Chapter 3

The Alpha steps toward me, and without a thought, I step back. A breath leaves his lips, his chest sinking with impatience. I stand as stiff as a board.

"I thought maybe it was the audience making you, well, uncomfortable," he says. "You'll have to tell me what it is because I'm out of guesses."

I watch him as a nervous look overcomes my face. My lips part only slightly for the slightest words, but not even those come out.

The Alpha takes a few steps closer, and I feel the desk hit my backside. He pauses. "Don't—don't do that," I breathe, scolding his body for doing what it is wired to do.

"Come near you?" He questions, not taking me seriously.

"Yes."

He breathes in. "That might be a problem, Brigette."

Internally, I'm throwing around every curse word I can think of. How could this happen? Why now? Why him?

"I'm sorry," I say suddenly. "This isn't right. This isn't supposed to happen."

"And what is suppose to happen?"

My arms cross over my chest, restraining myself from doing something stupid. "It's just—you're not my mate."

He takes a seat in one of the carefully placed chairs in front of my Alpha's desk, moving slowly. I stay against the desk, watching cautiously as if he might attack me with his charm or authority or touch—all utterly terrifying. "Everything inside of me believes otherwise. You're my mate, there's no mistaking it."

"But I-I wouldn't be a good one. I would make a terrible mate, trust me. You don't want this."

"Are you trying to convince me to not want you?" He asks.

I look away from his somewhat amused grin. "Frankly, yes. I mean it. I really wouldn't be good at it."

"I always thought this moment would go in a much different direction than it is," the Alpha considers, his haunting voice toying with me. "You know you hear stories about finding your mate, but I can't say I've heard one remotely close to this."

"And what did you expect? For me to run into your arms and have to whisk me off to whatever place you come from?"

I know where he comes from. There are only so many Alphas in the world, so many places secluded enough to house packs of hundreds. He's from east of here—on the coast.

He studies me for a minute. My eyes follow the grown, brown strands of his hair to those few pieces that fall forward. As if he knows where my eyes are, he runs his hand through it, combing the stray hairs back. "You don't want to leave home?" He asks.

"No, I do want to leave home. I just don't want a mate."

The Alpha peers to the floor, sighs, then finds my eyes. "You're fighting it, aren't you? You're defiant, you've made that clear, but there is no point in trying to deny it. So how about you tell me why you don't want a mate."

"I just don't," I say. "I meant what I said. It's just not for me."

"And you know this how?"

I swallow and step away from the desk. "Look, I didn't want a regular mate, but you—an Alpha—you're a prison sentence. I don't want this life. I don't want to be a Luna. Any other girl from any pack would beg the goddess to be your mate, so please, don't—don't try to whisk me away. Don't think that I'll eventually get over myself. Let's just snip this in the bud, alright?"

The Alpha stands up. He looks down at me, unfazed. "I'm sorry, Brigette. But that isn't going to happen."

"Fine," I say softly. "But when I run, just give me a head start, will you?"

His face hardens.

We stand in silence, neither of us willing to back down.

"This could be easy," he says. "You're smart enough to know that running won't get you very far."

"You're so sure, aren't you? You're so confident that the bond is too strong for me to refuse. You'd be surprised at what I'm willing to go through to get what I want."

I jolt when he grabs my hand, sucking in a breath and looking to the connection. I try to pull away, but his grasp is firm. "I don't like being touched," I tell him. The Alpha ignores me, but when he leads me to the door, a panic hits me. "Wait," I order, "no, we can't. We can't go out there."

My feet plant into the ground, and I refuse to move a step more. "My parents are out there."

The Alpha brings his free arm around me, across my back to ease me forward. "Shall we go tell them the news then?" He suggests. Between his touch and the thought of confronting my parents, I don't know what to do first—make a run for it or shove him off.

"No no no. That is not happening. No one is going to know about this."

He steps off and leans against the wall. I settle now that he's distanced himself, but I make sure to keep a close eye. I don't know much about the Amin bloodline; I supposed my mind was always off somewhere else when my father spoke about them. All that information was never supposed to be useful to me. I figured none of his systematic and historical lectures would be of any use to me in the real world—once I get to it, that is.

"I was convinced that this would be the easy part. After the searching, the traveling from pack to pack—finding you was supposed to be the end of it."

My brows dip together. I try to swallow down the guilt. He's supposed to be with his Luna, not stuck with some girl who called their bond a prison sentence. I roll my lips together and think for a moment about how I can maneuver my way out of this mess. He's right—I won't get very far if I run, not when I've already made my intentions clear. If I'm going to make it through this, I may just have to play the game for a bit.

"I can't tell them," I say, "not here, in front of everyone. I'd prefer some privacy."

I know how to work my mother; how to win her over. Same with my father. If I'm going to get anywhere, I need to learn what makes him cave—what he reacts to; what makes him tick. It's clear what he wants from me. He wants a happy mate to take home, to make Luna and spend his life with, wrapped up in the bond. Now he knows I'm—as he said—defiant, but he believes I'll give in.

"Alright," he says. "But we can't stay in here."

"You go back to the dinner. I'm not staying."

The Alpha shakes his head. "No. I'm sorry, but you aren't leaving my sight, not when you're threatening to run off."

"What happened to me not getting far?"

"That doesn't mean I want to chase you," he tells me as his eyes lift.

I shrug as I say, "Well, I'll have to go home. It's not like I'm going to be glued to your side."

"You will tell your parents that you have found your mate, and I will inform your Alpha and Luna. You'll be staying with me until we leave."

A breathy laugh springs from my chest—a cough, as if saying, you're kidding, right? But the look on his face isn't very playful. He peers to the ground as if he doesn't like what he's doing, yet he has to do it. "Seriously?" I question, just to make sure.

"Yes. Seriously."

"I'd prefer to spend my last few days here at home and in my own bed."

The Alpha steps off the wall and surveys me for a moment. "You should have considered that before you asked for a head start."

"I'm not really asking. I'm telling you," I counter. "I'm going to stay at home."

He moves past me and toward the door.

"Hey," I call at him. "I'm sure you're used to people doing whatever you say, but that isn't going to work here. I-I—aren't we supposed to be equals? Because the power feels very one-sided."

"You didn't want things to be easy, so they won't be. You'll tell your parents after dinner. Until then, we can be discrete."

He exits the office but leaves the door open for me. I hear his footsteps trail down the hallway until they join the muffled noise of voices and movements from the front room. Not wanting to be caught in here, I leave and gently close the door behind me.

"Should I even ask why you were in there?"

I jump and turn to the voice. Amabell stands at the end of the hall with her arms crossed.

"Were you talking to David?" She questions.

"David?"

"The Alpha? Alpha Amin? He told me to call him David. My mother said that it's rude to call him anything other than Alpha, so I only call him David when she isn't around."

She stares at me until I answer, "I wasn't. Come on, dinner will be starting."