The Space Between

Nathan 1-3

I nodded to the older man and followed him into the meeting room. The meeting took too long and really ended with nothing being agreed on. The Alpha of the large pack tried every intimidation technique he could to get us to bend, but we ended up not coming to an agreement. There was still one more meeting set for tomorrow before we left. I found out later that Alpha Andrew had spent last night talking with the Alpha of the smaller pack and we were considering an alliance with them. Part of me felt guilty that I’d missed that conversation, but Andrew told me not to, that we only found our true mate once and that was also important.

It was after noon before we adjourned the meeting for the day, and I was starving. I’d had a donut during the meeting but that was it. I took out my phone and texted Brittany that we were finally done, and she came back that she was in the restaurant having lunch. Andrew and I took a minute to walk there so we could discuss the meeting and I felt him put his hand on my shoulder when we entered the room. I was confused about why until I followed my nose and found two of the wolves from the large pack surrounding Brittany and her friends’ table. One of them reached out and touched her hair before she could draw away from him.

I saw red. In that moment, bloodlust filled my veins. All I could hear was the howling of my wolf that another male dared even breathe the same air as her, much less touch her. My breathing was heavy, and it took all my self-control to keep my claws in when I stepped between the chair she was sitting in and the wolf who dared touch her. My wolf’s eyes promised retribution.

“Back off.” I told them, looking at them both. Neither of them was as large as me but together they might give me a run for my money. I’d still win though.

“She’s not marked,” one of them had the gall to say.

I took a step towards them. “Would you, or your Beta, like to challenge me? Because that’s my scent on her. My mate.” I felt my claws break my skin then. My voice was quiet and menacing. You know, like a predator.

Thankfully, one of them, probably the Beta, had a brain and placed his hand on the other wolf’s chest. “Come on, there’s plenty of other bitches around.”

I stood there, glaring at them while they walked away, trying to calm the anger still in my veins. I was able to get my claws back in, but red marks remained between my knuckles.

“Uh, Nathan,” I heard from behind me. “Care to share what the hell just happened?”

“It looked like those two were bothering you ladies.” I couldn’t turn around yet; my eyes hadn’t returned to normal. Thank God it didn’t seem like the three of them had heard the conversation.

“Well, that is true. Do you want to join us for lunch?”

I thought it was probably safe to turn now, so I did and pulled out the fourth chair at their table. “I’d love to, I’m starving.” I picked up the menu sitting on the table.

“We haven’t ordered yet either,” one of Brittany’s friends told me.

“Perfect timing then.”

I spent the rest of my day with Brittany and her friends. We all went swimming and I had to glare at more men for staring at her in her bikini. I got to put my hands all over her when I picked her up and tossed her in the pool. Honestly, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d just had fun. Finishing school while also fulfilling my duties as beta had been difficult, but I’d done it. Alpha Andrew had nominated me for the second in command position. My family had been members of the pack for generations, at one point, one of them had been alpha. Most of the time, the alpha in our pack would step down when they chose a new alpha to follow, instead of a challenge and a fight. It made for a lot more peace in the pack.

Not that we couldn’t fight, because we could. We trained three or four days a week and everyone took a turn on guard duty.

At some point, I found myself alone in the hot tub with Brittany. She’d turned the jets up and I let the bubbles dance around me. It almost felt like her fingertips. She was across the hot tub, my arms on the ledge, and I watched her slowly move towards me. Her eyes started to glow again. Like sapphires. I was caught in her web.

“What are you?” I asked, my voice low.

Her hand was on my knee, and she slowly ran it up my leg. “A lot of different things,” she said, just as low, “but mostly a witch.” Her hand ran across my d**k and squeezed. I was already hard, but that made it worse.

“You’re a goddamn beautiful witch.”

Her hand came up my chest then and she moved closer until she was straddling me. I tried to look relaxed, my arms still resting on the ledge, but my heart was pounding, and I was about to lose it again. “Thank you.” She pressed her breasts against me so she could whisper in my ear. “I want you to f**k me right now, Mr. Wolf.”

My arms were in that water then, running up her thighs. “I’m all for s*x in unusual places, but even I have to draw the line when it’s in front of other beings. And my last name isn’t Wolf.”

“I know. It’s just what you are.” She waved her little fingers around, and it looked like sparks came out. “What if I told you that no one could see us now?”

“Then I would wonder why you still have your bikini bottoms on.”

So, yeah, that happened, and it was hot.

I finally paid attention to her two friends’ names, Janelle and Lily, and discovered it was Lily’s birthday. They had decided to go to dinner and then out to a club for dancing and invited me along. Of course, I went, are you serious?

This is also where I discovered I was six years older than Brittany. Even though both of us would age slower than humans, it was still quite an age gap. But I didn’t let that bother me and I just had fun. We had dinner, went to the club, danced, did shots, danced more, drank, danced, did more shots.

I almost f****d her on the dance floor.

At some point, we made it back to the hotel and we’d barely made it into her room before I had her naked on the bed. Her long legs wrapped around me. Her hands in my hair. I would never get tired of that. The alcohol loosened us up even more than we had been. Listening to her moans did something to me and I felt my wolf surface and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I felt her start to convulse around me and I zeroed in on her neck, my incisors elongated, and before I knew what I was doing, I sank them into her neck, marking her. I heard her gasp in pain before it turned into the most intense, convulsing o****m I’ve felt her have so far. The last thing I remember is her own elongated incisors sinking into my neck, intensifying my own release as she marked me.

Apparently, I set that alarm to go off every day at seven in the morning. I shot up and had to search for my phone like Brittany had the first night. I found it and turned it off, surprised to see she hadn’t moved on the bed. She still lay sprawled out on her stomach. I went to the bathroom, closing my eyes when I flipped the light on. I hope this hangover went away soon. My metabolism was higher than most humans, so we must have drunk a lot last night for me to still feel it this morning. I used the bathroom and washed my hands, my eyes still somewhat glazed over as I stared at myself in the mirror. Until my eyes caught on the mark on my neck. My hand was shaking as I reached up to touch it. It was like feeling her finger run across my skin when I touched it.

She marked me.

I couldn’t believe she marked me.

I was marked.

Wait, how did she mark me? She’d said she was a witch. No, she’d said she was a lot of things, but mostly a witch. So, I’d been right and there must be a wolf somewhere in her bloodline.

I hurried out of the bathroom and climbed back on the bed. “Brittany,” I said, shaking her shoulder. “Brittany, wake up.”

“Leave me alone, Brendan.” She turned her head and snuggled back into the blanket.

Jealousy overtook me, just like yesterday in the restaurant. I saw red and didn’t think. “Brittany,” I said, “who the f**k is Brendan?” My voice was no longer soft. I didn’t curse a lot, except when I was angry.

“What?” She looked confused and blinked a lot, finally looking up at me. Her eyes were bleary, maybe she didn’t metabolize alcohol as quickly as I did.

“Who. The f**k. Is Brendan?”

“Who said anything about Brendan?”

“You did, just now, to the other man in your bed.”

“Oh, please,” she said, laying her head back down and closing her eyes, “it’s just Brendan.”

I flipped her on her back and straddled her, more or less imprisoning her under the sheet. I leaned over her with my hands next to her head. My eyes dilated and my incisors grew again. “Who the f**k is he? Your f*****g boyfriend? You f*****g mark me and you have a boyfriend?” My voice was harsh and raw when I spoke to her and I’m not proud of it. I could smell her fear.

“Get off me, Nathan!” She bucked me hard but didn’t dislodge me. “Brendan’s my brother you asshole!”

Then my eyes fell to her neck.

To my mark on her neck.

We’d marked each other.

Her body accepted my mark.

All my anger instantly dissolved, and I felt like the asshole she called me. “Oh, god, Brittany,” I climbed off her and she sat up, scooting back on the bed. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know, you never said your brother’s name.”

“I think you should go,” she said to me. “Not that I should have to say it out loud, but I never would have slept with you if I had a boyfriend.”

I looked over at her. “Britt, please…”

“I’ll come talk to you later, Nathan.”

“Baby, please don’t make me go…”

“I said get out!” Her eyes started to glow then and the power that rolled off her made the hairs on my arms and back of my neck stand up. My wolf tried to respond to the perceived threat, but I tamped him down. The last thing I wanted was to show her more aggression. I got up and searched for my clothes and I waited until I was fully dressed before I looked at her again. She was still sitting on the bed, rigid with anger, but also fear. And I had caused that. I had caused my mate to fear me.