Under the Hill

Chapter 4

Kaylen:

I feel like a complete d**k. I meet my mate, scare her half to death, drag her back to the pack house and then just leave her alone for the rest of the day. I haven't even had a real conversation with her.

Hades has been rushing me all day to finish up my alpha duties so we can talk with our mate but a lot ended up coming up. As soon as I got back and one of the elders heard of my mate they demanded an audience. They were dumbfounded when I told them she was a human. They told me it was impossible.

Once Selene, our Moon Goddess, mated us with humans to increase our numbers. However, on more then one occasion the human mate would reject the wolf and then tell the villager of their existence. This caused many humans to attempt to hunt us down with pitch forks. Selene, mourning the loss of her children, decreed she would never pair a human to a wolf again, only to another supernatural being. Because of this there was no way Renlian could be a human.

The elders think she is hiding what she is from us. The only problem is that she smells like a human. Every super natural being has a distinct scent and only by completely masking their scent can they keep themselves human. But I can smell Renlian and she smells human. Myself and the elders scored hours over text to see if there were any creatures who didn’t have a distinct smell and we came up empty.

They advised they had to reach out to elders in other packs to see if they had ever heard of such a thing.

Before I knew it, it was well past dinner time. I went to catch up with Max to see how Renlian was holding up. I could smell him in the dining area so I made my way there.

"Hey, how is Renlian?"

"Oh sup dude. She is passed out up in the Luna suite. I think Ryn wore her out."

"She met Ryn?"

"Yah, she doesn’t have any clothes or anything until we get her things so she borrowed some from my sis."

"Makes sense, and I didn’t even think that she has nothing here"

"Yah I went and got her stuff from that field earlier. When I got back she was knocked out. I its sitting in your office for safe keeping. I didn’t want to spook her going into her room while she was asleep."

"Thanks."

"For sure. On the note of her stuff, we need to arrange for a moving truck and some packing members to assist in packing her stuff."

"On it." I looked up truck rentals and booked a truck for tomorrow. I made my way upstairs to my office. I found Renlian's backpack on my desk. It smelled like her. Like a total creep, I held her back close to me and breathed in her scent. It was intoxicating. Before I realized it my feet were moving towards her room. I cracked the door open slowly and saw she was sound asleep on top of the covers. I put her backpack on the dresser and went over to tuck her in.

I pulled the blankets out from under her and then over top of her. I tucked it in at her side and turned to walk away before Hades got any ideas. Suddenly, she grabbed my arm. I turned to look at her and her eyes were open and glowing green. Glowing? She blinked and they went back to normal and she realized for the first time she had grabbed my arm.

"Sorry to wake you."

"Mmm, its ok I haven't eaten anything since lunch. Probably a good thing I woke up or I might be cranky in the morning."

"Your eyes were glowing." She paused and looked up at me.

"Glowing? What are you talking about? You must have been seeing things." she laughed off.

"Are you a supernatural?"

"What? Why would you think that?"

"Wolves don’t have human mates."

"Well I don’t know what to tell you but, your wolf does." she brushed it off and moved past me to get off the bed. She headed for the door and turned back. "You coming to join me or are you going to leave me by myself again?"

A pang of guilt hit me. I brushed it off and got up to follow behind her. We went down to the kitchen.

"Mrs. Hardy has already left for the day but I am sure there is something in the fridge we can eat." She nodded her head and followed behind me. I looked in the fridge and no leftovers which wasn’t surprising. She was rummaging through the vegetables. She picked up a tomato and brought it up to her face breathing it in. She had a small smile on her face. I could watch her all day. Hades hummed in agreement. He was being surprisingly calm given earlier events.

"Doesn’t look like there any leftovers. I think there is stuff for some sandwiches."

"Does Mrs. Hardy get mad if someone uses her cook ware?"

"Not at all. She says everyone is welcome to come cook. Why?"

"Sit back wolf boy. I am going to whip us up some dinner."

I wasn’t sure how much I liked the nick name wolf boy but I was curious to see what she was going to make. She rummaged through the fridge contemplating her options. She found some baguette in the pantry which seemed to make her really happy. She pulled out shredded mozzarella and sausage from the fridge and went to work. She grabbed the fresh tomatoes again, smiling at them happily. I wasn't sure what she was putting together.

"I don’t work well being watched."

"Say no more." I said and went to sit in the dining hall. After a while I smelled something delicious. Not long after she came out with a plate full of something to the resemblance of mini pizza's.

"Bon Appetit. These are pizza baguettes. In the summer when we had excess tomatoes from the garden, this would be my favorite thing my grandmother would make. Bake the fresh tomatoes in a bit of vinegar and basil. Put it on top of the sliced up baguettes, cover with cheese and bake until the cheese melts. I added sausage to make it more filling. Hope you like it."

I loved watching how excited she was about explaining her creation. I picked one up and took a bite. Flavor filled my mouth and it had to have been one of the best things I have ever tasted. "Oh my god, this is amazing."

"Mhmm." she mumbled as she was enjoying one herself. She was smiling contently to herself. I took the time to take in everything about her. I noticed her green eyes earlier but as I looked t them closer I could see that there were gold speckles throughout. She had a few freckles on her face but not a bunch. Her skin was fair but not pale. Her red hair reached to the middle of her back, it wasn’t overly curly just really wavy. And she was absolutely perfect.

"You going to eat more or just keep staring at me."

"Sorry." I grabbed another one. I hadn't noticed she caught me staring. But this time as I ate, I felt her eyes on me. They drifted from my face to my chest, then to my arms. She took in a breath and pretended like she hadn't just been checking me out. She focused back on her food but nibbled on her bottom lip in deep thought. I couldn't pry my eyes off of that action.

I wanna bite that lip.

Calm yourself Hades.

Why should I. She was clearly interested.

Maybe but you will come off too strong. Again, we don’t want to scare her away.

I noticed her staring at me.

"Your eyes just changed colors."

"Oh yah, I was talking to my wolf. Whenever we communicate over the mind link our eyes look like our wolves."

"Good to know. Mind link, is that just with your wolf or can you connect with other pack members?"

"Any pack member that already has their wolf. You don’t shift until the first full moon after your 18th birthday. So we can't link with the younger pack member's."

"Makes sense." she went back to eating her food. We continued to eat in silence until all the food was gone. That meal was amazing.

"Do you want to take a walk with me and talk?" I asked her.

"Um, sure. Might be good."

I lead her oud the back door and we began walking around the training field that were out back. She was taking in the scenery she could pick up in the moonlight. "Remind me to take you on a tour of the territory after we get your stuff."

She nodded keeping quiet. "How are you handling all this?"

"Honestly it is both a lot and also it is what it is. The sooner I accept it the easier it will be."

"Fair enough."

"So…."

"So?"

"Mate stuff."

"Yah?" I didn’t think she would broach this subject just yet.

"I know for you all, this is completely normal. You meet your mate and then jump each other and f**k like bunnies. But, this is new for me so I would appreciate it if you would be patient with me."

"Of course! I wasn’t expecting you to get in bed with me on night one!"

"That’s good to hear. But, I also know that you and your wolf might not be on the same page."

"That is the case, yes."

"Can I talk to him?"

"Hades?"

"Yes. Can you um shift and let me talk to him? I mean if he can talk to me?"

"Yah, when he is in wolf form he should be able to send you telepathic communications similar to our mind link. It is how wolves from other packs communicate with each other. But are you sure. If he tries to jump you I am not sure I will be able to take back control."

"I am sure."

"Ok. Turn around. I am sure you don’t want to see me naked just yet."

She turned around, and I undressed. And then I shifted.