I punched the punching bag in front of me as though it would solve all my problems but even as I was hitting it I knew it was impossible. Neither the three destroyed punching bags nor the broken bones I just gave my future beta were going to change my parent’s minds. It didn’t matter that I was just as strong as any other alpha, my parents couldn’t seem to look past the fact that I was female.
I am sure that if I had any younger brothers they would have been handed the position as soon as they came of age. So why did they insist I needed my mate in order to take over? I wasn’t ever sure I wanted a mate, I had trained too hard and put in too many hours to be demoted to the luna position. I punched the bag in front of me so hard that the chains holding it in place groaned.
The door to the gym creaked open behind me, I spun around and glared at the door. My childhood friend and future beta’s younger brother Nolan strolled through the door. He had a relaxed way about him that I had always loved when we were younger but now I just found it infuriating. He surveyed the room with a relaxed half grin on his face as he walked towards me.
“I heard you sent my brother to the hospital again. What did he do this time?” Nolan asked.
“It’s not really his fault. It is because of this stupid party my parents are throwing,” I replied.
Kaiden was just as frustrated as I was about my parents refusing to pass the title to me. Most alphas and betas took over in their late teens or early twenties but we were both in our mid twenties now. People in the pack were starting to gossip about me, I am sure they have been doing it for years but now they weren’t even trying to be subtle about it. They were saying that the reason I couldn’t find my mate was because the moon goddess didn’t think I was worthy of one.
As far as I was concerned they could all go to hell but my parents took these rumours seriously. They were throwing this party to put an end to these rumours once and for all. Either I would meet my mate in two days or they would set me up with someone. They didn’t think I knew about their plans. They told me that they wanted me to meet my mate at the party but I had to learn about the rest of their plans by overhearing them talking to their beta.
Last night I came home late from my friend's house and I heard them. They were in talks with some of the single alphas in the surrounding packs. They were weighing up the benefits of each alpha and trying to work out which one should be my chosen mate. They were talking about territory sizes and numbers of pack members as though they weren’t talking about the rest of my life.
Ever since I heard their conversation I have been trying to find a way out whatever arrangement they end up making for me while being so furious that I couldn’t think straight. After a sleepless night and a very awkward breakfast the next day I spoke to Kaiden about what I had heard. I don’t know what I had expected from him but I hadn’t expected him to agree with my parent’s plan.
“Isn’t this just like the other parties that they have thrown for you?” Nolan asked.
“No, my parents are sick of waiting for me to meet my mate. If I don’t meet him then they will give me to another alpha as his trophy mate.” It made me feel sick just thinking about that. I turned around and punched the punching bag, hard.
“They can’t do that,” Nolan replied.
“Legally they can. I have checked the laws, any unmated female over the age of twenty one can be claimed by an unmated male of an equal or higher rank even against that woman’s wishes.” I said.
“There must be some way out of this,” Nolan replied.
“I have checked. The answer is no, even though this law isn’t enacted very often it is still actively enforced by the council.” I replied.
Like Nolan, I didn’t believe such a rule could still exist so I had done some reading last night. There were a few cases of this happening in the last ten years and each time the council approved of the claiming. In one of the cases they even helped to enforce it. If one of the alphas my parents were talking to claimed me then I was screwed.
“There is one thing you can do,” Nolan said.
“What would that be?” My tone was a little sharper than it probably should have been.
“You can be my mate,” Nolan smiled at me and I suddenly wanted to punch him in the face.
“We have already had that conversation,” I growled.
At this point I have lost count of the number of times he had asked me to be his mate. He started asking me once I turned twenty one and nothing I say seems to have any impact on him. If he was asking me because he loved me then I could excuse his persistence but despite his many declarations of love I knew there was more to it than that. Nolan wanted the power that being mated to me would give him.
“I love you and I don’t think there is anything that will stop me loving you,” he took a step towards me.
“You have a mate out there somewhere. Just because I have to give up on my mate doesn’t mean you have to.” I replied, my voice shaking slightly. Nolan was still closing the distance between us, the look in his eyes was that of a predator hunting its prey.
“Had,” he said.
“What do you mean by that?” I took a few steps back.
“I don’t have a mate anymore, I rejected her.” He stepped towards me again.
I didn’t need to know why he rejected her. Asking him wouldn’t do me any good, in fact it was a terrible idea. It would make him think that I wanted to be with him, give him hope for a future that could never be.
“Wh-why would you reject your mate?” The more relevant question is why did I sound so nervous? Why did I even care what his answer to my question was? I should just walk away rather than waiting for his answer.
“She knew I was in love with you. She told me if I wanted to be with her I couldn’t be your friend anymore, I chose you.”
He reached out and cupped my cheek with his hand. His eyes were locked on mine as he reached out with his other hand and grabbed my waist. He pulled me closer to him and his eyes glanced briefly to my lips.
He was going to kiss me. I couldn’t believe this, he had never gone this far before. He told me he loved me more times than I could count but he had never tried to kiss me. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to break his heart but we couldn’t be together because in two days time I would either have my fated mate or have a chosen mate thrust on me.
“We shouldn’t do this,” I said.
My wolf whimpered. It had been a long time since I had been with anyone and I guess even my wolf had given up hope of me ever meeting my mate. She was lonely, wolves don’t cope very well without their mate and she was struggling.
“If we mark each other then your parents can’t force you to be with one of those alphas.” His lips were so close to mine that I could smell the toothpaste on his breath and don’t get me started on how delicious his aftershave smelt.
“What if I met my mate?” I asked.
He leaned forward and pressed his lips against my neck. My wolf purred, urging me to move forward. I wrapped my arms around his waist and let out a soft moan. I wanted more but of course that was exactly when he removed his lips from my neck.
“Then you would have to make a decision on what to do with him.” Nolan replied before placing his lips on my marking spot. He kissed me and licked me, sending pleasurable chills down my spine.
“I’m not sure I can give up on a mate that I don’t even know yet,” I said, trying to hide how much he was affecting me. It didn’t matter how much I wanted him, I couldn’t do this. It would ruin our friendship forever. If I met my mate at the party it would hurt both of them and cause so much drama.
‘Liar, you don’t even want our mate,’ Amber, my wolf replied.
“I’m not asking you to make any decision now but let me give you something to think about.”
Nolan pressed his lips against mine. His tongue brushed my lips softly before entering my mouth to find mine. He pulled me closer so I could feel his arousal pressing against me. I gripped onto his shirt tighter, I wanted to throw him onto the floor and make him scream my name. He held me tighter, one hand was holding the back of my head while the other was at the base of my spine pulling me closer.
My hand slid down his back slowly but when my hand reached the base of his spine he pulled away from me.
“If you want any more then you need to agree to be mine forever.” He whispered in my ear before letting go of me and walking away slowly, glancing over his shoulder once before leaving me alone.
I sat at my desk with the laptop open in front of me, there were hundreds of tasks waiting for me but I couldn’t bring myself to do any of them. Looking after my pack and growing my businesses has been enough for me for the first few years after I took over as alpha but that was no longer the case. The missing part of my soul left a dull ache that nothing could block out and believe me I had tried everything. The one thing that would make me feel better was the one thing I could never have, a mate. I was born human. Not a wolf-less werewolf, a full human. Nobody knew why I was born the way I was, my parents spent years taking me to doctors hoping to find a reason or a cure. In the end they turned to magic. They found a witch who was able to create a wolf and bind it to me. The wolf she created for me was the strongest and most powerful wolf ever seen but all magic has a price. In my case that price was that my wolf was without a fated mate.At first it didn’t seem like a huge deal, I
I couldn’t believe that after what she put me through she showed up at my dorm room and even worse she brought him with her. I loved her with all of my heart and she just threw me aside like I was nothing. It hurt but I could understand why she did it. I have seen enough werewolves find their mate and I knew how powerful that bond could be. It was naive of me to think that my love could overpower that bond but that didn’t make me feel any better. I gave her all the love that I had and it still wasn’t enough to change anything. She threw me aside like I was garbage, she didn’t even have the decency to tell me the truth. I had to walk into the cafe that we normally went to only to see them snuggled cosily together. It was the worst feeling in the world to know that you gave your heart to someone, only to have them trample all over it. Now that she had chosen him I tried to do the honourable thing and keep out of her way but she didn’t have the same respect for me. Was it really too m
I knew something was off when my father insisted that we had a family dinner in our private dining room rather than with the rest of the pack. The last time we had dinner together as a family I was still a child. I must have been about eleven years old. That was the day that my father told me that he was enrolling me on an elite training programme. I left home a couple of months later and I didn’t come back until I was eighteen years old. I was stuck in that facility for seven years with a bunch of alphas, betas and elite warriors. The only people who spoke to me the whole time I was there were Nolan and Kaiden. We became very close during that time and I am sure that is why Nolan ended up falling in love with me. “I have some good news.” My father was smiling at me which in itself was a bad sign. How often have I seen my father smile? It couldn’t be more than a handful of times in all of my life. My mother kept her head down, looking intently at the plate of food in front of her. I
I felt the weight of Brianna’s father’s alpha command as soon as the words left his mouth. I was centimetres away from getting the one thing I had wanted for so many years. It was much too close to have it all taken away from me so cruelly. I have loved Brianna for as long as I can remember. It wasn’t her beauty, even though she was the most beautiful woman that I had ever seen. What really attracted me to her was her strength, she worked incredibly hard to prove herself to her family. Nothing she ever did was good enough for them and yet Brianna didn’t complain or give up. I gave my heart to her years ago, I was more than ready for her to give me hers in return. “Don’t listen to him, Nolan. Mark me and make me yours forever.” Brianna pleaded. Her words gave me the courage to fight her father’s command. As I lowered my canines towards her neck I could hear her father’s forces breaking through the door beside us. My eyes closed, her skin was so close that I could feel the heat of it
My father might not have locked me in a cell but he may as well have. Three of his most highly trained warriors took me straight to my room and locked me inside before standing guard outside it for the whole evening. I could have probably still taken all of them down and escaped, but where would that have gotten me?I would have ended up on the run with no money and no clue where I was going. I have no intention of being forced into being someone’s chosen mate but if I was going to escape then I had to make sure I did this right. Make sure that there was no chance of me getting caught or followed. Unfortunately, that meant I was stuck here, waiting in my room for my father to come and deal with me.I thought he would only make me wait for a few minutes before he came to reprimand me but it seems as though I couldn’t have been more wrong. After a few hours of listening to the people standing guard outside my room and gossiping about me, I realised that he wasn’t coming tonight. I was p
When I walked into the room Brianna’s parents were whispering amongst themselves. Her father was wearing his usual stern expression but her mother looked to be almost distraught, she was quietly begging her mate for something. They broke up their conversation abruptly upon noticing me. It was clear what they were talking about but the interaction left me wondering about a lot of things.I had always assumed that alpha Kennedy’s reputation was a fabrication, just like mine. He had a mate and a daughter and I couldn’t see how anyone with two important women in their life could be so heartless. That was until I heard the way he spoke about his daughter, seeing the indifference with which he dealt with his own mate was just another confirmation of this. “You seem to be getting along well with my daughter,” alpha Kennedy stated with a smirk on his face. “She is a lovely woman,” I replied.That smirk made me want to deny his statement but that would have been counterproductive. I needed a
Another night of me standing in a dingy alleyway trying to pull any kind of useful information from the locals. We had managed to trace my parents to this city pretty quickly but now the trail seems to have gone cold. We were outsiders here and nobody wanted to share information with us. This wasn’t a new problem. It was something that I had run into on nearly every investigation that I had been a part of. But it was all the more frustrating to know that my family were the ones in peril this time. There had to be someone in this useless town who knew where my parents had gone, all I had to do was find them. The vampire in front of me was the third supernatural that I had spoken to this evening and this conversation was proving to be just as useless as the other two. Maybe Franklin would have had more luck with her than I had but I hadn’t seen him all evening and I had no idea where he was. “You know I can't share any information with a human.” The vampire grumbled before trying to
I wanted to hate Mason so badly but I didn’t. He could have treated me like property in the same way my father did, but instead he spoke to me as though my opinions mattered to him. He wasn’t willing to let me go but other than that he had gone out of his way to make me feel like I mattered. It was confusing and more than a little frustrating. It made me want to throw my clothes around the room and break some of the beautiful furniture that he put in here. “What’s wrong? Is the room not to your liking?”Somehow Mason had managed to enter the room and sneak up on me without me hearing a thing. That only annoyed me more, I was an alpha in my own right and my hearing was usually outstanding. This was all his fault, with his stupid confusing behaviour.“The room is fine, it is my host that I have a problem with.” Mason’s face was stoic but there was nothing he could do to hide the hurt that shone through his eyes. I didn’t like being the one that put it there but it wasn’t as though he
I waited for Raymond and his ex-mate to gather what they needed and leave before letting a low growl leave my throat. I couldn’t understand why everyone around me couldn’t comprehend why I didn’t want the worry of what the council would do next at the back of my mind throughout my heat.This would be my first real heat since I was a teenager and there was a good chance I would get pregnant after it. The last thing I needed was to go back to my pack and get into a fight with the council while potentially being pregnant.“There is no need for that sunshine, we will take care of you.”Dominic and Mason closed in on me from either side and started kissing me on my neck and shoulder. It felt as though their hands were all over me and the sensation of their touch and their lips against my skin was enough to dampen the fire on my skin and ignite one much deeper inside of me. As much as I w
The witch’s apartment was packed with so many plants and flowers that the air was thick with pollen and moisture. It was so intense that I made it difficult to breathe too deeply, and the tension between Raymond and his ex-mate didn’t help with that.She had allowed us into her home but was still doing everything in her power to make sure we were all aware of how unwelcome we were there. She had told us to stand at one end of the room while putting herself at the other end of it with her hands on her hips. Even though her apartment was small, there was still enough space between them that it would be difficult for Raymond to sneak in close enough to touch her.“I am waiting,” She growled.“I’m so sorry sweetheart. I should have never rejected you but that is something I can easily rectify. I Raymond ….”The woman held her hand out to stop h
Brianna had pulled Mason and me to one side so that she could take us through her plan. She thought she was being clever but I thought her impending heat was frying her brain because her plan made absolutely no sense. She wanted us to use her heat as a way of making the council members incriminate themselves in a way that she could use against them.It was never going to work. The council were too cautious to slip up in such a way and even if they weren’t, her plan was flawed. Blackmailing someone who was trying to blackmail you was precarious at the best of times, but doing it when your mind was clouded by lust was suicide.“We need to think of another plan, one that doesn’t put you in so much danger,” I replied.Brianna whimpered, causing Mason to shuffle a little closer to her and wrap his arms tightly around her. I hadn’t meant my voice to sound so harsh but Mason and I weren&rs
There was something wrong with my mates, I had been getting feelings of stress coming from both of them all afternoon and it only seemed to be getting worse as time passed by. It was an extra distraction that I really didn’t need when I was already struggling to trace their location using our bond.Adding to all of that, the man who had rescued me from the council seemed determined to share his life story with me. It sounded as though Raymond had been through quite a lot at the hands of the council but there was a time for sharing such stories and this wasn’t it. There had been more than one occasion in the last few hours where I had to bite my tongue so I wouldn’t tell him to shut the fuck up.“Do you have a plan?” Raymond asked as he took hold of my shoulder, halting my progress.“Of course I have a plan,” I growled. My tone wasn’t great but considering my curren
I was strangely calm as ex-Alpha Kennedy’s men dragged me through the forest towards their lair. That was because I knew that despite all of his posturing, he couldn’t kill Dominic and me without also killing or seriously harming his own daughter. Even he wasn’t crazy enough to do that. So, he must have had some other plan for us.I watched with interest as we entered the makeshift camp where Alpha Kennedy was now staying. We moved too quickly for me to see everything but from what I had seen, I was pretty sure that his mate and his son weren’t there. There were only a handful of tents and a few boxes of what I assumed to be supplies. There couldn’t have been more than a dozen people left in the camp and most of them were the mates and children of the warriors who had intercepted us.From the intelligence that the council had shared with us, this was only a small fraction of the people who had left to join
Getting caught red-handed by the council’s assistant was embarrassing enough but having them drag me into a room and hold me prisoner while both my mates watched was next level. I was meant to be a strong female Alpha and everything about today was making me feel more like an Omega.I had to watch helplessly while my mates were sent away on a dangerous mission and then once they were gone I was brought over to the table and pushed into a seat. There was something about the way the council members were looking at me as I adjusted myself within the seat that told me things were only going to get worse from there. I had to bite my lower lip to stop myself from making any sarcastic remarks while I watched them shuffling their paperwork in front of me.“You thought you were so clever when you were making plans with your weak human mate and your broken Alpha, didn’t you?” One of the council member’s assistants g
It didn’t escape my notice how even though so much had changed in the last few days, I was basically right back to where I had started. Standing in another dark alleyway looking for clues so that I could trace someone’s movements.Franklin had joined us shortly after we left our pack’s territory and he was now helping us in our search. He had left the pack shortly after the council had turned up but he didn’t go too far away. He had been dealing with the council a lot longer than I had and he knew we would be needing his help before long.He was even less happy about going along with the council’s orders than I was, although even he admitted that we didn’t have any other viable options. With the pack almost completely under their control and the potential for them getting backup from some of the nearby packs, it wasn’t going to be possible for us to overpower them without risking Brianna’
I don’t know how Dominic could stay so calm while our mate was in the hands of our enemies. I knew that he was used to hiding his emotions from others. It was just one of the skills he had picked up while working for the council alongside his parents but he was much better at this than I gave him credit for.There was barely any sign of stress on his face as he listened to the information that the council members wanted to share with him. Meanwhile, I felt as though I was barely holding onto my anger. My wolf was begging me to let him take over so that he could rip every single one of them apart and I was having trouble thinking of any reason good enough to deny his request.Nobody had dared to declare war on the council before because they feared what would happen to their pack if they did. But our pack was strong and we had many strong fighters, what would the council do if we decided to reject their authority? Could they really use
We all had our parts to play in this ridiculous plan that Mason had concocted but my part was going to be the hardest of all. That was because my part of the plan involved lying to at least one member of the council, all of whom were Alphas.It was going to be difficult for me to pull something like this off but then again that was why I had been given this role. I was the only person who had an incentive to get Mason out of the way and I was also the person they would least suspect of trying to lie to them. That was mainly because they saw me as being so weak compared to them that they expected me to be intimidated by them. They were wrong but I was prepared to play along with their assumptions if it helped our cause.I slipped into one of the bathrooms on the ground floor and locked the door behind me. I sat down on the closed toilet seat and rested my head in my hands, I had to find some way of bringing my heart rate down or they we