He's My Mate

Nara's pov

That cedarwood scent, I know it. It is familiar to me. I sniff again, he is here. I'd recognize it anywhere. It is the scent I once loved and now hate most in the world. It belongs to the boy who broke my heart. Kian. My eyes flutter open, and the first thing that shot through was pain. It hurts everywhere, and my head throbs. What is causing this? Then I remember what happened earlier in the kitchen. Trisha, Lang, and Karl were beating me, and Kian showed up. 

I sit up abruptly and wince in pain, shocked. Kian saved me. 

"How do you feel?" A deep, alluring voice asks, and I freeze, then my heart lurches. I see him standing across the room, arm crossed, face void of emotion. I'd been dreading seeing him. 

Tall and incredibly handsome with an athletic build. His hair is short, buzz-cut. 

However, what shocks me is the bond that forms in place as our gazes lock. Kian Karson is my mate. My heart is drumming loudly, I can hear it in my ears. 

"Mate," I whisper, I can feel myself pale at the realization. 

He stalks closer to me and sits at the edge of the bed, looking unaffected by my words. 

"How do you feel?" he asks again. How can he be concerned about how I feel when my life has just done a 180? I have a mate, and it's him. My best friend, who turned out to be my hater. 

“How long have you known?” I ask, staring into his grey-blue eyes.

“Three years.”

My heart stops. Three years. Three years of him knowing I was his mate while I hated myself for wondering why my best friend abandoned me.

“You should have told me.”

His jaw tightens, but his expression remains cold.

“What would you have done?”

The question hurts more than I expect.

“I don’t know.”

Because I don’t. I don’t know what I would have done if Kian had told me the truth. Maybe I would have forgiven him. Maybe I would have run to him.

Maybe I would have chosen him.

And the fact that he still doesn’t seem to want that answer breaks something inside me.

The bond between us, I can feel it, so magnetic, taking me to him. My body pains and my throbbing headache have all gone away just being in his presence.

His phone rings, and he gets it. I can hear a woman's voice on the other end, calling him baby, and my heart breaks. 

His eyes flicker to me for the briefest second and something unreadable crosses his face. Then it disappears.

“I have to take this.” With that, he leaves. 

Kian didn't come back to my room that night, and when I woke up in the morning, I rushed out to prepare breakfast for everyone. Despite feeling like shit, I prepared all the meals and cleaned the house spotless, with the omegas Luna Tina had assigned me. 

After doing my duties, I went to the old garage, which had been converted into a bedroom, since there was no space for me in their fancy packhouse, despite it being a four-story Victorian mansion. 

Everyone in the pack was required to attend Kian's swearing-in ceremony, so I used the common bathrooms on the first floor to bathe and wore a mini ruffled- hem dress. It was a dress no one wanted after the pack designers brought in racks and racks for all the ladies to choose from. 

I left the garage and went out to the party, where everyone was. The Luna had hired a catering company to serve the party tonight, so I was here as a member, even though I was officially one, since I was never initiated.

I was standing in the corner alone, with a lemonade in hand, while my eyes roved the garden. I wanted to see Kian. We haven't spoken since the clinic, and I need to know the way forward. I'm about to go look for him when Ciera approaches me. She is an omega and one of the five people in this pack who are nice to me. She is a pretty girl with purple bangs, green eyes, and a lovely face. 

We go to the same high school, but she hangs out with other people and rarely speaks to me. I, on the other hand, am a loner. 

"Hi, good to see you here," she smiles, and I nod in acknowledgment. Ciera starts talking about school, but I don't know half the people she mentions. 

"Look who had the guts to come here," I hear Trisha's annoying voice, and I don't hold back my groan. I swear this girl gets off on bullying me. 

"Trash, I mean Trisha," I bite out with a sarcastic smile, and she gasps. Lang's mouth hangs open, and Ciera ditches me. No surprise. 

"How dare you, Nara!" She raises her hand to slap me, but stops, as if remembering something. She backs away, only pinning me with a glare. 

"Trisha, is she causing you trouble?" The Gamma's deep voice startles me, and Trisha goes to her father and hugs him. 

"Daddy, this girl called me trash. She bullies me," she cries, and I roll my eyes. The Gamma glares at me with so much hate. This man has always hated me since the day I was brought here. After I was found, he suggested to Alpha Kebby that I should be killed because I might become like my father in the future. 

"You little dirt of the earth, how dare you bully my daughter?" he growls, eyes menacing, if he could kill me, he would without hesitation. A long time ago, I'd shrink after every disdainful stare and tell them Please don't treat me like this, I'm not my father, but now, I've gotten used to the hatred.

"I didn't bully her, Gamma. She's the one bullying me, but you should know that because you watched her bully me for years and you've never once scolded her," I spat. I can feel anger coursing through me. He approaches me, and fear creeps through me. 

"How dare you speak back at me? You are dirt like your parents; you have no right," he backhands me, and I feel my lip split, blood licking. 

"Good, uncle," Lang praises. I glare at the gamma, my body shaking and my eyes stinging with unshed tears. Don't cry, don't cry, Nara. 

The Gamma is about to say something when he suddenly freezes, and his eyes glaze over. Someone is mind-linking him. 

"Watch yourself, Nara," he warns and leaves with his daughter, but Lang pours alcohol all over my dress before joining them. 

I feel the tears I was holding flow down my cheeks. I can't be here anymore. I wish I could leave the pack, but once patrol spots me trying to escape, they'll kill me. It was an order from the Alpha. I hate my life, but I don't want to die. 

After going back to my room, I changed my clothes and took another shower to wipe away the alcohol on my skin. I sleep on the most uncomfortable bed ever, so I prefer sleeping on the floor. 

I take down the air mattress and get ready for bed. However, I'm awakened when I feel someone in the room. I jerk up, fear gripping me, but I immediately calm down when I see Kian.

"Nara, I- I was looking for you. Where d- did you go?" he asks. He's drunk and can't even talk or walk right. 

"You are drunk. What are you doing here?" I ask, helping him balance. 

“I missed you, little butterfly.”

His voice cracks, and for the first time, I see something other than the cold Alpha.

I see the boy who used to find me when I was crying, thr boy who gave me my bracelet. The boy who left.

He grips my waist and pulls me to him,

"Nara." 

"What?" My voice comes out as a soft whisper.

My heart is racing.

"I love your eyes. They are large and pretty like a deer's," he says, and then his fingers touch my throat. I always wear an emerald necklace that my father gave me when I was a baby. I'd never taken it off. Once, Trisha ripped it off me and ran away with it. I cried for two days straight. It was Kian who got it back. 

"I remember this," he says. We are standing so close, too close. Then he touches my wrist, looking pleased when he sees the bracelet he gave me. The bracelet is made of many small emerald butterflies. "You also have this," he smiles, and my heart skipped a bit. Kian is the most beautiful man out there, and his smile does something in me. 

"I missed you, little butterfly. I miss you every day... Until I sleep," he whispers and crashes his lips on me. I don't resist and kiss him back with the same passion he's kissing me. He pushes me against the wall, ravishing my neck. His fingers are under my blouse, touching my breasts and nipples. I’m making embarrassingly desperate noises. 

"Wait, wait," I pull away to look at him. We are both panting heavily, our eyes dark with lust. "Kian, you and I need to talk about our bond and all," I say, breathless. 

"Later, please," he begs and kisses me again. I see stars, and his scent takes over all my senses. Kian is heaven. I savor his taste as he does mine. Our tongues dance together, fighting for dominance until he wins. 

He pushes me into the air mattress and slides his body onto me, kissing my throat.

" I want you."