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Also, they were closer than they'd ever been. And she's not talking about the nights when they make love and they converse for most of the night if she's still awake after that, before he has to retreat to his bed chambers. No, it's not only in the bedroom, they are closer everywhere.

As for Nalaila, it's still baby steps with her. She has only been able to spend more time with the Wolf three times after that night because the wolf sleeps a lot. Wolfaraine said it is not normal, but it is not bad either. She sleeps like that because she is always in wolf-form .

The wolf still has not let him close to her whenever she's out of her room or playing with Ismena, and even though, Wolfaraine hides it well, Ismena knows it's hurtful for him. Sadly, there is nothing she can do about it. But, she is hopeful that with time, the wolf will let him in.

In the few hours since Alpha Degar came home; he'd freshened up, left instructions to his sentinels not to disturb him, and even got a very good sleep.

His sleep was cut short by the loud knock coming from his bedroom door. For the caller to be allowed as far as his bedroom door, it must be an Alpha.

He rose begrudgingly, walked to the door, and threw it open. Head Sentinel Rodarh stood behind the door with a huge grin on his face.

"My dear friend, Degar, I was very glad when I heard you returned. I came immediately to check up on you."

"You woke me up from sleep, Rodarh. You have to wait—"

"Nonsense," Rodarh waved him away, "Sleep is unimportant now. Why let you sleep when I can make you faint with the succulent tales I came bearing?"

He threw his arm across Degar's shoulder, grinning like a fool while he walked them out of the house, "Let's go running. Sweet tales are best told in the forest of Azx because you get to kill some Wild Ones while you are at it. So much fun."

Well, the Alpha King did warn him, Degar muttered under his breath. He sighed and gave in to the excited Elephant .

"It's been ten days since you told us that you would give us his girlfriend. I would have thought I dreamt about that day, but that can't be right. You DID promise us the girl." Beloca was seething. So angry that he held a death grip on the cell phone he placed to his ear.

"I did promise the girl. But, something came up." Anaconda's voice came over the phone.

"So, the plan failed?" Beloca gritted his teeth. Hard.

"It is safe to say that. The female made a last-minute decision that ruined our plan."

"And you just went silent on us!? You didn't think it was something we needed to know!?" The human doctor glared at the phone.

"I have been very busy." That was all the man said.

God, he is so infuriating. "So, what are you planning to do about all this?"

"I'm searching for a loophole that might make it possible for me to draw the female out of our land without implicating myself. Just a little more time, Doc."

Beloca hung up the phone, so mad he would have been breathing fire if he was a dragon. Why is it that nothing ever goes their way, dammit!

He placed another call and waited impatiently for it to ring. Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long.

"I am in an important meeting with the higher-ups, Doc. We are gonna have to do this later—" General Adeladin began,

Beloca cut in, "I finally got hold of Anaconda."

"Really? That slimy son-of-a-bitch! Just give me a few minutes,"

Distinctively, Beloca heard Adeladin's voice as he offered to say some words and excused himself from wherever he was. The background noises faded. When the man spoke again, Beloca could hear him clearly.

"So, what have you got for us?"

"I've got nothing, that's the infuriating part. The bastard said he'd been busy and that is why he hasn't reached out...or taken any of our calls. He said we should give him some more time for whatever the fuck he wants to do."

"Goddamnit! I knew we shouldn't have trusted that asshole.

Got us all excited for absolutely nothing.

The higher-ups that put me in charge of finding these monsters and eradicating them have been so mad about the poor progress we've been making lately.

It's as if they became even harder to find, the ones that live out here.

Now, this too?" The older man sputtered angrily, "Must be an all-round failure something going on for me now! A full circle!"

"Stop shouting into my ears, old man. I am as mad about this as you are.

I am an experienced scientist whose mentor was killed trying to help humanity find the weaknesses of these monsters to completely eradicate them with it, but nothing seems to be working my way!

The higher-ups will not take me seriously until I've proven myself to them.

i need to bring in Number 6 and I need to tear him open like a lab rat to run all kinds of experiments on him for years.

I need to know every single thing about their kind and even make a few offsprings off him, to train as our soldiers and use them to eradicate their people for good! "

In the silence that followed, their breathing was loud like they'd run a marathon. They took some time to calm down before speaking again .

"Look," Beloca's voice was calmer this time, "I think we should bring in the other traitor I have working with me before.

I let him go after the epic fail in our plan where I lost a very good and trusted scientific, and you lost a good number of your men.

I thought this new guy, Anaconda would be easier and faster, but I was wrong. "

"You mean the Cronus guy? I think that is a great idea. We can use the two of them. Anaconda can keep doing whatever he is doing from his side, while we get Cronus to work from his own side. It's still a big plus for us whichever side pulls it off. What do you think?"

Beloca smiled for the first time today. He was loving that idea.