Accidental Mates

5

As the door closed behind her mother, Cassie released the breath she didn’t know she had been holding.

“No going back now, huh?” She joked nervously, glancing over at her suddenly quiet best friend. “ Hey, you ok? Talk to me.”

Liz looked up from the string she had been plucking from her dress. “Yeah, I guess so. Like you said, no going back now. It’s just finally hit me, I’ll have a mate after today. I won’t be the independent girl anymore, I’ll be mated. My decisions won’t be just for me, I’ll have to make sure he agrees too. And what about kids? I don’t want kids yet, but what if he does? Why did I ever think I could do this? And I can’t stop thinking, I asked for this, you didn’t. If I’m freaking out this badly, how must you feel. Does that make me a bad friend? If it does I’m sorry. I’ve been so excited for today, not fully understanding what it would mean, and all this time, you have just listened to me go on and on and held all of the crazy you must be feeling inside so you wouldn’t ruin my excitement. I did this because I thought I wanted a mate, you’re doing this to save our whole pride. We are so lucky to have you to lead us, you will make an amazing Mane mate.”

Cassie was stunned “ What are you talking about? You have nothing to apologize for!”

Rolling her eyes, she stood up and went to give her friend a hug before kneeling down in front of her.

“ You are allowed to be excited, do you hear me? I wouldn’t begrudge you that, ever! And your mate will be awesome, just wait and see! You deserve every bit of happiness this world has to offer and I think it’s about time we got started finding it for you. The first step being getting you mated, so how about we get started?”

After a weak smile and nod from Liz, Cassie returned to her seat, glancing over at the attendant that stood waiting with the hoods that would cover both girl’s faces.

As she settled back into her seat, there was a quick knock from the other side of the mirror. Cassie and Liz looked at each other in confusion, wondering what could possibly be happening. Before either girl could ask, the door opened and Logan emerged, followed by an amused looking Mark.

“Ladies,” Cassie felt the rumble from his voice all the way to her toes, even when he was still standing across the room by the door.

“Pardon the interruption, apparently a couple of the males are getting a bit impatient. I’m just going to remind them of the rules of this trial and I’ll be right back.”

Without waiting for a reply, Logan turned and went back through the door, presumably to wherever the males were waiting.

“What’s going on?” Liz wondered aloud.

“No idea, but I’m sure Logan will handle it.”

Mark snorted from his place by the door. “Of course he will Cass, all of those young kids in there know better than to cross Logan. He’s whipped their tails during sparring matches on more than one occasion. He’ll be back in a couple minutes and we will get this thing going!”

Cassie looked at Mark leaning casually against the wall. Although she had known him for most of her life, she had never considered him to be more than her best friend’s older brother, and by extension a brotherly figure for herself. He wasn’t as big as Logan, he was just as impressive. Where Logan’s hair was pitch black, Mark shared the same almost golden coloring Liz possessed. Cassie knew after their parents died, Mark had stepped in to watch over Liz until she was old enough to mate and now that the day had finally come, she wondered if he was relieved to be getting his own life back.

“Mark, why have you never applied for the trials? You would definitely make some lioness happy to have you.”

“Oh no you don’t!” Liz exclaimed, jumping from her chair and getting between Cassie and Mark. “You promised me, remember?”

As Mark looked confused, Cassie burst out laughing.

“Ew, no! Nothing to worry about, I was just wondering, with you getting mated, if he’d look for his own mate now.” She looked at Mark’s still puzzled expression, “I’m sorry Mark, Liz made me promise not to bond with you today and I think my question made her a little anxious. I consider you my older brother so I think I’ll pass on developing a mate bond with you if you don’t mind.”

At her words, Mark chuckled, “Oh thank goodness, I don’t think I could bring myself to consider you mate potential either. But let’s just wait until after you’re safely mated before we hug it out though, just in case!”

“Agreed.” Cassie chuckled as the door opened and Logan walked back in.

“Everything good?” Mark asked, still trying to contain his amusement.

“Yeah, just the usual hothead running his mouth. Everything okay here?”

“Oh sure, we were just releasing some stress by pointing out how incompatible we would be as mates.” Cassie giggled, earning a strange look from Logan amid more snickers from the other two.

“Okay then..should we get started?” With just that simple question, Logan effectively dampened the good mood. Taking the sudden silence from the girls as agreement, the two males exited the room, Mark closing the door softly behind them. With a final deep breath, Cassie plastered on her best smile, motioning the attendant to bring their hoods, hoping no one noticed how fake it was.

Logan

Leaving Cassie in that room, waiting to bond with some unknown male, was one of the hardest things Logan had ever done.

As he took his place beside Laura, he was trying to keep his emotions under control. He kept telling himself that he was a fool for not talking to Calvin and Laura about his suspicions. He was an even bigger fool to agree to be a guard as the female he thought was his mate was put through the trials. Logan tried to release some of the tension in his shoulders, but one look at Cassie calmly sitting in her chair as the attendant blindfolded her was all it took to have him on edge again. He vaguely heard Calvin and Laura numbering to each other while the attendant finished with Cassie and turned to Liz. Logan heard Laura ask him something, but all his attention was on the girl on the other side of the glass who had started visibly shaking. Resisting the urge to rip the door open and drag her from the chair, he forced his attention onto her mother.

“I’’m sorry Laura, what did you say?”

“I asked if you were OK dear.” Laura patted the hand Logan didn’t know had left intentions on the chair arm between them.

Forcing his hand open, he released a breath,

“I’m fine, I just don’t like this. I’ve been fighting for three years to keep these males away from her, and now I have to sit here and watch as they run their hands all over her.” Logan growled, “ The worst part is I know I have to let them for this to work an it goes against everything in me to remain in this chair!” Releasing a breath between his teeth he glared at the door the young males would come through. “ I’d rather fight all of them at once than let a single one of the enter that room.”

Laura shared a worried look wit hCalvin as Logan put his head in his hands and fought for control over the instincts in him demanding that he protect his potential mate.