8.

I blew out a breath and stared at the empty bottle with dejection, secretly wishing that we'd had some more. We should've taken an extra bottle.

*Damn.*

I was already drunk. Well, not drunk enough but drunk nonetheless. I was drunk enough to feel that pleasant buzz instead of all that angst and sadness, my mind finally calm enough so that I could enjoy a few moments of peace.

Fuck. This feels nice. I was pretty sure that I was going to regret it the very next day but right now, I couldn't care less. I finally felt a little less...desperate.

My wolf didn't like it though. She kept pestering me that we were weaker now -thanks to my stupid drinking- and that we could be possibly more vulnerable in case of an unforseen dangerous situation.

I almost snorted out loud at her incredibly paranoid antics. Dangerous situation. What could ever happen? There was only Carrie and I here. No one else. There were no wild animals around the town and like I said before, this was a pretty secluded place. No one was going to find us here.
We were safe enough, but she kept fretting around inside me so I decided to just let her out for a little bit, allow her to stretch her limbs and take a sniff.

"Hey, wanna see something cool?" I turned to Carrie to ask first as I didn't want to take her by surprise or possibly even scare her, quickly receiving her casual response.

"Sure,"

Okay, let's do this.

I got up from my spot, wobbling a little bit as I went around the stone slab to allow myself some space for what was about to come.

I started to undress myself, feeling my wolf already stomping around impatiently within me, practically begging to be released. It'd been a while for her, if I were to be honest. Several weeks, to be more precise.

"Okay, dude, you know I love you but I really don't want to see your tits or hoo-ha right now,"

I abruptly paused from undressing, immediately bursting into a fit of laughter at the sound of Carrie's interjection, tightly holding onto my unbuttoned short jeans as I bent over and laughed my ass off. Holy Goddess. I was about to piss my pants.

"Not that, you dummy-" I shortly paused to catch my breath before continuing,
"Well, you'll kinda have to see that too but that's not what I want to show you, I promise," I quickly wiped those tiny tears at the corners of my eyes, still letting few hysterical giggles here and there as I simply couldn't stop myself. That was so stupidly funny.

"Okay," I finally blew out a calming breath, struggling to focus and stop laughing as I looked at her,
"Ready?"

"Sure," She simply shrugged so I resumed to my undressing, stepping out of my jean shorts first before I went for the t-shirt too, neatly placing them on the other stone slab afterwards.

"Oh yeah, take it off baby,"

"Stop!" I weakly complained, struggling not to burst into another fit of mad laughter.

She was such a goof sometimes.

She raised her hands into a surrendering manner in response, making me lightly shake my head with disapproval and resume nonetheless, letting out another snorting giggle before I finally took off my bra and panties too, stripping myself completely bare.

"Dude, what are you even-"

"It's okay, dude, I just don't wanna tear up my clothes for this, okay?" I quickly explained, receiving a simple nod from her. Besides, it wasn't like she hadn't seen my bits before anyway. We'd seen each other's bits plenty of times before since we were also in the same cheerleading squad. It wasn't such a big deal.

Okay, let's get you out now, honey. My wolf immediately growled with determination in response, pushing herself at the forefront of my mind and taking over my senses.

I directed my gaze back to Carrie, once again noticing faint traces of that different aura of hers as I looked at her through my wolf's eyes.

"Okay, are you ready?" It felt like I was rather asking myself instead of her as I kinda felt a little nervous now, knowing that I will have to feel that all-too-familiar pain of shifting. However, my wolf didn't even give me the time to take a breather as she started the process right away, making me bend over and moan out from the pain.

I simply complied though and let her do her thing as there was nothing I could do at that point anyway and I really needed to let her out, welcoming every snap of my bones and twist of my muscles with tortured groans and bated breaths, patiently waiting for her to do her magic until she was finally out, allowing me to properly breathe and calm down.

She lightly shook her sandy blonde coat, blinking away our haziness as she took a moment to adjust and take in our surroundings, suddenly hearing Carrie's enthusiastic coo.

"Aww,"

My wolf let out a playful growl in response, intently watching her.

"You're so fucking cute!!" She squealed with glee and threw away the empty bottle before jumping over the stone slab and throwing herself on her knees right in front of us.

She didn't even waste a single second and flung her arms around us, blowing out a satisfied sigh. Huh. She liked us. She liked my wolf. There wasn't even the tiniest ounce of fear emanating from her body as we took a tentative sniff, my wolf finding her smell so pleasing and calming as always. She unconsciously greeted my wolf by rubbing the side of her face against our neck, earning herself a grooming lick in response.

She'd barely started learning about our world yet she was already doing all the right things.

"You're so fucking adorable, I swear, I'm dying," She pulled back to look at us, making my wolf almost purr with contentment as she slowly traced her hand over the side of our neck into a soft caress.

Luna. Luna Queen, my wolf chanted inside our mind, brimming with reverence at the special treatment she was getting. She liked this. Even though we'd never had a superior to interact with before -at least not in wolf form- I could feel that my wolf approved of her and felt that instinctual need to submit to her and protect her like any other normal pack wolf would. Which was kinda weird, to be completely honest. My wolf hated pack rules. She hated even the idea of having to submit. That was why she'd retreated at the deepest bottom of my subconscious in the first place. Not only did she fear pack wolves but she also hated having to submit to them. She knew that if we'd ever encountered a pack wolf we'd be forced to show submission, whether we liked it or not.
But Carrie was different though. She wasn't a wolf. She wasn't even human either.
We hadn't found out what she was yet. But we still felt the need to protect her. We-

Our ears twitched as we suddenly picked up a suspicious sound coming from somewhere behind us, my wolf turning around to face the darkened conglomeration of trees behind us.

A soft growl bubbled up within our throat as we could hear two sets of paws hitting the forest floor in slow yet powerful steps, making us feel so scared yet firmly determined to protect our friend and Luna. We were definitely scared shitless as we knew that we couldn't win this fight -not by ourselves anyway- but we wouldn't leave her here either. We couldn't run away. We had to at least try to protect her.

So we took a defensive stance in front of her, fighting that tremble in our legs whilst the fur on the back of our neck bristled with alertness, lowly growling at the oncoming threat.

Fuck.

My wolf was already scolding me with whines and yips for that stupid decision to drink my ass off as we evidently felt so much weaker now.
I could almost hear that "I told you so" in her whining tone as we watched the two silhouettes prowl closer and closer...until that unmistakable Alpha scent hit us full-force as a soft breeze wafted it straight towards us, followed by the most amazing smell we'd ever felt.

Oh no. Oh no no no no. No! NO!

My heart started to pound inside my chest, our pupils dilating as the two wolves approached until we could finally see them better.

Mate!

My wolf was practically vibing with want and enticement as she stared at Beta David's wolf with blatant appreciation, almost drooling at the sight of his large and powerful body, his silvery coat shining so ethereally in the soft rays of our sacred Moon. He looked like a freaking god.

Holy crap. This was way worse. I would've gladly taken that dooming fight with any other unknown wolves instead.

I could feel myself growing even more scared as my wolf continued to stare at her mate, slowly getting more and more aroused with every heated gaze he'd sent in our direction. He wanted her too. If not even more. Shit. Holy Goddess, please don't let him smell us, please, please!
I knew that we'd be doomed the very second he'd scented our arousal. The pack wolves were pretty well-known for their savage ways when it came to their newly-found mates.

"Jess,"

Our ears perked in response at Carrie's hushed call, momentarily distracted from my worrying thoughts as we continued to warily stare at the two wolves.

"I want you to run, okay? When I say run, you run and don't look back okay?"

What the fuck? Are you crazy? I wanted to hiss back at her, horrified that she would even suggest such thing. I mean, I knew that she meant well and that she was only trying to protect me in any way she could but that, in that specific moment was the worst idea she could ever have.

He'd pounce on us the very instant we turned our hide to him! He'd pounce on us and-
Gods, I did not even want to imagine what would happen next.

The Alpha's black wolf tilted his head to the side with curiosity and mirth at the sound of his mate's words, evidently realizing that she was scared because she hadn't even recognized them yet.

So they prowled closer and closer -much to my utter horror- stopping just a few meters away before flawlessly shifting back into their human forms. And very, very naked.

Holy shit!

I was pretty sure that my wolf looked like a crazy freak as we stared at them, gawking like the idiots we were. Both my wolf and I.

They were huge. Both of them. But what caught our attention was the sight of our mate's incredibly toned body, displaying hard muscles literally everywhere, including his...

Oh my god. Huge... Huge d-di-

"Oh wow, that's way too many dicks for one evening,"

My mental freaking out suddenly turned into a cackling mess, almost sure that I even made my wolf snort out a laugh as I struggled to contain my amusement. Gods. It is official. My best friend is a damn savage.

They finally bothered covering those freaking monsters dangling between their legs with their hands, I myself still reeling from the shock when my wolf suddenly relinquished control, forcing an unexpected turn back into my human body.

It all happened so fast that I barely had the time to realize what was going on when my normal human gaze accidentally collided with David's, shocked to see the way his eyes grew in size as they trailed over my bare body, visibly swallowing.

I barely managed to stifle that needy whimper that bubbled up within my throat in response as my nipples immediately grew hard, my inner walls clenching with that pressing need for friction.

Fuck. One single look and look what he did to me. To us. I could barely restrain myself. My wolf was not faring any better, if not worse as I could feel her squirm with lust within me, goading me to just turn around, bend over and offer myself to him. Right then and there.

Holy shit! No! Stop it! I practically yelled at her with terror and alarm, my lips parting to let out a startled squeal as I accidentally noticed that...it had grown even bigger.
Hell, he could barely cover himself with those large hands as he continued to stare at me, obviously having a hard time trying to tear his gaze away. He was basically drinking in every single detail of my body, his cheeks now a deep shade of red as he breathed fast and hard.

Oh!

My hands were already covering my tits and pussy as best as I could, my heart pounding inside my chest as I quickly went to hide behind Carrie's back.

Holy mother of gods! Mate or not, I will never ever let him anywhere near me with that thing! He could freaking destroy me!

I lightly shivered at the thought, not even sure why I was even considering letting him anywhere near me at all. I really didn't want anything to do with him.

He is the future Royal Beta, I reminded myself, and that was enough for me to sober up a little and stifle any residual feelings of attraction towards him.

He's the Beta.

A pack wolf.

He could never be ours. And we can never be his.

My wolf whined within me, crushed by that thought but she didn't pester me any longer and retreated at the back of my mind, allowing me to breathe a little.

I took a stealthy peek from behind Carrie's shoulder, noticing that David had also chosen to hide his...situation behind his Alpha's back, quietly standing there exactly like I did whilst the Alpha and his Luna had a heated stare-down.

"What are you doing here?"

"We've been searching for you all day. Why the hell did you run away?"

"Why do you even care? Didn't you say that you were done trying?"

"I thought I told you to stay out of..."

"Well, me,"

"Hey, you're the one sending me all those thoughts and emotions,"

"Just fucking leave me alone already,"

"I told you that I can't..."

I casually listened to them bicker as I moved backwards and tried to retrieve my undergarments without having to flash them again, sighing a little as Carrie turned around and started helping me by covering my naked body from their view as best as she could.

So I grabbed my clothes and started dressing myself back up as fast as I could, mildly stumbling from time to time as my body was still having a hard time balancing itself. I was still feeling the effects of that strong gin, even after letting my wolf take over our flesh.

"Come on, you're going back home," The Alpha announced with a firm tone, quickly receiving his mate's stubborn rebuttal,
"Not with you we're not,"

"Okay, and who's gonna drive? You're both fucking wasted and last I checked, you didn't possess the ability of turning into a wolf like the rest of us so that you could just run back home,"

"Or are you planning to actually fucking kill yourself?"

Carrie grunted with anger at the sound of that and went to pick up our garbage, consciously ignoring him.

I felt kinda guilty now. I didn't want them to argue because of me. We'd driven here because she wanted to make me feel better, and now look what was happening.

Gods. I almost felt like crying. This had been such a shitty day so far. The shittiest day ever, actually. I just wanted it to be over already. So I went to help her and once we'd put everything in the trunk, I went and handed my car keys to the Alpha, keeping my head down as I waited for them to get inside.

Only once I've noticed that Carrie was about to go to the front passenger seat my heart jumped with fright at the thought of having to share such a small and confined space with the Beta and whilst he was still naked by the way, that small and anguished word stumbling past my lips before I could even stop myself,
"No!"

I thickly swallowed as I watched her pause and then turn to look at me, suddenly feeling so damn stupid and embarrassed as I lastly noticed that they were all looking at me now. All three of them.

My gaze quickly lowered back to the ground, conjuring up every last ounce of courage left within me before I finally dared to utter those words,
"Stay in the back...with me..."

I was drunk. I didn't want him anywhere near me. Especially now that I was...more prone to fall prey to his charms. I'd been tortured enough today.