3. MY Mate

Killian's Pov

"What is it, Fowler?" I asked without looking up from the files scattered around my desk. 

Fowler, my best friend walked into the office planting himself directly in front of the desk. He cast a big shadow visible on the desk regardless of his wiry frame. 

"It's your father." He said counting his words.

I shifted impatiently on my chair. He knew better than to bother me with crap involving that man. 

"I don't want to hear it. I have enough crap to handle already without bothering myself with his worthless existence." 

He walked over to the seat at the far end and moved it till it was directly in front of me. He sat down and then sucked enough air to last a diver then said, "I think you should hear him out this time."

There was something about the way he said it that prompted me to look up at his face. I was glad I did so.

"What's wrong?" I asked straightening.

He shifted his weight. I could tell he was trying to consider how to tell me what he wanted to say. Whatever it was had to be serious to get him acting as if the world was coming to an end.

"I heard he's sick. Like critical level sick." He said evenly.

I thought for a moment then nodded.

"Where is he?" I asked.

He said he was at the house. I left the files just the way they were and drove to the estate. On the way, my mind worked trying to come up with a plausible reason to explain why he had summoned me. He had always been a mysterious man so I let the issue slip out of my mind before I worked myself up to a maniacal state.

By the time I got to the gate, the sun was already out in full blast. The man at the security house buzzed me in after seeing my Dodge. I suspected it was Oscar but I wasn't certain.

The drive to the mansion was serene which was the one thing I liked about coming back. I stopped on the gravel road, killed the engine, and got out of the car. I walked straight inside ignoring Calvin, the butler, and most of the staff I saw on the way.

I made it up to his room and saw him sitting there. He looked like he was waiting for me which only infuriated me more. He was the cockiest bastard on the face of the earth.

"Killian." He said in a voice that sounded like grains of sand falling into a metal plate.

His face was drawn and he looked like he had battled with death and lost. His boney fingers had purple veins throbbing in them. The veins were big enough to transport rubies.

"What is it? I got your message from Fowler." I tried and failed to keep my voice soft.

"I was starting to think I would have to buy the statue of liberty and break it down to get your attention." 

He was wrong about that. That would only have proved what I already knew about him that he was a spoilt piece of shit.

"Why am I here?" I was starting to get impatient and it was visible in my voice.

He watched me with emotions in his eyes. Emotions I didn't exactly care for. He could cough himself to death on the cold floor and I wouldn't twitch. I felt sort of bad for my indifference towards him.

"When are you going to forgive me already? When I'm dead and buried?" The pain in his voice reached me but went past without causing any damage.

He moved from the edge of the bed shuffling his feet as he did so. He made it to his table and struggled with the top drawer. When it came open a crack, he took out a light envelope and continued on his way towards me. I controlled the urge to move away from him. He stopped just a few feet away.

"This is all yours." He tapped on the envelop. "Take it."

I eyed the envelope. If I had to guess, I'd say it had his will and papers to his properties in it. All the things I didn't want or care about.

"I don't want it." I said through gritted teeth.

"You don't have a choice. You have to bring all the wolves in the city together and form a pack as well." He grunted before he continued, "This city needs you, and you need to change our bloodline from beta's to Alpha's."

Did they now? Well I don't need them, and becoming an Alpha, was not on my to-do list.

"Give it to your favorite son, Mikel. He's the son of your dear wife right?" I smiled at him.

His face wrinkled twice as much as it naturally was. It was as if he had somehow aged 20 years in just a minute. His grey eyes pleaded with me to consider what he was offering but the anger I had was just too potent. It got worse the more I tried to relax.

"Please be reasonable, Killian. You know Mikel is a moron. If we are going to form a pack, it will needs a king not a child." He sighed. "This city need a responsible king."

I stiffled a laugh. It was funny he considered me to be responsible. I always thought he saw everyone as subjects who had to bend over to his authority no matter what. He was the more controlling, egotistical bastard alive.

"There is a war coming." His eyes were serious as he spoke. "We need to form a pack, if not the wolves in this city will be taken advantage of, and we are the most powerful family, everyone is looking unto us. I'm dying. I can feel it eating at me from inside."

I considered what he had just said. I could tell he was serious about every word but I had no idea about an impending war. It was news to me. For a minute I was tempted to accept his offer but then I remembered the promise I made to my mom before she died.

"I can't." I said shaking my head.

His gray eyes went dark showing he understood. If I stepped up as the Alpha, it would be end of peace in the family and Mikel won't relent until he got my head off my neck and I liked my head intact. Mikel was a moron but his mother had made sure he had grown into a ruthless moron.

He shuffled back to the desk and dropped the envelope then continued on his way back to the bed. I felt bad for him. For the powerful man he had once been. He still had the upright posture of a man who had so much power and authority brimming out of the tip of his fingers.

I turned around and left the room. I needed to rest after such a bothersome day. I had little regret for not calling Manuel, my driver to pick me up at the office and driving me instead. Driving all the way to the other side of the city to my house was a task I didn't look forward to doing.

My mind lingered on the conversation I had just concluded with my father. I could still hear his strained voice in my head pleading for me to take a responsibility that wasn't mine.

I remember how he had mistreated my mother cheating on her on several counts while she had stayed by his side and called it being "faithful”. I had another name for it though. A crueler name.

She had let him ride her till he had grown the balls to throw her out into the streets. My mother had died fighting for a place that wasn't hers and right before the sickness took her from me, she had made me promise I wouldn’t do the same thing she did.

Mikel and his mother had made sure they made my childhood a living hell as I had any intention of challenging their place. They treated me like a threat.

My knuckles went white as I held the wheels tight with the strength of a raging bull.

The needle on the acceleration moved way past the limit. It kept moving as my leg was heavy on the pedal as if it was fused with cement.

I stepped on the brake as fast as my brain could let me. The tire burnt on the asphalt with a loud screech that could make a mouse go deaf. My head slammed against the steering wheel hard but not hard enough to deploy the airbags.

My heart slammed hard against my ribs and it felt like a struggle to draw in oxygen. I flexed my fingers and toes to make sure there were no broken bones. I couldn't say the same about my ribs.

I looked ahead to find a girl there in the middle of the road. She stared at me in confusion. She was just as pale as I was from the fear of the near-death experience we just had.

There was something about her that drew her to me. It was an unusual feeling pulling at everything within me with a force that I couldn't comprehend even if I tried.

Staring at her through the car's windscreen, I could see the glow in her eyes, it was pulling me into an abyss and I couldn't control it.

The stranger it felt it made me realize-

She is my mate!

"Oh, fuck!" I gasped…