Stripping for the Alpha

Chapter Eight (NALA's POV)

I stared at her defiantly. "That didn't help." I said, cocking my eyebrow and she smiled. "Your getting better. At least you can hold off the visions for a moment." She said and I smiled sarcastically. "Yeah, but look constipated while doing so." I said and she laughed.

"So, what about the mate thing? What happens, what do I do? How does it work?" Question were filling my mind and tumbling from my mouth but all she did was laugh. "Its simple. I'll walk you through it step by step."

"Nala, when you find your mate, there are five things that happen when you do. The first step is that you of course find them. They have a distinct scent that lures you to them. Because you are human your mate at first will find you and soon enough, he will be your life line. Tingles trace your skin after their hand graces your body. They make you feel like no other has ever made you feel and you find yourself, in time, in love with them." She said shrugging her shoulders. I lean forward off the seat as she leads me to the cubicles behind us. Once inside, she started as if she had never stopped.

"The second step is the natural marks that grow on your skin like a tattoo." She said lifting her dress to show me the black patterns of what I can only assume are the marks from her mate. "You should have them too seeming that you and Theo have made physical contact." She said motioning to the pyjamas that I hadn't thought to change this morning.

I stared at my figure before unbuttoning my pyjama shirt. I began to pull off the shirt to get a better look at the deep blue markings that ran from the bottom of my spine and curled around my torso to cup my left breast. "Oh. My. God." I whispered. "It's true!"

"The marks only grow from touching your mate." She said putting her skirt back down. "The colours vary depending on what rank the wolf is in their pack, my mate doesn't have a rank so their black. Your mate is an Alpha, so your markings are a deep midnight blue." She said, as she waited for my response.

"Listen to yourself Jade! What am I supposed to do? Last time I checked I remember the last full moon."

Jade began to laugh and I stared at her desperately. "What's so funny?" I asked in hopes it's all a pathetic joke her and our best friend Breanna had pulled. "Nala, we don't shift once a month. We shift at will." She said grinning.

I didn't really know how to react to that. Every full moon I had cancelled plans with her worried that she would, well you know, kill me.

"Nala, stop being so naïve. Just listen. Everything is relying on you to know what's going on." She said while running her fingers through her hair. "After finding your mate, the next two steps can happen in any order, but either way you end up marked and mated." She said matter-of-factly before pausing to see my reaction.

"What do you mean marked?" I asked noticing I must be missing something. "Oh, um, well your mate will mark you. He bites into the crook of you neck and his name scars there after a while. I know it sound like a whole lot of pain but it feels really good apparently."

"He bites, breaks skin and leaves a scar. You expect it to feel good?" I said sighing.

I didn't feel like this was believable, any of it.

"He has sex with you and then voilà, you become the very thing that he turns into. A wolf." She said, ignoring my comment.

I took a deep breath in and thought, until it began to hurt my brain to comprehend everything.

I didn't think I wanted to believe her. I wanted to just go on with my life and make it work, but the marks on my skin were proof that my life was changing. I knew that it was never going back.

"Nala, Theo's waiting outside and I think he could explain things a little bit better than I could." Jade says leading me back to the park bench.