White Fur

Chapter 12

Kanto’s POV

“Uh-huh. Yeah. Ok. Yeah. Sure.”

So how do you think she’s taking the news? Brett was checking in through mind-link. I asked him to take care of things with the pack and the office today after filling him in on everything that happened last night.

Skyler has be pacing the floor saying the same thing for the past 5 minutes. How do you f*****g think she’s taking it?!? I growled at him.

That bad, huh? Brett took a long pause before continuing, nervousness creeping into his voice. Alpha, I hate to say this especially after waiting so long for her. But you have to offer her the chance to say no to this.

His words hit me hard.

No, we are not going to let our mate reject us! Zenith roared in anger at the suggestion.

Brett couldn’t hear Zenith but he could probably sense his anger. I bet Zenith is pissed right now, but it’s the right thing to do. You can’t trap that poor girl in this if she doesn’t want to. Anyways, I’m going back to work, good luck Alpha. I don’t know your mate yet but I bet she just needs a moment. I don’t think she’s going anywhere.

I felt our connection end. Zenith was still fuming at Brett’s words, but Brett was right. I couldn’t trap this beautiful human into a life she doesn’t want. I couldn’t do that to our mate. I didn’t want to but I had to let her know her options.

“Skyler?” She stopped pacing at the sound of her name, her eyes were still wide and she looked panicked. “You are my mate, but that doesn’t mean you have to be.” She didn’t move, it was like she was frozen, I continued. “If you don’t want to be my mate, you can reject me.” Even just saying the words made my heart ache, Zenith started to whimper in the back of my mind. “You would say ‘I,’ then your full name ‘reject you Kanto Boterea as my mate.’. That’s all you have to do if you want out of this.”

She just stared at me, I couldn’t quite read her expression, it was somehow pained, confused, shocked and thoughtful at the same time. Then she blinked a couple times as if returning to reality. She turned her gaze down to the ground. When she looked back up her eyes were glassy as if she was going to cry.

“Does that mean you don’t want me?” She said so softly that I almost didn’t catch it.

“Not want you?” I was in disbelief of my mate. Even Zenith tilted his head in confusion.

“I know I haven’t been handling this very well and we don’t know each other very well but I don’t want this to be over.” Tears started slowly rolling down her cheeks.

I got up and walked over to her. I quickly pulled her into my embrace being careful of her injuries. I wrapped my arms around her and held onto her tightly, like if I let go I’d loose her. “Of course I want you. I want to be with you always. I just wanted you to know that you could say no.”

She nuzzled her face harder into my chest and wrapped her arms around me. We stood there for a moment holding each other until I felt Skyler move her head back and her arms loosen.

“I don’t want this to be over but I need time and I still have a lot of questions.” I nodded and led her over to Skyler’s couch so we could continue to finish her questions. “So what does being a mate entail?”

“Well, there a mating ritual amongst werewolves. More like a process than a ritual. . .” This is going to be tricky to explain. “For werewolves, typically when they find their mates they go off and. . .mate. During that ‘session’ they mark each other right here.” I pointed to the marking spot on my neck, remembering that I still wasn’t wearing a shirt. “Each mate leaves a bite mark deep enough to leave a scar on that spot. Once mates are mated and marked they are together for life. It solidifies their mate-bond making it near impossible for them to be apart.”

“What do you mean?”

“If a mate dies, the other mate usually has a difficult time continuing.” Skyler’s face turned to one of horror and sadness. “Mates are considered to be a piece of your soul. So if a part of your soul dies usually you die as well, the grief is just too much to bare. It’s kinda like that person loses the will to live, it’s more heart wrenching than when any other person dies. It is possible to survive and people do but you never are quite the same.”

Sadness washed over me as I thought about my mom. She was a fierce and strong Luna but when my father died she lost a lot of that spark. She is still highly respected in the pack but she’s not the same Luna she was before. My sadness must have been apparent because Skyler grabbed my hand in hers and squeezed it.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up another painful topic. But thank you for telling me.” She gently smiled at me trying to comfort me. After a moment she continued. “So to be mates we would be together, forever?”

“Yes. Once we are mated and marked, our mate-bond will be sealed.”

She blinked and stared at my hand still in hers. “I think I need some time on that part. You’re basically asking me to marry you. What happens if you don’t like me in a year or a month, heck even a week? You’d be stuck with me for forever and I with you. I just don’t think I can do that yet.”

“Of course, I get that. I’m not asking you to do that yet, we are going to do everything at your speed.” I moved a strand of hair out of her face, a new favorite hobby of mine. “But Skyler, I’m never going to stop loving you. You are perfect in every way and I never want to lose you.”

“Woah woah woah, you love me?!?!? You can’t love me, we just met!” Her expression went from shock to sad as she moved her gaze to the ground “Besides you probably just ‘love’ me now, after time you’ll move on.”

“Skyler” I tilted her head up gently so I could see her beautiful blue eyes. “I’m going to love you for the rest of our lives. I know this might sound strange to you, but you are everything to me now, you are my mate and I’m never going to leave you.”

Skyler closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then panic shot across her face. “Wait! It’s Monday! You need to leave right now. It’s already 2pm! You’re so late for work you’re going to lose your fancy CEO position because of this!”

I couldn’t help but roar with laughter. My mate’s whole world got flipped upside down yesterday and here she is worrying about my career. “Don’t worry, I have someone taking care of things for me. I’m all yours today.”

She relaxed at my words and a smile came across her face but only for a moment before it went serious again. “I’m sorry if I’m not handling everything well, it’s just a lot to take it. Yesterday, there were just humans, today who knows what else is out there. I just need time to adjust to everything.”

“Honestly, you’re handling everything way better than I thought you would. I thought you would run away from me, throw stuff at me, try to use garlic to get me away.” I chuckled at my previous ideas of how Skyler would react.

“Isn’t garlic only useful against vampires?” She tilted her head to the side confused.

“Yea, but a lot of people think it applies to all supernatural beings. The only things that could potentially stop a werewolf are silver and wolfsbane.”

“What about mistletoe?” How did she know about mistletoe? “I saw it on tv once.”

“Mistletoe does affect us but only a little and only if it enters our bloodstream so it’s not as bad as the other two.”

Skyler just nodded at this new fact. We were sat there on the couch a bit longer until Skyler broke the silence. “Well my head is full of information and it feels like it’s going to explode.” She paused for a moment and then a warm smile came back on her face. “But there’s nothing like mind-numbing tv to calm down for a bit. Want to watch some movies?”

“Are you sure? Don’t you have more questions?”

“Of course I have more questions, and over time there are going to be even more. But I think I need to process what I know right now. A lot of stuff has happened recently and my brain can only handle so much in such a short period of time. I’ll probably ask a couple more questions but I need to relax a bit first, so movies.” She smiled at me while I just stared at her in awe. Then she hopped off the couch and walked over to her tv stand which was a bookcase. She started taking out books which I noticed were mostly math textbooks based on the intimidating equations on the front.

“What are you doing?” I was puzzled but she kept working.

“I feel like watching tv in bed is the best idea, so I have to move the tv over there to see it.”Skyler pointed at the spot where she was going to move the bookcase. I chuckled then tapped her on the shoulder to signal her to step back. I easily lifted the bookcase and tv to the spot Skyler pointed to. Once I placed it I gave Skyler a smirk but didn’t say anything.

“Well. . . alright then.” She nodded and gave me a ‘not too shabby’ expression before putting the books she took out back on the bookcase. Then she popped up, grabbed the tv remote and practically jumped into her bed, I couldn’t help but laugh at how ridiculous she looked, I love it. I went over to the chair that I moved by her bed and started to turn it to face the tv.

“You know you can sit in the bed too, right?” She patted the spot next to her. “I mean, you’ve already slept in my bed, it can’t be worse than that.”

Oh it can, don’t tempt me mate. And Zenith was back to his normal dialogue whenever Skyler was nearby. I ignored him and got onto the bed. I leaned against the back wall leaving a gap between Skyler and me, I didn’t want her to feel pressured. I wanted to respect her boundaries.

Skyler just stared at me with amusement while I was getting settled. Once I stopped fidgeting, she let out a loud sigh and rolled her eyes. Before I could ask her, she closed the gap between us and leaned her back against my chest. And since I was still not wearing a shirt, everywhere our skin touched sent sparks of pleasure through my body. A low growl vibrated through my chest, but Skyler shot back up and turned to me.

“I’m sorry, I thought it would be ok, I didn’t mea—“

I didn’t let Skyler finish her sentence. I pulled her back against my chest, careful of her head and engulfed her in my arms. I put my head on top of her and inhaled her fruity scent. “Not all growls are bad.”

“Oh?” She paused for a moment “Well then after more time together, if things work out. I want to make you howl someday.”

Oh sweet goddess. Even Zenith was taken aback. But only for a moment, of course. The things I’m going to do to her, she’ll be the one howling.

I needed to stop this, or else these sweatpants will not be enough to hide my growing erection any longer.

Skyler giggled “So werewolves also have super strength?”

Extremely grateful and disappointed that she changed the subject. “Uh yeah. We are also extremely fast.”

“That explains last night a bit more.” Skyler wiggled in my arms so she could turn her face up to meet my eyes. “Thank you Kanto. I didn’t say it earlier but thank you for saving me.”

I squeezed her tighter in my arms remembering the events of last night. I almost lost my mate after just finding her, that can never happen again. I need to do better about protecting her.

“Ok, ok, I get it super strength, but I like to breathe.”

“I’m sorry.” I let my anger about last night get to me. “I just. . . I just can’t lose you.”

“It’s ok and I’m sorry too.” I had no clue what Skyler was about to say. “I’m sorry my feelings for you aren’t as strong yet. I do feel very attracted to you and this feels right, but the voice of doubt creeps into my mind. Hopefully after more time, I can feel the same way you feel about me.”

“Skyler, you have nothing to be sorry about. And when you’re ready I’ll be here patiently waiting.” I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “So what are we going to watch?”

We clicked through until we found an old comedy movie. Apparently Skyler loved and has definitely seen the movie before and I caught her mouthing along with the movies at some parts. The next movie we watched was a drama romance movie. About half way through the movie I heard Skyler’s breathing even out and her slump more against me. I glanced down at my gorgeous mate as she slept, I moved some hair out of the way to get a better look at the freckles that spread across her nose to her cheeks. I did my best to control my anger when I looked at the bruise and cut she got, but was happy to notice that our mate-bond was already helping her heal.

Our mate is something else, isn’t she? I said to Zenith just staring at her in awe.

She’s our mate, of course she’s amazing. Zenith took a moment to ask his next question. Can I meet her?

Zenith, of course I want you to meet our mate. But she isn’t ready to mate, and you aren’t exactly shy about your intentions. I scolded.

I would never hurt mate! Zenith got defensive.

I know. I’ll ask her soon if she could meet you, sound good? This pleased Zenith as he retreated in my mind.

“Do you ever wish you were normal? Like a human normal?” I didn’t notice Skyler wake up.

“I never really thought about it before, I always knew I’d be a werewolf so I never thought about the possibility of not.” I mean I’ve thought about living a normal werewolf life but also knew that wasn’t possible.

“Hmmmm.” Skyler let of a sleepy moan. “Well I’m glad you’re you. You might not be the same if you weren’t a werewolf so I’m happy you are.”

Zenith started wagging his tail. Ask her now, she’s happy about me.

I internally rolled my eyes, my wolf was never very patient. “Skyler? You know how I said every werewolf has a wolf part of their soul?”

“Yea?” She shuffled in my arms so she could see my face. “I actually had a question about that.”

“Ask away.”

“Is it like two separate entities, like you said he talks to you, so are you guys sharing a body?” Her face wasn’t shocked or judgmental, just pure curiosity.

“Yea, sort of. I tend to be the one in control most of the time. But he can take control if I let him or if I loose control of my emotions. Also he tends to be the one who takes control when I’m in my wolf form.” I explained while Zenith was getting excited, he liked being the center of attention.

“Ok, got it.” I could tell by how intensely Skyler was staring at her bed spread that she wasn’t finished. “Kanto, you said he can talk to you too. So I was wondering, can I talk to him too?”

Zenith was now trying to take control he wanted to be the one to answer, but I wouldn’t let him just yet. “Yes you can, would you like to meet him?”

She took a moment to think. “Yeah, I would like to meet him.”

Zenith howled with delight, I smiled too at how accepting Skyler was but I needed to warn her. “Ok, I’ll let him take control. But if he says anything or does anything that makes you uncomfortable, feel free to whack him. Wolves tend to be a bit more primal than their human side.”

Skyler laughed and nodded her head “Ok I’ll keep that in mind. For both of you.” She winked at that last part.

I laughed “Ok, are you ready?”

I swear you better behave. I scolded Zenith one more time while I was still in control. He didn’t answer, he was busy pushing for control.

“Yes” Skyler answered and I no longer held Zenith back. I could feel him take control while I took the backseat. I felt my arms grab Skyler tightly.

“Hello little mate.” Zenith said with a smirk on his face.