Do you have what it takes to love a man?

KAEL

“Do you have what it takes to love a man, Alpha Kael?”

"Alphas don't love Omegas, right?"

"Pathetic, fucking pathetic."

That, and many more were the questions I always asked myself, minutes before I snuck into the damned omega's temporary apartment once again.

Day in, and day out.

I couldn't resist him, and he couldn't resist me.

Now before you judge and shame me for sleeping with MY mate, let me tell you the story of how it all started. And know this, I would fuck my mate in a heartbeat, irrespective of what anyone said.

***

The forest stretched endlessly ahead, dark and familiar, damp with the scent of pine and the cold earth. The moon had cast this whole silvery sheen over the dense canopy, its light now trickling through the trees in faint beams.

Ughhh.

My paws pounded the ground with that steady, and confident rhythm I was known for, the wind curling through my thick dark coat as I darted past the brambles and roots.

My packmates flanked me on all sides... at ease, loud, and cocky... their howls shifting into the deep laughter of men.

We'd been running for what felt like minutes, but was probably hours, just to track through the new scent that had thrown the whole territory into edge.

Something new.

Something that was way our of place. It wasn't rogue, not quite, but it wasn't familiar either. It was enough to rattle the elders, and once they were rattled, I was rattled. Reason why six of the strongest males in the Blackwood pack pulled into a night patrol.

We shifted back near a clearing in the forest, panting lightly, as the steam curled from our skin in the cold night. The tension of the hunt thinned as someone tossed me a water bottle.

"Alpha gets thirsty too, huh?" Brant joked, his lips stretched into a grin, as he raked a hand through his shaggy blond hair. "Gotta keep your stamina up before Lyria wear you out soon."

The others laughed... a few of them howling crudely.

These boys.

I let the bottle fall from my mouth and shifted my jaw. "Keep her name out of your mouth," I said rather flatly.

"That's rich, considering where you've had her mouth," Corwin, the youngest of the group, quipped. He dodged the pebble I threw before adding, while laughing like a maniac, might I add. "Come on, Kael, we've seen the woman. Those hips? That hair? If she was mine..."

"Well, she's not yours," I growled at him, low and sharp, feeling the sharp sting in my mouth as I allowed my canines grow.

Silence fell in the group.

Good. Now that...

Someone coughed. “Did you even hit that yet?”

My head snapped up. For fuck's sake.

Brant lifted his hands up. "Just asking, Kael. You're to be mated in a few months time, and everyone is wondering."

I didn't answer immediately, not that any of them deserved an answer when it came to my private affairs.

The night air cooled my skin, but it did nothing against the heat that was crawling up my spine. Lyria... there she was once again, naked un my bed, all flushed and needy. The way she had gasped my name, clung to me like she'd been born for it.

How many fucking times had I taken her since that first night? Five? Six? Always with restraint, and always with protection. The memory of our last time stirred something animalistic in me, but it wasn't lust.

I never felt lust when it came to that woman. Or any woman... no, anyone.

Always boredom.

"Mind your own fucking business," I snarled at him, proceeding to picking up the water bottle again.

The teasing ended there. If there was one thing these six males knew how to do, it was reading the tomes of people... and I had dropped ice cold.

We shifted back to our wolf form not long after, running again. The trees blurred past, the chill of the night wind like some sort of blade against my flanks. There, there. I let the rhythm of the run clear my head... faster, harder, trying to outpace those thoughts I did not want to name.

Lyria.

Responsibility.

The crown I hadn't asked...

Wait a second... what was that?

There was this faint smell in the air, almost impossible to detect if you weren't actively searching.

I stopped mid-stride, my claws digging into the dirt. I whipped my head around as I sniffed the air again.

Yeah, it was still there.

"Do you smell that?" I asked through our mindlink, my nose still in the air.

Brant slowed to a halt beside me. "What are you talking about? It's just the forest and damp air."

"No," I said sharply. I turned my head towards the west part of the forest. "There's definitely something else. Much more sweet, and wild. Fucking..."

Delicious.

“Kael?” Corwin asked. “You alright?”

But I wasn't listening anymore. I took in another deep breath, letting it settle within me. It was like sunshine poured over skin after days of being in the cold. Like honey warmed by the fire. Like a voice I had never heard in my life, but somehow I knew it.

My entire body went rigid, and my heart began to beat louder than it had all night.

"You don't smell that?" I demanded again.

How could they not smell it?

"There's nothing here, man. We caught something upwind, though. Smells like blood and old ash. Perhaps what we are looking for is a rogue. We'll go right." Brant snorted after taking another look at me. "Maybe you just caught a whiff of Lyria’s perfume on your own fur."

I ignored him.

"You go right," I decided, already turning. "I'm going left."

“What? You’re splitting...”

But I was already gone.

My paws hit the ground hard. Left. West. Into the thicker part of the forest, where the moonlight couldn't quite reach, and the trees whispered with the secrets of the old.

This was not a place most people from our pack came to.

The scent grew even stronger with each step. My heart thundered against my ribs, my breath ragged with the anticipation.

What was this?

No, it wasn't a what. A what wouldn't be like this. The right question to ask was... WHO was this?

It made nonsense. I had never gotten a scent like this before. Not even Rosaline’s allure, and she had plenty of that, had stirred this... ache in my chest.

My wolf wanted, nah, my wolf fucking needed to find the source. Right now, before it vanished.

I moved even faster, much wilder. Reckless. I ignored the way the brambles tore at my fur, deeper and deeper, until...

CRACK.

Fuck.

Pain flared as my body collided violently with something... no, someone. A snarl tore from my throat, but before I could react, the weight of the other wolf knocked me sideways. We tumbled down in a tangle of limbs and fur, somersaulting through the leaves, down a slope, until...

SPLASH

The icy water closed around me. Lake, we gad fallen into the lake. I thrashed once, then kicked off the bottom and surfaced with a gasp, blinking against the freezing cold.

The other wolf had surfaced too.

And I froze.

He.

I had my gaze locked with his eyes... strange, a blue that was so dark it was purple, and fierce. His chest heaved, droplets glistening along his wet pelt. Something primal ripped through me as our scents clashed and tangled in the cold air.

Him.

It was him.

The scent from the woods. I could only stare at him, stunned beyond words. My wolf howled inside me, not in warning, but rather, in recognition.

Mine.