I Don’t Want A Mate

Prologue

Prologue:

Liam Durand Emrys

Regent Prince of the Lycan Kingdom

My name means strong-willed warrior and protector. Enduring. Immortal. I never realized how fitting my own name would be until I met my mate.

I felt like my heart was ripped out and stomped on. The moon was full tonight. Almost mocking me and the hope that I had put in the Moon Goddess. What a cruel twist of fate for the Moon Goddess to give me a mate already taken. A mate that doesn't want me. To make matters worse, she is one of the queens we have been looking for. A queen returned and one of seven. I have been preparing and building this kingdom for her, for all of them, since I took my regency.

The salty wind blows through my hair. Normally the ocean is a place of refuge for me, but tonight, not even the sounds and smell of my home can comfort me as I sit on a mountain with a view of all the islands that have been her kingdom, well, their kingdom. We weren't always island people. We're Lycans...we're meant to run through the woods and mountains. We're a people of shifters, but we had to leave our home. For the safety and survival of our people, we moved here and developed these islands. Our queens were scattered around the world for their own protection. We've waited, and now they have returned.

"She doesn't wear a mark or ring," says my Lycan Leo. Leo is my shifted shelf. He feels ancient, but not jaded. He's brutal when I'm level-headed. I'm calculating while he's a raging storm. He is a fierce protector. He is dark while I am light. We balance each other. Together, we make the color gray. Or maybe silver, like the traditional tattoos I wear on my skin.

I scoff.

"She verbally rejected us with fire and conviction in her eyes. She rejected us in front of her family and ours. Maybe she is not physically taken, but her heart and loyalty are taken."

"That does not matter to me. Even if she was marked, I would hunt him down, challenge him, and win. We have one less obstacle. You are giving up when you haven't even fought for her yet."

"I haven't given up. I respect a boundary. No means no.

"So you want her to stay as she is and maybe marry whoever this male is."

An ill feeling creeps over me. Something that feels like jealousy. It boils my blood and makes me ready for war.

"F*ck no."

"I thought so. We need her. She is our other half. You know what you need to do," said Leo.

"If I do that, then she will hate us."

"It seems she already does. But at least we will have a chance. She does not love us because she does not know us."

'Fine, but I'll set a time limit. If she still hasn't fallen in a year, then we will let her go."

You are too honorable, Liam

"You know I'm not really. I'd gladly burn the world to get to her, but the odds of that working are slim."

"Slim odds are better than no odds"

I got up and walked down the mountain, changed and allowed Leo to take us home and burn off some energy. I left my motorcycle at the beginning of the trail. As I approached the royal residence, I could only smell her. She was put on the same side of home, my home and hopefully her home.

My mind flashed to our first meeting just a few hours ago.

I wore a formal suit to the meeting. This was not the first time seven shifters came to us saying they were the queens. So I came to the meeting skeptically, but the entire time I was on my way there, my Lycan was frantic. I almost didn't go to the allies meeting that I had attended before.

My father was the first to greet them, and the fact that he called me meant one thing: his Lycan had seen that they were our queens. His power is truth and lies. A balance, he can sense the truth, but also has the power to make others believe anything he says. Even if they're lies.

Walking into our greeting room, I was hit by waves of power. Hitting me so hard that I wanted to bow. After I adjusted to the weight of all seven of them being in the room, my heart lurched because I felt a tug. The tug. Wearing a dark red leather jacket and long blonde hair with cunning eyes, golden eyes, stood my mate. Without me prompting him, Leo came forward and said "Mate."

This beautiful woman frowned and said without missing a beat.

"I don't want a Mate."

I've never had words hit me in the gut, but it seemed like the air was sucked from the room. I had looked for her for years. I wasn't married and resisted that pressure for years. With Leo's strength of conviction and my own parents' legendary bond, I didn't want anyone else. Not in that way.

Now she stands in the same room as me, completely unbothered by my presence.