With the two couples distracted at the make-shift camp for the night, Alexander took his chance and snuck away to find Ayla and Titan.
He didn't trust the new wolf, and he wanted to know just what was taking them so long to find food.
What he didn't know was that the pair had found their way into a cave much grander than the one that he and Ayla had found safe haven in just weeks prior.
Nonetheless, he picked up on Titan's scent and began to trail them.
Inside that cave, Titan was making his moves on Ayla, and she was his helpless prey.
The only thing was, Ayla had never truly been helpless a day in her life.
She had closed her eyes to relax and was attempting to lie her head back to release the stress of the trip they had just taken.
Just when her head went to touch the smooth surface, Titan grabbed her arms.
"AHH," she let out a short, quick scream.
A scream small enough that it echoed that it was innocent, but still echoes through the cave, and bounced out and into the surrounding woods.
One small sound that found its way to Alexander's ears.
Playful, yet concerning enough for him to follow.
As Alexander began to follow the sound and scent, Titan had grabbed Ayla and pulled her into his arms.
Not a tight, unbearable hold, but just enough to pull her close into a straddling position on him.
Titan had been yearning to hold her like this since they met.
To embrace her fully as his lover.
Now that he had her, he pushed backwards until her body was forced into the wall of the spring.
His mouth found the nape of her neck, and he gave a gentle bite followed by small kisses as he hugged her just enough to press her breasts into his chest.
"You feel so good in my arms. I don't even want to let you go."
Her instincts wanted to take over, as her mouth went to his neck and she started to kiss his neck back, and then gave a gentle bite to his neck without realizing what she was doing, making her hips move.
"Do it, Ayla. I give you permission to bite me."
That snapped her back to reality slightly.
Realizing what she was doing.
She started to attempt to pull her arms down in an effort to push herself back from his chest.
Struggling to break free from his grasp, due to not actually wanting to be free from him, she used her words instead.
"What does that mean? Why do you have to give me permission to bite you?"
Titan was blushing, and it seemed like something he didn't do often.
He hadn't known the extent to how little she knew about their kind, but he was figuring it out.
"Don't worry about it. Not now."
He said as he pushed her back, pinning her arms above her head with one of his hands.
There was a bit of rock that was the perfect height for him to press her hands against to keep them in place as he began kissing her neck.
His other hand was still in place, keeping her pressed against him.
Again, as he started moving his kisses up her neck to meet her face, she was beginning to lose all control.
Just behind them, at the entrance to the cave, there was shuffling, but neither of them seemed to hear it as they continued with their activities.
Alexander headed toward where the scream had come from and followed the scent to the cave, and was now watching as Titan made his move to mate with Ayla.
He was beyond furious, but he couldn't move.
All he could do was stand there and watch them.
Watch Titan mate with the love of his life.
'Not having sex with him, my ass,' he thought to himself.
Alexander's blood began to boil again as he stood there watching as Titan moved to kiss the woman that he had just been with the morning before.
Something came over Ayla in that moment, though.
When Titan was just a whisper away from her lips.
She turned her head away, just a second before he was able to make contact and seal the deal.
"No. I can't."
Ayla pulled her hands free from his and pushed him back from her.
"You can't?" Titan asked coyly.
"No. It isn't right. We need to get dinner and take it back to the others. Let's get going. They are waiting for us."
As she finished speaking, she moved away from Titan toward the steps, attempting to leave the waters.
He grabbed her hand and pulled Ayla back toward him, and planted his lips on her, kissing her with a deep-seated passion that showed her just how much he wanted her.
Just as soon as he got his point across, he released her, "Okay, let's get dinner back to camp. I'm sure they are all there waiting for us."
Alexander was unsure how to feel about what was unfolding before his eyes, but he knew one thing.
Ayla had, in fact, not slept with Titan, but he was doing everything in his power to change that.
At the same time, he needed to move it and get back to the others as quickly as possible.
The last thing he wanted was for Ayla to know that he was spying on her.
Titan looked over at the entrance in that moment and made eye contact with Alexander with a slight raise of his left eyebrow.
Had he known Alexander had been there all along?
Without saying a word, he took off running and left the two wolves alone in the cave in hopes that Ayla would be left unaware of his visit.
Maybe he would be lucky, and Titan would keep his knowledge of seeing him to himself.
For now, Alexander just needed to get back to the others and be thankful that Ayla was still the girl he knew she was.
That only made him feel worse about how he had behaved earlier, though.
She had been innocent, and his jealousy made him act like an ass.
Did Titan kiss her because he knew that Alexander was there, though?
Would he still have done it if he had never gone to spy on them?
Ayla was still dizzy and nearly drunk from the kiss, and she was looking at Titan as if he were a snack she had never had the pleasure of tasting before.
He was delicious.
His lips were soft and supple, and she wanted them to touch hers again.
Not sure exactly what she wanted to do anymore, she just stood there, in the water between the steps and Titan.
She had been looking at him, nearly forgetting to blink.
"Shall we then? Get back to the others."
Ayla didn't speak; she just nodded her head, slowly.
Titan went to walk ahead of her, to help her out of the water, when she grabbed his hand to stop him.
Once his hand was in hers, she pulled him in close and kissed him back with just as much passion as he had kissed her with.
As she did, she wrapped her arms around him, pulling her legs up to wrap around him, and he embraced her with his muscular arms.
They both felt the energy that flowed freely between them, which naturally felt right as the kiss got deeper and more sensual.
After a few minutes, Ayla slowed the kiss down and then pulled herself back.
"Okay. Now, we really need to go back to the others. Let's go, " She said, breathy and collecting herself.
Titan took a deep breath, "You can go ahead and start getting out. I'll follow you."
"Oh, what's wrong. We've taken too long as is. The others must be starved."
Titan closed his eyes and took another deep breath, "They aren't the only ones starving."
Ayla rolled her eyes and climbed out of the water.
A few minutes later, Titan followed, and the two were on their way to chasing prey and returning with their goods to camp.
As they made their way back to the others with a mouthful of rabbits each, Ayla had one thing on her mind.
"What was the deal about the bite thing? Is it a big deal to bite someone? Or an even bigger deal to have permission to?"
Titan knew eventually it would come back up, but he didn't think it would be that soon.
"Well, a bite is a sign of a mate. It's actually a test to see if you are mates. If you have permission to bite another person, and the bite sticks, then you are fated mates. Sometimes, if you are higher up, it can take more than one bite, like Alpha and Beta."
"So you wanted to see if I was your mate? That is why you gave me permission to bite you?"
Titan didn't want to answer that.
He did want to know, but he didn't want her to know that and scare her off.
"It wasn't like that. Back then, that was more of the heat of the moment. Sometimes wolf instinct takes over. Our wolves were trying to do it on their own. That was why we were giving little bites to each other without thinking about it."
Ayla knew he was hiding something.
"So, you don't want me to be your mate then?"
"I didn't say that. I only said that our wolves wanted us to bite each other. That's why I gave you permission. That's an important part of it."
Ayla thought about it for a second.
"What you're saying is if I bite you, but you didn't tell me it was okay to, then it would disappear. You wouldn't know if I was your mate or not."
Titan had to think about that.
"Honestly, I don't know. You want to give it a try and find out? I can always just go ahead and bite you now!"
Being in wolf form made it hard for her to roll her eyes, let alone smile, but she attempted both.
"I'll let you know if I decide to."
"Well then, I would have your permission, and we wouldn't have the answer to your question, would we?"
Finally, they were back with the rest of the group, and the group was happy to have some food for the fire.
"Took you long enough," Phoenix chimed in with a smile.
"Not nearly," Raphael laughed.
Alexander just rolled his eyes as he grabbed two rabbits and shoved sticks through them.
Placing them on the fire, he was ready to forget the day ever happened.
"We thought maybe he decided to take you back to his pack," Rhae said with a smile.
"Wouldn't that be just a riot?" Ayla said as she looked at Titan, "I don't even know what pack he's from. Actually, what pack are you from?"
Titan puffed up his chest and looked proud as he went to speak.
Phoenix interrupted him, "Let's make it fun. How about we guess. Since we have encountered wolves from all over, and their scents. It would be fun for me and Raphael to guess what pack you're from, and you can guess what pack we are all from?"
That made Titan smirk with even more pride, "Okay. Where am I from?"
Phoenix did a little shimmy and sniffed the air a bit.
"Hmm. I'm picking up a pinch of arrogance."
"Hey. Behave!" Ayla said to Phoenix.
"Okay! Okay. I have small traces of snow and maybe a little citrus. Have we run into anyone with that scent before, Raphael?"
"I don't think we have. Maybe one or two. It has to be a pack that doesn't typically intermingle with the rest. A mountain pack."
Titan tried not to give anything anyway.
He didn't want them to know if they were right, wrong, close, or far away.
"That has to be it, but of the three, which one. We are headed to one of them, and he doesn't smell like Stella. He does have a hint of white pine mixed in there, so he has to be the hidden Crescent Moon Pack. They never leave their territory, though. Why are you out here?"
"Reasons beyond your station, Lieutenant."
The fact that he seemed to know who they were didn't miss them.
It only raised more questions, as Raphael didn't hesitate to ask.
"How do you know he's a lieutenant?"
Titan brushed his question off and continued.
"My turn. Lieutenant and Major are both from Silver Moon. I can smell the ocean strongly on you both, but also the spruce, "Christmas" type smell."
It was like he didn't even have to try to figure the guys out.
Raphael and Phoenix looked at each other with raised eyebrows as Titan went on.
"The only other ones with a detectable scent are your lady companions; he pointed to Rhae first. You have two different smells: a dirty fir covered in snow with a light vanilla almond underneath. That tells me you are trying to change packs. Good luck with the Moonlight shifters. That leaves you, he pointed to Stella, who smells of snow-covered almonds dipped in vanilla. You are a moonlight shifter."
The group all looked around at each other.
How was Titan so good at picking up the scents?
He was even better than Phoenix and Raphael.
Ayla was amazed at his skill, "You seem to be very good at picking up scents and tracking them. That, or you knew who we were before you played this game."
He gave a mischievous grin.
Titan drew his attention then to her and Alexander.
"That would be cheating if I knew and didn't go off the scent. I do have to say it is rather odd that you two don't have a scent, though. The Moonlight Shifter scent is terribly strong on her, though," as he pointed to Stella, "it is almost like it's everywhere. How much have you moved around since we've been here?"
Stella started looking around in the trees, "I haven't actually. I've sat in Phoenix's lap the whole time. If you smell my pack all over, it isn't me."
Alexander couldn't hold back his thoughts, "Ayla and her fucking fires!"
Titan moved close enough to Ayla that only she could hear him whisper in her ear, "Bite me. It will help you and me. Just trust me. Please do what I say and bite me now."