I sat there glancing down at the treaty, but every chance I got, I’d glance at our mate. I overheard Luna Mary say her name, Diana. I smirked a little when I saw Connor staring too, ‘Focus, Connor. We’ll get to know her as soon as this is done.’ I mind-linked him, breaking his attention with Diana and back to the work at hand. He mind-linked me,
‘Her name is Diana.’ he told me, I chuckled a bit then was brought out of my thoughts when Victor handed Connor a pen,
“Alpha Connor, if you will,” he nodded slightly and took the pen, before signing, he looked over at Diana, “Alpha Connor?”
“Connor?” I grabbed his attention then gave a look,
“Alphas, I believe we should let the Lunas sign as well.” he told us; I smiled and went over to Diana,
“That’s not how this is done,” he cut Victor off,
“Alpha Victor, it’s either you agree to allow both of our mates to sign, or the treaty is off.” Connor wasn’t giving him much of a choice. He sighed and nodded; Mary came over and Connor handed the pen to her, “Luna, if you will please.” She smiled a little and then signed her name then passed the pen to Victor, he signed and passed the pen back to Connor. He turned to Diana to give her the pen,
“Alphas, she’s not your Luna yet. She cannot sign.” Connor gave a low growl, but I calmed him down,
“Connor, he’s right.” I looked at her then to Connor,
“Then we’ll be mated now.” The moment he said that Diana tensed,
“Connor,” I started, but Diana cut me off; she turned to Victor and Mary,
“How soon can we be mated?” She asked, Connor was happy for a second, but then realized that she wasn’t excited about it. It’s not because she wanted to be mated, she was doing it out of obligation. Connor tensed when he met my gaze,
“I can have the arrangements done by this evening.” She nodded,
“Do it then.” She replied as she then turned and exited the room. I took the pen from Connor’s hand and signed my name on the treaty, followed by his signature.
Connor and I left the office straight to our room, which is where I decided to give him a piece of my mind. “What the hell were you thinking?” I asked, Connor punched a wall,
“I don’t know.”
“Did you see her face?”
“Yes.” The image of her face flashed in my mind, “We finally found our mate and we’re going to lose her because of me.” I sighed then went up behind him and hugged him. Our packs were united centuries ago, so we were raised together and learned to work together. It was strange when we developed feelings for each other, we even questioned it, but now, now we know the reason for those feelings. We shared a mate.
“We can fix this, Connor,” I told him, placing a kiss on his shoulder. He nodded and turned to face me,
“You always do.” I smiled at him which in a second turned into a smirk,
“Have you been thinking about her?” He bit his lip a little,
“How did you know?” I pointed down, which made him look; he was hard. I chuckled, “It has a mind of its own.” We both laughed, but I pulled away before we could do anything,
“While you take care of that, I’m going to see if I can find our mate.” Connor pouted,
“Without me?” I smiled at him and placed a kiss on his cheek before leaving the room.
I walked through the house, asking anyone if they had seen Diana come through, but it’s like she disappeared. After ten minutes of looking, I caught the sweet smell of watermelon and cinnamon; following it, I found myself outside in the garden. Her fiery hair wasn’t hard to miss, I walked over to her, she was watching the flowers. I took a breath and then spoke softly, “Diana,” she instantly looked up at me and got up to walk away, I reached for her hand which stopped her,
“Please,” is all she said; I walked closer to her, “please, Alpha, reject me…” My heart was beginning to shatter, but I didn’t utter a word, “Please, I’m not who you and Alpha Connor want, I’m not a leader,” her voice cracked as she spoke, like she’d been crying, “I’m not a Luna.”
“Diana,” I said, “why do you think that?” I asked, curious to the reason she thought so little of herself; she didn’t answer. It wasn’t a moment later, I felt Connor behind me, but he didn’t say anything,
“Reject me!” Diana screamed before pulling her wrist from my hand and turning to face us, “Please!” I could see clearly now, tears stained her face and they didn’t stop. “I can’t be a leader, I’m weak, I’m a fool, my whole pack would throw the biggest party to know that I was gone or dead.” She told us, “You deserve someone better than that. Someone who can actually stand by your side in a fight rather than having to be saved.” I noticed it then, she was starting to shift. Diana clutched her head,
“Diana, calm down,” I said, “it’s okay.” She screamed which turned into a howl. Without a moment to spare, a red wolf stood in front of us; Diana snapped at us before taking off. I sighed and turned to Connor,
“Well, that went about as well as it did in the office.” I growled lightly at him,
“How are we going to talk to her?” I asked him, “She wants us to reject her.”
“I caught that, yeah, mostly when she screamed at us to reject her.” Connor crossed his arms, I shook my head. Victor came toward us with a woman who seemed to be an older version of Diana but with black hair,
“Alphas,” Victor said, “this is Helen, Dianas’ mother.” We shook her hand, “She was hoping that you’ve seen Diana? Helen and a few of the women want to get her ready for tonight.” Connor looked at me, then turned back to them,
“She took off to the woods.” Helen scoffed,
“That girl is nothing but trouble!” She exclaimed then smiled brightly at us, “I’m sure two strong Alphas such as yourselves will be able to straighten her out.” I fought back a growl, and so did Connor,
‘Play along, it’ll be over soon.’ I told him, “Oh yes, she’ll be straightened out, one way or another. But perhaps time away will do her some good.”
“Yes, she seemed very emotional to be mated so quickly. Let’s give her some space for now, there’s time before tonight.” Helen scoffed lightly, thinking we wouldn’t notice,
“Very well, I’ll let the ladies know.” She said before bowing her head to excuse herself. Victor wasn’t far behind her, I grabbed Connor’s arm,
“Let’s send our Betas after her, just to make sure she’s okay.” He agreed.
It was dark, Matthew and Zack told us that she was okay, but she wasn’t happy about this. We watched as Diana’s pack gathered and the few pack members from ours gathered on the other side, it was like a wedding. “We shouldn’t be doing this.” I told Connor as he handed me a glass,
“I know, but we can’t do anything about it now.” I watched as they all gathered, I took a sip of my drink when a thought occurred,
“Connor,” he turned his attention to me, “what if we don’t mate her?” Swallowing his drink, he questioned me,
“What do you mean? Reject her?” I shook my head,
“No, no, I mean don’t have sex. Don’t complete the mating process until she’s ready.” He looked at me like I was crazy,
“Are you crazy? Do you realize the agonizing pain we’ll be in, not to mention our mate?”
“So you’d rather make her screw us because you don’t want to deal with a little bit of pain?” Connor went to rebut, but closed his mouth, “You know I’m right.” There was a knock on the door and our Betas came in,
“Alphas,” Zack said, “it’s time.” I nodded and Connor followed in behind me, I turned to Connor before we left the room,
“Are you with me?” I asked, he smirked a little,
“Of course, I’m with you. You think I’m going to torture you?” We chuckled before we followed the Betas down with everyone else.
Connor and I stood side by side as we watched Diana walk down the aisle towards us. She kept her head down the whole time, not once daring to meet our eyes. When she stepped onto the stage, Victor started the ceremony, “We are here to witness the mating between Alpha Blake and Alpha Connor of the Blood Moon Pack and Diana Williams of the Midnight Pack.” He turned to us, “How would you like to proceed?” With one small look, Connor spoke,
“Human forms.” Victor nodded, then looked over to Diana, who then went to her knees and was stripped; it was that moment that I saw something on her back, it looked like a bruise. Her private parts were still covered, thank goodness, but she looked so uncomfortable to be on display. Victor looked at us and we both stripped our shirts and went to our knees as well on either side of Diana.
“Alphas, hold out your arms away from your mate,” We did so; Victor came in front of me, “Do you take Diana as your mate?” I glanced at her, she kept her head down,
“I do.” With that said, I was branded with her mark. I breathed through the pain. When it was over, he went to Connor,
“Do you take Diana as your mate?”
“I do.” and the same process was done to Connor; I could feel his pain. Victor then went in front of Diana,
“Diana,” she glanced up at him, “do you take these men as your mates?” She closed her eyes as tears rolled down. Sucking in a breath, she nodded,
“I do.”
“Hold your arms out in front of you.” She was hesitant but did as she was told as she was then branded with two marks. The blood curdling scream that came from her made me want to attack the ones causing the pain. After a moment, it was done and we were told to stand. Connor and I got up with ease, but Diana had trouble. We went over to her and helped her up,
“We’ve got you,” I whispered sweetly, she nodded,
“Now, the mates will bite each other.” Victor said, I looked at Diana who moved her head to the side for me to access,
“Just do it.” She said so we could her. I nodded,
“I’ll be quick.” She nodded and I bit her, she winced slightly but then a soft moan slipped from her lips. I pulled away and licked the wound. Connor did the same on the other side of her neck, then she did the same to us. When it was over, we were mated, except for the private part that only the three of us will be present for. Everyone cheered for us as we all went inside.
