I stood outside the bedroom door, sucking in deep breaths.
Fighting my instincts was hard, especially since I was a man who always relied on his instincts to drive him in the right direction.I sucked in another deep breath before I forced myself to move.Everything was a fucking mess.Nate and I had grown close over the years. He was like a brother, and through him I had gotten to know my half-sister. There had been no hesitation when he asked me to take Cora in if something happened to them.But things were different.Everything had changed because the seventeen-year-old girl in that bedroom was my mate.Not only that, but I found out that she had already met her mate and he had rejected her.I frowned.None of this made any fucking sense.Was this a cruel game? Some sort of test?“At least she’s not blood-related to you,” Axel muttered when I entered my office.I snarled at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be locked in your coffin?”“Funny,” he muttered. “You forgot this.”Axel dropped the book onto my desk.“Thank you,” I growled. “I’m not in the mood, Axel.”“There was no bond,” he said softly. “The rejection didn’t hurt her.”Running a hand through my hair, I dropped down in the chair.“She reminded me that she is human and doesn’t feel the bond like us.”I could feel his eyes burning into my skin.“What’s happening, Axel?” I questioned. “I found my mate only for me to lose her. She found her mate only for him to reject her because she’s human.”“Does it bother you?” Axel asked softly. “That she’s human?”I glared at him. “She’s seventeen, Axel! I’m sure that there must be some mistake.”“I doubt it,” he muttered. “Talk to one of the elders. They might have an answer for us.”I nodded.Axel hesitated a few seconds more and then disappeared.I stared at the spot he used to be with a frown. Sometimes, I wished I had his ability to just disappear into thin air.He was a lucky bastard, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.I got up to put the book away and then headed out of my office. I wasn’t lying when I told Cora that I had some stuff to take care of.The walk into town was a short one.Stopping by the school, I picked up Cora’s schedule and the list of stuff she needed.Once that was done, I made my way over to Demetrius’s house. He was the only elder I trusted enough to keep things between us.He opened the door on the third knock and frowned at me.“Alpha, what can I do for you?”“I was hoping you could help me with something.”He stepped away from the door and gestured for me to follow him.Entering the house, I closed the door behind me and followed Demetrius into his living room. I declined his offer for coffee and decided to get straight to the point.“Is it possible to have more than two mates?”Demetrius frowned at me. “I don’t understand the question.”My eyes darted around the room as I tried to voice the questions in a way he would understand.“Selene blessed us with a mate. A soul that was made especially to match our own.” I paused. “Once you’ve found your soulmate and something happens to them…like they pass away, or they reject you. Is it possible for you to find another mate?”“There is a possibility,” Demetrius muttered. “If Selene finds you worthy or believes that you are destined to achieve something great, she will bless you with something we call a second chance mate, and if you’re lucky, you might even get more than one mate.”“If that happens, is it the same as being with your first mate?” I asked him.He rubbed at his thick beard. “Some say that the bond is stronger.”Getting to his feet, he made his way over to the bookshelf on the far left.“In my younger days, while we were traveling, we came across this pack deep in the mountains. We called them the Golden wolves because their fur looked like gold. Most females in the pack had more than one mate.”He grabbed a book and leaned down to pull another book from the shelf.“Didn’t the males fight?”Demetrius slowly straightened with a groan and turned around to face me. He held out the books.“I expect them back in my hands when you’re done,” he growled.I took the books from him. “Of course.”“The Golden wolves are the only wolves known to have more than one mate in the world, but they only share a bond with their true mates.” He sunk down on the couch. “The males are almost always blood brothers or brothers by choice so to answer your question, there’s no fighting between them.”“Is there a way for me to maybe get in touch with them? I want to ask them a few questions.”“In touch with them?” He laughed. “Boy, it was years ago. Those wolves are all extinct. If you ever come across one of them, you’ll be extremely lucky.”My eyes dropped to the books in my hand. “I’ll return them to you as soon as possible.”I stood, ready to leave, but Demetrius spoke up again, making me pause.“I heard you found a human in the woods last night,” he muttered. “What did you do to her?”“We did. She's currently staying at my house,” I told him.“You’re going to let her go?”I pursed my lips.“You can’t allow her to walk free after what she saw,” he hissed.“Cora is staying,” I growled.“A human?”I snarled at him. “She’s Olivia’s daughter. Human or not, she’s staying.”Demetrius stood and took a few steps closer to me. “In the olden days, she would have been killed.”“This is not the old days. If we don’t allow change, we’d be stuck in the past like most of the packs. We wouldn’t be as strong as we are now.”“There is no place for a human,” Demetrius argued.“You said the same about Axel.” My eyes narrowed on him. “She grew up in a pack. Cora knows what we are. She is staying and if anyone has a problem with it, they can take it up with me. Understand?”I allowed my wolf to surface for a few seconds.With one last glance at him, I left and headed straight for home.I wanted to get back to Cora as soon as possible because there was this constant need to be close to her. I was certain that it was the mate-bond, and I was trying my best to fight it because, damn it, my mate was only seventeen-years-old!She still had her whole life ahead of her.She just lost her parents.Mom was waiting for me when I entered the house.“I meant to ask you last night, but you got in late.” She reached out and placed a hand on my arm. “Is that girl really Olivia’s daughter? She looks nothing like Olivia.”“Mom, not all kids look like their parents.”“I know.” Her hand dropped away.She frowned, and I waited patiently for her to get her thoughts in order.June Garrison used to be a force to be reckoned with. She used to be a strong, independent woman. Until that bastard sunk his claws into her and tore her to pieces.She had healed, but there was still a big part of her missing that she couldn’t seem to find.“There’s already so much happening with the rogues and the hunters…” she trailed off. “We need to be careful who we allow into our home.”I pulled her in for a hug and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.“You know that I will never do anything to place our pack or our family in danger.”“That’s what makes you a great alpha,” she whispered.“Cora belongs here,” I told her.And I meant it. Even if things had been different and she wasn’t my mate, she was still family, blood-related or not.Pressing another kiss to her head, I stepped away from her.“I have a few calls to make,” I told her. “I’ll see you in a little while.”“Do you need help with anything?” she asked.I thought about it. “Nothing I can think of at the moment,” I muttered.She nodded. “Just let me know if you need anything.”“I will.”I watched her until she disappeared from sight. Shaking my head, I hurried towards my office.It was getting late, and by now I would have expected Rowan to have called me to tell me that Cora was missing.Why hadn’t he called? Was he even aware of what that bastard did to her? Did he even fucking care?I couldn’t see much of the pack from the window. The house was surrounded by other houses, some with colourful gardens. There were more houses beyond with tall buildings. And in the distance, I could make out the tall trees of the forest that surrounded the houses. It looked a lot different than my old pack. I turned away from the window and glanced around at the room once again. It was small but cozy. There was a built-in closet across from the double bed with a chair and a small table next to it. The walls were painted a light blue with white wooden furniture and dark blue bedding. The room reminded me of something you would find in a guest house by the beach. After eating, I made the bed, braided my hair, and then tried to get some sleep, but failed. My mind was too busy. My arrival at my new home wasn’t exactly how I had imagined it. I thought that I would have been calm and level-headed to make a good impression. Not dressed in my night clothes, soaking wet and fee
Keiran’s pack was a lot bigger than Alpha Rowan’s pack. “Everyone in town is a shifter,” Keiran explained. “We occasionally get some human tourists, but they don’t stay long because our…town doesn’t have much to offer them. One of the pack rules is to never expose yourself to humans. We don’t want any hunters coming to town.”“You’ll have no problem with me,” I muttered. “You can misbehave, Cora,” Keiran said softly. Before I could answer him, he opened a door and gestured for me to enter. My eyes darted around, taking everything in. It looked like one of those expensive clothing shops you would usually find in the mall. “You can pick out anything you want.” Keiran followed me around as I took a look at the clothes. It was definitely expensive. “Season’s changing,” he muttered. “If you want, we can only get you some clothes for autumn and winter.”I bit my lip as I stared at the rack of thick winter jackets. It reminded me of Dad’s jacket. “Cora?”“C-can we go somewhere less…
Mine. My hold on Cora tightened as I snarled at him. She didn’t belong to him, she was mine. My mate. Only mine. But doubt started to fill me when his head lowered and he rubbed his snout along her cheek. A deep purr rumbled from his chest. Cora’s low whimper pulled me out of my shock. Growling, I gripped him by the scruff of his neck and jerked him off us. He instantly got to his feet and shook out his fur. My warning growl had him freezing, but not before letting out one of his own. Sitting up, I turned my attention towards Cora. She was pale and shaking slightly. I moved the strands of hair from her face and gripped her chin to turn her attention towards me. Wide jade eyes blinked up at me. She was scared, but she was trying her best not to show it. “K-Keiran?”“Are you injured?” I asked her softly. She hesitated too long before she shook her head. My eyes dropped, darting over her and then lingering on the hand she was favouring. It was the same wrist she had injured t
The doctor at Alpha Rowan’s pack never treated me when I got sick or injured. He claimed that he knew nothing about human illnesses and that I was not important enough for him to learn about them. Whenever I got injured, Mom would treat my wounds. And whenever I got sick, they had to take me to town to see a human doctor. But the doctor sitting in front of me, examining my wrist was nothing like the other doctors I had been to. She was gentle as she touched parts of my skin and put me at ease by asking me numerous questions. “Not broken,” she muttered as she lowered my arm to my lap. “But you’ve made the sprain worse.” Her eyes darted over to Keiran who stood leaning against the wall. “I gave you orders and I expect them to be followed, alpha.”“It won’t happen again, Olive.”“Better not,” she muttered as she stood. “I’ll see if I can find you a brace to wear to limit movement. You also need to try to keep weight off of it otherwise you’ll risk another re-injury.”“Thank you.” Oliv
School. My stomach twisted with nausea as I made my way down the stairs a week later. The doctor had given me the all-clear to go to school much to my disappointment. When I entered the kitchen it was to find only Keiran sitting at the table. My eyes darted around, taking in the various dishes. “I wasn’t sure what you like,” he muttered, standing.“You cooked?” I breathed, wide-eyed. He raised an eyebrow. “Yes, you didn’t think I could?”“No,” I told him honestly. “Dad couldn’t cook. It was always me or Mom that cooked for him.”Keiran pulled a chair out for me and then took a seat again. Placing a plate down in front of me, he gestured to the other plates. “Help yourself.”“Thank you.”I grabbed a slice of toast and took a small bite. I was too nervous to actually eat. But he went through all the trouble to cook and I wanted to show him that I appreciated it. “It’s important for a male to know how to take care of his mate which includes cooking.” He took a bite of bacon and slo
“Your brother adopted a human.”“I heard,” I muttered absentmindedly as I glanced around. “Have you met her?” Dale questioned. “No,” I lied. He already knew the answer. The whole fucking pack knew about it. Those who didn’t see it happen, already heard about it. My mate was the new human my brother adopted. Olivia’s daughter. I clenched my teeth and ran a shaky hand through my hair. My head ached, my body was sore and my wolf was still agitated. We hadn’t seen our mate in a week. Until this morning. She had run from me the moment she realized who she had run into, and I hadn’t seen her since. I was dying to get another whiff of her. But Keiran had warned me to keep my distance. I thought that with my heat over, he would allow me to seek her out. She belonged to me. And apparently to him. As well as Axel. I growled, gripping the table tightly. My claws dug into the wood which made people turn to look at me. I sneered at them, instantly making them hurry away. “What the
AXEL Hunger was gnawing at my stomach. It made it impossible for me to sleep even though my body and brain were beyond tired. I needed sleep. The fact that her scent filled nearly every room in the house was making it harder to resist. I had heard about this thing only once before and it had ended in disaster. Cora was a temptation being dangled in front of my nose and it was getting harder to resist. Giving up on trying to get some sleep, I got out of bed and entered the bathroom. My eyes locked on my reflection in the mirror, making me pause. Red was bleeding into the edges of my pupil, a sure sign of hunger. It was the reason I had been mostly avoiding my brothers and the little human. I didn’t want to scare her and I didn’t want to give them anything to worry about. They already had enough on their plate. Keiran was still trying to figure out why Cora got three mates after being rejected by that bastard and why Rowan hadn't spoken a word about Cora until Lucas showed up th
He had to be kidding.A smile was playing around his lips, but his eyes were serious as they stared into mine.“Me?” I repeated dumbly.Axel’s smile widened a few notches. “You.”“Two,” I whispered.I had gone from being rejected by one mate to suddenly having two mates. Frowning, I grabbed the book and scanned the contents inside.“You won’t find anything inside that book,” he muttered as he leaned back in the chair. “Keiran is trying to figure everything out.”“It’s never happened before?” I questioned.“Not that we are aware of.”Axel hesitated a moment before he stood. “Stay,” he ordered softly.A gasp fell from my lips when he suddenly disappeared into thin air. He was gone for only a few seconds before he reappeared again with a few books in his hand.“How do you do that?”His eyes darted over my face. “I use the shadows to move from one place to another. It makes traveling easier.”“Can you change into a bat?” My eyes trailed over his body.It made me take notice of what he was