Three

“Mate”, I whispered in disbelief and my wolf howled in joy. It was true, I could almost feel his wolf’s presence as I just realized that I’ve sealed the first step in the mate bonding.

Confirmation

Wait..but I have a boyfriend. I don’t need a mate.

I shook my head taking a step back but he held me and brought me close to him, then buried his head in my neck trying to take my scent in.

He growled lightly then brought his head up back with an angry expression, “you were with another man earlier”, his voice was disapproving and I became scared.

What if he finds out it was Ryan? Then I’m in dead trouble.

“I-“, before I could speak, he dragged me out of the ballroom to an empty hallway and pushed me against a wall aggressively.

Then he demanded, “tell me why my mate has been with another man”. His scowl made me cower and I swallowed in fear. I don’t know who this man was but I could feel that he was very powerful, mate or not, he could snap my neck in the blink of an eye.

“I have a boyfriend”, I confessed truthfully watching his reaction and hoping he’d understand and probably go back to where he’s coming from.

My wolf disagreed with me vehemently but I just blocked her out.

And seemed like he didn’t like it too as he raged, “You whore, you could not manage to wait patiently for your mate, you had to be in around to start getting it with them”, he sneered in disgust.

My fear turned into anger as I flared up, “You have no right to say that to me, I only have one boyfriend and I love him very much. I don’t even know you, how was I supposed to deny my love for someone as rude and incorrigible as you are?”, I eyed him with scorn and huffed.

He started to smirk as he spoke, “well, that’s too bad love because you’re mine and mine only and just because I have a feeling you’ll disagree, if you want your boyfriend to live, you have to play by my rules”

My mouth fell open wide, was he really going to kill Ryan??

Fear gripped me as tears poured down my eyes, “I hate you, I hope you know that and spend the rest of your life rotting in hell”, I shrieked in anger.

This ain’t no horse-shit imagination because in real life, shit happens in the worst way ever.

The biggest shit of my life was standing right in front of me.

He rolled his eyes like my words didn’t affect him a bit, “And I don’t fucking care. Meet me at the garden by 8am sharp tomorrow”. With that, he walked away.

_______

No, I did not meet him in the garden. Not because I intentionally did it. I actually woke up later than normal, due to fatigue and it was past noon now.

There was no way I could meet him.

I spent the whole morning avoiding Ryan, or the sight of my mate whose name I don’t know.

“Hey. Are you okay?”, I heard Ella’s concerned voice and I turned to face her and I just sighed in response.

She touches my arm as she continues, “You’ve been acting weird since morning and I did not see you at the ball yesterday”.

There was no way she could have seen me, she obviously came by later and I had left.

In fact, I left for my room immediately after the mini confrontation I have with my mate.

I thought of telling her about the mate thing but I knew she would freak out and I did not want to bring up another worry, so I just kept quiet.

“I’m fine”, I forced out an answer before explaining, “I was not feeling too well yesterday, so I retired early”.

She furrowed her eyebrows, looking at my face intently, trying to figure out whether I was lying or not.

Shooting her a pointed look, I tried to reassure her again, “I really am fine. I’m just tired”

Then I thought of an excuse, “I spent the whole night watching chiropractor videos and oh my goodness, they’re so amazing”, I exclaimed as convincingly as I could.

She rolled her eyes at me and gave me a slight nudge, I smiled knowing that she believes me or rather she is starting to believe me.

“You really need to stop your obsession with that”.

“Trust me on this one, I learnt some new tricks for back and earlobes cracking and I’m sure Ava would love it. Especially the earlobes cracking”, I winked at her and she chuckled before blankly stating.

“Ava hates it”

“Yes. That was before, but she will love this and will beg for me. Then you will beg me to try it on you”.

“Over my dead body”, she quickly took a step back from me and shivered.

I gave her a pointed look. “Give a girl a break, won’t you?”

I understood her though, she used to be my chiropractor rat before I twisted her ankle causing her to stay immobile for days. Ever since then, she had forbidden me from ever trying it on her so I turned to Ava.

She owed me that much for always covering for her and even risking my life sometimes for her.

I knew she hated it too, but I loved it and as long as I don’t break any bones, I’m good.

The sound of cracking bones always made me relax and watching those videos is like my favorite thing to do.

“I’ll give you a break”, she look a spatula from the counter and hit me with it while I yelped and jumped in order to escape the hit.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry”, I cried out before she stopped the she became serious.

“The alpha is holding an meeting with the alpha of the Crescent Pack today and you need to be there”

I groaned, I hated catering events like that and she knew it.

“Don’t groan at me”, she warned. “You know I’m doing this in your best interest”.

Ella is the head housekeeper and is always in charge of giving out tasks to the rest of the pack house workers like me.

“I don’t have any business with events like that”, I protested but she dragged my ears and shushed me.

“Do you know how many girls would kill for that position?”

“To be in a room where there are strictly high profile pack members and court members? Trust me, I know”, I stated.

It was true.

It was really every girl’s dream, maybe a powerful alpha would see them and fall in love or they would meet their mate there.

About a year ago, I would have killed for the opportunity, but now I really did not want to go because I knew I would meet Ryan there, and did not want to face him. The guilt of finding my mate was eating me up and telling him would only break him.

Ella’s voice brought me out of my thoughts, “Glad we’ve covered that, you’ll be there.”

Then she left without even letting me speak

“Sassy”, I whispered under my breath as I watched her leave with so much attitude, sometimes she behaves like a teenager.

“I heard that”, she called out.

“Oops”, she finally left me in the kitchen, leaving me with my thoughts.

I decided to leave the kitchen also, as soon as I saw two female workers walk in, Mia and Sarah, they were the gossip girls of the pack house and I had never had a good relationship with them.

Ava always told me that it was because they were jealous that I was the alpha’s daughter’s friend, and also Ella’s favorite, I was not certain but it was true, their jealousy was not evident but sometimes they showed it.

As soon as they walked in and saw me, they shot a bitchy sneer and went on with their business, which was gossiping.

It was the weird glances they gave that made me leave and when I was about to close the door, I heard a snicker from Sarah. I was curious to know if their gossip for this morning was about me, so I stayed behind the door and began to eavesdrop.

“You think she heard us talking about her?”, that was Mia. Okay, they were definitely talking about me. I pressed my ears to the door more but was really careful so as to avoid making any sound.

Since my werewolf hearing was really sharp, I heard Sarah scoff. She was definitely the mean one, “Who cares? She’s obviously guilty since she went behind Ava’s back to whore around with her future mate”

Wait what??

I was really confused, Ava told me her dad wanted her to mate with the alpha of the Crescent Pack. But I was with my mate yesterday, is my mate the- oh my God, could it be that my mate is the alpha of the Crescent Pack??

“I told you Polly definitely saw her with the alpha of the Crescent Pack yesterday”, Sarah said then whispered, “Alone together in an empty hallway”, making Mia gasp.

I was not with them but I was sure Sarah would be nodding her head like ‘Yeah, you heard me right’.

It was hard to get what she said but I squinted my ears and even my eyes to hear.

Well, Polly definitely saw me and now she is spreading rumors that I was fucking around with Ava’s mate.

It won’t be long before everyone hears, including Ava, Ella or even Ryan, since dirty rumors tend to spread faster.

I groaned and walked away from there with my shoulders hung, what have I done to myself?

Or what has the moon goddess done to me?

My mate was Aurelius Vortigen, the most feared and ruthless alpha of the Crescent Pack.

Right then, I knew my life would never remain the same, no matter how much I wanted it to.