4.

ELIAN.

I stared at the frail woman lying on the bed, her black curly hair scattered on the soft pillow I had placed beneath her head. She looked so scared even in her sleep and I wished there was something, just something, I could do to wipe away the frown on her forehead.

We were at a private cottage I set up just outside the pack town, where I normally hide when I needed to give myself a moment from everything.

"She'll be fine, Alpha. She just needs to rest and she'll be back to her normal self. Just the sprain on her ankle that needs to heal." Milena, the pack's healer, said from behind me. I had mindlinked her to get here even before we arrived.

However, instead of feeling at ease with her words, I got a bit more agitated. I tightened the small frail hand I held in mine as I still kept my eyes fixed on her face.

How did I get so lucky?

"It will be better if you let her be so she can rest for a while..."

"She can rest with me here, Milena. Stop pushing it." I growled. "She is my mate." I added, emphasizing the word 'mate'. "I deserve to be by her side."

"If you insist, Alpha. I'll go back to the infirmary now. If anything arises, you can send for me."

I simply waved my free hand before I brought it to Anisa’s face and swept away the hair that had fallen on her face.

Anisa. Even her name sounded so beautiful and it calmed me down in a weird way. Her hair was gorgeous. It was so soft and silky. I wouldn't mind running my fingers through it all day.

If only I could heal faster, then, I would've helped her with the sprain. But wouldn't that scare her more?

"Are you going to spend the night sitting beside her that way?" Kosey's voice drifted across the dimly lit room. I had asked for the room to be kept dimly lit. That way it won't affect her eyes if she wakes up during the night.

"I suppose you don't expect I'd leave her side without seeing her wake up?"

"But she's afraid of you, Elian. What would she think when she wakes up and sees you guarding her like prey?"

"But she allowed me to carry her."

"Only because she had no choice. What if she wakes up now, with a new set of clothes on her and her hand in yours? Would she look at things logically? We are talking about a human, Elian."

Yes. For some reason, I was given a second chance when I had already given up. And when she did, it had to be a human mate. Which was weird, because humans are extinct. For the past seventy years, there have been no humans in Ethuria. Not in any of the nine packs around it, including my pack, Valentis.

So, how was it possible for a human to be here and as my mate?

"Why do you think she was chosen?" I whispered.

"To give you a second chance?"

"With a human?"

"You can reject her if you don't want a human mate," Kosey said with a small shrug.

"Why would I ever do that? Are you insane? I had already given up on ever finding love and knowing what it feels like to ever have a mate again because of what Belinda did to me. And now..." the words caught in my throat and I found myself unable to push them out.

I will do everything possible to see that Anisa stays with me. She has to. She should. I can't lose another mate.

"Look, Elian," Kosey said as he slowly tapped my shoulder. "You need to take things easy. You've only just found her, and she's a human after all. Besides, you've already messed up once and she's now scared of you..."

"I couldn't hold back. I tried to. But the pull was harder than I had ever imagined. It was never this way in the few days I had known Belinda to be my mate." I murmured.

"I understand. But does she?" He gestured towards Anisa, "We found her in a vulnerable situation, and you had to make matters worse. That rogue almost raped her..."

A loud growl escaped my lips as I felt a bubbling wave of rage hit me so hard that I thought I might suffocate from it. I recalled how I had seen his eyes on her and my head pounded.

He had seen my mate naked, or better yet, almost naked. Which did nothing to calm me down or calm the pounding in my head. I could still smell his scent on her and it infuriates me even more.

However, the new tunic I had put on her was slowly absorbing the rogue's scent. If I had known she was my mate when I found him, he wouldn't have had as simple a death as he did. I'd have ripped him apart limb by limb and then fed him to...

"You can stop with the trembling. The rogue is dead and she's here safe, with you."

"Easy for you to say because you don't know how it feels to smell the scent of another male on your mate!" I snapped as I carefully dropped her hand and stood up.