CHAPTER THREE: THE MATE BOND

LUCIEN

"Mate."

I spoke that word with quiet venom, I never thought I would say it one day, my voice was a low growl vibrating through the underground cell as I stared at the filthy, bruised she-wolf slumped on the floor.

My mate.

Her copper hair is a tangled mess, soaked from the rain with mud and grass clippings sticking to it, her face smeared with blood and mud. A purple bruise bloomed around both temples, her lip split and swollen. Her ripped shirt exposed her shoulder, it's dislocated from the looks of it.

So Pathetic, Battered and bruised, importantly She mine?

My wolf howled and yipped in recognition, thrashing violently against my control, so desperate to lunge toward her and mark her. I clenched my jaw, holding him back with sheer force of will.

She looked up, eyes dazed and confused. Bright Green eyes, I could feel defiance radiating from her.

Didn’t she feel it?

Why isn’t she reacting? I tugged at the bond string between us, she doesn't move. Nothing. My wolf whimpered in denial.

“She doesn’t even know what you are to her,” I muttered, disgusted. “Pathetic.”

“Alpha,” Xavier my right hand man and sworn brother said beside me, stepping forward cautiously. “If she’s your mate, we need to release her before He takes control.”

One of the guards moved forward, fumbling with the ropes. He yanked her shoulder too hard and she cried out.

I didn’t move, but my eyes flashed red. My wolf surged forward, furious.

" I'm sorry, Alpha" He said, face pale, shaking like a leaf, seeing I don't say anything, he retreated fast another taking his place.

Xavier touched my arm. I turned, seeing his hesitation. My wolf was too close to the surface.

“I’ll handle this. We’ll get her medical attention. You need to step away, before it gets worse.”

I nodded sharply. The smell of her blood and scent, it was already crawling under my skin. I didn't trust myself or wolf to remain composed in her presence.

I turned and left, boots echoing heavily up the basement stairs and to my office . Other wolves I passed by quickly made way not daring to look in my eyes as my wolf was in the surface.

As soon as the door shut behind me, I finally let go. A snarl tore from my throat as I hurled a vase against the wall, Porcelain shattered and pieces were sent flying.

"Of all the fucking wolves on this cursed earth, it had to be her."

I clenched my fists, pressing my forehead against the wooden door.

She’s the daughter of the one who betrayed us. The one who left my father to die while he ran for his life. The one who made me Alpha too soon, at the tender age of Fourteen.

The goddess must really love to see me suffer to bind me to her?

My wolf was still pacing, whimpering with guilt and longing.

“She doesn’t even know you,” I spat, loathing him. “And if she did, she’d run.”

For two years now, my wolf and I have been in disharmony making me very eager to find my mate to calm us down. But now I don't even know how to feel.

I take off my suit jacket and unfastened the top buttons of my shirt, still trying to ground myself. From my office window, I could see teenagers sparring in the training yard. I made it mandatory for every wolf to learn how to fight immediately their wolf awakens all because of the betrayal of the house D'Arvenzi, My mate's family.

House D’Arvenzi known to have a connection to the moon goddess. Devious wolves who sees lives as toys, they kill without remorse and now my mate is their heir.

Knock. Knock.

I didn’t turn but answered

“What?” my voice snarkier than I intended.

“Ms. Price called, Alpha,” the voice outside said cautiously. “She’s asking why you left the council meeting.”

Of course, I almost forgot my political fiancée appointed personally by the elders. To me my Decoration for the public, only temporary until I met my mate, but it seems like she is not needed anymore.

It seems like we did leave her back there at the meeting. She is not of someone in power or the alpha female, she was not eligible to be In the meeting.

I don't know which spell she used on Elder Sanders to make him send her in replacement of him at the Lupus council meeting.

The meeting was called when the House of D'Arvenzi announced the death of their Alpha and his family. As one of the five great wolf shifter families, the death of the Alpha and his norminal heir brought about imbalance to the whole lycanthropes hierarchy. Blood would be shed to take over the house of D'Arvenzi.

And now the heir is under my roof.

“Tell her I answer to no one.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

I exhaled through my nose. My wolf wanted to go back to her, To touch her, Comfort her, Protect her and love her.

Weak! He's gone soft.

I can't reject her without destroying my wolf and leaving myself exposed to my foes, I can’t kill her without indirectly killing myself. I am boxed in.

This was war, only this time the battlefield was inside me between me and the bond, even if I know that I would lose miserably.

Knock Knock.

The door opened, the wolf outside walked in

“This better be good,” I growled.

“Hopeful news,” He said.

I turned leaving the window and sitting on my office chair. I assessed him, His posture was tense, alert and ready to strike in face of any threat. My best Gamma wolf, Weston.

“Speak.”

“We’ve found Daisy D’Arvenzi’s scent in a famous coffee shop in South Carolina, She’s on the move.”

Of course she is. That witch lived in my territory under my nose for over a decade. She raised the D’Arvenzi heir, my mate right under my nose.

“Good,” I said. “Double your men. I want her found.”

“She was smart enough to vanish again,” Weston warned.

“She won’t run far.”

He hesitated. “There’s more. About Xavier.”

“What now?”

“He found his mate too. She was captured along with yours. She’s in bad shape.”

My temple pulsed. “And?”

“If she doesn’t make it... we might lose a gamma wolf today.”

Perfect, Just what this cursed day needed.