Six: Mate.

KAYLA.

"Rafael" His name softly escaped my lips as my knees knocked to the ground. My body became feeble in a second but his arms were strong enough to wrap around me. I forced my eyes to remain open and I saw the same terror filled his.

"Rafael, what is happening?" There was a crack in my voice and a vein that protruded along my forehead. "I think you're shifting" He muttered with a voice overshadowed by a lightning strike.

"Shifting?" I echoed.

"This is your first shift?" There was a subtle hint of doubt in his voice as I cowered my head. "I need to get you away from here. I need to get you to the river" He quickly said and my mouth hung open with so much difficulty to even speak.

When the temperature of my body burned through my clothes, Rafael knew time was not on our side.

And so he sped out through the doors on his limbs and I clung unto the hemming of his jacket. He turned into the beast I'd seen before but his was a lot calmer—like he was used to this. The whole journey was a hasty blur through my teary eyes.

I just wanted the pain to stop and Rafael had assured me the river would heal my troubled wolf. Turning as an Omega was usually like this but now that I felt it, I was convinced this was way worse. It was yet another reminder of how much we are hated by everyone.

Including the Moon Goddess.

Her spirit, they said resided in the Oakland Rivers on whose banks Rafael finally came to a halt. He stepped into the river and baptized my head inside of it. I jolted after a few seconds, rising to catch my breath but his hands firmly held around my neck.

"It's okay" He reassured me. "This will help."

"I don't want to" I cried back to him. "I don't want to do it."

"You have to, Kayla. It gets easier after tonight. I will teach you how to control it" He said but I shook my head. "I'm scared."

"I'll be here" Rafael's eyes were suddenly luscious with a silvery hue, reflecting the moon that blazed the night skies above us. He could control himself but I was new to all of this.

My wolf struggled to break free and I let out an ear-splitting scream.

But he was there to guard me every step of the way, leading Isla to the surface level. She was my wolf who after a traumatizing first shift, barely made an entrance. But I was weak in my bones and after it all, I slouched my back against a piece of rock.

My strengths couldn't lead me to fully transform but I could feel my wolf jump into my heart as well as the immediate tether to Rafael Cordero as he lifted me out of the waters.

I remembered his words that preceded this.

"You are my mate." If I didn't believe before, now I did because I could feel him.

The whistling of the waves were calming after so much chaos and I slowly brought my eyes to open. The first person I saw was him handing me a folded towel and then I realized I'd burned through my clothes and was now naked.

Naively, I brought my palms across my bare chest and I looked shyly away from his dainty eyes.

"Here" His voice pierced through my ears and left a hollow in the depths of my growling stomach. My wolf was awake and Isla beckoned to him.

Our eyes met and I could only wonder why my father antagonized this man like he was a violent criminal but all Rafael had shown me was kindness. He didn't have to but he looked away the second he saw that I was uncomfortable.

I could hear a hard lump slip down his throat as well as the heavy stomping of his heartbeat. It was difficult to control himself around me.

I reached for the towel from his hands and my fingers mistakenly grazed against his skin. There was a fiery spark that electrocuted me for a second but leaving me with an urge to touch him again.

My teeth gnashed against each other as I shivered. Climbing upon the rock, I lifted my gaze to the moon with my hair drenched across my shoulders. I felt his hands smother my moist skin and tender to the moistness of my hair.

I leaned back and Rafael was there.

His skin was the warmth and his presence was the comfort that I needed. He wrapped his arms around me and I could fell his slow breathes along the arc of my back. The hairs across my skin shot to the skies as his hands circled the bruised spots still across my body.

Rafael wasn't fazed, rather he was mesmerized.

"How is she this strong?" I could hear his thoughts.

His claw dug into my skin and my eyes darted to his eyes. "I hope I don't scare you" He whispered but how could I tell him it was quite the opposite. Just sitting there, he was the strength my body needed.

"The wounds will heal. I'll give you something when we get back to the pack" Concern glazed his eyes as he brought his lips to the surface of my skin. He kissed the edges of my scars and left a trail of tingling stars and a faint moan escaped my lips.

"I want to mark you, Kayla" He growled hungrily as his hands drew the towel to open. My head fell back into him and he grazed my rock hard nipples.

"I want you."

"I want you too, Rafael" Came whisper from my lips. Isla was the cause my raging hormones and I knew it would take time to control this new side of me—the side that longed for Rafael Cordero.

"But you're wounded" His voice crashed my intricate thoughts. "I fear you wouldn't be able to handle it" He added and my hands almost grasped him in plead. But he was right and besides, his mind was already made up it seemed.

He was well-intentioned as he was ruthlessly patient and Rafael had made it abundantly clear that he would never let anything harm me. And so with all the self-control he could muster, he tore away and left me an insatiable hole engraved into my chest.

"You need to get dressed" He cleared his throat. "We can still make it back in time" His eyes wandered as I stood. "Have this" He took out a leather coat he'd set aside and handed it to me.

I reached to grab it coyly but was hesitant to strip naked in front of him. This was the man that had seen me in my most vulnerable state but somehow this was even more embarrassing.

"Turn around" I pursed my lips as blood pumped into my cheeks. Rafael grumped but he obeyed.

"I'll call Gerald to send a car" He muttered.

I untied the towel to slip my slender frame through the soft, moist cotton and then I wore on his jacket. His woody citrus cologne trickled up my nose and when I threw a look over my shoulders, I caught him stealing a glance. A tainted smirk crept to my lips and there was one on his as well.

"I'm done" I buttoned across the coat and although the lengths barely scraped my knees, at least I was clothed in the crucial parts. My aching feet gnashed across the grounds to him and we towed to the top of the hill. There was already a parked Mercedes waiting for us and we took the backseat.

"That was eventful" I said to him and he returned a raucous hum. Without his consent, I then slipped between his arms and rested my head upon his thighs. I was so weak I was close to falling asleep.

It caught him by surprise but Rafael obliged by letting his hands cusp the back of my head. I finally brought my eyes to close after a tumultuous night and I could really get used to this, falling asleep in his arms for the second consecutive night.

It was with him that I felt the safest.

Until that changed.

The next time I snapped my eyes open, they were met with the roaring intensity of the winds gushing into my face. I was lying across a heap of mulched leaves with a migraine spearing through my head.

The moon still shone in all its glory but the night was silent. It was as though I was enveloped with darkness.

Where was I?

Like a terrible hangover, my feet were heavy to lift up but somehow, I managed to stand. I took a moment to catch my breath and take in everything including the distant hills and the forest trees around me and then I straddled along a dark path.

The only path.

"Rafael?"

My first instinct was to call out his name but the forest returned back an echo and even worse. There was a thunderous growl that filled the air like I'd woken something aggravating. All of a sudden, the earth began to quake and fall apart and all I did was clutch my chest with a shaky grasp.

I took to my aching heels immediately and there was not even a second to drown the confusion that dawned upon me. My body thrusted through the sharp, elongated leaves that were anything but ordinary.

It seemed like a painful illusion as the ground was ethereally as soft as quicksand and the air was hazy, blowing dry the beads of sweat on my forehead. I ran under the moonlight and I didn't stop even as my ankles hurt and my lungs burned for air.

Even as the leaves tore through my skin and my heart threatened to fail. I still ran.

I ran out of the fear that whatever it was that was behind me would eventually catch up. I could hear the earsplitting footsteps draw closer and fear plummeted my entire body to move forward, but that was until my bare feet struck a shard of thorn.

"Help!" I came crashing into the ground.

"Help" I wiped my dirt-smudged face as i clawed my way backwards. I turned around to face the dark skies and then all of a sudden the creature came into view with its shiny silvery eyes and blood stained paws. Ivory fangs from the corners of his mouth and a tail that could sweep down a skyscraper.

The screeches of familiarity made my ears bleed as he growled above me. I couldn't believe my eyes the moment they met his own.

"Rafael?" I whimpered, searching for him in this treacherous beast but by his dark, cold eyes, you could tell he wasn't there anymore. He howled into the winds and sharpened his teeth to dig into me like chunky meat.

"Don't do this, Rafael" I shook my head. "It's me."

But without wasting a split second, he charged down to me, driving his hungry teeth into the skin of my neck. The moment it happened, an electric ripple soared through my body and I jolted up, awake.

I gasped, arising from his thighs and he reached out to me.

"Are you okay?" Rafael asked.

Disoriented and drenched profusely in sweat, I met his eyes and couldn't find the words to say. There was this strange feeling that all of a sudden existed between us and I pulled away from him.

"It was a bad dream" I lied.

"About what?"

My heart jackhammered against my chest and I pushed a hard lump down my throat. "I don't remember" How was I to tell him that he’d killed me in that dream.

And why did the sequence feel so real.

A million unanswered questions filled my head and I no longer felt safe. An arch came between his brows and I couldn't tell whether or not he believed me. I know Rafael swore to never let anything harm me but what if he was the threat?

What if he was the danger—How would he protect me then?

After all, he was one of the most powerful apex predators to ever roam the planet—a Lycan King. A lethal beast in his most primal form.

I feared my father's reasoning began to make sense but after everything, as I sat opposite Rafael, I still didn't know who exactly he was. Was the dream a past or a prophecy because it sure felt like one of them.

Was Rafael Cordero not who I thought he was?

Was the enemy my mate?

The car came to a halt and my door opened. "We're here. We're home." His voice broke into my thoughts and when I looked from the entrance of the Blood Mountain pack and then back to his dazzling eyes,

—I knew everything was about to change forever.