2 Scars And A Mate

I don't want to be here. That's the only thought running through my head as I stand against the back wall of the grand ballroom, a glass of whiskey in my hand that I have no intention of drinking. The music is too loud. The perfume is too strong. The laughter is too fake. This is the annual alliance ball. Every pack in the Northern Territory is here. Every Alpha tries to look more powerful than the other. Every mother tries to push her daughter in my direction to become my wife. I am Alpha Kade. Twenty-eight years old. Alpha of the Black Ridge pack since I was nineteen. They say I am the most powerful Alpha in the territory. They say I am charismatic. Ruthless. Untouchable. Right now, I just feel tired. A woman in a red dress that is barely a dress walks past me and pretends to trip. I catch her by the arm before she can fall on me. It's a move I've seen a hundred times. "Oh, Alpha Kade," she breathes, leaning in. Her perfume is choking. "You caught me." I let go of her arm. "Careful." She pouts, but she gets the message and moves away. Another one will come in three, two, one . . ." Alpha Kade, I was hoping to find you." A man this time. Alpha Jonah from the eastern pack. He extends his hand. He wants a favor. They all want a favor. "Jonah," I nod. "I was thinking we could discuss the border trade route. My pack..." I stop listening. My eyes scan the room. Crystal chandeliers. Wolves in expensive suits trying to act human. My Beta, Kael, is by the bar, looking at me with a sympathetic expression. He knows I hate this. I hate how women throw themselves at me because they want power. I hate how men want to be my friends because they want my title. No one looks at me and sees a person. They see Alpha. For nine years, since I took the Alpha position after my father died, it has been like this. I thought I would find my mate by now. Every wolf waits for that one scent, that one moment when the Moon Goddess finally shows mercy and gives you the other half of your soul. I waited. For years. Then I stopped waiting. My wolf, Fen, has been silent for the last two years. Completely silent. Wolves go silent when they lose hope. I thought maybe the Goddess forgot me. Maybe I was too ruthless, too cold, too broken to deserve a mate. "Alpha Kade?" Jonah is still talking. I forced a smile. "Send a proposal to Kael. We will review it." He nods, disappointed I didn't give him an instant yes. He walks away. I need air. I can't breathe in here. I put the untouched whiskey glass down on a passing tray and walked towards the balcony doors. No one stops me. No one dares. I push the heavy glass doors open and step out into the night garden. Instantly, the noise of the ballroom dulls. The garden is massive. Old. My family has owned this estate for three generations. Roses, willows, stone pillars covered in ivy. The moon is full tonight, hidden slightly behind thin clouds. It's beautiful and cold. I walk down the stone steps, loosening my tie. I take a deep breath. Finally. And then it hits me. The scent. It stops me dead in the middle of the path. My entire body goes rigid. It is not perfume. It is not roses. It is something wild and sweet and clean, like rain on my skin, like honey and moonlight, like something I have only ever dreamed of. It is intoxicating. It is impossible. It is so strong it makes my knees weak. For the first time in two years, my wolf moves. He doesn't just wake up. He ROARS inside my head, so loud I almost stagger. MATE! My heart starts pounding so hard I can hear it in my ears. My hands clench into fists. My eyes, which I know are flashing gold now, scan the darkness. "Mate?" I whispered out loud, my voice hoarse. "Where?" GARDEN. OUR MATE IS IN THE GARDEN. I don't think. I move. I follow the scent like a man possessed. It pulls me deeper into the garden, away from the lights of the ballroom, down a narrow path lined with black roses that my mother planted years ago. The scent gets stronger with every step. Sweeter. And then I hear it. "Hello? Is someone there?" A voice. A woman's voice. Soft. A little shaky. Like music. Like pure, terrified music. I stop behind a large willow tree and look. There is a bench under the willow. And on the bench sits a girl. She is small. She looks to be in her early twenties. She is wearing a simple light lavender dress, not an expensive ball gown like the women inside. Her dark brown hair is half up, half down, messy as if she did it herself. Her hands are folded tightly in her lap. She is not looking at anything. She is turning her head slightly from side to side, as if she is listening. "Hello?" she calls again, a little louder this time. "I heard footsteps. Is . . . is someone there? Please?" She can't see me. Why isn't she looking at me? I step out from behind the tree. The moonlight comes out from behind the clouds and falls directly on her face. And my entire world stops. Across her closed eyes are two scars. Two long, thin, faded silver scars. They start from just above her eyebrows, cut straight across her eyelids, and end at the top of her cheekbones. They are precise. Deliberate. Someone did this to her. My mate is blind. The thought hits me like a physical blow. I can't breathe. My wolf is howling and whimpering at the same time inside me. Pain and fury and an overwhelming, possessive love that I have never felt in my entire life crashes into me all at once. She is blind. My mate, gifted to me by the Moon Goddess, is blind. And someone scarred her. She shivers in the cold. She isn't wearing a coat. "Please, if someone is there, could you help me? I... I got lost. I was trying to find my way back inside and I . . . I can't see," she says, and her voice breaks a little on the last words. She tries to hide it, but I hear it. She is embarrassed. She is used to people ignoring her. I have never moved so carefully in my life. I walk towards her, making sure my footsteps are loud on the gravel, so I don't scare her. "I am here," I say, my voice low and gentle, a voice I haven't used in years. She jumps slightly, then turns her face directly towards my voice. Her eyes are closed. Those two scars catch the moonlight. "Oh! Thank Goddess," she breathed out in relief. "I thought . . . I thought everyone had forgotten me. I was sitting with my sister, and she said she would be right back, but that was an hour ago. I think she... she forgot." Her sister left a blind girl alone in a dark garden for an hour. My fury is a living thing now. Fen is snarling, ready to tear something apart. "Where is your sister?" I ask, keeping my voice calm with an effort that costs me everything. "I don't know. Inside, I think. I am not really supposed to be here, you see. This is an Alpha ball. I am... I'm not important," she says quickly. Not important? She is my mate. She is the most important person in this entire territory. She is my everything. I kneel down in front of her, so I am at eye level. The scent is overwhelming now. I want to bury my face in her hair. I want to pick her up and run from here and never let anyone look at her again. "I will take you back inside," I say. She bites her lower lip. "If it's not too much trouble . . . I can wait. I don't want to be a burden." "You are not a burden." I reached out, slowly, giving her time to pull away. I gently touch her hand. Her skin is ice-cold. She flinches at first, then stills. Her hand is so small in mine. "Your hands are cold," I whispered." I get cold easily," she says with a small, sad smile. "My mother used to say I was born in winter." "What is your name?" I ask. I need to know her name. I need to know everything. "Aria," she says. "Aria Quinn. And you?" "Kade," I say. "Alpha Kade." Her eyebrows lifted slightly. "Kade . . . like Alpha Kade? The host of this ball?" "The same." Her face pales. She tries to pull her hand back. "Oh! I am so sorry, Alpha! I didn't know! I shouldn't be... I should not have bothered you, I am so sorry . . ." She tries to stand up, panicked, her hands searching for the bench to support herself. Her blindness makes her movements uncertain. She almost falls. I catch her. Both my hands on her waist, steadying her. She is so delicate. "Don't," I say firmly but softly. "Don't ever apologize to me, Aria." She freezes in my hands. She can feel how strong I am. She can feel that I am an Alpha. Most people would be terrified. But she just stands there, breathing fast, her face turned up to mine, her closed, scarred eyes inches from mine. "Your heartbeat is very fast," she whispers suddenly. I let out a surprised laugh. My heart IS racing like I just ran a battle. "So is yours," I say. She blushes. A beautiful pink that spreads across her pale cheeks. "I can... I can hear it. I hear things others don't. Since I... since I lost my sight." "Since when?" I ask, though I already know I don't want to hear the answer. "Five years ago," she whispers. "I was fifteen." Fifteen. Someone scarred a fifteen-year-old girl and took her sight. Fen howls with rage. I have to close my eyes for a second to control my own eyes from shifting. My claws want to come out. "Who?" The word came out as a growl before I could stop it. She shivers, but not from the cold this time. "I . . . I don't like to talk about it." "You don't have to," I say immediately. I lift one hand and, before I can stop myself, I gently brush a strand of hair behind her ear. My fingers barely graze the edge of one scar. She sucks in a breath but doesn't pull away. "Does . . . does it look very ugly?" she asks in the smallest voice, so vulnerable it shatters me. "No," I say, and my voice breaks. "No, Aria. It doesn't. You are beautiful." No one has ever told her that in a long time, I realize. Her lips part in shock. "But the scars... everyone stares. Or look away. My sister says men will never . . ." "Your sister is wrong," I cut her off, my voice hard with truth. "You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." The moment hangs between us. The moonlight, the garden, the intoxicating scent of mates. Then the ballroom doors bang open far behind us. Loud voices. People calling. "Alpha Kade? Alpha Kade! The ceremony is starting!" And another voice, a female voice, sharp and annoyed: "Aria! Aria Quinn! Where are you? You stupid blind girl, I told you to stay put! You are embarrassing me!" Aria's entire body goes stiff with fear. She grabs my arm tightly. "That is my sister, Lyra. Please... please don't let her... she will be angry..." I looked at Aria's terrified face. Then I look towards the lights where her sister is shouting. And I make my decision. I stand up, pulling Aria up with me, tucking her cold hand firmly into the crook of my arm. She fits perfectly. "I am Alpha Kade," I say loud enough for the approaching people to hear, my Alpha voice ringing through the garden, making the air itself vibrate with power. "And this woman is under my protection now. Anyone who has a problem with her has a problem with me."