Chapter 11

A/N: I am writing to you on the day of my birthday, December 5. And I am now officially seventeen, meaning I can buy spray paint, buy m rated games, and go see r rated movies. Oh, how great this day is XD

And guys, I'm almost ten reviews away from one hundred reviews, which is the best I've ever done for any of my stories. Can we try to get those ten reviews and I promise that, for the person that gets the hundredth review, I'll definitely send them an extended preview of the next chapter. But everyone that reviews definitely gets a preview, so review people!

They'd driven in almost complete silence the entire way to Stein's apartment. The only sound that could be heard was the rumbling of the engine and, rarely, the sounds of a fight close to the moving car. Maka was only able to get one glimpse of fur flying before they had moved on, relieving her of the sight.

The ride to the apartment was long in comparison to the life Stein had given her earlier that morning. With her emotions frayed and her thoughts scattered, it seemed liked forever before they finally pulled up in front of the bookstore. And even long still until Soul and the others slid out from the alleys, slipping from the shadows as their watchful eyes scanned everything.

"We should get inside," Stein's emotionless voice pulled Maka out of her stupor as she nodded, getting out of the car and slamming it with a little extra 'umph' before she nearly sprinted for the door.

The doctor was quick to let her in, along with the wolves who followed faithfully behind. For a moment, Maka let herself study them, noticing that Tsubaki, the smallest of the three wolves, was still large enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with a small pony. Their pelts were thick and, except for Blackstar, were perfect matches with their hair color.

As Stein closed the door to the shop behind Soul—trailing behind with his ears perked back, flicking with every sound that he heard—he motioned upstairs without a sound. He put a finger over his lips, signaling for them to be quiet as they headed up the steps behind the two remaining humans—or, Maka reminded herself, one remaining human and one wolf disguised as a human.

Once they were all through the door, Stein finally sighed and shrugged off his white doctor's coat, just as Marie walked into the room with a smile that quickly faded at the sight of Maka and the wolves.

"Oh my…what happened?" Marie asked, rushing towards Maka with outstretched arms that pulled her into a hug that instantly began to calm her down. "You three can go into one of the other rooms to change back," She murmured to the wolves without looking at them, only pulling away from Maka enough to meet her eyes. "Honey, you should probably go lay down in the guest room, try to calm down a little bit. I'll bring you some tea. Do whatever you need to relax. You know our home is open to you, anything you need."

Jerkily, Maka nodded and turned away, heading straight for the hallway. It was only moments before she was inside the warm spare room, looking for a towel and hoping that there were clothes left around. All she could find was an oversized shirt, left folded in a tiny drawer.

Meanwhile, Maka could hear the soft footsteps of the wolves, the pads of their feet silencing the sounds. She attempted to ignore it, moving to the bathroom and running herself a bath, drowning out the background noise in the process.

She stripped out of her clothes and sighed as she tested the water, reveling in the scalding hot warmth that spread through her as she lowered herself in. Her tense muscles relaxed, her mind slowing down as she let the day's events run through her head. It was a lot to sort through—and it was only nine o' clock in the morning.

With a sigh, Maka stared into the clear water, sitting in the middle of the tub when there was a knock on the bedroom door. She could pick out the strong scent of the special tea that Marie made, along with another smell that Maka would never be able to forget.

"Come in," She softly called out, not looking up until she heard his footsteps at the door. When she met his eyes, she saw the unease in his ruby eyes and the way they looked away from her. Polite. Trying to avoid looking at her for too long.

"Um…Marie was going to bring you some tea but I…uh…I offered to do it. Thought it would give us a chance to talk. But if you're busy—" The words tumbled from his mouth in a rush, worried that he'd overstepped some boundary.

Maka shook her head, jerking her chin towards the counter. "Just put it up there. And it's not like you haven't seen me like this before," She quietly reminded him with a ghost of a smile as she watched the corner of his lips quirk in that way they did when he was trying to hide a smirk. But it faded as she murmured, "But Soul…we need to talk. All of this…why didn't you tell me?" She asked as he gently put down the metal tray that carried a pot and some cups. She could smell the too-sweet scent of sugar and the softer, calmer scent of milk and cream.

Sighing, Soul leaned against the counter, crossing his arms as his darkened red eyes avoided hers. "When I finally realized that I wanted to tell you…you were finally getting used to the city. You got a job, you were becoming ingrained in the city itself. And if I would've told you…let's just say we would be running away from all of this. A life on the run, staying away from anything that has to do with this city or the people inside of it. I didn't want any of this for you…for us."

"But why not warn me? Tell me about the slim chance that I might have hundreds of animals looking for me? Don't you think I might have decided that running away would be worth it?" Maka replied, her voice raised enough that she knew every wolf in the living room could likely hear her through the walls. "Soul, I'm…I'm terrified. For the first time in my life, I'm terrified and I don't know how to deal with this. And the person I need with me…he's been lying to me since I've met him."

Within moments, Soul was kneeling next to the tub, his hand reaching for her cheek. "I thought that all of this was to protect you. But I should've known; the packs have a way of knowing everything that goes on in this city," He murmured, pulling her closer as her emerald eyes gazed right into his. "I know I should have told you but…I still don't like running. It's against every instinct screaming at me, but I won't risk losing you…never. I love you too much," He told her quietly, pulling her closer.

His lips were only inches away, Maka could hear her inner voice murmuring inside of her head. And before she knew it, she leaned forward and her lips met his in a frenzied, heated kiss. She could feel the scrape of his sharp teeth as he bit at her bottom lip, pulling and tugging. Soul pulled her to her feet, dripping water as she stepped out of the tub, turning her towards the sunk and lifting her up. He stood between her legs as she wrapped them around his waist, grasping and pulling at his clothes, only pulling away to remove his shirt, throwing it somewhere in the bathroom.

But then, Maka felt a sensation that she couldn't remember feeling before. Her gums itched for a moment before she felt the sudden pain of something cutting her lip, pulling away suddenly to look in the mirror—which was when she gasped.

Slightly pulled out of his stupor, Soul opened his eyes to find Maka looking behind her at something. Then he felt his plummet as he saw her terrified, glazed stare in the mirror as she watched her reflection. Her hand slowly lifted, a lone finger reaching and touching her overgrown teeth—which were now longer and, her canines especially, much sharper.

When Maka finally looked away from her face, she looked down and could see fur—fur—growing up her shoulder blades and cresting over her shoulders, trailing down her arms before stopping right before her elbows. Unable to see below her shoulder blades—where her tattoo remained, bare of fur—she didn't even want to contemplate what was happening.

"Maka…" Soul murmured worriedly, putting his hands on her shoulders before she started to tear up. He noticed idly that the fur on her shoulders was soft, reminiscent of silk. "Hey, look at me Maka, talk to me."

She looked up at him with tears pooling in her green eyes, looking like she was only moments from breaking down. "Soul, what…what's happening to me? Why is this happening?" She nearly cried, pulling out of his grip only to feel his arms wrapping around her. "Please tell me that…that I'm not…"

Things were quiet for a few minutes as Soul stiffened, trying to think of something good to say that wouldn't upset her. "Maka…you've got to realize that…I didn't know that any of this was possible. And…no one's ever heard of this. The only one I've ever seen was Tsubaki and I only found out about a week ago—"

"Do you mean you knew about this all along?" Maka asked as she pushed him away, glaring at him as she grabbed her towel to cover up. In the back of her mind, she was harshly reminded of her situation as she felt the scratch of her towel against the fur that was still growing along her arms and back, itching where it grew. "You—you can't tell me you didn't know!"

"I might be an alpha's son, but we're left in the dark about some things for a reason. I think it's the very reason why they're searching for you now—I didn't want to scare the shit out of you when you just got through finding out about our existence!" Soul replied, his voice harsh and loud as Maka's voice rose. "I didn't know about any of this until yesterday, when you fainted and you started sprouting fur. I was scared half to death when I saw that you were changing, which would have meant I was supposed to give you to the damn sisters to deal with. You would have been given to a pack if you had survived the process of testing; they would have tested you until you couldn't do anymore and even then, you might not have ended up in my pack—and you definitely wouldn't have been mine. As an alpha's son—the future alpha—my mate was already picked out for me, just like everyone else in the pack. I couldn't risk losing you to some other pack and leaving you to one of the witches."

Maka looked up at him with a fading glare, her fright and terror fading away, along with the anger. "Is that why you're so important, because you're an alpha's son?" Her questioning gaze pierced right through him, the gaze of an alpha looking to clear up some kind of mess. He couldn't remember how often he'd seen his dad use the same look on the other members of the pack, along with a younger Wes when he'd screwed up.

Uncomfortable, Soul shifted from foot to foot as his hand scratched the back of his neck. "Well…yeah. And while my father leads the pack, like I should in the future, we still have someone above us. We call them the sisters, mistress when in front of them. They're witches and they're very powerful. As the next Alpha, I've been shown just what they can do. After what I've seen, I can't go against them without thinking of the huge risk I'm taking."

"So why are these wolves chasing me? What am I to your 'packs' that I'm being chased down?" She quietly inquired, her anger falling with time.

"I don't know," Soul whispered as he looked at the ground, unable to meet her eyes. "Don't you think that I would be doing everything I could possibly do to keep you safe if I knew what they were chasing you for? Unlike human relationships in the past, they didn't say anything about our connection or relationship, didn't call me out in front of the packs. This is something that Medusa wants done because it threatens her, along with her sister."

As Maka went to reply, Soul suddenly brightened as a wide smiled spread across his face. "Soul, what are you—"

"Hurry up and get dressed. We need to talk to Stein."

*SOUL EATER*

It had taken a few moments to really wash off before Maka had deemed herself clean enough to get dressed in an oversized t-shirt and a pair of her shorts that Maka had somehow left behind in the past few days that Maka had spent at the house. She pulled up her hair in a simple bun to attempt keeping it out of her eyes, but her bangs—curse Tsubaki for giving her bangs—kept on falling down and right into her eyes.

When she was finally finished, she walked out of the bathroom to find Soul sitting on her bed, waiting for her to finally emerge. He was quick to jump up and walk at her side, grasping her hand—surprising Maka after the almost-fight that they'd had in the other room. But even after she'd given him a stunned look, he'd walked on with her tiny hand inside his huge grasp, leading her back to the living room where Stein, Marie, Blackstar, and Tsubaki waited for them.

They all looked up when they entered the living room, the strong smell of coffee overpowering Maka's senses. She nearly gagged from the scent but tried her best to hide it as Soul pulled them into the middle of the room.

"I just remembered something about the speech Medusa and Arachne gave during the Hunt," Soul excitedly told all of them, his ruby eyes bright. "They never said anything about me or Maka being together, meaning that they were looking to hunt only her."

"That's a rather large assumption," Stein retorted dryly, hands clenched around a large coffee mug that Maka knew was filled with coffee instead of the tea that Marie was always making. "But it does explain why no one's tried hunting you down. Or she could simply be saving you, as the last remaining heir in the alpha's bloodline, if I remember correctly."

Soul shook his head, his sharp teeth peeking through his smile. "Even if I'm the last alpha, she'd have given me some kind of punishment in front of the rest of the pack and locked up so I couldn't leave to help. They must've not known about us, or thought that I wouldn't help her after…but it doesn't matter. There is something about Maka that is a threat to the sisters that they want gone. And the sisters don't want to deal with it, so they sent the wolves to do their own job."

"That does make some sense," Blackstar finally added, his quiet striking Soul as strange. "Any time someone recalls an alpha breaking that law, there's been some kind of punishment given before the hunt. It's…tradition, of sorts. But this seemed more like neutralizing a threat." He pointed out, his blue eyes dark with contemplation as Tsubaki sat at his side, rubbing a hand comfortingly up and down his arm.

"There's very little that scares the sisters, pup. And that you haven't mentioned Shaula, does that mean…"

"She's not with the other sisters. For some reason, she's branched away from them and wasn't there to help them during the hunt," Blackstar reported immediately, ever the faithful beta. "No mention of her pack has been reported and it usually means that they're feuding. It's happened, what, once or twice in the past century?"

"It's not exactly common that the sisters feud, but it happens more often than you'd think. After the last hunt, it was shortly after that Shaula pulled away from her sisters before reconciling with them on the pretense of presumptuous thinking. It's only recently that she's pulled away again and I think I understand why," Stein contemplated, absently taking a sip of his scalding hot coffee as Maka caught Tsubaki's eye. Like her, she looked somewhat confused, but still not nearly as much as Maka.

Soul's grip on Maka's hand tightened, a sign that he still knew she was there at his side. "And what would that be?" Soul snarkily replied, his lips set in a sneer for this man that he had known only for a few days who, somehow, knew all of the packs' secrets. In his head, the grey haired man was an outsider, a lone wolf, who had no right to be among them—instincts, stuffed down his throat since he was nothing but a cub.

"Shaula wants Maka's help to help kill her sisters."

A/N: Dun dun dun.

Who saw that coming? Huh, huh?

So, yes, Shaula is good-ish for the moment. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? Well, Shaula seems to be thinking that, although there is a serious flaw in her plan since she thinks she can control how everything happens. But she's wrong.

Shaula's pack is going to be a big part of the story, seeing as how they're pretty much going to be around them for quite a few chapters. But here's the thing: I have no idea what to name the people in her pack. I'm thinking I'll be bringing in the characters from Soul Eater Not! I'll just have to remember their names all over again since I haven't read it in forever. So how about some Tsugumi alpha-ness? Or at least, I'm thinking she's going to be the alpha's only daughter who is friends with Anya and Meme, Akane is her meant-to-be mate who is trying not to be with her, just to avoid obeying the witches even thought he does like her. So, lots of drama including Shala's pack.

Oh, and I recommend looking up Ed Sheeran if you haven't already found him. Phenomenal song writer and singer. Also, look up The Wanted songs, including Lightning and I Found You. Much better than their mainstream songs. They're all on my writing playlist, so you can pretty much thank them for this chapter XD