Hunted

Diving in the deep

“We are in trouble.” His voice sounds stern and serious. “The other packs have heard about the girl being here and some are preparing an army to get her.”

“Any packs, in particular, we should be cautious about?”

“The New York pack has a new Alpha, I heard he is reckless.”

“Is it one of the Slade boys?”

“No. It’s the Beta, he challenged the Alpha en won.”

“Oh that’s not that bad”

“Why is that not so bad?”

“Kaya’s ex is now the Alpha of the New York pack.”

“This could be one hell of a plan from Caleb. To get Kaya to trust him, and as soon as she is of mating age he would force himself on her to get access to her powers. With that power, he would be the strongest Alpha alive.” Dad says. But I don’t believe him. Caleb sounded so sincere when he was talking to her. I don’t believe he did this only for power. He loved her.

“Is she of mating age now?” Dad asks.

“Physically yes, but mentally not,” I say. Dad sighs.

“So there is no chance she will do the ritual with you anytime soon?”

“No, we’ve only just met. And she still loves Caleb.”

“Then you are going to force yourself on her tonight. That way she will be mated and we will be strong enough to withstand any attacks from other packs.”

“I am not going to force that poor thing, are you completely out of your mind!”

“If you won't do it, I will. Someone needs to take her power and it needs to be someone we can trust.”

Without saying anything else I storm out of the room.

I walk to Isa’s room. She isn’t there so I just grab a bag and fill it with clothes. After I’ve done that I walk back to Vincent’s room. Kaya is sitting on the bed, braiding her hair and wearing nothing more than a towel. I throw some clothes towards her.

“Get dressed. We are leaving” While she is in the bathroom changing, I am packing a bag for myself. Some clothes, a toothbrush, my phone charger and a couple of weapons just to be sure. Just as I finished packing the bag Kaya comes out of the bathroom. She looks stunning, wearing a white shirt with some text on it and some black skinny jeans. Isa and Kaya are around the same size so I already expected it to fit.

“Why are we leaving?” She asks while looking at the bags.

“Let's just say that my dad has completely lost his mind”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you want me to explain it?”

“Yes, of course,” She sits down on the bed and I sit next to her.

“What do you know about the mating ritual?” I ask her.

“Absolutely nothing”

“Then this is going to sound very weird but try to follow it okay?”

“Sure”

“Okay, so. To show other wolves that you have found your mate and accepted each other you can mark each other. It’s just a simple bite in the neck and after a couple of hours, the mark will appear. The marking is the first step of the mating bond, once you’re marked you can't stop the bonding anymore. After the marking, most couples will choose to get to know each other a bit, and just act like any other couple before making the next step, which is the ritual itself. You have many different rituals but the most popular are the blood and love rituals. After the ritual is completed you can share your strength, emotions, pain, and many other things with your mate.”

“And what has this to do with your dad?”

“My dad wants me to perform the ritual already so I can use your power in the maybe upcoming war.”

She looks at me in confusion and fear. I put my hand on her leg in an attempt to calm her.

“Obviously I’m not going to do the ritual now. You are not ready for that, and that’s what I told my dad. He told me if I don’t do it, he will come here tonight and force himself on you. So that’s why we are leaving. I’m not letting that happen to you”

“But if you mark me, he won't be able to do anything is what you are saying now.” I am staring at her in complete shock. “I’d rather be stuck with you for the rest of my life than your father”

“I don’t want you to be stuck with him as well but you’ve just met me. Are you ready to just dive in like that?”

“You are saying that since we are mates we are destined to be together. I’d rather be with someone I am supposed to be then his creepy dad.”

“Okay I get you but I don’t want to force you to do anything you aren’t ready for.”

“Basically I’m the one forcing someone now.” She giggles.

I just look at her completely baffled. I thought she still wasn’t over the loss of Caleb. I thought she was still stuck in her old life. Why the sudden change?

“What’s with the serious face?” She asks while she starts playing with her hair.

“It’s just… First, you didn’t want to even know me, and now you are so willing to let me mark you .”

“I’ve just had this feeling for the last days now. It’s like I’ve known you for years and for some reason I trust you, without having a good reason to. And when you were with me last night, I felt safe. It must be the mate bond or something but I don’t want to spend our time running from your father. If you say that this is the way to be safe from him, I’m willing to give it a shot.”

All of my life people have been telling me how to do this. How to be a mate. And now that the moment is here, I’m not sure about all of this.

I just wish she was doing this out of love for me, not out of hate for my father.

“So, how does it work?” She asks while she moves closer to me. I’m nervous. Theoretically, I know how to do this, but I’ve never done it before. I place my hand on her cheek and look into her sparkling blue eyes.

“Just… Go with the flow.” Those are the last words I say to her before I carefully put my lips on hers. She seems a little startled at first, but after a couple of seconds, she relaxes into the kiss. I can feel our connection growing stronger as we continue. She must feel it too because she is getting more passionate every second. Careful not to break the kiss, she climbs onto my lap and wraps her legs around my waist. She puts her arms around my shoulders and with one hand she starts playing with my hair. My arms are behind her back, pulling her as close to me as possible. I slowly move my lips towards her neck, to a spot just above the collarbone. As I’m getting closer to the spot I feel my teeth form into canines. I know I’ve reached the spot when I hear Kaya moan a little. I feel her getting nervous too. She has no idea what is going to happen to her now.

“Are you ready?” I whisper in her right ear. She nods her head, but her body still feels unsure. “This might hurt a bit” I warned her. Everyone reacts differently to the marking. Some describe it as pleasurable while others described it as the worst pain of their lives.

I give the spot one last kiss before I sink my teeth in. She hisses from the pain and pulls my hair, which makes me bite her even harder. After a couple of seconds, she stopped resisting. I let go of her and I feel my teeth become normal again. I look at her face and wipe a tear away.

“I’m sorry love, I didn’t want to hurt you.” I hug her and gently put a kiss on the spot.

“Are you done?” She sobs quietly and turns her face away from me. I gently grab her chin to make her face me.

“Don’t worry, this was all. Are you okay?” She doesn’t look okay. She’s trying to hold back her tears and her body is slightly shaking.

“It just hurts a lot” she mumbles “but I’m very tired, can we go to sleep?” The fact that she suggested that ‘we’ sleep makes me happy. In her normal clothes, she climbs under the blanket and looks at me. I’m wearing sweatpants and a shirt, so I just take the shirt off and lay next to her.

“I have some pajamas for you in the bag, I can get them if you want to.”

“No, I don’t want to move anymore. This hurts like hell.”

I feel bad for her. I’m the one who did this to her and she is the one feeling the consequences. I only have a tingly feeling on my right shoulder. I move closer to her and she reacts by laying on my chest.

“And just by the time I thought my life couldn’t get any weirder, it appears the werewolf guy has a kink for biting people.” She giggles, immediately followed by a hiss from pain.

“I promise you, this was a one-time thing,” I say as I kiss her on the forehead. She lets out a big sigh and after that, she immediately falls asleep.

I start to think about how my life has changed this past year. About the first time, we met, how sweet it was of her to take me to the Slade house when she found out she was a werewolf, when my father shot her, when she was in a coma for a year and I was there almost every minute of every day. And look at us now: I’ve marked her, she’s mine now for the rest of our lives. This is supposed to be one of the happiest days of our lives but somehow it has two sides. I’m happy that she’s willing to give this all a try, but I feel bad that my dad had to be the trigger for this to happen.

I look at her one last time and give her a last kiss on the forehead. My mate, safe here in my arms. If you would have told me that a year ago I wouldn’t have believed you, but now it’s the reality.