CHAPTER EIGHT: OUR MATE

Cassian POV

“What price?” Denric snarled, bristling.

Jessa let out a soft whimper. “It says you can buy me, but you have to provide the fresh blood that comes with forming a mating bond.”

My head whipped around. I stared at Jessa as she closed her eyes. Her hands were still tight on Jarek’s shirt, her breathing ragged. The tiny clearing started to lighten; the lunar eclipse was nearing its end. I saw on her face the devastation, the resignation. She didn’t think we’d do it. I couldn’t blame her for her assumption. Taking Jessa Malraux as a mate?

It was not just me, I realized. The shock was growing stronger in my system. She’d be our mate. Jarek, Denric, and me. My wolf growled, already willing to make that sacrifice.

What was wrong with it?

Alphas sharing a mate wasn’t entirely unheard of, but it was never something I ever thought I’d be willing to do. Fuck, I wasn’t sure if I wanted a mate at all. Maybe someday, when I was ready to have kids, I’d find a woman who was willing to have my kid and be done with it. But why would I want to settle with one person for the rest of my life when the town was full of women who were eager to have their turn with me?

“There’s no blood in a mating bond,” Denric growled.

“Unless she’s a virgin,” I answered sarcastically.

Jessa took in a sharp breath. My stomach dropped. Oh. Oh, no. She was. Fuck, fuck, fuck! What sort of messed up situation was this? My wolf was excited at hearing that, almost enough to distract from the fucking eclipse spirit that had resumed its circling around us. What was wrong with it? Virgins were bad news. Give me an experienced woman any day of the week! They at least knew how to use their bodies.

“A mate?” Denric hissed, sounding furious. “You want us to take her as a mate? What, because she’s a virgin?”

“It says that there is blood to the bond, regardless of… sexual experience,” Jessa whispered. “There’s bloodshed in the knitting of fate together, whether we see it or not.”

Jarek was the only one who seemed to have sufficiently kept his head. “Why? Why do you want us to take her as our mate? If you want blood, I would think that you’d want actual blood, not the type that we can’t see.”

“Mating blood is powerful. The shedding of blood and creation of new blood,” Jessa said. Her hands dropped to her sides. “But it’s not going to happen. Even if they agreed, I don’t. So you might as well just finish it.”

I growled low in my throat. What was she talking about? She’d rather die than have me? Yeah, there was something very wrong with this chick. I was a fucking catch. Any woman in Silverwood would be happy to have me as her mate, and she was saying she’d rather be dead?

The spirit lunged. I grabbed Jessa around the waist and twisted her behind me, pressing her between me and Denric now. I lengthened my canines, snarling at the shadow. A glimmer of red shone from the depths of the shadow. It seemed to be getting thinner at the edges, less defined as more of the moon was revealed. Jessa yelped at the suddenness of the change. Her hands grasped my arms now. She shuddered, so soft and warm up next to my body.

And her scent. I could smell the blood on her, but that wasn’t enough to overpower the sweet, floral scent that wafted off her. Honeysuckles and bergamot. The same scent from this morning had me following along the trail of clothing she was dropping behind her as she hurried away from the Alphas’ houses.

“We can bring other sacrifices,” Denric growled, breaking the standoff. “There’s plenty of blood in the forest that will be better.”

The shadow lunged again. Something solid slammed into my chest, knocking me off my feet. Denric and Jarek were thrown back as well. Jessa gasped and stumbled back, then the shadow wrapped around her. Her eyes bulged as she clawed at her own throat. A line of red seeped through her skin, as though a long claw was being dragged across her throat.

I shifted without meaning to. I howled as I lunged for the shadow, snapping my jaws at nothing. I thought I had caught something, but I was slammed away again. There was no thought, only the need to get Jessa away from the shadow. I fought against the thing I couldn’t even see. Sometimes my teeth caught something solid, but mostly it felt like I was fighting the wind.

Eventually, Jessa was thrown to the ground. She cried out, and the three of us stood over her, growling and bristling.

“It says take the offer or die with me,” Jessa gasped. Tears streamed down her face as she wrapped her arms around herself. “It has blood and will have more. You’ve made us angry and will punish us all for your interference.”

Denric and Jarek stood growling, their fur standing on end. I wanted to just keep on snarling and baring my teeth, too, but… but we couldn’t fight this thing. My sides were soaked in sweat—and blood, I realized. I hadn’t been aware of the pain until this moment. Fucking perfect.

This wasn’t going to end well for any of us. If the others were reacting the same way I was, our wolves were going to war with this spirit until we were dead.

We couldn’t defeat it.

I shifted back to human form. With one hand, I pulled Jessa up and into my arms. “We’ll take her as our mate.”

Jarek shifted and nodded. Last was Denric. He put his hand on Jessa’s shoulder. The three of us glared at the shadow.

“Wait,” Jessa gasped.

A surge of darkness washed out. It slammed through my chest and I felt a ripping, a tearing. And everything went black.