Crossing Paths With The White Wolf

Kassia POV

I sighed in defeat as I followed Luna Celeste and Alpha Markus. I was beginning to see just how protective of Gonzalo everyone was. I had already tried to find a moment alone with him multiple times today and there was always someone in the way. f**k, if they only understood all I wanted to do was love him.

The fact that he had such a support system warmed my heart, even if it annoyed me to no end. He was clearly loved here. A small part of me wished I could have had that when I had lost him. Alpha Markus introduced me to his guards, then excused themselves and I took a moment to walk down the river bank for a bit. I needed to decide on what I would do. There were only a couple of days until the full moon. If Gonzalo found his mate, I would have to let him go. There was no going against the mate bond. Even as a vampire, we respected the gifts of the moon goddess. We were also technically children of the moon, even if we had fallen out of favor with her long ago when some king cursed her name long ago. So was it even worth trying to talk to him when he clearly didn't want to? I turned around and started walking towards the training grounds, remembering they wanted me to attend training. Maybe I would write him a letter asking him for forgiveness when I left.

He's worth fighting for, the answer popped into my head right away. I felt a familiar pressure in the back of my head and I closed my eyes and centered myself until I felt the pressure recede. I made my way to the training grounds to see them all paired up and sparring.

Sebastian was still leading the class and I made my way over to him. "Where do you want me?" I asked him.

"Hmm, why don't we take a walk around and try to see if you have any pointers for the warriors?" He said and I nodded at him. We walked over to the left side and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Gonzalo was all the way on the right, sparring with Adrien. I would play their games for now. My inner monologue voice was right. I would fight for him until there was no hope.

I found I enjoyed observing the wolves sparring and helping them improve. I'd only ever gotten to train a few people before this and it was always one on one. I could understand why the pack connection was strong among wolves. They did everything together. I think I was doing alright. Sometimes just telling them what part of their form was lacking was enough to see improvement right away. A few still seemed a little opposed to taking orders from me. I guessed they hadn't been to the training grounds early enough. I wasn't sure what was putting them off about me, being a woman or being a vampire. Either way, they usually ended up on the floor after I would step in for their sparring partner as I "demonstrated" how my suggestion would work. I could tell Sebastian was enjoying these particular warriors being taken down a peg or two, so I didn't bother to reign in my temper. I kept eyeing Gonzalo from the corner of my eye, trying not to drool once he took his shirt off. We got through half the sparring groups before, much to my chagrin, Sebastian called an end to the training.

"Can we talk about what training might look like for the next few weeks? I think you're the set of fresh eyes we need. I had been feeling we had plateaued and I think we could learn a lot from you, Kassia," He asked me while I was distracted, trying to see where Gonzalo went.

"Hmm?" I turned my attention back to him when I heard him say my name. He smirked at me as he had followed my line of sight, but repeated his questions. I agreed and followed him to one of the first-floor offices. We went over the current warrior rankings and we set up a schedule for me to do some one on one training with the top and lower ones. I noticed he included himself and Gamma Theo, but not any of the rest. When I asked him, he said that was for the rank members to decide after they saw me spar more. I noticed it was closed to one in the morning as we were getting near the end of the list. "Are you guys always up this late?"

He shook his head, "We switched our sleeping schedules when Adrien arrived. We go to sleep closer to 2 or 3 and start our day closer to noon so we can be available in case he needs anything."

I raised an eyebrow, "All of the ranked members switched their schedules for one vampire?"

He shrugged and went back to his list. "He's nice. We enjoy his company. We started just wanting to keep an eye on him and he kind of grew on us. We keep normal hours if we have business in the morning, otherwise, it isn't really a big deal." I was happy with his response. I was glad Adrien, at least, was easily accepted here.

We were wrapping up what he wanted me to work on with each warrior when the door opened and in walked Alpha Helios and Gonzalo.

"Great, you're here! Kassia and I have come up with a new training system while she's here. I want to go over it with you both." Gamma Sebastian looked at me. "Theo and Adrien are down in the basement. They will take you to Evergreen. He's in the computer room since his mate works night shifts this week. He can get you set up to look over the medical reports." I took that as my dismissal and I snuck a last look at Gonzalo before I left the room.

I accompanied Gamma Theo to this Evergreen. I was surprised at how young he looked, but I guess that made sense as well. He set me up on a computer and then, thankfully, or because he got tired of my questions, he set me up on a laptop for me to look through the files in my bedroom, not before he warned me about trying to use the internet as the laptop was closed off to anything but the server he made for the files. After some urging and whining from Adrien, he also provided one for him to help with the search. I went up to my room and ordered a regular laptop from Adrien's personal computer. If I was going to be here for a few months, I needed some way to entertain myself. I had nothing else to do tonight, so I sat myself down in the living room in our wing and began to plan how to best tackle the terabytes of information from the 5 labs that Guardian Moon had raided. I took some courses in medicine and brain chemistry 10 years ago when I got tested to understand what the doctors would tell me, so some of the terminology was familiar. Even so, I had to look up a lot of terms to start trying to make sense of it.

"I'm sorry Snow White, I can't tell the difference between ewe, yew and you," he said, throwing his hands up.

I c****d my head, "That's just the same word?"

"Exactly! It all sounds the same. Gibberish." He slumps back. I looked at the clock. It was close to 4 am.

"Why don't you take a quick walk before going to bed? Say goodnight to your friends?" I told him. It had been sweet for him to offer to help, but I knew I would likely be doing this on my own.

"Yeah OK. Don't go to bed before I'm back." He said and I nodded as I got back to where I was. I sighed 20 minutes later. This was going much slower than I thought it would. I decided I would shower and wait for Adrien.

I went to training the next day to find out that Alpha Helios and Gonzalo had agreed to the new training format. I sparred with Gamma Sebastian this time and he was thankfully not sour over the defeat. We spent the next few hours assessing people and then another few hours after the training to give a score from 1 to 20 and comparing notes on what they needed to improve. We would be spending a half hour each day training the bottom 5 in one on one training sessions with me and Gamma Sebastian. During normal training, I would be walking around correcting forms and at the end of the month, we would spar with them and reassess their score to see who's improving and who would need one on one training.

I felt almost happy a few days later with the way things were going here. Gamma Sebastian had been friendlier towards me than the rest, though that was likely a result of the training regime we were undergoing. Gamma Theo would come spend time with us while we assessed and trained, as I learned he took over the training when Gamma Sebastian had meetings in the city. Alpha Helios and Luna Natalia were still fairly distant, though I enjoyed sparring with him. I will never tell anyone, but I did pass up a couple of shots where he left himself open, but I didn't know him well enough to know if he was one of those proud Alphas that would take it as an insult if they were beaten. My instincts said no, but I wasn't about to risk my place in his team. Crescent Moon was relatively friendly, so I feel like Gonzalo hasn't told them anything about us. His anger was expected, but I don't remember Gonzalo being this f*****g stubborn before. I've tried at least 15 different times to get him to talk to me alone and it was beginning to feel like mission impossible. He was becoming very good at avoiding me. Tomorrow was the full moon and I was afraid he would find his mate. I walked around outside after spending a couple of hours reading through more medical documents. I was getting frustrated. Nothing in them seemed to say anything about seizures. I had spoken to Dr West and he had taken a few scans and blood samples to try to figure out what was wrong with me. I would hopefully hear something in the next week. I was sitting by a little cave by the river that I had found on my second night when I saw a reddish brown wolf running along the river bank. The wind brought me the wolf's scent and I took a heady whiff of that wonderful smell that was solely Gonzalo. I couldn't help myself. The wind was blowing down wind of him and I knew I could be silent enough even for his enhanced hearing. I got up and followed him. I probably shouldn't have. I should give him his privacy, but I was desperate to talk to him and this would be one of my last chances. I kept myself hidden in the trees once he finally stopped running. He was on a cliff that led down to the river. He shifted and sat on the edge. I sat there watching him watch the river running, unsure of what he was doing. There was a strong wind and I was surrounded by his scent again. I inhaled it like a drug and it was then that I smelled the salt of his tears. My heart broke and I walked away. I was hurting him. I knew he had anger, but I hadn't realized the amount of pain behind that anger. I was close to the packhouse when I heard a pain-filled howl.

"It happens almost every night since I've gotten here. Probably before then," Adrien said from the side. I almost jumped, not expecting him there. He smirked at me. "Losing your touch?"

"Just thinking." I said, not bothering to hide my shaking hand. Then something he said struck me.

"Since you got here?" I asked. He nodded.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

"Did he know who I was then?" I asked.

"I never mentioned you by name. I just called you Snow white."

"Then wha-"

"I heard Helios say something about Sicily once in the kitchen. When they didn't know I was on the basement stairs."

My heart sank even lower. Sicily. That was still me.

"I need to leave. This isn't working. I'm still only hurting him." I walked into the packhouse with every intention of packing up and leaving.

"What? No you can't. You said you'd wait to see if you're his mate!" Adrien said, running after me.

"There's no way the moon goddess would pair me with someone I've hurt as much as I'm hurting him, Adrien. The kindest thing I can do for the man I love is to let him forget about me again." I told him as I ran up the stairs.

I walked into the room and headed for the closet. Adrien pushed past me and stood in front of the door. "Get out of the way Adrien," I said through gritted teeth. I could feel the shaking in my hand increase and my headache starting.

"Kassie please. You can't leave. The sunrise is only a couple of hours away. Where are you going to go? Who do you know on this side of the world? See this through, if he finds his mate, I will follow you anywhere you want. If he doesn't, keep going with your plan to talk to him. You deserve closure and you deserve answers. Wait until we raid the lab in Glasgow," he pleaded.

"Adrien," I sobbed, "I broke him." I sat on the bed and held my hand, trying to stop the seizure from coming. I closed my eyes and tried to breathe. The pressure in my head started to recede but the tears still flowed.

"He's not the only broken one, Kassie. You need him." He said softly, wiping my nose. There was blood on his fingers. He sat down next to me and hugged me. I let my tears flow. He laid us down on the bed and let me fall asleep in his arms.