The Alpha's Hybrid Luna

The Mate Bond

-- Landon

At 23, I'd been able to shift for five years now, and never before have I had to fight against my wolf so hard. Bain was literally chomping at the bit to get out. Between seeing our mate for the first time, the one I was planning to reject and had just offered up in a challenge, and that jerk Todd reacting to her and calling her name, I could literally feel the fur pushing through my skin to get out. I didn't like hearing it said by Todd's voice, but I loved knowing her name. Mmmm ... Laya. Ugh, get it together dude. You're going to reject her anyway. 

Like hell you are. She is our mate! Reject will hurt her and I will never be guilty of hurting her. 

Being mated can cause just as much pain. It's better that we reject her now and get it over with. She'll be free to live her life and never have to suffer the threat of danger that can come from being mated to an alpha. Ugh. What am I saying? We're not going to be alpha anyway. 

Yes we will. It's in our fate. Do. Not. Reject. Our. Fate. 

Fate as in fated mate? 

Yes. But it's all our fate. The moon goddess has chosen us. Don't be stupid and disrespect her. 

Chosen us for what?

*huff* Just don't fight it. 

There he went with the huffing again. But with those words, Bain blocked me out. I hated when he did that too. Shouldn't I be the one in control here? Geesh. As I stood there confused and annoyed with my wolf, my attention went back to Laya. She was definitely annoyed at the brunette with the loud nasally voice, I think her name was Terrin or something. And I'm pretty sure I smelled anger on her. Boy was she feisty. They only showed themselves for a moment, but I could smell the change in emotion. What was she thinking? I guess she realized that I was still ogling her as she looked back at me. I could see her eyes searching mine and it was the scariest and most amazing experience of my life. In real-time, it could have only been a few seconds that our eyes locked, but it felt like an eternity. I felt completely bare and vulnerable as I could feel her reading my soul. I knew that in an instant she knew everything there would be to know about me. And at the same time, I could see her passion, kindness, her courage, strength, and then an emotion I never wanted to see from her again. I saw fear. I smelled could smell it too. It was strong and it was ... wait, it couldn't be. I think she was afraid of me. 

*whimper* She's afraid of us. Go to her. Mark her so she can feel our love. 

No i***t. I can't just walk up to her and mark her. And I'm planning on rejecting her, remember?

You still have to talk to her. Go and reject her if you want. I'll take over before you get the words out. 

Before I could continue the next step that I'd already taken to cross the green towards to where the cheerleaders stood, I realized something else. I hadn't realized it before, but her mate scent. It wasn't from a wolf. Ugh. This was going to make everything I had to do harder. 

Why'd you stop? Go mark her!

No. I'm not marking her right now! And I definitely can't just randomly. Can't you smell that? She's human. 

No she's not. I smell her wolf. 

You must be smelling someone else because she's definitely human. 

I don't know what's wrong with your nose, but I can definitely smell and sense our mate's wolf. Just get me closer to her. I'll prove it to you. 

Thank the moon goddess above that I didn't have to fight with him again because just as he was about to take off in a dead sprint towards her, the entire group starting walking out of the stadium. They were probably going back to their lockers or something. Good. I needed a moment to breathe some air where her sweet scent wasn't flooding my nostrils. I really needed to think this through. For now, it's best that I just head back to the showers and calm down a bit. 

Wait a minute. If Laya is my mate, then why did Todd freeze when he saw her? He should've just smelled a group of humans. Do you know what that was about?

You put our mate up as part of the counter-challenge, which I'm still pissed about. But that means he gets to have a sense of who our mate is. It's the magic of wolf law making sure that you're honest if he wins her. I don't like him being able to sense our mate like that. No one should know our mate's scent but us. 

To be honest, I couldn't help but be agitated about Todd knowing Laya's mate scent right along with Bain. I was still planning to reject her, but the bond was still strong enough to make me feel possessive over her. She was mine. This is all the more reason why I know I need to reject her. That stupid mate bond is too strong. It's overpowering my own thoughts even and the decision I've made with a clear mind. If it has the power to fog my mind up like this in just meeting her, what could be possible if she were actually ever hurt or put in danger? Just thinking about it made Bain grown and want to shift. This was all just too much to take in. I definitely was going to have to let Bain out soon to run because I felt like I was going bat crazy just trying to hold him in. Thankfully, most of the guys that were still at practice all had class right after; so if they were still in the locker room, they definitely wouldn't be lingering for long. I didn't feel like talking to anyone and I couldn't guarantee that Bain wasn't going to come out if someone said anything stupid. This is the part of going to a human school that really sucked. 

I figured I'd shower better in my own space, so I grabbed my things and hopped in my car before anyone had a chance to say something to piss Bain off any further. My condo was at least 20min away from campus because my dad had made me agree to live closer to the pack grounds than the school. It had been the bargaining chip I used for my dad to agree to me coming here. He didn't want me to live in the dorms with everyone else and I had to be close enough to pack grounds to join in on the morning workouts with the warriors. He knew I didn't want to be alpha but he didn't realize that I had absolutely no plans in taking over for him at all. He was definitely under the assumption that I would just take it reluctantly, but that was never my plan. I remember being so annoyed with my dad's push for this 3 bedroom condo with a private entrance, but walking into the complete silence now, I couldn't be more grateful now. I had a lot to figure out and unfortunately for me, I'd also given myself a very specific deadline.