Chapter 4
1197 Words
Kevin POV
We made eye contact for just a moment—and I knew.
“Ha! Yeah right, man,” Noctis chuckled behind me, clapping a hand on my back, which made me flinch. “We all know how you feel about true mates. Don’t go messing with some girl’s heart just to get in her pants.”
But his words barely registered. Because then—she bit her bottom lip.
That full, pink lip slipped between her teeth in a nervous, innocent gesture, and it ripped a low, primal growl from my chest before I could stop it. People turned. Heads snapped in my direction. Embarrassment, anger, arousal—they all hit me at once like a freight train.
She hadn’t even said a word to me, and she was already taunting me? Tempting me? Teasing me like that in front of everyone?
My fury burned low and hot. I didn’t even know her name. Yet my body responded to her like I’d waited a lifetime. My father had warned me—true mates make Alphas weak. I hadn’t believed him until now.
Then that sleazy bastard—Derek, I’d later learn—grabbed her arm and tugged her toward him like she belonged to him. My blood boiled. I wanted to tear him apart with my bare hands. How dare he lay a hand on what was mine?
Mark saw it. He grabbed my arm. “Kevin, listen to me. I know you’re Alpha, but I’m the only one—”
“You’re the only one who knows how I feel?” I snarled, cutting him off. “You have no idea how I feel. I don’t even know her name, where the hell she just went, or why she walked away like I was nothing. That’s disrespect, and she—she’s mine.”
I shoved past Mark and Noctis, my Alpha energy seeping out in waves. The second I entered the dining hall, I spotted her.
She had long, wavy reddish-brown hair that cascaded down her back, one side tucked behind her ear—teasing me with the slender curve of her neck. That’s where my mark would go. The spot that would prove she was mine. My fated one.
Her dress hugged her too thin body in all the right—and wrong—places. She was dangerously underweight, barely five feet tall, and yet her presence was magnetic. Ethereal. My mind flooded with questions: Was she sick? Starving? Neglected?
And those eyes—green like spring leaves after a storm—never left me. Even now, they stared at me like I was a ghost. I sat beside her, my Beta and Gamma flanking me, trying to seem calm. I ate. She barely touched her food, and it enraged me. I wanted to feed her. Force her. Worship her.
Then she stood and slipped out of the room without a word.
“Follow her. Now,” Deo snarled inside me. “I will not lose Lia because of your pride. GO.”
I shot up so fast chairs scraped and people gasped. My mate. Mine. I couldn’t lose her. Not now. Not ever.
Mark touched my shoulder, trying to calm me, but then a voice interrupted—oily and irritating.
“Hello there, sir. I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Derek, and this is my mate, Rose, from the Dark Moon Pack.”
He extended his hand. I took it and squeezed—hard. Let him feel my strength. Let him know.
“Alpha Kevin. Blood Moon Pack.”
His handshake faltered.
“And this is our son, Aaron,” he gestured. Then, like an afterthought, “And the young lady—she’s Rose’s daughter. My stepdaughter. Just an omega, but she turns eighteen tomorrow. Due to a family situation, we’ll be... marrying her off.”
My vision went red.
He was trying to sell my mate.
“She’s great around the house,” Derek continued. “Good with kids. Pretty thing, too. Name’s Lelia.”
Lelia.
The name crashed over me like a tidal wave. Beautiful. Delicate. Mine.
“I told you it’d be easy as pie, baby doll,” Derek said to Rose, and I nearly lunged across the table.
Before I could react, they turned their attention elsewhere. I took a deep breath, trying not to shift right then and there.
“Where is she?” I mind-linked Noctis.
“I—I think she’s trying to leave. She went to the bathroom, then we followed her down the driveway. She’s in the woods now… with a backpack.”
Panic hit me hard. “I’m coming. Don’t lose her.”
When I reached the woods, I saw her—just a silhouette at first, hidden in the trees. Her scent hit me like a storm. Pomegranate and vanilla. Rich and sweet, laced with fear and resolve.
She was trying to run. My mate was trying to leave.
“She’s ours,” Deo snarled. “She can’t leave. Not now. Not ever.”
My fists clenched. I took a few calming breaths and stepped forward.
“Rose gold and pomegranate,” I called out. “That was you, wasn’t it?”
No answer.
“I smelled it before I ever saw the pack house. Couldn’t figure out the fruit… Then I saw you. That wolf—rose gold and blazing like the sun.”
A small gasp answered me.
Then a voice—soft, angelic. “Lemons and coconuts… It’s overpowering.”
My breath hitched.
She continued, “Lia told me your name is Kevin. And your wolf is Deo.”
Gods. She knew my name.
“And you’re Lelia,” I whispered, reverent. “Your wolf is Lia.”
She didn’t run.
I stepped closer, slowly, until I saw her in full.
So beautiful. Pale, freckled skin. Huge eyes. That vulnerable strength etched into every bone. I reached out and grabbed her backpack. She tried to yank it back, but I used my Alpha command.
“Where are you going?”
Her jaw trembled. Her voice, small but steady, replied, “I’m leaving this pack. Becoming a rogue.”
“You wouldn’t survive,” I growled. “You’re tiny. Beautiful. Fragile. You’d be dead in a week.”
She glared at me. Brave. Stupid. Perfect.
Without thinking, I tossed her over my shoulder, earning a squeal as her ass pressed into my cheek.
“Mine,” I muttered.
“Noctis,” I barked through the link. “Bring the car. Pack my things. We’re leaving.”
“Alpha—what do I tell them?” Mark asked.
“Nothing. No one knows she’s mine. Not yet.”
When my Audi pulled up, I slid her into the passenger seat, tossed her backpack in, and got behind the wheel.
The car smelled like paradise. I had a two-hour drive ahead, and I was already rock hard.
She finally broke the silence.
“You called me beautiful,” she whispered.
Then, sharper: “You need to let me out. I don’t want to go with you.”
Her words pierced like knives. Rage. Heartache. Fury.
She would learn.
She would obey.
- Writer
