Watch The Dark
nineteen

The next day flew by in a blur. The effects of the serum had completely worn off of Sincere and she was back to her regular, bouncy self. She had attached herself to Declan the whole day, bringing him flowers and other tiny things she found in the grass. She had brought him a small spider at one point and Declan screamed louder than Tana had heard any male scream before in her life.

"Tana! Oh, Tana! Dear sister! Oh my god, open the door!" Alec was hollering outside of the room door the next day. He was upset that they hadn't gotten to spend a lot of time together the previous day, so he finally begged and pleaded Declan to allow him to take Tana to the mall with Jade and Wynona to pick out a dress for the party. After Jade joined in, Declan begrudgingly agreed but only if he, Blake, and Markus also went along.

"I'm coming. Stop yelling, you brute," Tana huffed, throwing the door open when she finished her second and last braid.

"I'm just so excited to show you the mall. You'll love it. There's so much stuff there. Ugh, it's so great. Come on!" Alec insisted, tugging her along just as she slipped into her shoes, dragging her down the stairs where the others were already waiting.

"Oh my god, you're so cute! Ok, this is going to be amazing. It's like showing an alien around," Jade squealed, clapping her hands together while Tana gave her a puzzled look.

Something told her that this wasn't going to be a good experience.

***

All of them piling into the car was uncomfortable but luckily the mall wasn't very far away. When they all got out, Tana gaped at the massive building in front of her. She barely had time to comprehend what she was looking at before Jade and Wynona ushered her inside, Alec close behind while also chatting with the other males.

There were all kinds of people and wolves alike wandering around the mall. They mixed together and neither seemed to mind or even notice. It was absolutely fascinating.

"She totally is just like an alien. Adorable! Ok, let's go," Wynona enthused, quickly joined by Jade to pull Tana along. Behind her, she could hear Alec snicker.

"Wait, you can just go in? These wolves can't all be from your pack. Won't they attack you?" Tana asked, freezing in place. Jade gave her a sympathetic smile.

"See, the Dark Wolves own a lot of this territory. Over half of it is ours. So, technically, the mall belongs to us. However, we are surrounded by allied packs who work together to keep the town running. So no one is trespassing unless they step foot near the borders closer to the pack house. It's a good way for the packs to intermingle and get used to each other without being merged," Jade explained, gesturing towards the sea of different people that wandered around them.

"So no one fights here?"

Jade shook her head.

"The Dark Wolves have guards around to make sure nothing happens," Jade told her.

"That being said, let's go!" Wynona said, leading them along.

It was going to be a long day.

***

"I know right! I was telling Regina to knock it off but she just wasn't stopping. Turns out that Tyler wasn't even her mate. She got in a massive fight with Tyler's actual mate. It got bloody," Jade said. Tana hadn't realized how much gossip went on within a pack until she met Wynona and Jade. Half of it wasn't even interesting because Tana had no clue who they were talking about.

"Ooh! Let's go in here. They have the best dresses. We can replace you one for the ball, Tana!" Jade said, pointing towards a store with dresses that looked far too nice to be worn by Tana. However, after shooting Alec a concerned glance, he just nodded and gestured for her to follow the girls.

So, while the other two sifted through dresses, Tana stood off to the side while awkwardly exchanging glances with the person who worked there.

"This is totally right for you, Tana! Red is definitely your colour," Jade said, rushing over to Tana with a dark red dress in hand. Tana merely stepped back and winced slightly. She had never liked the colour red. Especially after Talon.

"I'm not a big fan of red," she muttered.

"See? You could be their queen in something like this, Tana. You could be my queen. Don't you want that?" Talon drawled, dragging a hand down the curve of her waist as he drank in the sight of the red dress he had ordered her to wear.

"I want nothing to do with you," Tana whispered weakly. He grabbed her jaw then, wrenching her face to look at him.

"Fine. Then you'll just wear red because I want you to wear it. You look absolutely ravishing in it," he said, tugging at the neckline.

Red became a means of torture. And she never wanted to wear it again.

"Oh, come on. It's so pretty on you. You'd look like a queen in it!" Jade insisted. Wynona nodded in agreement, looking slightly confused by the tension that rolled through Tana.

"I said no! I hate red! I want nothing to do with the colour red!" Tana snarled suddenly, causing all of them, even the worker, to take a step away from her. Alec and Declan looked at her, but only Alec swooped in and moved her out of the store.

"Calm down, hummingbird. It's ok. It's ok. You're safe here, remember? You don't have to wear red," he chided, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as he moved her away from the rest of the group. She could hear Jade and Wynona apologizing to Declan and felt a stab of guilt. She shouldn't have blown up at them.

"He always made me wear red when he...you know. I can't look at it without wanting to throw up," she told him. He nodded quietly, but she could smell the anger rolling off of him.

"Declan told me you found out about ice cream yesterday. There's a great little shop in the mall that sells it. Let me just tell Declan that we'll meet up later in the food court for lunch," Alec said, leaving her to go talk to Declan. She could hear Jade apologizing again and Alec assuring her that it was ok. Declan tried to insist on going with them but Alec shut it down, which was ambitious even if he was best friends with Declan. However, the alpha didn't push it and let them go.

"Alright. This is going to be amazing. You've tried vanilla ice cream, but just wait until you try my favourite. Strawberry cheesecake. I think the moon goddess made it just for me. It's so good," Alec sighed, throwing his arm back around her shoulders as they walked. She could feel Declan's eyes on her but she didn't dare look back.

After getting ice-cream, they walked around for a bit. They had even come across a very pretty light pink dress that Alec ended up buying for her for the ball. Pink had always been her favourite colour, as uncharacteristic as it seemed.

There were all kinds of things Tana had never seen before that absolutely fascinated her. She spent almost half an hour inside a store that sold phones and iPads before Alec finally dragged her away.

They were now in the food court where different scents nearly suffocated Tana right where she stood. She had a plastic bag in her hand that contained some toy Sincere had been talking her ear off about. She figured that the pup deserved something nice after what she had been through.

Jade and Wynona were sitting at a large booth that could easily fit all of them, though only the girls and Markus were there at the moment. Alec and Tana quickly joined them when they noticed the girls frantically waving in their direction.

"Tana, I'm really sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have pushed like that. I hope you'll forgive me because you're really cool and I don't want my brother to get all the fun," Jade quickly said, her eyes wide and filled with guilt. Tana gave her a small smile and shook her head.

"Don't apologize. It's okay, really. I'm not mad at you. It's just a lot. I've never been anywhere like this. There's so much going on," Tana said. Jade nodded and smiled as well, letting out a sigh.

"Yeah. The mall usually isn't Blake's scene either. But he loves me so he tags along whenever I go. He's always so grumpy about it afterwards though. He's such a baby," Jade snorted, while Wynona laughed.

"Markus is one of the only males who likes the mall," Wynona said, patting her mate affectionately on the cheek.

"I like the shoe stores in the mall," Markus corrected.

"Oh, right. Blake and Declan went to get us all burgers. Have you ever had burgers and fries?" Jade asked, her bright eyes fixed intently on Tana, who promptly shook her head.

"You'll love it. It's basically meat and bread but so, so good. Fries are just potato strips," Alec explained. Just as he finished talking, Declan slid into the booth next to Tana and Blake next to Jade on the other side of the table with two trays of food.

"I swear to the goddess I was about to punch a woman in the face. 'No pickles. How hard is it to give no pickles?' Blah blah blah. She stood there for fifteen minutes yelling at the guy!" Blake groaned, grumbling something incoherent that sounded like a string of curse words.

"I met a woman like that yesterday. She was so rude to me. She threw a shoe at my head. Wait, never mind. That was Jade," Alec snorted. Jade stuck her tongue out at him playfully to which he rolled his eyes.

"Why's it in paper?" Tana asked as Declan handed her some of the food. "Am I supposed to eat the paper?" She examined the object, earning a laugh from Declan, who then took it from her and unwrapped the burger before setting it on the paper it had once been wrapped in.

"Sometimes I wonder how you haven't died of poisoning yet," Alec huffed. Tana frowned and punched him lightly in the shoulder, rolling her eyes when he feigned hurt.

"So, how have you liked the Dark Wolves so far?" Markus asked, just as she bit into the burger. Declan's knee kept brushing up against her leg and she would be lying if she said it wasn't distracting.

"It's okay. I- uh, it’s nice,” she managed to get out. Declan was teasing her now, having his palm resting on her thigh while he leaned closer ever so slightly as if he were just trying to hear Tana better.

Markus opened his mouth to respond, only for his eyes to glaze over as he went still. Beside her, Declan did the same thing. As did the rest of them, except for Tana.

“Fucking hell. Change of plans, that god-damn ball is tonight,” Declan hissed. The two girls clapped their hands together excitedly while Blake just rolled his eyes.

“Time to party, bitches!” Alec hollered, pumping his fist in the air.

Well, at least Tana had her dress.