LOGINShare
Nine: The Lore of the Mate
Last Updated:
2025-01-12 20:13:59
Related chapters
For Blood Or Beast Ten: A thirst for war
Graeme’s POVI was at the boardroom for a meeting with my council of elders. From the displeased looks on everyone's faces, it was going rather poorly. Despite the whir of the air conditioners tucked into strategic areas of the room, it was stifling, a palpable tension at large.A large rectangular table dominated most of the room with my pack elders seated around. They were eight in total, seasoned wolves with deep roots to prominent Lycan families and a long history of service to the pack. Usually, I had complete and unwavering support from most of them, just as my father had. Today however, none of them seemed particularly… supportive.I greeted them as I took my seat, trying not to let their stiff nods and reluctant answers get to me. As much as I valued their wisdom and contributions to the pack, I was the authority here. They would do well to remember that— as would I. Elder Marlow, always the first to speak, leaned forward, his gnarled hands clasped on the table. “Alpha. Nic
Last Updated : 2025-01-15For Blood Or Beast Eleven: Give to Caesar what is Caesar's
Graeme’s POVI found Duke waiting right outside the boardroom. From his grimace, I could tell my already bad day was about to take a turn for the worst. “What is it?” I asked curtly “The Vampire Lord refused to see anyone but you.” He said and I let out a deep sigh. “Then tell him to come see me.” I snapped and kept moving forward. Duke fell into step beside me “I did. He refused. He said you’re the one who wants his aid so you must cross the bridge yourself.” I paused in my steps and sent him a look and Duke shrugged “That was the message that was brought down to me. They didn’t even let us through the doors.” I rubbed my hand over my forehead where a rapidly building heache was bubbling. I’d wanted to touch base with Oswald and have him put some feelers into the sentiments brewing in the other packs. All talks of war needed to be tightly nipped in the bud and any stubborn rebels promptly made examples of. It appeared that my righteous crusade would have to wait. “Fine. Let’s get t
Last Updated : 2025-01-17For Blood Or Beast Twelve: The Vampire Prince
Graeme’s POVCaesar had Duke and I taken to a smaller room for more privacy. Duke was asked to take off his shirt and sit on a sofa then Caesar playfully straddled his lap. My beta glared at him, but settled reluctantly, allowing the Vampire tilt his neck and plant his lips at the base of it. He looked sorely uncomfortable and I nearly stopped the entire thing but Duke’s eyes held mine and he shook his head subtly as if telling me to stop. So despite both our discomfort with the situation, Caesar sunk his fangs into my beta’s neck and drank from him. I hated the moan of pleasure that came out the vampire’s throat. I hated the way Duke’s body stiffened and then went limp as the blood seeped out his body. “That’s enough.” I barked after barely a minute. When Caesar didn’t let up, I stormed up to them and grabbed his shoulder, clamping my hand around the bone. He winced and let go of Duke immediately. “That hurtsss.” He hissed, his bloody fangs protruding from his lips. “That’s enoug
Last Updated : 2025-01-19For Blood Or Beast Thirteen: One of them
Delia’s POVThe revelation that Graeme was my mate brought me an odd kind of peace. Eight days later, I still couldn’t explain exactly why I was calmer, but I was. The strings of need that tugged at my soul now had a name; a reason, an explanation. I wasn’t crazy for the feelings that had consumed me since the moment I’d met him. There was a logic behind it that had nothing to do with me. That, more than anything else, ushered a calm acceptance within me and not just of my feelings for him, but also for my general predicament of being a wolf. Now that I knew that he hadn’t just rejected me, but rejected a bond he undeniably felt, I found it easier to accept. If the Alpha King could turn away from something as primal and sacred as our connection, then there was nothing more I could do. I accepted it. Or, at least, I was trying to.Annalise didn’t seem convinced. She hovered like a mother wolf over a pup she feared might stray too far from the den. Her eyes lingered on me with a mix of
Last Updated : 2025-01-21For Blood Or Beast Fourteen: To Be Wanted
Delia’s POVIt was peaceful in the darkness. So much so that I really didn’t want to leave. I floated for a while, adrift in nothingness as moments passed without sensation or emotion. For the first time in weeks, I felt like I truly had rest. The rest that eluded me in wakefulness and sleep. I had an abundance of it in unconsciousness that I didn’t want to give up. And I held onto it for as long as I could until the light at the end of the tunnel became too hard to ignore. I came to awareness all of a sudden but didn’t move. I didn’t know where I was, but I was hoping if I kept my eyes closed and remained still, I could slip back into nothingness and finally find the type of rest that was permanent. Unfortunately for me, I had no such luck. “Delia?” A familiar feminine voice called out to me. I didn’t answer, still hoping I could go back to wherever I had just been. “I can hear the change in your breathing you know. I know you’re awake.” There was a smile in Annalise’s voice as sh
Last Updated : 2025-01-22For Blood Or Beast Fifteen: Dilemmas
Graeme’s POVThe office was quiet, save for the steady ticking of the clock on the wall, a stark contrast to my turbulent mind. My desk was buried under a sea of papers, reports, and half-finished correspondence—proof of my avoidance rather than productivity. I leaned back in my chair, staring at the ceiling while my thoughts spiraled as they often did these days. Several days had passed since my encounter with that bloody Vampire. Zachary fucking Ammon. While we'd been evenly matched on our first encounter, he'd wiped the floor with me the second time around and I was ashamed to admit that it terrified me. He must have gotten some sort of power boost this time. One I couldn’t quite name but could testify to its effects. That was very worrisome. I needed to formulate a plan to handle him once and for all, but I couldn’t do that without more information. The logical part of me had considered going to the Vampire Queen herself to demand answers but I was weary. I’d barely been able to
Last Updated : 2025-01-24For Blood Or Beast Sixteen: The man in the forest
Delia’s POVThe days passed a little more differently than I was used to. Wilburn Pack was nothing like the hostile, resentfully tolerant place I’d found myself in before. All of a sudden, wolves smiled at me when I passed and said hello, their former suspicion replaced with warmth and welcome. It was so very odd and I didn’t know what to do with it. Annalise meanwhile, was ecstatic about the knew development. “I knew you could do it. Once they got to know the real you, they had no choice but to love you like I do.” She’d said excitedly, and while I couldn’t exactly share her excitement, I was grateful for the reprieve their new attitudes towards me brought. Oh, I wouldn’t say I felt at home yet, but they sure as hell tried to make sure I did. People greeted me the moment I walked out the doors of my room. Children ran to hug me whenever they passed by with their parents. Several girls hung around Annalise and I, sharing random pack gossip and including me in all the gisting like
Last Updated : 2025-01-26For Blood Or Beast Seventeen: New Perspective
Graeme’s POVI ducked to avoid the incoming blow from my opponent, grabbing his extended arm with one hand and jamming my elbow straight into his solar plexus. I didn’t have time to gloat over him crumbling to the ground. Another one was already swinging behind me and I dodged quickly before using his momentum to throw him overhead. On and on the assault came. I blocked, punched, flung, dodged and maneuvered until all five of my attackers were incapacitated on the floor, panting and groaning as if I’d eviscerated them as opposed to just throwing a few hits. “Is that really all you got guys?” I asked my Squad team A; a group of highly trained Gammas who made up my personal detail. We were having one of our training sessions and usually I was satisfied with their performance and our workout. After my humiliating fight with Zachary Ammon however, I could no longer be pleased or patient with their efforts. They were too slow. Too clunky. Too predictable. Just like I had been while faci
Last Updated : 2025-01-30
Latest chapter
For Blood Or Beast Twenty-Seven: Friends and Allies
Delia’s POVI wasn’t expecting the knock at my door.Not now, when the quiet finally felt bearable and I’d managed — just barely — to wrestle my thoughts away from a certain dark-eyed Alpha King.I opened the door to find Marcus standing there, hands shoved into his jacket pockets, shoulders stiff with unease.“Hey,” he said, voice low, profile tense. “Can I come in for a minute?”“Um, yes.” I said, feeling an awkwardness that lingered from our last encounter. I stepped aside, motioning him in. The scent of the woods clung to him — pine, damp earth, the clean sharpness of the waterfall. It should’ve been comforting. Instead, it reminded me too much of everything I was trying to forget. That he was a wolf and I had only met him because I was a wolf and I was miserable because the wolf who was supposed to be my mate had rejected me. Marcus hovered awkwardly in the middle of the room until I sat down on the edge of my bed. Only then did he sit too, not too close, his hands fidgeting wit
For Blood Or Beast Twenty-Seven: Confrontations with the past
Graeme’s POVI stepped back. “Ramona.” A warning in my tone.Her smile widened, eyes glittering. “Ah, still so proper. Even now. Even after everything.”“There is no everything.” I snapped and she raised cocked her head, the gesture so familiar that it forced me to flash back. The memories slammed into me before I could block them — her mouth on mine, her body beneath me, the wild hunger that had once driven us both past reason. And the bitterness when I'd ended it, cold and final, for reasons she had never quite forgiven.She watched me intently, a lazy amusement coloring her gaze that I didn’t much appreciate. “Surely you don’t mean that. Is it that you’ve forgotten or that you don’t dare remember?”She purred stalking closer towards me. To my great embarrassment, I took several steps back before I caught myself. Her smile widened. My jaw clenched. “Is it someone who forces you to forget Graeme? Perhaps… a certain newly-turned mutt?” She said teasingly and my hands clenched into f
For Blood Or Beast Twenty-Six: The deranged puppet
Graeme's POVI was at my desk, a stack of reports scattered before me, but I couldn't focus on a damn word. My mind kept flitting between multiple thoughts, most of them centered around Delia and the predicament we were in. My conversation with Oswald kept ringing in my head about power and how I needed to use it. So I send formal letters to all the other preternatural heads; the Feline, Ursine and the rest of the Canine shifters. I tried to keep it vague, not wanting to show my cards before I had to. I would meet with all of them and see if they were having any vampire trouble too. If they were, we could band together and stand a much better chance at defeating those bloodsuckers. I wanted to avoid a full-scale war if possible. It’s just that, with all of Zachary’s bold attacks and his mother’s lack of acknowledgement, I would be foolish not to prepare for some kind of trouble. The sooner I strengthened my allies, the better off I would be. I tried not to think of the other source
For Blood Or Beast Twenty-Five: Restless Soul
Delia’s POVFour days later, I was still reeling from my last encounter with Graeme. I’d gone from sad and destitute, to furious. How dare he do these things to me? How dare he treat me like this? How dare he drive me crazy? And why, oh why couldn’t I stop thinking about him. I hated him so much at the moment but no matter how much I tried to, I couldn’t get him out of my head. He was there constantly, lingering at the back of my mind the entire day. My brain was firing erratically, trying to do the impossible task of finding something else to focus on. All was in vain. I had no peace at night either, for he would slip into my dreams unbidden, bringing passion and softness and all the good things of life. And when I woke, he would vanish, leaving me bereft all over again. Making a sound of disgust at myself, I got off my bed, unable to stand being crowded in my own head a second longer. I needed some sort of distraction, so I decided to take a walk and see if it would help. I thre
For Blood Or Beast Twenty-Four: Heart to Hearts
Graeme’s POV“Don't go!”I heard as I thundered down the halls of Wilburn Manor, towards Oswald's office. “Don't leave me!” Delia's voice kept re-echoing in my head. I gritted my teeth against the unrelenting urge to go back. It took everything in me and Duke’s steady presence by my side to open the door into Oswald's office. Duke stationed himself outside, allowing us Alphas some privacy to discuss. Oswald looked up at my entry, his face unchanging. “Done?” He queried and I nodded. “Thank you for your compliance and discretion. You remain as trustworthy as always Oswald.”He shrugged “I swore fealty to you as I did your father. It's my duty. However, before I continue in my duties, I have to ask, why is your mate in my pack?”He said quizzically and I froze. “Excuse me?”He raised a brow at my aghast look “Do you deny that the mutt you brought here over a month ago is your mate?”I should have. Vehemently so. I was so shocked that he'd figured it out that I forgot to. I thought I
For Blood Or Beast Twenty-Three: The highs and lows
Delia’s POVI stared unseeing at the ceiling, my mind numb, my thoughts far away. I’d been awake for some time now, but I just couldn’t generate enough will to get out of bed. I’d listened to the morning come and go without much interest in partaking of it. The maid had been by with my morning and then afternoon meals, leaving them outside my door. I let each meal pass without evening checking to see what she’d brought. Annalise had been over twice already, but I hadn’t bothered to answer her calls or knocks. I didn’t get up when Marcus came calling yet again either. Just like the other four days prior, I stayed put in wallowing in my self-induced semi-comatose state. Nothing was enough to make me generate enough will to leave that bed. Not my friends. Not the gnawing hunger in the pit of my stomach. Not the ache in my limbs from being in one place for so long. I wanted to stay so still that I could pass away if no one was noticing. I’d had quite enough of this meaningless existence.
For Blood Or Beast Twenty-Two: The call of beasts
Graeme’s POVI woke up panting, my body on fire, my heart searing from what felt like another very real separation from Delia. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I was aching, in more places than one. I had been there, at Wilburn pack with Delia in my arms. So why the fucking hell was I here? I glared around at my room, as if it had offended me by becoming my shelter for yet another night. Restlessness overcoming me, I scrambled out of bed, thinking to find the quickest route over to her when a sharp knock came on my door. I paused, looking up, an inexplicable anger brewing in me. “Who’s there?” I growled. A moment later, the door opened to admit Duke. His face was somber, his eyes worried. “Alpha? I heard you stir. Is everything okay.”Disoriented, I could only stare back at him, my eyes starved, my heart beating like crazy. I hadn’t intended to lash out like that. Torn by my most recent encounter with the mate bond, I had reacted by flinging out wisps of my power, a su
For Blood Or Beast Twenty-one: Hallucinations
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Delia’s POV “You're getting really good at this Delia.” Marcus said and I grinned. “What can I say? I had a really good teacher.” I teased and was pleased to see a flush rise up his cheeks. “All I did was show you a few moves.” He said abashedly. I clicked my tongue “Oh come off it. You definitely did a lot more than that.” I insisted but he shook his head “No. I'm serious. All this progress was all you. And I gotta say, I'm impressed at how far you've come in such a short time.” I glanced at the bent out of shape straw man that had been my battering ram for the past nine days. I wasn't as good as Marcus was making me out to be. Not yet at least. But I worked hard and constantly to make sure I progressed. I could throw proper punches now and I had all but mastered a grounded fighting stance. It would take quite a while for me to get to the level where I could take on an opponent in hand to hand combat. I wondered if I would ever be able to fight wolves or even
For Blood Or Beast Twenty: The monster
Graeme's POVI left Ramona's place in a fury, cursing her and the Vampire family that currently had me running in circles. Duke sent me surreptitious glances as we sat at the back of the car together, but thankfully, he didn't speak. I brooded silently, staring out the window while my thoughts whirled. I was running out of time. So far, I'd managed to keep the Mayor under wraps with the promise that I would have answers by the end of the month. I didn't want to broadcast it to the other packs but the way I saw it, word had already spread. It made no difference whether I asked them directly if they had a hand in the attack. I wouldn't put it past them to betray me like that. Hell, some of the so-called elders of my pack held enough grievances against me that I wouldn't be surprised to find out about their involvement. As much as I was certain the vampire was behind it all, her main attacker had to have been a wolf. Otherwise, there would have been no turning Delia and the photos of the
