Chapter 32

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Matthias POV

“Last question. When will you mate?” the female healer asks as I freeze.

I have been expecting this question. I have prepared myself mentally and even repeated my answer multiple times. Yet, I find myself speechless.

When I hesitate to answer, I feel everyone’s hard stare at me. Even if I’m blind, I can smell their dissatisfaction with me. It must have deepened when I didn’t immediately answer.

“Soon,” Daniel answers firmly, after noticing the delay in my response.

“When is soon?” William, the lead warrior, inquires, earning a hard glare from Daniel. Noticing the predicament he is in, William immediately shuts his mouth.

“Anything else?” Daniel asks as he waits for someone to speak up, but when no one does, he nods. “This meeting ends here. In the following days, Matthias and I will be engaged until we mate where he’ll be an official member of the pack.”

Days later, in the afternoon, I watch werewolves running right and left to complete their chores. While Daniel told me to make myself at home, it doesn’t feel right to not contribute to the pack. I know that I’m not yet an official member, but I would like to help.

The other problem is my rank. Usually, the Alpha’s mate basically shares the same amount of authority, but I’m a vampire. How will it work? It is a very well-known fact that hierarchy is everything in a werewolf community. And that hierarchy is based on strength. The stronger you are, the more advantages it gives you. Of course, it also means that you need to protect and provide for the pack. Any mistakes may lead to punishment and in the worse cases, a demotion.

Until I am officially accepted into the pack, I am still an outsider and therefore exempt from any duties. I have so much time on my hands that staying in bed until late afternoon doesn’t help me much. As a change of scenery, I am now sitting under a tree in the yard. I am far enough from the training ground to avoid the stench but close enough to I have a delightful view.

My nose scrunches up at the smell of my surrounding. “What are you doing?” I ask the person behind me.

“How did you know I was here?” a female voice asks. “I made sure to not make a sound,” Claudia sits next to me with a pout as I stop breathing with my nose.

“Do you have some deodorant?” I ask as she looks at me with a frown.

“I do, but I’m not lending it to you,” she scoffs.

“Good, because you need it… And a lot of it.”

Unable to make a sound, she quickly smells herself. She seems relieved when she thinks I’m lying. “Is this how you treat your sister-in-law?” she punches my arm.

I rub the sore spot. “Haha, but I’m serious.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she brushes me off. “Are you adapting well?”

I shrug. “It’s not much different from home except for the raw diet.”

“You’re taking it a lot better than your brother,” she laughs. “But if you ask, I’m sure my brother will let you have some takeout.”

I smile. “It’s that obvious?”

“We only need to add the hearts and sparkles in the background,” Claudia answers as I laugh.

“What?” I ask in disbelief. I don’t want to believe what I just heard.

“Do you want to train with me?” she asks instead.

“I don’t know,” I mumble.

I saw her train, and it is not worth the effort to fight against her. Micah would be more of a challenge than her. She’s basically a baby that recently learned how to walk and already wants to run a marathon. This is also not the only problem. She is too weak mentally. I can easily win without raising my hand against her.

“Come on!” she punches my arm in a friendly way. “If you stay sitting all day, you’ll get fat,” she smirks.

“You wish. My body will never change unless I wish for it.”

“What?” she screams, outraged by the newly learnt information. “This is not fair,” she groans before gnawing on her nails. “Fight me! You owe me that.”

I sigh. This child is so high maintenance, it’s driving me crazy. “Alright, but you leave me alone after.”

“Until I win,” she mutters as she walks down the hill.

We take an empty field as Claudia stretches and warm up. After a few minutes, she finally is ready.

“You don’t need to warm up?” she asks as she gets into position.

“Don’t worry, you are the warm-up,” I retort with a smirk.

My comment must have insulted her since she says nothing else before rushing toward me with a scream. She throws at me a series of punches and kicks, but with her speed, I easily avoid her.

Although both vampires and werewolves have inhumane strength and speed, Claudia is no match for Matthias. This is because of the gap in age and experience. Matthias had a lot of time to polish his skills. Without forgetting that Matthias is a pureblood vampire. This alone puts all the Pures in a different league.

As I avoid all her punches and kicks, she screams out in rage. “Stop running away and fight me!”

“Do you think that being able to fight against Micah and maybe win once in a while is enough to land a hit on me? Don’t make me laugh,” I provoke her.

Blinded by her emotions, her movements are erratic and chaotic. This is not good. She’ll never be able to win against anyone like that. Although I don’t want to, I punch her in the arm while controlling my power. At a super high speed, Claudia doesn’t have time to dodge my punch and takes my hit head-on on her arm. I hear a loud crack as she flies away. She heavily lands on the ground as I wince.

Before I can check on her, she stands up with an animalistic growl. It doesn’t seem like she noticed her broken arm, because once again she lunges toward me. However, this time, it seems like her instincts completely took over. As she is more on guard against me, she gains some speed, and her movements are less chaotic. She looks more like a wolf as she starts to shift because of her intense emotions.

“Enough!” a domineering voice boomed throughout the training field.





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