Chapter 2:‘Mate!’

*ASA TRINE*

Pain.

It started off as a dull throb and extended to a magnitude where physically stopping myself from letting out a scream was painstakingly impossible. My lips that I had bit on to stop myself from releasing any noise bled a trickle off blood from the corner, as my canines pierced into my skin. The pain of this wound was although irrelevant in comparison to the one that was burning in the center of my heart.

A slight whimper escaped me even though I had been trying with every cell in my body to suppress my anguish. But like I said, it was impossible to not cry when the one thing that had been yours even before you were born was the one rejecting you.

Clenching my palms into a fist as I looked with blurry eyes at the smiling face of my mate. Once again, he scoffed at my hateful glare and bending down, he turned Sofia’s head to him, like a puppet and mercilessly, right to my face he kissed her.

The severed bond and the defying of his actions against the goddess’s will punished my body that had been rejected and a gut-wrenching pain made me let out a scream, this time unable to swallow it. The roughness of my own voice scratched my throat hoarsely and I fell to my knees in a heaving mess.

The carpeted floor cushioned the impact a little but pain of this action like every other part of my body rattled me to my core. And yet it was still bearable for the torture that my insides were feeling and my heart was suffering, would never be seen by this pathetic excuse of my mate.

The physical pain could never compare to the torment of my soul.    

His mocking glance and Sofia’s pitiful eyes were a mockery to my own feelings and beliefs and with a raged groan of another rumbling pain I looked up at him and slowly stood up with the support of the table beside me.

It didn’t help, as I came tumbling down again and I heard snickers release from the asshole who I had been paired up with. Deciding to end my own torment to save my remaining sanity and hopefully to let this fool feel the same pain that I did, I sat huffing on the ground and through between my cascading tresses I looked at the devilish angel as I choked out my words, “I, Asa Trine, a member of Pack Blessed Moon accept the rejection of Clay Arius.”

For a moment my hazy eyes cleared to give me a view of devastation and hurt present on Clay’s face but his face quickly contorted to a smile as he nodded happily and said, “Good, one should always know their place.”

His words came out clenched and a bit mocking as he tried to suppress the pain that he must be feeling too. He staggered back slightly, releasing Sofia from his hold and I won’t deny when I say that I felt betrayed when I saw Sofia turn to care for him instead of me.

By now my body had been coming down from the exhaustion of the painful experience that had forced me into a grieving memory forever but anything would be better than to live with a man as selfish and vain as him.

Pressing my palms down on the ground to lift myself again, I put force against the floor as I tried to lift my weighing body only to come crashing down like my previous efforts. Dizziness overtook my deteriorating state and no matter what I did I couldn’t stop the throbbing in my head.

“What is happening here? I heard someone scream-” another voice, slightly rough and alarmed came floating in the room but stopped midway when it must have taken in this scene. I could only imagine how dramatic it must have seemed to see a woman sprawled on the floor in a mess while another clanged to the future Alpha’s body who silently overcame the pain through heavy grunts.

I wish I could hear him scream and shout like me.

It would have at least helped me and my wolf to feel better.

‘Are you okay?’ I asked my wolf, Xara, and whimpering in my head she weakly responded, ‘I feel like dying, why did our mate reject us?’

Wolves have forever been loyal creatures and human selfishness and greed was beyond their understanding. For them loyalty and love were everything but I guess Clay’s wolf must not have been strong enough to curb his selfish human side for us to result this way.

“Hey, are you okay?” I heard a familiar voice ring in my ears and the pattering of footsteps by the door came towards me instead of Clay. I felt slightly better knowing that I had been someone’s first choice for once even though it was for such an insignificant moment. Both Clay and Sofia only seemed to care about each other.

I wanted to answer this kind voice but I was unable to even open my mouth and so simply trying to raise my head I put in all my effort when I felt a pair of warm hands grip onto my arms and effortlessly pull me up to a sitting position.

Putting two fingers below my chin he gently picked up my head to look at me as he moved away my matted hair that was stuck to my face due to the tears and tucked it behind my ears. My unfocused eyes took in the familiar dark brown hair and pink lips that had been maliciously jeering at me for the past few minutes.

Clay?

I wanted to rub my eyes to clear my view, wondering if I had been seeing right. There was no way in hell that Clay would come to help me, right? Pathetically still somewhere I felt my hopes rise and so blinking away the tears I finally met eyes with him but instead of pools of sardonic blue there was a glimmer of gold. The color so warm and bright that I felt my skin heat up like I had been out in the warm rays of the sunlight.

This person had the same features, high cheekbones, a perfect straight nose and his cheeks unlike Clay’s was peppered with slight facial hair. He looked exactly like Clay but for his eyes that weren’t the hateful color of the deep ocean.

The person here with me was Cain Arius, Clay’s twin brother, older to him by two minutes and also a candidate to become the future Alpha of the Pack.

‘Mate!’

 My wolf shouted in my head. Her voice confused yet happy and I felt my eyes widen as I felt sparks igniting every part of my body that was in touch with him. A sweet scent of tangerines filled my nose and I felt my foggy mind refresh as the chant of my wolf got louder in my head.

‘Xara? Is it true that he is our mate?’ I asked as soon as I saw recognition in his eyes and a smile on his face.

‘Yes!’ she said happily, despite I could still sense her in a turmoil.

I had only ever heard of very few people receiving second chance mate and usually it was difficult to find them but to think that I was fated to be mates with the twin brother of my ex-mate!

What are you trying to do Moon Goddess?

“Asa…” he slowly called out my name as he hugged me to himself making an explosion of butterflies happen in my gut. My body already weak from the previous trauma fell in a state of shock as it found it difficult to comprehend whether to be sad or happy.

Staying limp in his arms I whimpered in confusion making him part and look at me with his sunny eyes. Realization of my state settled in his head soon after and with shaking hands he touched the corner of my lips. His eyes flashed black at once as he grunted, “Blood?”

Realizing that there must have been a trail of dried blood due to my canines piercing my lips before, I tried to push him away to clean it but gripping onto my chin he brought it closer to him making me strain my neck at an angle.

Scrutinizing it for a second, he fixed his eyes to my lips and then slowly flicking his tongue out he followed a hot trail from all the way down from the tip of my chin to the corner of my lips where he finally placed a kiss, while consequently cleaning the remnants of my blood.

This action made heat pool to my core and squeezing my eyes shut I gave into the pleasurable bliss for the slight second pushing my confusion and pain behind. A moan escaped me and my mouth felt dry. Was this really true?

“Mine,” he huskily grunted making me open my eyes only to find him staring right into mine and gulping I stayed silent. He must have not liked it because frowning he brought me closer to him than what was possible and I felt his heated breathing gently caressing my skin as he repeated, “My mate. You are mine.”

Before I could respond to him again, this time, we were interrupted by a loud growl that could have probably shattered all the windows of the room as Clay roared out in a ferocious voice, “What the fuck are you saying?”