Against the Pull

William’s POV

The moment our hands touched, it happened.

The spark. The rush. The undeniable surge of something so primal and ancient that it shattered every layer of control I had built as an Alpha.

Mate.

The word roared through me like thunder splitting the sky, not in my own voice, but in Night Storm’s. My wolf, my other half, the creature who had been waiting for this day as long as I had, howled with triumphant joy inside my chest. The sound vibrated through every bone, shaking me to my very core.

But as that one word reverberated in my head, shaking loose everything I thought I knew about fate, my body went rigid. My heart stuttered, then raced so hard I thought it might break free from my chest.

Because the man standing before me — the one with wide, nervous eyes and trembling fingers still pressed against my hand — was no woman. No soft, delicate vision I had pictured through years of longing. No dream wrapped in silken hair and gentle perfume.

It was him. Ester. The young man I had glimpsed on the beach only days ago. The stranger whose sadness had etched itself into my memory. The stranger I had foolishly allowed my mind to linger on in restless hours of the night.

And now — he was my mate.

I yanked my hand back so fast it was almost violent. My chair scraped against the polished floor as I pushed away from my desk, desperate for space, for air. My lungs felt too small, my office too confined. The walls pressed in, the floor tilted.

This couldn’t be real.

It couldn’t be.

I am William Knight. Alpha of the Moonlight Pack. The leader of hundreds, feared and respected across territories. My mate was supposed to be my Luna, my equal, the mother of my future heirs, the woman chosen by the Moon Goddess herself to stand by me.

Not him.

Not a man. Not Ester.

Yet my wolf would not let me deny it.

Night Storm was practically leaping with uncontained joy, his deep voice shaking the back of my mind:

“Finally. Finally, he’s here. Our mate. Our missing piece. Don’t you feel it? Don’t you taste it in the air? His scent — gods, William, his scent!”

I did. That was the worst part.

Even as I tried to reel myself back, tried to build my walls brick by brick, the bond’s invisible threads had already sunk into me, weaving themselves around my soul, pulling me closer to him. His scent — gods, Night Storm was right. Sweet and grounding, like pine trees after rain, warm and familiar yet entirely new. It clung to me even though he sat only a few feet away.

And he — Ester — looked at me with those wide, uncertain eyes, completely unaware of the chaos unraveling inside me.

I clenched my jaw, forcing my breathing back under control, masking my turmoil behind the practiced calm of an Alpha. Years of command had taught me how to hide weakness. No one could know what was happening inside. Not him. Not anyone.

“Welcome,” I said, my voice a fraction rougher than I intended. I forced myself to sit back, to fold my hands neatly on the desk, pretending the handshake had been nothing more than professional courtesy.

But I couldn’t unfeel it.

The spark lingered, seared into my palm, etched into every nerve ending. Even now, I felt the bond tugging, a magnetic pull urging me to move closer, to inhale more deeply, to bridge the distance between us.

Inside, Night Storm growled — not in anger, but in frustration.

“Why are you resisting? He’s ours. Claim him.”

“No.” My thought was sharp, panicked, whispered only to myself. “This is wrong. He can’t be mine.”

“The Goddess does not make mistakes.”

“She must have this time.”

The words were poison in my throat. But they were the only shield I had against the tidal wave rising inside me.

Ester sat, unaware. His eyes flickered nervously around the office, catching on the skyline view, then darting back to me. He straightened in his chair, trying to appear professional, but I caught the faint tremor in his fingers as he adjusted the strap of his bag.

His lips parted, as if to speak, and for a moment my gaze snagged there — on the curve of his mouth. I looked away so fast my neck tensed.

This is madness.

I had spent twelve years waiting for a mate. Twelve years imagining what she would be like. My wolf had yearned, hungered, howled in disappointment every time we attended a gathering and found nothing. I had all but given up, convinced the Moon Goddess had withheld my mate for some cruel reason.

And now, when I had finally stopped looking — when I had buried that fragile hope beneath layers of steel — here he was.

Not what I expected. Not what I wanted.

But fate never cared about wants.

I cleared my throat, anchoring myself in routine. Work. Business. Order. That was safe ground.

“Your responsibilities,” I began, pushing a stack of files toward him as if nothing had happened, “will include managing my schedule, screening my communications, and ensuring meetings run without interruption. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Alpha,” he said quickly, his voice soft but steady.

Something twisted in my chest at the sound of it. My wolf rumbled with approval.

Alpha. The way he said it carried no seduction, no intention. Just respect. And yet it struck me deeper than it should have.

I forced my expression neutral. “Your office is through that door. Any questions should come directly to me or to my beta.”

He nodded, clutching the files as if they were a lifeline. His knuckles whitened. For a moment, I wondered if he felt it too — the spark, the bond — or if he was oblivious. If his heart was racing the way mine was, if his breath caught every time our eyes brushed.

But he gave no sign.

Good. Let it stay that way.

The rest of the day blurred into a strange haze. Every time I tried to focus on reports or meetings, my senses betrayed me. His scent drifted through the adjoining door, curling into my office like smoke I couldn’t escape. His movements — faint shuffles of paper, the scratch of pen against notes — tugged at me, grounding and distracting all at once.

And when he entered with coffee at precisely the right temperature, the steam curling upward, his fingers brushing mine as he handed the cup — gods.

The spark flared again, so intense I nearly spilled it.

Night Storm was ecstatic.

“See? He was made for us. He knows our needs already.”

“He doesn’t know anything,” I snapped internally, forcing myself to sip calmly as Ester stepped back with polite distance. “He’s doing his job.”

“Our mate,” Night Storm insisted. “Don’t lie to yourself.”

I nearly growled aloud. I had to excuse myself twice that day, locking the door to the private washroom just to grip the sink and stare at my reflection until the storm inside me settled. My wolf paced, restless, furious with my restraint.

By evening, exhaustion weighed on me heavier than any battle ever had. Holding myself together, keeping my mask intact, pretending Ester was just another assistant — it drained me.

When he left the office with a quiet, “Good night, Alpha,” I only nodded, unable to trust my voice.

The door closed. His scent lingered.

I collapsed into my chair, pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes.

This couldn’t go on.

I couldn’t allow myself to fall into this bond. Not with him. Not with a man. The pack — my reputation — everything I had built would fracture. Alphas were meant to have strong Lunas beside them, not… this. Not a bond that would be questioned, ridiculed, resisted.

But when I whispered the thought of rejection, my chest constricted as if claws had raked through it. The very idea of severing that thread burned worse than silver against flesh.

Night Storm snarled, his fury rattling through me.

“Do not even think it. If you reject him, you reject me. You reject us. He is our mate. Our future. You cannot cut him away.”

“I have to,” I whispered to myself in the empty office, my voice breaking. “I have to, Night Storm. You don’t understand. I can’t—”

“You are blind,” my wolf roared, shaking the walls of my mind. “You are afraid of what others will say. But I tell you this — without him, we are nothing. Without him, we are already broken.”

The silence that followed his outburst was deafening.

And in that silence, I felt the bond hum again — faint, fragile, but real. A thread of warmth tugging at my chest, stretching toward where Ester had gone.

I pressed my hand against my heart, my fingers trembling.

I was an Alpha. A leader. Feared, respected, unshaken.

But in this — I was lost.

And for the first time in years, I was afraid.