6

~Meara

I stare across the table, chewing on my dry toast. It's all I can manage to stomach this morning.

“Sleep well?” Sire asks lightly.

I blink lazily. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how odd this situation is. My mate is sitting before me, a completely stranger.

“Strangely, yes," I respond quietly.

It's not as if I could have left. Not only do I have no idea where I am, but Sire has made it clear that his ability to track me beyond my comprehension.

“I'm glad you're eating.

“You made this?” I look over the spread. I picked the lightest food possible. I want to get out of here as soon as possible.

He stretches. I try not to allow my gaze to wander over his muscled arms for too long. “Of course not. My magic feels better situated in my body now.”

I curl my nose up, dropping my slice of toast onto the plate. “Weird.”

“If this manor does not please you, mate, then I can arrange better accommodation.” Concern flickers across his face. He seems to be expressing more emotion, although his stoicism is still unnerving.

How he plans to find better accommodation when the world he knows has changed so much is not a question I can be bothered asking for clarification on.

“Well, I want to go home," I tell him promptly.

I could avoid the point to be polite, but my comfortability is waning. Sire is not a man anyone should trust themselves around for very long.

He doesn't blink. “Home where?”

“My home. Where I lived before you…came back to life, or whatever that was," I mutter, shuddering at the thought of him entombed in that cold, black water.

“I never died. I was stuck in a perpetual state of existence due to that spell," he tells me. He says it as if it isn't absolutely horrifying to think about.

“Again. Weird.”

“If you insist, we can live in this home of yours," Sire concedes.

My eyes widen. “No. It’s my home. You can stay there.”

I’m not sure someone like Sire belongs in my mortal existence. My cabin is too mundane, and he is far too otherworldly. Not to mention it’s impossible for him to slot comfortably into my life, and I don’t think I want him to.

“We would be separate.” He doesn’t sound like he completely understands.

“I had a life before you, Sire. I have a job, friends and…” I break off, stopping myself from admitting what I know Sire doesn’t want to head.

“And?”

I swallow tightly. I’m going to regret this. “And a boyfriend.”

Sire’s expression falls, looking utterly blank for a long second before his gaze darkens. A flicker of fear ignites within me. Who knows how volatile a powerful Alpha may be.

“You love him?” He questions.

“I did. Until I found him in bed with someone else…I’m trying to forgive him,” I mutter.

When I say it out loud I sound stupid. Hazel has already tried to knock some sense into me, but this split from him has been harder than I thought. I know I shouldn’t forgive him, but I can’t see my life without him right now.

The storm in his eyes only intensifies. “Why?”

“We have been together for a long time. I felt like I was just throwing away my life just because of one mistake,” I explain sheepishly.

“What he did is not a mistake. It’s unforgivable and now I shall kill him,” he exclaims matter-of-factly.

“No!” I yelp.

I knew this was coming. He isn’t going to fit into this society. He comes from a time where he could do whatever he wants and no one will question him. For all I know, killing in the streets was totally normal at that time.

“I will. I’ll do it now, just tell me his name,” he orders.

“Absolutely not. No killing,” I snap. This is exhausting already, trying to keep him from breaking out onto the streets to cause havoc.

“Why not?”

“Because good people don’t kill.” I let out a breath I didn’t realise I was holding. Does it really need spelling out?

He tilts his head to the side, laying his palms flat against the surface of the table.

“Who said I am good?”

“You’re my mate. You have to be.”

He pauses at that, surveying me. By the tension in his shoulders, he wasn’t expecting to be challenged like this when he first emerged from the tomb. I’m not going to back down. Not when the population of my pack is relying on it.

“Fine. Live here and I won’t any more,” he offers, motioning around himself.

I look around the great dining hall. This place is beautiful. I never thought I would be able to walk through such a perfect piece of history, and yet here I am.

But that is not enough to tempt me to live here.

“What about my life?” I ask hopelessly.

“You have me now. I will give you a life you cannot imagine.”

I roll my eyes, wanting to collapse deeper into my chair. He’s insufferable, I’ve decided. If he isn’t going to leave me alone, I’m going to have to work on making him more likeable.

“I don’t know you. You’re some freaky Alpha who apparently has no boundaries and likes to take his pants off,” I mutter irritably.

“Who doesn’t like to do that?” His lips tilt up ever-so-slightly.

I rub the back of my neck, looking down at my now cold toast. “If I stay here, I fear…”

“What?” He pushes.

“I fear I will succumb to your…seduction. I fear I will not be able to return to my normal life,” I blurt out.

I’m not sure where this sudden honest has come from, but once my mouth opened I couldn’t get it shut. The mate bond is as tricky as Hazel told me one night, many years ago when we were dreaming about our future mates.

Nights like those seem so foolish now that my mate has been revealed.

“You will succumb to my seduction. I am your mate, my cock was made to serve you-“

“Sire!” I admonish.

“What?”

“You cannot just say that!” I growl, digging my hands into my hair in frustration. Him talking like that isn’t making any of this easier.

“I just did,” he muses calmly.

“In this century, we don’t spout on about our private parts,” I mumble. If we do, it’s around people who actually want to hear it. For me, I want to keep the thoughts of his private parts as far from my mind as possible.

“I’m certain most men don’t, because most mens are not as big as mine.” He says it with absolutely not shift in tone or smile to suggest it’s a joke.

A lump in my throat gathers that becomes nearly impossible to swallow past.

“Arrogance is not a good trait today, either.”

He seems to consider my words, clearly not as offended as I was hoping to make him. I’m sure as a man who was cursed in a tomb by his enemy, he has heard far worse things about himself.

“Tell me about this new world I now live in,” he says, sensing that nothing productive is going to emerge from that conversation. “Where is the rest of my Pack members.”

I try my best to hold back my grimace.

“Uh…well, I was always told in history class that they were all killed off by Alpha Zark,” I inform him slowly, knowing how sensitive this is for him.

“Dead?” He whispers.

“I’m sorry.” A pit hollows out in my stomach. Everything he has known is now gone. All the Pack members he wanted to harbour in here and gone, in such a terrible way if history books are to be believed.

“Did they die naturally, or-“

“Zark hunted them and killed them.” It feels wrong to keep anything from him.

His face, once solemn suddenly sobers of that expression. “Where is he?”

“He died centuries ago.” I realise Sire probably isn’t fully aware of the timeline since him being cursed.

“What Pack is dominant now?” He sounds wary about my answers.

“The same Pack of his. It’s the only one to exist today. Eskar Pack.”

It’s the only Pack I’ve ever known. It seems strange to think that more existed at one point before the dominant one claimed all the land and all the people. It’s been that way since before I was born.

“Ran by?”

“An Alpha names Carran.”

Sire folds his arms over his broad chest, seeming to fall into deep concentration. He can likely sit here all day contemplating the shift in political command.

“I should be going home,” I say quickly, getting up from my chair.

“I thought we agreed that you will be staying here.” He remains seated, looking up at me.

“No...I mean, I’ll visit,” I stutter. It's starting to feel like there is no way for me to get out of here. “I can’t stay here. Not yet.”

“You need time?”

“Exactly. I just met you, you’re practically a stranger," I remind him. No one just moves in with someone they first met, even if they are a mate.

He taps his fingers against the table, thinking. I nearly collapse with relief.

“Let us go now. I would like to see your home.”

“It’s a cabin.”

“Sorry?"

“It’s an cabin. It’s not very nice," I mumble. It's nothing like this incredible manor, although I don't come from a wealthy family of Alpha's and Luna's.

“Show me this fabled cabin again.”

I roll my eyes. He was at my home once before, he just assumed I didn’t live there. I remember reading somewhere that his Pack was densely populated, so Pack members living scattered through the forest probably doesn't make sense to him.

He takes my hand and in a few moments, my feet touch down on my front porch.

“Don’t bother about your shoes…” I tell him, shouldering inside. My house is exactly as I left it only yesterday, when I jumped from my window in an attempt to flee from Sire.

He ducks his head as he steps inside, looking around.

“You live here?” He asks, watching me rush around, plucking up any clothes scattered about or any rubbish I discarded.

If I knew someone of his calibre would be inside my house, I would have considering cleaning.

“Don’t be judgy,” I mumble, stepping into my room, dumping arm fulls of clothes into my open dresser draw.

He follows me into the room. “Why live here when you could live in luxury with me?”

“Because here doesn’t have a strange Alpha’s wandering around without pants off.”

He looks strange standing in my room. He belongs in creepy tombs where magic exists. Not in my mundane bedroom where the ceilings are almost too short for him to stand comfortably.

“This bed is small,” he notes.

I cast it a glance, grimacing at my rumpled sheets. “It’s fine.”

“You had sex in this?” He doesn’t sound very impressed.

“Less than I would like, but yes,” I mutter under my breath, shoving the dresser draw closer, ignoring any fabric that tries to squeeze through the gaps.

“What terrible sex it must have been.”

I almost laugh at the truth of that statement. “Oh yeah.”

He stalks around the bed, gripping the frame before shaking it. It makes a terrible rattling sound. I should probably work on fixing that…it can join everything else that needs work around here.

“It’s not going to work,” he muses.

“What’s not?”

“This bed. It is not strong enough for what I have planned for you.” He says it so casually, like it is a simple fact that I should just accept.

“Sire,” I scold.

“At my home-“

“Sire!”

He backs away from the bed, holding his hands up defensively.

“I will respect your space,” he concedes. “I just hope you’re not in danger here.”

I frown. “Why would I be?”

He opens his mouth to respond, but a knock sounds from my front door, stealing both our attention away. He immediately makes toward the door before I can even consider who may be behind it.

“I’ll get it.”

“No-“

He opens the front door before I’m even out of the bedroom, coming face to face with my boyfriend.

I nearly collapse right there. “Oh fuck…”