Hotel

I could feel his well-toned muscles through his thin black T-shirt but I couldn't even enjoy it because my eyes were shut tight as we zipped through different towns.

They were all ridiculously close together for a bunch of territorial packs if you asked me.

It made no sense that there were so many tiny towns back to back but that's what we were driving through.

I didn't actually know how long we had been driving for but, eventually, he came to a stop and I let out a breath of relief.

I don't think I like motorcycles.

We were in some new town and by the looks of it, this was neutral territory.

No wolves anywhere unless they were just passing by.

"You can let go now," Aries said.

I robotically released my grip on him and jumped off his bike on shaky legs.

He eyed me critically and I hugged myself looking around.

I had taken enough money with me to survive for a few months as well as one of dad's emergency credit cards.

Where would I stay though?

"You look lost," Aries commented.

I shook my head, "I don't know what you're talking a-about," I tried and failed to sound strong.

He narrowed his eyes with suspicion in his eyes, "you're not a wolf," I took a step back at his words, "but you have the scent of wolves on you," he continued as if he had just taken a good whiff of me.

My eyes almost popped out of my head and I couldn't have been more obviously taken off guard as I tried to come up with a response,

"I-I don't-"

"Who are you and why were those guys chasing you?" he demanded.

Shit, he had noticed that.

Aries grabbed my wrist stopping me from making a run for it.

"Those men got a good look at me and I'm sure my face was in a few cameras in that area which means that if they are looking for you and I helped you escape, now they're looking for me too,"

I shook my head in disbelief at how observant this man was, "so let me repeat my question, who are you?" he demanded an answer again and I didn't know if I could give him one.

"I-I'm sorry," my voice didn't come out as I wanted it to again.

It always cracked when I was nervous, making me sound weak and helpless.

Aries' eyes softened, "are you in some kind of trouble?" he asked.

"N-not exactly.." I trailed off avoiding eye contact and he let go of my wrist.

He examined my face and I looked anywhere but at him.

He was suddenly back on his bike and putting on his helmet.

"W-where are you going?" I asked, trying not to panic.

He shrugged, "Anywhere I want," he replied nonchalantly.

He started his engine and I panicked at the thought of being left alone with no idea about where to go next.

Truth be told I didn't think I would make it this far but I couldn't stay in that house another minute.

"Wait," I stepped in front of his bike with my arms out in front of me.

He paused, "what now?"

"I'll pay you," he took off his helmet.

"Pay me?"

"Yes, I'll pay you t-to," I wracked my brain for an excuse, "be my bodyguard?" I said out of nowhere.

I was proud of myself for coming up with a good reason for him to help me without giving too much away.

He looked taken back at my request before he narrowed his eyes at me looking a bit more than annoyed, "do I look like a babysitter to you?"

My confidence went down immediately and I felt like falling into myself.

"N-no," I replied, "but you could be my friend or something.." I murmured trailing off as a helpless feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.

He looked deep in thought for what felt like a long time before he ultimately let out a groan of defeat, "hop-on,"

I looked up at him surprised, "are you sure?"

"Yeah, now hop on before I change my mind," I wasted no time getting back on his bike.

He was a kind stranger and the thought of spending more time with him didn't seem so bad.

Considering I didn't really have a lot of options this seemed like my best bet.

I had no experience outside of my dad's mansion, this seemed like a pretty good idea in my head.

He wasn't gawking at me because of who I was and he certainly didn't seem like a power-hungry elite douche.

He was normal and that's what I needed right now.

Normal.

That's what I was and that's how I should be living.

Not as a disappointment to my father because I couldn't be a normal wolf.

According to Aries, we were too far away from where he lived and he was taking care of some business deals in the town where I ran into him.

After driving on his bike for a few hours we had to stop at a hotel and rest up a bit.

That may or may not have been because I was falling asleep and losing my grip on him constantly.

"I hope you don't mind, they only have one room left and it only has one bed," he said, coming out of the bathroom in just a towel.

I jumped and let out a small noise before covering my eyes.

"What don't you like about what you see?" I could hear the smirk in his voice.

"P-please put some clothes on," I heard some shuffling and a few minutes later he was pulling my hand away from my eyes.

He was closer than I expected him to be so I pulled back and hugged my legs close to me.

He stared at me as if he was trying to figure out all my secrets.

"Can you stop?"I pulled myself back a bit.

He had been looking at me like that a lot since we got to the hotel.

I had never stayed in one and I never even knew that people could buy rooms to stay overnight so everything around me felt like a new world and it was honestly fascinating.

I asked a few questions about the place on our way to our room but the weird look he had given me made me shut up and wonder about the hotel in silence.

At this point I'm sure he could tell something was up with me but what was I supposed to say to him?

He was just as much of a stranger to me as I was to him.

"Stop what?"

"Stop staring at me," I said, hugging myself tighter.

"You've piqued my interest, little girl," he said, straightening up but looking down at me almost condescendingly.

"I'm not a little girl," I whispered yet somehow he heard me.

He chuckled, "you act like one," he shook his head, "so tell me, where are you from?"

I shrugged, not really sure how to answer him, "how do you know about wolves?" I answered his question with a question.

He laughed really loudly, "I should be asking you that, you're as human as they come which is why I'm curious about you," he gave me a weird look, "why wolves are after you,"

I glared up at him but my glare broke and a blush crept its way into my cheeks when I realized that he was only wearing a pair of sweats that hung very low.

There is no sign of a shirt on his top half anywhere.

He noticed my discomfort, "what?" he asked.

"Can you please put a shirt on?"

He looked down at himself and shook his head.

He mumbled something I couldn't hear under his breath but otherwise went into his duffle bag in search of a shirt to slip on.

I had only brought a small book bag with me and in my rush to leave I didn't think of packing clothes.

Once he had slipped on a shirt he looked up at me expectantly.

I waited a long dreadful minute before I sighed and spoke, "my parents are wolves,"

He raised an eyebrow, "But you don't-"

"I haven't shifted yet okay," I said, cutting him off and crossing my arms defensively.

He looked taken back, "How old-"

"Seventeen," I said, cutting him off again and pulling out my phone, "Eighteen in a few more hours," I said as a matter of fact.

He looked like he didn't believe me.

"I'm not lying," I said, turning the location on my phone off just in case dad tried to track me through my phone.

"You're awfully small, are you the runt of your pack or something?"

He scrunched up his nose in disgust.

"Runt? Wha- No! Never!" I said feeling disrespected and a bit hurt at his accusation.

He tilted his head to the side, "what's your rank then?"

I pressed my lips into a thin line.

I was hoping he wouldn't ask me that, "I don't think that's any of your business,"

He stared at me analyzing my face which I had turned into what I hoped was a mask of indifference.

"Then what's wrong with you? Why can't you shift?" he continued, still very much curious about me and my current predicament.

I scoffed, "if I knew that, don't you think I would have done anything I could to fix it," I was beginning to get a bit annoyed.

He tilted his head to the side intrigued by my answer.

"But enough about me, who are you?"

He smirked, "someone you shouldn't be hanging out with,"

I glared at him, "could you be serious, please," I snapped irritated by him attempting to play the 'bad boy' card on me.

He shrugged, "I'm a wolf," he was nonchalant.

"That's it," I crossed my arms, "that's all you got?"

"I'm a strong wolf," he added.

"What's your rank?" I asked.

"You didn't tell me your rank so why would I grace you with knowing mine,"

I shook my head, "how am I supposed to trust you as my guard if you don't tell me exactly who you are?" I countered.

He laughed, "you shouldn't trust me we are strangers after all," he said, "and I never agreed to be your guard,"

I opened my mouth to say something but closed it not knowing how to reply.

"You're really naive and optimistic," he said out of nowhere, "you trust people too easily which is very dangerous, especially considering I could have killed you a long time ago if I wanted to and you wouldn't be able to defend yourself because of your particular situation," I gave him a look and he continued taking a step closer with each sentence,

"I'm going to assume that you haven't found a mate because you have to shift for that to happen. I'm also going to assume that you're pretty important to someone important if you have wolves from one of the three largest packs in the world chasing after you,"

"How did-" he interrupted my question,

"You're very easy to read and someone like you shouldn't be left alone, you don't even have the slightest inkling to lie about anything," he said, "that's dangerous out here in the real world which leads me to my original conclusion about you," he moved closer to me with each word.

"You are a child, a pup, an immature naive little girl and I'd advise you to turn around and go back from where you came from before this world chews you up and spits you out," his hurtful words made my eyes sting and I ran into the bathroom without another word.

I locked the door and tried my hardest to muffle my sobs because I knew he could hear me.

I wanted to blame the world for making me weak and not allowing me to shift like I was supposed to but who could I blame for not knowing how the world works outside my house?

My dad for keeping me locked up at home or myself for being too complacent and never sneaking out until now.

I've been basically kept under lock and key in a gold cage my entire life.

I'm spoiled and naive like my mom said which meant that I was vulnerable and absolutely not Luna material.

I shook my head and angrily wiped the tears from my eyes before getting up and opening the door.

Aries laid in bed completely unphased by my mini-meltdown.

He had one arm behind his head and looked bored as he flipped through channels on the t.v.

"Please train me," I whispered knowing he could hear me.

He glanced at me for half a second before he continued to flip through channels ignoring me.

This made my blood boil for some reason and I walked up to him, snatching the control from his hand.

"Train me," I repeated.

"You're human," he said.

"So?"

"If you went through werewolf training you'd die,"

"No I wouldn't because I'm a werewolf too," he rolled his eyes.

"One that never shifted," he snapped back.

"What if I do shift, would you train me then?" he gave me a look I didn't understand.

"How would you go and do that?" he asked.

"My birthday is tomorrow, give me 24 hours and if I don't shift then I'll leave you alone and you'll never see me again but if I do shift then will you train me?" I asked with determination.

An amused smile played on his lips, "how do you plan to force yourself to shift? If it hasn't happened by now I highly doub-"

"My mate,"

He stared at me incredulously, "your mate?" he stood up and walked over to the minibar.

"Yeah, don't wolves find their mates at 18?" I followed him over to the minibar, "they get all weird and find each other when they both are of age right?" I put my hand over his to stop him from opening the mini vodka bottle.

He looked at our hands and then backed up at me, his eyes doubtful and me very much unsure of myself.

Of course, my parents hadn't explained all of this to me.

Most of what I knew was because of all the reading I did.

Aries' full attention was on me though.

He stared at my hopeful face for what felt like forever before he gave up with an annoyed groan, "okay fine," he moved his hands out from underneath mine.

I felt my face light up in delight as I gave him a cheesy smile, "thank you, thank you, thank you!" I jumped up and down with each thank you before wrapping my arms around his waist in a hug.

He flinched when I made contact with him but we both froze when I wrapped my arms around him.

There was a static shock that passed through us and I flinched backward away from him.

"W-what the hell was that?" I said.

It was as if one of us had rubbed our feet against the carpet too much and the contact caused a small spark.

My eyes widened when I noticed that his eyes had darkened to a charcoal color meaning his wolf had come forward.

"W-what?"

I started stepping back in an attempt to get as far away from him as I could, "I'm sorry I didn't know you had a mate I shouldn't have touched you," I took another step back, "I-I can tell it upsets your wolf,"

He moved in a blur and was in front of me in seconds.

I stood very still unsure of what his wolf might do.

One second he's staring at me like he's seeing my face for the first time, the next his head is buried in the crook of my neck, and his arms are wrapped tightly around my waist.

"Um.." I tried to push him away from me but his wolf let out a low warning growl and I immediately stopped moving, "what are you doing?" I asked.

"Mate," his wolf said.

"Mate?"

I stared blankly at the clock behind him and his wolf continued to take in my scent as if it was hungrily trying to memorize it.

12:03 am

Realization dawned on me when I processed the time.

It was my birthday and that meant that I had just officially turned 18.

The pieces fell into place for me and our body's reaction wherever our skin touched suddenly made sense.

It felt good but it was terrifying me at the same time, "P-please let go of me," I managed to whisper out.

Images of how my dad almost killed my mom the day I ran away from home flashed into my head and my eyes became foggy.

"Get off!" I screamed pushing him away from me.

I jumped in horror when he flew back away from me and landed with a thump on the floor.

His wolf was gone and he laid on the ground in shock at the fact that I had just pushed him off me with a strength I wasn't supposed to have as a human.

I looked at my hands and then up at him.

We mirrored each other's shock.