The Transfer

"This bear hunt is my favourite time of the year. It's just before all the bears go into hibernation. So they're really fat and easy to take down. It's the best,” Lila said as we walked. I raised my eyebrows at her as her belly rumbled loudly. She giggled and shrugged at me.

We set down the gear in front of us with the rest of the stuff and we both exhaled deeply. My wolf was giddy with certain for the day. We couldn't wait to sink our teeth into a nice, fat bear.

It was the day we were finally leaving for the bear hunt. There was a large group of us all going. I knew most people that were coming, but there were some that I was unfamiliar with.

All my friends were coming, as well as Liam and Alfie. Even Ezra was dragging his ass along with us despite the amount of complaining he did while we finalised this trip.

"I'm so excited that you get to come this year. Brayleigh doesn't go and I always end up tagging around Liam or Lucas and Leon. They're so boring," Lila complained as we stood together. I smiled at her.

"Aren't you just the sweetest?" I rolled my eyes at her playfully. She giggled and poked her tongue out at me. I felt an arm around my shoulders and looked back. It was Lucas.

"You're both so small. I'm sure there's a height limit that you have to beat to be able to come on this hunt,” Lucas teased, making Lila growl. I scoffed at him and elbowed him hard in the gut. He winced and rubbed the spot when I hit him.

"You're mean. I hope you know that," he told me. Lila and I both laughed.

"Yeah, I know. It keeps me awake at night," I retorted. Lucas rolled his eyes at me and I heard a loud growl from behind us. I turned around to face a pissed off looking Liam.

Lucas groaned and took his arm away from me. Liam instantly looked less angry. "She's mine. Give it a break."

Lucas looked at him with a scowl whilst I stared at him intensely. My heart stammered against my chest as Liam looked at me. He winked and then walked past us to attend to the final organisations before we left.

"Awe! That was so cute,” Lila awed at me. She grabbed my arm and grinned at me before pulling me into a tight hug. Next to us, Lucas scoffed.

"So she can go near you but I can't? I call bullshit!" Lucas hissed angrily. Lila giggled as she pulled away and flipped off her brother. Leon appeared with another guy by his side, as well as Kade.

I smiled at Kade and Leon and then looked closely at this stranger. He was tall. Taller than all the guys here. He towered over me like a freaking building. He ran his hand through his brown hair and smiled at me.

My wolf sniffed at him. We didn't feel threatened, so we let down our walls and decided to be nice. "Alison, this is Quo. He's cool, I guess,” Leon said, jokingly. I smiled and Quo nudged Lucas with his elbow. He smiled anyway and held his hand out to me.

"It's so nice to finally meet the girl who is keeping our main man in line," Quo said with a smile that made me feel welcomed. I knew that this male wasn't a threat.

I shook his hand. He had a firm grip that could probably crush the bones in my hand to dust.

"Oh, I met Veronica last night, by the way," I announce to my friends. They all raised their their eyebrows at me and even Quo looked a little shocked.

They'd seemed real worked up about Veronica when they told me about her. I guessed it would be important to mention that I had met her.

"What? What the hell happened?" Lila exclaimed loudly. We all looked around for any sight of the family that we despised. When we found nothing, I cleared my throat.

"She asked him to go to her house for dinner. Kept asking him about soup. I was right there too!" I hissed out. Leon snorted and Lucas held his stomach as he laughed.

"Potato and leak soup?” Lucas asked me. I frowned and him and nodded. Lila groaned from next to me. I looked to her as she shook her head and sighed.

"She knows that potato and leak soup is his favourite. She tries to bribe him with it. He'll do quite literally anything for a good potato and leak soup," Lila explained to me. I felt a pang of jealousy in my gut and tried to push it aside. I hoped that she wasn't coming on this hunt with us.

"Well, I must be real important because he turned her down and stayed with me instead,” I said as I crossed my arms, proud. My wolf yipped and twirled around. We were both happy that our male turned down this female for us.

"Of course you're important. I'd be very worried if he had gone with her for the soup,” Kade snorted. He rolled his eyes and I shrugged as I heard someone clear their throat.

I turned around and saw Liam standing out the front of the crowd of people. There were quite a few people here. I was confused on how so many of us were going to kill ourselves a bear.

Were there that many bears?

"Alright, let's not waste time and get straight into it. We won't be doing any hunting today. We will be moving up east to find an area to camp. We already have several people who have already made their way up that way to scout areas for good places for us to start the hunt tomorrow,” Liam explained to everyone. I swooned over the way he spoke. He was definitely a leader. It shocked me how good he was at this.

Everyone listened to him.

My beast purred. She liked that our male was such a leader. She liked that he was a strong Alpha. "We've had human sightings around the area we are hunting, so one of our main concerns this year is that we avoid them at all costs,” Liam said, starting to talk about something else. But my ears pick up on another conversation.

"I wonder how human would taste,” I heard a low chuckle. I looked around, following the noise where my eyes landed on Anthony. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Of course he was coming along on this trip.

My wolf huffed in annoyance. She hated Anthony with a passion. Arrogant ass male.

"We'll be leaving in five minutes,” Liam concluded and everyone turned away. I cleared my throat and crossed my arms.

The moment Liam stepped away from the stage, he was joined by Veronica. She was barely wearing any clothes as she trotted over. I assumed that she was trying to show off her practically flawless body to him.

My wolf fumed. She was close to walking over there and ripping that girl's head off. She was treading on a thin line.

I smelt Henry and my wolf growled. I bit back so that I wouldn't growl too. I was sill angry at him for what I heard him saying the other day in his office. I spun around to face my group again and clenched my fists to try and shake off the anger that I was feeling.

Something on my arm burned and I hissed. I looked down, noticing there was now a ashy black mark from where I felt the burn. I touched it gently and winced in pain.

What the hell?

I looked behind me and saw Liam talking to Henry and Veronica. The female had her hand on my mate's arm and it was burning me.

I knew what it was. It was a threat. Physical contact from other people always burned the two mates if there was a threat to the bond. Veronica was a threat to Liam's and I's bond. That's why it hurt. Why was she touching him? He isn't her mate. She doesn't need to have her damn hands all over him!

I watched as Liam shifted and moved away from Veronica slightly. There was a slight mark from where she had touched him. I clenched my jaw shut.

"They go away within a few minutes,” Lila said from next to me as she brushed her fingers over the burn mark. I nodded at her and she offered me a small smile.

"Alright everyone, let's go! We've got a tight schedule to stick to here,” Liam called. Everyone turned and began to strip away clothes. I widened my eyes as people were slowly getting naked.

Lila grabbed my arm and lead me away. She pulled me behind some thick scrub and we undressed together. It felt nice to know that she understood my fear of all of this new stuff. I barely ever shifted back in Terialta. This was so new to me. Shifting every morning.

We shifted together and then joined the pack again. I felt a slight pushing at my mind and I inwardly groaned as I let it in.

"Alright. This first run should take a while. So keep up," Liam's voice called over a link. I noticed everyone in the pack nod and figured that everyone was in the link too.

We all turned. Liam lead the run, Veronica's damned wolf by Liam's side almost immediately. My group of friends and I stuck to the front also. But I wished we had stayed at the back. From where I ran, I could easily see Veronica running closer to Liam than necessary.

"Bite her in the ass and I'll toss you a fifty,” Leon told me. I rolled my eyes at this but then actually thought about it. I would love to take a bite out of her hide. She deserved it for what she was doing. "Thinking about it, truly,” I told him. I heard his chuckles and glanced to my side. He was a tall brown wolf. He was probably the tallest out of the group of friends we were running in. But it was definitely noticeable that Liam was the biggest wolf here.

We ran through the forest for hours. We stopped twice for a drink break by a stream that we practically followed the entire way. I noticed that we were headed in the way of Terialta.

It was a long journey from my pack to Takiani. It sucked having to run that far, because if it was closer, I would have gone to visit my brothers already.

Upon or third stop, I trotted over to the water and greedily drank. I was thirsty and out of breath, but I had so much adrenaline running through me that I didn't even care. I was thriving off this run. It felt like I just run forever if I wanted.

I felt Liam's presence before I saw him. He appeared next to me and drank from the water slowly. I watched him drink before he turned his gaze to me.

"How you holding up, sugar?" He asked me through a private link. My body buzzed with the sparks that flew between us. I felt energised.

"Pretty good. I'm getting hungry though,” I told him honestly. His wolf nodded his head as we both stepped away from the cold water.

"Ezra and Alfie have already found a spot for us. They're cooking rabbit stew as we speak,” Liam told me. I nodded as my wolf decided to take a bold step that I didn't agree with. She moved to Liam and then rubbed us along his length. I heard his soft rumble and purred in response.

I scolded my beast. She didn't care. She liked that we now had our scent on Liam. Maybe that would keep Veronica the hell away from him.

"Come on. We have to keep going, sugar. As much as I'd like to stay here with you," Liam said cooly. I nodded my head and held back another purr as we began running again.

Despite my thoughts, as soon as we started running, Liam was joined by Veronica yet again.