for a while if she covered herself up in mud. Being a wolf and having a versatile knowledge of the mate bond, she knew that this was the only way one could shield his/her scent from a mate considered dangerous or unwanted apart from rejection. But it wasn't very known or used because you possibly couldn't live by covering yourself up in mud all day for the rest of your life.

'Why not just reject your mate if you didn't want him?' Layla then came out now, after ignoring her throughout last night, nice try girl. She's been really confusing lately, and now it made Ava wonder whose side Layla was on; hers or his wolf's.

She answered her

'Well as for the rejection, I'd have to look into his eyes if I wanted to do that and look what happened the last time I stood to face him; within minutes he had his organ shoving in and out of mine. So, I'll go with the mud thank you,' Layla didn't say anything to her after then.

Ava did have plans of rejecting him, but not now, she needed to make sure that when she did, it wouldn't be at night; where it would be easier for them to become intimate and when the moon goddess was awake strengthening the mate bond, and second of all, it wouldn't be anytime now for they'd just mated. For now, she needed to be as far away from him so she could think clearly on the next thing to do before he found her again.

She glanced at the open window,

time to leave now, she thought to herself, she wouldn't wait here for him to come and meet her in this room, no way. Tip toeing to the window, moving as quietly as she could and reaching there, she first let out her right leg through the opening and then her left leg

followed, before gently slidinet

her

body out through the wooden frame and jumping down on the other side. Now on her feet outside, she ran as quickly and as quietly as she could to the river nearby, she didn't have enough resources but she'd make do with what she had; cupping her hand and using it to draw water from the flowing river, she mixed it with the loamy forest soil on the ground near the river bank; it was difficult, with nothing but her hands to draw water from the river, but she didn't have much time before he found out she was gone, so she had to act fast.

After making a small mud puddle, she drank a bit from the river water remembering she hadn't had anything to drink since yesterday; even though drinking like this was normal for a wolf, she still preferred the human way of drinking water but now she didn't have much of a choice. She took off the flimsy top Lucas put on her and went into her wolf form after drinking, she then told Layla the next thing to do; lay on her back first, and then roll over in the mud puddle. She did so, coating herself completely in the mud before they continued their journey. Layla ran out of the forest and journeyed back to the house, the house where she, Ray and Ethan lived, located on the other side of Chester.

"Where have you been all night bunny?" Ethan, the pack's beta called out as he saw Layla gaiting into the back door of the pack house, leaving trails of mud prints on the kitchen floor.

**********

Ethan was Ava's best friend and

Ray's right-hand man, the three of them grew up together attending countless busk sessions until they assumed their duties. Busk sessions were preparation sessions where the packleaders made sure the three future leaders were trained properly for each of their respective rotes before they assumed them. Ethan and Ray had already assumed their duties a few weeks ago, with Ray being introduced as the new Alpha while Ethan became the Beta on the same day. Whereas she, the future Luna would be introduced in the joining ceremony which was in three days' time, where she would be joined to Ray as his new mate and Luna to her Alpha and her pack.

Ava took her human form again and now she was standing in front of Ethan, covered in nothing but mud, her filthy look surprised him, as he knew her very well as one who hates to tumble around in dirt even with the animalistic part of her that existed.

"Where have you been Ava?" He repeated vehemently, giving Ava that objurgating look he always gave when he'd suspected she had done something wrong, Ava knew he was vexed this time because he called her by her name instead of bunny, the nickname he always called her whenever he was in a good mood with her. It had never been so hard for her to confide in Ethan before, he was great at keeping secrets, but she just couldn't bring herself to say anything to him right now, she wondered if it had anything to do with what happened last night, but she just stared at him like he was blank piece of paper, unable to bring out any words from her mouth to say to him.

Just then, her betrothed, Ray, burst through the kitchen door, his surprise mirroring Ethan's at the first sight of her.

"Can someone tell me what's going on here?" Ray demanded as he stared at his betrothed all naked and dirty while Ethan stood at the other side of the kitchen where he was doing the dishes before she came in.

Ava didn't know how or why her eyes began wandering around at that moment but then she spotted a cake that was supposed to go into the trash on the kitchen table, it looked untouched and then it made her remember something important, it made her realize why Ethan looked so angry and perturbed about her disappearance last night.