The Mate He Thought Was Human

Chapter 3

*****************************

Mia found the Rogue king in the abandoned warehouse on the east side of the city, where the walls were thick enough to muffle anything and the darkness was deep enough to hide everything. Karan didn't believe in comfortable meeting places. He believed in places where nobody would think to look.

He was standing with his back facing her when she arrived, talking to two of his men in harsh tones. He was tall and broad, with dark skin and deep scars running across his jaw and down his neck. He didnt walk into a room, he took it over. Every step was heavy and deliberate, and his dark eyes moved constantly, searching for something to challenge. There was nothing gentle about Karan. He was the kind of man who didn't wait for trouble to find him. He went looking for it.

“What is the news about the mission I sent you?” he demanded.

“Our king, we still haven't discovered who Alpha Damien's mate is,” one of his men said nervously.

Karan's expression hardened. "You fools know how urgent we need his mate and you are yet to find her" He was about to punch them when Mia shouted "I know who she is". He turned when he heard her.

“Then tell me.”

“I was there last night,” she said. “In the trees. I heard everything. You want to know who Damien's mate is?”

The room went still.

“Yes,” one of his men answered.

Mia smiled. "I saw her myself this morning at her school gate." She let that sit for a moment.

"She's human. Has dark curly hair, warm brown skin. She goes to Westfield High on the north side. Her name is Nova." Karan's expression changed slightly.

“Nova?”

I frowned. “You know her?”

“No,” he said.

But the way he said it made me certain he was lying.

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked.

“Because she is already becoming a problem.” Mia said

Karan studied me. “For you?”

“For everyone.” Mia held his gaze before another silence.

"If we take her, Damien will come for her" Karan said carefully.

"No" Mia held her gaze steadily. "Send your people today. She walks home from school alone. She won't see them coming." Mia said. Karan looked at Mia for a long moment.

Then he turned to his men.

"You heard her," he said quietly. "Find that girl."

******************************************

Nova POV

I felt it on my way home.

Not a sound, not a shadow but just a feeling so quiet and cold, crawling up the back of my neck like fingers that weren't there. The kind of feeling that made me want to walk faster without knowing why.

The street was busy enough. People coming home from work, children playing outside, the usual evening noise of a city that is never fully quiet.

Nothing looked dangerous but something was. I pressed my fingers against my wrist without thinking.

The warmth that had been fading all day suddenly flared beneath my skin. This time it wasn't comforting. It was sharp and urgent, like an alarm going off inside me.

I stopped walking.

My wrist had never done that before.

The feeling didn't go away but got stronger. The warmth on my wrist pulsing now instead of sitting still like something inside me was trying to warn me about something my eyes couldn't see.

I turned a corner. Then, I heard footsteps.

Not the random footsteps of a busy street but deliberate ones matching my pace. I speed up slightly. They speed up too. I slowed down. They slowed. My heart rate doubled.

I glanced over my shoulder. “Okay, Nova. Don't panic.”

The footsteps stopped so I waited but there was nothing.

“See? You're imagining things.” I said to myself.

I took another corner but this one was leading into a quiet street, a shortcut I used every single day without thinking. The moment I realized my mistake, it was too late. The street was empty and the footsteps behind me had gotten closer.

I spun around.

I noticed three men I didn't recognize, moving with a stillness that didn't feel human. They were big and they were looking at me like the way people look at something they have already decided belongs to them.

"Nova." The one in the middle said my name like he had been practicing it.

My blood went cold.

"I don't know you," I said. My voice came out steadier than I felt.

"Yes," he agreed pleasantly. "But we know you."

I took one step back. They took one step forward.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Just a conversation," the middle one said. "Our king wants to meet you."

“Then he can come and introduce himself.” I said. The man smiled.

“You're not in a position to make demands.” One of the men said to me.

“And you're not in a position to kidnap people.” I replied.

"He knows you." His smile didn't reach his eyes.

“How?” I said, confused.

The man's smile widened.

“He knows more about you than you know about yourself.” The warmth on my wrist exploded. Not the gentle steady warmth from before but something screaming like every nerve ending in my wrist was firing at once.

I freeze

“What does that mean?” I said, still confused.

“You'll find out soon enough.” As one of them was about to grab me, I ran.

Some instinct older than thought just turned my legs and sent me flying down that empty street. I could hear them behind me immediately. Closer than they should have been.

Something struck the back of my head. Pain exploded through my skull. Then, my vision blurred. I reached for the wall, but my legs suddenly felt too weak to hold me.

Then, I heard someone say, “Don't let her...”And then darkness.

I hit the ground.

My vision blurred, but I could still hear them. “Get her up!” Then a deep and powerful growl tore through the street.

Something moved fast through the darkness. One of the men shouted, and suddenly they were running in the opposite direction.

I tried to lift my head but all I could see was a figure that appeared through the darkness.

Damien eyes found mine.

“Nova.”

The last thing I heard before everything went blank was a sound that didn't belong to anything human. Something large crashing through the end of the street, a growl so deep and furious that it vibrated in my chest even as my eyes closed and the sound of men running away and then nothing.

I don't know how long I was unconscious.

When I came back, it was in pieces. Warmth came first, followed by the low murmur of voices, the creak of wood, and the distant sound of wind through trees. Then came the scent of pine and cedar, and something beneath it that I recognized but couldn’t name.

I opened my eyes.

The ceiling above me was high and wooden. The room was large and unfamiliar. It wasn't a hospital, not anywhere I had ever been. I was lying on something soft, covered by something warm, and every part of my body ached.

I sat up slowly.

My head protested immediately. I pressed my hand against the back of it and felt a bandage that looked clean and carefully applied.

The door opened. Damien stood in the doorway.

"You're awake," he said.

“Where am I?”

“Somewhere safe.”He said. My gaze drifted around the room, the wooden walls enclosing the space. Beyond the window, a vast green forest stretched endlessly, swallowing any trace of the world I knew.

“Who were those men?” I asked.

He goes silent.

“Damien?” I said.

His jaw tightened.

“People who should never have gotten close to you.” Damien said.

"Who were those men? How did you find me? Where is this place?" I asked.

He was quiet for a long moment.

"Those are a lot of questions," he said finally.

"I have a lot of reasons to ask them."

Something moved behind his eyes. That same thing I had seen every time he looked at me for a second too long. It was something careful and conflicted.

"Rest first," he said quietly. "We'll talk when you're stronger."

"I want to talk now."

"Nova." The way he said my name was quiet and certain which made every argument dissolve completely.

“Rest please”.

“No.”

He stopped..

“I almost got kidn*pped, I woke up in a place I've never seen before, and you're telling me to rest?” I pushed myself upright despite the pain. “I want answers. Who were those men?” I asked again.

He looked at me for a long moment.

“You don't need to know.” He finally responded.

“That's not your decision.” I said.

Something flashed across his face.

“You have no idea what you're involved in, Nova.” He said while holding my wrist. My wrist suddenly burned.

I looked down to my wrist and saw the warmth was back. I looked at Damien while his eyes dropped to my wrist too.

For a second, neither of us spoke.

“You felt that,” I whispered.

His expression changed.

“Felt what?”

“Why did you come for me?”

He didn't answer immediately.

“Because you were in danger.”

“How did you know?”

His eyes stayed on mine. “I just knew.”

There was something different in his expression now. The coldness I'd seen when we first met was still there, but underneath it was something else. He felt too concern but somehow, that scared me more than his anger. He went to the door and left.

I stared at the closed door.

I still didn't know who Damien Cross really was. I didn't know how he'd found me. I didn't know who those men were or why they wanted me but one thing was becoming impossible to ignore.

Whatever was happening to me had something to do with Damien.

And somehow, I knew my dreams were connected to it.

Damien knew something about me and I was going to find out what it was.