Begging for survival

Chapter 19- Precious

Natalia POV

“So… when are you going to show yourself to your mate?” Max asks while I change his bandages.

“Don’t know… in a year or two… maybe never” I say nonchalant.

“WHAT” Lola growls in my head and I ignore her.

“What the hell are you talking about Nat?” Max asks stopping me from continuing what I was doing.

“What? I will continue to let Lola see her mate I just don’t want to see mine, what’s the big deal?” I say like it’s nothing.

“That’s not how the mate bond thing works as far as I know, and is it that you don’t want to see him or you don’t want him to know who you are?” Max asks a question he already knows the answer to.

“He will reject me anyways” I say with a sigh.

“Why would you say that, from what I saw living here, you have your own fan base, you are highly desirable, why would your own mate reject you?” he says with a reassuring smile.

“Because I’m damaged goods, as soon as he will know, he will just reject me” I say avoiding eye contact.

“Listen here Natalia, you are perfect, more than perfect, and if you can’t see that it’s because you are just stupid, and if he can’t see that as well, then he doesn’t deserve you in the first place” he says making me look at him straight in the eyes.

“Am I stupid or perfect?” I try to joke.

“Both… at least you didn’t murder his parents in cold blood”,

“Max, you didn’t know th-” I try to say something but he cuts me off.

“Don’t, I don’t deserve to feel better about that”,

“All hope is not lost, maybe one day she’ll understand, Max” I try to give him a little motivation, and he ignores me entirely.

“Don’t you have somewhere to go to?” he changes the subject, he always does that.

“Yes we do”

“Don’t raise your hopes up; we might not see him today as well”

“No, we will, I have a feeling”

-

After I finish up with Max, I shift and head out of the pack borders; I pick a new spot this time to see if he will show up.

Lola makes me do that ever since the attack, we go outside the borders away from everybody’s eyes, search a new area surrounding it in hopes to see our mate somehow, stupid I know, but sometimes we could catch the faintest scent of him, so he is doing the same we assume, we just keep missing each other.

But not today because here he is,

I halt in my tracks, as he notice my presence and runs towards me, I step back which makes him stop.

“What if he hurt us? Or forced us?”

“He won’t, he saved us, remember?”

“That’s different”

He just stands there, waiting for me to make a move, and I get to admire him, during the fight I really didn't get to.

He stands there with his deep brown fur in all his wolf glory and I just want to rub against it.

I instinctively take a step forward and he takes two, so I step back again and he stops again tilting his head in confusion.

“What the hell are you doing Natalia?” Lola growls in frustration.

“I don’t know, I’m just scared”

“Don’t be, I’m here with you, and he’s our mate, he will respect us, he won’t hurt us, just take a step forward”

I do as Lola says and step forward, he waits for a minute before he reluctantly walks slowly towards me, this time I don’t step back and he comes even closer.

I can feel his breath on me face then he start circling me, sniffing the air around me like he is enjoying my scent, I wonder what my scent smells like?

He circles closer until he brush against me and it’s like fireworks going off all over my body, so that’s what they always talked about when touching your mate, its.. Amazing.

I lean into him and Lola howls in happiness, I dive deeper into his fur and he stars to lick my face.

This is heaven; I want to stay like that forever, we stay like this for few minutes maybe more, I don’t know.

He starts licking my neck and going down to my shoulders when I feel his fangs grazing my skin and I freeze, Is he going to mark me?, without my permission?

His fangs dig deeper into my skin and all the memories comes flashing by, being tied to a tree, Lj’s sick laughter, his fangs digging into my skin, I won’t let that happen to me again.

I strike him with my claws slashing into his shoulders pushing him away and he whimpers in pain falling to the ground.

“What did you do?”

“I told you he is going to hurt us like Lj did”

“He wasn’t, he was ju” I don’t wait for her to finish before I shut her out.

The brown wolf regains his footing snarling with a look of anger and confusion and I stand my grounds.

He tries to come towards me but I’ll be damned if I let him hurt me, I growl with all my might and he stops.

I turn around and run back to my pack, my home, near Derek… he is the only one who won’t hurt me.

Alexandria POV

“Did you tell Derek that part about your relationship with Max?” Sophia asks sipping on her one cup a day of coffee because breastfeeding and s**t while we sit on the front porch of the pack house.

“No, we mainly yelled at each other, I only got to tell him that I dated Max when we were teenagers before the shouting match started, I honestly didn’t think it was that big of a deal anyways, we were kids and It lasted like a month or even less, and he hates him already I didn’t think it’s wise to tell him that little information to fuel his unrealistic hatred towards Max” I say sipping my third cup of coffee,

I get to drink it like it’s water, I feel sleepy and tired all the time lately and I blame Derek because he keeps turning and tossing at night and I don’t get to sleep.

“it’s not unrealistic, Ria and you know it, he could sense that there is something there between you two, putting aside the whole alpha possessive thing, it’s not easy for any male, wolf or not to have his girl that close to another man, I mean you get jealous when he talks to Natalia and he barely knows the girl” she says sniffing the coffee now like it’s some kind of drugs.

“puff, I don’t do that… I just want to pluck her eyes out when she stares at Derek like he is the only living thing in the room” I say shrugging.

“Yes, that’s not jealousy at all… you still have to tell him everything about you and max” she says with a pointed look.

“I will, I swear, the moment we can hold a civil conversation I will”,

“Ha! When the hell did you two ever do that, you usually throw stuff or try to kill each other” she says laughing even more.

“That was only a couple of times, asshole” I say shoving her a little.

“Hey, you are going to spill my coffee… my precious” she says imitating that short guy from lord of the ring and we both laugh.

Then we see Max coming out of the pack, liming towards the woods, Derek did do a number on him.

“Where is Max going?” Sophia asks sipping her precious.

“I don’t know, but I’m about to find out” I say while putting my cup down and go follow the i***t.