I stared straight into the bright green eyes of a redhead, who scared me to death with her actually friendly, radiant smile.
What the hell???
Without thinking further about her sudden appearance, I rushed to pick up a thick branch from the ground, but it was just kicked away by another woman, who appeared out of the darkness directly in front of me.
"That's not how you greet friends, my dear," she said in a clear voice and when I admired her poisonous green eyes, I noticed in the corner of my eye that the other one was now slowly approaching me.
"Who are you?" I asked with a trembling voice and carefully took a few steps backwards, so that shortly afterwards I noticed a tree in my back that didn't allow me to build any further distance to them.
While my breathing got heavier and my heart was pounding loudly, I took a closer look at the two and had to admit, despite the different hair color, that they look pretty much the same.
Both wore white linen shirts and tight dark jeans, and I wide-eyed to see hunting knives attached to their belts.
The one with her blond hair short and tousled was the first to take a step towards me and the closer she got the more clearly I took in her scent to realize that she was a wolf like me.
"You don't need to be afraid," she said, smiling, and I immediately pulled myself together and lifted my chin proudly.
"I'm not afraid of anything!"
The woman with the red curls of fire giggled and stepped right next to the blonde, clasping her hand tightly with hers. They glanced at each other, then turned their sights on me again.
"Your companion shouldn't hunt here. There are vampires in this area," the short-haired one explained to me, looking around briefly.
"We needed something to eat," I gave her back, also glancing around hoping keno would pop up again in a moment. I didn't want to be alone with two crazy strangers in the woods any longer. The situation was strange enough, especially since I was of the opinion that there were hardly any female wolves left and as soon as I walked around in the forest, I met two more.
"I'm Yasha," the redhead suddenly introduced herself to me and held out her free hand, which I hesitantly looked at before handing her mine.
"Aria."
"And this," she explained, gently releasing my hand to point to the other. "That's my sister, Juniper."
I also gave her my hand, but now she was the one who hesitated, but a slight nudge from her sister and she still gave me her hand, on the fingers of which there were many pretty rings.
"What are you doing here?" I wanted to know curiously, now that the situation had calmed down and then took a deep breath while the two looked at the campfire I had set up and seemed to be amused by it.
Yes, I was really a complete disaster in the great outdoors...
"The question is, what are you doing here?" Juniper asked me a counter-question, tossing through her blond hair and then crouching in front of the campfire with his eyes on me.
Yasha also stared at me expectantly, but before I could answer, I heard a menacing growl coming out of the forest behind me and I barely gasped for air when Keno was standing in front of me in the form of his huge black wolf.
"Keno, it's okay," I whispered, lightly stroking his rough fur, which stood up slightly as if he were in attack position.
"Keno, then," Yasha smiled, and although Keno snarled at her, she ran straight at him and knelt down in front of him, without a shred of fear. Her bilious green eyes darkened and she studied him with interest while I held my breath in tension and leaned even closer to Keno.
I didn't know if I was feeling fear at that moment or if it was jealousy, but a low growl escaped my throat as she suddenly placed her hand on his cheek and Keno seemed to calm down. I immediately started to move and got in between the two of them in such a hurry that Yasha landed backwards on her bottom and Juniper then started laughing out loud.
"Your mate should transform back and put some clothes on," she said, but I didn't pay any attention to her and instead aimed hard at Yasha.
"If you touch him again!"
"What then?" she said provocatively and slowly got up from the floor, wiping her dirty hands on her jeans. "You have no right to claim it at all!"
"Are you kidding me?!" I snapped, glancing at Keno, who picked up his clothes in his mouth and disappeared into the woods behind us. "See that?!", I then showed her my marker and slowly walked towards her, growling, which made Juniper stand up and she watched us intently.
"This is my mate! Do you get that? There are enough others who look forward to a female like you, so cut the shit!" I snapped at her, but she just grinned and glanced back at her sister.
As if communicating in silence, Juniper suddenly widened his eyes and covered his mouth with his hand.
"It can't be," she said, puzzled, and I immediately pushed Yasha back a step to demand her attention.
"What can't be?!"
I was so tense that I could have ripped all the trees out of the ground in anger and had no idea what was actually going on.
"So!", I asked her to answer me immediately, but I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder and was pulled back a bit from her.
"Keno! What's that?!" I yelled at him, but he suddenly took my face in his hands and put on an absolutely strange facial expression that gave me goosebumps all over my body.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered, and I frowned at him before glancing back at Yasha, who was wide-eyed in admiration of Keno.
Then I became aware of it with a painful blow in the middle of my heart...
"She's your mate too..."