A MATE AND A MISTRESS

CHAPTER 5: A MATE AND A MISTRESS

ADRIAN:

I stepped out of the room as the door clicked shut behind me, leaving Elena Thorne alone with her tears and her tall tales. She really thought she knew me. She really thought a bullet to her boyfriend's head was the peak of what I could do.

She had no idea. Death is a mercy in our world. It’s the living that's the hard part.

Getting mated to that girl today wasn't in my plans. Not even close. I had my life mapped out: I had a fiancée, a future, and a schedule. I was supposed to mark Purity at the next full moon. But things change fast when pack survival and old blood feuds collide. My father, Silas, didn't give me a choice, and the Thorne Pack didn't deserve one.

I’m turning thirty in a few months. Most Alphas have a "goddess-given" mate by the time they're nineteen, but I don’t buy into that fairy tale bull. I rejected my first mate years ago. I don’t believe in destiny; I believe in power and revenge.

My heart didn't turn to stone for no reason. Three years ago, it was ripped out of my chest and trampled on. My beloved mother, the Luna of the Blackwood Pack, was murdered. And it wasn't a clean fight. It was a coward's move. Alpha Darius Thorne’s men set a bomb on the mountain pass while she was traveling to represent my father at a conference. The explosion took her and six of our best warriors.

And Marcus? The "childhood sweetheart" Elena was crying over? He wasn't some innocent kid. He was Darius’s top spy. He was the one who gathered the intel on my mother’s route. He was the reason she was murdered. When I stood over him that rainy night three years ago, I didn't see a boy. I saw a murderer's accomplice. When I told him "game over" and pulled the trigger, it wasn't just business. It was justice.

Since then, I’ve made it my life’s mission to crush the Thorne Pack. I’ve murdered scores of their warriors, taken some of their women captive during the full moon when they came out to seek their mate, suffocated their trade, picked off their sentries, and bled them dry. When Darius finally crawled to us on his hands and knees begging for peace, my father and I had one condition. We wanted his legacy. We wanted his only heir.

By taking Elena, we don’t just end the war—we inherit the prize. The Thorne Pack becomes ours by blood. And Elena? She’s the perfect target. I’m going to make sure she pays for every tear my father shed and every drop of blood my mother lost. She thinks she’s a sacrifice for her pack? No. She’s a prisoner paying off a debt she can’t afford.

I heaved a heavy sigh, my hand resting on the handle of my bedroom door. I needed a drink and a dark room.

I stepped inside, but the room wasn't dark.

Purity was there, draped across the silk sheets of my bed. She was half-naked, wearing some lacy red lingerie that was supposed to make my blood boil. She looked like a dream, but all I could smell was the lingering scent of Elena’s fear and the iron-sharp tang of the mark I’d just burned into her neck.

Purity rose from the bed, her movements slow and seductive. She walked over, and wrapped her arms around my neck. She smelled like vanilla and expensive perfume—everything a Luna should be.

She leaned in and planted a kiss on my lips, soft and lingering.

I didn't move. I didn't kiss her back. I felt nothing but a cold, hollow weight in my gut.

She pulled away, her brow furrowing as she looked up at me. "Adrian? What’s wrong? You’re cold."

"I'm tired, Purity," I said, my voice sounding like I’d been swallowing glass. "It’s been a long night. I need to rest."

She didn't buy it. Her eyes searched mine, her grip on my shoulders tightening. "Is it about that girl? The one the guards said you brought home tonight?"

I stiffened. Word travels fast in this house. I looked her straight in the eye and lied. I hated doing it, but the truth was too messy for tonight.

"She’s nothing," I said, my voice hard. "She’s just a slave, Purity. A peace offering from a desperate man. She’s not someone you ever need to worry about. She’ll be cleaning the floors or rotting in the North Wing. That’s it."

"A slave?" Purity whispered, a little bit of the tension leaving her shoulders. "Are you sure? People are saying it was an alliance."

"People talk too much," I growled. "Go back to sleep. I have things to handle."

I hated myself at that moment. As an Alpha, I knew the law. I could only mark one woman at a time. The bond was physical, a spiritual lock that couldn't be broken easily. By marking Elena, I had effectively made her my wife in the eyes of the ancestors. I couldn't mark Purity now even if I wanted to.

I headed to the wine rack and poured myself a drink, gulping it down in one go. I shut my eyes tightly as the hot liquid burned my throat down to my stomach.

A

I’d just turned my life into a war zone. I had a woman I was supposed to love in my bed, and a woman I was sworn to hate just a few hallways away—carrying my mark.