Sixteen.

Stella POV.
“They are animals, what if they get too hungry and attack you?” I ask him, I know about wolves, they are scary, and they live in packs.
“They are animals but they know how to read aura, they know I’m the more dominant one, they don’t mess with me,” he says and I roll my eyes at him.
“Arrogant much? What if they do attack you?” I ask him.
“They won’t, believe me,” he says in a firmer voice, one that had me wanting to believe him, but I didn’t want to, I wanted to challenge him to keep on messing with him.
“Oh, you bad, badass alpha,” I say teasing him sticking my tongue out at him.
“Yes, Lil-star, I’m the alpha so better not to mess with me,” he says and that was my biggest cue to keep on going.
“Of course, should I bow to you?” I ask him enjoying our chat.
“I prefer kneeling,” he says and I laughed out loud.
“Funny Milo, very funny, but I have bad knees,” I tease him again.
“I’ll get you a pillow so they won’t hurt when I put you on your knees,” he teased me, but his voice held a lot of power in it, it held a lot of sexual tension, it wasn’t the funny and messing around tone that I was using with him, when he saw my face falling, the fear replacing the smile on my face.
“Hey, I’m joking, I’m sorry, I went too far,” he says shaking his head and I just nod, deciding to stay quiet as we walk toward my house. I could see the house from afar, I knew we were near my home, and I felt relieved that we were home again, it was fun teasing him, but it went toward sexual tension, I was terrified.
“Lil-Star, I’m sorry, I don’t mean anything sexual,” he says, but his words don’t sound like he didn’t mean anything sexual.
“Sure,” I say not believing him.
“Hey, look at me,” he says stopping me, and turning me toward him, I kept my eyes down to the ground, avoiding his eyes.
“Look at me,” he says in the same firm voice, one that I couldn’t say no to, one that I had to obey, so I looked up at him, I looked him right in the eyes.
“What?” I say on the verge of tears, my eyes glassing over with all the fear that I’m feeling toward him.
“I’m sorry, I really am, I’m not going to talk like that ever again, promise,” he says kissing the top of my head, I believe him this time, and I nod. We stayed like that, standing face to face, nose to chest, Milo was a lot taller than me, and he made me feel like a tiny small girl near him. Our silence was broken by a nose behind us, I turned right away and saw a wolf and I screamed, I was terrified, I didn’t believe Milo when he said the wolves don’t mess with him.
“Hey, it’s okay, don’t worry,” Milo says standing in front of me and hiding me from the wolf’s eyes, the wolf looked angry, he looked furious and the tears found their way back to my eyes, the wolf was extremely angry, and he wanted to kill both of us, I knew he wanted us dead, both of us, this wolf showed no mercy in his eyes.
Milo stood in front of me, strong and sure of himself, he believed the whole I’m the alpha scenario, while I was thinking of ways to run away, we stood there in silence, the wolf and Milo had a staring contest while I was frozen with fear, I didn’t dare to run or talk, what if the wolf follows me? What if it hurts Milo?
Milo shook his head no, was it meant for me and for all the ideas that I was having in my head or was it meant for the wolf, how many minutes had passed? Or was it just seconds? I don’t know how long it’s been but it feels like years have passed, and years have disappeared from my future.
“When I say, you run home,” Milo whispered to me, hardly turning his head toward me, keeping his eyes on the wolf.
“It’s time to get home,” Milo says, walking toward the wolf, the wolf’s eyes were stuck on me and not Milo, was the go home for me? Or the wolf? I wished it was for the wolf and that it would obey Milo and run away from us, but it attacked, it didn’t attack Milo it went toward me, it jumped face first toward me.
Milo got in the middle quickly, he jumped in front of the wolf, putting his body between us two, and my screams got louder, it’s weird that the fact my brother and friend didn’t come over to check all the yelling, I was right, you could a person around here, and no one would hear their scream of pain and death.
“It’s time to go, Stella, move it,” Milo orders me in a cold voice, I obeyed him and I ran toward home, I kept looking back, was Milo okay? Maybe I should get home, call Finn and Calesti, call the police, call animal control and hopefully not call an ambulance.
I ran as fast as I could, their fight was heard, it was very loud, the wolf was furious at Milo, and it was particularly furious that I ran away from them two, was I the lunch that ran away twice now?
I made it to my home, thank god it wasn’t too far away, I ignored the pain that was there in my foot, I think I had sprained it again, but I ignored it, I opened the door of our house and yelled to Finn, Calesti and even mom for help.
“What’s wrong?” Finn asks me running toward me along with Calesti and Mom.
“There’s a wolf outside! He’s fighting with Milo,” I say tears going down my face, I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore, I was crying slightly, and now I’m sobbing out loud.
“Stay inside, keep her inside Finn, I’ll deal with it,” Calesti says ready to go out.
“Sweetie, I don’t think you should go out, I could call someone,” Mom says looking at Calesti with fear in her eyes.
“We deal with wolves all the time, don’t worry, I’ll be back in a bit,” Calesti says with a tight smile walking out of the house, she ran toward the point where the wolves were fighting.
“Stella, who’s Milo?” Mom asks me, right she doesn’t know the names of my friends yet.
“Milo is Calesti’s friend, we met a couple of times, he was with us on the hike,” I say trying to stop my tears, but they kept going on.
“Baby, stop crying, I’m sure your friends are okay,” Mom says hugging me as I cried, my heart was being broken into a million pieces, I was worried for Milo but I also was so sad and sorry for the wolf and all the anger he had inside of him.
“The wolf is so angry,” I sob into Mom’s shoulder.
“She’s crying because the wolf is sad?” I heard Finn say from behind me and Mom must have mouthed something to him.
“And you tell me not to be a drama queen? What about her,” Finn says.
“Shut it, Finn,” Mom says out loud.
“Fine, fine,” Finn says walking out of the house to check over the fight, and the wolves, he came back ten minutes later, but he didn’t have any update on the fight.
“What’s going on out there?” I ask him.
“I saw nothing, I don’t know,” Finn says with a shrug, eating a piece of pizza as if the fight didn’t concern him.
“You know Calesti is out there too,” I say, didn’t he have a crush on her? He should care too.
“Yes, and Calesti is a badass, even if the wolf attacks her, it won’t be able to lay a finger on her,” Finn answers me.
“I wish I was as calm as you,” I say still holding to my mother as the fear and emotions were having the best of me.
“Oh, you wish,” he says with a smile on his face, we stayed there for another thirty minutes before Calesti knocked on the door and walked back in.
“Cici, you’re okay?” I say running toward her hugging her, looking at the door hoping that Milo would walk in as well, just to make sure that he too is safe.
“I’m fine, don’t worry,” she says with a smile on her face.
“See, I told you a wolf can’t lay a finger on her,” Finn says behind me with a big smile on his face.
“Where’s Milo?” I ask her ignoring my brother.
“Oh, Milo had to go home, his father called him,” she says.
“Is he okay? Was he hurt? What was up with the wolf? Why did it attack?” I ask her with worry filling my eyes, I have so many questions right now.
“He’s fine, no he wasn’t hurt. The wolf was just angry, maybe he had some family problem, and it attacked because it’s angry,” Calesti answers me.
“Cici, wolves don’t have family problems,” Finn comments.
“They live in packs, they are family, and they do fight,” Calesti answers him.
“So smart, we should watch a documentary on them, come on,” Finn says holding Calesti’s hand and dragging her toward the sofa, they both sat down and started a new show.
“You should eat sweetie, your friends are safe,” Mom tells me, pushing me to sit with my brother and friend.
I started to eat my pizza slice slowly, my brain going back to the fight, not understanding how everything happened and how did they two won against the very angry wolf, did they shoot him? Poor wolf, I didn’t want him to be dead, he’s just a poor soul, a very angry wolf.
“Calesti, how did you two win against the wolf?” I ask her just to be sure.
“It was a small fight, and then the wolf ran back into the wood,” Calesti says with a shrug.
“The wolf is okay?” I ask her with worry.
“Yes, you don’t have to worry, the wolf is fine,” Calesti assured me, and I felt a bit relieved for the wolf.
“Hey, Cici,” I say after a minute of thinking, I still wasn’t too sure about Milo’s safety and I wanted to be sure he was fine.
“Yeah?” she answers me.
“Can I have Milo’s number?” I asked her, she looked at me confused but after a second she agreed to send it to me.
I called him right away, I made sure to walk away from Cici and Finn, I placed the phone on my ear and waited for him to pick up.
“Yes?” he answers in a cold voice.
“Are you okay?” I ask him right away.
“Stella?” he says confused.
“Yeah, sorry, it’s me, I just wanted to make sure you’re fine,” I say feeling shy now, maybe I shouldn’t have called him.
“Hey, it’s fine, you can call me anytime, I’m just a bit busy now,” he says.
“Sorry,” I say turning red.
“Don’t worry lil-Star, I’m fine, don’t worry, the wolves just needed a good slap on the behind and it ran off with its tail between its legs,” he says making me giggle.
“That’s not nice Milo,” I say trying to sound serious.
“What’s not nice? Spanking a wolf?” he says and I laughed out loud.
“Milo! That’s not nice,” I say again, and he chuckles.
“Lil-Star, I’m fine, but I’m busy, I’d love to talk to you again, maybe later tonight?” he suggests.
“Okay, bye Milo,” I say my whole face going red with the idea of talking to him again tonight.