Chapter 2

Cyrus

My mate.

I could hardly believe that I was looking at her.

After years of looking expectantly and failing to find her, who would have guessed that I’d find her here, in a Convent of all places?

When I became of age, I never stopped looking, until I eventually stopped some years later, coming to terms with the fact that perhaps I didn’t have one. That the goddess or whoever was up there took that privilege away from me because of the things I’d done.

The crimes I’d committed.

The lives I’d ruined.

It was ironic how I managed to find her in the place I avoided my whole life—I’d never been a religious man, and it was never my intention to become one. I came here tonight because I’d lost a bet with my fucking ungrateful Beta, and as a dare, had to confess my sins to a Priestess.

Of course, I’d never tell her my true sins. I’d only make a few of them up. Telling her the extent of my sins would probably make them tie me to a stake and burn me to the damn ground.

I was the complete opposite of everything they preached.

If there was a hell, I’d be the first one in line to go there after my death.

In fact, right now, everyone was looking at me like I was the Devil who haunted our goddess during the day and made Her conceal herself until he slept at night, which was when She came out of hiding and blessed us with Her presence in the sky.

Or so the holy books said.

Their stunned silence was starting to grate on my nerves, and I pointed at my mate and said, “She’s my mate. I don’t understand what the problem here is, Head Priestess.”

The old woman’s voice was small and saturated with fear. “She’s a holy woman, Alpha Cyrus. You…you cannot touch her!”

I frowned. “According to whom?”

They all gasped, and it was so comical that I had to fight a smile.

“The goddess!” she exclaimed. “Our holy book! You cannot look into the face a woman who has dedicated her entire life to worshipping our Luna without a veil. It is a sin! It is absolutely forbidden! Eva, run upstairs. Do not come down here again!”

Eva. That was her name. It vibrated through me and settled right where it should, and when she started stepping back, obeying the old hag, I reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her. There was that hilarious collective gasp again, and I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes.

“No!” she screamed.

You’d think I was killing someone.

“Head Priestess, you were kind enough to take my visit at this time of the night, but right now, I wish to speak to my mate in peace.”

“She is not your mate!” she shrieked. “She is a priestess, and we take no mates!”

I turned to her without releasing my mate, who was so shocked that it seemed she couldn’t react to my pulling and tugging. She simply went with the flow. I told the Head Priestess, “Yes, she is my mate.”

“No, she’s not!”

“Yes, she is!” I said forcefully through my teeth. “I felt it in my very bones. You can’t tell me what I do and don’t feel.”

Even through her veil, she looked like she was going to eat me alive. If she had a dagger in her hand, she’d stab me to death right here under this holy roof. I said, “I won’t repeat myself. I want privacy with my mate. You will do well to obey my wishes, Head Priestess.”

My threat left her fuming. “Or what!?”

I narrowed my eyes at her, and in a low voice, replied, “Or I’ll burn this roof right over your fucking head and end this pathetic display of a long-dead religion in a heartbeat.”

Gasps again. This time, I chuckled. It was spontaneous, and was the first genuine laugh I’d had in a long time. The old woman advanced aggressively, but my mate’s voice stopped her in her tracks.

“Head Priestess Bathsheba, please. Don’t do this.”

I turned to look at her face—she was so fucking beautiful—and watched her arrange her face into a mask of composure. “I will speak to him. I will ask him to leave. Give us the privacy he wants.”

The Head Priestess sounded like she was about to sob. “But…Eva—”

“She’ll be fine,” one of the other priestesses said. I’d forgotten her name. How could I pay attention to anything when I could smell my mate in the air? “She knows how to take care of herself. We’re doing more damage than good, Head Priestess. Let us give them space.”

The old woman was reluctant to leave, but eventually allowed herself to be escorted out of the chapel. Eva’s eyes were on the floor, and her surprise was slowly draining from her delicate face. It was being replaced by anger, and once we were alone, she cut me a look that both surprised me and turned me on.

I could almost hear my uncle’s voice in my head. Only a sick bastard would get hard in a chapel. A holy place, for crying out loud.

She ripped her arm from my grip, and then stood facing me. “I understand that you’re not a religious man, but to come into this place and mock the only thing we live for is despicable!”

I glanced around, assessing the place. “If this is all you live for, then you need to get out there a little bit more. This place is more a ruin than anything else.”

“It’s our ruin!” she said, putting emphasis on the word ‘our’. “And we’re very proud of it. You have no right to stand there and laugh your…and laugh at us. It is absolutely disgusting, and unforgivable!”

I couldn’t quite concentrate and take this as seriously as I should’ve. Her scent was alluring and blinding, and the way she was yelling at me made me want to kiss her right here. I kept my distance but only because I was fighting every instinct in my body. I always thought that finding a mate meant kissing and fucking right on the spot, and not caring about who watched.

I’d heard a lot of people describe it that way.

But apparently, that wouldn’t be the case for me. For us.

It made this all the more intriguing.

“I am not your mate,” she finally said, and that was the one thing I paid attention to. Before I could butt in, she added, “This mistake will be corrected right here, and right now. You’re going to reject me and go about your life as if none of this happened. And you will promise to never again step foot inside this chapel! You are unworthy of the blessings of our beloved goddess.”

I raised a hand to stop her. “As much as I find it sexy, you yelling and all, I have to admit that I have no intentions of rejecting you. Quite the contrary. I want to claim you, and I want to make you my Luna. You’re my mate. Your rightful place is by my side, not here.”

“I don’t want to be your mate!” she hissed. “I’ve chosen this path for myself, and there’s nothing in the world that will make me change my mind.”

I pressed my lips together and stared at her intently. She fixed her blue gaze on me, almost like she was challenging me to contradict her and step out of this chapel with my tail between my legs because she didn’t want me as a mate. There was nothing I could do if she didn’t accept me as a mate—that was what made the bond real. Without her verbal approval, nothing could happen between us.

Well, challenge accepted.

“Yes, there is,” I insisted, stepping closer to her. “How about I burn this piece of shit to the ground? Will that make you change your mind?”

She grew cold. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“I’ve done much worse, I promise you,” I confessed. “And to have my mate with me, I’ll do a lot worse. It’s up to you. Do you want to do this the easy way or the hard way? The choice is entirely yours. I’m very generous, you see.”

Tears filled her eyes, and she blinked repeatedly to keep them at bay. “There is no way on earth that I will accept a vile man as a mate! Or any man at all! If you wish to burn this place to the ground, I will burn along with it, and it will be perfect because then, I’ll die a martyr. You will not get what you want, and I will ensure that even if it’s the last thing I do!”

I smirked. Her words were setting me on fire, and I loved a challenge. I inched even closer to her, and changed the subject by asking, “Priestesses aren’t meant to look in the mirror, are they?”

She blinked a few times before responding, “No, it’s a sin.”

My lips curved again. “Good. Now, you’ve made your promise, Eva, and it’s about time I make mine; by the time the next full moon is bright in the sky, I’ll have you in my bed, and I will fuck you in front of the mirror right at the foot of my bed.”

To add to her ever-growing shock, my parting words to her were, “And you’ll see how beautiful you look with my cock deep inside of you.”