Chapter 3

PRINCE ANDRASTE POV

I am not a morning person. I am even less a morning person with other people. Waking up the first thing I noticed was the body clinging onto me. I couldn't hold in the sigh that escaped. It's the ones who like to cuddle that cause problems. I should have known from the way she was acting last night.

Leaning over I nudge the forgotten named female awake, “Hey, wake up. So last night was a lot of fun, but I need to get going. Soo...” I try to maintain my easy going grin so as not to seem like such an ass, but I guess that it didn't work as well as it normally did.

Her sleepy smile vanishes and her mouth drops open in shock as she sputters in outrage, “You can not be serious!?”

I close my eyes and exhale a huge breath, praying for even a sliver of the patience I'm not known for to begin with, then walk over to her. “Look we both had a good time, but I really do need to leave. I have a family thing to get to. I’m sorry.”

Driving home, I can admit that I feel a little bit guilty. Everybody knows that I’m a player, but I try to at least be a decent one. If I can avoid hurting their feelings I absolutely do. That’s why I’m always up front with them. Every chick I’ve been with knows that there will never be any feelings involved. I just don’t roll like that. I don't lead them on or play little games to get their attention. I'm just very upfront about what they can expect. It’s simply booty calls, and that’s all. I just can't bring myself to settle down yet. It wasn't that I am stuck in my ways and never wanted to settle down, it was more that I hadn't found one that could hold my interest for longer than a day or two. Although, each girl that I had been with was super shallow, and far from what my parents would deem acceptable. I was in absolutely no rush to find my mate. I'm still young and have plenty of time to find her and live the family life. But if I happened to run across her, then I would absolutely pursue her.

Once I get home and finish showering and changing, I hear a loud growl. Confused, because we are in a highly guarded castle, I glance around me expecting to see a rogue wolf jump out, but there is nothing there. It’s a moment later when I'm standing there about to leave the room, that I’m face palming myself from my sheer stupidity. I blame the early morning wake up for my dumb moment. I finally realize that my stomach is growling, so I make my way down to the kitchen to join my family for breakfast. Just as I was about to turn the corner, someone plowed right into me.

It took all of one minute for my entire life to be flipped upside down, and my center of gravity completely altered. My whole body felt like I had licked my finger and stuck it in an electrical outlet. All through my body I could feel an electrical current running wild under my skin. It was honestly one of the most pleasant feelings I had ever had. Shocked, I sucked in a huge breath only to smell the most intoxicating scent. It was so alluring that I found myself unconsciously taking another deep breath and leaning in clsoer. It seemed that I couldn’t smell it enough nor could I get close enough, so I wanted to inhale all that I could; she smelled of flowers and honey. A killer combo on it's own, but there was something else under her natural scent that was a bit harder to put my finger on.

I could swear that I was smelling a hint of. . . Fae? I wrinkled my nose in confusion, how weird. There haven’t been any Fae in a long time. So long, that I was second guessing if I was right on my initial assumption, but the scent of a Fae is a unique one. It had a combination of the person's natural scent paired with a hint of wood.

I knew what this meant, the shocks and her heavenly scent, but I couldn't bring myself to acknowledge it. I loved living the bachelor life, but at this very moment I could feel my entire thought process changing. The fact that I was one of the three Princes of the wolf world had women flocking to me. I wasn't sure that I was ready to give that up for my mate yet. I was planning on living it up for the next few years before I went in search of my destined one. Yet, the mere thought of being with another woman had me cringing in disgust.

I’m sure I looked like an idiot standing there staring into space, but I just couldn’t snap out of it. I had one of those gut deep feelings that everything is about to change. Her appearance was bound to change my life even though I wasn't sure I wanted anything to change for quite some time. Or did I? I honestly didn’t know what was going on in my own mind. On one side I wanted nothing more than to continue my life as it is, but on the other I wanted her. I wanted her bad. I didn't even know her, let alone her name, and the thought of giving her up was near crippling.

It was the guards screaming for her to stop finally caught my attention and brought me back from my mental distraction. I looked down at her only to see that she was gone. Smirking to myself I realized that she had just used my moment of distraction as an escape. Sneaky. Very sneaky. That was surprisingly something that I found to be endearing and attractive to me. There was nothing like a woman who knew how to play to her advantage.

I turned around just in time to see her dive straight out the window. I’m pretty sure it was in that moment that my heart stopped and dropped to the ground. We are three stories up! Is she crazy!? I ran to the window as quick as my feet would carry me, and I couldn’t spy her anywhere. Going a bit slower and taking my time to scan the entire yard, I spotted her jumping from tree to tree. I inhaled a much needed breath, not even realizing that I had held it in the first place. Damn, I sure have one brave mate. I stood there watching her go from limb to limb until she was no longer visible to me.

During breakfast my father was harping me about finding my mate, as usual. It was one of his favorite pass times, to ride me about growing up and settling down. He was completely unaware of the fact that I had just met my mate, and was already on the way to the life that he had envisioned for me. This of course made me chuckle quietly under my breath. Little did he know that bold girl that snuck in earlier was my mate.

“Something funny, Son?” he asked.

“Nope. Nothing funny at all.” I couldn’t hold it in, so I snickered under my breath.

“Good. Now as I was saying, since you and Cade have yet to find your mates, your mother and I have come to a decision. Starting tomorrow you two will pack up and travel across the country side in search of your mates. We’re positive the reason you two haven’t found them yet is because you’re so limited here. That is how Duke found his mate after all.” He said shifting his stern gaze between me and my younger brother, Cade. Ever since my brother found his mate he had been on Cade and myself to find ours. It grated on my nerves to have him down my throat about it all the time. All I wanted was a little bit more time for myself, but it seems as though I'm not going to get it.

I just stared at him with my mouth agape. Is he serious? I truly had no idea, so I jumped up and asked him. “Are you serious? No! I don’t want a mate right now!” As I’m saying that though, I’m already having a mental debate. If she is stealing food from us then she must not be in a good situation, and clearly starving. That thought alone is enough to anger me and have me about shift into my wolf and hunt her down, but I just didn't know if I was ready for this responsibility yet. I haven’t even properly met this girl, and she’s already invading my mind. It seems as though my every other thought is about her, and I didn't even get a proper look at her. I honestly couldn't decide if I was going crazy or if I was just plain whipped without even knowing the woman holding the whip.

“This is not up for discussion. You will go, and that is final! I have also decided that on the off chance that you two do not find your mates, we will hold a ball in six months time. Every woman of the proper age range will be required to attend. You will either find your destined mate there or choose your mate, but by the end of those six months you both WILL have someone by your side.” He used his alpha tone, so there was no arguing with him.

I sat there and stewed in pure fury about it for a while before I realized I never asked about her break in. “Hey Dad, what happened earlier with that girl?”

He casts me a curious look, “It looked like she just broke in and stole food. That was it. How she managed to get passed all the guards coming in and out, I’ll never know. Why do you ask?”

“No reason. Just wondering.” I said as nonchalantly as I could. I really didn’t want them all to know that she was my mate at this very moment. I had to get my head on straight and make some decisions before I would even consider mentioning my mate to my family.

Dinner passed rather uneventful after that nuclear bomb Dad dropped on us. Even though I was mad at first, the more that I thought about it the calmer I was getting. I found my mate, kind of. Now all I had to do was hunt her down and hope that she is as awesome as I have imagined her to be.

True to his word, Cade and I were forced to leave the next morning in search of our mates.