[Stephanie's POV]
His dark blue eyes looked even brighter in the morning sun, and I even felt as if his eyes were enchanted with a curse. A curse that could make my soul be willingly drawn to his eyes.
I didn't dare to continue looking at his eyes. My brain stopped thinking. I couldn't help but tell Arthur the answer to the question he wanted to know, "I once told my father, if my future mate wasn't Carl, I would definitely reject my mate and be with Carl."
"Change your mind now?"
"All I can say is that we are mates now. I'm not going to be with Carl anymore."
I didn't admit to Arthur that I was fascinated by him. Because I couldn't tell for the moment if it was my own feelings or if I was influenced by mate bond. Likewise, Arthur flirted with me and found me attractive to him, probably because of the existence of the mate bond.
"You know I've been waiting for you for more than 30 years, ever since I met Paul. I have enough patience to wait for you to update your answer for me." Arthur leaned in and planted a kiss on my forehead.
All my thoughts were all disturbed by this kiss from him.
"Leave her alone! "
It was Carl's hiss.
Seeing Carl and Freya rushing towards us, I remembered the scene again when they both killed me. My body trembled beyond control, and my feet took a step backward. I tried to turn away, but my wrist was grabbed by Arthur.
"Don't be frightened, Steph. You're ahead of shift now. Plus, you've got your own wolf. You're stronger than both of them. Remember, they can't hurt you anymore. This is the best time for you to get over your fear of them." Arthur reminded me just in time.
Yes, I had shifted early and reunited with Rose. This meant I would be stronger than Carl, who hadn't yet shifted.
Rose also said to me, "He's right. Steph, I feel like I could come out right now and chew that bastard's badass."
"Wait, Rose, I don't want him to know that I've shifted early yet. Otherwise, it could lead to a lot of trouble for us." I temporarily appeased Rose's desire to get back at Carl directly.
If I let Rose bite Carl here, it would lead directly to a war between our pack and the Demon Forest pack since he wasn't committing the act of killing me right now.
I threw Arthur a thankful glance and nodded to him. I took a deep breath to steady my heartbeat.
Carl had darted in front of Arthur and me by this time. It seemed Freya was left behind.
"What did you do to my girlfriend? You son of a bitch." He cursed through clenched teeth and swung his fist at him again.
Arthur's palm easily caught Carl's fist, "Is this how you Demon Forest Pack say good morning? You ill-bred bastard!"
Carl swung his left hand at him again, and Arthur used his right hand again for the next punch. Carl pushed back hard but didn't let Arthur take a step back. He tried to pull his fists out of Arthur's grip, though his fists seemed to be glued to Arthur's strong palms.
"Boy, you can't beat me. Even if your father Triton came, the two of you working together wouldn't be able to hit me." Arthur said coldly. If it had been my father or Patrick saying the same thing to Carl, I would have thought he was bluffing. But now, it was Arthur who made that warning. Based on Arthur's upper body muscles and abs and the size of a wolf after his morphing, I thought his words were probably true.
"Let go of me! Freya, go get my father!" Carl shouted at Freya, who had just run here. His cheeks were all red as he tried to push his way out of Arthur's grip.
"Arthur, please let Carl go," I said, holding Arthur's wrist, hoping he would let me work this out on my own.
"Fine!" Arthur looked at me and simply let go of Carl's hand.
He suddenly let go as Carl was still pushing him hard. This caused Carl to stumble forward two steps and fall over.
I grabbed Carl's arm and helped him up.
"Babe, are you okay? Don't worry, I won't let this dick approach you again." Carl groped my wrist and assured me.
Oh, he would protect me. He was such a man. I must have become even more infatuated with Carl with such thoughts in my last life, huh?
I shook my head, shook off Carl's hand, and tried to sound as calm as possible, "I'm fine. You misunderstood Arthur. He just kissed me on the forehead as a way of greeting women. He said it was a habit of Silver Moon Pack's wolves."
I could feel Arthur glancing towards me. He looked upset.
"Hell, Steph, this Alpha King seems to be mad at you for what you said." Rose reminded me carefully. The mate bond between us seemed to allow Rose and me to feel his mood as well.
I had made this alpha king angry, and I felt my arms start to get goosebumps. I could probably guess why he was angry. He thought I would break up with Carl after telling Doctor Dave that Carl and I were done. But I didn't do that, because now there were only four of us here, and not enough audience.
When I stayed with Patrick yesterday afternoon, I thought about how I would get revenge. Since they didn't take action to kill me so far, I could treat this time as a plotting and preparation stage for the crime. In that case, breaking up with Carl and cutting ties with Freya were my top priorities at the moment.
Of course, the breakup couldn't simply end with a simple "we are done" with him. I wanted more pack members to know. This was the first step in my revenge plan.
If the two of them were still planning to kill me or even hurt Patrick after they got together, then the second step of my revenge plan would be to make all pack members, including their pack, hate them. If necessary, I would kill them by myself at the moment they kill me.
"Wow, really? I want to try it too!" Freya covered her open mouth with her hand in surprise and walked over to Arthur with another smile." Good morning, King Arthur."
As Freya stood on her tiptoes and tried to wrap her arms around Arthur's neck, Arthur stepped back. He said to Freya in a cool voice, "I'm used to only greeting the first woman I see in the morning in that way."
Freya shot a glance at me. Wow, I thought I saw jealousy in her eyes. I couldn't believe Freya's sweet and lovely mask had fallen off today. It only took a blink of an eye, though.
"Listen, old man! If I get my own wolf, you will no longer stand a chance against me."
Carl's address to Arthur made me and Arthur raise our eyebrows at the same time.
What he said was a bit foolish. When we were children, I remembered that the teacher of the growth class had taught us that a wolf who still hadn't met his mate after 18 would grow very slowly or even stop growing. The growth of his (her) system would not return to normal until he found his (her) mate and marked her (him).
Carl took a step forward and looked upward into Arthur's eyes, "Steph was kind enough to believe your excuse for kissing her. But don't think I'll believe you. I know you haven't found your mate at 50 years old, but that's no reason to approach someone's girlfriend. Look, Steph is mine. The moon god will arrange for her to be my mate, my luna. "
"Hey, Carl, don't be so aggressive. As the alpha king of the Silver Moon pack, I'm sure Arthur wouldn't do something as bad as stealing someone else's girlfriend. Don't you think so, Steph?" Freya smiled sweetly as she tried to be a peacemaker.
Finally, this whore pushed the issue to me.