My Mate

Chapter 1 — White Ash

—Kael's POV—

The Whispering Wilds were holding their breath, and so was I.

The night before a Blood Moon, the forest always goes dead. No birds, no insects. Not even the wind dares to move through the old trees. In three nights the moon goddess would be full and every wolf in Eldra would be clawing at its skin to shift, to hunt, to claim.

I should have been at the Moon Temple with my Beta, preparing the rites. I'm the Alpha of the Nightclaw Pack. That's my duty.

Instead I was hunting a rogue.

The bastard had crossed the truce line again. A banished male from the southern packs, wounded and starving. I could smell the rot on him, the sour stink of desperation. If he made it to Bramble Hollow, the human town on the border, the truce that has held for a hundred years would break. The humans would blame my pack.

I moved through the trees fast, my father's old leather mantle heavy on my shoulders. I have worn it for ten years, since the night my father Alric, the High Alpha, walked unarmed into a peace meeting with the humans and never came back. The Order of the Silver Thorn left his body at the forest edge with a moon silver dagger in his heart and white ash incense burning around him.

I have never forgotten that smell. White ash and silver and gun oil. I have dreamed of finding the hunters who wear it and ripping their throats out.

The rogue's trail cut sharply toward the human road. I growled and pushed harder, letting my wolf rise just enough that my claws broke through.

Then the wind shifted.

It came from the south, from the wheat fields of Caelum. It brought woodsmoke and laundry soap and wet earth.

And under it, something that made me stop so fast my claws tore up the ground.

Wildflowers after rain. Honey on warm skin. Sunlight.

My wolf, who has been cold and silent inside me since my father died, who has refused every she-wolf for ten years, suddenly threw his head back and howled so loud I dropped to my knees.

Mate.

That's impossible, I thought. I'm in human territory. There are no she-wolves here.

But the scent was human, and it was not human at all. It was mine, and made for me. The moon goddess made her for me.

I forgot about the rogue. I forgot about the truce and the Blood Moon and my duty. I followed that scent like I was possessed, crashing through ferns and branches until the trees thinned and I broke through to the very edge of the wilds, where the forest meets the human farmlands.

And there she was.

She was kneeling in a patch of moonflowers, those rare silver blossoms that only open before a Blood Moon. Her brown hair was tied up badly, her sleeves rolled to her elbows, her hands covered in dirt. She was humming. Some off key human lullaby my mother used to sing when I was a pup.

She was human. Small. Soft in a way wolf women never are. Twenty three, maybe.

And she was my mate. The bond snapped into place in my chest, a golden chain pulling tight. Mine, my Luna. Finally.

Every instinct I have screamed at me to go to her, to pull her into my arms, to bury my face in her neck and mark her so every male in Eldra would know she belongs to me.

She looked up and saw me. Her brown eyes went wide.

"Oh," she said. She scrambled to her feet, wiping her hands on her apron. "You scared me. Are you lost? The forest is dangerous this close to the Blood Moon."

Her voice hit me right in the chest.

I couldn't speak. I was breathing her in. My hands were shaking so badly I had to curl them into fists.

She tilted her head, worried now. She actually took a step toward me, and I took a step back. If she came any closer I would not be able to stop myself from touching her.

"I'm Aurora," she said softly, like she was trying to calm a wounded animal. "I live here with my parents. Do you need a healer? You look like you've seen a ghost."

She didn't know. She had no idea she had just rewritten my entire life.

Then the cottage door behind her banged open.

"Au! Get away from the tree line!"

Two people stepped onto the porch. A man and a woman in their fifties, both tall, both hard. The man already had a crossbow in his hands. The woman had a string of dried wolf's bane at her belt.

And I knew.

The wind brought their scent to me and my blood went cold.

White ash incense. Moon silver polish. Gun oil. And underneath it, ten year old dried blood. My father's blood.

Commander Varric and Lady Mirelle of the Silver Thorn. The order and the ones who put a dagger in my father's heart and called it holy. The ones I have been hunting for ten years.

And my mate, my Aurora, was standing between them wearing a cloak that smelled of their house. She was their daughter.

The bond and the vengeance tore me in half right there. My wolf was going insane. Half of him was howling claim her, protect her, take her and run before they taint her. The other half was snarling kill them. They are right there. They killed your father. Kill them now.

Aurora frowned, looking between me and her parents. "Mom, dad, this is..."

She doesn't even know my name.

Varric's eyes locked onto me. Hunters can always sense a wolf, even in human skin. His hand tightened on the crossbow.

"What pack are you from, boy?" he said, his voice low and dangerous. "You are far from the Wilds, wolf."

"Dad! Don't call him that," Aurora snapped.

Mirelle stepped forward, her hand going straight to the wolf's bane. "Aurora, come inside, now."

If I killed them now, I would lose her. If I let my wolf take over, she would see me as the monster they told her I am.

I looked at Aurora. She was confused and scared, but not for herself. She was looking at me like she was worried about me.

I made a choice that went against every piece of being an Alpha.

I bowed my head just a little, submissive.

"Forgive me," I said, and my voice sounded like gravel. "I was tracking a rogue. It came near your farm. I meant no harm to your daughter."

I forced myself to look at her one last time. Her brown eyes were full of concern.

Then I turned and disappeared back into the trees before Varric could nock an arrow.

I didn't stop running until I reached the Moon Temple in the heart of the Wilds, until my chest was heaving and my claws were fully out and my eyes were burning silver.

I had waited ten years to avenge my father. Instead, the moon goddess gave me his killer's daughter as my mate.