My True Mate

A Dream

Rue tossed in her bed trying to force herself to sleep. She thought the medicine her parents forced her to take would help her feel drowsy, but the stress of it all made her throw it up almost as quickly as she took it, rendering it useless.

She threw the covers away and walked over to the balcony of her room. Peering up at the full moon she sighed and thought about the past year with Darian.

The Moon Goddess had to be testing them. A love like theirs came too easily, she should know that no one gets a love story this perfect. These are the thoughts that flood Rue’s mind as she continued looking at the moon.

Eventually the emotions became too much again and she dropped to the floor sobbing in tears.

After a few moments she heard a shuffle from the bushes below. She stood up and looked down to garden. As she scanned she couldn’t see anyone looking back at her but had a hunch and decided to see it through.

She crouched down again and began fake sobbing for a few moments before crawling on the floor towards her bedroom door so no one could see her person or shadow from by peering at her balcony.

As soon as she opened the door she sprinted quickly downstairs and into the garden.

She stepped in front of the bushes she had initially looked at and smelled a familiar woody scent.

Her wolf perked up as she looked around before her eyes finally fell on him.

“What are you doing here?” She asks him, her heart begins racing and she feels stuck.

Manny takes slow steps towards her, he looks just as sleepless as she felt moments before breaking down on the balcony.

He doesn’t say anything as he closes the gap between them, bringing Rue as close to him as he can.

Rue feels little sparks all over her body from his touch and breathes in his scent. It was intoxicating, he was intoxicating. And not like the intoxication everyone thought the earlier drinks made her feel. She felt drunk and high all at once and her body felt hot from the adrenaline pumping throughout her.

“I’m so sorry I made you cry.” He whispers into her hair.

Rue moves her head so that she can look at him, his eyes are swirling with a thousand emotions but the sorry feeling is etched across his face.

She leans in, she wants to kiss him. To tell him it’s okay for everything. To tell him they could forget it and move forward. Although confused she also felt so elated to be in his arms. She needed him, she wanted him so badly. What this moment felt like didn’t compare to the year she had with Darian. She knew she was right all along. She knew Manny was her true mate.

“I forgive you.” She breathes, her lips just inches from his own. “Manny, say it..tell me I’m yours.”

She can feel his heart beat as if it was her own. He doesn’t respond to her with words but instead crashes his lips into hers.

Yes, this was perfect. Being here with Manny now was more than she could ever ask for.

“Manny..” she moaned into his mouth, “I need to hear you say it.”

He bit her bottom lip and she felt the blood he’d drawn from her.

Well that’ll leave a bruise. She thought to herself.

He kissed her harder, almost desperately before pulling back and leaning his forehead onto hers. “Rue..” he breathed.

They stared into each other’s eyes.

“Mate.” She says, looking at him hopeful. Needing him to confirm.

She feels a pinch in her neck before he replies, “Mate.”

She feels a momentary flutter of happiness in her belly before everything goes dark.

Rue wakes up to knocking at her door. When she sits up she feels groggy and holds her temple.

Shit, she was hungover.

Just then she remembers the kiss, her lips tingle at the memory but wait, was it a dream. There’s no evidence that she left her room last night. She was still fairly tucked in as her father had helped her to bed last night.

Also, she didn’t remember getting to her room from the garden. She actually didn’t remember anything after Manny called her his mate.

Another knock on the door snaps her out of her distracted thoughts.

“Come in.” She calls.

In walks her mother, followed by a maid who sets a cup of tea on Rue’s nightstand before being dismissed by the Queen.

Her mother takes Rue’s hand into her own, “How are you feeling my dear?”

Rue rubs her temple before reaching for the tea, “Ugh, like I have a hangover.”

The Queen shakes her head and rings a bell for the maid to return. When she does, she asks her to bring pain medicine to her room.

After the maid leaves the Queen turns back to her daughter and says in a low voice, “Darian is here to see you. If you are not feeling well I can send him away until tomorrow.”

Without thinking Rue asks, “What about Manny?”

The Queen’s face scrunches up and she shakes her head. “He’s not here Rue, but maybe your wolf will still be ready to accept Darian nonetheless.”

Rue’s mouth opens slightly as she looks at her mother shocked, “How can you be so sure Darian is my mate.”

Now it was the Queen’s turn to be shocked. “Rue my dear, did you not see what I saw yesterday. Darian and his wolf were ready to kill for you yesterday. He snapped at your father, the king! The desperation in his voice..that..it’s..it’s only the way a mate acts for their own. And Manny just stood there. A true mate bond makes you insane for the one the Moon Goddess blesses you with. How could you even question it?”

Rue considered what her mother was saying for a moment. Logically, what she said did make sense. And Darian had been certain from his own 18th birthday. But what about last night. She was sure that she was with Manny, that he had confirmed he was hers and she was his. So where was he now? And why would he tell everyone he felt nothing for her, only to tell her at night something different. That is, if it happened at all? But she was sure it must have.

Rue rubbed her temple again in frustration as the maid entered the room with a little bottle.

“I apologize my Queen,” the maid says, “we only have the liquid form. Would you like me to add it to the Princess’ tea?”

The Queen nods and Rue looks over to the maid as a thought enters her mind. “Can you fetch my hand mirror?” She asks.

The maid scurries off before returning quickly with the hand mirror that Rue takes and looks over her face.

Her eyes are a reflection of the sickness she felt, but that’s not why she wanted the mirror. No, she looks at her lips as she touches them. Not a bite mark in sight.

“Impossible.” She says aloud.

The Queen quirks an eye at her, “What’s impossible my dear?”

Rue feels the tears she is trying to hold back gather at her eyes and her throat feels like it’s about to close.

It can’t be a dream. It felt so real. He was here.

She lets the tears spill over as she lets out a sob.

The Queen gently rubs her back as she coos, “There, there, my dear. Drink your tea, there is a beauty elixir in it as well. I figured you’d look exhausted this morning from your long night so don’t worry we will have you looking as beautiful as ever in no time.”

Rue looked at her mother with her eyebrows stitched together and let out another sob. She threw the mirror across the room making her mother jump. “Rue!”

“I don’t care how I look mother!” She sobs, “Please, just leave. I need time to myself.”

The Queen wraps her arms around her daughter and hugs her tightly, “Of course it’s not about that. I’m sorry, I’m being insensitive to your stress.”

Rue allows herself to stay in her mother’s embrace for a few moments longer before wiggling out of her hug.

Rue reaches for the tea and brings it to her lips, she looks down as she breathe in its steam.

Dream or not her wolf still made her feel a yearning for Manny. Her wolf was howling in her head only furthering the intensity of her hangover.

Something wasn’t adding up and she needed to get to the bottom of it. And she knew exactly where she needed to start.

“You can tell Darian I’ll be downstairs in an hour.”

A small smile reached her mother’s lips as she nodded. “Of course my dear.”

Rue’s eyes darted up as she took sipped her tea, “But I also want to see Manny, and before Darian. Please summon him to meet me immediately.”

The Queen’s smile quickly falls, “My dear, I don’t know that that’s a good idea.”

“Please mom, I need to meet with them immediately and I can’t think with Darian losing his s**t over Manny.” Rue explains. “Besides, everyone is so certain that Darian is my true mate. If that’s the case then this quick conversation with Manny is harmless.”

The Queen appears hesitant as she looks at her daughter. She reaches over and kisses her temple. “Alright my dear, you’re right. I’ll summon Manny. You quickly finish your tea and get dressed, you won’t have much time with him before Darian will be expecting you.”

Rue nods and takes another sip of her drink.

Rue quickly gets dressed. She can feel her nerves take over her body as she contemplates what to wear today. The outfits the maids had chosen earlier in the week for her birthday no longer seemed good enough.

She flipped through her closet before finding a white teddy sweater with a matching teddy skirt.

She quickly slipped into it before doing her makeup and untangling the two long braids she had fashioned on her head from last night into loose waves that she finger detangled.

Satisfied with her look she breathed a sigh just in time to hear a knock at the door.

Her heart skipped a beat as she nearly tripped over herself to get to the door. The woody smell nearly knocked her back again before she opened it to meet the most gorgeous green eyes she had been waiting to see all day.

His body was tense but his face remained emotionless, “Hey Rue.”

For a moment Rue is speechless.

Her wolf however is going into a frenzy shouting Mate as loudly as she can.

Rue want to rush into his arms almost as quickly as she thought he did last night but his tense posture has her locked in her position at the door.

“Come in.” She tries to motion him but he puts a hand up and shakes his head.

“I don’t think that would be appropriate. Besides Dar would..” Manny begins.

She roll her eyes and cut him off, “Manny, you and I have been friends way before Darian claimed I was his mate. You’ve been in my room plenty of times.”

She expects to see him give some type of emotion to what she is saying but his features remain cold. “No, Princess.”

Using her Royal voice she commands, “Yes!”

Manny stares down at her, his eyes are small slits filled with his wolf trying to break through. He balls his fist as he tries to fight her command before letting out a loud sigh and walking in.

What was wrong with him. He was being so mean to her. But just last night he was so sweet, so gentle. And she refused to believe last night was all in her head.

She tries to reach out for him but he walked away and toward her balcony.

“You’ve summoned me.” He states.

Rue feels a chill run down her spin at his words, he was so cold and this was not at all like the Manny she knew. And now above all else this his words hurt. Here her wolf was still shrieking the word mate and yet Manny was no more closer to confirming it today than he was yesterday when they were with her family, friends, and Darian following the clock striking midnight.

She tucked his harshness into the back of her mind. She needed to understand what was going on, starting with last night.

“So,” she says cooly despite the feeling of her nerves coming to surface again. “Last night you confirm we are mates, and then today you act as if you’re some random guy, not even my friend. What is going on Manny?”

She looks for a moment of weaknesss in his face, a twitch of his body, something, anything that gives off the confirmation that last night occurred. But he remains emotionless, his eyes again showing bored at her bringing this subject up.

“What are you talking about? I already told you I don’t feel the way you feel.” He states coldly.

Rue points her finger at him and shouts, “You called me your mate!” She closes in on him so she can poke his chest but he simply backs away.

“I never called you my mate.” He insists as she stomps her foot angrily.

She places a hand on her temple and for the first time in this conversation Manny relaxes.

“Did you take your medicine? Your mom said you might still be feeling hung over” he says.

That does it! Rue breathes angrily before rushing at him to hit his chest. She was tired of everyone telling her to take her damn medicine.

Manny was not prepared for her to try to attack him and caught her arm just in time before she could land her hit on him.

Her whole arm felt like electricity as it connected with his hand. She gasps and looked at Manny whose face looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Before he could push her away she took his moment of weakness and closed the space between them before grabbing his head and pulling him in for a kiss.

Her stomach fluttered as their lips connected and she panted into him as she felt his arm tighten around her waist. Her arousal intensified as she needed more of him. She wanted to become one. She wanted to say the hell with everything and everyone as he moved his other hand into her hair and kissed her back adamantly.

Yes! She knew it! He felt it! Last night was not a dream. She jumped up so that he could cradled her as she felt his tongue enter her mouth and a groan escaped her.

This groan seemed to awaken Manny from his trance as he nearly dropped her to the floor to distance hisself.

He wiped his lips and loudly shouted, “f**k!”

Rue states at him confused and in horror. What in the actual hell. That kiss confirmed it. They were mates. Why would he push her away?

“Manny..” she began.

“No!” He yelled at her and then placed his arm up to ensure she didn’t try to close the distance again. “No Rue! This cannot happen. We are not mates.”

He didn’t allow her to say another word before he sped for the door, slamming it loudly behind him and leaving her in her room broken and trembling.