Chapter 6: Mate

Kieran

Leaving the veterinary clinic should have been easy. I had been shot. Nearly bled to death. Woken up naked in a kennel. Been threatened with a mop. And spent the morning wearing a sweatshirt covered in golden retrievers wearing fucking party hats. Going home should have been the easiest decision I made all day.

Instead, every step away from Mara felt wrong. Not painful. Wrong. My wolf paced beneath my skin, agitated enough that I could feel him pushing against the edges of my control.

Go back.

I ignored him. The clinic doors closed behind us.

Mate.

My jaw tightened. Cassian glanced at me. "You all right?"

"Fine."

He snorted. I kept walking.

The parking lot smelled like wet asphalt, pine, gasoline, and the faint metallic trace of blood that still clung to my clothes. But underneath all of it, Mara. Her scent remained on me. On the sweatshirt. On my skin. On the bandage covering my shoulder.

Fuck.

Mate.

"I heard you the first time," I muttered.

Cassian looked over. "What?"

"Nothing."

Torin glanced back at me but wisely kept his mouth shut. Rhett was already moving toward the vehicles, still irritated about the human veterinarian who apparently lacked the appropriate amount of fear when speaking to her Alpha.

Normally, I might have addressed it. Today, I couldn't bring myself to give a shit.

All I could think about was Mara standing between my knees. Her fingers against my skin. Her brows drawn together as she examined the wound. The way she had immediately stopped when I tensed.

Did I trigger something?

Yes. She had. Just not anything she understood. I'd spent the entire examination fighting the urge to touch her. One hand on her hip. Her waist. The back of her neck. Anywhere. Anything that would bring her closer.

My wolf had gone completely still when she touched me. Not wary. Not defensive. Recognizing. And then the bastard had nearly torn through my control when she stepped away.

I had told myself it was because she saved us. That was the only explanation I had been willing to accept. Trauma did strange things. Instinct could form attachments to safety. Maybe my wolf associated her scent with survival.

Except I knew better. I had known the moment her bare fingertips brushed the skin near my incision. Everything inside me had settled. For one fucking second, the world had been silent. No pain. No anger. No responsibilities. Just her.

Mara. My mate.

The thought should have been impossible. Because I already had one. Or I thought I did.

Selene.

For years, I had accepted that our bond simply wasn't like everyone else's. Some bonds were quieter. That was what the elders said. Some wolves didn't experience the obsessive need to touch their mates. Some didn't constantly seek one another. Some bonds were based more on partnership than instinct.

I had believed them. I had needed to. Because when Selene touched me, there was nothing wrong with it. But there had never been anything extraordinary about it either.

No peace. No consuming pull. No sense that something missing inside me had finally been returned. My wolf respected her. Protected her. Accepted her authority beside me. But he never sought her. Never whined when she left. Never pushed me toward her. Never once looked at her through my eyes and thought... mate.

My steps slowed.

Fuck. How had I never questioned that?

Because the ceremony had worked. Because our blood had bound. Because every elder in attendance had watched the markings appear and declared the bond legitimate. Because I had been young enough to believe that ancient law knew my wolf better than I did.

Then a veterinarian with a filthy mouth touched my shoulder and destroyed years of certainty in less than five minutes.

"Alpha?"

Torin's voice pulled me back. I realized everyone had stopped.

Rhett stood beside the first SUV. "You're riding with Cassian?"

"Yes."

Rhett studied me. Whatever he saw convinced him not to argue. "We'll go ahead."

"Check the eastern border before you return."

He nodded. Torin's gaze flicked toward the clinic once. Then toward me. I stared until he lowered his head. Neither spoke as they climbed into the SUV.

Cassian waited until they pulled from the parking lot. Then he turned toward me. "What the fuck is going on?"

"Nothing."

"Bullshit."

I opened the passenger door. He slammed it shut before I could get inside. I looked at his hand. He removed it. Smart.

"You have been acting strange since you walked out of that treatment room."

"I was shot last night."

"You were making jokes about being muzzled twenty minutes ago."

"I wasn't making jokes."

"You almost smiled."

"At Mara."

Silence. Cassian's expression changed. Barely. Then his eyes moved toward the clinic. Back to me.

"Oh."

I said nothing.

"Kieran."

"Don't."

"Is she—"

"Yes."

The word came out before I could reconsider it. Cassian went completely still. For once in his life, the bastard had nothing to say.

I looked toward the clinic windows. I couldn't see Mara. My wolf hated that.

Cassian finally spoke. "Mara?"

"Yes."

"The veterinarian."

"Yes, Cassian."

"The human veterinarian who put you in a kennel."

I looked at him. "Are we going to keep identifying her?"

"I'm processing."

"Do it quietly."

His amusement disappeared. "Kieran..."

I knew. I already fucking knew.

"You have a Luna."

I stared at him. "No."

His brows pulled together. "What?"

"I have a woman everyone told me was my mate."

Cassian's face drained of humor. We stood silently beside the vehicle. I could almost see him replaying the same years I had. The ceremony. The bond. Selene standing beside me. Everything we had accepted without question.

"You're sure?" he asked.

I laughed once. There was nothing funny about it. "I spent years thinking the bond was supposed to feel like what I had with Selene."

"And Mara?"

I looked toward the clinic again. "When she touched me, my wolf stopped fighting."

Cassian said nothing.

"He recognized her before I was willing to."

"Kieran—"

"I know what I felt." My voice came out quieter than I intended. "And now I know what I never felt."

Cassian exhaled slowly. "Fuck."

"Exactly."

"If Mara is your true mate..."

"Then whatever exists between Selene and me isn't a true mate bond."

Cassian rubbed a hand over his jaw. "That shouldn't be possible."

"Yet here we are."

"Does Selene know?"

"No."

"Does Mara?"

"No."

His eyebrows shot up. "You're not going to tell her?"

"Tell her what? That she discovered werewolves this morning and, congratulations, she's apparently spiritually tied to an Alpha who already has another woman sitting in the Luna's seat?"

Cassian grimaced. "When you say it like that—"

"There is no better way to say it."

My wolf pushed again. Mate.

I closed my eyes. Mara wanted nothing to do with pack politics. She had made that painfully clear without even knowing what our politics involved. And now my existence threatened to drop her directly into the center of them.

"No one says anything," I said.

Cassian studied me. "Not even Selene?"

"Especially not Selene."

His expression hardened. "You think she knew the bond was fake?"

"I don't know."

And that mattered. Selene had spent years believing the same thing I had. Until I had proof otherwise, I would not accuse her of deception simply because the truth had changed beneath our feet.

"We find out what happened first."

Cassian nodded slowly. "And Mara?"

I looked toward the clinic one last time. My entire body demanded I walk back through those doors. Instead, I opened the SUV.

"Mara stays out of it."

Cassian gave me a look. "You really think your wolf is going to cooperate with that?"

Go back.

I climbed into the vehicle. "No."