Mated to you

Chapter 1 - Explain

Her eyes widened. No, this wasn’t heaven. If anything, she’d landed squarely in hell. He was there, asleep, slumped in a chair beside her, his head tilted, one arm dangling as if exhaustion had claimed him mid-motion. The lines of fatigue etched deep into his face, but it didn’t dull his handsome features, if anything they sharpened it. His dishevelled hair fell over his brow, jaw shadowed with stubble, like he hadn’t seen a mirror in days. His shirt was creased, collar askew. The state of him said it all, he’d come for her, like he said he would. You are mine Thea. I will always find you. Those were the words he spoke before she ran. But how many days had passed?

She tried to slip her hand from his grasp, but his fingers tightened around hers. His amber eyes softened the moment they met hers. “Don’t ever do that again. I will never hurt you.” The words were barely above a whisper, tender, raw, threaded with a worry so heavy it bordered on broken. Her heart flinched at the sound, but her gaze remained cold. Fear still gripped her. She understood what he meant. But imagining a life with him again felt impossible. If given the chance, she would run, again. She’d assumed he’d look like that monster she’d seen, but seeing him as she knew, it did something to her that she didn’t understand.

“You said you’d love me no matter what,” he murmured, releasing her hand. His fingers hovered for a moment too long, as if waiting. Hoping. Needing something from her. Anything. She gave him nothing. “How am I here, I jumped?” Her voice was steady, calculated, and his words ignored. His jaw ticked. His fists turned bone white not from her avoiding him but because he wasn’t sure he could speak without shattering again. He didn’t want to relive the moment he’d saw her leap, his wolf emerged instantly, claws extended, pulling her towards him, and her body slamming into the icy ground. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. If he had just listened to the others, and brought her here from the beginning, she would have never been placed in that situation, but he knew too much could scare her, so being completely alone was the only opportunity to gain her trust, he thought.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said at last. “You are here, and safe.”

She stared at his face a little too long. A face she thought she knew too well. But now, all she saw was a monster and the brokenness in his eyes, which pained her to see even if she were struggling with the idea of what he truly is. “When I said I loved you…” she began, her voice sharp, “I didn’t know you were also an animal.” Her words cut him, but he held his composure. Pain still lingering in his eyes, and the amber in them drained back to black. She noticed that part of him, but always assumed it was the lighting.

“We mated, Thea,” he said, voice soft, fractured.

She stared at him; his words confused her. “I don’t even know what that means.” She wanted to yell, to scream it, but her voice barely rose above a whisper. The cold’s wrath still clung to her throat, raw and unforgiving.

He noticed, without a word, he reached for the glass of water beside her bed and held it out. “Drink this,” he said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

She took it, his fingers brushing hers for a moment too long. She drank. She wasn’t going to argue, she needed it. But the silence between them felt heavier now, thick with things she didn’t understand.

“Mated,” he repeated, voice low, reverent. “It’s what my kind do when we find our mate. A mate is more than what humans would call husband and wife, it’s deeper. It’s soul-bound. Once we find our mate, we can’t and won’t ever leave them.”

He paused, the silence stretching between them like a held breath. Something flickered in his eyes, hesitation, maybe fear. “That night I met you outside the airport,…” His gaze dropped to the floor, then slowly rose to meet hers. “Your scent pulled me in. I didn’t know who you were, only that I had to see you, and when I did, you were already looking at me.”

He swallowed hard. “When I saw you being escorted away by security, I stepped in, and you just assumed I was an officer in charge,” he said. Thea remembered that night clearly, the way he spoke to the men, the control he held. Of course she’d believed he was in charge.

“They were only doing their jobs,” he continued, “but the thoughts they had of you…” He exhaled, cold and dangerous. “I was going to tell you who I was that night, but I let the moment take over. And honestly, I was surprised how easily you trusted me. When you agreed to stay in my cabin, when you made the first move… once the mating started, I couldn’t stop it. Control was gone.”

Thea’s breath caught, her fingers tightening around the glass.

“It hasn’t been easy,” he admitted, voice cracking at the edges. “Being near you. Watching others near you. Every instinct in me wants to claim, protect, destroy anything that threatens you.”

Thea placed the glass down with deliberate care, the soft clink against the nightstand louder than it should’ve been. Her gaze never left his face, those handsome features now shadowed by something darker.

“I didn’t know you were a monster,” she said, voice steady but laced with tremor. “Or that I’d seal myself to you by having a one-night stand.”

His jaw tightened, the muscle ticking beneath his skin. Not from anger but from restraint. It was more than a one-night stand and she knew it. Silence stretched between them, thick with everything unsaid. Thea’s heart pounded, not just from fear, but from the weight of something she couldn’t name.

He looked away, as if her words had carved into him. “I never meant for it to happen like that,” he said quietly. “But once the bond is formed, it’s irreversible. I would die before I hurt you. Even now, I fight myself just to give you space.”

Thea cleared her throat, the sound brittle in the quiet room. “And if I run again,” she said, eyes locked on his, “you’ll just bring me back here like a prisoner?”

He didn’t answer.

Not because he refused, but because he didn’t know how.

His silence spoke louder than any denial. His gaze faltered, and he ran a hand through his hair, fingers trembling slightly, as if frustrated with himself or the truth he couldn’t reshape.

Thea’s chest tightened.

“I’m still trying to get used to the idea,” she said slowly, “that there are humans who turn into animals. Undetected. Unnoticed. Living amongst us like shadows.”

Her voice cracked, but she pressed on.

“And at the same time, I’m supposed to process the fact that I’ve been with one for weeks, and now you tell me I have locked you into a bond you didn’t choose. One you can’t escape.”

“No, it’s not like that, Thea.” His voice was low, desperate. “I chose you. The moment I saw you, I chose you.”

She flinched, as if the word ‘chose’ locked her into a lifetime of unknown. “But I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” she replied, her voice trembling. “You tricked me.”

He opened his mouth, but she looked away, eyes shining with fury and something more fragile beneath, fear. Pain.

“It’s been two months,” she continued, each word a wound. “Two months of secrets. We were building a life together. I decided to stay in Velmira for us, but it’s all been a lie.” Her eyes burned with tears. “You waited until I said yes, until I accepted your marriage proposal, to show me what you are? Was that just a test? Like you said marriage is a human thing” Her voice cracked, laced with hurt so sharp it made him wince.

“I thought I was falling in love with an honest man,” she whispered. “Not an animal.”

He leaned forward, instinct tugging at him, but stopped himself, hands clenched at his sides, jaw tight.

“I didn’t want to lose you, if you agreed to marrying me, I thought you’d accept who I really am too. I didn’t know how to reveal any of this, Thea.” his voice was barely above a breath.

She shook her head. “I need time to process this. Can you leave me alone, at least?”

Her gaze flicked to the door, then back to him. “I won’t bother running. I know I can’t outrun you.”

Silence stretched between them, thick and aching.

He nodded slowly, the motion stiff, reluctant. “I’ll give you space.”

She didn’t respond. She didn’t have to.