I No Longer Believe in Mates, or Love

Corinne POV

"I am not a toy in your hands, Glacier!"

I stood before him with every bit of strength I had left. My knees were shaking so hard I thought they would give out any second. I lifted my head and looked directly into his gray eyes. I refused to let the tears fall. Not yet.

Glacier didn't move. He stood there like a statue made of black marble. But his eyes were devouring my face with a dark, hungry spark.

The damn Heat was messing with my body. It made my skin crawl just from him being in the room. His scent was everywhere. Cedarwood, rain, and that raw, overwhelming masculinity. it broke through my defenses and begged me to throw myself into his arms. But my mind was screaming, "Enough!"

Glacier was close. So close that I could feel his hot breath dancing on my forehead.

"I didn't feel the mate bond."

My voice came out steady and strong. It sounded strange even to my own ears. His jaw tightened. I saw the veins in his neck pop out under his dark tattoos.

"No heat, no pull... nothing." I swallowed a bitter lump in my throat and continued. "And even if it were there, I wouldn't want it. I don't want to be just a result of some stupid fate or hormones controlling me."

I saw shock flash in his eyes for a split second before it disappeared behind his cold mask. Inside, something was breaking. I thought he was ashamed of me. A hybrid. Weak. Wolf-less. A girl who hadn't even found her aura yet. I thought he refused to claim me because I wasn't fit to be a Luna beside a great Alpha like him. So, I decided to reject him first.

He took only one step, but it was enough to trap me. He leaned his massive arm against the wall behind my head. He caged my small body between his steel chest and the cold wall. I could see every tiny hair in his groomed beard. I could see every little crack in the glow of his gray eyes.

"I no longer believe in mates, or love, Corinne." His voice was low and gravelly. It sounded like it came from the depths of a cave. "But you are a responsibility. And I protect what I am responsible for."

The word responsibility hit me like a knife. A volcano of insult exploded in my chest.

"So I'm just a chore?" I whispered. My eyes challenged his. "While you... you were everything to me?"

He didn't soften. "You are my friend's daughter, Corinne."

That sentence hit me hard. I had made him my whole world, and he saw me as an old debt to my father.

I lifted my head higher. I tried to ignore the shivers running through my body because of how dangerously close he was. "Then why did you kiss me, Glacier? And why did you go crazy when Mason kissed me? Was that out of duty too?"

He didn't flinch. He didn't apologize. He looked at me with a cutting coldness. The kind of cold that freezes the soul.

"That was my wolf, not me."

Then he added a final blow that crushed what was left of my pride. "Because you are my mate, nothing more. My body responds to the bond, but my mind knows the truth. There is no reason for me to be attracted to a little girl like you."

"A girl?"

The first tear fell. It was hot and salty. I wiped it away with a rough hand. I felt something strange boiling deep inside me. A power I never knew I had. A heat started to glow from the palms of my hands.

"And what about Lumi? Do you like her? Do you see her as a woman?" I asked him with a choked voice.

There was a heavy silence. He leaned in closer until my nose almost touched his chest. He whispered in a dark voice that sent chills down my spine. "She is capable of waking up the body, Corinne. She can give what women give to men."

Then he added with deadly coldness. "But my heart? It doesn't beat for anyone."

I froze. I couldn't hear the noise of the pack outside anymore. I moved my hand as fast as lightning and slapped him.

Crack!

The slap echoed through the office. The pictures on the walls seemed to shake. Glacier's face went stiff. His head turned slightly to the right. I saw the red mark of my fingers appearing on his tanned skin.

A terrifying silence followed. I expected him to kill me, to kick me out, or to shift into his wolf and tear me apart. But he stayed still. He was breathing hard. His eyes turned pitch black.

"Alpha Glacier..."

I growled. Tears were streaming down my face, but my voice had a strange power. It was an aura I didn't know I possessed yet.

"I promise you."

My voice shook, but it didn't break. I took a step back. I looked at him with eyes burning with a defiance he hadn't seen in the three years I've lived here.

"Everything in you will beat for me. Every heartbeat, every breath, every single part of your soul."

This time, I was the one who stepped toward him. I put my finger on his chest, right over his heart. It was beating wildly under his shirt.

"In just two months... before I leave this pack..."

I whispered with a quiet threat. My eyes pierced through his dark soul.

"You will kneel for me, Glacier. You will beg for one look from me. You will burn in the fires of the desire you are trying to put out right now."