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The scent of chocolate mixed with cherry hit his nose. He was unsure where she had got the cherry scent from but the chocolate one was stronger than ever. And it made his stomach do somersaults. He grew up hearing about the great bond between the soulmates that the Moon Goddess herself had forged and how powerful it was. But to feel it firsthand was something else. It was a blessing only the were-kinds were given. But to him, it almost seemed like a burden. What exactly was Her Highness thinking when she paired the both of them up?
The four wolves looked towards the entrance of the dining room. Noelle walked in in a black sports bra and matching shorts with her hair up in space buns.
Ezekiel growled, making Hunter look away immediately.
"What are you wearing?" He growled and redirected his glare to Anna, who yelped at the mere look on his face. "I...I got her... a dress." She stuttered out.
"A full-sleeve dress in the middle of summer? That too for bed-time?" Noelle rolled her eyes, her wolf smirking for the both of them, as she walked in and took the seat next to Ezekiel, across from Livian Rodriguez, the beta.
Ezekiel sighed. "You are going to go out tomorrow and get yourself decent clothes and whatever else you want."
Noelle raised a brow but nodded nevertheless. Stick to the plan and make the best out of the royal life.
Ezekiel narrowed his eyes. As much as he was glad that she wasn't opposing his order, he knew from the few hours he had known her that she never ever listened to anyone.
'She is smart. She is probably just playing the part.' His wolf purred in his mate's praise. He could not wait to meet her wolf, his other half.
"I will show her around and help her with the shopping," Anna said enthusiastically.
'If you let her do that, I will bother you the whole day and won't let you get any work done.' Ezekiel's wolf said before he could agree with her. His wolf, like anyone's wolf, hated the fact that his human had fucked a wolf other than their mate. And so while Ezekiel had a good relationship with Anna Krone, his wolf hated her with a passion. And he was not going to let her anywhere near their mate when he knew very well what her intentions were.
"No, I am going with her." Ezekiel said, attracting everyone's surprised gaze on him, except Noelle, who really couldn't care any less. All she wanted to do right then was hop off the chair and go and see if there were chocolates in the fridge.
"If that's what this meeting is about and there isn't going to be any food, can I go now?" Noelle yawned, not bothering to stifle it. Though Ezekiel wanted to scold her for being like this, he couldn't help the feeling of endearment the mate bond bubbled in his chest. She was a vixen, but she was also cute and clueless at the same time.
"Yes." He found himself saying, again to the confusion of the two she-wolves and the surprise of his gamma. Ezekiel had told Hunter that he would tell Livian and Anna about the plan. That he was going to reject Noelle after the duel which she was going to deliberately lose. But he didn't.
He sat there thinking over and over again about the situation. What was he going to do about her?
"It will be fine, you know?" Anna placed her hand on his. Once upon a time, it used to bring some kind of comfort to him. But now, all he felt was irritation. He was a mated wolf and she needed to stay away from him. At least until the mate bond was broken. But as long as the mate bond prevailed, he would stay loyal. That was the bearing of a true wolf and he refused to stray from it and disrespect the goddess who watched over his kind.
"I know it will be." He breathed out. "You should go home now." He got up from his seat, and quickly walked away, leaving Anna with Hunter and Livian. While Livian felt bad for her best friend, Hunter had to stop himself from asking her to mind her own business and stop pining over a wolf she had no right over. He knew that his best friend was planning something and he knew it was going to be something extremely stupid and something he shouldn't be doing. But he also knew that Ezekiel was stubborn and his decision could not be changed by anyone but himself.
Hunter sighed as he sat back on the chair, watching Livian and Anna, knowing very well that they were talking among themselves through mind link because they didn't want him hearing whatever they were plotting. Not that he cared. He could tell that his Luna was capable of a few plotting and planning. Isn't that what made her Luna material?
Hunter smirked to himself.
Stubborn mates always tried to oppose the mate bond, undermining the power it held. They were always the ones who fell harder for each other.
He pouted when he realized that all this thinking about soulmates and their mate bond was making him miss his own mate, who was away on a mission.
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Ezekiel was on his feet at once as a distant sound reached his ears. He quickly took off towards the kitchen, fighting his urge to go check on his mate first. He stopped in his tracks when he saw that it was his little infuriating mate who had made the sound. She was on the floor, picking up the pieces of the mug she had broken.
"What are you doing here?" He asked.
She didn't look up or flinch, telling him that she had known that he had reached the spot, though he was extremely stealthy. He guessed it was something that came with being a rogue. Again, he realized that he didn't know her story. How had she become a rogue in the first place? And why weren't her or her friends' eyes red?
"I accidentally knocked this mug over after I had stocked the fridge with my chocolates." She looked up at that point. "Does a kid live here?"
Ezekiel nodded. "My nephew Jonah. He is with his grandparents now. We will go visit them tomorrow and bring him back when we are done with your shopping."
She nodded and got up, chucking the broken pieces in the bin.
Ezekiel opened the fridge, wanting a drink now that he was awake from his peaceful sleep.
"You eat way too much chocolate." He said, upon seeing all the added chocolate along with Jonah's. He grabbed a bottle of water.
"There is no such thing as too much chocolate." She chuckled. Chocolate made her so so very happy, ever since she was a little girl, and she was not letting anyone tell her that it was bad for her health or that she had too much of it.
Ezekiel paused. Her laugh was music to his ears. He shook those thoughts away. This she-wolf was not going to be his Luna.
'You are an ass.'
Noelle didn't stay for a conversation. She was sleepy. The only reason she had come down was because she had started awake from her sleep at the thought of her chocolates getting spoilt in her bag. Now that they had been taken care of, she could sleep in peace.
"See you in the morning." She yawned and walked away, leaving him with his million unanswered questions.
Did he want to know the answers to all the questions about her? After all, she was to exit from his life as soon as the elders came back and the duel was held.
He could not let her be the Luna. She was a rogue. Deceit was in her blood. Not to mention how impulsive, calculative, and reckless she was.
He wondered again and again what the Moon Goddess was thinking, pairing him up with her. Maybe she didn't want him to have a mate, that's why all this game. That's why, after ten years of searching, he was presented with a mate he could not accept. Maybe he was never meant to have a mate. That was all.
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______________________________ . . . The sun was too bright, the birds too loud, the weather too hot – Goddess, she hated Blood Moon territory already. Noelle was really starting to regret jumping at the thought of luxury. 'Ugh, someone shoot that sparrow down!' Her wolf whined. Noelle and her wolf only ever agreed upon two things – they hated their sleep disturbed and they hated unnecessary socialization. Noelle wondered why her wolf even wanted to be Luna when the position meant having to socialize with all the pack members and other officials when the situation called for it. 'Noelle, I am not in the mood for deep, life-changing thoughts.' Her wolf whined. 'Caffeine please. And maybe a whiff of our mate.' Noelle huffed. Her wolf had lost her brain cells after their mate came into the picture, though she did agree with her about coffee. She needed it desperately. Noelle couldn't sleep so well because well, the softness of a bed was not something the she-wolf was used to anymo
__________________________ . . . Noelle shrugged. "Never heard of them." "I thought you said the 'Royalty' could be it." Noelle paused, her lips touching the mug. That was so freaking stealthy that she didn't even feel her mate's presence until he spoke. 'Would have, if you had not ignored me.' Noelle rolled her eyes when she realized her wolf had already gone heart-eyed, having smelled and felt his presence. "Except they are legendary and no one knows if they really do exist or not." She shrugged. She had made a fatal error by taking the Royalties's name out casually. They were the supreme group and one of their laws was to kill off any rogue who revealed it to packs. She really was dead meat. "So how do we find out whether they exist or not?" Sebastian asked. Noelle liked Sebastian. While Livian was uptight and brooding, Sebastian was more laid back. It was a good equation. All three pairs of eyes were on her. She could also smell the stench of rotting flesh making its way
______________________ . . . Driving like a madman and running multiple red lights, they reached pack territory, where Ezekiel killed the engine to be able to surprise the rogues. He turned to his mate; his eyes pitch black. "Stay here." He said. "And don't you dare try running!" He was in full-on Alpha mode, and Noelle could almost feel his authority weighing down on her. With those words, the Alpha jumped down to the ground and broke out in a jog, leaping and transforming mid leap into a huge grey wolf. He didn't look back at his mate as he zoomed away, concentrating all his senses to where the number of rogues was the maximum. Noelle sat there, watching. Her eyes and mouth were wide. And for once, she was amazed by her mate. She had thought Alpha Ian's wolf was large. But he was nothing compared to her own mate. The lone wolf wanted to sit in the safety of the jeep and leave the saving the day to her mate and his army of pack warriors, but her irritating little wolf was clawi
_____________________ . . . They were too easy to kill. They were a decoy. 'Fuck it!' Noelle screeched in her head. 'Alright girlie, olfactory senses in ultra-mode.' "I am not 'girlie'." The wolf barked but did as was told. "I can smell them everywhere." 'If I sent a decoy to the east border, where exactly would I really want to be?' "The west?" The wolf said and then exclaimed. "The pack house!" . Noelle turned to her mate to find him engaged on a rogue with another warrior. She howled at him for attention. He quickly turned around, sensing what she felt, and signaled the warrior to take over. Noelle didn't wait as she ran in the direction of the pack house and Ezekiel followed, both of them realizing the rogues had become more alert. "Take them down!" Ezekiel barked into the pack link. "Leave just one alive to be interrogated." They ran for a good ten minutes before they reached the entrance to the pack house. Ezekiel shifted and charged inside while Noelle stopped.
____________________________ . . . "Or she could be in on it." All eyes turned to Anna, who looked like she had enough of the praises showered at the Luna. They were in the streets, fixing stuff as they talked in the mind link. They could not risk being heard because the trackers weren't sure if they had missed any of the cameras or bugs. "The way that she saved everyone, figured this out and stayed. I doubt." One of the warriors said into the mind link. "But now that the spy cameras have been found out, the rogues behind it must know that we have been alerted." She reasoned. "Not if our acting was good enough," Sebastian said. "We pretended to not see them and acted as if we were checking if all the papers were there. They were using scent-hiders and only two of the most trained trackers could smell it out. We exchanged genuine information through the mind link and talked bullshit out loud." The plan was fool-proof. Blood Moon had the best trackers. If it was some other pack,
_________________________ . . . "Anna," Ezekiel said without thinking. "I want Anna Krone to win." There was no change in her expression, not even in her eyes which were already empty and glassy. Only in the mate bond could the change be felt. There was no more tugging them closer. It was as if the Moon Goddess stopped trying to bring them together. For she had, because she knew that these two stubborn wolves would never come together because of a mate bond. They would come together only when they feel like it. The pairing made even the Moon Goddess question her power. How could two wolves be so stubborn? So stubborn that they were resisting the most powerful bond to ever be forged in the world. Honestly, these two made the Moon Goddess facepalm, watching their squabble and inner turmoil. . . . Noelle counted about eleven other she-wolves who would be challenging her by the mere expressions on their face while one of the elders droned and droned about the rites and rituals
_______________________ . . . "Big mistake." Noelle choked out, spitting blood as she did. And she said for her mate to hear, "The deal is off." As Anna's wolf glared at her, Noelle let hers out. Her eyes turned glassy grey and angry and with the anger rose power. The cracking of bones shocked the crowd. "Luna, you cannot shift." The elder exclaimed but she didn't pay heed. Because she wasn't shifting. It was her bone reshaping, healing at a rate deemed impossible. Within moments, Noelle stood tall and strong, every single scratch on her body healed, as if she didn't have them in the first place, dried blood the only sign of any previous wounds. Anna's eyes widened as she watched the she-wolf look as if she had just entered the field, with the kind of power only a Luna could radiate. "Let's try again." Noelle chuckled as she tossed the blade to Anna's side and moved a few steps back. "I challenge you to fight me." Ezekiel blew out a breath, his eyes wide, his heart beating ag
________________________ . . . "NOELLE!" The Alpha dashed into the room, making the two she-wolves and the pup jump. "Zeke.." Selene hissed at him while he looked between them apologetically, his chocolate brown orbs settling down on his mate. Selene understood that the mates needed some alone time so that they could talk all of it out. It was clear as day that Noelle was extremely pissed at the Alpha while Ezekiel was just worried sick for her. "I will leave you two alone now." She said as she approached Noelle to take a sleeping Jonah from her arms. Noelle was reluctant to give him to her because he had become somewhat her safe haven in the pack though they had only spent time with each other for the four days before the duel. "Noelle." He said again as Selene closed the door behind her. "Can't we have another duel?" She turned to him, pouting. Ezekiel looked at her confused and then like she had gone crazy and then finally chuckled and said. "Do you think anyone would want