You're Not My Mate

Not Playing Fair

Liam POV

“Morning, baby girl.” I whisper into Aurelia’s ear as I can feel her starting to stir. “What time is it?” She groans. I chuckle lightly, looking at the clock. “4.40 baby. We have training with Antonio in 20 minutes. You’re fighting against Cruz and Marcus, remember?” She shoots up with a grin on her face and then leans into me, wrapping her arms around my torso. “Thank you for being ok with this. I know it’s a big deal for you.” I nod, nuzzling into her neck. I’d wanted to warn Cruz and Marcus not to harm a single hair on her head, but she had already warned me not to. She wanted to set an example for the pack that she would be treated like anyone else when it came to training. 

Antonio had pushed everyone else’s training back to 6AM. So it was just me, Aurelia, Marcus and Cruz training at 5 with him. Aurelia got dressed into a pair of loose sweatpants and one of my hoodies and we head down to the arena. I hold her in front of me, pulling her close to my body as Antonio talks about the session. It was going to be in wolf form, with Cruz and Marcus both attacking her. First of all taking turns, giving her a short break between each one, and then both together. I was nervous. I felt sick at the thought of it. And the anger was radiating from me. As if sensing it, she squeezed my arm with her hand, as if trying to reassure me. 

“No matter what Liam tries to say. I want you both to attack me like you would any other wolf in training. Do you understand?” She asks, her voice thick with command. Both Cruz and Marcus bow their heads slightly. “Yes, Luna.” “Good.” “Ok, Luna, Beta, Gamma, shift. Alpha, I want you to stand with me. There’s to be no interrupting. I want this to be a fight like you would see in the field. Do we all understand?” Everyone nods, including me. I walk with Aurelia behind a tree, holding her clothes while she undresses and protecting her naked body from any other eyes. When she’s fully naked, she leans up and gently kisses my lips. “I know it’s gonna be hard to watch. But we’re doing this for our pack. Ok?” I nod, wrapping my arms around her. “Give them hell, baby girl.” She grins and kisses me again, with more force and passion. “I love you.” “I love you too, sweet baby.” 

And then she starts her shift. Her shifting has been getting quicker and less painful each time she does it. I still can’t believe she hadn’t shifted on her 18th birthday. She had more willpower and strength than most wolves I know. Most Alpha’s have to shift on their 18th or they go crazy arguing with their wolf. But not Aurelia. Not my sweet Aurelia. Her wolf is still as beautiful to me as the first day I saw her. She’s a gorgeous champagne colour with little bits of her fur sparkling as if someone had emptied a tub of glitter over her. Theodore was whining in the back of my head, begging me to stop this. But it was halfhearted. He knows as well I do that we have to let this be. We need her to be able to protect herself. 

She jumps up onto her back two legs, resting her paws against my chest as I stroke her neck. “I love you so much.” I whisper. She sticks her tongue out and starts licking up my face. I chuckle and gently push her backwards off me. We walk back to the arena and Cruz and Marcus are both stood waiting. Aurelia is smaller than them, by quite a bit, and the thought makes me feel nauseous. But this is the reality of what it will be like on the field - she’s probably going to be smaller than most wolves. And even smaller than me in human form didn’t stop her kicking my ass. I try to remember when her old pack came to visit and Lucia told me how Aurelia would even kick Caesar’s ass and it helps calm my nerves.

“Ok, you can choose whether you or your wolves are present for the fighting, or you can flick between the two. Treat this like you would a battle on the field, fighting for survival. Yes?” The three of them let out soft howls in agreement and Antonio signals to start. My stomach turns and I can hear Theodore pacing around in the back of my mind getting nervous. Cruz and Marcus exchange looks, deciding who is going to attack first. Cruz goes first and I smirk internally, knowing he’s drawn the short straw. I was expecting Aurelia to destroy them both. But the first 5 minutes she goes on the defensive and takes hit after hit. A bite on her neck from Cruz draws a small whinge from her and I itch trying to hold myself back from intervening until Antonio places an arm in front of me as if to signal for me to wait. I look at him with the anger radiating through me. How dare he hold me back from my mate. “Wait.” He orders quietly and gestures back to the arena. 

Cruz was circling again ready to attack, he lunges forward, but this time Aurelia jumps up, twisting and kicking him in the face with her back legs. Cruz goes flying backwards onto the floor and lifts his head up looking at her, Marcus and then me with wide eyes. Marcus now looks uneasy, but he charges straight for her, jumping up ready to pounce on top of her, but she sees him coming. She rolls away, spins around and jumps on top of him, biting the scruff of his neck. They continue fighting like this for the next 15 minutes. Cruz and Marcus looked exhausted, and yet Aurelia kept going. When they started to slow down with their attacks on her, she turned the tables and started attacking them first. 

“OK. TWO ON ONE!” Antonio calls. My whole body tenses and Antonio turns to me. “Those first 5 minutes she was dissecting their moves and strengths Liam. She took those hits so that she could analyse how they fight, how strong they are and how much pain they can inflict. I’ve never seen anyone trained like this except for the military. There’s more to her training than she’s letting on.” I nod silently in agreement as I watch her use Marcus and Cruz against each other. 

I can see Antonio mind link a short while later and then I see Cruz change direction and charge at me. 

“Let him and make a noise that you’re hurt.”

Antonio’s voice rings through my mind. I brace myself for the impact as Cruz knocks me to the floor, growling and flashing his teeth, latching his mouth around my neck. Antonio glares at me and I let out a small growl as if the teeth are hurting me. I turn to the side and see Aurelia trying to get to me while Marcus tries to block her off. She looks panicked and I suddenly realise what’s going on. Antonio is using her weakness against her. She darts back and fore trying to gauge Marcus, realising that he’s expecting her to run past, she surprises him and turns on the attack instead. She jumps on top of him growling, and wrestling him to the floor, biting his neck and finally one of his paws. With a sharp kick to his ribs, he collapses and she charges over at us. As she gets closer she looks at my neck and then Cruz before biting into his hind leg. He yelps and releases and she uses that to jump on top of him, biting his ear and pulling him off me. 

They both end up running towards the other end of the arena fighting. After another 10 minutes, Antonio starts cheering, clapping and then asking them all to stop. They limp over to us. There’s blood speckled through Aurelia’s coat and I can’t work out if it’s hers or the guys, I try to avoid my wolf ripping out and instead try to concentrate on her beautiful hazel eyes. “Go shift and come back.” Antonio orders. They all nod and I go to follow Aurelia back behind the tree to help her change but Antonio calls me back.

“What?” I ask, bewildered. He shuffles between his feet and then looks dead in my eyes. “There’s no way a wolf of her size and strength, without training for the last few months should be able to do that. Even with a military type of training. Her colour wolf is uncommon. Some of the abilities you’ve spoken about.. Those are even more uncommon. I think there’s going to be something about her.” I nod in agreement, perking my ears to try and listen for her. A few seconds later she walks back into the clearing, diving onto Marcus and Cruz as they all laugh and reminisce about the fight, walking towards us. As they get closer, Aurelia leaves them both and comes to stand in front of me. I wrap my arms around her neck, resting them on her shoulders as Antonio gives a debrief.

“That wasn’t fair, Antonio. Using Liam.” He chuckles and shrugs. “Luna, that was.. Amazing. Even Liam struggles to fight these two off, but you seemed a natural.” She shrugs and then sighs. “I’ve always been sworn to secrecy over this, but I trust you 4 impeccably. When I was younger, a lycan came to our pack to work for a few years. I was 10 at the time. He was amazing, and I took an instant like to him. And although he was always so serious and murderous looking, he always faltered a little around me..” I can feel my whole body tense. Lycan’s were dangerous. Very dangerous. They were also known to be another level of possessive. Had he staked some sort of claim on Aurelia? She starts to draw circles on my hands and I realise she can sense my mood so I try to relax. 

She takes a deep breath and continues. “He noticed a few things with my father. Not exactly what was going on, but he picked up on the fact that I wasn’t exactly the favourite. My father was good at putting on a mask in front of others. But you can’t fool a lycan. He knew that Felix and Caesar were training me, but he asked me one day if I’d be interested in having training from him. Felix was nervous about it, but Caesar was in awe and told me that it would be the best decision I ever made. So, I agreed. He trained me for 4 years.” Antonio nods as if suddenly understanding everything. “Why did he stop?” She shrugs. “He told me that I was special.. And I’d be able to remember all of it and that I didn’t need him anymore.” “Do you still see him?” I ask. She shakes her head. “No.. The last time I saw him I was 14. He said he’d be back to see me but he never returned.” I can sense her sadness and I can feel myself getting jealous over some lycan prick I’d never even met. Everyone gets dismissed and it leaves just me and Aurelia walking back to our room.

“You don’t have to feel jealous, you know.” My eyebrows shoot up as I look down at Aurelia as we walk into our bedroom. She takes a seat on the bed as I start running the bath, before coming back int the room. “I’m not sad that I never saw him again in the way that you think.. I’m sad that every male I ever trusted, turned out to let me down. I honestly believed that he would come back and see me again, when he didn’t.. It was like just one more person letting me down. And now I have you, I’m scared something will happen and I’ll lose you. That’s why I want to be able to fight, Liam.”

I sit down next to her and pull her into my lap. She nuzzles into my chest, running one hand under my shirt to rest on my chest. “I’ll never leave you, I promise.” I kiss her head and watch her smile. “Good. I can’t ever lose you, Liam. I can’t live without you. You’re my life.” I can’t help but smile. It had taken all of my willpower to let today happen, and I don’t think I could do it again so soon. But it was worth it to see Aurelia so happy. 

“So, what are your plans today?” She lets out a small yawn as I carry her into the bath with me. “I have some more filing to do at the hospital. What about you?” I nod as I run my fingers over her scalp, massaging the shampoo in. “I’ll be working from the office here, I have a few emails to catch up on. Lunch?” She nods. “Will you ask Jordan to make pizza please?” I chuckle, knowing full well Jordan would make her anything she ever wanted. She had everyone wanting to bow down to her and give her the world. She treated Jordan exactly the same way she treated Cruz, Marcus and any high ranking wolf. Everyone was equal in Aurelia’s eyes. 

Aurelia POV

I sigh and lean back looking around me. I’d finished the filing and uploading of all the wolves in our pack’s details. It had been hard going, but it was worth it. There was still a lot more to be added, but now that the basics were on there, our pack doctors were able to get a better understanding of each wolf, their bloodline and anything hereditary to look out for. Liam had brought freshly made pizzas and garlic bread for dinner before heading back to his office, and I was already craving more pizza - and more of Liam too. Jordan was an amazing chef anyway, but his pizza making skills are the best I’ve ever tasted. 

At just after 5, I head back to the pack house. Liam had already mind linked me to meet him out the back by the pool, Theodore was itching to see Crimson - and the feeling was mutual on her side too. I felt the smile spreading across my face as I walked towards Liam, dressed in his grey sweatpants and a tight white t-shirt. This is something I’d never get bored of.

We head into the forest, and hide behind a tree to get changed. “You are so beautiful, baby.” I blush as I turn and see him taking in all of my nakedness. I was always so self-conscious about my height, and having such a fat ass.. And yet with Liam, I feel like I could be a runway model. The hunger in his eyes. The compliments he gives me. I can feel the heat spreading across my face the longer he stares at me. I close the gap between us and wrap my arms around his body. “And you, are the most handsome man I’ve ever seen.” I compliment, pulling my head back to kiss his chest. He smiles, bending down to kiss my forehead. 

“Come on, let’s shift and let these 2 have some fun.” I nod in agreement and feel that all too familiar snap, c***k and morphing take over my body. Each shift became easier and less painful, and in no time at all I’m dropping to the floor on all four feet and Crimson is pushing to take over. I lick Liam’s face one last time and then retreat, letting Crimson take the lead and have fun.