Arabella Caine

Innocence is only until you tasted the dark lips of wickedness.

((Four weeks ago)

Arabella looked at herself morosely in the mirror. Her green eyes were narrowed as she
watched herself. Her cheeks were streaked with mud and scratches, from the early morning
training session with Even, one of the warrior and her mentor, and Lois, her best friend's
brother and beta of their small pack, Wild Sapphire.

She smiled when she remembered how she had sneakily

made the log of the man fall to his feet. Lois was surprised. He

had laughed loudly at the warrior and called Arabella a sly fox.

She was, too.

What she lacked in size, she made up with her wit and

quick thinking. Eren was proud. She said that Arabella was

becoming much better these days and it made Arabella

happy. She had been training a lot these past months and it

was showing in her posture, in her techniques.

Arabella rubbed her face, wiping the mud off of her face, when the door to her room banged
open without even so

much of a polite knocking. Of course, Ziya didn't know

anything about polite or knocking.

Arabella already knew who it was even before she looked

up. Ziya Cullen, her best friend, stood there, leaning against

the door, a smirk on her red lips as she scanned Arabella from

top to bottom.

"What?" Arabella snapped and Ziya just shrugged as she

walked inside with a shake of her head. Ziya was an omega,

but there was something about her… that made her stronger

than anyone.

Ziya was also the smartest wolfanyone could have ever

come across. She was loyal, stubborn and persistent, That

was why she and Arabella had become quick friends.

Arabella made sure that Ziya would get whatever place

she wanted in the pack-what was the use of being the

Alpha's sister if she couldn't get whatever she wanted, and

she wanted a lot, and Adam always gave in-and Ziya wanted

to study to become the pack doctor.

Ziya was now in her second year at Zee-Duklee School of

Medicine.

The time Arabella could see her best friend was rare, and

rather few these days, but whenever they were together, they

painted their pack land and cities around, red. Not literally,

just metaphorically.

"You are hopeless." Ziya said as she unwrapped her stole

and placed it on Arabella's bed before she turned to Arabella

and made a face. "Go and wash yourself, first. God, so dirty. I

am ashamed to call you my best friend."

Arabella huffed and poked her tongue out. "But I am the

only one brave enough to become your best friend. Oh, and

Becca." Arabella teased as she looked at her best friend with a

smile.

"I will help you get ready for the Coronation ball. If I let

you to your own device, you would go there wearing one of

your muddy jackets and ratty trousers." Ziya sniffed as her

dark gray eyes scanned her, and Arabella groaned in

irritation.

"I don't even want to go, but Adam is adamant about

going there. He is exhilarated that he might finally meet his

mate, and he also wants me to meet my mate… I have long

given up finding my mate, you know…" Arabella shrugged.

"But I do wish that Adam finally meets his mate."

"Oh, we will find our mate soon and itis going to be

freaking amazing. ljust hope you don't go and do something

disgraceful as you always do, like pouring hot soup on that

poor guy who dared to take you on a date." Kia, her wolf, said

in her head, her voice a sarcastic lilt. " Poor sap! I worrythat he

might not get to have pups!"

Arabella's wolf was often very demanding and sarcastic,

but she loved the damned beast nonetheless.

"Yeah, I love you too, you snobbyb*tch." Arabella said

with a huff.

Arabella Caine and her wolf, Kia, had been looking

forward to meeting their mate for a long, long time.

She was turning twenty-two tomorrow and she still

hadn't found her mate, and she longed to find her mate.

She wanted to feel the mate bond everyone kept telling

her about, including her other best friend, Becca. That instant

connection, that undeniable attraction, the emotional bond.

Oh, just thinking about it made her feel giddy.

Tonight, she had to go to attend the coronation

ceremony of the new Alpha of the Blood Stone Pack.

Every neighbouring pack, big and small from the realm of Vérfarkas - the realm ofLycans and
Werewolves

-was

invited, and there would be a lot of wolves attending from

every pack.

It would be a chance to meet the mates for the unmated

wolves in these kind of ceremonies, and most of the single

wolves would be in attendance, but Arabella didn't really

want to go, because everything she had ever heard about the

blood stone pack was bad. Blood chillingly horrid.

The former Alpha, the father of the new Alpha who was

going to get crowned, was said to be a sadistic monster, or so

she had heard.

He had killed his own mate, and now he spent his time
with every she-wolf who wanted to bed an Alpha. She had

also heard that every omega in the blood stone pack lived like

a slave/servant. The bottom ofthe bottom.

Arabella couldn't believe how they were still so

backward thinking. Times had changed, but still some wolves

were so stuck in their narrow cages, willfully grabbing on to

their narrow ideals. Arabella was grateful her brother was

man enough to accept whatever Arabella had proposed to be

changed in their pack.

"We all hope for a Luna as amazing as Alpha Adam." Ziya

said, her eyes twinkling in adoration and respect.

Adam was the one who was paying for Ziya's education,

because he claimed that Ziya was just as much a sister to him

as Arabella was. Ziya loved him, as a brother, too.

Arabella and Adam had made sure that every Omega was

given an equal opportunity to become whatever they wanted

in life, when she had started to overlook pack duties, after

she turned seventeen.

Now the omegas in their pack could become a doctor,

accountant, teacher, whatever. Some of the older Omegas still

chose manual jobs, but it was not forced upon them. They

did what they do with heart and happiness. It was their

choice.

After all, to run a pack smoothly, they needed people

who chose the job of cooking and cleaning, too.

Arabella sometimes helped the six cooks that worked in

the kitchen whenever she could. She loved cooking as much

as she loved sparring in the mud with men and women. There

was something truly therapeutic about kicking a guy to the

ground who was twice your size and cooking a spicy lamb

curry. She loved both. So Arabella usually took time to help

the cooks with dinner.

Arabella also had cooking lessons from their head cook,

Mama Thompson, who had been their cook since her parents

were the Alpha and the Luna. They were no longer alive. They

were killed in a car accident when she was just thirteen.

After that, Adam Caine, who was just a eighteen-year-old

at the time of their parents' death, had become the Alpha of

the Wild Sapphire pack, her guardian and her everything.

Adam did every one of his duties with an equal amount

of strength and consideration. That was why everyone in thei

pack respected, but also liked Adam.

Adam was a marvelous Alpha, an amazing person, a

strong wolf and a brave leader. Arabella was always proud of

her brother for all that he had achieved, without any proper

guidance from their parents. Adam was now twenty-seven,

but he still hadn't met his mate. He was quite busy dealing

with the pack after he turned eighteen, and then their parent

died, and Adam became more busy.

Arabella prayed every day that her brother would meet

his mate soon. She wanted him to have someone who would

look after him, take care of him, just as he had looked after

everyone else.

"I send pravers to the moon goddess everv night."

Arabella said with a wistful look in her soft green eyes, as Viò,

her pet Djorn, curled around her shoulder and cooed softly as

if she understood. Arabella touched her scaly skin with a

smile.

"I do, too." Ziya said as Arabella whispered to Viò to get

down. The scaly serpent slithered down, its sharp tail

swishing, showing her displeasure.

Arabella walked towards the bathroom, and washed

herself.

Ziya opened Arabella's closet and frowned when she

looked through the dresses. "This is here, it is what a man

would have in his wardrobe. No respectable lady would-" Ziya

paused and shook her head.

"It is practical, efficient and comfortable," Arabella

shrugged. She had always been a practical person. She loved

her life complication free, at least in the areas she could

control. Dresses, according to her, were the very explanation

of a complication, especially when one ran around the pack,

overseeing everything, throughout the entire day. She didn't

want that.

"Yes, it is you, alright," Ziya said as she grabbed Arabella's

hand. "We are going to see Becca."

"Becca wears things that show half her breasts and all of

her ass," Arabella said with a frown.

"She must have something decent." Ziya was optimistic,

but Arabella wasn't.

Becca was the third one in the Troublesome Trios. The

three girls had been inseparable since they were in diapers.

Becca Wendall was the sister of their beta, Lois Wendall, who

was Adam's best friend. And Becca had an obscene attraction

to dresses that were made of odd scraps of clothes, that

showed more than they cover. Becca!

Arabella grunted, but trudged along, following Ziya.

When Ziya had an idea, she would not rest until she brought it

to life. There was no use in refusing.

Best friends! What would you do with them?!

"Becca… Becca." Ziya pounded on the door and Arabella

and Ziya stopped when they heard a long moan from inside

the door.
"Shīt. She is at it again. I don't know how she can do it

twenty four by seven." Arabella shrunk her nose as a soft

scrēam teased her ears.

"Yes, baby, Liam… fúck. Yesssss…Mmhmm… kiss it right…

ahh… baby…" Becca moaned and then there were some wet noises, sucking sounds and more
disturbing sounds that

made Arabella shudder.

"We should leave." Arabella said with a frown and Ziya

shrugged. It was not new to Arabella, but still, she felt

awkward every time she caught her best friend going at it

with her mate. She even caught their wolves one night while

she was running and the image was inscribed on her head… i

was a nightmare.

Liam and Becca had been mated since they were both

eighteen, which was the official age when most ofthe

shapeshifters found their mates. They usually shifted at

sixteen or seventeen, depending on their bloodlines.

After a year in to the shift, when the wolves grew

stronger, one could smell their mate, the pheromones and s*

hormones, and identify the other.

Since the first day Becca found her mate, they had been

like rabid wolves… Always finding a place to have s*x. Arabell

and Ziya had hoped that it would fade with time. But from

the current growling sound coming from inside the room, it

hadn't faded. Not at all.

"Bec… Rebecca. You can fück your mate later, you horny

bītch. Come out now." Ziya said, and after a deep grunt and