last Hope

The Marking

Lily

I wake up the next morning to Luca’s sleeping face and can’t bring myself to wake him. He looked so tired yesterday, like he didn’t sleep the whole time I was gone. They all did. So I just lay there, loving being so close to my mate again after who knows how long. 

Then it happened. Again! 

It was so sudden it almost scared me.

I have to pee. I really didn’t want to move, I didn’t want this to end so soon, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to get up without him getting woken up. ‘Really Lily? Again?!’ 

‘I’m sorry Molly, I can’t help it.’ She growls at me and continues to complain at me so I just block her out. 

I try to get up without waking him anyways, despite knowing it wouldn’t work. And I was right. He didn’t budge. So I tried to wake him in the gentlest way I could think of. 

I kissed him. 

But not just once or in one place. I kissed his cheeks, his forehead, his eye lids, his nose, and finally his lips. Molly purrs in approval and stops complaining. He kisses me back and moves his hands from my waist to my cheeks, trying to deepen the kiss. I slip out of his hold as quick as possible, having a hard time leaving him, and run towards the bathroom. 

Luca gives me a strained look and I just laugh, knowing he probably hates me for doing that. I quickly run into the bathroom when I see him start to get up to come after me for what I did. I do my business and look in the mirror to see myself. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be, but it’s still pretty bad. I clean up a bit and then go back out into the small hospital room, the smell of cleaner and bleach burning my nose a bit. 

I find Luca curled back up in bed turned away from me, probably pouting. When I sit back down on the bed he turns around all of a sudden and pulls me into him. 

“That was a dirty move.” He gives me a pointed look before placing a soft kiss on my lips. 

I give him the most innocent look I can muster without smiling. “What did I do?” 

“You know what you did. So, how do you plan on making it up to me for pulling that little trick?” He wiggles his eyebrows as he says this, making me laugh and slap his chest playfully. 

“You dork.” 

He just laughs, swooping down to capture my lips with his again, swiftly ending the conversation. We stay like that for a while before the doctor comes in to check on how my injuries are progressing. 

I was embarrassed beyond belief, and probably as red as a tomato. Luca, on the other hand, had a huge grin on his face. He was laughing at me most of the time. At that point my face was red partially due to my anger coming to the surface towards him for being such a jerk. 

After she checks on my injuries she says I’m healing fine now and we can go home today. 

“All your injuries are pretty much healed, but watch that cut to make sure it doesn't get infected and try not to put too much pressure on your ribs. A few of them were broken and had caused a bit of internal bleeding. The stitches can come out in a few days. If it wasn’t for that little bit of healing your body could still manage you never would’ve survived.” 

We thank her and start getting ready to go to the packhouse, which was only about five minutes away. 

-

After we get to the packhouse, Luca and I go to his room. I borrow one of his shirts and go into the bathroom to take a shower. I look in the mirror after undressing to see the cut. In goes from just below my breast down to just below my bellybutton. I get into the shower and just stand there letting the warm water rush over me, not bothering to use soap or even move, for probably twenty minutes before Molly finally snapped me out of it. 

‘Are you OK?’ She sounds a bit concerned so I tell a white lie to try and keep her from worrying too much, even if she can see right through it. 

‘Ya, I’m fine.’ She leaves it at that and retreats to the back of my mind, not saying another word. 

When I come back out into the room all I have on is the shirt I borrowed from Luca, and a pair of his boxers. Luca was on the bed across from the bathroom, sitting with his head in his hands. He looks up at me and stares at my body, his eyes going black with lust. You could tell he was fighting to control his wolf. I turned away feeling self conscious all of a sudden, hating the way my body looks. 

“Don’t.” He pleads, hurt showing in his eyes as he pulls me towards him. 

“You're beautiful.” 

“No, I’m not.” I fold my arms trying to hide the exposed scars from over the years. 

“Stop.” He takes my hands in his and stares at my arms for a minute while rubbing them. I was uncomfortable, but his touch helps me to calm down and relax a bit. Then he does something I never expected. He softly kisses the scars on my arms.

After he kisses what seems like all of the scars on my arms he plants a soft, passionate kiss on my lips, then carries me to the bed. He then proceeds to plant soft, comforting kisses down my neck and stops at the crook where it connects with my shoulder. Where he will place his mark. 

*Time out, let me explain* 

A mark is like a tattoo only it’s placed when a male bites his mate. Sometimes both mates mark each other depending on their rank in the pack, but usually just the male. This is the first step of the mating process, it deepens the mate bond and causes the two’s scent to change slightly. This tells unmated Were’s that they are taken. The mate bond drives the male to mark his partner and because Luca is an Alpha male, he has a much stronger urge to do this compared to lower ranked males. That brings us to this. 

*Time in*

Luca pulls away with marble black eyes full of lust and strain, his wolf showing through making Molly squirm from under his gaze. 

“Can I?” 

I give him a worried look, scared that it will be painful. He notices and starts to pull away, strain and hurt written on his face. Molly whimpers and I quickly stop him from pulling away. 

“I want you to…” I say drawing out my sentence. 

“...But?” He looks deep into my eyes, like he’s trying to find something. Whether or not he found it, I have no idea. 

I hesitate for a moment. “...But, I’m scared it’s going to be painful. I don’t know much about the mating process. My Mom never let Dad mark her so no one has told me much about it.” 

He reaches up and caresses my cheek with his thumb. I lean into his hand and try to slow my racing heart. He has so many emotions in his eyes it’s hard to distinguish each one. 

“I would never deliberately hurt you. I will always try my best to protect you. I love you, you're my best friend and my mate.” I start to tear up at his words and Molly jumps for joy. 

He is the only person I have ever felt this way about. I love him. I always have and I always will. 

“I love you too.” His face lights up like a christmas tree when I say this and it brings an even bigger smile to my face. 

“You can mark me.” 

“Are you sure?” 

I nod confidently. “I want you to.” 

He hesitated a moment. “I’ll try to make it as painless as possible.” 

I nod again telling him I’m ready. 

He slowly leans towards the part where my neck and shoulder meet, never breaking eye contact with me. I could feel his extended canines softly brush against my skin and then pain. It hurts, but it’s bearable. It only lasts a second before being replaced with pleasure going throughout my entire body. I take the opportunity to reach up and bring my mouth to his neck and do the same to him. He squirms for a second and then stops moving. 

We both pull away after a minute, licking and kissing each other's marks softly before looking at each other. He looks at me worriedly to see if I’m in any pain. “Are you OK? It didn’t hurt too much did it?” 

“I’m fine. What about you?" I start getting really sleepy all of a sudden. He notices and chuckles a bit. 

“I’m fine, just get some rest, you're probably exhausted. It takes a lot out of a person when they're marked.” 

“Will you stay with me then?” 

“Of course, where else would I go.” He gives me a soft smile and pulls the comforters over us before I slowly fall asleep in his arms. 

-

When I wake up the next morning Luca is already awake, for once. He’s laying with me in his arms, just staring at my face. 

“What?” I look up at him questioningly with a small smile on my lips. 

“Nothing, just trying to figure out what I did to deserve a mate like you.” He smiles back at me as he says this. I look away blushing and smiling to myself. 

“I could say the same about you.” I say this to myself so he can’t hear and Molly starts laughing, already knowing how he’s going to react. 

“What was that?” 

“Nothing.” I smile innocently at him knowing that not knowing what I said would drive him nuts. 

“You cheeky little wolf.” He leans down to kiss his mark in the crook of my neck and it sends waves of pleasure throughout my body. I do the same when he pulls away and he seems to be surprised. When I pull away he looks at me with a serious expression. 

“I’m sure you don’t want to, but we need to talk about what happened while you were with your parents.” My smile falters and I look away from him for a moment. 

“OK, but can we clean up and eat some food first?” Our stomachs growl simultaneously at the mention of food. 

“Fine, but right after.” He has a slight blush on his face as he says this. I laugh at his embarrassment. 

Serves you right for laughing at me yesterday. I thought to myself still laughing at him. 

I go into the bathroom to get cleaned up and changed, but stop to examine Luca’s mark first. It’s elegant and beautiful with two wolves looking at each other as they intertwine at their tails with the packs insignia in the center. It’s breathtaking. Luca notices me staring at it and comes up behind me looking proud as he grabs me by my waist and admires his handy work as well as look at his own. We have the same mark. 

“Do you like it?” He asks with a smile. 

“It’s beautiful.” I gasp out. 

Molly chimes in at that. ‘It isn’t permanent yet though. The permanent one is given when we complete the mating process. He’ll have to bite us again every few weeks until then and we’ll have to do the same.’ 

“Good, I’m glad.” He kisses my cheek before I kick him out and finish getting ready. 

We go down stairs a little while later and I find my brothers eating breakfast with Uncle Liam. I run over to them and we all stand there embracing each other for a while before I pull back to make sure they don’t have any injuries. They don’t, luckily. 

“What happened Lily?” Daniel questions me as we all sit around the table. He looks worried. 

“Well…” I thought back over those days I was with my parents. 

“I’m sure you figured out that Mom was in on this by now?” They all nod. 

“Well, after I was taken I woke up in that basement Luca found me in with silver chains on my wrists and ankles. I wasn’t expecting it, but Mom showed up. She kept telling me that because I’m the first born and the only female her powers would have been passed onto me as well as Dad’s were gene. Then she told me that if I didn’t stay with her she would go after you two.” I look towards Daniel and Andrew as I say the last part. 

I went on to tell them about how she kept trying to get me to do things like cast spells or make potions. When I started to talk about what Dad would do to me when I wasn’t with Mom, Luca starts growling next to me and the boys have looks of horror on their faces. I always tried to keep Daniel and Andrew from seeing or even hearing what would happen when dad got angry and or drunk and hurt me, but it can’t be helped now. 

“It’s OK Luca. I’m OK now.” I rub small circles on the back of his hand to try and calm him down. 

“Anyways, I’m safe now. I’m still not quite sure what exactly she’s planning though. It doesn’t really make any sense to me.” 

At that, Uncle Liam speaks up. “We’re still trying to track down your parents, but we haven’t found anything yet, even with the help from the Witches.” 

We went on to eat breakfast in an eerie silence, just thinking to ourselves. After we finish eating Luca pretty much drags me outside. When we finally stop we’re in front of our old treehouse. 

I gasp. “It’s still here.” 

Looking at the old treehouse made memories of our childhood together flood back all at once, one in particular from when we were five. 

*About 13 years ago*

“Luca!” I just got to the packhouse with Dad and I’m running through the house trying to find Luca. 

The first place I thought to look was at our secret base. The treehouse. My Dad and Uncle Liam had built it for us a couple of months ago and we are always getting into trouble up there, trying to hide from our Dads most of the time. 

“Luca?!” I peek my head in through the door and see him sitting in one of the huge beanbags on the floor. 

“Luca, what are you doing?” He looks up, finally realizing I’m there.

“Lily, come here.” He pats the spot next to him on the beanbag motioning for me to come sit next to him. 

When I go over and sit with him he shows me what he was doing. Turned out he had been drawing a picture of two really pretty wolves. Luca was a really good artist and had a lot of talent you wouldn’t expect from a five year old. 

“It’s us.” 

He smiles and hands me the picture he had drawn of us in wolf form. “I bet we’re gonna be mates when we’re big like the adults. Then we can be best friends forever.” 

We didn’t know what mates were exactly, but we knew it meant that we would get to spend our entire lives together. So that's what we dreamed about having in our future. 

“I hope so.” I respond smiling ear to ear thinking about what we might look like when we can finally turn into wolves and if we really will be mates. 

I voice my thoughts to Luca. “Do you think we’re gonna look like the adults when we’re big?” 

“I don’t know. I bet we’re gonna be bigger than the adults. That would be cool.” 

We kept talking like that for a while, imagining what it might be like when we get older. Imagining what it might be like to be mates, even if we didn’t really understand it.  

*Present day*

He looks at me with the biggest smile I have ever seen, probably thinking about the same thing I am. He then has me sit on the old ladder of the tree house and gets down on one knee, looking me in the eyes the whole time. 

Oh my god. I think to myself. 

Realization flashes through his eyes and he quickly speaks up. “Calm down. I’m not proposing or anything like that. Not yet at least.” He chuckles as he says this. 

“Lily. Will you go out with me on a date tomorrow?” He’s blushing and has a shy smile on his face, but he still looks confident somehow. 

How does he do that? I start to smile and tackle him to the ground in a hug. “Of course I will!” 

He looks into my eyes with a huge grin on his face. “Guess we were right about being mates when we were young.” I smile back at him and plant a kiss on his lips. 

When I pull back I realize something. "Luca?"

He hums. "Yeah?" 

"I just realized I haven't seen your wolf from yet." I look him in the eyes with curiosity and excitement. 

He thinks for a moment. "I guess you haven't, have you?"

"Nope. Will you show me?" He looks at me for a moment before nodding. I smile a huge smile and jump up and down before I remember my ribs and cut and then regret that. 

Luca laughs at me before getting a bit more serious. "You OK?" 

"Yeah, I'm fine." I smile a him so he doesn't worry. 

"OK. if I'm going to show you my wolf you have to shift to." I nod at him and we part ways to undress and shift. 

It doesn't feel painfull this time. It actually feel relieving and relaxing. I can feel Molly better. I can feel her strong legs, her soft flowing fur, and the dirt and grass beneath my paws. 

I walk out from behind the trees to see a huge light brown wolf with beautiful blue eyes sitting and staring at me. Luca.

"You look beautiful." I hear in my mind. I flinch and then recognize it as Luca's voice and remember that we can communicate through a mind link in wolf form. 

"Thank you, you are pretty handsome yourself." If you remember from before I said it wasn't uncommon for Alpha males to be up to six and a half feet tall. Well that was the case for Luca. He's the biggest wolf I've ever seen and just like in human form he towers over me. I've actually gotten quite a bit bigger though. I was about four and half and now I'm over five foot. 

I walk over and cuddle up between Luca's front legs against his chest. I can feel his strong heart beat and a low purring deep in his chest. Its comforting so I stay there for a while. He doesn't seem to mind and nuzzles into my neck, getting comfortable.

-

After a while I nip at his neck playfully and run into the forest. He chases me and I can hear him getting closer. I laugh and jump under the roots of a large tree. He's a little to big to fit so I'm safe and continue to laugh at him.

"Haha, very funny. But you'll have to come out sooner or later." He chuckles and just lays in front of the tree, waiting for me to come out. 

"I'll only come out if you promise not to do anything weird."

"Like what?" He asks amused. 

"I don't know,  just dont do anything weird." He laughs at me and I glare back at him.

"Fine fine. I won't do anything weird." When he says this I come out and lay against him.

"Your so big." I say to him without really thinking. 

He looks at me amused. "No, you're just small." 

"I am not!" Everyone calls me short as a human so I am not going to let him start calling me short as a wolf. 

He laughs. "Sorry baby, but you are pretty small."

"Gimme a break, I'm still a new shifter." I glare at him and he just smiles a wolfish smile and licks my cheek.

"Fine, you're not small." 

The rest of the day we spent talking about when we were kids and just being together in wolf and human form, then we go to bed. I stole another one of his shirts and cuddled into the huge bed with him, falling asleep not long after, thinking about what he might be planning for tomorrow. 

All of a sudden, I wake up in the basement again and I get a pain in my chest. 

‘It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream, stay calm.’ Molly repeats this to me over and over again, trying to get through to me to calm me down and think rationally while I repeat the same words out loud to myself. 

“Don’t be too quick to judge. You may not be here right now but this is far more than just a dream.” My Mother shows herself from one of the corners of the room, saying this as she starts moving closer to me. 

“What do you want?” Molly starts gowling defensively in my head while I start having an anxiety attack as she gets closer and closer. 

“Let’s talk.”