CH5

Chapter 5

Rhyvenn

Arasmus, my gamma, didn't want me to leave the kingdom. Not when there were countless enemies trying their best to get their hands on me in order to control the Open Plains.

I had obeyed that rule for several decades.

I had remained behind the borders of my kingdom while others travelled freely. I had endured endless meetings, endless warnings and endless precautions.

But the moment I scented her, I had been unable to control it.

Unable to control myself.

Unable to ignore the pull that had gripped every part of my being.

"MATE!" my wolf growled in my head.

The word echoed violently through me.

It was one of those rare occasions when I was unable to control him.

Unable to hold him back from howling.

Unable to stop him from demanding what he wanted.

Even knowing others would hear.

Even knowing I was supposed to remain composed.

But staring at the girl standing before me, she smelled ordinary.

No.

Not ordinary.

Wrong.

Different.

Her scent called to me in a way that made my wolf restless, yet everything else about her seemed painfully normal.

"What house are you from?" I asked immediately, a frown settling on my face as I gazed at her in the dead of night. She wasn't from any of the royal houses I was familiar with.

My eyes had sharpened under the moonlight, carrying traces of my wolf.

Yet I saw nothing remarkable.

No strength or aura.

Nothing.

"What does that have to do with you?" she snapped almost immediately, turning to leave.

I held her back before she could.

No one dared turn their backs on my questions.

No one dared walk away without my permission.

Everyone had learned how to obey my commands and follow my orders.

Unless they were tired of the air they breathed.

Even Arasmus, the only person who had ever been close to me, knew better than to challenge me recklessly.

Yet a young girl like her dared to.

I stared at her, trying to see the power concealed beneath her.

That had to be the reason she was defying my words.

That had to be the reason for her arrogance.

There had to be something.

Some hidden strength.

Some rare bloodline.

Some explanation.

But there was nothing.

All I perceived was a void.

And this suffocating scent that my wolf screamed at me for.

A scent that drove him nearly mad.

A scent that kept telling me she was my fated mate.

"What's your component?" I asked again.

I needed to be nice.

Perhaps that was why she was rude.

Perhaps she couldn't feel the mate bond.

Perhaps she was frightened.

Perhaps she didn't understand what was happening.

I kept giving reasons for why she was trying to ignore me.

But the more I pressed, the more foolish I looked.

And the more she tried to walk away from me.

It wasn't until she violently snatched her hand away from mine, wanting to leave again, that it finally occurred to me.

I grabbed her by the neck immediately.

My fingers tightened as I raised her from the ground.

She thrashed her legs wildly in the air while trying to free herself.

"You're not a lycan!" I shouted as though I had just discovered the answer.

That was it.

That was the reason.

Why her scent felt strange.

Why my instincts couldn't properly read her.

Why there was something missing.

But still...

She was my mate.

The mate I had waited years for.

The mate fate had denied me for decades.

I immediately released her.

The moment I did, she fell to the ground with a painful thud.

I tried to help her up.

But she rose before I could.

Ignoring the hand I had stretched toward her.

A slap landed across my cheek.

The sound echoed through the forest.

"How dare you!" she fired.

Her eyes blazed with fury.

"How dare you intercept me and talk nonsense?"

"Nonsense?" I repeated in surprise, clutching the side of my face.

No one had ever slapped me before.

No one.

Half of me wanted to break her back on the spot.

But my wolf kept holding me back.

I couldn't.

She was my mate.

His mate.

I forced myself to remain calm.

This was probably a surprise to her.

Perhaps she needed time.

Perhaps she simply didn't understand.

"I'm guessing that being before me is making you scared and giddy. But trust me, I won't harm you. Nor will I do anything to put your life in jeopardy. But you're my mate and—"

I didn't get to finish.

Another slap cracked against my face.

Something inside me snapped.

My fingers tightened around her neck immediately.

Unable to let go.

Unable to release her.

"How dare you keep doing that because I let you the first time?" I growled.

"Do you not know who I am?"

"No one cares who you are!" she snapped.

"Whether you're the guardian of this forest or of the rivers or the war father of those cursed lycans, I do not care and I never will!"

Her eyes burned into mine.

"Now let me go this instant, you pervert!"

"What pervert?" I barked.

"How dare you! I am the Lycan King!"

She laughed.

Not a nervous laugh.

Not an uncertain laugh.

A mocking one.

Low.

Hollow.

Filled with ridicule.

"If you're the Lycan King then I'm the Lycan Queen!"

She struggled harder.

"Let's be mad together! Let me go this instant! I swear you're not going to like what I'd do to you if you don't!"

"Are you threatening me?"

My eyes narrowed dangerously.

Why was she being so difficult?

I was already being patient.

Far more patient than anyone else had ever experienced from me.

Yet she continued provoking me.

"Since you do not want this to end peacefully," she said, her voice cold, "then I'm going to make it easier for both of us."

My eyes narrowed further.

What did she mean by that?

What was she planning?

I was being nice already.

What more did she want?

"I do not want this bond nor do I want to be bound to you or anyone."

My brows furrowed.

"Right. You're already acknowledging the bond. But how dare you say you do not want to be bound to me? Do you not know who—"

"I do not know who you are nor do I want to know who you are!"

Her voice rang through the night.

"I, Tanya, the half-blood, reject you and whoever you are as my mate!"

My wolf froze.

For a second, everything froze.

Even the wind seemed to stop moving.

"I sever this bond that binds us together!"

The words struck like blades.

"I do not want to have anything to do with you nor do I—"

I didn't let her finish.

My fingers closed around her throat once more.

The rage I had barely managed to suppress since arriving here finally took over.

"How dare you!"

My voice emerged cold.

Merciless.

Deadly.

The air around us seemed to shudder.

The ground beneath my feet cracked.

I was nice.

I swear to the Moon Goddess—or whoever had cursed me into becoming a slave to this bond—I was nice.

I had tried.

I had restrained myself.

I had tolerated her disrespect.

I had tolerated her slaps.

I had tolerated her insults.

And now she dared reject me?

Me?

The Lycan King.

The strongest being.

The male wolves feared.

The one entire kingdoms bowed before.

The mate I had waited decades for had looked me in the eye and rejected me as though I were nothing.

As though I were beneath her.

As though I was some inconvenience she could simply throw away.

My wolf howled in agony.

A raw, broken sound that tore through my head.

"MATE!"

But the word no longer sounded triumphant.

It sounded wounded.

Broken.

Furious.

And for the first time in centuries, I felt something I could barely recognize.

Pain.