My Most Precious Human

There were multiple small packs living in the north. They were mostly weak and defenseless against a powerful pack such as the Southern Woods Pack. They all sided with Draven but provided little to no help in the war. They were the ones that needed protection. The south was different. There were a lot of bloodthirsty packs, expanding their territories with violence. The weaker packs could have been either crushed or swallowed. Certainly, the biggest and most influential pack was the one ruled by my father. All five of the stronger southern packs sided with him to avoid confrontation. They were called the Great Five, and they were involved in all kinds of illegal business as if they were the worst kind of mob. To conquer the south, Draven had to defeat those five packs before aiming for a battle against Randall D'Apolito.

Each one of the Great Five was given a chance to negotiate and surrender, even though Draven's intelligence had already known they'd rather fight till their last breath before giving up on businesses that brought them tons of money-blood money, of course.

Draven divided his pack warriors and the Royal Army legions, assigning five targets. We were all going to attack at once. Each team was about to battle one pack. Some groups were chosen to fight in the oper field, while others were assigned to take over the strategic points in the pack's territory, securing all kinds of transportation and surrounding them.

The place where our group, led by Draven, was headed was the Scarlet Valley Pack's territory, the strongest of all five packs. Our group was supposed to provide a frontal attack, supported by six other groups. and then we were supposed to head to the main mansion to face Alpha Marcus and his private warriors' squad. Alpha Marcus was known to be ruthless. He was almost as much of a horrifying psychopath as my father was. Draven knew that to defeat this pack, he had to kill Marcus himself. The others and I were meant to fight and defeat his top warriors.

It flattered me that Draven considered me strong... At the same time, it bothered me that he said that Jetta was weak, as he called her, and yet we were on the same team. Either his previous words were pure bull shit to protect her from me, or he wanted to keep her close. Both possibilities made my temple vein throb. I wasn't sure if I would call it jealousy, but his behavior was pissing me off. Certainly, I got that thing about caring for someone out of guilt or acting like an older brother because of a promise, but there had to be boundaries set somewhere. I would say that visiting your "brother" in his bedroom in the middle of the night was crossing the line big time. Nonetheless, I decided to lock the judgmental Lilith away for a while and observe Draven and Jetta before throwing more accusations.

On the way to the south, I thought that perhaps I should have been grateful to Jetta for occupying my thoughts and engaging all of my reasoning in a love drama. It took my mind off thinking whether JD's spy was someone sitting in the van with me. I would certainly develop serious paranoia by the time we got to the Scarlet Valley's pack territory.

We stopped a few times at the gas stations. Every group took a slightly different road, so all the black vans would be spotted together. Three black vehicles looked creepy enough to draw attention already. A hundred would surely make news worth local articles. It was reasonable, but I was condemned to a wolf-only company. Patrick was going to lead an attack on the Moon Shadow Pack, the third-largest pack in the south. With Jetta making circles around Draven at each stop and me trying not to cause any more drama, I was forced to talk to the only other person I knew: Ian, who, thankfully, was fine with it. "I thought you were an asshole the first time I met you," I confessed, straightforwardly on one of the stops.

He burst out laughing as he was leaning against the van. "Yeah, I kind of was an ass to you." He winked at me and handed me a bottle of water. "Sorry, I thought that you were just a pretty girl that Alpha brought as a souvenir from the trip... No offense."

"None taken," I laughed, leaning against the van like him and opening the bottle before taking a sip. "I would probably think the same if I were you."

"Still, I'm sorry for being an asshole." He slightly bowed while forming an apologetic grin.

I smiled back at him and shifted my gaze to Draven. He was on the phone, talking to someone, while Jetta was standing next to him with her eyes firmly locked on him. It was as if she was claiming her ownership. My subconscious took the bottle I was holding and threw it at her, twice. Unfortunately, I swore to myself that I would be above such petty urges... for now. lan caught my cold gaze directed at her and snorted.

"Don't worry," he chuckled. "Jetta is like a puppy from the shelter. She always waited for Alpha to throw her a bone, but he was never interested in her. At least, not in the way she wanted him to be." "It's not that I'm worried..." A nervous laugh escaped my throat. "She just pisses me off." I shrugged.

"You are jealous," he snickered.

"I'm not."

It wasn't a lie, not entirely. I was simply tired of fighting for a guy's attention. Sariel claimed that he loved me, and yet, he still met Elora more frequently than me. Draven claimed that I was his mate, but his warm gaze traveled to Jetta instead of me.

"Entertain me, lan." I decided to change the subject. "Tell me about yourself." I scanned him from head to toe teasingly.

He let out a nervous chuckle and scratched his head, "Well, there's not much to tell. My brother and I were orphans. We were taken in by Alpha Lennox Erdogan, and we grew up with Alpha Draven together in the mansion. My brother became an elite warrior at sixteen. He was accompanying Alpha on his trip to the friendly pack in the west. Then they were attacked by southerners on their way back. Alpha Lennox died along with his entire team..."

I knew that by "southerners," he meant my father's pack. I clenched my teeth and shut my eyes. I was wondering if there would ever be a moment when I wouldn't feel guilty because this bastard's blood was running in my veins.

"I'm sorry, lan..." I muttered automatically.

"Don't be." He prodded my shoulder. "I heard that you weren't exactly his favorite..." he smirked.

"So..." I cleared my throat. "How did you become the pack's favorite driver?" I grinned stupidly to clear the air around us.

"I'm just good with cars, I guess." He shrugged, but then I saw a spark in his eye. "Vans are boring, but I have my own race car... I mean, I tuned it myself. I can take you for a ride if you want to." His voice turned low as he finished the sentence, looking at Draven walking our way.

"Are you hitting on my girl, lan?" he said with a cold smile.

I exhaled and playfully curled a strand of my hair on my finger. "I thought that "your girl" is the dark-blonde standing behind you, but I'm glad that Alpha Draven finally found time to talk to me." I blinked innocently.

lan barely restrained himself from laughing. Draven's jaw tensed as he shot me a silent glare. I smiled brightly in return.

"lan, give us a minute, will ya?" It was clear that Draven wasn't asking, and lan acknowledged it right away.

Draven walked closer and put his stretched hands on the van, caging me in between.

"Do you want to make me jealous?" he growled low, leaning over me.

I locked my eyes on him and smirked, "I didn't consider receiving your attention. You were so occupied by Jetta-"

"I don't care about Jetta. Not in the way I care about you." He lowered his head, moving his lips dangerously close to mine.

Draven blocked my entire view, towering over me, but I was certain that we had everyone's eyes on us at that moment, and I was more than convinced that we had Jetta's full attention. The more the little gambler inside me was ready to call Draven's bluff.

I smiled daringly, "How can I know that you care about me? All you do is talk."

A second later, Draven's lips were lastingly brushing mine. I dazed. I didn't think that he would actually kiss me in front of everyone, and he didn't stop there. As his lips parted mine, his hands were wrapped around me, pulling me into his tight embrace. His tongue played around, stroking mine gently, sending shivers through my entire body. His kiss was sensual, filled with desire yet delicate. As he detached his lips from mine, he looked deep into my eyes, making me hold my breath.

"I have a million ways to prove that I care. All you have to do is let me," he whispered, his lips stroking my earlobe.

I gasped, escaping my bewilderment, my mind rebooting to figure out what had just happened. With a teasing smile, Draven released me from his embrace and stepped back, allowing me to see everyone's dumbfounded gazes, and Jetta's furious glare. I cleared my throat and combed my hair with my fingers, going around the car to get back to my seat. As others walked back to the car as well, I met their amused faces, forming a slight teenager-like flush on my cheeks. When Draven sat down in his front seat, he turned around to look at me with a boyish smile. I swallowed, feeling a tickle down my belly that made my lips curve up for him.

From that moment, whenever we had a break on the road, Draven would spend it by my side. He kept bringing me water or something to eat, making sure I had everything I needed, but somehow his attentiveness didn't make me uncomfortable. It was kind of sweet. Besides, each of his smiles belonged solely to me.

"God, if I knew that all I had to do was to make him a bit jealous," I chuckled under my breath, slowly realizing the familiar feeling of the fluttering butterflies...