Nightmares of Beauty

Chapter 10

Scott

I smirked at Jaydn as I entered the diner where Rose worked. A white-haired werewolf was sitting by himself at the table, and the alpha was looking at him with an odd expression. Rose was getting him something. I took a moment to appreciate her concentration as she slipped around people and chairs and tables. Oddly enough, my vision seemed to be going blurry. I saw one of my hands go up, but didn't recall moving it. Suddenly, there was someone between me and a wall and it was a girl, a werewolf with black hair that I felt like I should remember, and this felt very wrong, but I couldn't control my body anymore. There had to have been something in that blood I'd had earlier, because I shouldn't be doing this. The girl was struggling but couldn't get me off of her, and there was a sudden crack of pain through my jaw and I fell to the ground.

Samuel

I watched the vampire walk in. That was Scott, the one after Rose that my new alpha, Jaydn, couldn't get rid of. He didn't smell right. Something was very wrong. He stumbled forward. Jaydn was walking along a wall to go throw something away. Scott was moving towards her, and before she or I could react, he had her pinned against the wall. His teeth were almost in her neck - didn't he know where he was? This place was full of humans! Jaydn was struggling, but couldn't break free. I didn't realize I had moved until I was fight behind him and my fist was swinging through the air. I hit Scott squarely in the back of the head, breaking his jaw with an audible crack.

The sound sent a shiver down my spine, and he collapsed, eyes closed. Blood, so dark it was almost black, was trickling from his nose. Some of the people around us were staring, some had stood halfway in their chairs as if to attempt to break it up, and very few were obviously trying very ahrd to pretend nothing was going on. Someone was attempting to use the phone on the wall, but it had slipped from their hand and hit the plaster. They were making no effort to redial.

I looked around. "Sorry," I said. Jaydn was looking at me as if she'd never seen me before in her life, which she actually probably hadn't. "Sorry . . . One of our friends, he's having a hard time and he is very drunk. We'll be getting him home now," I lied, throwing a 'please-help-me' look to Jaydn. She nodded and stepped up beside me.

"Yeah, Scott's having some trouble. Don't worry about it, we'll get him cleaned up and everything. Go back to whatever you were doing, and again, we're so sorry," she said, continuing with my lie.

Soon, Rose had Scott in her boyfriend's car. Jaydn obviously didn't want to let her go alone, but I took her wrist when she looked like she was about to shift and go after the car. "Alpha. Naomi will take care of her," I murmured, and she looked at me.

"Naomi did not inform me that she brought someone into the pack. But you just saved my life, and I forgive you." Suddenly, she grabbed her left wrist, obviously in pain. Before I'd even registered her reaction, I realized that I'd done the same. There was a burning agony in the inside of my wrist, like someone had just placed a brand to my skin. As the pain faded, I removed my hand and looked at the black mark.

Werewolves mate for life. They receive a mark on the inside of their left wrist when they meet their mate and there is no choice from then on, but no one that I'd known had ever been unhappy with their mate. The mark never comes off, though it does fade if one of the two dies. Some werewolves choose to cover it with a tattoo or with makeup, if their profession does not allow for tattoos.

I had my mark. I looked up and my eyes met Jaydn's. She was shaking her head. My mouth was open, I could feel it, so I closed my mouth and blinked. Then I said, "Well then."

"We should go tell the pack," she said. I couldn't think of her as my mate, I wasn't ready for that.

I nodded. "Looks like I'm going to be sticking around longer than I'd thought." Jaydn just took a deep breath and took off at a run. I followed, catching up with her and then matching her pace, letting her lead. When we reached the treeline, we shifted without breaking stride, and I realized that her pelt was black. Not dark brown or grey. Black. Onyx. Her eyes were turquoise and like ice.

We reached the clearing of the dens soon. My mate-mark, my cadlabor, had manifested itself as a black mark on my left shoulder, stark against my white fur. Jaydn's was in the same place, but a startling shade of white. Both were unmistakable and impossible to miss.

We stopped before we entered the clearing. Jaydn looked at me and we took at deep breath, then stepped into full view of every pack member in the clearing. As the alpha, Jaydn was a half-step ahead of me. As every eye snapped to us, she shifted to her human form and I shifted just a second after her.

Without any preamble, she said, "Well, we have an announcement to make. Your alpha has found her cadlabi. I have found my lifemate. And I expect you all to welcome Samuel as a full pack member, with all of the tie-ins of an alpha's mate, even if he is not an alpha himself."