Chapter 2: Alpha shadow

Chapter 2: The Shadow of the Alpha

DANE'S POV

I felt her before I spotted her.

The moment Freya set foot on the pack's territory, every nerve end in my body went crazy as if someone had doused me with gasoline. My wolf surged forward, ripping at my restraint like a maniac. I'd never experienced anything like it in my twenty six years.

Mate. Mate. Mate.

"No," I snarled at the monster within me, holding tight to the corner of my desk hard enough that wood splintered under my grasp. "She's not, she can't be..."

But my wolf cared not for reason, or for logic or for the fact that I'd acted like she's my little sister. He cared only for one thing: the thrum of the mate bond singing in my veins, beckoning me to her like a beacon in the dark.

I'd been getting ready for weeks. Since Mom had informed me that Freya was returning home, I'd been preparing myself, hoping that the odd dreams I'd been having were mere fantasy.

Dreams of gray eyes and soft curves. Dreams of marking and claiming and making someone mine in the most fundamental way possible.

Dreams of Freya.

I'd told myself I was sick. That all that time apart had confused my guardian instincts. That one more glance at her and I'd remember she was the little girl I'd found bawling beside her dead parents, the teenager who'd learned to box from me, the sister of my heart if not my blood.

When her car pulled up the drive, and all of my well crafted deceptions came tumbling back down on me.

I stood at my office window and saw her being dragged out of the driver's side, and my wolf went utterly crazy.

She was no little girl anymore.

She was now a woman, with curves in the right places, dark hair shining in the sunlight, and movements confident and smooth in a way that they never had been before. She wore jeans that hugged her hips and a plain sweater that shouldn't have been sexy but somehow was.

And when she smiled... God, when she smiled at my mother... something within my chest tore wide apart.

Mine, my wolf snarled. Ours. Claim her. Mark her. Make everyone know she's ours.

I forced myself to breathe, to think, and not to run downstairs and sweep her into my arms like every instinct screamed at me to do.

This couldn't be happening.

Freya was forbidden. She was off limits. She was family. She was human. She was twenty and just barely back from college, and I had no right to want her the way my body was demanding I want her.

But then she hugged Evie, jealousy pointed and illogical, ripped me wide open. Even as Evie was a female, even as I knew this was a simple hug between friends, my wolf wanted to rip them both apart.

To be the one with her alone.

"Pull yourself together," I growled, running a hand through my hair. "She's not, this isn't..."

I couldn't even speak. Because it was happening. The mate bond was no magic fairy tale, and it was pulling me towards her with a power that terrified me half to death.

I'd grown up hearing stories of fated mates. Witnessed the bond between my parents, witnessed other pack members find their other half and become complete. Always figured I'd welcome it when the time arrived.

Not like this.

Not with her.

My phone was buzzing on the table. Message from Henry, my Beta.

*Alpha, pack's wondering when you're coming down to welcome her. Your mother's giving me dirty looks.

I replied with a bit more emphasis than I required

*I'm busy, I will welcome her at dinner.*

*Coward,* 

Henry shot back, because he alone could address me that way.

He wasn't wrong.

I was hiding in my office like a coward, afraid to face the one creature I'd waited five years to see again, because I knew the moment I looked into those gray eyes, all of them would know.

They'd be able to read it on my face. Catch it on my skin. Sense it in the way the Alpha power that generally radiated from me would have its match, its balance, and its Luna.

And Freya would never be aware. Because humans didn't sense the mate bond until it was complete, until they were marked and claimed. She'd look at me and see Dane, her adopted brother, her guardian, the man who'd tucked her in at night when she had nightmares.

Not her mate.

Not the man who'd wanted to possess her so wholly that even the suggestion of anyone else, so much as looking at her made violence course through my veins.

I stood at the window, watching her laugh at some comment Evie had made, watch her embrace my father, watch her settle in a way that made my heart ache.

She was home.

And I was done.

Because how do you tell someone that fate had selected them to be yours? How do you tell them all your instincts are screaming to stake them, to claim them, to bind them to you so deeply that they'd never leave you once more?

How do you tell your younger sister she's your mate?

*She's not our sister,* my wolf growled. *Never was. Not by blood. Not by law. And soon, not by choice either.*

"Shut up," I grumbled, but the creature only laughed, certain in a way I wasn't permitted to be.

Freya looked back then, as if she felt my gaze. Her eyes followed upwards, searching, until they found my window.

Even from this distance, even through glass, I could sense the strike like a blow.

Her lips parted a fraction. Her hand flew to her throat as if she felt the weight of my ghostly mark already. Her body tilted toward the house, toward me, as if a flower turns to greet the sun.

She sensed something. Maybe not the full bond, but something.

The air between us crackled with energy I knew she couldn't yet understand. But she would. Soon, she'd understand everything.

And I'd have her, or lose my mind trying not to.

My wolf struggled against my hold, demanding I go to her. Now. Now. But I forced myself away from the window, to put distance between us even as it was like tearing off my own flesh.

I couldn't. Not yet. Not when I hadn't decided how, how to do it with her, how to make her understand this wasn't bad even as everything in it felt impossible.

I dropped the curtain behind me, breaking the contact.

My phone rang again. Henry.

*She's asking about you.*

My heart thudded against my ribcage. Naturally she would be. We'd always been close. She'd expect me to be the first to hug her, to whirl her around and tell her how much I'd missed her.

Instead, I was cringing like the coward Henry accused me of being.

*Say I'll see you at dinner,* I texted back.

*This is going to be a disaster,* Henry replied. *You know that, right?*

Yes. I knew.

Because how do you sit across the dinner table from your partner and play like you don't want to drag her up to your bedroom and possess her in every way? How do you small-talk when all you can think about is the feel of her lips on yours, the sounds she'd make when you touched her, how she'd look with your brand on her?

How do you survive dinner with the only human who might stuff you and feed you or destroy you?

I had about three hours to manage it.

Three hours before sitting across from Freya Laurent and pretending my entire world hadn't just been turned upside down.

Three hours before looking into those gray eyes and lying about all of my feelings.

My wolf snarled in anticipation.

This was going to be hell.