Chapter 5

Nicholas’s POV

“This isn’t our mate,” Norman warned, growling inside my head. “She’s not the one who was with you last night.”

“She has the mark,” I reminded him in my head. “It had to be her.”

“But she isn’t. I can feel it.”

“Do you want me to not trust what I see with my own eyes? She has the mark, so she has to be our mate.”

Norman whined, clearly not happy with the choice.

In fact, I hadn’t been sure if the woman that night had been Amanda. But seeing that mark, I couldn’t deny that I had bitten Amanda. She would be my Luna.

Suddenly, there was a thud in the corner of the room as Amanda was about to give her answer to my question about becoming my mate. She had barely spoken before everyone’s attention was elsewhere.

Who would disrupt the ceremony right now?

Angry at the interruption, I stormed through the crowd, pushing past the other pack members, only to find Esther unconscious on the floor.

What did she think she was doing? She couldn’t cause trouble now.

Just because she was trying to seduce me didn’t mean she got to behave this way—certainly not when I was about to accept my mate.

“Why doesn’t she get up?” I snapped.

“She’s fainted, My Lord,” someone had said to my right.

I scoffed at that.

“She’s not fainted. She’s just messing around. Jealous little bitch.” I nudged her sharply with my foot. “Get up, Traitor. You’ve had your fun.”

But she hadn’t moved. She had lain there, barely reacting to my foot.

Had she really fainted?

I crouched beside her and moved her head back and forth. She still hadn’t reacted.

What the fuck was going on?

“Leave her alone,” Norman had barked suddenly, his voice filling my head. “That’s our mate you’re handling.”

That had caught me off guard. Our mate?

How could that have been possible? Esther was a traitor to the pack, and she had no wolf anymore.

How was this slave our mate? That didn’t make any sense.

“You’re only saying that because you don’t want me to hurt her for disrupting the ceremony.”

“I’m telling you, she’s our fated mate!” Norman roared.

That was when I had felt my wolf trying to take control of my body. Everything had prickled along my skin, and my vision had changed.

I wouldn’t let him do it. My wolf wasn’t going to be in charge.

“Esther is our fated mate, no matter what you think,” Norman had insisted with a growl. He had been so close to taking charge. “Accept her now, not the imposter.”

I had gritted my teeth, feeling my mouth fill as my fangs slid out.

“I won’t.”

“You would rather take the woman who’s clearly lying to you?” Norman had demanded.

“It doesn’t matter who our mate is. It can’t be Esther, not after what she’s done.”

My wolf had howled, and I had felt my body tightened. I had been so close to the shift, but I wouldn’t allow it.

On the floor, Esther had stirred. Her eyes had fluttered open, and she had looked up at me.

For a second, I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off her. That wide-eyed innocence she used to have seemed to still be there, and it had fixed on me.

But she wasn’t innocent anymore. She was a killer.

And she was not going to be my mate.

“Please,” Norman had whined again. “Don’t reject our mate.”

I smirked and reached out toward Esther.

“I didn’t say anything about rejecting her.”

Esther’s POV

I had no idea what had happened to me. I had found myself sneaking into the Great Hall to see what was going to happen.

And I had seen Nicholas inspecting Amanda’s neck. She had a bite mark that I could see across the room.

How had she gotten that? I hadn’t seen it on her earlier.

Had she faked that to get Nicholas’s attention? It had appeared to be working.

But as he had asked her if she would become his Luna, I had felt a painful tingling in my chest. It had felt like my heart was squeezing, and I could hardly breathe.

The next thing I knew, I had woken up on the floor with Nicholas leaning over me, his hand hovering near my face.

For a second, I had believed he actually cared and was looking out for me.

Maybe there was some hope. Maybe, even after everything, he still cared.

But then I had seen the rage in his eyes, his yellow irises and the way his mouth didn’t fit over his teeth. He had been partway through a change that he was trying hard to hold back.

There had been nothing to say he was concerned about me.

“You couldn’t help yourself, could you?” he had snarled at me.

I had licked my dry lips.

“What?”

“You can’t bear to see anyone become my mate, so you decide you’re going to try one last time to get my attention. How pathetic.”

I tried to sit up in confusion.

“But… I didn’t.”

“Save your lying for someone else, Slut. Nobody’s going to listen.” His hand had grabbed at my throat. “You should’ve died back when you killed my sister.”

He had been cutting off my air, and I had been struggling to breathe. I had scratched at his hand, but it had been too strong for me.

Oh, God. He was really going to kill me.

How could I have been so stupid as to think he might actually have some semblance of feelings toward me?

Then I felt it. Something inside me had shifted, as if a deeper part of me was waking up.

I had never felt anything like it before, and it had been disconcerting.

“LET HER GO!”

I was confused. That voice had roared inside my head, but it hadn’t been a part of me.

It had been coming from somewhere else.

At this, Nicholas had faltered, blinking as if confused. Had he heard that voice as well?

“She’s our fated mate!” the bellow continued. “Let her go! Don’t reject her!”

That was when I realized what was happening. There was a link between us now, something that would only happen with fated mates.

And Nicholas’s wolf had been urging him to stop.

He was my mate?

How had this been possible? I must have been in a nightmare.

For years, I had thought about what my mate would be like, and there had been times when I had imagined it being Nicholas. But now I was faced with reality, and he really was.

The man I was to be bonded with for life.

No, this had to be wrong. Nicholas hated me, still believed I had murdered his sister.

If he was to be my mate…

With a snarl, Nicholas had thrown me away from him. I had fallen to the floor again, gasping for air.

He stood and stalked away. Everyone had been watching us, confusion hanging in the air.

As I had sat up, I had caught sight of Amanda, who had looked like she was going to faint herself. Had she felt the shift between her and Nicholas as well?

Had everyone in the room realized what had just gone on?

I had shifted onto my knees and looked up at Nicholas as he paced back and forth, running his fingers through his hair and growling. He had looked close to losing control.

Was he fighting with his wolf? He seemed to think we were mated, but Nicholas hadn’t.

He had wanted to kill me, not make me his mate.

“Nicholas?” I whispered.

Then he had been on me before I could react, grabbing me by the throat and lifting me to my feet. My feet had barely brushed the floor, and I had to clutch onto his hand.

I couldn’t breathe. Was this how he was going to kill me, in front of everyone?

“I’m not rejecting,” he had whispered. He had pulled me close, his twisted expression inches from mine.

“Not until I’ve had my revenge on you.”

I tried to respond, but all I could do was croak. He had been squeezing my throat too tight.

“You murdered my sister, and I’ll make you pay for that,” he had continued, his eyes glowing gold.

“I’ll use our mate bond to torture you to death. Then I’ll be satisfied that I’ve made up for what you did to Emily.”