Tiny.
I didn’t expect my mate to be her.
The second my eyes locked on Rune’s, I knew she was my mate even before my wolf, Ky, growled and ached to claim her. There she was, sitting on the ground, her tempting curved lips slightly parted as she stared at me. She was the perfect image of a cry for help, one that I desperately wanted to respond to but couldn’t due to our surroundings.
For a moment there, I thought she had figured out I was her mate when she didn’t take her innocent brown eyes off me to bow like everyone else. As a wave of disappointment hit me when she exited her trance and bowed, it was quickly replaced with a sweet sensation when I picked up her scent.
She smelled of peaches, with a subtle hint of jasmine, like a fine summer afternoon in a garden. So sweet and aphrodisiacal. I wrestled with Ky for control.
“MINE!” Ky barked uncontrollably while a flood of anger wrecked me at the situation she was in.
I knew she would be subjected to mistreatment when I ordered her demotion, but at the time, I didn’t care because all she was was the daughter of a traitor and not my mate, but seeing her in that position, beaten up and helpless, it took all my self-control to not whip her into my arms to the pack house to tend to her wounds. I never tended to wounds, not even mine, when I incurred some from battles. Ky was fervid. It was as though seeing her was the best thing that ever happened to him.
I sank into the coffee brown chair in my dimly lit office, and a sigh exited my lips.
I had given up on the search for my mate long ago. Not because I grew tired or bored of searching but because it became a chore, a luxury I could no longer afford. I had passed the werewolf prime for finding a mate, and Shadow Moon was not safe. Battles were fought almost every year, sometimes multiple times in a year, because Shadow Moon was the largest of all the packs, and the other Alphas convinced themselves they’d be capable of taking my pack, my territory, from me.
I had focused on making sure the pack was safe for all, but despite my efforts, the pack officials were not satisfied; they claimed I needed my mate as much as the pack needed a Luna. I didn’t think so, but I agreed to the Elect Ritual they suggested in the morning —which was a ritual done under the full moon, where we appealed to the moon goddess to assign a mate for a wolf without one— just to get them off my back.
I should’ve told them I had found her, but I couldn’t, especially not with the situation surrounding her.
Luke Leeder was a traitor, a failed warrior who bargained with the enemy for scrapes, and when he got caught, he fled like a coward. Despite his being a coward, Luke was a good mate and father. He loved his family more than life itself, especially Rune, since she looked exactly like him. It was no news that he loved her dearly, and so I knew that he’d be back to take them away.
Usually, when a traitor is found in a family, they’re sentenced to death. The oldest member of the family would then be demoted to a servant while the other members were sentenced to life imprisonment, but because I knew Luke would return if he ever heard that his beloved daughter was taking the heat of his bad decisions, I demoted her instead of her mother. It was a perfectly prepared trap, one that had turned against me in the worst way possible.
A knock on the door pulled me out of my thoughts.
“Come in,” I called out, and Ky groaned when Jett pushed the door open and entered.
“Alpha,” Jett bowed and took a seat in front of me. He watched me closely but said nothing.
“Are you going to sit there and stare at me all night?”
“It depends on if you plan on staying locked in here all night,” his witty response pulled a smile out of me. Dubbed my twin, Jett was the only one I could tolerate since we were little. His father had been a third-degree warrior who came from a line of powerful wolves that always aided my ancestors, and every wolf knew it. Regardless of this fact, appointing him as Beta of the pack was a war on its own, as the current Beta at the time wanted his weak son to take up the position as was customary. Changing the line of succession in the hierarchy was severely frowned upon, but there was no one better for the role than he was.
“Say your piece,”
“What is your plan? I’ve gathered you don’t want them to know about her,” I nodded.
“They can’t know about her. At least not yet,”
“You should’ve thought about that before making a scene at the medical house. Twice, might I add,” he narrowed his eyes, and I let out a humorless laugh. If only I had been thinking. My whole being was full of her; I was very aware of her presence, and it didn’t leave room for other thoughts. Hell! I went as far as marking her due to Ky’s excitement. If I had spent even another second in that room, I would have ravished her, which would’ve put my plans at risk.
“What are you going to do about her?”
“No more than I’ve already done,” Jett raised a brow.
“She’s Luke’s daughter. Nothing good can come out of this union, especially when he’s still on the run. You know this,” Jett nodded.
“Do you want me to take care of her?”
“No!” My voice came out more forced than I intended, and Jett passed me a knowing smile, which he quickly wiped from his face as I shot him a glare.
“I’ve decided to keep her here, to watch her closely for when Luke will come out of hiding,”
“Then don’t you think you should tell her he’s alive?”
“There’s no need to tell her that. When she sees him, he’ll be dead anyway. I only need her to capture him,” He sighed but nodded.
“Does this mean you’ll carry on with the Elect Ritual?” I didn’t need to think of my answer.
“Yes, I will never let the daughter of a traitor rule beside me.”
Rune. I never did too well with change. I hated it more than anything, especially the type of change that came without a warning. Change was overwhelming, and the idea that I would no longer be where I used to be kept me up for as long as it could—which wasn’t much because when my eyes fluttered open to rays of sun slipping into the room, I felt well rested. It felt like I had slept for days when it was just mere hours. I was convinced more than anything that the reason I was able to sleep so soundly was because of a certain musky, masculine scent that spread warmth throughout my entire body, touching me lightly with a promise that everything would be fine soon. “Everything will be fine soon,” Zarah muttered, and a little bud of hope sprouted in the pit of my mind. I didn’t want to pay any mind to the part of me that warned about false hope because even though I didn’t know what being the Alpha’s mate entailed for me, I felt a little free. I could finally sleep in a well-roofed ro
I fought the tears, threatening to fall like I was fighting for my life. I should’ve felt good, happy even, that Alpha Kane defended me, but I couldn’t bring myself to smile, knowing very well that at the end of it all, a time would come when he’d defend Rachael over me. Not that I would ever yank her hair for simply existing, but where I’d claim I was his mate, and he’d shut me down. I saw the vision clearly, and it was all I could think about as he grabbed my arm and dragged me to the living room, where I sat opposite him, watching him as he went over a book he’d picked from the other side of the couch he sat on with an air of nonchalance about him. None of us said a word. There were so many things I wanted to say and so many questions I wanted to ask, but for fear of my life, I folded my lips and swallowed the words. We were fated mates, and he didn’t want me, so I had no right to talk about my feelings. He didn’t care. Rachael and her father left shortly after the incident. More
Rune.“I will be away for a while,” came his heavy words. I shifted my weight from one leg to the other, not sure how to process the information. “Away?” I tilted my head. Did he want to go away from me? He nodded. His hair fell to his forehead, covering his brows and a bit of his emerald eyes so that I couldn’t see any emotion in them. “It seems Pearl Crest won’t back off as we thought they would,” Pearl Crest. I’d seen that name somewhere and heard other wolves talking about it. Then it clicked. It was the pack we were at war with. I instantly remembered the name written boldly in a book on Alpha Kane’s desk, along with maps sprawled on it. I nodded and paused. “Does that mean we’re going to war?” I hated how tiny my voice came out. With two fingers under his chin, Alpha Kane considered me for a few seconds before sitting upright to respond,“Not yet, but it’s inevitable,” his voice was resigned. I nodded, but the feeling that he didn’t call me just to give me a heads up abou
Rune.I woke up with a jolt. Beads of sweat marred my forehead, and I shivered in the dampness of the white night dress I had worn to bed. It was still as dark as it had been when I went to sleep. A second ago, I’d been sleeping soundly, and then a tugging in my heart had pulled me out. I tapped my chest repeatedly to help calm myself, and an unconscious sigh escaped my lips. I wiped the sweat off my face with the back of my hands as my eyes darted around the dark room. I laid my head back on my pillow, trying to force myself back to sleep, but uneasiness lodged in the pit of my stomach, making it hard to even shut my eyes. Something was wrong. I could feel it, but I couldn’t place my finger on it. With my newfound frustration, I pushed myself off my bed and went to the window to receive some fresh air, hoping it would dry off the sweat and put me to sleep, but I stilled when I saw silhouettes of two bodies moving around in the shadows.“Did you get it?” One asked, and I recognized
Water!Was my first thought as my eyes flew open. My eyes darted around my surroundings and ended at the worried brown eyes that stared back at me. “Oh heavens,” Marian placed her hand over her chest, and I blinked multiple times to make sense of the situation. I looked down at my body, and my eyes widened in surprise. I sat in a large tub of cold water in the restroom while my skin burned and itched. I parted my lips to try at words, but my voice came out croaked. What happened to me? What is going on?So many questions, but I couldn’t ask. “Honey, take it easy,” Marian dipped her hand into the tub, scooped some water into her hand, and poured it on my face. “You need to tell him!” Soph’s voice came from the bedroom. I whipped my head to the opened bathroom door, where I heard Soph clearly.“She’s on heat! At this rate, she’s going to die if something’s not done,” she paused. “Don’t give me that! You know he’s the only one that can do something about this!” Soph’s voice was str
Rune.Where is she? Where the hell is she?” My eyes flickered and closed.Where was I? Paradise? “Ti- can yo- ear me?” I knew that voice, but why could I still hear it in my head, albeit not clearly? The voice came again, multiple times, but I couldn’t respond. Instead, I peered my eyes open slightly, gaze locked on a streak of white light that seemed close, yet so far away. Where was I? I knew I was dead, but according to the tales I’d heard, I was not supposed to be in the dark. I should’ve been surrounded by a blinding white light, waiting for the moon goddess in my wolf form, to take me to my new home where I’d be reunited with my father and live with him forever while waiting on my sister and mother. The light from the distance told me I might’ve been locked out of paradise since there was no other explanation for why I was in the dark. I shut my eyes again. “I think it’s this one,” there was another voice, and it sounded closer than the first one. “Then get the damn key!” Th
Rune.The moon goddess didn’t take my life as I requested. Instead, she gave me health. Chris had estimated that my recovery would take at least a week, but on the second day, I had already started speaking, and by the fourth day, I was almost perfectly fine. Almost, because Zarah was still not responding to me. When I told Chris about it, he suggested letting her be because Alpha Kane’s negligence hurt her more than anything. Zarah probably didn’t even know we almost died from wolfsbane, which was entirely the only reason we survived, he told me. Without my wolf, I was almost purely human, and wolfsbane does not deal with humans the same fate as wolves.I returned to the pack house the night before with Soph’s help. I had not seen her in the medical house since the day I woke up, and it seemed as though she was forced into staying away from me, as she hinted when she arrived. But she swore to see me today, so I was waiting for her. I had a lot of questions I needed answers to, questio
Rune.“And where do you think you’re going?” The disapproving glare in his eyes should've told me to say nothing and return to the house and back to my room, but I couldn’t. I just saw the omega that tried to kill me. I had to follow her.“What? Let me go! She’s getting away,” I tried to wiggle out of his hold, but Alpha Kane had always been too big, too strong. The omega ran away and out of sight, but I knew I could get to her if only…“Let me go!” I yelled, hating the beads of tears that rolled down my face. “I asked a question,”“And I need you to let me go! Please,” I turned my gaze back to him. A little black covered the green of his eyes, but just slightly, and when he blinked, it was gone. I paused. What was I doing? Of course, he knew who I was running after; he sent her, and now he was protecting her because he didn’t want me to expose them and their deeds. Seeing as I didn’t make any move to run away again, he released me, and I took a few steps away from him. “Get back i