Fated Mate

Nyx 

Was there a limit to the weird things that can happen to me? Moon goddess, just give me a break already. Something about this man sends chills down my skin, and I'm not about to stand here and find out what that is. I dusted off my soiled dress and turned to leave.

"Who touched you?" His deep baritone voice hits me like a shockwave, freezing me in place.

I could feel those gold eyes on me like a physical weight, patient and unblinking, as if he had all the time in the world and fully expected me to fill the silence. I would, on any other day. I would have tripped over my own words trying to explain myself to someone who looked like that.

But it's getting dark fast, and I needed to find my way back home. Not that my stepmother  was particularly eager to welcome me back, but it's either that or sleep on the street. Bad things happened to girls who weren't home before dark in Nightclaw territory. Especially human girls.

"I have to go," I say, brushing the dirt off my skirt again and ignoring the way my legs still felt unsteady. I didn't look at him. Looking at him felt dangerous in a way I can't name, like standing too close to a fire that has no business burning that bright.

I walked past him, yet he didn't move. Good. At least I can find my way back without someone following me.

I cut through the trees in the direction I hoped led back to school.  My skin prickled the entire time, half expecting a hand to close around my arm the way Cullen's always does. 

When the tree line thined, and the school fence appears through the gaps, I finally let myself breathe. Thankfully, my generous stepbrother didn't touch my backpack. By the time I reached my bike, the entire school grounds was empty. At least I can ride home in peace.

***

Kyrell

Third person

Kyrell didn't move from his position. He stood exactly where she left him, in the middle of the forest, like there's a land mine beneath his feet. Not because he can't move, but because he knows that if he took one step in her direction, he couldn't trust what came after it.

He clenched his jaw until it ached. His claws digs into his palms, drawing blood. Lycans don't shift the way werewolves do, on a full moon. They shift at will. And right now, his beast is pulling at him. Furious with him.

'Go after her.' His wolf, Xerus, said in his head.

'I can't.'

'Why? She's ours. I want her now.'

'She isn't ours. Yet.'

'Then why did we track her here if you didn't want to mark her?'

Honestly, he didn't know how to answer that. He came to the Nightclaw pack to secure the Alpha's daughter for the Crimson Hunt, but his wolf had been restless ever since. The Hunt is less than a week away, and he'd already found his mate, only for her to turn out to be his worst nightmare.

He had gone into the woods for a run, to quiet his wolf. Then a scent stopped him cold. When he traced it to behind the school, his eyes landing on a petite figure crumpled on the ground. He was in his lycan form but fully aware, and his beast had gone ravenous watching his mate get bullied. If he hadn't turned and forced himself back into the trees, he would have slit every throat in sight. He may be heartless, but killing kids wasn't how he shows it.

She smelled like earth after rain, and something older underneath, something dark and sweet with no name he could reach for.

And then she had walked straight into his chest.

He exhaled slowly through his nose. A mistake. Her scent still clung to the air around him like she never left.

'Follow.' Xerus groaned.

He didn't.  Xerus didn't understand how much was at stake. His pack's future depended on him choosing the right Luna and his father would never allow him to claim any female without Alpha or Beta blood.

There was no wolf scent on her, which means she's either wolfless or human. But every person connected to a pack carried that trace, even humans raised among wolves. Faint, but always present.

On her, nothing. Which angered him more than it should. She couldn't even feel the mate bond between them.

He shifted to his lycan form and cut deeper into the woods until the pack house came into view.

"Prince Kyrell, I.."

"Get my beta." Kyrell cuts Alpha Gerald off without breaking stride. He walked into the pack house like he owns it. Alpha Gerald nodded and signals one of the men at the door.

The guest room prepared for him felt suffocating despite the air conditioning and open ventilation. He stood at the window, staring at nothing.

"Come in, Samiel," he said, before his beta could knock.

"You've been out a long time," Samiel said, shutting the door behind him. He crossed the room and came to stand beside Kyrell at the window. Kyrell didn't turn to face him. After a stretch of silence, he moved to sit on the sofa near the bed. "We leave tomorrow."

Samiel's brow furrows. "Tomorrow? But your father said.."

"I know."

Samiel steped in front of him. "We can't leave without the Alpha female. You know how difficult your father can be. Going back without Alpha Gerald's daughter won't sit well with him."

Kyrell wasn't sure if he should tell Samiel his reason for wanting to leave. He had thought finding his mate would be the one thing that saved him, proof he wouldn't have to claim Vesper or any other Alpha female who wasn't his true match. But finding her today felt less like salvation and more like a curse made flesh.

Samiel continued, unaware of the silent war Kyrell was losing. "We need a strong Luna fit to carry the Lycan bloodline. Even if by some miracle you find your fated mate, what if she isn't strong enough? What if your father rejects her? What if the pack does?"

"We leave tomorrow," Kyrell said. "And as for Vesper, she can come whenever she wants." He needed to leave this place before that scent drives him crazy.

'You can't leave without her.'

Before his wolf could pull at him again, Kyrell shuts him into the darkest corner of his mind and left him there.