Chapter 9

"Are you serious?!" I glared at Kaden when he burst out laughing along with Tyler, Wayne and Joe. Why were they laughing? My wolf refused to let us shift and they just found it hilarious.

"She's angry." I muttered.

"Yeah, so is my wolf sometimes but we still shift." Tyler chuckled. I clenched my jaw taking a seat on the beige carpet that made up most of the living room floor.

We were never going to get along, which was quite weird considering that we were the same person. It was just that she was so hard to control, I could never shift without her completely taking control and making me black out until we shifted back to human form and she was dangerously aggressive from what I had been told by my parents and siblings when they saw me shift. Why couldn't I have someone else's wolf?

"Guys, stop being mean to her." I smirked as Joe's laugh ceased when Gail frowned at the guys.

"But her wolf –” Kaden began laughing again, he was sitting across the carpet and grew more annoying with each passing second that I knew him. I launched at him and punched him in his gut causing his laughter to be cut off by a cough as the air was knocked out of him. Young Alpha should have seen that coming.

"Ouch." Tyler said looking at Kaden while I kept my glare at Kaden as he rolled on the carpet clutching his stomach and whining about how much it hurt.

"What the heck?! I –” Kaden was saying when the doorbell rang.

"Smells foreign..." Joe sniffed the air, being as strong as he was, he easily smelt things way before anyone else could. I watched as he walked over to the door to pull it open and I gasped as the person's scent completely hit me before my eyes even fell on them. "Uh... Smells like Galaxy..." Joe's eyes ran over him, "Why are you here? Ian send you? Wait, you're Sean, right?" Joe turned to me immediately after he spoke and Sean's eyes followed to me.

My wolf became restless instantly filling with excitement while I clenched my fist and stood up. What the hell was he doing at Inferno?!

"Izabella –” Sean began.

"Hold up. Why is there a Galaxy wolf on our doorstep?" Tyler cut him off, “You didn’t tell us you were inviting friends.” I snorted feeling nauseated that he would even consider Sean a friend of mine.

"He's her mate." Joe snickered as he looked at Sean again.

"Her mate? But he's not an Amarelo." Kaden said.

"He's not my mate." My wolf growled silently in disagreement but I ignored her and the confused expression on Sean's face.

"He's not?" Tyler asked. I nodded.

Joe rolled his eyes. "Saying someone is not your mate is not going to make the mate bond disappear, Izabella. And Kade, you know mating is random." He said.

"I can try, can't I?" I mumbled. I clenched my teeth as I felt my heart pick up more than it had the second I saw Sean. Now she wanted to shift.

"Izabella –” Sean began.

"Why are you here?" I cut him off. I clenched my fist tightly, not only because of him but because my wolf was trying to force us to shift. She now knew what it felt like to be kept from shifting. Sean gave a chuckle of disbelief at my question.

"Why am I here? You're my mate! You can't just go running from the pack. You cannot just disappear after seeing me –” he was saying coming towards me.

"Hey! Mate, Alpha or whatever, you have no right to tell her what to do so I suggest you back up, asshole." Tyler frowned from beside me.

"Yeah, she obviously doesn't like you or want to see you. You don’t just barge into someone else’s pack house and start harassing people, so go back where you came from before we make you." Kaden spoke up. I held my breath seeing Sean’s eyes narrow as he glanced toward Kaden before he looked back at me.

"Whoa, Alpha Junior and Army Delta. Calm down, we don't need more blood around here." Wayne said.

"Izabella, can we speak… alone?" Sean asked me, glancing at the people around us.

"Why?" I said taking hold of Tyler's arm since it was close to me. I felt like I needed to hold something before my wolf killed me. She was so livid I was shaking.

"'Why?'” He repeated sounding surprised, “Izabella, you're my mate."

"Why does that matter?" I mumbled, my wolf whimpered in my head seemingly only just remembering what kind of person he was and how he had treated us for as long as I could remember. She was communicating a lot more since my birthday. I stared at him, 'You hate me, remember? You wouldn't want the 'Freak' to be your mate, would you?' I linked to him, it proved that he was in fact my mate. I felt my wolf's sadness overwhelm me. Though she was happy we found our mate, I bet she hated just as much as I did that he had made fun of us for the past ten years of my life. He looked shocked, confused and a little regretful but I did not care. He opened his mouth but shut it again. He did this repeatedly, like a fish out of water. It made me angrier that he could not even come up with something to say. I wanted nothing to do with him, "I thought so. Leave." I let go of Tyler and sprinted upstairs.

I could hear voices downstairs as I slowed down when I got to my room but I went in not bothering to listen as I shut the door behind and sighed. Why did he have to be my mate? There were about five million other werewolves in the country we were in alone and it just had to be Sean. I would have accepted anyone else. Well, except his friends.

My wolf had seemingly calmed down which was great because I just wanted to sleep. I made way over to my bed and fell back onto it as I inhaled deeply. I hoped that when I woke up Sean was gone and I would figure that seeing him at the house was just a dream. It was a nice thought and sleep began to consume me quite easily but right before it did, someone linked to me.

'I'll get you to listen to me eventually, Izabella.'

-----

There was soft tapping from outside when I woke up and I smiled getting up and opening my curtains. It was quite sunny outside and barely any clouds filled the sky but it seemed that I had awoken amid a shower of rain. I glanced at the clock on the wall beside the door. Two thirty in the afternoon. I needed to sleep less at Inferno.

"So you're Izabella." I turned to see a girl with long, golden blond hair and light blue eyes walk into my room. She smiled as I furrowed my eyebrows wondering who she was, "I'm Alexis. Ty's mate." She said.

Oh. Tyler had a mate? "Hi, nice to meet you," I smiled, "Yeah, I'm Izabella." I added.

"There's a really handsome guy downstairs that keeps talking about you." She smiled.

I frowned glaring at the door. He was still at the house? Really? Didn't Joe tell him to leave after I had? What the heck was he saying about me?

"I'm guessing you're not too happy about that." She said, I looked at her and noticed her smile was gone.

Of course I was not happy about it! Couldn't he get his heart ripped out by Tyler? Since Tyler seemed pretty into the ripping hearts out thing… It was an incredibly brutal way to kill someone.

"Yes. Do you happen to know why he’s still here?" I asked. I was hoping she would say that my father sent him to send a message to Joe so he would leave right after they were finished with whatever he was sent for. She shrugged.

"Alpha Joe said he could say a while. He seemed quite glad about that, he'll be having the room next to yours." She said. I coughed lightly in shock. Seriously?

"Are you kidding?” I asked. She shook her head, “Oh my God!" I hissed. She gave me a sympathetic pout as she reached to pat my shoulder lightly.

"I’m sure he’s not that bad.” She said.

“He’s worse.” I replied.

“Really?” She grimaced, “Well, I guess you don’t have to see him, the house is pretty big… I came in here to meet you and tell you we're having a bonfire later and I thought you would like to come. Most of the younger people in the pack will be there so you could meet some more of us and it’ll be fun." She said. I smiled nodding.

"I'd like that." I said. It sounded like it would be fun, hopefully and I could avoid Sean better than I would be able to if he were to decide to go to ‘his’ room.

"Great. I was also about to have lunch –” she was saying.

"I'm starving." I blurted. She laughed

"Come on." She said. I smiled following her downstairs.

-----

I walked across the back yard into the forest listening to Alexis talk about how she learnt to control her wolf as music came from somewhere in the trees. Apparently all Amarelo wolves were quite hard to live with as they tended to force shifts more than other wolves would. It was a windy evening, a little chilly even though the rain had dried up quite fast after it stopped. I was wearing track pants Alexis lent me because they were more comfortable than the denim jeans I packed with one of long-sleeved shirts and my sneakers.

"Girls," I looked up as Tyler patted my head before pushing Alexis's hair from her face as the wind blew so that he could kiss her lightly. I smiled when he leaned his forehead against hers.

"Hey, babe." She grinned. They looked so happy together, it was adorable.

“I see you’ve met my cousin.” Tyler tried to pat my head again but I swatted his hand away.

"I'm not a dog." I glared at him and he laughed along with Alexis.

"Fire's ready, half the pack's there." Tyler looked at me, "And someone that isn't in the pack." He added. I frowned. "I… I don't get it though, he's a really cool dude, Izzy. I mean from what I’ve seen so far, he’s –” Tyler was saying when I grabbed Alexis’s arm lightly so I could lead her around him as I began to walk away.

"I'm not speaking to you in the next three days." I said, not turning back to him.

"Izzy, common!" Tyler yelled. Alexis laughed as she waved back at him following me towards where I could see the fire through the trees.

"See you later, Babe." She called.

"Izabella!" He yelled. I ignored him and we laughed as we made our way towards the fire. I slowed when I realised she really had exaggerated when she said most of the young people in the pack would be there, there were a lot. It was basically a party.

"Oh! Come here," Alexis lead me around the fire through all the people and to a pair of girls.

"Alex!" One of the girls called as they hugged her.

"Hey, guys. Izzy, this is Nora and Kiera. Guys, this is Izabella. Ty's cousin." Alexis said.

"Alpha Joe's niece." Nora said smiling as she looked at me. I nodded and returned a smile as I greeted them.

We talked for a while, them asking about my pack before they introduced me to some other people until we returned to the fire to sit down at the fire with a few other people and began to make smores while we spoke. Eventually Alexis disappeared to find Tyler and I decided to focus on the fire and its warmth while enjoying some time alone and wondering how hard it was going to be to train my wolf considering that Alexis had a hard time despite her wolf not being as strong as mine was right now. I began focusing less on eating anything and sat watching the fire crackle as my marshmallows turned black. I did not plan on eating it. I was just watching it burn.

When someone moved behind me before they took a seat right beside me, I didn't have to look up to know who they were, I recognised their scent. For a few seconds we were quiet before they grabbed a few marshmallows, put them on a long stick and held it close to the flames mine were covered in. He sighed.

"All I'm asking is that you let me speak." He said.

"And I've asked for the past ten years if for you to leave me alone, but we don't always get what we want, do we?" I said not taking my eyes from my now charcoaled marshmallows.

He sighed pulling his marshmallows from the fire and eating them. I looked at his and frowned suddenly not so happy that I had burnt mine to the point where it was gone and my stick was burning. I took a packet from the table as I pulled my sick out of the fire. I broke the burnt part off and then began putting marshmallows on the edge again.

"Why can't you just shut up and listen?" He said. I gave a laugh. He had been quite the past few minutes to say that?

"Why can't you just home and leave me the hell alone?" I said before looking at him and smiling, "I have nothing to say to you and nothing I want to hear from you. I found a pack for when you become Alpha and ban me from 'your' pack, Sean." I said attempting to get up but he caught my wrist.

"Our... Our pack." He said. I snorted.

"Yeah? Now because you're so afraid of being alone, without a mate or a Luna, I'm suddenly good enough for you?" I asked glaring into his eyes. He licked his lip like he wanted to say something but could not think of anything so I tugged my wrist from his hand, "Go home, Sean. There's nothing here for you, I'm not just going to forgive you and I'm not going to pretend that I like you just because we're mates." I got up and climbed over the log we had been sitting on before making my way away from the bonfire.

"Iz, where you going?" Joe asked when I walked by him.

"Bed. I’m exhausted, I'll see you tomorrow." I said.

"Izabella, give him a chance. Even your dad says he's a good kid." I heard him say from behind me. I rolled my eyes not glancing back at him as I walked away. My dad should know better than anyone else that Sean was horrible, especially to me. I never understood why everyone liked him, in our pack I figured they were obligated to as he would one day be their Alpha but humans liked him too, and so did the Inferno wolves that literally just met him. I guess it was just me that he hated, and despised my Corey and Hayley for hanging out with me. It made me dislike him more.

I sighed as I got closer to the pack house. It looked so empty without anyone around it, there was much less noise from inside. I hoped it was not locked, there had to be a few people who stayed behind, right? As I arrived at the door, I reached out and turned the knob before pulling it open. I barely heard the fast little beeps before there was a huge explosion that sent me flying across the porch slamming my head against a tree as the glass around the door smashed. I coughed painfully feeling my skin burn and my ears ring as I tried to blink to clear my blurry eyes as I saw fired dancing on the wood that made up the porch. Joe and Sean's shouts sounded so distant for some reason as my eyes dropped before they shut and the noise was completely drowned out of my ears.