2. I Love You

Anya's POV

I don’t know what happens next, as when I open my eyes, I’m back in my human form and in my room, to be specific. I don’t miss my room. Regardless of how much Papa loved me, his wife, my aunt, had made sure I got this terribly cramped room. My room back in college was a lot better.

The thought that I might not be able to return to college makes me jolt up from the bed. 

What had happened after I passed out? 

Just as I leave my room, I hear hushed and angry voices making me halt my steps and lean against the wall. 

“You can’t hand her over to him, Cole. That’s Julia’s only daughter.” Papa’s familiar voice says, and I realise that my hearing is on a whole different level from before. Despite his whispering, I hear him quite well. 

“She’s his fated mate! Do you really think you can stop him? Besides, we get to save our clan. Imagine all those lives that could be taken if we decide to fight him over this request.” Alpha Cole’s voice sounded next.

“Is that even possible? Fated mates don’t even exist anymore.” Papa argued back fiercely. 

His words leave me trying to figure out two plus two. What did they mean by handing me over to Andrei? 

“How do you explain what happened then? You could feel the instant submission the both of them had felt.” Alpha Cole said, his every word confirming the tragedy that had happened 

“Give me some time to think about it.” Papa finally says, and instead of a reply, there’s some prolonged silence. And then a sigh.

“You don’t have much time knowing him,” Alpha Cole says, and the slam of the door downstairs serves as an indication of his leaving. 

I tiptoed back to my room, afraid that my Papa would realise I was eavesdropping. 

“What the hell!” I exclaimed, reducing my voice subconsciously when I saw Kenan on my bed. Unlike what he looked like yesterday, he was in a much better condition, and most of his wounds had healed up well. An advantage of being a shifter.

“I had to come in here like this.” He says with a shrug, and I nod in understanding as I sit beside him. In our more than five years of being friends, he had done this a lot of times. 

“Anya, we have to leave,” Kenan says as he shifts closer to me, his voice hardly above a whisper.

“Leave? What’s going on?” My mind subconsciously goes to the conversation I just heard between his dad and my papa. 

“Alpha Andrei says you are his fated mate and would let the clan go on the account that you come with him…” he pulls me into a tight hug taking me by surprise before he continues. 

“I can’t bear to let you go with him, Anya. If we run now, we will be out of here before he gets tired of waiting and everyone thinks you are still passed out.” 

As anxious as he was, I took my time to process Kenan’s words. The devil must have stopped his attack from earlier after discovering I was his mate. 

I didn’t want to follow him. Being his mate when I was just a lowly-born wolf of the worst level meant that he wouldn’t have any respect for me. 

But the clan? 

“If he stopped attacking the clan because of me, what do you think would happen when I finally get to leave with you? Your father? My papa? Your sister?” I’m sure he could hear the exasperation in my voice as I forced the tears threatening to pour down back.

“It’s a dead end, Kenan. I can’t run,” I also didn’t think that we could outrun his men. 

“I can’t let you go to him, Anya. I love you.” Kenan says, and my whole body stiffens as I take in the desperation and longing in my best friend’s eyes. Unable to bear it, I look away in cowardice.

His confession hangs in the air for more than five minutes or perhaps more before I finally look up at him. How had I never noticed? When did that happen? The questions are running through my mind as I take in his defeated appearance. 

“Kenan…”

“Don’t reject me, Anya. I know you have a fated mate now. However, we both know that he can’t let you walk by his side. He’s too high up there to give you that.” He says, pointing out the bitter truth that I already know. 

“I don’t intend to stay with him. However, I can’t run from here. I would be hurting everyone.” I pause, considering my next words carefully. 

“I’ll find a way to run when I get to wherever he’s taking me. That way, it would be on his hands and not the clan. Your father can even use that as a hold over him. But running from here, Kenan? That would be selfish.” 

Somehow, I don’t know how exactly, but I’m certain he knows I don’t feel the same way about him. From how he doesn’t say anything about his confession to his tight hug before leaving through the window, I know very well that he understood just how I felt. 

Now that he’s gone, I have the chance to think more clearly. Running now would be a smart idea, contrary to what I had told Kenan. Wherever Alpha Andrei stayed, I could bet the security would be stronger than what is here currently. 

***** ***** *****

“You have to give her at least some time to spend with us. She had only just arrived.” Papa argued, his expression sullen over the barbaric way Andrei’s men had barged in and dragged me out. 

“And you think I have so much time to spare.” A voice says, although from outside, the power and authority in his voice is undeniable, and even before he strides in, I know he’s the one. 

There’s this tingle in my skin as he gets closer, like my wolf wants to run to him. My wolf. That was something I was new to, and I was definitely new to smelling a man like he was the only good thing on earth. 

My breath catches in my throat the moment he walks in. Earlier, I hadn’t been able to get a good look at him with his hair covering half his face and the whole gory scene. His appearance had definitely not been top of my mind. 

He’s tall. He’s easily the tallest in the room right now and with a well-toned body, he really does take every damn attention he deserves. His skin is light brown, like coffee doused with plenty of cream, a shade that I took as a sign that he was outside often, and his facial features are the most beautiful I have seen. 

I imagine what the girls back in college would do if they ever saw a man like this. There’s also what his being close does to me.

I have always prided myself on my restraint, but looking at him, it was either the mate bond or his male hormones that were flying around that had a pool of liquid flooding my panties as I clenched my thighs together. 

My wolf whimpers, restless with a deep need to jump on this man. 

By coincidence, he glanced at my just clenched thighs and then at my face before looking away. 

Amidst everything happening, I hadn’t had the time to soak in this feeling, to connect with my wolf and know what it was like. A lot of the books I had read claimed that it was relatively easy to bond with your wolf as they were simply just reflections of us.

I really hoped that mine was just as easy too….

And that it was my wolf that was making me feel hot all over at just a glance from him. 

“There are just two options which, of course, have the same end results for me but as to whether your clan survives or not, that’s entirely dependent on you.” He pauses as he shoots a glance my way. The unexpected coldness in his eyes makes me shiver slightly. 

“But as for her, she would go with me.” He added, looking back at my papa.

Papa’s shoulders slump in defeat, I can also see the pain that flashes in his eyes, and I could imagine that he would perhaps at this moment wish I was just a normal human. 

“Papa, don’t worry, I’ll go with him. He’s my ‘mate’ after all” Unintentionally, there’s a spiteful emphasis when I call him my mate, and I think he notices since I feel his gaze upon me almost immediately.